Talk:François-Jean de la Barre

This article has essentially been made unreadable and incomprehensible by the edits of one or more Catholic apologists. It badly needs a NPOV overhaul.

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I got the historical info from here. David.Monniaux 16:39, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)

The French article says rehabilitation occured in 1791... David.Monniaux 07:18, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Bjorn-Are 16:27, 19 August 2006 (UTC)There is more here and in the French Wikipedia, about other matters leading to de la Barre being accused and condemned: "The Chevalier de la Barre, a young soldier, was staying with his aunt, an abbess, when she became the object of romantic attentions from a man named Belleval. Belleval, rejected, attempted to ruin the abbess financially, and, when her nephew came to her aid, attempted to ruin him by spreading the rumor of his disregard of a passing religious procession. The disturbance created by these allegations coincided with the destruction of a crucifix hanging on a bridge, and Belleval alleged that de la Barre was responsible." In other words a revenge act, possible also with Belleval influencing the court in other ways?

And there is more: "As Voltaire points out, the precedent for de la Barre’s punishment was a sentence of 1682 whereby two women and two priests, who had “committed imaginary acts of sorcery and real acts of poisoning their victims” (145), had been put to death as “profaners and poisoners.”" Seems like this was a rather rare case?

I've noticed that an anonymous American made additions to the 1st paragraph which seem to be aimed at showing the Church in a more favourable light, much of which is re-stated in the 2nd paragraph anyway. I've removed the reference to Dickens being the source for the hat being the reason for his execution (after all, it does say that on his statue...) and put in more neutral wording on the motivation of the bishop as well as removing the speculation on the actual vandal - until there are more citations given the article shouldn't be indulging in speculation or taking sides. Paul S (talk) 15:30, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

On visiting Abbeville, France, I took a photgraph of the memorial erected to La Barre. It reads "En Commemoration du Martyre du Chevalier de la Barre supplicie a Abbeville le 1er Juillet 1766, a l'age de 19 ans, pour avoir omis de saluer une procession.". Pardon for the poor translation but I understand this to read "In commemoration of Chevalier de la Barre, tortured at Abbeville on the 1st of July 1766 pour omitting to salute a procession". 212.100.250.218 (talk) 15:31, 2 September 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.100.250.218 (talk) 15:23, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm at a loss as to what further documentation can be offered here (short of footnoting every other statement from the two books given as references.) In a nutshell: the La Barre case is most known from Voltaire's error-ridden accounts and from a number of distorted versions scattered in other works. Exceptionally, Chassaigne and Gallo's works, cited as references, though they differ in tone, both have extensive references to the trial transcript, eye witness accounts and other period documents. The bulk of the article as written is based on these two authoritative references. What more is needed to make the references sufficient?69.228.46.47 (talk) 09:05, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Eyewitness accounts and trial transcripts can also "prove" that witches consort with Satan. The article badly needs an NPOV edit; I hope to give one a try in the near future. For now, I've just changed "revealed" to "alleged" re: the pernicious acts of blasphemy of which the defendants were accused. --Tbanderson (talk) 21:34, 24 September 2012 (UTC)

English Wikipedia page name of this subject should be changed

The page name of this English language Wikipedia page of this subject should be changed to "François-Jean Lefebvre de La Barre" as to match the name spelling of the French language Wikipedia page biographical subject name:

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois-Jean_Lefebvre_de_La_Barre
Bee Cliff River Slob (talk) 16:41, 27 February 2014 (UTC)