Jean Meslier

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Jean Meslier - Pronunciation
L'abbé Jean Meslier (1664–1729),
the " atheist in the priestly skirt ". French radical educator .
Fictional portrait, Paris 1802
Photo of the church in Étrépigny , where Jean Meslier was pastor for forty years.

Jean Meslier ( mɛlje ) (born June 15, 1664 in Mazerny ( Département Ardennes ), † in early summer 1729 in the neighboring village of Étrépigny ) was a French Catholic priest ( Le curé Meslier or L'abbé Meslier ) and radical educator from the early Enlightenment period . Atheist at heart , this Catholic clergyman revealed his hidden convictions in his posthumously known anti-religious manifesto , the Mémoire . In it he propagates revolutionary atheism and materialism . From this he developed a radical criticism of the church , religion and rule. The “godless man of God” Meslier was the first to call for an atheist- communist society. This subversive mémoire circulated clandestinely and had a strong influence on the French enlightenment of the 18th century. He was secretly a prophet who anticipated the French Revolution by 60 years. An unabridged book edition of his approximately 1000-page Mémoire first appeared in Amsterdam in 1864 .

Life

Jean Meslier was born as the son of the cloth merchant Gérard Meslier (approx. 1626-1706) and his wife Symphorienne Braidy (approx. 1623-1706) in Mazerny in the Ardennes in 1664 . He had three sisters, Jeanne (* 1655), Antoinette (1670–1737) and Marie Meslier (* 1672). A schoolmaster taught him to read and write before he was eight, and he learned Latin from a priest. In 1684 he entered the seminary in Reims and received a theological training there under the direction of Canon Jacques Callou. On January 7, 1689, at the age of 25, he was ordained a priest by the archbishop . In the same year the leadership of the parish in Étrépigny and in the neighboring parish Balaives-et-Butz was transferred to him, 10 km southeast of Charleville-Mézières in the Ardennes. He held the priesthood until his death in 1729.

Meslier was indignant about the bad treatment of the farmers of his community by the noble landlord Antoine de Toully and denounced them in his sermons. Antoine de Toully complained to the responsible bishop, and the pastor received a reprimand with certain conditions. But that did not change Mesler's attitude and public criticism. After renewed complaints from the landlord, the pastor was summoned to the archbishop of Reims and warned again, so that he no longer criticized the public. Since then he has served as a priest, but secretly wrote his manuscript critical of religion of well over a thousand pages, the Mémoire des pensées et sentiments . In terms of form, it is a series of sermons as it was common in the Baroque era , but in terms of content it is a radical pamphlet critical of the Church and religion , with which he addressed all "people of spirit and authority", "the party of justice and truth and to denounce and fight against the terrible errors and conditions, the hideous superstitions and all the hideous tyranny until they are destroyed ”.

plant

Plaque on the town hall of Étrépigny in honor of Jean Meslier, a pioneer of the Enlightenment

The Mémoire des pensées et sentiments de Jean Meslier

The first, three-volume original edition from 1864 of Mesliers Mémoire des pensées et des sentiments de Jean Meslier prêtre curé d'Étrépigny et de Balaives comprises 99 chapters. The atheist pastor and radical enlightener Jean Meslier presented “eight pieces of evidence for the vanity and falsehood of all religions”:

  1. The religions "are all only human inventions, nothing but errors, imagination and deceit";
  2. “Blind faith” is the principle of all error and all illusions;
  3. Falsehood of "supposedly divine visions and revelations ";
  4. "Vanity and falsehood of the alleged prophecies of the Old Testament";
  5. “Errors in the doctrine and morals of Christian religions”;
  6. “The Christian religion tolerates the abuses and tyranny of the great masters”;
  7. Falsehood of the alleged “existence of gods”;
  8. Falseness of the idea of spirituality and the immortality of the soul.

Meslier wrote his work in the last decade of his life, because he presupposes Fénelon's Theodizee Démonstration de l'existence de Dieu (published posthumously in 1718) and contradicts his proofs of God . Meslier made three almost identical copies. Copies were soon circulating in Paris because a printed edition was not possible due to censorship. The book would have been confiscated and burned.

Voltaire had a complete manuscript and made the "Testimony of Truth" known among encyclopedists . In 1762, without identifying himself as the editor, he had shortened excerpts from Meslier's work published: Extraits des sentiments de Jean Meslier . As can be seen from his letters, Voltaire got to know Mesler's work around 1735 through the intermediary of his friend Nicolas-Claude Thieriot. Mesler's original radical atheism is found in Voltaire's edition, falsified and softened to a cautious deism . This short version contained no criticism of the nobility or Christianity, but was only directed against abuse of power by the church and superstition. The Enlightenment Baron d'Holbach , who himself represented an atheistic worldview, anonymously published a paper on Mesler's eight “atheistic proofs” ( Le bon sens ou Idées naturelles opposées aux idées surnaturelles. 1772 ).

A complete edition of Mesliers Mémoire first appeared in Amsterdam in 1864, three volumes edited by Rudolf Charles, the pseudonym of Rudolf Charles d'Ablaing van Giessenburg. A critical edition of the Mémoire (based on the original autograph manuscript Fonds français 19460 of the Bibliothèque nationale ) was not produced until 1970–1972. Also in three volumes by Roland Desné, J. Deprun, Albert Soboul and others under the title Jeans Meslier, Œuvres complètes .

His secret memoire made Meslier one of the outstanding forerunners of the Age of Enlightenment . In modern times , the radical enlightener Meslier was the first to advocate uncompromising atheism . At the same time, Meslier developed a rigorous materialism and a conception of society shaped by anarchist and socialist ideas. A peculiarity in the history of philosophy remains that Meslier, as a largely isolated pastor, wrote one of the most daring documents of the Enlightenment, which was almost forgotten due to its radical nature. Literary stories, school books and encyclopedias ignored the radical enlightener Meslier until the 1970 / 1980s:

«Le Petit Larousse illustré a toujours ignoré Meslier de la première édition (1907) à la dernière (1973). »

"Le Petit Larousse illustrée has always been hushed up by Meslier, from the first edition (1907) to the last (1973)."

- Roland Desné : Jean Meslier, text. Éditions Rationalistes, Paris 1973, Introduction, p. XII.

The subversive radicalism of Meslier's criticism of religion and rule is made clear by a quote that anticipates the period of reign of terror from 1793 to 1794 of the French Revolution by about 60 years:

«[…] Que tous les grands de la Terre et que tous les nobles fussent pendus et étranglés avec les boyaux des prêtres. »

- Jean Meslier : Le Testament de Jean Meslier, curé d'Étrépigny. Première édition originale, RC Meijer, Amsterdam 1864, édité et préfacé par Rudolf Charles d'Ablaing van Giessenburg, Volume 1, Chapter 2 Pensées et sentiments de l'auteur sur les religions du monde , p. 19

"[...] that all great people of the world and all nobles should be hanged and strangled with the bowels of priests."

- Jean Meslier : The will of the Abbé Meslier. The basic script of modern criticism of religion. Background-Verlag, 2nd edition, 2005, chap. 2 Author's Thoughts and Views on World Religions , p. 74.

Lettres aux curés du voisinage

After Meslier's death, letters that had not been sent to the pastors of the neighboring parishes were found in his apartment. Meslier calls on his confreres no longer to mislead the parishioners entrusted to them with the deceitful Christian religion, but to inform them about the truth of this pact between religion and monarchy, which only serves to maintain the power of the church and the political rulers. They should enable the parishioners to shake off this religious and political yoke and take their fate into their own hands. Volume III of the Œuvres complètes contains these letters.

L'Anti-Fénelon

During his critical reading of Fénelon's Apology of Christianity Démonstration de l'existence de Dieu , Proof of the Existence of God, Jean Meslier left numerous marginal notes. They were published in 1972 in Volume III of the Œuvres complètes , edited by Roland Desné, Jean Deprun and others, under the title Anti-Fénelon . In his Mémoire, Jean Meslier refuted the eight proofs of God that Fénelon put forward in his demonstration .

Work editions

In French

  • 1773: Testament de Jean Meslier. Nouvelle Édition In: La Bibliotheque du bon Sens portatif, Volume 3, Londres, 1773, 135 pp.
  • 1864: Le Testament de Jean Meslier, curé de'Étrépigny et de But en Champagne, décédé en 1733 (sic), published and with a foreword by Rudolf Charles d'Ablaing van Giessenburg, Amsterdam 1864. First complete edition of the manuscript. In full text (French): Volume 1 , Volume 2 , Volume 3 , Google Books
  • 1970–1972 The critical edition that is relevant today : Jean Meslier, Œuvres complètes. Edition animée et coordonnée par Roland Desné. 3 volumes, Éditions Anthropos, Paris 1970–1972. Edition based on the autograph manuscript Fonds français 19460 of the Bibliothèque nationale
  • 2010: Jean Meslier, Curé d'Étrépigny. Mémoire contre la religion . Editors: Jean-Pierre Jackson, Alain Toupin. Edition also based on the manuscript MS 19460, éditions Coda, ISBN 978-2-84967-027-9 .

Translations into German

literature

  • Philipp Blom : Evil Philosophers . A salon in Paris and the forgotten legacy of the Enlightenment . Carl Hanser Verlag , Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-446-23648-6 (about Meslier pp. 120-124).
  • Serge Deruette: Lire Jean Meslier. Curé et athée révolutionnaire - Introduction au mesliérisme et extraits de son oeuvre. Éditions Aden, Bruxelles 2008, ISBN 978-2-930402-50-5 .
  • Maurice Dommanget: Le Curé Meslier. Athée, communiste et révolutionnaire sous Louis XIV. Julliard, Paris 1965. (New edition Coda, 2008), ISBN 978-2849670477 .
  • Roland Desné: Jean Meslier, text. Éditions Rationalistes, Paris 1973.
  • Johann Haar: Jean Meslier and Voltaire and Holbach's relationship with him. Dissertation, Hamburg 1928.
  • Friedrich Hagen : Jean Meslier or: An atheist in a priest's skirt. Literaturverlag Braun, Leverkusen / Cologne 1977, ISBN 3-88097-046-7 .
  • Paul Henri Thiry d'Holbach : Le bon sens du Curé Jean Meslier suivi de son testament. G. Olms, 1970.
  • Gerhard Katschnig: The radical and his censor. About the editorial relationship between Jean Meslier and Voltaire. In: Wolfgang Geier, Ernstgert Kalbe (Hrsg.): Kultursoziologie. Aspects, analyzes, arguments. Scientific half-yearly issues of the Society for Cultural Sociology. Vol. 22, No. 2, 2012, pp. 53-64.
  • Günter Mager: The knowledge of Jean Meslier. About the true origins of the Enlightenment. Friedmann Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-933431-75-1 (novel)
  • Georges Minois: History of Atheism. From the beginning to the present. Böhlaus successor, 2000, ISBN 3-7400-1104-1 (about Meslier in Part 4, Chapter 10, pp. 25–313)
  • Jonathan I. Israel , Martin Mulsow (Ed.): Radical Enlightenment. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-518-29653-0 (about Meslier pp. 172-176)

Web links

Literature by and about Jean Meslier in the catalog of the German National Library

Wikiquote: Jean Meslier  - Quotes
Wikisource: Jean Meslier  - Sources and full texts (French)
Commons : Jean Meslier  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Friedrich Hagen : Jean Meslier or: An atheist in a priest's skirt. Literaturverlag Braun, Leverkusen / Cologne 1977, ISBN 3-88097-046-7
  2. ^ Atheist in priestly rock - Jean Meslier, thought leader of the Enlightenment by Rolf Cantzen: SWR2 Wissen, 2015
  3. ↑ a b Friedrich Hagen : Jean Meslier or: An atheist in a priest's skirt. Literarischer Verlag Helmut Braun KG, Leverkusen and Cologne 1977, ISBN 3-88097-046-7 , lecture
  4. ^ The title of the Mémoire , written down by Jean Meslier in the manuscripts, reads in full:

    «Mémoire des pensées et des sentiments de Jean Meslier, prêtre curé d'Étrépigny et de Balaives, Sur une partie desarrurs et des abus de la conduite et du gouvernement des hommes, où l'on voit des demonstrations claires et évidentes de la vanité et de la fausseté de toutes les divinités et de toutes les religions du monde, Pour être adressé à ses paroissiens après sa mort et pour leur servir de témoignage de vérité à eux et à tous leurs semblables. - In testimonium illis et gentibus (Vous servirez ainsi de témoignage pour eux et pour le païens, Matthieu X, 18). »

    “Legacy of the thoughts and views of Jean Meslier, priest, parish priest of Etrépigny and Balaives, on some of the errors and malfunctions in the guidance and direction of men, which is clear and precise evidence of the vanity and falsehood of all deities and all religions of the Find a world that should come to his parishioners after his death, so that it may serve them and their kind as a testimony of the truth. - In testimonium illis et gentibus (To those and the Gentiles as a testimony, Matthew 10.18 EU ). "

  5. ↑ The French National Library (BnF) has three autograph manuscripts that can be shown to have been made by Jean Meslier himself: MS19458, 19459 and 19460; see: Serge Deruette: Lire Jean Meslier - Curé et athée révolutionnaire - Introduction au mesliérisme et extraits de son oeuvre. Ed. Aden, Bruxelles 2008, ISBN 978-2-930402-50-5 , p. 75, footnote 5: "  Roland Desné démontre que les 3 manuscrits […] sont écrits de la main de Jean Meslier  "
  6. ↑ Serge Deruette: Lire Jean Meslier - Curé et athée révolutionnaire - Introduction au mesliérisme et extraits de son oeuvre. Ed. Aden, Bruxelles 2008, ISBN 978-2-930402-50-5 .
  7. ↑ a b The Mémoire was published under the title: Le Testament de Jean Meslier, curé d'Étrépigny. Première édition originale , 3 volumes, RC Meijer, Amsterdam 1864, édité et préfacé par Rudolf Charles d'Ablaing van Giessenburg.
  8. ↑ Family genealogy
  9. ↑ Michel Onfray: Jean Meslier and "The Gentle Inclination of Nature". New Politics, Winter 2006, Vol: X-4, in English, online
  10. ^ Martin Mulsow and Jonathan I. Israel (editors): Radical Enlightenment . Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-518-29653-0 .
  11. ↑ Georges Minois: History of Atheism. From the beginning to the present. Hermann Böhlaus Nachf. Verlag, Weimar 2000, ISBN 3-7400-1104-1 , p. 312.
  12. ↑ Georges Minois: History of Atheism. P. 313.
  13. ↑ Philipp Blom : Evil Philosophers . A salon in Paris and the forgotten legacy of the Enlightenment. Hanser, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-446-23648-6 , p. 122.
  14. ↑ Le Petit Larousse illustré is the most widely used lexical and encyclopedic reference work in France. The two-part work is a dictionary in its first part and an encyclopedia in its second part. According to www.journaldunet.com, it has a 70% market share in dictionaries / encyclopedias.
  15. ↑ Online in Google Book Search
  16. ↑ Jean Deprun: Un new exemplaire de l'Anti-Fénelon de Meslier. In: Olivier Bloch: Le Matérialisme du XVIIIe siècle et la littérature clandestine. P. 83–84 ( online in Google Book Search)
personal data
SURNAME Meslier, Jean
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mellier, Jean
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French pastor and church critic of the early enlightenment
DATE OF BIRTH June 15, 1664
PLACE OF BIRTH Mazerny
DATE OF DEATH 1729
Place of death Étrépigny