In Connection with the Death of Jean Calas

François-Marie Arouet (1694 – 1778), known by his  pseudonym Voltaire was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state.

Jean Calas was a merchant living in Toulouse, France, who was the victim of a biased trial due to his being aProtestant in an officially Roman Catholic society. In France he became a symbol of religious intolerance, along with Jean-François de la Barre and Pierre-Paul Sirven. The work of French philosopher Voltaire was contacted about the case, and after initial suspicions that Calas was guilty of anti-Catholic fanaticism were dispelled by his investigations, he began a campaign to get Calas' sentence overturned.