PART THREE: IS THE PEN STILL MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD: THE VOLTAIRE CONCLUSION: CALAS AFFAIR PAMPHLET By: Kimberly Thorn

 Part Three: Is the Pen Still Mightier than the Sword: The Voltaire Conclusion: Calas Affair Pamphlet By: Kimberly Thorn

After Jean Calas was executed, his family was saved from suffering the same fate, but they were punished, as well.  Pierre, their other son, was banished.  Madame Calas, Gaubert Lavayse (who was their guest and Pierre’s friend) and Jeanne Viguiere, who was their servant, were granted their freedom but the authorities never actually confirmed any of their innocence. Even though the Calas’s two daughters could not have had anything to do with the death, as they were not there, they were sent to convents. It seemed that the authorities as well as the public had their scapegoats, but the public wanted more punishment for the family (Davidson 320).

 Voltaire started out in his campaign to bring justice for the Calas family and to clear their good names by writing over 100 letters. His aim was to overturn the decision to clear the family’s good name. This problem he felt could be solved by three things that he could do. “Voltaire’s strategy for his Calas campaign developed on three fronts: delving into the facts of the trial, pulling strings with influential people at court and, finally, mobilizing public opinion,” (Davidson 322).

He knew that in order to find out what really happened at the trial that he would have to get his hands on the facts of the case. However, his requests for the facts were blocked. “His attempts to get at the facts faced serious obstruction: the processes of a French trial were intensely secret, and the Toulouse authorities stubbornly resisted the release of any information about the procedures of the case,” (Davidson 320). Pouring his heart and money into this case, Voltaire hired several lawyers who were not able to get to the facts either. 

Voltaire decided to use his influence to get the word out to the public about the secrecy of the trial. Public outcry, he hoped, would force the authorities to give the facts of the case and verdict. While trying to get at the facts of the trial, he not only wrote to his friends and influential people, he went to the presses. 

In early July 1762 Voltaire wrote, ‘Only the ultimate intervention of the King can force this parlement to reveal the trust; we are doing our utmost to secure it; and we believe that a public outcry is the best way to do so.’  To that end Voltaire published a pamphlet which he called Pieces orignales  (Original Documents).  This purported to be letters from Madame Calas and depositions from her sons Donat and Pierre Calas, giving their version of what happened on 13 October 1761.  It also included an ostensible appeal from Donat Calas to the Chancellor and to the King-in-Council to investigate the case and make the truth known. These documents were, of course, all written by Voltaire himself, and they argued the innocence of Jean Calas and that of his family.  But in addition they constituted an indictment of several aspects of the French judicial system—above all, its secrecy— in contrast to the relative openness of the English system. (Davidson, 324).

It was at this point that Voltaire not only wanted to clear Jean Calas and his family, but he wanted to change the French “judicial” system. His pamphlet worked like a charm! It not only stirred the public into action but also it stirred France’s most influential people. The King’s court was inundated with Voltaire’s pamphlet. Just some of the key people in France that it was known to go to were: the Prime Minster, Duc de Choiseul, the Chancellor, and the King’s influential mistress, Madam de Pompadour, who was also ‘something of an ally of the philosophes,’ (Davidson 324). Voltaire’s pamphlet was the turning point for the Calas case. In France, it clearly caused public concern thus the Chancellor started an official case review. However, his words seemed to have a ripple effect. Voltaire’s pamphlet caused such an uproar that it spread much farther. In a letter to a friend, Voltaire wrote, ‘the little preliminary documents [the Pieces originales} which have inspired the public with pity for innocent and indignation as injustice have been translated into English, German and Dutch,’ (Davidson 325).  Concern grew with the authorities not only in France, but everywhere! If Voltaire’s words on injustice and corruption in just one country’s court caused such outcry to open an official case review, what kind of an impact would his words have on all of Europe or the whole world! 

The review started on March 7, 1763, where the King’s Council started by requiring the Toulouse authorities to turn over the trial record along with the verdict reasoning. Although the Toulouse authorities would delay in getting the records to the Council and it would take another year to not only get the records and review them but it would be done. Jean Calas and his family would ultimately be found innocent and cleared from Marc-Antonine’s death. 

In two separate letters to his friend Charles-Augustin, comte d’Argental Voltaire wrote some of what bothered him:

“I have seen the text of Calas’s sentence. The jurisprudence of Toulouse is really very strange, for this sentence does not even say what Jean Calas was accused of. I can only regard the sentence as an assassination carried out in black robes and square hats, (Davidson 325).

“the death sentence was passed only by a narrow majority of the Toulouse judges. ‘There were thirteen of them,’ he told d’Argental, ‘and five constantly declared Calas innocent. If he had been one more vote in his favour, he would have been acquitted. You may ask why I am so strongly interested in this Calas. It is because I am a man, because I see that all foreigners are indignant at a county which breaks a man on the wheel without any proof,’” (Davidson 321).

While we don’t really know what happened that night, this is how this mystery writer sees it. The facts of the case seem to be, one, Jean Calas was a 65 year old feeble man that could not have physically killed his young son. Second, everyone there confirmed that no one left the living area where they all stayed after Marc-Antonine left dinner. Third, the family found his body lying next to a rope that had been hanging between two double doors. Fourth, the family admitted that they changed their story once they saw the rope as they were afraid to admit that it may have been suicide. Suicide meant that Marc-Antonine would not have received an honorable burial and it would have bought shame to his family at this time.      

What do you think? Is the pen mightier than the sword? Then? Now? Was there a change? What were the changes and why? Have we, as writers, lost our influence with our audience? For the readers, do you think we writers have lost our influence with our readers? Why or why not? Let’s start a discussion.

Next time, we delve into another writer who influenced our world!

Reference:

Davidson, Ian.  Voltaire: A Life: Pegasus Books, LLC.  New York, NY.  2010.