Pojednání o toleranci

The Treatise on Toleration was prompted by the trial of Jean Calas, a French Protestant merchant who was accused of murdering his son to prevent his alleged conversion to Catholicism. The trial and Calas's subsequent execution aroused considerable emotion in society. In his text published a year later, in 1763, Voltaire urged religious tolerance and turned against fanaticism and superstition. He supports the separation of church and state and calls for the preservation of the neutrality of the state in matters of faith. His treatise stresses the importance of reason and freedom of mind in resolving controversial issues.

Czech edition