MESLIER, JEAN. — The precise year of his birth or death is unknown, but he certainly lived between 1664 and 1733. Curate of Etrépigny in the Ardennes, his name was handed down by Voltaire in a writing entitled *Extrait du testament de J. M.*, which is a violent diatribe against the Catholic religion, in which the deceased curate claimed to have lost his faith.
He gave the reasons for his unbelief, consisting in the fact that in the Gospels he had noted the existence of contradictions that he could not explain and that had unsettled 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, Voltaire, in *L'Evangile de la raison*, under the title *Sentiments du curé M.*, provided a second version of the famous testament quite different from the first. But by now most critics agree on the non-authenticity of the writing attributed to M. and believe that Voltaire alone was its author. Even D'Holbach drew inspiration from this writing to compose in 1772 *Le Bon sens du curé M.*