'Caveirac, Protestants and the presence of Voltairean discourse in late-eighteenth-century France'

This chapter analyses the use by Caveirac, a notorious reactionary who had defended the St. Bartholomewe Day's massacre and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, of language characteristic of the Enlightenment discourse of toleration. It also considers similar usage, including terms like 'droits humains', in official documents of the 1760s dealing with French Protestants, whose religion was still legally banned in France. I argue that this illustrates how, as in every era, a rising or dominant discourse imposes its own terms and vocabulary on even those who oppose its values and seek to react against it.