Simultaneum

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Simultaneum is called the right according to which the Protestant and Catholic faith can freely exercise in the same state .

Formerly, a distinction was made in Germany between necessary and arbitrary Simultaneum (Latin: simultaneum necessarium et voluntarium ). The former was the law according to which the Catholic and Protestant denominations in the countries of the empire should continue to exist side by side according to the way in which both had existed side by side in 1624 (the normal year ) and the worship service could be held.

The arbitrary simultaneum, on the other hand, consisted in a regent introducing the denomination to which he professed himself in his country, while the opposite was ruling. This simultaneum could only be introduced where a country was pledged and redeemed, and the ruling religious party could never be impaired in its rights to religious freedom .

By Article 19 of the Constitution of the German Confederation , the German Federal Act , a full simultaneum was in force in all the countries belonging to it. In the following German states, i.e. the North German Confederation , the German Empire , the German Reich (and thus also the Weimar Republic ) and both the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic , the Simultaneum, extended by the guarantee, was or still applies the free practice of religion by other religious communities.

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