of 1505 king Alexander signed a bill adopted by the Diet of Radom known as Nihil novi nisi commune consensu ("Nothing new without a common agreement"). The Nihil novi act transferred legislative power from the king to the Diet (Sejm), or Polish parliament. This date marked the beginning of the First Rzeczpospolita, the period of a szlachta-run "republic". Until the death of Sigismund Augustus, the last king of the Jagiellonian dynasty, monarchs could only be elected from within the royal family. However, starting from 1573, practically any Polish noble or foreigner of royal blood could become a Polish–Lithuanian monarch. Every newly elected king was required sign two documents – the Pacta conventa ("agreed pacts") – a confirmation of the king's pre-election promises, and Henrican articles (artykuły henrykowskie, named after the first freely elected king, Henry of Valois). The latter document served as a virtual Polish constitution and contained the basic laws of the Commonwealth: free election of kings; religious tolerance; the Diet to be gathered every two years; foreign policy controlled by the Diet; a royal advisory council chosen by the Diet; official posts restricted to Polish and Lithuanian nobles; taxes and monopolies set up by the Diet only; nobles' right to disobey the king should he break any of these laws. Sejm Constitution of 1590 In the 18th century, the introduction of Cardinal Laws in 1768 was an important step towards codifying the existing Polish law. May Constitution, 1791 The Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791 () is called the first constitution in Europe by historian Norman Davies. It was instituted by the Government Act (Polish: Ustawa rządowa) adopted on that date by the Sejm (parliament) of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the federative Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and its Golden Liberty. The Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and nobility (szlachta) and placed the peasants under the protection of the government, thus mitigating the worst abuses of serfdom. The Constitution abolished pernicious parliamentary institutions such as the liberum veto, which at one time had placed the sejm at the mercy of any deputy who might choose, or be bribed by an interest or foreign power, to undo all the legislation that had been passed by that sejm. The May 3rd Constitution sought to supplant the existing anarchy fostered by some of the country's reactionary magnats, with a more egalitarian and democratic constitutional monarchy.