Bishop of Urgell in the context of "Constitution of Andorra"

A sacerdotal state is a state whose head is also an ecclesiastical leader designated by a religious body. An example of this kind of state is the Vatican City: its heads of state, the popes of the Catholic Church, have governed papal lands distinct from secular authority since the establishment of the Papal States in the 8th century AD. Andorra operates under a semi-sacerdotal system, as one of its co-heads of state is the bishop of Urgell, while the other is the head of state of France. However unlike the Vatican, the co-princes of Andorra are ceremonial and not closely involved in the government.

In the past, bishops commonly assumed temporal as well as spiritual authority and ruled as prince-bishops. This occurred, for example, in the Holy Roman Empire, where three of the seven imperial electors were prince-archbishops (those of Trier, Mainz and Cologne). After the 1648 Peace of Westphalia certain prince-bishoprics became bi-confessional and alternated between governance by Catholic bishops and by Protestant administrators.

The first Paréage of Andorra (Catalan: Tractat de pareatge) was a feudal charter signed in Lleida on 8 September 1278. It codified a lay and ecclesiastical agreement between the Count of Foix, Roger-Bernard III, and the Bishop of Urgell, Pere d'Urtx, establishing their joint sovereignty over the territory of Andorra. The paréage established the system of condominium in Andorra, placing it under suzerainty of both lords. This system was later ratified in 1993 by the signing of the Constitution of Andorra. The charter underpins the modern legal status of Andorra.

A second paréage was signed on 6 November 1288, which supplemented and addressed a number of clauses in the first paréage. Together, these two paréages comprised the first basic law of Andorra, and were the nation's most important constitutional documents until the ratification of the Constitution in 1993.

The co-princes of Andorra are jointly the heads of state (Catalan: cap d'estat) of the Principality of Andorra, a landlocked microstate lying in the Pyrenees between France and Spain.

Founded in 1278 by a treaty between the bishop of Urgell and the count of Foix, this unique diarchical arrangement has persisted through the Middle Ages to the present. Following the transfer of the count of Foix's claims to the Crown of France and, subsequently, to the head of state of the French Republic, the current arrangement has the bishop of Urgell (Josep-Lluís Serrano Pentinat) serving as the episcopal co-prince and the president of France (Emmanuel Macron) as the lay co-prince. Each co-prince appoints a personal representative. The episcopal co-prince is currently represented by Eduard Ibáñez and the lay co-prince by Patrice Faure.

A prince-bishop is a bishop who is also the civil ruler of some secular principality and sovereignty, as opposed to Prince of the Church itself, a title associated with cardinals. Since 1951, the sole extant prince-bishop has been the Bishop of Urgell, Catalonia, who has remained ex officio one of two co-princes of Andorra, along with the French president.

La Seu d'Urgell (Catalan: [la ˈsɛw ðuɾˈdʒeʎ] ; Spanish: Seo de Urgel [seo ðe uɾˈxel] , formerly Urgell) is a town located in Alt Urgell county in Alt Pirineu, Catalonia, Spain. The town is also the head of its judicial district and the seat of the Bishop of Urgell, one of the co-princes of Andorra. It is the most populated town of the region, with 17.4% of its population. La Seu d'Urgell and Puigcerdà together have 30% of the population of the area. It has a population of 12,831 (register office, 2024) .

It is located at the confluence of the Segre and the Valira rivers. The city is in the local region of Urgellet, a Pyrenean region formed by 16 municipalities of Alt Urgell. Urgellet and Andorra were originally the County of Urgell with its capital in la Seu d'Urgell before the county expansion to the south.

Felix (died 818) was a Christian bishop and theologian. He served as bishop of Urgell (783–99) and advocated the christology known as Spanish Adoptionism because it originated in the lands of the former Visigothic Kingdom in Spain. He was condemned for heresy and all his writings were suppressed. They are known today only through quotations contained in the writings of his opponents.

Felix became bishop at an unknown date and lived at the monastery of Sant Sadurní de Tavèrnoles, in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Before coming to prominence for his adoptionist Christology, he wrote an apology for Christianity against Islam, Against the Saracen. This work is now thought to be lost. In 788, Felix attended a provincial synod in the Archdiocese of Narbonne and signed the conciliar acts. A denunciation of Felix was later attached to these acts because of the presence of Felix's name.

Pere d'Urtx (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈuɾtʃ] OORTCH) was Bishop of Urgell from 1269 to 1293. He became the first Episcopal Co-Prince of Andorra when he signed the paréage establishing joint-sovereignty over the territory with Roger-Bernard III, Count of Foix in 1278.

The paréage ended almost a century of conflict over the territory between successive Bishops of Urgell, on the one hand, and Viscounts of Castellbò and Counts of Foix, on the other, and effectively established the modern state of Andorra. He was archdeacon of Prats and became the bishop of Urgell on 3 November 1269. He attended the provincial councils of 1274, 1279 and 1292.