People from here. Little big stories

Soap by Claire Adélaïde Montiel

Few mathematicians can boast of being as famous around the world as Pierre Fermat. In the region, we know his birthplace in Beaumont-de-Lomagne. The Toulouse high school, streets and several solar establishments bear his name. It owes its popularity to its famous His famous conjecture: “The equation Xn + Yn = Zn has no solution in the set of non-zero natural integers if n is an integer equal to or greater than 3”. Improperly designated by her admirers as “the last theorem” or even “the great theorem of Fermat”, it fascinated many mathematicians for 356 years and earned its author a star status in newspapers around the world before being finally demonstrated by the Englishman Andrew Wiles in 1994 and thus access, legitimately this time, to the status of theorem.

Because of the hype they have been under, everyone believes they know Pierre Fermat or Fermat as we would like to call him. So we are surprised to discover how he behaved, all his life during, like an enigmatic man, even secret.

We are going to make it up to date for you, reader friends. Let’s investigate!

Season 2 – (1/3): But where did the body go?

It is January 12, 1665, in the city of Castres. The parish register of the church of La Platé announces the death “of Messire Pierre de Fermat, counselor to the Parliament of Toulouse …” and his burial, the next day in a chapel of the church of the Reverend Fathers of Saint Dominic which we know that it was later destroyed without any mention of what happened to the bodies.

In this century when the counter-reform is bent on nibbling one by one all the advantages acquired by the proponents of the “Allegedly Reformed Religion”, what can this bastion of Protestantism, a magistrate belonging to, do in the city of Castres? Parliament of Toulouse which we know has practiced uncompromising Catholicism for over a century?

In fact this is not the first time that Pierre Fermat has visited this city. Death surprises him during his fifth stay. He was indeed seconded by the Toulouse Parliament to “serve the King” in the House of the Edict. This special court – there were only five in France – which had the function of settling disputes between the two religious communities, was also called the mid-party chamber because it consisted of an equal number of advisers from each religion, ten Protestant judges living on the spot and ten Catholic magistrates chosen from among the advisers of the Toulouse Parliament.

In this Huguenot city, Pierre Fermat, a good Catholic, used to settle down with a wife and children for a year, sometimes two, and to maintain the best relations with the members, all Protestants, of the Academy. These beautiful minds, passionate about science and literature, who highly valued his talents as a mathematician and philologist, did not bargain for his friendship or their consideration.

It would seem, in any mortgage, that we must resign ourselves to the idea that the remains of our magistrate disappeared in Castres during the demolition of the Dominican chapel. But things are not so simple. Some claim that his body was transferred to Toulouse for burial in the chapel of the Augustinian convent where the family had a tomb built. An allegation that the archivist Pierre Saliès1 questions for two reasons. The first is that this practice was not common in this century. And the second that it goes against the last wishes of the magistrate. In fact, he stipulated in his will that his burial should be done “with the least amount of expense and splendor as possible. 2 “

In the absence of decisive documents, the supporters of the transfer cite in support of their thesis, the black marble slab which was preserved at the Musée des Augustins after the destruction of the tomb of the Fermat family in 1793 during the French Revolution .

PIAE MEMORIAE

DOM PETRI DE FERMAT

SENATORIS TOLOSANIS

“To the pious memory of Pierre de Fermat, member of the Toulouse parliament”. One can notice this homage paid to the great man does not contain any mention such as: “here” or “here rests”, which could constitute proof of the actual presence of the body. The famous plaque would therefore probably be a cenotaph, a tomb raised in memory of a dead man not containing the body, especially since, contrary to what we have long believed, it would not date from the 17th century but rather from 1782, at a time when the city of Toulouse placed an order with the sculptor François Lucas for a first bust of Pierre Fermat intended for this same tomb, then the following year for a second which was exhibited in the Illustres Room.

As a second argument, the supporters of the transfer state an extract from the Augustinian sacristy book dated December 24, 1675 which they deem capable of validating their hypothesis: “Receu de Mademoiselle de Fermat, vefve à M. Fermat pour the presence of the monks at the burial of M. Fermat, high mass and four low masses, the sum of 5 pounds.3 ”. Now it turns out that the M. Fermat in question is none other than “Christophe de Fermat, candlestick merchant … living at rue de la Pomme … buried in the Augustins on December 3, 16754” for the salvation of which Mademoiselle Jeanne de Landes , his widow, made say, some time after his burial, masses as wanted by the custom. The mistake is understandable. It is worth remembering that the Fermats who had taken root in the southwest were very numerous there. While the Beaumont branch was moving towards the professions of the judiciary, the Toulouse Fermats, originating from Pont d’Arrratz, in the Gers, devoted themselves to the trades of merchandise. Some of them, the most prestigious, were even capitouls.

In the midst of all these hazards, only one certainty remains: that he was buried in Castres or Toulouse, the body of the mathematician magistrate has indeed disappeared. There is nothing to regret, however, because if the remains of this illustrious child of Occitania who, born in Beaumont de Lomagne, exercised his function of magistrate in Toulouse and died in Castres, remains untraceable, his work, very much alive , continues to fertilize mathematical culture several centuries after his death.

Season 1: episode 1; episode 2; episode 3.