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A concordat (French pronunciation: [kɔ̃kɔʁda]) is a convention between the Holy See and a sovereign state that defines the relationship between the Catholic Church and the state in matters that concern both,[1] i.e. the recognition and privileges of the Catholic Church in a particular country and with secular matters that affect church interests.
According to P. W. Brown the use of the term "concordat" does not appear "until the pontificate of Pope Martin V (1413–1431) in a work by Nicholas de Cusa, entitled De Concordantia Catholica".[2] The first concordat dates from 1098, and from then to the beginning of the First World War the Holy See signed 74 concordats.[1] Due to the substantial remapping of Europe that took place after the war, new concordats with legal successor states were necessary.[1] The post-World War I era saw the greatest proliferation of concordats in history.[1]
Although for a time after the Second Vatican Council, which ended in 1965, the term 'concordat' was dropped, it reappeared with the Polish Concordat of 1993 and the Portuguese Concordat of 2004. A different mode of relations between the Vatican and various states is still evolving,[3] often contentiously, in the wake of a growing secularism and religious pluralism in the western world.