Sigismund Augustus Supports Reformation

1565

The Polish king Sigismund Augustus, tolerant and pragmatic, permitted Protestant worship throughout his realm. Lutheran, Calvinist, and radical communities flourished alongside Catholics and Orthodox Christians. For a few decades Poland-Lithuania was the most religiously tolerant state in Europe, a reputation it would gradually lose after his death. The Warsaw Confederation of 1573 was one of sixteenth-century Europe's most remarkable documents of religious tolerance.