Jean Meslier

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Church of Étrépigny.
Church of Étrépigny.

Jean Meslier (1664 – 1729), was a Catholic priest who was discovered, upon his death, to have written a book-length philosophical essay promoting atheism. Described by the author as his "testament" to his parishioners, the text denounces all religion, and argues the superiority of atheist morality.

Contents

[edit] Life and works

Jean Meslier was born January 15, 1664, in Mazerny in the Ardennes. He began learning Latin from a neighborhood 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 January 7, 1689, became priest at Étrépigny, in Champagne. One public disagreement with a local nobleman aside, Meslier was to all appearances generally unremarkable, and he performed his office without complaint or problem for 40 years.

When Meslier died, there were found in his house three copies of a 633-page octavo manuscript in which the village curate denounces religion as "but a castle in the air", and theology as "but ignorance of natural causes reduced to a system". A materialist, Meslier denies the existence of the soul; he also dismisses the notion of free will.

In Chapter V, the priest writes, "If God is incomprehensible to man, it would seem rational never to think of Him at all"; Meslier does think of him, however, for several hundred pages more, in which he calls God "a chimera" and argues that the supposition of God is not prerequisite to morality. In fact, he concludes that "[w]hether there exists a God or not [...] men's moral duties will always be the same so long as they possess their own nature".

Voltaire often mentions Meslier in his correspondence, calling the atheist "a good priest", telling his daughter to "read and read again" Meslier's only work, and saying that "every honest man should have Meslier's Testament in his pocket." However, he described Meslier as writing "in the style of a carriage-horse". Various edited abstracts of the Testament were printed, condensing the multi-volume original manuscript and sometimes adding material not written by Meslier. Voltaire's edition changed the thrust of Meslier's arguments so that he appeared to be a deist - like Voltaire - rather than an atheist.

[edit] Quote

The well-known quote:

«Je voudrais, et ce sera le dernier et le plus ardent de mes souhaits, je voudrais que le dernier des rois fût étranglé avec les boyaux du dernier prêtre.»

"I would like, and this would be the last and most ardent of my wishes, I would like the last of the kings to be strangled by the guts of the last priest"

is often attributed to Meslier; it does not appear in his Testament, however, and is completely atypical of his style[citation needed]. Diderot, who wrote in his poem Les Éleuthéromanes that men who lack ropes to hang their kings should weave some from priest's entrails, is a more likely source, unless the quote comes from one of the many Abstracts of the Testament that were circulated during the Revolution, often with drastic revisions to suit the political temperament of the times. Abstracts were popular because Meslier's Testament is, after all, very long, and would have been prohibitively expensive to print and bind in its entirety, and it is not written in a style easily understood by the uneducated; it is also too relaxed to serve as propaganda, as the author was convinced that reason and common sense — certainly not violence — were the solutions to fraudulent religion.

[edit] Remark

There is no English translation of the "Testament" yet. The book "Common Sense"/"Superstition in all Ages" was in fact not written by Meslier but by Holbach:[1]

"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. The actual works of Meslier have never been published in English translation."

[edit] Praise from Michel Onfray

In his book "In Defense Of Atheism" contemporary atheist philosopher, Michel Onfray, describes Meslier as the first person to write in support of atheism:

"For the first time (but how long with 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." ("In Defence Of Atheism", Michel Onfray, translation by Jeremy Leggatt, p.29, 2007 Arcade Publishing)

Prior to announcing Meslier as the first atheist philosopher, Onfray considers and dismisses Cristovao Ferriera, a Portuguese and former Jesuit who renounced his faith under Japanese torture in 1614 and went on to write a book entitled The Deception Revealed. However, though he deconverted from Christianity, he then converted to Zen Buddhism, so Onfray discounts him.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links