Memorial Day: Remembering Edicts of Toleration

The Peacemakers (1868)

As Decoration Day evolved into Memorial Day, forgiveness trumped enmity.  Along with forgiveness came toleration of those “on the other side.”

The ironic thing about toleration is that you don’t necessarily have to like (or agree with) what others are thinking, feeling, saying, doing – you merely have “to recognize and respect” their “rights, beliefs or practices.”  Thus explaineth the Free Online Dictionary.

Tolerance is not one of those knee-jerk human responses. It needs to be carefully nurtured, and – at times – legislated.  A review of history’s salient Edicts of Toleration tells a story of mighty struggles along the way to increased unity amongst

opposing religious forces.

A number of such edicts paved the way for Christianity to morph from a persecuted minority into an eventual theocracy.  Wikipedia reports that early Christians were looked upon as “odd creatures: not quite Roman, but not quite barbarian either.”  This was because many of them “rejected public festivals, refused to take part in the imperial cult, avoided public office, and publicly criticized ancient traditions.”  Persecutions against them were first incited by mobs, then by local officials, and finally by emperors such as Maximin, Decius and Diocletian.  The 311 CE Edict of Toleration by Galerius, plus the famous 313 CE Edict of Milan by Constantine and Licinius, not only officially ended these persecutions, but also made Christianity legal throughout the entire Roman Empire.

Centuries later, other edicts were needed to help end wars between various factions within Christianity.  In

1562, Catherine de Medici’s Edict of Saint Germain was aimed at ending “insistent persecution of non-

Catholics (mostly Huguenots).”  However, within just a few short weeks, a massacre of Huguenots “began open hostilities in the French Wars of Religion.”  In 1568, King John II Sigismund of Hungary’s Edict of Torda broadened previous Christian grants to include the Unitarian Church.  In 1689, England’s Parliament

passed the Act of Toleration.  Although this Act was meant to protect Protestants, it was not very tolerant of Roman Catholics.  

In 1773, the Tolerance Edict of Katharina II of Russia “promised the toleration of all religious denominations in the Russian empire, except for the large number of Jews…”  In 1812, Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia

extended an edict which helped protect the rights of Prussian Jews.  In March 1844, there was even an

Edict of Toleration, brought about by pressure from the British government, “allowing Jews to settle in the Holy Land.”  Imagine that…  

     

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_toleration

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/tolerate

Copyright May 28, 2012 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved