As a legal term, the word tolerance came into being as religious tolerance. An apt example is the Patent of Tolerance of the Emperor Joseph II. In October 1781 Joseph II. issued this law to eliminate restrictions placed against the practice of the Protestant and Greek Orthodox religions. He allowed for them to hold private Services and removed the exclusion of their members from civil Service, university career etc. Despite this, the Roman Catholic religion remained the official rehgion and the only one that held public Services. Religious tolerance presupposes the existence of an official state religion. Other religions or denominations are tolerated in a fixed legal framework. Religious freedom thus in fact contradicts the existence ofreligious tolerance. It is giving the individuals the freedom to believe in, practice, and promote their religion of choice without interference or official harassment. Despite the existence ofreligious freedom in most modem societies, the notion of tolerance is still quite often used in legal texts. In modern legal texts, however, the meaning ofthe word varies from čase to čase. Sometimčs it refers to a general pattern of behaviour, while in other instances it is used to define concrete actions. It can be said that tolerance is no more a legal term in a strict sense. It has become much more a cultural standard of behaviour that helps interpret legal norms in the event of conflicting interests and rights. As such, it is not conditioned by the concrete behaviour of others.