January 28, 1573 – an act of the Warsaw Confederation was passed at the Convocation Sejm in Warsaw, granting freedom of religion to the gentry of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This document is considered to be the beginning of legally guaranteed religious tolerance.

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  1. Compact of Warsaw, (Jan. 28, 1573), charter that guaranteed absolute religious liberty to all non-Roman Catholics in Poland. After the death of Sigismund II Augustus (July 1572) had brought an end to the rule of the Jagiellon dynasty, the Polish nobility had the duty of choosing a new king. Five candidates from various ruling houses of Europe emerged as major contenders for the Polish throne, but Henry of Valois, duc d’Anjou (brother of the French king Charles IX and the future Henry III of France), appeared to be the favourite. A major objection to his election was raised, however, by the Polish Protestants; Henry had participated in the planning of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day (Aug. 23–24, 1572), in which thousands of French Protestants were slaughtered. To overcome this objection the politically dominant Polish Catholics agreed to adopt the Compact of Warsaw. Signed by the entire lay membership of the Sejm (legislature) before its election of Henry, the compact provided religious freedom to all non-Roman Catholic denominations without exception. That agreement marked the high point of the Reformation in Poland. Reaffirmed by succeeding electoral conventions as well as by the kings-elect of Poland, the compact helped Poland avoid the religious wars that plagued other European countries, but it proved insufficient as a permanent barrier to discrimination against non-Catholics.

  2. For those who are confused, these seals are effectively the sgnature of each individual who agreed to this act.

  3. Well I’m going to have to write an *akhsually* comment:

    The first law in Europe which enacted religious tolerance was the Edict Torda of the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom in 1568.

    ill just quote wiki here:

    >Under the chairmanship of King of Hungary, and Prince of Transylvania John Sigismund Zápolya (John II.),[36] following the teaching of Ferenc Dávid,[37] the founder of the Unitarian Church of Transylvania,[38] extended the freedom to all religions, declaring that “It is not allowed to anybody to intimidate anybody with captivity or expelling for his religion”. However, it was more than a religious tolerance; it declared the equality of the religions, prohibiting all kinds of acts from authorities or from simple people, which could harm other groups or people because of their religious beliefs. The emergence in social hierarchy wasn’t dependent on the religion of the person thus Transylvania had also Catholic and Protestant monarchs, who all respected the Edict of Torda. The lack of state religion was unique for centuries in Europe. Therefore, the Edict of Torda is considered as the first legal guarantee of religious freedom in Christian Europe

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