Edict of Torda - The Original Edict

The Original Edict

King János Zsigmond Zápolya of Hungary, encouraged by his Unitarian Minister Ferenc Dávid, during the Diet of 1568 issued the following proclamation (roughly translated into English):

His majesty, our Lord, in what manner he – together with his realm – legislated in the matter of religion at the previous Diets, in the same matter now, in this Diet, reaffirms that in every place the preachers shall preach and explain the Gospel each according to his understanding of it, and if the congregation like it, well. If not, no one shall compel them for their souls would not be satisfied, but they shall be permitted to keep a preacher whose teaching they approve. Therefore none of the superintendents or others shall abuse the preachers, no one shall be reviled for his religion by anyone, according to the previous statutes, and it is not permitted that anyone should threaten anyone else by imprisonment or by removal from his post for his teaching. For faith is the gift of God and this comes from hearing, which hearing is by the word of God.

This edict was given at the Transylvanian city of Torda. Torda (now Turda, a city in Cluj County, Romania) was in 1568 at the center of a maelstrom of power struggles between cultures, religions, and thrones. The edict, appearing during the counter-Reformation and during a time when national churches were being established, represented a move toward religious toleration and a direct renunciation of national establishment of a single religion.

This edict was not the first attempt to legislate religious freedoms in Hungary. Owing to the near collapse of the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary in this era (accelerated by the Battle of Mohács in 1526, in which most of the Roman Catholic leadership of Hungary perished), the Reformation made great inroads in Hungary. The edict was only one of a series in which various religious groups seized the opportunity to secure legal tolerance for their own adherents. The edict of 1568 legally applied to Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, and Unitarians. Other groups, such as Jews, Eastern Orthodox Romanians, and Muslims, were "tolerated" but not granted legal guarantees. Moreover, the edict speaks of preachers and congregations, not of individuals. It does not guarantee the free exercise of personal religious conscience.

Nevertheless, what is striking about this edict is the universality of its language, which owes much to the influence of Ferenc Dávid, and goes beyond any previous edict. It helped foster toleration as a notion beyond mere political expedience, and helped pave the way for the remarkably tolerant regime of the Calvinist Prince Bethlen Gábor of Transylvania, when (for example) Jews were relieved of the requirement of wearing the Star of David.

In the near term, however, the Edict of Torda sparked a backlash from opposing political forces: Zápolya was replaced, and subsequent edicts revoked the Edict of Torda. Dávid, who went on to teach that praying to Christ is an error (nonadorantism), split the Unitarians and jeopardized their legal protection. He was convicted of heresy and died in prison under the ascendancy of the Roman Catholic Church and the rule of Prince Kristóf Báthory.