Catherine Cadière

The trial of Catherine Cadière in 1731 is one of the most famous of its kind in French history, and have been referred to many times in literature, notably in the pornographic novel Thérèse philosophe.

Catherine Cadière was born to a merchant whose health was ruined by the plague in 1720, and lived under the guardianship of her widowed mother and three brothers.

The case drew attention from the whole of France, and Cadière was supported by parliamentarians, noblewomen, and the public in Toulon and Aix.

Cadière accused Girard of bewitching her by making her fall in love with him: "You see here before you a young girl of twenty years, plunged into an abyss of evils, but whose heart is still unsullied.

[4] President Lebret cast the deciding vote, and he "returned Father Girard to the ecclesiastical authorities for his irregular conduct as a priest, and sent Catherine back to her mother.