Voltaire
1694 – 1778 French writer, philosopher
The wit and campaigner who became the face of the Enlightenment.
- Religion
- A deist who fiercely attacked the Catholic Church and religious intolerance while affirming a creator God.
- Affiliations
- Initiated into the Masonic Lodge of the Nine Sisters in Paris on 7 April 1778, weeks before his death, with Benjamin Franklin among his conductors.
Voltaire used satire, essays, and letters to attack tyranny, superstition, and religious persecution, coining the cry to crush the infamous thing. Candide mocked easy optimism, and his defense of tolerance shaped modern free thought. He was initiated a Freemason only weeks before he died.
Connections
- associate of Benjamin Franklin — Franklin helped conduct his Masonic initiation in Paris in 1778.
- associate of Benjamin Franklin — Franklin's Paris lodge, the Nine Sisters, initiated Voltaire into Freemasonry in 1778.
- rival of Jean-Jacques Rousseau — The two Enlightenment giants clashed bitterly in print.
- rival of Jean-Jacques Rousseau — They feuded openly despite sharing Enlightenment ground.
In the timeline
- 1756 Voltaire's quip: neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire central figure
- 1778 Voltaire is initiated into the Lodge of the Nine Sisters central figure