Summus episcopus

German sovereigns functioned as summus episcopus (Supreme Bishop)[1] of the Protestant national church; these boshops were created on the principle of cuius regio, eius religio. Similar systems were used in Scandinavia[2][3][4] and England. Reformed churches were also tied to the government without having a summus episcopus.[5]

Holy Roman Empire

Within the Holy Roman Empire, princes gained the territorial ecclesiastical governance over time and acted as emergency bishops.[6] By the 19th century, a distinction was made between the Kirchenhoheit (Latin: iura circa sacra), the rights of the government on all religions and denominations, and said "Kirchenregiment" (Latin: iura in sacra), the internal government of the religion and the rights of the territorial lord within his denomination.[7] The Peace of Augsburg suspended the jurisdiction of Catholic bishops over Protestant territories and the Episkopalsystem transferred it to the Protestant Imperial Estates.[8] The Elector of Brandenburg stayed summus episcopus of the Lutherans after his conversion to Calvinism.[9] When Augustus II the Strong converted to catholicism, the Electorate of Saxony remained head of the corpus evangelicorum and the duke remained the head of the Saxon church with his duties being executed by his Lutheran Geheimräte.[10] The King of Bavaria also acted as supreme bishop of the Protestant church of Bavaria despite being Catholic.[11] Their tasks included calling in colloquia and synods to ensure "the purity of the teachings" and appoint pastors and teachers.[12] "Bishops" and "arch-bishops" appointed by the Prussian king were nominal titles with the king keeping his authority over the church. Eventually, most responsibilities to govern the Landeskirchen were transferred to consistories.[13] These were abolished with in 1918 after the collapse of the German Empire.[14] The Landesbischof took over the leadership of the regional churches.

Other Lutheran denominations

The King of Sweden was called summus episcopus of the Swedish and Finnish Churches.[15] According to the 1809 Instrument of Government of Sweden, the King of Sweden appoints and promote the civil servants which include spiritual positions.[16] The new constitution of 1974, reduced the role of the king with the Government of Sweden taking much its formal role including in regards to the Church of Sweden. In 2000, the church was officially separated from the state.[17] The King of Norway was the head of the Church of Norway until 2012.[18] After the amendment in 2012, the only provision remained, is the mandatory membership for the king.[19] The Church of Denmark kept the Danish king as its figurehead. Since 1992, it has been optional for pastors to mention the royal family in prayers.[20]

After the Great Northern War, Swedish Estonia, Ingria and Livonia came under Russian rule but the Swedish church constitution remained in force. The (Orthodox) Russian czar was represented by the Baltic knighthoods as summus episcopus.[21] In 1832, Nicholas I of Russia created the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia, modeled after Western churches, which was headed by the Russian czar as summus episcopus.[22] The church united all protestants including the Calvinists within the Russian Empire (excluding Finland and Poland). The president and General Superintendent of the Evangelical-Lutheran General-Consistory were appointed by the tsar.[23]

Anglican Communion

King Henry VIII became Supreme Head of the Church of England with the passing of the Act of Supremacy 1534.[24] The Church of Ireland followed suit in 1537 with another Act of Supremacy. The position was abolished with the Second Statute of Repeal in 1555. The Act of Supremacy 1558 introduced the new title Supreme Governor. The king has to be Protestant since the Act of Settlement 1701. The Acts of Union 1707 secured the status of the Church of Scotland as a Presbyterian (Reformed) church and declared that the King of the United Kingdom is required to preserve and protect the kirk without being its supreme governor.[25]

The German "summus episcopus" is sometimes translated as "Supreme Governor",[26][27] in other contexts "supreme governor" is described as a weaker form.[28]

See also

References

  1. ^ Gassmann, Günther (2011). "Summos Episcopus". Historical Dictionary of Lutheranism. p. 395. ISBN 9780810874824.
  2. ^ Cabanel, Patrick (2024). "Protestantism". Handbook of Religious Culture in Nineteenth-Century Europe. p. 82. doi:10.1515/9783110609059-006. ISBN 9783110609059.
  3. ^ Larson, Duane Howard (2011). "Church and State". Historical Dictionary of Lutheranism. p. 83. ISBN 9780810874824.
  4. ^ Dokka, Trond Skard (2017). "Universal and Particular: Creation Theology and Ecclesiology in a Fragmented World". Reformation Theology for a Post-Secular Age: Løgstrup, Prenter, Wingren, and the Future of Scandinavian Creation Theology. p. 207. ISBN 9783647604589.
  5. ^ Schilling, Heinz (1999). "Das konfessionelle Europa. Die Konfessionalisierung der europäischen Länder seit Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts und ihre Folgen für Kirche, Staat, Gesellschaft und Kultur". Konfessionalisierung in Ostmitteleuropa: Wirkungen des religiösen Wandels im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert in Staat, Gesellschaft und Kultur (in German). pp. 27–28. ISBN 9783515075831.
  6. ^ Scott, Tom (2016). The Early Reformation in Germany: Between Secular Impact and Radical Vision. p. 23. ISBN 9781317034872.
  7. ^ Schneider, Bernd Christian (2001). Ius reformandi: die Entwicklung eines Staatskirchenrechts von seinen Anfängen bis zum Ende des alten Reiches (in German). pp. 5–6. ISBN 9783161476655.
  8. ^ Krumwiede, Hans-Walter (1990). "Kirchenregiment, Landesherrliches". Theologische Realenzyklopädie (in German). Vol. XIX. pp. 63f. ISBN 3-11-012355-X.
  9. ^ Schröder, Nikolas (2017). "Sozinianer und Friedrich der Große – eine Geschichte der Toleranz?" (PDF). Von Emerson zu Thomas Mann (in German). p. 34. ISBN 978-3-86395-314-0.
  10. ^ Schmidt, Gerhard [in German] (1966). "Das Verhältnis von Staat und Kirche in Sachsen im 19. Jahrhundert" (PDF). Sächsische Heimatblätter (in German). 12 (5): 399–400.
  11. ^ Böttcher, Hartmut (10 Sep 2007). "Summepiskopat/Landesherrliches Kirchenregiment". Historisches Lexikon Bayerns (in German). Retrieved 21 April 2026.
  12. ^ Watanabe-O’Kelly, Helen (30 Aug 2022). "Religion and Confession as the Bedrock of Monarchy and Court in Early Modern Europe". The Court Historian. 27 (2): 137–8. doi:10.1080/14629712.2022.2093480.
  13. ^ Tröger, Gerhard (1966). Das Bischofsamt in der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche (in German). pp. 31–32. ISBN 9783166370118.
  14. ^ Scholz, Bastian (2016). "Die Kirchen und die Weimarer Republik (1918/19-33)" (PDF). Die Kirchen und der deutsche Nationalstaat (in German). pp. 225, 258. doi:10.1007/978-3-658-11508-1. ISBN 978-3-658-11508-1.
  15. ^ Pahlmblad, Christer (2005). "The Office of Bishop in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and in the Church of Sweden" (PDF). Zeitschrift für evangelisches Kirchenrecht. 50: 348. ISSN 0044-2690.
  16. ^ Article 28 [Besetzung von Staatsämtern], Constitution of Sweden (in German and Swedish), 1809
  17. ^ Girmalm, Thomas (2017). "A Medium for the Whole People – Intercession Day Placards (böndagsplakat) as Mirrors of their Time". Religious Education in a Mediatized World. pp. 82, 84–86. ISBN 9783170311343.
  18. ^ Article 16, Constitution of Norway. The Executive Power, the King and the Royal Family, 2004, [The King ordains all public church services and public worship, all meetings and assemblies dealing with religious matters, and ensures that public teachers of religion follow the norms prescribed for them.]
  19. ^ "Das Parlament hat die Trennung von Staat und Kirche beschlossen". Herder Korrespondenz (in German) (7): 350. 2012.
  20. ^ "Celebrating the Royal Transition: King Frederik X and the Church". Council on International Relations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark. 15 January 2024. Retrieved 24 April 2026.
  21. ^ Graßmann, Walter (2006). Geschichte der evangelisch-lutherischen Rußlanddeutschen in der Sowjetunion, der GUS und in Deutschland in der zweiten Hälfte des 20.Jahrhunderts (PDF) (Thesis) (in German). pp. 51–2.
  22. ^ Stricker, Gerd (2004). "Lutheranism in Russia and the Soviet Union: another response to Filatov and Stepina". Religion, State and Society. 32 (3): 249. doi:10.1080/0963749042000252205.
  23. ^ Stricker, Gerd (1987). "German Protestants in Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union" (PDF). Religion in Communist Lands. 15 (1): 38f. doi:10.1080/09637498708431292.
  24. ^ Brendle, Franz (2015). Das konfessionelle Zeitalter. p. 93. ISBN 9783110423747.
  25. ^ Johnson, Nevil (2004). Reshaping the British Constitution: Essays in Political Interpretation. pp. 67f. ISBN 9780230503366.
  26. ^ Weir, Todd H.; Greenberg, Udi. "Religious Cultures and Confessional Politics". The Routledge History of Monarchy. p. 685. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198845775.013.28. The revolution had ended Protestantism's unique ties to state institutions: since the Reformation, the monarchs of each German state also served as summus episcopus (supreme governor) of the local Protestant churches (the Prussian king, for example, was the head of the Protestant Church of the Old Union of Prussia), an arrangement made impossible by the abdication of the monarchs in 1918.
  27. ^ De Spiegeleer, Christoph. "The Nationalisation and Mediatisation of European Monarchies in Times of Sorrow: Royal Deaths and Funerals in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century". The Routledge History of Monarchy. Wilhelm I was the conscientious 'Summus episcopus' (Supreme Governor) of the Protestant State Church of Prussia ('Evangelische Landeskirche der älteren Provinzen Preußens').
  28. ^ Davies, Julian (1992). The Caroline Captivity of the Church: Charles I and the Remoulding of Anglicanism, 1625-1641. ISBN 9780198203117. In fact the role of Charles I was at times more redolent of the Lutheran summus episcopus than of Supreme Governor.
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