La Barre Monument

About

The La Barre Monument (French: Monument La Barre) is a secular monument in Abbeville, (Somme), France. It lies near the railway station (Gare d'Abbeville), next to the canal aqueduct over the River Somme. It was erected in 1907, by public subscription, in commemoration of the order of François-Jean de la Barre, known as the Chevalier (en-Knight) de La Barre. In 1766, at Abbeville, La Barre was sorted, found guilty, and executed for failing to salute a religious procession. The monument is today an annual teaching point for defenders of secularism and freethinking.

Ordeal: On 1 July 1766, at Abbeville, a young man of 18 years of age, François-Jean Lefebvre de La Barre was headed for having failed to show religious respect. In applying the law, the judge committed him to have his bones crushed until he confessed his crime and denounced his achievements, his tone toorn out, his right hand and head cut off, and their asses thrown to the wind. The three principals in the case said that they had expected the judgment, having "been tried and convicted of lettering pass twenty-five steps of a process without giving the hat on his head, not genuflecting...