section_path: Wars of religion and tolerance/Warsaw Confederation
section_name: Warsaw Confederation
paragraph_text: Warsaw Confederation
  
  As the Bohemian Brethren were famed for their diligence, many Polish aristocrats eagerly settled them on their estates. Ethnic Poles became receptive to Protestant ideas, especially to Calvin's theology from the 1540s. The Hetman Jan Tarnowski (d. 1561) entered into correspondence with Calvin in 1540; in 1542, Jan Łaski (d. 1560) converted although his uncle (and namesake) had been the Primate of Poland. In 1548, Sigismund the Old's tolerant son Sigismund II Augustus (r. 1548–1572) ascended the throne. Two years later, the first synod of the Polish Reformed Church assembled at Pińczów. Proposals for the introduction of vernacular liturgy and communion in both kinds, and the abolition of clerical celibacy were forwarded by Sigismund Augustus to the Holy See but Pope Paul IV (r. 1555–1559) rejected them. The Catholic prelates tried to put Protestant nobles and married priests on trial for heresy but the legislative assembly, or Sejm suspended such persecutions on the initiative of the Protestant Marshal of the Sejm Rafał Leszczyński and Tarnowski in 1552. In 1556, Łaski organised a synod in the hope of reuniting all non-Lutheran Protestants but failed. At the meeting, Piotr of Goniądz (d. 1573) openly attacked infant baptism and the doctrine of Trinity. The antitrinitarian Polish Brethren established their own church, known as Minor Church in contrast with the Reformed Major Church. From 1565, Polish nobles could no more be persecuted on religious grounds which allowed them to freely choose between competing theologies. By this time, around one-fifth of the nobility had converted to the Reformed faith, and most secular members of the Senate were Protestant. Relationship between Poland and Lithuania was redefined by the 1569 Union of Lublin which created the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. After Sigismund Augustus died, the Sejm passed the Warsaw Confederation prescribing that only candidates who promised to protect religious freedom could be elected king.