Quote:
Originally Posted by Taltarzac725
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Voltaire's last visit to Paris
Voltaire and Ben Franklin met one another shortly before Voltaire died. Voltaire probably gave many a
clerk a
candid lesson in marking in their books when he had ordered his body placed in one
vault and his heart in yet another.
Quote:
Voltaire decided to begin a new life in Paris, buying a house, working on another tragedy and attending meetings of the French Academy, but his health would not permit it. In May he became seriously ill again and died at the end of the month. Having refused to sign a general retraction of his works before his death, the church refused to give him a Christian burial, but his body was taken secretly to the abbey of Scellieres in Champagne and buried there. His heart was embalmed and given to Madame Denis.
In 1791, some thirteen years later, the National Assembly ordered that his body be brought back to Paris, and in July of that year his remains were transferred to the Pantheon. However, even this was not to be the end of the story, for in 1814 his remains were stolen by a group of religious zealots and dumped in a pit. It was only fifty years later when it was decided to return his embalmed heart to the other remains that this was discovered.
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(from below linked article)
http://www.thegreatdebate.org.uk/Voltaire.html