Newly Added Article
Original French
Dans lequel on rend compte du dernier arrêt rendu en faveur de la famille des Calas.
Depuis le 7 mars 1763 jusqu’au jugement définitif, il se passa encore deux années: tant il est facile au fanatisme d’arracher la vie à l’innocence, et difficile à la raison de lui faire rendre justice. Il fallut essuyer des longueurs inévitables, nécessairement attachées aux formalités. Moins ces formalités avaient été observées dans la condamnation de Calas, plus elles devaient l’être rigoureusement par le conseil d’État. Une année entière ne suffit pas pour forcer le parlement de Toulouse à faire parvenir au conseil toute la procédure, pour en faire l’examen, pour le rapporter. M. de Crosne fut encore chargé de ce travail pénible. Une assemblée de près de quatre-vingts juges cassa l’arrêt de Toulouse, et ordonna la révision entière du procès.
D’autres affaires importantes occupaient alors presque tous les tribunaux du royaume. On chassait les jésuites; on abolissait leur société en France: ils avaient été intolérants et persécuteurs37; ils furent persécutés à leur tour.
L’extravagance des billets de confession, dont on les crut les auteurs secrets, et dont ils étaient publiquement les partisans, avait déjà ranimé contre eux la haine de la nation. Une banqueroute immense d’un de leurs missionnaires38, banqueroute que l’on crut en partie frauduleuse, acheva de les perdre. Ces seuls mots de missionnaires et de banqueroutiers, si peu faits pour être joints ensemble, portèrent dans tous les esprits l’arrêt de leur condamnation. Enfin les ruines de Port-Royal39 et les ossements de tant d’hommes célèbres insultés par eux dans leurs sépultures, et exhumés au commencement du siècle par des ordres que les jésuites seuls avaient dictés, s’élevèrent tous contre leur crédit expirant. On peut voir l’histoire de leur proscription dans l’excellent livre intitulé Sur la Destruction des jésuites en France40, ouvrage impartial, parce qu’il est d’un philosophe, écrit avec la finesse et l’éloquence de Pascal, et surtout avec une supériorité de lumières qui n’est pas offusquée, comme dans Pascal, par des préjugés qui ont quelquefois séduit de grands hommes.
Cette grande affaire, dans laquelle quelques partisans des jésuites disaient que la religion était outragée, et où le plus grand nombre la croyait vengée, fit pendant plusieurs mois perdre de vue au public le procès des Calas; mais le roi ayant attribué au tribunal qu’on appelle les requêtes de l’hôtel le jugement définitif, le même public, qui aime à passer d’une scène à l’autre, oublia les jésuites, et les Calas saisirent toute son attention.
La chambre des requêtes de l’hôtel est une cour souveraine composée de maîtres des requêtes, pour juger les procès entre les officiers de la cour et les causes que le roi leur renvoie. On ne pouvait choisir un tribunal plus instruit de l’affaire: c’étaient précisément les mêmes magistrats qui avaient jugé deux fois les préliminaires de la révision, et qui étaient parfaitement instruits du fond et de la forme. La veuve de Jean Calas, son fils, et le sieur de Lavaisse, se remirent en prison: on fit venir du fond du Languedoc cette vieille servante catholique qui n’avait pas quitté un moment ses maîtres et sa maîtresse, dans le temps qu’on supposait, contre toute vraisemblance, qu’ils étranglaient leur fils et leur frère. On délibéra enfin sur les mêmes pièces qui avaient servi à condamner Jean Calas à la roue, et son fils Pierre au bannissement.
Ce fut alors que parut un nouveau mémoire de l’éloquent M. de Beaumont41, et un autre du jeune M. de Lavaisse, si injustement impliqué dans cette procédure criminelle par les juges de Toulouse, qui, pour comble de contradiction, ne l’avaient pas déclaré absous. Ce jeune homme fit lui-même un factum qui fut jugé digne par tout le monde de paraître à côté de celui de M. de Beaumont. Il avait le double avantage de parler pour lui-même et pour une famille dont il avait partagé les fers. Il n’avait tenu qu’à lui de briser les siens et de sortir des prisons de Toulouse, s’il avait voulu seulement dire qu’il avait quitté un moment les Calas dans le temps qu’on prétendait que le père et la mère avaient assassiné leur fils. On l’avait menacé du supplice; la question et la mort avaient été présentées à ses yeux; un mot lui aurait pu rendre sa liberté: il aima mieux s’exposer au supplice que de prononcer ce mot, qui aurait été un mensonge. Il exposa tout ce détail dans son factum, avec une candeur si noble, si simple, si éloignée de toute ostentation, qu’il toucha tous ceux qu’il ne voulait que convaincre, et qu’il se fit admirer sans prétendre à la réputation.
Son père, fameux avocat, n’eut aucune part à cet ouvrage: il se vit tout d’un coup égalé par son fils, qui n’avait jamais suivi le barreau.
Cependant les personnes de la plus grande considération venaient en foule dans la prison de Mme Calas, où ses filles s’étaient renfermées avec elle. On s’y attendrissait jusqu’aux larmes. L’humanité, la générosité, leur prodiguaient des secours. Ce qu’on appelle la charité ne leur en donnait aucun. La charité, qui d’ailleurs est si souvent mesquine et insultante, est le partage des dévots, et les dévots tenaient encore contre les Calas.
Le jour arriva (9 mars 1765) où l’innocence triompha pleinement. M. de Baquencourt ayant rapporté toute la procédure, et ayant instruit l’affaire jusque dans les moindres circonstances, tous les juges, d’une voix unanime, déclarèrent la famille innocente, tortionnairement et abusivement jugée par le parlement de Toulouse. Ils réhabilitèrent la mémoire du père. Ils permirent à la famille de se pourvoir devant qui il appartiendrait pour prendre ses juges à partie, et pour obtenir les dépens, dommages et intérêts que les magistrats toulousains auraient dû offrir d’eux-mêmes.
Ce fut dans Paris une joie universelle: on s’attroupait dans les places publiques, dans les promenades; on accourait pour voir cette famille si malheureuse et si bien justifiée; on battait des mains en voyant passer les juges, on les comblait de bénédictions. Ce qui rendait encore ce spectacle plus touchant, c’est que ce jour, neuvième mars, était le jour même où Calas avait péri par le plus cruel supplice (trois ans auparavant).
Messieurs les maîtres des requêtes avaient rendu à la famille Calas une justice complète, et en cela ils n’avaient fait que leur devoir. Il est un autre devoir, celui de la bienfaisance, plus rarement rempli par les tribunaux, qui semblent se croire faits pour être seulement équitables. Les maîtres des requêtes arrêtèrent qu’ils écriraient en corps à Sa Majesté pour la supplier de réparer par ses dons la ruine de la famille. La lettre fut écrite. Le roi y répondit en faisant délivrer trente-six mille livres à la mère et aux enfants; et de ces trente-six-mille livres, il y en eut trois mille pour cette servante vertueuse qui avait constamment défendu la vérité en défendant ses maîtres.
Le roi, par cette bonté, mérita, comme par tant d’autres actions, le surnom que l’amour de la nation lui a donné42. Puisse cet exemple servir à inspirer aux hommes la tolérance, sans laquelle le fanatisme désolerait la terre, ou du moins l’attristerait toujours! Nous savons qu’il ne s’agit ici que d’une seule famille, et que la rage des sectes en a fait périr des milliers; mais aujourd’hui qu’une ombre de paix laisse reposer toutes les sociétés chrétiennes, après des siècles de carnage, c’est dans ce temps de tranquillité que le malheur des Calas doit faire une plus grande impression, à peu près comme le tonnerre qui tombe dans la sérénité d’un beau jour. Ces cas sont rares, mais ils arrivent, et ils sont l’effet de cette sombre superstition qui porte les âmes faibles à imputer des crimes à quiconque ne pense pas comme elles.
37 Voyez page 96.
38 Le Père La Valette; voyez tome XVI, page 100.
39 Voyez tome XV, page 39 et suiv.
40 Par d’Alembert, 1765, in-12; 1767, in-12; et dans les Œuvres de cet auteur.
41 Mémoire à consulter et Consultation pour les enfants du défunt J. Calas, marchand à Toulouse. Délibéré, à Paris, ce 22 janvier 1765. Signé: Lambon, Mallard, d’Outremont, Mariette, Gerbier, Legouvé, Loyseau de Mauléon, Élie de Beaumont.
42 Voyez tome XXIII, page 268.
Musean translation
Complete machine-assisted Musean translation directly from French, reviewed against it. Includes all 25 chapters, Voltaire’s notes and the added Article with six edition references. Article transcription: French Wikisource, Garnier 1879, revision 15479820. Translation and Article: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/.
Giving an account of the final judgment delivered in favor of the Calas family.
From March 7, 1763, to the final judgment, another two years passed: so easy is it for fanaticism to take the life of the innocent, and so difficult for reason to obtain justice for them. Unavoidable delays, necessarily bound up with legal formalities, had to be endured. The less those formalities had been observed in condemning Calas, the more rigorously the Council of State had to observe them. An entire year was not enough to compel the Toulouse parlement to send the council the complete proceedings, to examine them, and to report on them. Monsieur de Crosne was again entrusted with this arduous task. An assembly of nearly eighty judges quashed the Toulouse judgment and ordered a complete review of the trial.
Other important matters then occupied almost all the kingdom’s courts. The Jesuits were being expelled; their society was being abolished in France. They had been intolerant and persecutors37; they were persecuted in their turn.
The absurd business of confession certificates, of which they were believed to be the secret authors and were publicly the supporters, had already revived the nation’s hatred against them. The immense bankruptcy of one of their missionaries38, a bankruptcy believed to be partly fraudulent, completed their ruin. Those two words alone, missionaries and bankrupts, so ill-suited to be joined together, brought a sentence of condemnation into every mind. Finally, the ruins of Port-Royal39 and the bones of so many celebrated men, whom they had insulted in their graves and who had been exhumed at the beginning of the century by orders dictated by the Jesuits alone, all rose against their expiring influence. The history of their proscription may be read in the excellent book entitled Sur la Destruction des jésuites en France40, an impartial work because it is a philosopher’s, written with Pascal’s subtlety and eloquence, and above all with a superior enlightenment not obscured, as in Pascal, by prejudices that have sometimes beguiled great men.
This great affair, in which some supporters of the Jesuits said that religion was being outraged, while most believed it was being avenged, caused the public to lose sight of the Calas trial for several months. But once the king assigned the final judgment to the court called the Requests of the Royal Household, that same public, which likes to pass from one scene to another, forgot the Jesuits, and the Calas family claimed all its attention.
The chamber of the Requests of the Royal Household is a sovereign court composed of masters of requests, judging lawsuits between officers of the royal household and cases referred to it by the king. No court better informed about the case could have been chosen: these were precisely the same magistrates who had twice judged the preliminary proceedings for the review, and who knew both the substance and the procedure thoroughly. Jean Calas’s widow, his son, and Monsieur de Lavaisse surrendered themselves to prison again. The elderly Catholic servant was brought from the depths of Languedoc: she had not left her masters and mistress for a moment during the time when, against all probability, they were supposed to have been strangling their son and brother. At last the court deliberated on the same documents that had served to condemn Jean Calas to the wheel and his son Pierre to banishment.
It was then that a new memorial by the eloquent Monsieur de Beaumont41 appeared, and another by young Monsieur de Lavaisse, so unjustly implicated in these criminal proceedings by the judges of Toulouse, who, to crown their contradictions, had not declared him acquitted. The young man himself wrote a statement of his case that everyone judged worthy to appear beside Monsieur de Beaumont’s. He had the double advantage of speaking for himself and for a family whose chains he had shared. It had rested with him alone to break his own chains and leave the prisons of Toulouse, had he been willing merely to say that he had left the Calas family for a moment at the time when the father and mother were alleged to have murdered their son. He had been threatened with execution; torture and death had been held before his eyes. One word could have restored his freedom: he preferred to expose himself to execution rather than utter that word, which would have been a lie. He set out all these details in his statement with a candor so noble, so simple, so free of any ostentation that he moved everyone whom he sought only to convince, and won admiration without aspiring to fame.
His father, a famous lawyer, had no part in this work: he suddenly found himself equaled by his son, who had never practiced at the bar.
Meanwhile, people of the highest standing flocked to Madame Calas’s prison, where her daughters had confined themselves with her. Visitors were moved to tears. Humanity and generosity lavished help upon them. What is called charity gave them none. Charity, which moreover is so often petty and insulting, belongs to the devout, and the devout still held out against the Calas family.
The day arrived—March 9, 1765—when innocence triumphed completely. Monsieur de Baquencourt having reported on the entire proceedings and examined the case down to its slightest circumstances, every judge, with one unanimous voice, declared the family innocent and wrongfully and abusively judged by the Toulouse parlement. They restored the father’s good name. They allowed the family to apply to the proper authority to bring proceedings against their judges and obtain the costs, damages, and compensation that the Toulouse magistrates should have offered of their own accord.
There was universal joy in Paris. People gathered in public squares and promenades; they hurried to see this family, so unfortunate and so fully vindicated; they applauded the judges as they passed and showered blessings upon them. What made the spectacle still more moving was that this day, the ninth of March, was the very day on which Calas had perished by the cruelest of executions three years before.
The masters of requests had rendered complete justice to the Calas family, and in doing so had merely done their duty. There is another duty, that of beneficence, more rarely fulfilled by courts, which seem to believe themselves established only to be equitable. The masters of requests resolved to write as a body to His Majesty, begging him to repair the family’s ruin through his gifts. The letter was written. The king answered by having thirty-six thousand livres paid to the mother and children; and of those thirty-six thousand livres, three thousand went to the virtuous servant who had steadfastly defended the truth in defending her employers.
By this act of goodness, as by so many other deeds, the king deserved the name that the nation’s love has given him42. May this example help inspire tolerance in humanity, without which fanaticism would lay waste the earth, or at least forever darken it! We know that only a single family is at issue here, and that the rage of sects has destroyed thousands. But today, when a shadow of peace allows all Christian societies to rest after centuries of slaughter, it is in this time of tranquility that the Calas family’s misfortune must make a deeper impression, much like a thunderbolt falling in the serenity of a beautiful day. Such cases are rare, but they happen; and they are the effect of that dark superstition which leads weak souls to impute crimes to anyone who does not think as they do.
37 Voyez page 96.
38 Le Père La Valette; voyez tome XVI, page 100.
39 Voyez tome XV, page 39 et suiv.
40 Par d’Alembert, 1765, in-12; 1767, in-12; et dans les Œuvres de cet auteur.
41 Mémoire à consulter et Consultation pour les enfants du défunt J. Calas, marchand à Toulouse. Délibéré, à Paris, ce 22 janvier 1765. Signé: Lambon, Mallard, d’Outremont, Mariette, Gerbier, Legouvé, Loyseau de Mauléon, Élie de Beaumont.
42 Voyez tome XXIII, page 268.
Plain English translation
Independent, complete machine-assisted Plain English translation directly from French, reviewed against it. All 25 chapters, author’s notes and added Article with six edition references are retained. Article transcription: French Wikisource, Garnier 1879, revision 15479820. Translation and Article: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/.
An account of the final judgment in favor of the Calas family.
Two more years passed between March 7, 1763, and the final judgment. So easy is it for fanaticism to take an innocent life, and so hard for reason to secure justice for it. The unavoidable delays required by legal formalities had to be endured. The less those formalities had been followed in condemning Calas, the more rigorously the Council of State had to follow them. A whole year was not enough to force the parlement of Toulouse to send the Council the entire record of the proceedings, and then to examine that record and report on it. De Crosne was again given this difficult task. An assembly of nearly eighty judges overturned the Toulouse judgment and ordered a complete review of the trial.
Other important cases then occupied almost all the kingdom's courts. The Jesuits were being expelled and their Society abolished in France. They had been intolerant persecutors37; now they were persecuted in turn.
The absurd business of confession certificates, which they were thought to have secretly devised and which they publicly supported, had already revived the nation's hatred of them. The enormous bankruptcy of one of their missionaries38, believed to be partly fraudulent, completed their downfall. The mere words missionaries and bankrupts, so ill suited to go together, pronounced their condemnation in everyone's mind. Finally, the ruins of Port-Royal39 and the bones of so many famous men, whom they had insulted in their graves and had dug up at the beginning of the century under orders dictated by the Jesuits alone, all rose against their dying influence. The story of their expulsion can be read in the excellent book entitled Sur la Destruction des jésuites en France40. It is an impartial work because it is by a philosopher, written with Pascal's subtlety and eloquence, and above all with a superior understanding not clouded, as Pascal's was, by prejudices that have sometimes misled great men.
This great affair, in which some Jesuit supporters said religion was being insulted while the majority thought it was being avenged, caused the public to lose sight of the Calas trial for several months. But when the king assigned the final judgment to the court called the Court of Requests of the Royal Household, the same public, which likes moving from one scene to another, forgot the Jesuits, and the Calas family took all its attention.
The Court of Requests of the Royal Household is a sovereign law court made up of masters of requests. It judges lawsuits between officers of the royal court and cases the king refers to it. No court better informed about the case could have been chosen. These were precisely the same magistrates who had twice ruled on the preliminary stages of the review and who knew both the facts and the procedure perfectly. Jean Calas's widow, his son, and de Lavaisse returned to prison. The old Catholic servant was brought from deep in Languedoc. She had never left her master, her mistress, and their family for a moment during the time when, against all likelihood, they were supposed to have been strangling their son and brother. Finally, deliberations began on the same documents that had been used to condemn Jean Calas to the wheel and his son Pierre to exile.
It was then that a new legal brief appeared by the eloquent de Beaumont41, along with another by young de Lavaisse, whom the judges of Toulouse had so unjustly implicated in these criminal proceedings and, in the ultimate contradiction, had not declared acquitted. This young man wrote a statement of his case himself, which everyone considered worthy to appear beside de Beaumont's. He had the double advantage of speaking for himself and for a family whose chains he had shared. He could have broken his own chains and left the prisons of Toulouse simply by saying that he had left the Calas family for a moment during the time when the father and mother were alleged to have murdered their son. He had been threatened with execution; torture and death had been held before his eyes. One word could have restored his freedom. He preferred to risk execution rather than speak that word, which would have been a lie. He set out all these details in his statement with such noble, simple honesty, so far from any showiness, that he moved everyone he had only meant to convince and won admiration without seeking a reputation.
His father, a famous lawyer, had no part in this work. He suddenly found himself equaled by his son, who had never practiced law.
Meanwhile, people of the highest standing flocked to Madame Calas's prison, where her daughters had shut themselves in with her. Visitors were moved to tears. Humanity and generosity showered help on them. What is called charity gave them none. Charity, which is also so often petty and insulting, belongs to the devout, and the devout still sided against the Calas family.
The day came—March 9, 1765—when innocence triumphed completely. After de Baquencourt had reported the entire proceedings and investigated the case down to the smallest details, all the judges unanimously declared the family innocent and wrongfully and abusively judged by the parlement of Toulouse. They cleared the father's name. They allowed the family to apply to the proper authority to bring a personal action against their judges and obtain the costs and damages that the Toulouse magistrates should have offered on their own.
There was universal joy in Paris. People gathered in public squares and walks. They hurried to see this family, so unfortunate and so fully vindicated. They applauded as the judges passed and showered blessings on them. What made the scene still more moving was that this day, March ninth, was the very day on which Calas had died under the cruelest torture three years earlier.
The masters of requests had given the Calas family complete justice, and in doing so had only done their duty. There is another duty, that of doing good, more rarely fulfilled by courts, which seem to think they exist only to be fair. The masters of requests decided to write as a body to His Majesty, begging him to repair the family's ruin with gifts. The letter was written. The king answered by having thirty-six thousand livres given to the mother and children. Of those thirty-six thousand livres, three thousand went to the virtuous servant who had constantly defended the truth by defending her employers.
By this kindness, as by so many other actions, the king deserved the name that the nation's love has given him42. May this example help inspire tolerance in people, without which fanaticism would devastate the earth or at least always make it miserable! We know that only one family is involved here, and that sectarian rage has destroyed thousands. But today, when a shadow of peace lets all Christian communities rest after centuries of slaughter, it is in this quiet time that the Calas family's misfortune must make a stronger impression, rather like a thunderbolt striking in the calm of a fine day. Such cases are rare, but they happen. They are the effect of that gloomy superstition that leads weak minds to accuse anyone who thinks differently from them of crimes.
37 Voyez page 96.
38 Le Père La Valette; voyez tome XVI, page 100.
39 Voyez tome XV, page 39 et suiv.
40 Par d’Alembert, 1765, in-12; 1767, in-12; et dans les Œuvres de cet auteur.
41 Mémoire à consulter et Consultation pour les enfants du défunt J. Calas, marchand à Toulouse. Délibéré, à Paris, ce 22 janvier 1765. Signé: Lambon, Mallard, d’Outremont, Mariette, Gerbier, Legouvé, Loyseau de Mauléon, Élie de Beaumont.
42 Voyez tome XXIII, page 268.
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