MESLIER, JEAN. — The precise year of either his birth or death is unknown, but he certainly lived between 1664 and 1733. Parish priest of Etrépigny in the Ardennes, his name was handed down by Voltaire in a work entitled Extrait du testament de J. M., a violent diatribe against the Catholic religion, in which the deceased priest claimed to have lost his faith.
He gave as the reasons for his unbelief the fact that he had observed contradictions in the Gospels which he could not explain and which had disturbed his mind. For M., Catholicism is contrary to nature because it exalts suffering, and contrary to reason because it would be founded solely on faith. For M., a complete atheist, religion is an imposture. Later, in 1768, in Evangile de la raison, Voltaire, under the title Sentiments du curé M., produced a second version of the famous testament, quite different from the first. By then, however, most critics agreed that the work attributed to M. was not authentic and believed that Voltaire alone had authored II. D'Holbach likewise drew inspiration from this work in composing Bon sens du curé M. in 1772.