. For years he filled Europe with the
echoes of the groans of Jean Calas. He succeeded. The horrible
judgment was annulled--the poor victim declared innocent and thousands
of dollars raised to support the mother and family. This was the work
of Voltaire.

Sirven, a Protestant, lived in Languedoc with his wife and three
daughters. The housekeeper of the bishop wanted to make one of the
daughters a Catholic. The law allowed the bishop to take the child of
Protestants from its parents for the sake of its soul. The little girl
was so taken and placed in a convent. She ran away and came back to
her parents. Her poor little body was covered with the marks of the
convent whip. "Suffer little children to come unto me." The child was
out of her mind; suddenly she disappeared; and three days after her
little body was found in a well, three miles from home. The cry was
raised that her folks had murdered her to keep her from becoming a
Catholic. This happened only a little way from the christian city of
Toulouse while Jean Calas was in prison. The Sirvens knew that a trial
would end in conviction. They fled. In their absence they were
convicted, their property confiscated. The parents sentenced to die by
the hangman, the daughters to be under the gallows during the execution
of their mother and then to be exiled. The family fled in the midst of
winter; the married daughter gave birth to a child in the snows of the
Alps; the mother died, and at last the father, reaching Switzerland,
found himself without the means of support. They went to Voltaire. He
espoused their cause. He took care of them, gave them the means to
live, and labored to annul the sentence that had been pronounced
against them for nine long and weary years. He appealed to kings for
money, to Catherine II of Russia, and to hundreds of others. He was
successful. He said of this case:--The Sirvens were tried and
condemned in two hours in January, 1762, and now in January, 1772,
after ten years of effort, they have been restored to their rights."

This was the work of Voltaire. Why should the worshipers of God hate
the lovers of men?

Espenasse was a Protestant, of good estate. In 1740 he received into
his house a Protestant clergyman, to whom he gave supper and lodging.
In a country where priests repeated the parable of the "Good Samaritan"
this was a crime. For this crime Espenasse was tried, convicted and
sentenced to the galleys for life.