1516 · Bologna, Italy

Concordat of Bologna

In 1516, Pope Leo X and King Francis I of France signed the Concordat of Bologna, giving the French crown the power to nominate bishops and abbots in exchange for papal confirmation, a deal that shaped the French Church for nearly three centuries.

The Concordat of Bologna was a transaction, and neither side pretended otherwise. Pope Leo X needed French political support in Italy. King Francis I wanted control over the Church in France. They met at Bologna in 1516 and hammered out an agreement. The king would nominate candidates for bishoprics and major abbeys. The pope would confirm them and receive annates — a substantial fee amounting to one year's revenue from the position. The French Church lost its independence. Under the previous arrangement, the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges (1438), French cathedral chapters had elected their own bishops. Now the king chose them. This meant French bishops were increasingly drawn from the nobility, selected for political loyalty rather than pastoral ability. Some were excellent; many were not. The concordat lasted until the French Revolution. Its effects were mixed. On one hand, it kept France Catholic during the Reformation — Francis and his successors had too much invested in the Church to let Protestantism take over. On the other hand, it created a national Church that was more answerable to the crown than to Rome, setting up the tensions that would explode in the Gallicanism debates of the seventeenth century. The deal also showed how the papacy operated in this era. Leo X was spending lavishly on art and building projects — including St. Peter's Basilica — and needed money. The annates from France helped fund his ambitions. Just one year after signing the concordat, Martin Luther nailed his theses to the door in Wittenberg, complaining about exactly this kind of financial entanglement between papal revenue and Church governance.

Why it matters

Gave the French monarchy control over Church appointments, shaping French Catholicism for nearly three centuries and illustrating the financial entanglements that fueled Reformation-era criticism.