Champion of Liberty and Human Intellectby Bolder Landry
When Voltaire was born, the condition of France was pitiful. Misery, poverty, ignorance and tyranny held the people in a vise- like grip. There was no hope, no matter how remote, to resurrect their depressed and sunken spirit. Just as America had her messiah in the person of Tom Paine, so France had hers in Voltaire, and both men were anti-clerical. With Voltaire, we open the era of enlightenment; and with this new era we will see why civilization can never again be thrust back for centuries as had repeatedly occurred in the previous five thousand years. The only meaning that I attach to the word enlightenment is the determination to secure for every individual the fullest measure of liberty and enjoyment that is compatible with the harmony of the community and its progress in wealth and knowledge. The few who are economically comfortable and intellectually alive feel all sorts of traditional tyrannies encroaching upon their lives; and we clearly see the lives of tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, largely wasted just because they comply with traditional stupidities. Remember, reader, that the higher the mind of the race rises, the more it complains; not because the conditions of our life are worse, but because of a clearer perception of the ideal of life. In the case of Voltaire, we will see clearly that progress was made and what obstacles impeded the way in which the great writers used their art to promote the world of man. It is a simple historical truth that three centuries ago, feudal authority was the most firmly established all over Europe and America, that the ecclesiastical authority everywhere was in perfect agreement and cooperation with the secular and that both had to be shattered-blasted out of the way-before the race could move rapidly forward. I am fully aware that in placing the name of Voltaire as the very first captain of the era of enlightenment, I am cutting across many other valuable careers, and I am sure that the Catholic Church would object to my choice. There are many reasons why I decided to choose Voltaire, and certainly one of them is that Voltaire made modern France what it is—skeptical. Many times Voltaire returned to his chosen themes: the establishment of religious tolerance, growth of material progress and respect for the rights of man by the abolition of torture and useless punishments. He proved himself correct when he intervened in the case of a Toulouse Protestant accused of murdering his son because he didn't want him converted to Catholicism and was broken on the wheel. Voltaire took up the case and had the man vindicated posthumously. But Voltaire was not so lucky in the case of the Chevalier de la Barre, a young man of 19 accused of passing a religious procession bearing the Sacrament without taking off his hat. His tongue was torn out with pincers; his right hand was cut off; then he was beheaded and burned at the stake on July 1, 1766. In Abbeville, near Paris, you will see a statue erected to his honor; the young Chevalier is tied to the stake in supplication. I will translate the French inscriptions at the base: "for not having removed his hat when passing a procession." Such was the power of the Church in the time of Voltaire. He wrote a Treatise on Tolerance and a Commentary on the Law and Crime which showed a higher conception of justice than any other writer then had. He openly attacked the social and political injustices of French institutions. Perhaps Voltaire's greatest service to mankind was his lifetime dedication to the discrediting of ecclesiastical authority, a work for which he was totally despised by the Church. It was truly the Age of Voltaire, and Victor Hugo, who wanted Paris named after him, said that Voltaire characterized the entire 18th century. Historians wlll admit that the works and influence of Voltaire are unmistakably impressed upon the progress and intellectual development of mankind. In short, Voltaire is held in worldwide repute as a courageous crusader against tyranny, bigotry and cruelty, and these are ideals to which men of all nations have remained responsive; this entitles him to a place of honor among the greats. According to his birth certificate, he was born François-Marie Arouet in Paris on November 21,1694. That was his real name, but when he later became too notorious to the police, he adopted Voltaire as his pen name. He was the fifth child of his parents. His father, François Arouet, was a prosperous attorney, while his mother, Marie Marguerite Daumart, congenitally of poor health, died when Voltaire was only seven years old. Mrs. Arouet was the chief cause of Voltaire's early introduction to good society in the person of Abbé de Châteauneuf; this abbé, or priest, was the spiritual mentor and godfather of little Zozo, as Voltaire was called, and the world is deeply indebted to him. In the Arouet home, a cheerful little salon of the time, Abbé taught Zozo to blaspheme and read to him a most ribald poem about the mistakes and other indiscretions of Moses. Both parents had very little influence on little Zozo except through the godfather just mentioned; although born sickly and puny, Zozo, the bright-eyed boy, made very promising progress with the Abbé until his mother died and his father sent him to college. Voltaire worked fairly, played fairly, lived comfortably and made good and lasting friends. At college he learned to love literature, the theatre and social life. While he appreciated the classics the college instilled in him, the religious instruction of the fathers of the Church served only to arouse his skepticism and mockery. He witnessed the final years of le Roi Soleil, the sun king Louis XIV, and the horrors of religious persecution of his time. Voltaire did not become a pietist like his brother Armand. He decided against the study of law after college and became a writer to be able to move in the aristocratic world of Paris to which he had been introduced. The Jesuits, having lost their poor little Zozo, foresaw his terrible future. They feared he would now turn to Deism; their fear was indeed well founded. One historian reports that Voltaire was listed in the secret Jesuit registrar of pupils as: "A clever boy but a thorough scoundrel." Unable to control him, his father exiled him several times, but with little success. In time Voltaire won the hearts of all the frivolous people and had a gay time with them. Once he escaped from confinement and tried to elope with the daughter of a Protestant lady; in Paris, after threat of the Bastille, he took up work for an attorney. A tract entitled "I Have Seen" circulated in Paris; it was an attack on the government. Voltaire was accused and brought before the Prince Regent. "I will show you something you have never seen, Mr. Arouet." Voltaire asked what it was: "The inside of the Bastille," replied the Regent. In those days anyone with influence could have anyone arrested without trial and thrown in jail. He spent one year in jail. If Voltaire had any vice it was a bad temper. Voltaire had known the inside of the horrible Bastille for criticizing the State and Church, and not from having committed a crime against anyone or society. His generosity and benevolence and his passion for justice were quite exceptional. Shortly after his release, new scurrilities about the Regent appeared again. Voltaire started bouncing from one country house to another, welcomed everywhere for his wit and naughtiness. Paris tried to close his mouth with an allowance. He could not be bought. Voltaire flitted from house to house and to château to château as guest of a noble dame-writing at intervals. By the time he attained the age of 30, he was considered not only the first poet, but also the first man in the world to write what everybody thought. If Voltaire had kept to himself his contempt of Church and State, he would have been the idol of Paris just as was Maurice Chevalier. Voltaire was the Apostle of Doubt."I, who doubted everything," he once said of himself. He really cared for truth and humanity. A seat in heaven had no interest for him, but he did want the esteem of mankind. Voltaire was the forerunner of Tom Paine's philosophy when he said: "The greatest privilege of a human being is to be able to do good." As a result of his mockery of the system, Voltaire was forced to spend most of his adult life in exile. He lived in England, Brussels, Prussia, Potsdam and many other places. While in exile he did not let up on his attacks. Although Voltaire had serious problems with Frederick of Prussia, where he kept his coach and fast horses ready to move ahead of the heat, I cannot ignore the fact that their association led Frederick to enact humane laws which brought about advances unknown before in Germany. They both returned to cordial friendship at a distance. At the moment of his departure from Prussia, a new literary generation, reacting against the ideas and tastes to which he remained faithful, was born in France. Diderot, Holbach and a few others were disseminating materialistic and Deistic ideas of the time. Voltaire was now 60 years old, with 25 years left to live; it is during this period of his life that we find the real Voltaire. He usually settled in surroundings that encouraged the finer qualities of his character. We find him engaged in the production of the greatest work of his life, working for humanity and fighting for justice with a passion seldom seen. Some historians have called him the first gentleman of Europe. Humane he was. He turned an impoverished village (Ferney) into an industrious little village with stone houses and a doctor and school; he built a church, paying peasants who worked for him more than double what they had previously earned. A friend reminded him that all would be ruined if the "scum" (local peasants) were educated. Voltaire replied: "No, sir, on the contrary, all is lost when they are treated like a herd of cattle." Voltaire hated the Church and the Church hated him. When an order went out to suppress heresy on the grounds that it inspired many crimes, Voltaire's Natural Law and many other books of his were publicly burned in Paris. Now Voltaire began his campaign against L'infâme and he published his famous Candide. Whereas Natural Law was a strenuous defense of justice, Candide reflected the full bright torrent of his immortal wit: when reading Candide we can feel the real Voltaire as he was. Candide is an indictment of the human race, the insolence of high office, brutal authority and the brutality of public opinion. A brief word may be said about "écrasez l'infâme" (crush the infamous thing). The true meaning of l'infâme is not God, Christ, Christianity or even Catholicism; it is the persecuting privileged orthodoxy that placed itself in power in the name of God, burned books and heretics, confiscated property, money, and books and inflicted hideous torture and suffering on perfectly guiltless persons. This was Voltaire's war with the Church. He further attacked the Church by writing his play "Mahomet," in which he impressed people with the evil of all religious fanaticism. As for Voltaire's religious ideas, the reader must be reminded that his was the age of enlightenment. He was educated by the Jesuits, and of his earlier education Voltaire says that he "learnt little besides Latin and nonsense." Voltaire believed in some sort of personal God, though limited in power and knowledge. In reality, it was the age of Deism. The terrible earthquake of 1755 in Lisbon disturbed Voltaire's belief in God as a moral ruler of the universe. He was a Deist, but his God, though infinite, did not create the universe and he ridiculed the idea of immortality of the soul. A few words about the end of Voltaire's life are in order. Voltaire was unconscious during his last few days of life. Moments before his death, priests tried to extract a last-minute confession from him to which he said: "Let me die in peace." One priest said he was sent by God and Voltaire said to him, "Show me your credentials." He refused communion. The great infidel, Voltaire, closed his eyes for the last time in 1778, two years after the American Revolution had begun. Voltaire's body was clothed and transported by his nephew to the Abbé of Scellieres; the prohibition of such burial arrived too late; he was given a Christian burial. Some eleven years later, on July 10,1791, two years after the French Revolution began with the storming of the Bastille, the bones of Voltaire were transferred to the Pantheon with great honor. The funeral car had the inscription: "He gave the human mind a great impetus; he prepared us for freedom." The name Voltaire is like a trumpet that calls for liberty for oppressed artists and thinkers of the world. His spirit is in harmony with the spirit of the human race as it shakes itself free from superstition and all uncharitableness. Voltaire fought for the most sacred things of all-sanity of human reason which has never been more splendidly defended. Excerpt from Heroes of Civilization by Bolder Landry. ©1977 Bolder Landry. Published by Anchor Printing Corp., 3152 La Palma Ave., Suite "F," Anaheim, CA 92806. Bolder Landry is a multi-lingual scholar, anthropologist and teacher of history. He is the author of several books and a staunch Thomas Paine fan.
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