An act of tolerance

Religious violence was only quelled when European leaders adopted policies of toleration inspired by a new intellectual tradition that argued that it was not the role of government to enforce religious uniformity. In France the Edict of Nantes (1598) was unprecedented as an act of toleration in Western Europe at the time. Up until this point, the standard was that the subjects would adhere to the religion of the ruler of the territory in which they lived, i.e. the principle of cuius regio, eius religio. With the Edict, the Huguenots were recognized as an official minority and awarded civil rights and liberties. They could become part of the government, join the military and participate in education. It signaled the separation of civil from religious rights and guaranteed a measure of religious freedom. This was an important sign of religious tolerance. In a wider sense, the Edict is important because it distinguished between religious unity, which had been previously desired, and civic unity, which became the new norm. The promotion of civic unity led to a strengthening of the state.