Jean Meslier
Jean Meslier | |
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Roman Catholic |
Jean Meslier (French: [melje]; also Mellier; 15 June 1664[1] – 17 June 1729) was a French Catholic priest (abbé) who was discovered, upon his death, to have written a book-length philosophical essay promoting atheism and materialism. Described by the author as his "testament" to his parishioners, the text criticizes and denounces all religions.
Life
Jean Meslier was born in Mazerny in the Ardennes. He began learning Latin from a neighbourhood priest in 1678 and eventually joined the seminary; he later claimed, in the Author's Preface to his Testament, this was done to please his parents. At the end of his studies, he took Holy orders and, on 7 January 1689, became priest at Étrépigny, in Champagne.
One public disagreement with a local nobleman aside, Meslier was to all appearances generally unremarkable. However, he was twice reproved by clerical authorities for inappropriately employing young adult servant women, with whom the atheist and Meslier biographer
When Meslier died in Étrépigny, there were found in his house three copies of a 633-page
Thought
In his Testament, Meslier repudiated not only the God of conventional Christianity, but even the generic God of the
Meslier's philosophy was that of an
In his most famous quote, Meslier refers to a man who "wished that all the great men in the world and all the nobility could be hanged, and strangled with the guts of the priests."
Meslier also vehemently attacked social injustice and sketched out a kind of rural proto-
Voltaire's Extrait
Various edited abstracts (known as "extraits") of the Testament were printed and circulated, condensing the multi-volume original manuscript and sometimes adding material that was not written by Meslier. Abstracts were popular because of the length and convoluted style of the original. Voltaire often mentions Meslier (referring to him as "a good priest") in his correspondence, in which he tells his daughter to "read and read again" Meslier's only work, and says that "every honest man should have Meslier's Testament in his pocket." He also described Meslier as writing "in the style of a carriage-horse". Voltaire published his own expurgated version as Extraits des sentiments de Jean Meslier (first edition, 1762).[5] Voltaire's edition changed the thrust of Meslier's arguments, or drew on other Extraits which did this,[18] so that he appeared to be a deist—like Voltaire—rather than an atheist.
The following passage is found at the end of Voltaire's Extrait, and has been cited in support of the view that Meslier was not really an atheist;[19] however, the passage does not appear in either the 1864 complete edition of the Testament, published in Amsterdam by Rudolf Charles,[20] or in the complete works of Meslier published 1970–1972.[21]
I will finish by begging God, so outraged by that sect, to deign to recall us to natural religion, of which Christianity is the declared enemy. To that simple religion that God placed in the hearts of all men, which teaches us that we only do unto others what we want to have done unto us. Then the universe will be composed of good citizens, of just fathers, of submissive children, of tender friends. God gave us this religion in giving us reason. May fanaticism no longer pervert it! I die more filled with these wishes than with hopes. This is the exact summary of the in-folio testament of Jean Meslier. We can judge how weighty is the testimony of a dying priest who asks God's forgiveness.
Another book, Good Sense (French: Le Bon Sens),[22] published anonymously in 1772, was long attributed to Meslier, but was in fact written by Baron d'Holbach.[23] The complete Testament of Meslier was published in English translation (by Michael Shreve) for the first time in 2009.[24]
Legacy
In his book In Defense of Atheism (2007), the atheist philosopher Michel Onfray describes Meslier as the first person to write an entire text in support of atheism. He writes:
For the first time (but how long will it take us to acknowledge this?) in the history of ideas, a philosopher had dedicated a whole book to the question of atheism. He professed it, demonstrated it, arguing and quoting, sharing his reading and his reflections, and seeking confirmation from his own observations of the everyday world. His title sets it out clearly: Memoir of the Thoughts and Feelings of Jean Meslier; and so does his subtitle: Clear and Evident Demonstrations of the Vanity and Falsity of All the Religions of the World. The book appeared in 1729, after his death. Meslier had spent the greater part of his life working on it. The history of true atheism had begun.[25]
Prior to announcing Meslier as the first atheist philosopher, Onfray considers and dismisses
Historians argue about who was the first overt, post-Classical atheist but Meslier was arguably the first to put his name to an incontrovertibly atheist document. That this important event is largely unrecognised (Meslier was absent from both Richard Dawkins’ and Jonathan Miller's recent TV series on atheism) is due partly to Voltaire who published, in 1761, a grossly distorted "Extract" that portrayed Meslier as a fellow-deist and entirely suppressed Meslier's anti-monarchist, proto-communist opinions.
Bibliography
- Meslier, Jean (2009). Testament: Memoir of the Thoughts and Sentiments of Jean Meslier. Translated by Michael Shreve. Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-59102-749-7.
References
- ^ See Morehouse (1936, p. 12) and Meslier (2009).
- ^ a b "Jean Meslier and "The Gentle Inclination of Nature"". 22 February 2010.
- ^ Meslier, Jean (15 July 1864). "Le testament de Jean Meslier ..." R. C. Meijer – via Google Books.
- ^ a b Maria Rosa Antognazza (2006). "Arguments for the existence of God: the continental European debate", pp. 734–735, in Haakonssen, Knud. The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-Century Philosophy, vol. 2. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ a b Fonnesu, Luca (2006). "The problem of theodicy", pp. 766, in Haakonssen, Knud. The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-century Philosophy, vol. 2. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Peter Byrne, James Leslie Houlden (1995), Companion Encyclopedia of Theology, p. 259. Taylor & Francis.
- ^ J. O. Lindsay, (1957), The New Cambridge Modern History, p. 86. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ John Hedley Brooke (1991), Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives, p. 171. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ a b Peter France, (1995), The new Oxford companion to literature in French, p. 523. Oxford University Press
- OCLC 827215244. Reedited: Mémoire des pensées et des sentiments de Jean Meslier (2007), Tome 1: Pièces, preuves 1 à 3. Preface, Jean Meslier's library catalogue, bibliography, edition and notes by Hervé Baudry-Krüger, Soignies: Talus d’approche, p. 152.
- OCLC 64860072. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
- ^ Meslier, Jean (15 July 1864). "Le testament: 1 éd. orig". Meijer – via Google Books.
- ^ George Huppert (1999), The style of Paris: Renaissance origins of the French Enlightenment, p. 108. Indiana University Press.
- ^ Diderot, Dithrambe sur Féte des Rois: «Et des boyaux du dernier prêtre serrons le cou du dernier roi.»
- ^ "Telegrams" Archived 27 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Situationist International Online, accessed 4 July 2013.
- ^ "Utopianism in the Renaissance and Enlightenment", in Donald F. Busky (2002), Communism in History and Theory, pp. 54–55. Greenwood.
- ISBN 978-1611803051.
- ^ See Wade (1933) for a discussion of the different versions and Extraits of the manuscript of the Testament.
- ^ See for example: McGrath, Alister (2004). The Twilight of Atheism (p. 24).
- ^ Morehouse (1936, pp. 26–27); see also Wade (1933, p. 387, especially pp. 393–94).
- ^ Deprun et al (1972).
- ^ "Baron d'Holbach – Good Sense". Archived from the original on 19 October 2007. Retrieved 2 October 2007.
- ^ Baron d'Holbach – Good Sense: Transcription Notes Archived 20 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine. "Holbach published Le Bon Sens anonymously in 1772. The book was mistakenly identified as the work of Jean Meslier (1664–1729), a Catholic priest who had renounced Christianity in a posthumously published Testament. As late as the 20th century English translations of Le Bon Sens were still being published under Meslier's name, often bearing such titles as Common Sense and Superstition in All Ages. Editions ascribed to Meslier frequently include an abstract of his Testament together with Voltaire's correspondence regarding Meslier."
- ISBN 1-59102-749-7.
- ^ Michel Onfray, In Defence of Atheism, translation by Jeremy Leggatt, Arcade Publishing, 2007, p. 29.
- ^ Raoul Vaneigem, The Revolution of Everyday Life, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith, PM Press, 2012, p. 148.
Further reading
- Benitez, Miguel (2012). Les yeux de la raison: le matérialisme athée de Jean Meslier. Paris: Champion.[ISBN missing]
- Bredel, Marc (1983). Jean Meslier L'enragé: prêtre athée et révolutionnaire sous Louis XIV. Paris: Baland.[ISBN missing]
- Brewer, Colin (2007). "Thinker: Jean Meslier", New Humanist. Vol. 122 (4), July/August. Available online: Thinker: Jean Meslier.
- Deprun, Jean; Desné, Roland; Soboul, Albert (1970–72). Jean Meslier. Oeuvres complètes. Vols. 1–3. Paris: Editions Anthropos.[ISBN missing]
- Dommanget, Maurice (2008). Le curé Meslier : athée, communiste & révolutionnaire sous Louis XIV. Paris: Coda: Institut français d'histoire sociale.[ISBN missing]
- Morehouse, Andrew R. (1936). Voltaire and Jean Meslier. Yale Romanic Studies, IX. New Haven: Yale University Press.[ISBN missing]
- Wade, Ira O. (1933). "The Manuscripts of Jean Meslier's "Testament" and Voltaire's Printed "Extrait" ", Modern Philology, Vol. 30 (4), May, pp. 381–98 The Manuscripts of Jean Meslier's "Testament" and Voltaire's Printed "Extrait".
External links
- Media related to Jean Meslier at Wikimedia Commons
- Quotations related to Jean Meslier at Wikiquote
- Works by Jean Meslier at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Jean Meslier at Internet Archive
- Superstition In All Ages, Common Sense 1732 English
- Le bon sens du curé J. Meslier, suivi de son testament published 1830 includes correspondence of Voltaire on Meslier's testament, a biography of Meslier by Voltaire, Le bon sens, by d'Holbach, and the Extrait of the Testament produced by Voltaire.
- 1864 complete edition Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3
- A translation of Voltaire's abridged "Testament".
- Jean Meslier and "The Gentle Inclination of Nature" by Michel Onfray translated by Marvin Mandell
- The Poisoned Will of Jean Meslier. History Today. 10 October 2017.
- Archive of Jean Meslier Papers at the International Institute of Social History