Religious toleration
Edicts, treaties and laws that granted religious freedoms or ended religious conflict.
Category: Society
- September 25, 1555The Peace of Augsburg lets each prince choose Lutheranism or Catholicism
Negotiated by Ferdinand I for Charles V, the peace of 25 September 1555 lets rulers make Lutheranism or Catholicism the faith of their lands; dissenters may emigrate. Calvinism gains legal recognition only in 1648.
- January 23, 1579The Union of Utrecht binds the northern provinces together
On 23 January 1579 Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht and part of Groningen sign the Union of Utrecht, with freedom of conscience. Southern provinces had joined the Catholic Union of Arras on 6 January. It becomes the basis of the Dutch Republic.
- April 13, 1598Edict of Nantes grants Huguenots religious rights
Henry IV granted French Protestants freedom of conscience, limited public worship and legal protections, largely ending the Wars of Religion and restoring royal authority.
- July 9, 1609Rudolf II grants the Letter of Majesty to Bohemia's Protestants
On 9 July 1609 Rudolf II, as King of Bohemia, signs the Letter of Majesty. It grants Protestants religious freedom and a committee of the Estates, the Defensors, to guard it. Its violation is later a cause of the 1618 revolt.
- December 31, 1621Peace of Nikolsburg: Bethlen renounces the Hungarian crown for religious guarantees
On 31 December 1621 Gábor Bethlen gives up the title of King of Hungary. He gets religious freedom for Hungarian Protestants, the title of Imperial Prince, seven counties, three fortresses and a Silesian duchy.
- May 30, 1635Ferdinand II and Saxony make the Peace of Prague
On 30 May 1635 (Old Style) Ferdinand II and Saxony sign the Peace of Prague. It effectively revokes the Edict of Restitution, sets 1627 as the cutoff for church property and bans alliances in the Empire. Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar fights on for France.
- October 24, 1648Westphalia recognises Calvinism and fixes 1624 as the religious norm
The treaties give Calvinism legal standing beside Catholicism and Lutheranism, take 1 January 1624 as the normative year for each state's religion, and end rulers' power to impose their faith on subjects. Half of the imperial court's judges must be Protestant.
- 1670Spinoza's Tractatus questions the Bible's authorship
Published anonymously in 1670 with a false Hamburg imprint, Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise urges reading the Bible critically like any text and denies that Moses wrote the Pentateuch. Banned in 1674.