Voltaire, Calas and the "black legend"

In the 21st century Voltaire's defence of Jean Calas has once again become a potent  symbol of the struggle for toleration and liberal values.  This has given the case a high profile, but has not always contributed a great deal to a the historical understanding of events.

One historian who has attempted a more balanced view of Voltaire's battles with legal authority is Benoît Garnot, until 2016 Professor of Modern History at the University of Bourgogne.  Professor Garnot is the author of an impressive number of studies of the French legal system under Ancien Régime, which focus on how it actually functioned in practice.  He refutes the idea that the judiciary was simply an instrument of royal coercion and writes of the "bons juges d’Ancien régime". His key concept is that of a compromise between judicial institutions and society at large, "une "justice négociée" (See the article "Benoît Garnot" in Wikipédia.fr).

In 2005, Garnot published a study of Voltaire, the title of which asks provocatively whether Voltaire might be guilty of "une imposture intellectuelle".

Last Protestants executed in France - the affaire Rochette 1762

The imprisonment and execution of the pastor Rochette, and the three Grenier brothers, "gentlemen glassmakers", in Toulouse in February 1762 marks the last significant act of official persecution against  the Protestants of Ancien Régime France.  It also provides the essential background to the Calas affair.  Initial events unfolded in 1761 and 1762 in Caussade, a little town north of Montauban, an area in which about half the peasants in the surrounding countryside were Protestants.

The commune of Caussade today

The arrest of Rochette

François Rochette, a young man of twenty-six, was a native of the Cévennes who had been sent from the seminary in Lausanne as pastor for Quercy and the Agenais (29 parishes in all). Although full rigour of law against Protestantism theoretically applied, up until this point he had not been much troubled by the authorities: he had conducted his services in unofficial maisons d'oraison  rather than out in the open and had moved between locations without bothering unduly to conceal himself. On 13th September 1761, having presided at a service in Bioule near Nègrepelisse, he was on his way to Caussade for a baptism, when he was arrested by chance in the countryside on suspicion of being a highwayman. When questioned he freely admitted his identity; a search of his belongings yielded a register of marriages and baptisms, several notebooks of sermons and his ministerial robes.  In theory, exercise of the Protestant ministry carried the death penalty - Rochette himself was fully prepared for martyrdom; his maternal grandfather and uncle had both been condemned to the galleys in 1690.  Nonetheless, it could reasonably be expected that he would be shown mercy.

Calas - the evidence

1. The case for the Prosecution (see Garnot, p.53-60)

Witness statements

There were no eye-witnesses to the crime and even indirect testimonies were inconclusive.

The accusation was based on two charges: that the Calas family had killed Marc-Antoine because he wanted to convert to Catholicism, and that they had been aided in this by all or part of the Protestant community of Toulouse. 
 The Monitoire asked explicitly for proof that murder had been decided upon that morning in a house in the "parish of Daurade" (ie.the house of Lavaisse's host Cazeing) and that, following this,  Marc-Antoine had been killed "by suspension or torsion".

Here is the text of the Monitoire in English.
C. Kegan Paul, "The story of Jean Calas", Theological Review, no.7 (1870), p.378-409, p.394
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=IDM2AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA394#v=onepage&q&f=false

Calas - the trial

The following is mainly summarised from Benoît Garnot, Voltaire et l’affaire Calas:  les faits, les interprétations, les enjeux, Hatier, 2013

1. The crime (Garnot, p.11-14)

At seven o'clock on the evening of 13th October 1761, the Calas family gathered for supper on the first floor of 16 rue des Filatiers: Jean Calas, a dealer in Indiennes, was 63 years old, and his wife Anne-Rose fifteen years younger.  With them were two of their sons, Marc-Antoine, aged 28 and Pierre, 22, employees in their father's business.  The other two sons Louis and Louis-Donat were not present;  the first, aged 25,  also lived  in Toulouse but was estranged from the family, and the second, aged 14, was an apprentice in Nîmes.  Two daughters, Anne-Rose and Anne (Nannette), aged 18 and 19, were away on a visit to the country.  Joining them for the meal was a friend of Marc-Antoine, François-Alexandre Gaubert de Lavaysse [Lavaisse], aged 22, the son of a lawyer in Toulouse.  The servant of the Calas family, Jeanne Viguière, was also present.

Calas discovers the body of his dead son,
Engraving after Charles Joseph Dominique Eisen

Marc Antoine left the house immediately after supper, at about half-past seven.  At about ten o'clock, Pierre was accompanying Lavaysse out, when he discovered his brother's body, lying -  at least so he first claimed  - on the floor of the shop, his coat neatly folded on the counter.  The two young men went to fetch a nearby surgeon Camoire, but chanced to encounter his pupil Gorsse, who came back with them instead;  the latter immediately realised that it was too late to revive Marc Antoine.  On removing Marc-Antoine's black neckerchief, he discovered a rope mark round his neck and declared that  he must have  been strangled or hanged, "by himself or by others".  Meanwhile a crowd of onlookers had gathered in front of the house.  They soon jumped to the conclusion that the Calas family, who were Protestants, must have killed Marc-Antoine themselves to prevent him converting to Catholicism, as his brother Louis had done.  

The authorities were now notified.  At half-past eleven, the capitoul David de Beaudrigue arrived on the scene, accompanied by the maître en chirurgie  Jean-Pierre Lamarque.  They reported that they had found "the body of a young man laid on his back, his head bare, in his shirt sleeves, wearing only his breeches, stockings and shoes":
On examining the corpse, since it appeared to us that he had not died of natural causes, we were obliged to summon M. Latour, doctor and the sieurs Peyronnel and Lamarque, official surgeons of the town; they...were asked to proceed to the verification of the body and testify to  its state and the cause of death.  The body was then transported to the l’Hôtel de ville, with his coat which was found on the counter.....
Document cited from Athanase Coquerel,  Jean Calas et sa famille, 1869, p.341-2.

That evening in the Calas House.....

Here is a translation of the guide to the Maison Calas created for the Mairie de Toulouse . - thus, to an extent, the modern "official version" of the Calas affair. (The brochure can be seen on display inside the house in various photographs and videos).

The text is based on the book L'Affaire Calas by the late Janine Garrisson, published by Fayard in 2004.  The guide also includes a very swish illustration produced  by Studio différemment, a company specialising in digital historical reconstructions.  Numbers refer to the different parts of the house where the events took place.

It is the best known criminal case in the history of Toulouse.  But, if we put aside the media outcry and its historical consequences, we rediscover a family tragedy, which began on the evening of 13th October 1761 in the rue des Filatiers....

Jean Calas was a native of the Huguenot lands around Castres and Mazamet who had set up a modest cloth business in Toulouse.  He was married to Anne-Rose Cabibel, a Protestant from the same region. The couple had six children, four sons and two daughters.  The eldest Marc-Antoine had ambitions to become a lawyer but was debarred because he declined to conform to Catholicism.   Like his younger brother Pierre, he helped his father in the shop.  A third brother Louis, had left the family home and become a Catholic, thereby obliging his father to provide him with a pension.  The other member of the household was their servant Jeanne Viguière, a Catholic (since Protestants were  not permitted to employ their co-religionists as servants)

❶ The supper
That evening the Calas family had a dinner guest, Gaubert Lavaisse, the son of Protestant friends in Toulouse; Madame Calas had bought a piece of Roquefort cheese in his honour. Also present, besides their parents, were Pierre and Marc-Antoine. Marc-Antoine had been sent out earlier by his father to get change for some louis d'or; the servant Jeanne Viguière had gone to fetch him from the cabaret Quatre Billards [a cafe-pool hall] where he often spent his free time.  Over the meal Gaubert talked about his studies in Bordeaux.  Marc-Antoine, who seemed tense, corrected his brother sharply over historical details in their conversation about the architectural improvements taking place in Toulouse.  After the dessert had been served, at about half-past eight he got up from the table and left once more for the Quatre Billards........

❷ After supper
The Calas family and their guest spent the period after supper in the adjoining room, Madame Calas's chamber.  At about ten o'clock Lavaisse took his leave of the family.  Pierre, who had fallen asleep, was woken up in order to accompany him....

The drama
As they passed, Pierre and Lavaisse noticed that the door to the back room of the shop was open ❸, which was unusual.  They went inside and discovered the body of Marc-Antoine.  Pierre immediately called his father who came downstairs and found the scene. ❹

Door from the corridor into the rear room of the Calas shop (now blocked off) 
Photos from the Association Jean Calas Facebook page.

Pierre then left to get help and came upon a surgeon's assistant whom he knew called Antoine Gorsse.  They untied the black scarf around Marc-Antoine's neck, to find rope marks on his skin. Gorsse concluded, "Your son has been hanged or strangled".  Anne-Rose Calas refused to believe that her son was dead and tried to revive him by bathing his face in Hungary Water.  The whole neighbourhood was alerted by the cries of the Calas family❺ and the servant Jean Viguiere, who shouted in occitan,"L'an tuat!" ("Ils l'ont tué" - they have killed him)   Everyone assumed that a murder had taken place.

Maison de Jean Calas

This is No.50, formerly No.16, rue des Filatiers in Toulouse, the building which once housed the business premises and home of the Protestant merchant Jean Calas.  It was here, on the fateful evening of 13th October 1761, that discovery of the body of the son of the house, Marc-Antoine Calas,  set in train the most famous cause célèbre of the 18th century.

The campaign for the House

In 2009 the Association Jean Calas, l'Europe nous regarde was set up in Toulouse by retired teacher Claude Dupuy,  to campaign for the Maison Calas to be secured as " a place of memory for the values of tolerance, liberty of thought and laicity".

As the photograph shows, the building has suffered from neglect.  It is a classified historical monument and parts of the structure date from the late 15th century but not a lot remains to be seen. On the road is a shuttered shopfront;  the rest of the building is divided into a dozen or so apartments.  Only the entrance corridor, which leads to an interior courtyard, is accessible to the public. The commercial property on the ground floor is/was leased by the Toulouse supermarket group Casino which chooses to leave the premises empty.  In March 2012 tenants were informed that, after seven years, there were plans for a new supérette, but this did not in fact materialise.