religious toleration

Religious toleration is the policy or practice of permitting religious beliefs and worship different from the official or dominant faith.

The term appears most often in historical contexts—the gradual emergence of religious toleration in early modern Europe, or colonial charters granting toleration to dissenting sects.

Toleration implies forbearance rather than full equality: authorities allow minority religions to exist without necessarily granting them equal standing.

The Edict of Nantes established religious toleration for French Protestants.