The Patent of Toleration

JAN 01 1781 · 12:00

First page of the Patent of Toleration, promulgated by Joseph II at Vienna on 13 October 1781. Lutherans, Calvinists, and the Orthodox are granted private worship throughout the Habsburg lands; a second patent in 1782 extends limited rights to the Jews. Place: Promulgated at Vienna; effective throughout Bohemia and the Habsburg lands Figures: Joseph II, sole ruler since the death of Maria Theresa in November 1780 · Cardinal Migazzi, archbishop of Vienna (opposes) · the Lutheran and Reformed congregations of Bohemia and Moravia Maria Theresa dies in November 1780. Joseph II has been co-regent for fifteen years and has chafed at every restraint. Within eleven months he issues the Toleranzpatent: Lutherans, Calvinists, and Orthodox Christians may worship privately, build prayer houses (without bells, without street-facing entrances, without towers, the cosmetic concessions to Rome), and hold civil office in the Habsburg lands. It is the first time since the Battle of White Mountain in 1620 that any confession but Catholicism has legal standing in Bohemia. The hidden Protestant communities of the Bohemian-Moravian highlands, who have kept their German Bibles in haylofts for one hundred and sixty years, declare themselves within weeks. By 1782 there are seventy-eight registered Lutheran or Reformed congregations in the Czech lands.