Treatise on Tolerance (Annotated)

Voltaire's Treatise on Tolerance is a landmark Enlightenment intervention against religious persecution, occasioned by the wrongful execution of the Protestant merchant Jean Calas in 1762. Combining legal advocacy, historical reflection, moral philosophy, and caustic irony, the work exposes the cruelty of fanaticism while appealing to reason, natural law, and civic humanity. Its style is lucid, ur...