Emden Concordate
The Emden Concordats are a mediation of the Dutch States General between Count Enno III. and the stalls on November 7, 1599. This treaty was an attempt at pacification, both in terms of constitutional and canonical law , which largely laid down the status quo and showed a willingness to compromise on disputed questions of the distribution of power and influence.
With the Emden Concordat, the Reformed Confession was recognized as equal alongside the Lutheran Confession in East Frisia, which was only implemented in the German Empire in the Peace of Westphalia of 1648.
background
The Reformation arrived around 1520. Unlike in most regions, however, it was not the authorities that were in charge here. Count Edzard I supported the spread of the new doctrine, but was too weak in his position to enforce a particular creed. Lutheran Protestantism and Calvinism existed side by side in East Friesland without one denomination gaining the upper hand. Rather, the country was split into a Lutheran East and a Calvinist West. Catholic churches, however, no longer existed in East Frisia after the Reformation, and Catholic Christians hardly existed.
In general, the princes were Lutheran and the classes that were opposed to them were reformed under Emden's leadership, also based on the Netherlands . Count Enno III. tried hard to resolve this situation and to unite the two denominations. To this end, right at the beginning of his government on June 2, 1599, he convened a state parliament in Emden to receive homage from the estates and to discuss the issue of religious division. The concordats were then confirmed by the contracting parties on November 7th at the state parliament in Aurich.
content
In the Emden Concordat it was stipulated that the individual communities are allowed to determine their own denomination. So there should be only one church (either Lutheran or Reformed) in each place. Both Lutherans and Reformed citizens of the place should then belong to this congregation, but should be allowed to retain their own denomination status, even if their rights were not expressly clarified. This regulation has partly existed in the villages of East Frisia to this day, but in the cities of Aurich , Emden and Leer there were also churches of other denominations shortly after the Concordat.
In addition, the congregations were granted the right to choose or choose their pastor themselves. The sovereign church patronage was thus reduced to a minimum. For this purpose, a consistory based on the Saxon model was provided for in the contract to oversee the communities, but this could never be established.
Effects
With the recognition of the Reformed Church as equal rights in East Frisia, the basis for a largely independent development of the Reformed Church in the region was laid in the Concordats. Instead of uniting, the Emden Concordats legally codified the division. While the Augsburg Religious Peace of 1555 was otherwise in force in Germany , according to which the sovereign may choose the religion of the inhabitants, this right was transferred to the communities in East Friesland.
literature
- Menno Smid: Ostfriesische Kirchengeschichte , Pewsum 1974 (Vol. VI in the series Ostfriesland im Schutz der Deiche ; edited by Jannes Ohling on behalf of the Lower Saxon Deichacht and its legal successor the Deichacht Krummhörn), pp. 255–266
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. Menno Smidt, Ostfriesische Kirchengeschichte , Pewsum 1974 (vol. VI in the series Ostfriesland im Schutz der Deiche ; edited by Jannes Ohling on behalf of the Lower Saxon Deichacht and its legal successor the Deichacht Krummhörn), p. 256f.
- ↑ The Catholic Church on Aurich.de