Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,794
The "Affaire Callas"
On October 13, 1761 ...
... Jean Callas, a citizen of the city of Toulouse, appears at the mayor's office and claims that he found his son strangled.
That is - as it soon turns out - a lie, because Callas' son committed suicide and hanged himself in the attic of his own house!
The reason: he had recently finished his law degree, but as a Protestant had not been admitted to the final exam.
The father had lied in order to spare his son the humiliating burial that was customary at the time as a suicide and to enable him to have a Christian burial instead.
With his merciful lie Callas unknowingly dug his own grave!
Because: The man has three other sons, all raised Protestants, but one had converted to Catholicism. And Callas had made no secret of the fact that he would have liked to prevent this.
The rumor soon arises that the dead son also wanted to become a Catholic, and that the father killed him to prevent this from happening.
The rumor soon became independent and at the beginning of March 1762 Callas was arrested - the propaganda picture left him standing next to his dead son ...:
The true story is not believed - rather, a confession in the desired sense is extracted from him under torture.
On March 8, 1762, he stood at the city council of Toulouse, which at the time was also the court responsible for capital crimes.
Although he revokes his extorted "confession", he is again not believed - and after a short trial he is sentenced to a cruel death by wheels!
The judgment was carried out on March 9, 1762 on the Place Saint Georges, with Calas again desperately pleading his innocence.
His son had previously received a Catholic burial, transfigured as a martyr. ...:
A little later, the famous philosopher François-Marie Arouet, better known under his pseudonym Voltaire ...
... of the affair - and is initially outraged that a father had been willing to murder his son out of religious fanaticism.
But Voltaire does not stop at being indignant, but rather carefully gets to the bottom of the matter.
So he visits the bereaved relatives of the executed man and learns the true story from them.
Voltaire then sits down at the desk and writes his famous treatise "Traité sur la tolérance" (Tolerance Treaty), which appeared in 1763 and used for his posthumous rehabilitation of Callas!
The pamphlet, which ends with the famous words "Écrasez l'infâme" ("Destroy the notorious!"), is directed against religious intolerance as well as against the hatred of people of different faiths that church leaders stir up!
It becomes known throughout Europe in a very short time - and it also serves its purpose!
On the orders of King Louis XV.
... the case is resumed in 1765, Callas is posthumously acquitted in the same year and his family receives 36,000 livres of pain and suffering from the king's box.
There are a dozen or so books on the Callas affair ...
... and the story was filmed several times ...:
Alongside the case of Captain Dreyfuss, it is considered to be the most famous judicial scandal in French history ...
On October 13, 1761 ...
... Jean Callas, a citizen of the city of Toulouse, appears at the mayor's office and claims that he found his son strangled.
That is - as it soon turns out - a lie, because Callas' son committed suicide and hanged himself in the attic of his own house!
The reason: he had recently finished his law degree, but as a Protestant had not been admitted to the final exam.
The father had lied in order to spare his son the humiliating burial that was customary at the time as a suicide and to enable him to have a Christian burial instead.
With his merciful lie Callas unknowingly dug his own grave!
Because: The man has three other sons, all raised Protestants, but one had converted to Catholicism. And Callas had made no secret of the fact that he would have liked to prevent this.
The rumor soon arises that the dead son also wanted to become a Catholic, and that the father killed him to prevent this from happening.
The rumor soon became independent and at the beginning of March 1762 Callas was arrested - the propaganda picture left him standing next to his dead son ...:
The true story is not believed - rather, a confession in the desired sense is extracted from him under torture.
On March 8, 1762, he stood at the city council of Toulouse, which at the time was also the court responsible for capital crimes.
Although he revokes his extorted "confession", he is again not believed - and after a short trial he is sentenced to a cruel death by wheels!
The judgment was carried out on March 9, 1762 on the Place Saint Georges, with Calas again desperately pleading his innocence.
His son had previously received a Catholic burial, transfigured as a martyr. ...:
A little later, the famous philosopher François-Marie Arouet, better known under his pseudonym Voltaire ...
... of the affair - and is initially outraged that a father had been willing to murder his son out of religious fanaticism.
But Voltaire does not stop at being indignant, but rather carefully gets to the bottom of the matter.
So he visits the bereaved relatives of the executed man and learns the true story from them.
Voltaire then sits down at the desk and writes his famous treatise "Traité sur la tolérance" (Tolerance Treaty), which appeared in 1763 and used for his posthumous rehabilitation of Callas!
The pamphlet, which ends with the famous words "Écrasez l'infâme" ("Destroy the notorious!"), is directed against religious intolerance as well as against the hatred of people of different faiths that church leaders stir up!
It becomes known throughout Europe in a very short time - and it also serves its purpose!
On the orders of King Louis XV.
... the case is resumed in 1765, Callas is posthumously acquitted in the same year and his family receives 36,000 livres of pain and suffering from the king's box.
There are a dozen or so books on the Callas affair ...
... and the story was filmed several times ...:
Alongside the case of Captain Dreyfuss, it is considered to be the most famous judicial scandal in French history ...
