CHURCH AND STATE RELATIONS AND RIGHT OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN ANDORRA EULOGI BROTO Andorra, a small mountain country composed of two principal valleys placed at the Pyrenees between France and Spain, is a reality frequently unknown in juridical terms. This article tries to be an approach on its legislation and juridical system for investigators interested in Church and State relations1. To be able to analyse the relationships between Churches and State in Andorra and its evolution during the lasts years, it is firstly necessary to make a brief historical approach to the specific juridical features of the country. These specific features have their own characteristics among the European micro-states, and give Andorra a position that is difficult to frame in similar situations existing in other countries and in the comparative law. This specificity will allow us to talk about the “Andorran case” when analysing the Church and State relations in this country. 1 Due to the requirements of space for the articles published in the European Journal for Church and State Research, the complete article Church and State relations and right of religious freedom in Andorra will be published in two consecutive issues of the Journal. This is just the first part of the whole and complete study about the history, the system and the current legal status of the Church and State relations in Andorra, with a concrete analysis of the religious freedom in Andorra. The complete work consists of eight different chapters: I. Historical approach; II. The current Constitutional frame; III. The question of the confessionality; IV. Development laws; V. The Church and State relations in economical matters; VI. The treaty with the Holy See; VII. The question in the other European microstates; VIII. Religions at the Andorran social life. Only the three first chapters are published in this 2002 issue. The second part of the article will appear in the 2003 issue (number 10 of the European Journal for Church and State Research) containing the five last chapters mentioned, where a complete view on the concrete laws existing today in Andorra will be found. I want to thank the Journal for the complete publication of this work so this is the first complete study of the Andorran Church and State relations ever published. I also want to manifest my most sincere gratitude to Dr. NEMESI MARQUÉS, Personal Representative of the Episcopal Co-Prince for Andorra, for his collaboration and for the given attention in our personal interview maintained on March 15th 2001. 226 E. BROTO I. HISTORICAL APPROACH 1. The Origins Popularly, there are several dates for the possible birth of Andorra between years 8052 and 819, some of them attributed to actions of the Emperors Charlemagne and Louis the Pious. It is believed that Charlemagne gave privileges and tax exemption to the inhabitants of the Valley of Andorra in 805. It has been maintained that Louis the Pious warranted the donation of this territory in 8193 to the Church of Urgell and the establishing act of its territorial limits. It is even possible that documents that ratify the cer- tainty of the content of the Valleys’ donation at the Consecration act of Urgell’s Cathedral can exist4, but it is mostly accepted that the text referred 2 The major opinion is that the authenticity of the document is very dubious. There is an interesting list of opinions to this end in BÉLINGUIER, B., La condition juridique des vallées d’Andorre, Paris, Pedone, 1970, 21-23. Some Andorran editions also find dubious this date, but not all the historical facts that they include. See FITER I ROSSELL, A., Manual Digest, Andorra la Vella, Ed. M.I. Consell General d’Andorra, 2000, 39-41. 3 The correct date is 839, because there is a mistake in the transcription in DE MARCA, P., Appendix Marcae Hispaniae (1), Paris, Muguet, F. (ed.), 1688, 762 and following: “Actus dedicationis Ecclesiae, Anno 819. Tradimus naque ipsas Parroquias de Valli Andorrensi (id est…), cum omnibus eclesis, Villis, et Vilarum eulis earum… Denique successoribus nostris (Episcopus) in sepe jam dictae Sedis Santae Mariae Matris Eclesiae dejentes, juris eorum, atque dominio subjunximus, et perpetuo mancipamus; ut pleniter Ordinet, atque disponant, et cum Dey adjutorio illis sit detinendum, et possidendum, et Dey cum tenore dispensandum, atque regendum, sine cujus piam inquietatione, seu Contradictione”. DE MARCA, P., Appendix Marcae Hispaniae (1), Paris, Muguet, F. (ed.), 1688 = edition Facsimile, Marca Hispanica: sive limes hispanicvs…, Barcelona, Base, 1972, 1490p. Also in FITER I ROSSELL, A., Manual Digest, Ed. Andorra 1748, 1.8.4 = Ed. Andorra 2000, 199-201. There exist three editions of this book: Ed. Andorra 1748 = Andorra la Vella, 1st Ed. M.I. Consell General d’Andorra, 1987 = Andorra la Vella, 2nd Ed. M.I. Consell General d’Andorra, 2000. From now on, we will refer to the «Manual Digest» following the Andorran Reprint from 2000 and its numeration in pages, and not to the order- ing of books and chapters of the original edition from 1748 anymore. Due to the repetition of this reference we will use just: FITER I ROSSELL, A., Manual Digest, Ed. Andorra 2000. 4 Apart from the aforementioned documents of the years 805 and 839, there are documents of the years 824, 836 and 860 that include the name of Andorra and that referred to the Epis- copal domination over the Valleys. In 839, at the act of the Consecration of Urgell’s Cathedral, there is the delimitation made by the Emperor LUDOVICUS PIUS through the representation of Count of Urgell, expressly authorised to this end, and this is the best-documented appearance. The documents from 824 and 836 are ratification acts of the former diocesan delimitation with dominium character signed by the same Emperor at request of the Bishops of Urgell at the cities of Thionville and Lyon respectively. See FITER I ROSSELL, A., Manual Digest, Ed. Andorra 2000, 181-231. The 860’s document includes tax and levy authorizations recognised by the Emperor to the Bishops of Urgell, see “Chartes et Diplômes de Charles le Chauve”, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, US 0.72 (6), n. 222. Published by TESSIER, G. (ed.), Recueil des actes de Charles II le Chauve, 2(861-877), Paris, Impr. Nationale, 1952, 673 p. CHURCH AND STATE IN ANDORRA 227 to the ecclesiastical delimitation and recognises the spiritual authority only, over the Andorran territory. The next indubitable documentary appearance of Andorra’s name is found in an assignment document5 of Emperor Charles the Bald6 from 843, where he gives to Count Sunifred of Urgell the Valley of Andorra, according to his expressed fidelity in the war against the Nor- mans. This text, which certainly includes a territorial donation, must have created the traditional medieval confusion between the manor rights and the property rights, and between the effective juridical lordship domain and the sovereignty on the territories. This confusion is the basis of all the fights between the Episcopal and secular authorities during the next eight centuries of Andorra’s history. Since its reconquest at the beginnings of the 8th century, Andorra is a territorial part of the County of Urgell and ecclesiastically is part of the Diocese of Urgell. Moreover, the Diocese of Urgell will become the strongest and most influential territorial organisation of all the Pyrenees during the first four centuries of the Low Middle Ages. Although there are precise proofs of dominion acts of the Count of Urgell on the Valleys of Andorra, from the 10th and 11th Centuries the dominion of the Bishops of Urgell over the Valleys grows progressively. It benefited both by the tactical disinterestedness shown by the Count of Urgell seated in Bal- aguer – away from the mountains – and by many successive and documented cessions of rights from the Counts to the Bishops and the Church of Urgell. Some examples of this are: an exchange of alodium in the widest sense doc- umented in 988, the donation of 1007 with the subsequent Pontifical ratifi- cation, and the testamentary donation of Count Ermengol VI7 of Urgell to the Church of Urgell of all his properties and rights on the Valleys in 11338. 5 “(…) In pago Urgellensi Villa que vocatur Vallis Andorre cum suis omnibus Appen- dicibus, totum ad integrum, per hanc nostram largitionem, sicut nos habere cernebamur”, in TESSIER, G. (ed.), Recueil des actes de Charles II le Chauve, 2(861-877), Paris, Impr. Nationale, 1952, 40-41. The complete work was published in different books and during several years: TESSIER, G. (ed.), Recueil des actes de Charles II le Chauve, roi de France, commencé par Arthur Giry, continué par Maurice Prou, terminé sous la direction de M. Ferdinand Lot et Clovis Brunel, Paris, Impr. Nationale, 1943-1955: vol. I, 840-860, 1943; vol. II, 861-877, 1952; vol. III, Introduction et table, 1955. 6 Ludovicus Pius –Louis the Pius- (815 and 816) and Charles the Bald (844) defined the juridical regime of the territories of the Hispanic Mark and its inhabitants in what is considered the first “bill of rights” of the territory. Among these territories there was, of course, Andorra. See ABADAL I DE VINYALS, R., Catalunya Carolíngia II. Els diplomes carolingis a Catalunya, 1st. Part, Barcelona, Institut d’Estudis Catalans, 1926-1986. 7 The toponimics and proper names given in this article are given in the Catalan language, which was the original language of the country and today is the official language of Andorra (Article 2. 1 of the Andorran Constitution). 228 E. BROTO Bishops of Urgell turned the Valleys since the 12th Century into an Epis- copal manor9, but not without some bust-ups because of the aforemen- tioned dominion, legitimated at the different juridical titles presented respec- tively by Counts and Bishops.