The 1782 Edict of Tolerance was a religious reform of Joseph II

Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor

Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...

 during the time he was emperor of the Habsburg Monarchy

Habsburg Monarchy

The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...

 as part of his policy of Josephinism

Josephinism

Josephinism is the term used to describe the domestic policies of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor . During the ten years in which Joseph was the sole ruler of the Habsburg Monarchy , he attempted to legislate a series of drastic reforms to remodel Austria in the form of the ideal Enlightened state...

, a series of drastic reforms to remodel Austria in the form of the ideal Enlightened

Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...

 state. Joseph II's enlightened despotism included the Patent of Toleration

Patent of toleration

The Patent of Toleration was an edict issued in 1781 by the Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph II of Austria. The Patent extended religious freedom to non-Catholic Christians living in Habsburg lands, including Lutherans, Calvinists, and the Greek Orthodox. Specifically, these members of minority faiths...

, enacted in 1781, and the Edict of Tolerance in 1782. The Patent of Toleration granted religious freedom to the Lutherans, Calvinists, and Greek Orthodox, but it wasn't until the 1782 Edict of Tolerance that Joseph II extended religious freedom to the Jewish population

Judaism

Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

.

Austria has had a long history on the subject of religious tolerance. This can be traced back to the sixteenth century when Martin Luther’s writings first appeared in the Habsburg monarchy in Austria. The appearance of Luther’s writings was threatening since they encouraged religious dissent of the Catholic faith, and its ecclesiastical system. Joseph II was also inspired by economic motives, as the emigration of the Protestant population out of Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

 would have eventually lead up to an economic slump.

1781 Patent of Toleration

The 1781 Patent of Toleration allowed certain rights and recognized the existence of non-Catholic religions in Austria. The Edict of Toleration allowed Protestants from other countries where religious tolerance was not enforced to immigrate to Austria and hold jobs such as pharmacists, carpenters and blacksmiths. The tolerated religions, however, were allowed to have congregations no larger than 100 people in a private home. If a certain sect had more than 100 families living in an area, they were allowed to build a church only if the church did not have a direct entrance from the street and had no visible appearance of being a church. When it came to the case of mixed marriages, there were also laws that had to be followed: if a Catholic man had children with a non-Catholic woman, all the children would be raised Catholic. In the case of a Catholic woman with a non-Catholic man, the girls would be raised Catholic while the boys would be raised non-Catholic.

Scrutiny from Catholic officials occurred in places, like Bohemia, where the officials attempted to preserve religious unity. In order to do this they had printed out all the pamphlets that described this edict in German. The population whom this would affect, however, generally couldn't speak or read German.

Jewish community before the Edict

Long before the Jews had been granted religious freedom by Joseph II, they were treated rather harshly by his mother, Maria Theresa and had been ostracized by others. During the Middle Ages, Austrian Jews had lived apart from the Orthodox communities and had not been allowed by the government to own immovable property. Although this was not the case for the more affluent Jews, those who were wealthy and were able to establish factories were recipients of preferential treatment by Maria Theresa, but otherwise there were restrictions on the rest of the Jewish population. Joseph II was the first one who made an attempt to eliminate these attitudes and sanctions that were toward the majority of the Jewish population.

1782 Edict of Tolerance

The 1782 Edict of Tolerance was issued on January 2, 1782. The Edict was initially put into effect in lower Austria. The prologue to the resolution stated “This policy paper aims at making the Jewish population useful to the state." This second edict allowed Jewish children to attend schools and universities. It allowed adults to engage in jobs such as being merchants or to open factories. It also eliminated previous restrictions, which had forced the Jews to wear gold stars or to pay a tax that was only levied on the Jews and cattle. According to the edict, however, the Jewish languages, the written language Hebrew and the spoken language Yiddish, were to be replaced by the national language of the country. Official documents and school textbooks could not be printed in Hebrew.

External links

• http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=3648The Edict of Tolerance translated in English at the German Historical Institute
  German Historical Institute
  German Historical Institute are five independent academic research institutes situated in Rome, London, Washington, D.C., Warsaw and Moscow, dedicated to the study of historical relations between Germany and the host countries in which they are based, along with four other institutions, in Paris,...
  
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