After the end of World War II in 1945 in London was signed the constitution of UNESCO, an organization whose main objective is to promote international cooperation in the fields of culture, art and science, and for human rights, regardless of skin color, social status and religion. The first director of this organization was Julian Sorell Huxley, an evolutionary biologist, grandson of Thomas Henri Huxley, a deep believer in Darwin's evolutionary theory. On the initiative of French socialist activist Leon Blum, UNESCO's headquarters were moved to Paris.
One of the forms of UNESCO activity is the creation in 1992 of a project called Memory of the World International Register, aimed at preserving and making available various types of documentation of global historical or civilizational importance. In 2003, the Warsaw Confederation of 1573 was added to the list.
The Warsaw Confederation is a resolution passed on January 28, 1573 in Warsaw, which is considered to be the first legal act in the world guaranteeing religious tolerance. It may not be the first one, because such a guarantee was created in the times of Constantine the Great, the Roman emperor in 313, but in the period when in Western Europe religious opponents were murdering each other with viciousness, it was an exceptional act. It guaranteed unconditional and perpetual peace between all who differed in faith, granted dissenters equal rights with Catholics and the protection of the state, while forbidding secular authorities to support clergy in religious persecution.
The resolution was passed on the initiative of the Protestant aristocracy in Poland, the dissenters being led by Grand Marshal of the Crown Jan Firlej, a Calvinist, and Sandomierz Province Governor Piotr Zborowski, a Calvinist, to whom many other Protestants belonged.
As a result, Poland gained a reputation in Europe as an "asylum of heretics", where followers of various denominations, be it Protestants or Judaism, as well as people who did not belong to any denomination found shelter. Religious tolerance was considered "Polish style" in Europe.
The Warsaw Confederation, along with the later Henrician Articles (also enshrined in the Memory of the World), was the legal act preceding the introduction of free election after the death of the last of the Jagiellons, Sigismund II Augustus, whose marriages neither to the Habsburgs nor to Radziwillowna had produced offspring.
This made the struggle for the throne of Poland open to all European families, including Protestant families in Germany and Scandinavia, where Protestantism was the dominant religion (and where there were no legal provisions for religious tolerance!). Despite the influx of dissenters, the Polish nobility had strong Catholic traditions. The king was elected a Catholic French prince Henry Valois, whose infamous flight to France was followed by the election of Stefan Batory, also a Catholic, and then Sigismund of the Swedish Vasa family, who was, however, a Catholic, unlike his relatives in Sweden - Protestants, who tried to invade Poland and gain the throne of Poland, just like the Habsburgs or other mighty men of the time. However, the then excellent Polish knights and commanders were able to repel candidates to the throne other than those elected at the convocation sejm. Zamoyski kicked Habsburg's ass in the battle of Byczyna and thus guaranteed the throne to Batory. Chodkiewicz defeated Swedish army at Kircholm and ensured that Sigismund Vasa kept the throne.
With time, however, foreign political circles from countries where religious tolerance was out of the question had more and more influence on what was happening to the throne of Poland and who ruled Poland. This makes you wonder... "Tolerance-Polish style" sounds nice, but... it has its second bottom.
(Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator)