The Concordat of 24 October 1817 was a concordat signed on 24 October 1817 between the

Kingdom of Bavaria The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German E ...

and the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...

Secularization In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...

of church property and the mediatisation of the ecclesiastical estates in the former

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...

marked the demise of the former imperial church and necessitated a reorganization of relations between the German states and the Roman Catholic Church. In 1806 Bavaria opened negotiations for a concordat, which were shelved in 1807, but in 1814 Bavaria's Foreign Minister and Interior Minister began preparing for fresh negotiations. These opened in 1816, with talks led by Bavaria's minister to the Holy See, bishop

Johann Casimir Häffelin Johann Casimir von Haeffelin (3 February 1737, Minfeld - 27 August 1827, Rome) was a Roman Catholic priest in the diocese of Speyer, a cardinal and a major diplomat during the reign of Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria. As Bavaria's ambassador to the ...

. On 5 July 1817 he signed the text of a concordat without consulting the Bavarian government, but Bavaria did not wish to snub the Holy See by vetoing that signature and so it was ratified by Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria on 24 October the same year after Bavaria renegotiated a few minor changes.

Sources

*Eberhard Weis: ''Das Konkordat von 1817, das Religions- und Protestantenedikt von 1818, die Tegernseer Erklärung von 1821.'' In: Ders: ''Die Begründung des modernen bayerischen Staates unter König Max I. (1799–1825) (§5 Die innere Entwicklung seit Montgelas' Sturz (1817–1825))''. In: Alois Schmid (ed.): ''Handbuch der bayerischen Geschichte.'' Band 4,1. München 2003, 109-113. Kingdom of Bavaria Treaties of the Holy See (754–1870) {{Germany-hist-stub