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Dr. Theodore E.D. Braun, professor emeritus of languages, literatures and cultures, was honored by the Académie de Montauban of France at a meeting held June 4, 2018, at Pompignan, where he offered two presentations. He was asked to speak, extemporaneously, at the village church just outside the chateau, on the subject of "Jean-Jacques Le Franc de Pompignan's philanthropy in regard to the villagers in the 1760s and 1770s," prior to his formal presentation at the chapel of the chateau, "Mensonges, calomnies, faits alternatifs: Voltaire contre Le Franc de Pompignan (Lies, Calumnies, Alternative Facts: Voltaire Against Le Franc de Pompignan)." Braun is a corresponding member of the Academie de Montauban, with a specialization in 18th century French literature, in particular focusing on Voltaire and on Le Franc de Pompignan. An audience of more than 100 people attended each presentation. In the first, shorter presentation, he related some of the remarkable things that Le Franc had done for the villagers in this time frame: He rebuilt the houses in the commune, at no cost to the residents, who found work during this period of extremely high unemployment, while having all the streets in the town broadened to two wide lanes; he had roads constructed through the village, linking it directly to nearby towns and to major highways leading to Bordeaux and Toulouse and to the road to Paris, partly financed through the province of Quercy; he built a large restaurant and tavern in the town at his expense; he provided a source of drinking water for the villagers more conveniently located for them, sparing them an average of about a kilometer each time they had to seek water; he filled the village church with paintings by celebrated artists of the 16th,17th and 18th centuries from France, Italy and Holland, along with a splendid retable behind the altar, and with numerous vessels destined for church services. In return, five years after Le Franc's death, the villagers refused entry to the revolutionaries who wanted to dismantle the church and to destroy the chateau. In his principal presentation, Braun addressed the many lies, calumnies and alternative facts that Voltaire created in his (successful) attempt to turn Le Franc into an object of ridicule, a tactic he then used on other public figures, whom he designated as his self-chosen enemies because they had criticized his works and thoughts, attacking the man rather than his words. Braun's discourse was based almost entirely on Voltaire's own writings in his correspondence and in his published works. Voltaire depicted Le Franc as an egoist, an insane man, a person of no personal or professional worth. And he succeeded in destroying the reputation of this honorable man. Braun was assisted in this presentation by Claude Sicard, professor emeritus at the University of Toulouse and a member of the Academie de Montauban, who read the many passages cited from Voltaire's writings, which gave the presentation an unusual dramatic dimension.
