Treatise on Tolerance

In 1762 Jean Calas, a merchant from Toulouse, was executed after being falsely accused of killing his son. As it became clear that Calas was in fact persecuted for being a Protestant, Voltaire began a campaign to get his sentence overturned—and in the process made the case for some of the most important values upheld by the Enlightenment, from religious tolerance to freedom of thought. Treatise on Toleration is the story of that case and a screed against fanaticism—a book that is as fresh and urgent today as it was when it was first published in 1763.

This work brings together all three aspects of Voltaire: the writer, the doer and the philosophe. The traité pour la tolérance was written on the Occasion of the Death of Jean Calas from the Judgment Rendered in Toulouse. Published in 1768 Voltaire calls for religious toleration, and targets religious fanaticism, especially that of the Jesuits, indicting all superstitions surrounding religions.