The ''Confoederatio cum principibus ecclesiasticis'' ("Treaty with the princes of the church") was decreed on 26 April 1220 by Frederick II as a concession to the German bishops in return for their co-operation in the election of his son

Henry Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

. It was an important source of law of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...

, and was counted among its constitutional documents by the editors of the '' Monumenta Germaniae Historica''. In this law Frederick II relinquished a number of important Royal rights (''Regalia'') to the spiritual princes. Among other things, the bishops received the rights to mint coins and levy tolls in the German part of the Holy Roman Empire and to build fortifications. Moreover, they gained the right to hold courts in their lordships and to receive the assistance of the King or the Emperor in carrying out the sentences passed there. Acceptance of the sentences by the King or Emperor was guaranteed: condemnation by the ecclesiastical courts automatically meant condemnation and punishment by the Royal or Imperial courts as well. Therefore, the pronouncement of

excommunication Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

by an ecclesiastical court was invariably followed by the sentence of

outlawry An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...

from the King or the Emperor. The decreeing of this law, taken in conjunction with the later '' Statutum in favorem principum'', which granted similar concessions to the secular or lay princes, made the power and influence of the spiritual territorial princes in relation to the Empire and the towns extraordinarily great. Frederick's aim was to leave the Empire north of the Alps secure under the direct rule of the princes, allowing him to concentrate his efforts on the southern part of the Empire. This rule of the land by the princes was nevertheless secured at the expense of the centralised power of the monarchy.

Sources

*Zippelius, Reinhold. ''Kleine deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte'', 7th ed. Munich: 2006, . * Dietmar Willoweit: ''Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte. Vom Frankenreich bis zur Wiedervereinigung Deutschlands''. 5. erweiterte und um eine Zeittafel und einen Kartenanhang ergänzte Auflage. Beck, München 2005, , (''Juristische Kurz-Lehrbücher''), § 10 II 2.

External links

*
Representative edition (MGH)

{{Authority control 1220s in law Legal history of the Holy Roman Empire 1220s in the Holy Roman Empire 1220 in Europe Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor