The Articles were a collection of legal provisions that included paramount regulation of the structure of the state and determined the relations between the Sejm and the monarch. The Articles guaranteed that the privileges of the gentry (szlachta) would be preserved, ensured freedom of religion, and defined the constitutional framework of the Rzeczpospolita, including the choice of every subsequent monarch by the gentry as a whole, exclusively via free election. The Henrician Articles bound the king to convene a general Sejm every two years and, when need be, extraordinary Sejms as well. The king was also obliged to appoint a royal council composed of sixteen resident senators tasked with making joint decisions concerning major affairs of state. Legislative powers rested with the Sejm, which also enjoyed purview over both domestic and foreign policies. Moreover, the szlachta (gentry) gained the right to renounce allegiance to the king if ever the latter broke the obligations he had agreed to.

Some Polish legal historians are inclined to treat the Henrician Articles as the first act of a constitutional character.

The signatories of the ceremonious document – affixed, as seen below, with numerous seals – regulated the most urgent matters. One of them is dealt with in points 3 and 4 – namely, the guarantee to uphold peace between the adherents of the diverse confessions then practised in the Rzeczpospolita (Commonwealth) The signatories mutually swore to oppose any and all attempts to initiate persecutions for reasons of religion. At the same time it was stressed that religious matters could not be used as a pretext for undermining the social order.

Of surpassing significance for the origins of the provisions upholding religious freedom was the fact that among the leading candidates to the vacant throne was the son of the French king, Henry (de Valois) who had been charged with having directly participated in the slaughter of French Protestants (Huguenots) during the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of August 23-24, 1572 in Paris. In accordance with the stipulations of the Warsaw Confederation, when Henry indeed was elected to the throne of the Rzeczpospolita (in May, 1573), the Polish delegation that traveled to France demanded of the king-elect that he swear an oath to uphold the principles of the Warsaw Confederation. Henry did so in Notre Dame Cathedral in September that year.

The fact that freedom of religion was made part of the Henrician Articles attests that the provisions of the Warsaw Confederation were to remain binding indefinitely, rather than only during the interregnum and Henry’s reign.