Jurisdictionalism
(Political Theory)
Tech
What is Jurisdictionalism?
Jurisdictionalism is a political maneuver intended to extend the State's jurisdiction and control over the life and organization of the Church, namely the parallel legal structure consisting of ecclesiastical rights and privileges. Specifically, it can be defined as a current of thought and a political attitude aiming to affirm the authority of the laical jurisdiction over the ecclesiastical one. Fundamental tools of jurisdictionalism (also called regalism) were the placet and the exequatur, by which the State allowed or denied the publishing and implementation of orders from the Pope or other national ecclesiastical authorities, and the nomina ai benefici (“nomination to benefits”), to control the appointment of ecclesiastical charges.Besides these instruments of control, jurisdictionalism also implied the State's direct intervention on ecclesiastical matters such as the age and motives of people wishing to become monks, the usefulness of convents and contemplative religious orders (which were largely abolished), the number of religious festivities, the clergy's privileges and immunities, and the formation of priests.