Catholic and Orthodox countries did still have freedom, they just didn't have as much and they didn't have the culture of free thought that the Protestant countries had.
And the freedom they did have mostly came after the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation reshaped the culture of Europe and forced the Catholic countries to allow more freedom to keep up with the Protestant countries. The Reformation led to the Enlightenment which affect all of Europe.
That's nonsense.
Actually, Polish philosopher Goslicki influenced Britain, not the other way around.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wawrzyniec_Grzymała_Goślicki
Goślicki's Latin book De optimo senatore (published during his stay in Italy in Venice, 1568[2]) and dedicated to King Zygmunt August, subsequently appeared in four English translations: as The Counsellor ( considered inaccurate) in 1598, A commonwealth of good counsaile in 1607, The Accomplished Senator... Done into English... By Mr. Oldisworth in 1733, and most recently as The Accomplished Senator in K. Thompson's translation in 1992. The book proved immensely important in Britain among forces opposed to the Tudor monarchy; it was widely quoted and cited in opposition pamphlets and leaflets during the period leading up to the British Civil Wars of the 1640s.[4]
In this book Goślicki shows the ideal statesman who is well versed in the humanities as well as in economy, politics, and law. He argued that law is above the ruler, who must respect it, and that it is illegitimate to rule over a people against its will. He equated godliness with reason, and reason with law.[1] Many of the book's ideas comprised the foundations of Polish Nobles' Democracy (1505–1795) and were based on 14th-century writings by Stanisław of Skarbimierz. The book was not translated into Polish for 400 years.[1]
The book was influential abroad, exporting the ideas of Poland's Golden Freedom and democratic system. It was a political and social classic, widely read and long popular in England after its 1598 translation;[5] read by Elizabeth I of England, it was also known by Shakespeare, who used his depiction of an incompetent senator as a model for Polonius in Hamlet.[1] Its ideas might be seen in the turmoil that gripped England around the times of Glorious Revolution.[1] Goślicki's ideas were perhaps suggestive for future national constitutions.
Also the Polish Sejm parliament pre-dates the Protestant Icelandic Althing, apparently.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sejm_of_the_Kingdom_of_Poland
The General Sejm of the Kingdom of Poland appeared for the first time in the years 1382–1386,[6] when nobility and city representatives began to come to the nationwide official congresses. Public participation in policy making in Poland can be traced to the Slavic assembly known as the wiec.[7] Another form of public decision making was that of royal election, which occurred when there was no clear heir to the throne, or the heir's appointment had to be confirmed.[8] On February 2, 1386, at one of the first general parliamentary sessions in Lublin, Jagiełło was elected the king of Poland.[9] There are legends of a 9th-century election of the legendary founder of the Piast dynasty, Piast the Wheelwright, and a similar election of his son, Siemowit (this would place a Polish ruler's election a century before an Icelandic one's by the Althing)
Poland was way ahead of it's time with Freedom of Religion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Confederation
The Warsaw Confederation, signed on 28 January 1573 by the Polish national assembly (sejm konwokacyjny) in Warsaw, was one of the first European acts granting religious freedoms. It was an important development in the history of Poland and of Lithuania that extended religious tolerance to nobility and free persons within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth[1] and is considered the formal beginning of religious freedom in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Although it did not prevent all conflict based on religion, it did make the Commonwealth a much safer and more tolerant place than most of contemporaneous Europe, especially during the subsequent Thirty Years' War.[2]
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Religious tolerance in Poland had had a long tradition (e.g. Statute of Kalisz) and had been de facto policy in the reign of the recently deceased King Sigismund II. However, the articles signed by the Confederation gave official sanction to earlier custom. In that sense, they may be considered either the beginning or the peak of Polish tolerance.
Following the childless death of the last king of the Jagiellonian dynasty, Polish and Lithuanian nobles (szlachta) gathered at Warsaw to prevent any separatists from acting and to maintain the existing legal order. For that the citizens had to unconditionally abide the decisions made by the body; and the confederation was a potent declaration that the two former states are still closely linked.
In January the nobles signed a document in which representatives of all the major religions pledged each other mutual support and tolerance. A new political system was arising, aided by the confederation which contributed to its stability. Religious tolerance was an important factor in a multiethnic and multi-religious state, as the territories of the Commonwealth were inhabited by many generations of people from different ethnic backgrounds (Poles, Lithuanians, Ruthenian, Germans and Jews) and of different denominations (Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Jewish and even Muslim). "This country became what Cardinal Hozjusz called “a place of shelter for heretics”. It was a place where the most radical religious sects, trying to escape persecution in other countries of the Christian world, sought refuge.[3]
