Definition of "concordat" []

• A formal agreement; a compact. (noun)
• Roman Catholic Church An agreement between the pope and a government for the regulation of church affairs. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "His concordat was the work of a real psychologist, who knew that moral forces do not use violence, and the great danger of persecuting such."
• "Prescinding for the present from the exact nature of a concordat, and without giving an exact definition, we may say that a concordat is a law, ecclesiastical and civil, made for a certain country in regard to matters which in some way concern both Church and State, a law, moreover, possessing the force of a treaty entered into by both the ecclesiastical and civil power and to a certain extent binding upon both."
• "To this day, the learned do not agree as to the important question whether or not the concordat was a personal agreement with Henry or with the empire as such."