Voltaire and Montesquieu

Tell me about Voltaire's relationship with Montesquieu

The relationship between Voltaire and Montesquieu was one of intellectual rivalry characterized by a mixture of mutual respect, jealousy, and profound philosophical disagreement.

While often grouped together as the "twin titans" of the early French Enlightenment, they were personally distant and politically distinct. They represented two different strategies for reform: Montesquieu was the calm, aristocratic institutionalist; Voltaire was the fiery, polemical agitator.

1. The Personal Dynamic: Distant and Cool

Unlike many other philosophes who gathered in the same salons, Voltaire and Montesquieu barely knew each other personally.

• Class Differences: Montesquieu was a Baron and a magistrate (a "noble of the robe") who was comfortable in established high society. Voltaire was born bourgeois (though he later bought a title) and was an outsider who spent his life in exile or fighting the establishment.
• The "Beating" Incident: When Voltaire was famously beaten by the Chevalier de Rohan’s henchmen in 1726, Montesquieu (like many aristocrats) was indifferent, viewing Voltaire as an upstart who had provoked his betters.
• Professional Jealousy: When Montesquieu published The Spirit of the Laws (1748), it was a monumental success. Voltaire, who prided himself on being the premier thinker of France, was privately envious. He later wrote critiques of Montesquieu's work to "correct" him, though he publicly defended Montesquieu when the Church attacked him.

2. The Core Conflict: "Lions vs. Rats"

The sharpest divide between them was their vision of how to structure a government to prevent tyranny.

Feature	Montesquieu (The Aristocratic Liberal)	Voltaire (The Enlightened Monarchist)
Ideal Government	Constitutional Monarchy. He admired the British "mixed" government. He believed liberty was preserved by institutions and the separation of powers.	Enlightened Absolutism. He believed a strong, educated King was the best way to crush the Church and the nobility's abuses.
View on Nobility	Vital. He believed the nobility and "intermediary bodies" (like Parlements) acted as a necessary buffer against the King becoming a tyrant.	Dangerous. He hated the Parlements and the nobility, seeing them as reactionary persecutors (they were the ones who tortured and executed innocents like Calas).
Philosophy	Checks and Balances. "Power must check power."	Efficiency & Reason. A single, rational hand is better than a chaotic group of petty tyrants.

The Famous Retort: Voltaire famously crystallized their disagreement with the question:

"Which is better: to be ruled by one lion, or by a hundred rats?"

• For Voltaire, the "lion" was the King (whom he hoped to enlighten), and the "rats" were the aristocrats and magistrates like Montesquieu.
• Montesquieu would argue that those "rats" (intermediary powers) were the only barrier preventing the "lion" from eating everyone.

3. Intellectual Disagreements

Voltaire spent years critiquing Montesquieu’s masterpiece, The Spirit of the Laws.

• Climate Theory: Montesquieu famously argued that climate dictates human character and laws (e.g., hot climates lead to despotism). Voltaire mocked this as unscientific, arguing that culture and government matter far more than the weather.
• Universalism vs. Relativism: Montesquieu was a relativist; he believed laws should fit the specific culture and history of a people. Voltaire was a universalist; he believed that justice and reason were the same everywhere.
• Religion: Both were critical of the Church, but Montesquieu viewed religion sociologically—as a useful "check" on the ruler and a stabilizer for society. Voltaire viewed organized religion as "l'infâme" (the infamous thing) that had to be crushed to allow for reason.

4. Shared Ground

Despite their feuds, they were allies in the broader Enlightenment project against the "Old Regime":

• Anglophilia: Both spent time in exile in England and used England as a stick to beat France. They both praised English tolerance, science (Newton/Locke), and commerce.
• Humanitarianism: Both were fierce opponents of torture, slavery, and the barbarity of the French judicial system.
• Legacy:
  • Montesquieu provided the structural blueprint for modern democracy (separation of powers), heavily influencing the American Founding Fathers.
  • Voltaire provided the moral fire for civil liberties (free speech, freedom of religion), establishing the modern role of the public intellectual.

Would you like me to explain how their specific views on the English political system differed?