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Jean Calas (1698 – 1762) was a merchant living in Toulouse
Toulouse

Toulouse is a commune of France in southwest France on the banks of the Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea....
, France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
, famous for having been the victim of a biased trial
Trial (law)

In law, a trial is an event in which parties come together to a dispute present information in a formal setting, usually a court, before a judge, jury, or other designated finder of fact, in order to achieve a resolution to their dispute....
 due to his being a Protestant. In France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
, he is a symbol of Christian
Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism#Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus and interpreted by Christians to have been prophesied in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament....
 religious intolerance
Religious intolerance

Religious intolerance is either intolerance motivated by one's own Religion beliefs or intolerance against another's religious beliefs or practices....
, along with Jean-François de la Barre
Jean-François de la Barre

Jean-Fran?ois, knight de la Barre , was a France nobleman, famous for having been tortured and beheaded before his body was burnt on a pyre along with Voltaire's "Philosophical Dictionary" ....
 and Pierre-Paul Sirven
Pierre-Paul Sirven

Pierre-Paul Sirven is one of Voltaire's causes c?l?bres in his campaign to ?craser l'infame ....
.

Calas, along with his wife, was a Protestant. France was then a mostly Catholic
Catholic

Catholic is an adjective derived from the Greek language adjective , meaning "whole" or "complete". In the context of Christianity ecclesiology, it has a rich history and several usages....
 country; Catholicism was the state religion
State religion

A state religion is a religion body or creed officially endorsed by the state. Practically, a state without a state religion is called a secular state....
. While the harsh oppression of Protestantism initiated by King Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV ruled as List of French monarchs and of King of Navarre. He ascended the throne a few months before his fifth birthday, but did not assume actual personal control of the government until the death of his prime minister , the Italians Jules Cardinal Mazarin, in 1661....
 had largely receded, Protestants were, at best, tolerated.






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Jean Calas (1698 – 1762) was a merchant living in Toulouse
Toulouse

Toulouse is a commune of France in southwest France on the banks of the Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea....
, France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
, famous for having been the victim of a biased trial
Trial (law)

In law, a trial is an event in which parties come together to a dispute present information in a formal setting, usually a court, before a judge, jury, or other designated finder of fact, in order to achieve a resolution to their dispute....
 due to his being a Protestant. In France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
, he is a symbol of Christian
Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism#Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus and interpreted by Christians to have been prophesied in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament....
 religious intolerance
Religious intolerance

Religious intolerance is either intolerance motivated by one's own Religion beliefs or intolerance against another's religious beliefs or practices....
, along with Jean-François de la Barre
Jean-François de la Barre

Jean-Fran?ois, knight de la Barre , was a France nobleman, famous for having been tortured and beheaded before his body was burnt on a pyre along with Voltaire's "Philosophical Dictionary" ....
 and Pierre-Paul Sirven
Pierre-Paul Sirven

Pierre-Paul Sirven is one of Voltaire's causes c?l?bres in his campaign to ?craser l'infame ....
.

Calas, along with his wife, was a Protestant. France was then a mostly Catholic
Catholic

Catholic is an adjective derived from the Greek language adjective , meaning "whole" or "complete". In the context of Christianity ecclesiology, it has a rich history and several usages....
 country; Catholicism was the state religion
State religion

A state religion is a religion body or creed officially endorsed by the state. Practically, a state without a state religion is called a secular state....
. While the harsh oppression of Protestantism initiated by King Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV ruled as List of French monarchs and of King of Navarre. He ascended the throne a few months before his fifth birthday, but did not assume actual personal control of the government until the death of his prime minister , the Italians Jules Cardinal Mazarin, in 1661....
 had largely receded, Protestants were, at best, tolerated. Louis, one of the Calas' sons, converted to Catholicism in 1756. On October 13-October 14, 1761, another of the Calas' sons, Marc-Antoine
Marc-Antoine Calas

Marc-Antoine Calas was eldest son of France merchant Jean Calas. His death occurred under mysterious circumstances, and his father was tortured to death on a breaking wheel on March 10 1762 after being convicted of killing his son....
, was found dead on the ground floor of the family's home. Rumors had it that Jean Calas had killed his son because he, too, intended to convert to Catholicism. The family, interrogated, first claimed that Marc-Antoine had been killed by a murderer. Then they declared that they had found Marc-Antoine dead, hanged; since suicide
Suicide

Suicide is the intentional taking of one's own life. Many dictionaries also note the metaphorical sense of "willful destruction of one's self-interest"....
 was then considered a heinous crime against oneself, and the dead bodies of suicides were defiled, they had arranged for their son's suicide to look like a murder. On March 9, 1762, the parlement
Parlement

The political institutions of the Parlement in ancien r?gime France developed out of the previous council of the king, the Conseil du roi or curia regis, and consequently had ancient and customary rights of consultation and deliberation....
 (appellate court
Appellate court

An appellate court is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In most jurisdictions, the court system is divided into at least three levels: the trial court, which initially hears cases and reviews evidence and testimony to determine the facts of the case; at least one intermediate appell...
) of Toulouse
Toulouse

Toulouse is a commune of France in southwest France on the banks of the Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea....
 sentenced Jean Calas to death on the wheel
Breaking wheel

The breaking wheel, also known as the Catherine wheel, was a torturous device used for capital punishment in the Middle Ages and early modern times for public execution by Club to death....
. On March 10, he died torture
Torture

Torture, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, is:In addition to state-sponsored torture, individuals or groups may be motivated to inflict torture on others for similar reasons to those of a state; however, the motive for torture can also be for the sadism gratification of the torturer, as was the case in the Moors M...
d on the wheel, while still very firmly claiming his innocence. Voltaire
Voltaire

Fran?ois-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Age of Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosophy known for his wit, philosophical sport, and defense of civil liberty, including freedom of religion and free trade....
, contacted about the case, after initial suspicions that Calas was guilty of anti-Catholic fanaticism
Fanaticism

Fanaticism is an emotion of being filled with excessive, uncritical zeal, particularly for an extreme religion or politics cause or in some cases sports, or with an obsessive enthusiasm for a pastime or hobby....
 had subsided, began a campaign to get Calas' sentence overturned.

On March 9, 1765, Jean Calas was found not guilty.

External links

  • (in French)
  • Voltaire
    Voltaire

    Fran?ois-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Age of Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosophy known for his wit, philosophical sport, and defense of civil liberty, including freedom of religion and free trade....
    's (in French)