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In France, he is a symbol of Christian religious intolerance, along with Jean-François de la Barre and Pierre-Paul Sirven .
Jean Calas, along with his wife, was a Protestant. France was then a mostly Catholic country; Catholicism was the state religion. While the harsh repression of Protestantism initiated by King Louis XIV had largely receded, Protestants were, at best, tolerated.
Louis, one of the Calas' sons, converted to Catholicism in 1756.
On October 13-14, 1761, another of the Calas' sons, Marc-Antoine, was found dead in the ground floor of the familial home. Rumors contend that Jean Calas killed his son because he, too, intended to convert to Catholicism.
The family, interrogated, first pretended that Marc-Antoine had been killed by a marauder. Then, they declared that they had found Marc-Antoine dead, hanged; since suicide was then considered a highly heinous crime against oneself, and the dead bodies of the suicided were defiled, they had arranged so that their son's suicide would look like a murder.
On March 9, 1762 the parlement ( appellate courtAn appellate court is a court that hears cases in which a lower court either a trial court or a lower-level appellate court has already made some decision, which at least one party to the action wants to challenge based upon some legal grounds that are al) of Toulouse sentenced Jean CalasJean Calas ( 1698 1762) was a merchant living in Toulouse, France, famous for having been the victim of a biased trial due to his being a Protestant. In France, he is a symbol of Christian religious intolerance, along with Jean-Francois de la Barre and Pi to death on the wheel. On March 10March 10 is the 69th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (70th in Leap years). There are 296 days remaining. Events 241 BC First Punic War: Battle of the Aegates Islands The Romans sinks the Carthaginian fleet; end of First Punic War. 1496 Christoph, Jean Calas died tortureTorture is the infliction of severe physical or psychological pain as a means of cruelty, intimidation, punishment, for the extraction of a confession or information or simply for the entertainment of the perpetrator. Signatories of the Third Geneva Conved on the wheel, while still very firmly claiming his innocence.
VoltaireFrancois-Marie Arouet ( November 21, 1694— May 30, 1778), better known by the pen name Voltaire was a French Enlightenment writer, deist and philosopher. Biography Voltaire was born in Paris to Francois Arouet and Marie-Marguerite Daumart or D'Aumard., contacted about the case, after initial suspicions that Calas was guilty of anti-Protestant fanaticism, began a campaign to get Calas' sentence overturned.On March 9, 1765, Jean Calas was found not guilty.