Confoederatio cum principibus ecclesiasticis

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Execution of the privilege for the bishop of Eichstätt

The Confoederatio cum principibus ecclesiasticis (Alliance with the Princes of the Church) of April 26, 1220 is considered one of the most important legal sources of the Holy Roman Empire on German territory.

Emergence

Friedrich II. Passed this law in Frankfurt am Main in 1220 as a concession to the German bishops for the participation of the bishops in the election of Friedrich's son Heinrich (VII) as king.

content

In this law Frederick II occurred. Important regalia , d. H. Royal rights, to the spiritual princes. Among other things, he refrained from setting up coins or customs duties in the territories of the bishops in the German part of the Holy Roman Empire, building castles and cities, alienating servants or confiscating the spoils . The ecclesiastical rulers are assured that the emperor and king will adhere to the judgments in courts of clerical princes. Furthermore, he promised to help the king or emperor to enforce the judgments. The conviction and punishment by royal or imperial courts were automatically connected with the guilty verdict by the spiritual courts. So the pronouncement of the ban from church by a spiritual court was always followed by the imposition of imperial ban by the king or emperor .

consequences

The enactment of this law greatly strengthened the power and exercise of power of the spiritual territorial princes over the empire and the cities. The sovereignty of the (initially clerical) princes was consolidated at the expense of the central royal power. With the statute in favorem principum in May 1232 the secular princes were given the above rights. The law was a further milestone in the long-term process of territorialization in Germany and forms a historical basis for its federalism .

research

While research in the 19th century saw this decree and the following privilege statutum in favorem principum as the decisive step towards German particularism , more recent research emphasizes that in both privileges only those privileges that have been granted by the clerical and secular for several decades Princes' exercised rights were formally recognized and confirmed. The regal sovereignty had therefore passed in the course of a process from the level of the king to the level of the princes, and at the time of the two decrees the aforementioned regalia were already princely customary rights - even if they were first set in writing by the two privileges. In any case, both privileges are important evidence of German constitutional history .

literature

  • Dietmar Willoweit : German constitutional history. From the Franconian Empire to the reunification of Germany . 5th extended edition supplemented by a timetable and a map appendix. Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-52637-3 , ( short legal textbooks ), § 10 II 2.
  • Reinhold Zippelius : Small German constitutional history. From the early Middle Ages to the present , 7th revised edition. Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-47638-4 , ( Beck'sche series 1041), pp. 28, 30 and 60.

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