CALAS, ki-las, or kii-la, Jean, French judicial martyr: b. Languedoc 1698; d. Tou louse, 9 March 1762. Brought up in the Protes tant religion, he had established himself as a merchant in Toulouse. He had four sons and two daughters whom he educated himself, and was held in general esteem, when he was sud denly accused of the crime of murdering one of his sons. In 1761 his eldest son, Marc Antonine, a young man of irregular habits and a gloomy disposition, was found strangled in his father's house. It was reported that the unfortunate youth had been put to death by his father because he wished to become a Catholic. Jean Calas and his whole family were arrested, and a prosecution instituted against him, in support of which numerous witnesses came forward. The Parliament of Toulouse con demned him, by eight voices against five, to be tortured and then broken on the wheel; and on 9 March 1762, the sentence was executed. He suffered the torture with firmness, and pro tested his innocence to the last. The youngest son was banished forever, but the mother and servant were acquitted. The family of the
unhappy man retired to Geneva. Voltaire, then at Ferney, became acquainted with them, and for three years exerted himself to defend the memory of Calas, and to direct attention to the defects of the criminal law which affected profoundly the legal attitude toward the French Protestants. The widow and children of Galas also solicited a revision of the trial. Fifty judges once more examined the circum stances, and declared Calas altogether innocent, 9 March 1765. The King by his liberality sought to recompense the family for their un deserved losses, and people of the first rank emulated each other in endeavoring to relieve them. Consult Coquerel, 'Jean Calas et sa Famille) (Paris 1858); 'Causes Gelebres' (Vol. IV, 1875) ; Allier, Raoul, 'Voltaire et (Paris 1898); Masmonteil, 'La legislation crim inelle dans l'ceuvre de Voltaire' (Paris 1901); Fillentyre, (Life of Voltaire' (2 vols., London 1903; New York 1905).