Jean Paul Sirven

Jean Paul Sirven (* 1709 ; † 1777 ) was a Protestant notary from Castres in the south of France .

He was sentenced to death in absentia in 1764 for allegedly murdering one of his daughters, but acquitted in 1771. His name is linked to that of Voltaire , who fought for the trial to be resumed by the Parlement of Toulouse and for the acquittal.

The daughter in question, the middle of the three and mentally handicapped, disappeared without a trace in 1760. The parents' inquiries finally revealed that the 21-year-old had been brought to a convent run by the Dames Noires , an order of nuns that had been founded in 1684 to educate daughters from Protestant families to be Catholics. Since the young woman's re-education proved pointless due to her disability, after a few months the urging of her parents was given in and she was released, albeit in a state of utter confusion.

Sirven was outraged by the obviously bad treatment of his daughter in the monastery. When he made his outrage public, he was accused of dragging her out to prevent her converting to Catholicism. He was sentenced by the court to grant her free access to the monastery and to bring her there to church services himself.

However, Sirven and his family preferred to leave Castres and move to another location, Saint Alby (near Mazamet ) (1762). There the daughter disappeared again several months later. Shortly afterwards, in early 1763, she was found dead in a body of water.

A medical examination showed that the body showed no signs of violence. Despite this, Sirven was suspected of murder and the Mazamet City Court issued an arrest warrant for the entire family. Since she had escaped to Switzerland in time, she was tried in absentia. Sirven was sentenced to death on the bike , his wife to death by hanging and his daughters to exile (1764).

In Lausanne , where he now lived, Sirven contacted Voltaire, who had just got involved in the similar Calas affair. After Voltaire had checked the facts, he published the brochure Avis au public sur les parricides imputés aux Calas et aux Sirven in 1766 (German communication to the public regarding the murder of relatives accused of the Calas and the Sirvens). At the same time, he sent copies of the script to numerous influential figures in France and abroad.

Although the Privy Council in Paris , which then dealt with the case at the beginning of 1768 , declared itself incompetent, a little later the competent supreme court, the Parlement of Toulouse, found itself ready to reopen it, but on the condition that Sirven ( his wife had since died) faced the 1764 arrest warrant. He took the risk (1769), was granted exemption in the same year and was finally acquitted and rehabilitated in 1771. The city of Mazamet was sentenced to pay compensation.

Sirven's letter of thanks to Voltaire has been received.

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Sirven Affair | Musée virtuel du Protestantisme. In: www.museeprotestant.org. Retrieved July 4, 2016 .