Edict of Torda
The delegates of the Three Nations of Transylvania – the Hungarian nobles, Transylvanian Saxons, and Székelys – adopted it at the request of the monarch's Antitrinitarian court preacher, Ferenc Dávid, in Torda (Romanian: Turda, German: Thorenburg) on 28 January 1568.
However, ideas that the Catholic Church regarded as heresy were not tolerated: the Hungarian Hussites were expelled from the country in the 1430s and the 1523 Diet of Hungary passed a decree that ordered the persecution of Lutherans.
After the Ottomans occupied the central regions of the medieval kingdom in 1541, they allowed the infant John Sigismund to rule the lands to the east of the river Tisza under the regency of his mother, Isabella Jagiellon.
His court physician, Giorgio Biandrata, and Ferenc Dávid jointly persuaded him to also allow the public discussion of the doctrine of the Trinity.
[2] In the 1430s, young burghers who had studied at the University of Prague began teaching the theology of the Czech Jan Hus, despite his having been condemned to death for heresy at the Council of Constance.
[5] Dozens of the German courtiers of Mary of Habsburg (the wife of Louis II of Hungary) also supported the ideas of the Reformation.
[6] However, the Hungarian noblemen remained hostile towards Lutheran theology, primarily because they wanted to secure the support of the Holy See against the Ottoman Empire.
[7] On 24 April 1523, the Diet of Hungary passed a decree that ordered the persecution and execution of Luther's followers in the entire kingdom.
[16] He occupied the central region, but confirmed John Sigismund's rule in the lands to the east of the river Tisza as his vassal, creating an Eastern Hungarian Kingdom.
[29] He organized a public debate between Catholic prelates and a Lutheran preacher in Schässburg (Romanian: Sighișoara, Hungarian: Segesvár) in 1538.
[30] The Saxons regarded religious issues as an internal affair, and their general assembly ordered the introduction of the Reformation in their towns and villages in 1544–1545.
[43][44] After Ferdinand of Habsburg proved unable to secure the defence of the eastern territories, the Diet persuaded Isabella and John Sigismund to return in 1556.
[46] In 1557 the Diet passed a decree that historian Krista Zach describes as "the founding document of the so-called religious tolerance" in John Sigismund's realm.
[48][49] In the same year, Hungarian clerics of the region of Várad confirmed their adherence to the Calvinist view of the Eucharist, for which the Lutherans labelled them "Sacramentarians".
[53] He organized new religious debates between representatives of the Lutheran and Calvinist theologies in Mediasch (Romanian: Mediaș, Hungarian: Medgyes) in January 1560 and February 1561.
[54] The four German academies responded in early 1562, and their opinions were taken into account when the synod of the Lutheran clergy adopted a new creed in the same year.
[53] A clergyman from Kolozsvár (Romanian: Cluj, German: Klausenburg), Ferenc Dávid, had meanwhile become a key figure in the development of Protestant ideas in John Sigismund's realm.
[56] Dávid's studies of the works of Erasmus of Rotterdam and Michael Servetus contributed to his critical attitude towards dogmas and the development of his conviction of the free choice of religion.
[60][61][62] Servetus read the critical studies of Joseph Kimhi and other Jewish scholars about the Trinity,[63] and concluded that this dogma was the principal doctrine that separated Christianity from Judaism and Islam.
[70][71][72] Péter Melius Juhász, the Calvinist bishop of Debrecen, sharply criticized him,[71] but the most influential burghers of Kolozsvár remained Dávid's staunch supporters.
[76] Gáspár Heltai, Péter Károlyi, and other Calvinist priests left Kolozsvár, but more and more Hungarian noblemen and burghers were willing to accept Dávid's views.
[82] Repeating a text from the eighth verse of the second chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, the edict declares that "faith is the gift of God".
[91] Although decrees prohibited clergymen from attacking the priests of another religion for their teaching, Báthory urged the Saxon preachers to condemn Calvinist and Antitrinitarian theologies.
[94] He made an Eastern Orthodox monk from Moldavia, Eftimie, their bishop on 5 October 1571, but without restricting the activities of the Calvinist superintendent of the Romanians.
[102] The co-existence of the four received (or officially recognized) denominations – the Trinitarian Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, and the Antitrinitarian Unitarian Churches – was not questioned.
[101] Gabriel Báthory, who ruled from 1608 to 1613, exempted the Eastern Orthodox priests from all feudal obligations and secured their right to free movement.
He also granted special privileges to the Jews, including relieving them of the requirement of wearing the Star of David or other distinctive signs.
[106] On 28 January 1573 the Sejm (or general assembly) passed the so-called Warsaw Confederation, which contained an article on religious freedom.
