| Jean-Martin de Prades |
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A theologian, born about 1720 at Castelsarrasin (Diocese of Montauban), died in 1782 at Glogau, famous through an irreligious thesis. Having finished his preliminary studies, he went to Paris, where he lived in many seminaries, especially in that of St-Sulpice. He very soon became acquainted with the principal publishers of the "Encyclop?die", and supplied them with the article on "Certitude". About the end of 1751, he presented himself for the doctorate, driven, as a m?moire of that time says, "by the incredulous, who, in order to justify his blasphemies, wanted to have his doctrine approved by the Faculty". Prades wrote a very long thesis, which the examiners accepted without reading. The defence, which took place on 18 November, was very sharp, and the scandal broke out. On 15 December following, the Faculty declared several propositions to be "worthy of blame and censures". On 15 January following, the censure was published. According to Abb? de Prades, the soul is an unknown substance; sensations are the source of our ideas; the origin of civil law is might, from which are derived all notions of just and of unjust, of good and evil; natural law is empiric; revealed religion is only natural religion in its evolution; the chronology of Moses's books is false; the healings operated by {ln:Jesus} Christ are doubtful miracles, since those operated by Esculapius present the same characteristics. The Archbishop of Paris and several bishops approved the censure; afterwards, on the 2 March, Benedict XIV condemned the thesis; at last the Parliament of Paris issued a decree against the author; further, Stanislas, Duke of Lorraine, incited the Faculty against the Abb?.
The latter found a refuge in Holland, where he published his "Apology" (1752). It consists of two parts: a third part containing "reflexions upon the Pastoral Letter of the bishop of Montauban and the Pastoral Instruction of the bishop of Auxerre" as written by Diderot. Le P?re Brotier published "the Survey of the Apology of the Abb? de Prades" (1753). The question is whether the Abb? de Prades is not the author of an "Apology of the Abb? de Prades" in verse. Upon the recommendation of Voltaire and of the Marquis of Argens, the Abb? became lector to Frederick of Prussia and went to Berlin. Frederick gave him a pension and two canonries, the one at Oppeln, the other at Glogau. From the year 1753, negotiations were entered upon between the Abb? de Prades and the Bishop of Breslau, Philip von Schaffgotsch, with a view to a recantation. Frederick himself induced the Abb? to return to "the bosom of the Church". Benedict XIV and the Cardinal of Vencin wrote the formula of recantation which was signed by the Abb?. In 1754, the Faculty of Paris again inscribed the Abb? upon the list of bachelors. The Abb? de Prades became the Archdeacon of the Chapter of Glogau, and died in that town in 1782. Besides the works quoted, he left an "Abr?g? de l'histoire eccl?siastique de Fleury", tr. Berne (Berlin, 1767), II vols., with a violently anti-catholic preface written by Frederick II. This would make us doubt the sincerity of the recantation of the Abb? de Prades. To him is generally ascribed "le Tombeau de la Sorbonne" translated from Latin (1782). According to Qu?rard, he left in manuscript a complete translation of Tacitus, which remains unpublished. What has become of the manuscript is unknown. It is said also that he worked, before leaving France, at a Treatise on "the Truth of Religion". |
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