Freedom of religion

===Europe===

====Religious intolerance====
[[File:CONGRESS COLUMN-BRUSSELS-Dr. Murali Mohan Gurram (13).jpg|thumb|right|Nineteenth century allegorical statue on the [[Congress Column]] in Belgium depicting religious freedom]]
Most Roman Catholic kingdoms kept a tight rein on religious expression throughout the [[Middle Ages]]. Jews were alternately tolerated and persecuted, the most notable examples of the latter being the expulsion of all [[History of the Jews in Spain|Jews]] from Spain in 1492. Some of those who remained and converted were tried as heretics in the [[Inquisition]] for allegedly practicing Judaism in secret. Despite the persecution of Jews, they were the most tolerated non-Catholic faith in Europe.

However, the latter was in part a reaction to the growing movement that became the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]]. As early as 1380, [[John Wycliffe]] in England denied [[transubstantiation]] and began his translation of the Bible into English. He was condemned in a [[papal bull]] in 1410, and all his books were burned.

In 1414, [[Jan Hus]], a [[Bohemia]]n preacher of reformation, was given a safe conduct by the Holy Roman Emperor to attend the [[Council of Constance]]. Not entirely trusting in his safety, he made his will before he left. His forebodings proved accurate, and he was burned at the stake on 6 July 1415. The Council also decreed that Wycliffe's remains be disinterred and cast out. This decree was not carried out until 1429.

After the fall of the city of [[Granada]], Spain, in 1492, the Muslim population was promised religious freedom by the [[Treaty of Granada]], but that promise was short-lived. In 1501, Granada's Muslims were given an ultimatum to either convert to Christianity or to emigrate. The majority converted, but only superficially, continuing to dress and speak as they had before and to secretly practice Islam. The [[Morisco]]s (converts to Christianity) were ultimately expelled from Spain between 1609 (Castile) and 1614 (rest of Spain), by [[Philip III of Spain#Expulsion of the Moors (1609–1610)|Philip III]].

[[Martin Luther]] published his famous 95 Theses in [[Wittenberg]] on 31 October 1517. His major aim was theological, summed up in the three basic dogmas of Protestantism:
* The Bible only is infallible.
* Every Christian can interpret it.
* Human sins are so wrongful that no deed or merit, only God's grace, can lead to salvation.

In consequence, Luther hoped to stop the sale of [[indulgence]]s and to reform the Church from within. In 1521, he was given the chance to recant at the [[Diet of Worms]] before [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor]]. After he refused to recant, he was declared heretic. Partly for his own protection, he was sequestered on the [[Wartburg]] in the possessions of [[Frederick III, Elector of Saxony]], where he translated the [[New Testament]] into German. He was excommunicated by papal bull in 1521.

However, the movement continued to gain ground in his absence and spread to Switzerland. [[Huldrych Zwingli]] preached reform in [[Zürich]] from 1520 to 1523. He opposed the sale of indulgences, celibacy, pilgrimages, pictures, statues, relics, altars, and organs. This culminated in outright war between the Swiss [[cantons of Switzerland|cantons]] that accepted Protestantism and the Catholics. In 1531, the Catholics were victorious, and Zwingli was killed in battle. The Catholic cantons made peace with Zurich and Berne.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-34SAAAAYAAJ&q=1531+The+Catholic+cantons+were+magnanimous+in+victory|title=The History of Switzerland, for the Swiss People|last1=Zschokke|first1=Heinrich|last2=Zschokke|first2=Emil|date=1855|publisher=C. S. Francis & Company|language=en}}</ref>

The defiance of papal authority proved contagious, and in 1533, when [[Henry VIII of England]] was excommunicated for his divorce and remarriage to Anne Boleyn, he promptly established a state church with bishops appointed by the crown. This was not without internal opposition, and [[Thomas More]], who had been his Lord Chancellor, was executed in 1535 for opposition to Henry.

In 1535, the Swiss canton of Geneva became Protestant. In 1536, the [[Bern]]ese imposed the reformation on the canton of [[Vaud]] by conquest. They sacked the cathedral in [[Lausanne]] and destroyed all its art and statuary. [[John Calvin]], who had been active in Geneva was expelled in 1538 in a power struggle, but he was invited back in 1540.

[[File:ReligiousFreedomStamp.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.9|A U.S. postage stamp commemorating religious freedom and the [[Flushing Remonstrance]] ]]
The same kind of seesaw back and forth between Protestantism and Catholicism was evident in England when [[Mary I of England]] returned that country briefly to the Catholic fold in 1553 and persecuted Protestants. However, her half-sister, [[Elizabeth I of England]] was to restore the [[Church of England]] in 1558, this time permanently, and began to persecute Catholics again. The [[King James Bible]] commissioned by King [[James I of England]] and published in 1611 proved a landmark for Protestant worship, with official Catholic forms of worship being banned.

In France, although peace was made between Protestants and Catholics at the [[Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye]] in 1570, persecution continued, most notably in the [[Massacre of Saint Bartholomew's Day]] on 24 August 1572, in which thousands of Protestants throughout France were killed. A few years before, at the "Michelade" of Nîmes in 1567, Protestants had massacred the local Catholic clergy.

====Early steps and attempts in the way of tolerance====
[[File:Cross menorah Oxford 20051225.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Christian cross|cross]] of the [[war memorial]] and a [[Menorah (Temple)|menorah]] coexist in [[Oxford]], Oxfordshire, England]]
[[Kingdom of Sicily|The Norman Kingdom of Sicily]] under Roger II was characterized by its multi-ethnic nature and religious tolerance. Normans, Jews, Muslim Arabs, Byzantine Greeks, Lombards, and native Sicilians lived in harmony.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9377080/Roger-II|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070523045823/http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9377080/Roger-II|url-status=dead|archive-date=23 May 2007|title=Roger II|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=3 September 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE1D61331F935A15757C0A961948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2|title=Tracing The Norman Rulers of Sicily|work=The New York Times|date=26 April 1987|access-date=3 September 2011}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=February 2015}} Rather than exterminate the Muslims of Sicily, Roger II's grandson [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen]] (1215–1250) allowed them to settle on the mainland and build mosques. Not least, he enlisted them in his{{snd}} Christian{{snd}} army and even into his personal bodyguards.<ref>{{cite book|author=Christopher Gravett|title=German Medieval Armies 1000–1300|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nav0JZtAJbcC|year=1997|publisher=Osprey Publishing|isbn=978-1855326576|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=nav0JZtAJbcC&pg=PA17 17]}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>{{Request quotation|date=February 2015}}<ref>Thomas Curtis Van Cleve's ''The Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen: Immutator Mundi'' (Oxford, 1972)</ref>{{Request quotation|date=February 2015}}

[[Kingdom of Bohemia]] (present-day Czech Republic) enjoyed religious freedom between 1436 and 1620 as a result of the [[Bohemian Reformation]], and became one of the most liberal countries of the Christian world during that period of time. The so-called Basel Compacts of 1436 declared the freedom of religion and peace between Catholics and [[Utraquism|Utraquists]]. In 1609 Emperor Rudolf II granted Bohemia greater religious liberty with his Letter of Majesty. The privileged position of the Catholic Church in the Czech kingdom was firmly established after the [[Battle of White Mountain]] in 1620. Gradually freedom of religion in Bohemian lands came to an end and Protestants fled or were expelled from the country. A devout Catholic, Emperor [[Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor|Ferdinand II]] forcibly converted Austrian and Bohemian Protestants.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://gw.geneanet.org/cousinjeanne?lang=en&n=austria&oc=2&p=ferdinand+ii+habsburg|title=Family tree of Ferdinand II Habsburg AUSTRIA|website=Geneanet|language=en|access-date=2019-12-23}}</ref>

In the meantime, in Germany [[Philip Melanchthon]] drafted the [[Augsburg Confession]] as a common confession for the Lutherans and the free territories. It was presented to Charles V in 1530.

In the [[Holy Roman Empire]], Charles V agreed to tolerate Lutheranism in 1555 at the [[Peace of Augsburg]]. Each state was to take the religion of its prince, but within those states, there was not necessarily religious tolerance. Citizens of other faiths could relocate to a more hospitable environment.

In France, from the 1550s, many attempts to reconcile Catholics and Protestants and to establish tolerance failed because the State was too weak to enforce them. It took the victory of prince Henry IV of France, who had converted into Protestantism, and his accession to the throne, to impose religious tolerance formalized in the [[Edict of Nantes]] in 1598. It would remain in force for over 80 years until its revocation in 1685 by [[Louis XIV of France]]. Intolerance remained the norm until Louis XVI, who signed the Edict of Versailles (1787), then the constitutional text of 24 December 1789, granting civilian rights to Protestants. The [[French Revolution]] then abolished state religion and the [[Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen]] (1789) guarantees freedom of religion, as long as religious activities do not infringe on public order in ways detrimental to society.