Confessional state

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A confessional state is the concept that a particular government would adhere to a specific creed.^[1] Prior to the 20th century, many nations were confessional states and enshrined in their respective constitutions or by decree of the monarch, that the state acknowledged one official religion, even if other religions were permitted to freely practice. In Europe, especially in the time of monarchs, confessional states were common; the Treaty of Westphalia institutionalized the principle that the religion of a monarch should determine that of his subjects. Several of the Thirteen Colonies were confessional states, although of different denominations, before the American Revolution; Connecticut remained one until 1818. Other American states required each town or individual to support some religious body, without the state deciding which one; but this was also abolished, the last instance being Massachusetts, which restricted the obligation in 1821 and ended it in 1843. Both systems would now be unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and preference in matters of religion was forbidden in several colonies. The confessional state is largely gone in the Western World, although in the Middle East, the confessional state, particularly in Islamic nations, is still quite common.