France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, in spite of royal edicts and even denunciations of the Sorbonne, at least the custom of paying the ''servitia communia'' held its ground until the infamous decree of August 4 during the French Revolution in 1789.
Germany
In Germany, it was decided by the concordat of Constance, in 1418, that bishoprics and abbacies should pay the ''servitia'' according to the valuation of the Roman chancery in two half-yearly instalments. Those reserved benefices only were to pay the ''annalia'' which were rated above twenty-four gold florins; and as none were so rated, whatever their annual value may have been, the annalia fell into disuse. A similar convenient fiction also led to their practical abrogation in France, Spain and Belgium. The council of Basel (1431–1443) wished to abolish the ''servitia'', but the concordat of Vienna (1448) confirmed the Constance decision. Politically, the collection was opposed by
Martin Luther
Martin Luther ( ; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, Theology, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and former Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Reformation, Pr ...
his 1520 '' To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation'', in which he wrote:An Open Letter to The Christian Nobility by Martin Luther (1483–1546), iclnet.org
The practice of collecting ''servitia'' continued through the Reformation, in spite of the efforts of the congress of Ems (1786) to alter it, still remains nominally in force. As a matter of fact, however, the revolution caused by the secularization of the ecclesiastical states in 1803 practically put an end to the system, and the ''servitia'' have either been commuted ''via gratiae'' to a moderate fixed sum under particular concordats, or are the subject of separate negotiation with each bishop on his appointment. In
Prussia
Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
, where the bishops received salaries as state officials, the payment was made by the government.
Papal States
The Papal States ( ; ; ), officially the State of the Church, were a conglomeration of territories on the Italian peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope from 756 to 1870. They were among the major states of Italy from the 8th c ...