Voltaire

After a quarrel with the nobleman Chevalier de Rohan, Voltaire was imprisoned in the Bastille and then exiled to England. His three-year stay exposed him to English empiricism, constitutional monarchy, and religious toleration, profoundly shaping his philosophical and political views.

Voltaire published letters praising English religious toleration, constitutional monarchy, and scientific progress, implicitly criticizing French absolutism and Catholicism. The book was condemned in France and burned, forcing Voltaire to flee Paris. It helped spread Enlightenment ideas across Europe.

Voltaire published his satirical novel Candide, criticizing Leibnizian optimism and organized religion through the misadventures of its protagonist. The work became a landmark of Enlightenment literature, attacking philosophical optimism, religious hypocrisy, and social injustice with wit and irony.

Voltaire campaigned to overturn the wrongful execution of Jean Calas, a Protestant merchant tortured and executed for allegedly murdering his son to prevent his conversion to Catholicism. Voltaire's writings, including his Treatise on Tolerance, led to Calas's posthumous exoneration in 1765.