Treatise of the Three Impostors
De tribus impostoribus (Latin ) and Traité des trois imposteurs (French, "The book of the three impostors " ) are independent, anonymous, critical of religion books whose origins are traced back to the last quarter of the 17th century. In them the founders of religion Moses, Jesus and Muhammad are represented as an impostor, with the accusation of fraud related to alleged revelations. In Traité is beyond the doctrine of a personal, ie, free and intelligent author of the world, of the freedom and responsibility of man and of punishments and rewards for his actions in the hereafter, of Providence, and the functional, human-related institution of creation, denied the immortality of the soul.
De tribus impostoribus
The first mention is found in 1239 in a letter of Pope Gregory IX. , In which he Emperor Frederick II ascribes such a work. According to Tommaso Campanella, the first edition appeared in 1538, and other witnesses stated that they had read the book before 1598 (and of course they want to have burned this blasphemous work ). However, can be found in any source content information or quotes and despite intensive search, never a manuscript was found. The text was known in 1716, when a manuscript was acquired with the title of Prince Eugene of Savoy at the auction of the library of the Greifswald theologian Johann Friedrich Mayer. From the possession of the manuscript (so-called Vienna manuscript ) then (code No. 10450 ) passed into the possession of the National Library in Vienna. The first, in 1753 at the Vienna printer Straube printed edition De imposturis religionum bears the fictitious Year 1598 But the text with the fictional appearance in 1598 does not deal with all three religions, but only Christianity. ; Therefore, it has long been accepted in the research, that the anonymous author of the book could not finish. Now, after discovered evidence the text wrote in 1688 the Hamburg lawyer John Joachim Müller ( 1661-1733 ), grandson of the famous Hamburg theologian Johannes Müller ( 1598-1672 ), who in turn mentioned atheism devictus a pressure of Nachtigal in 1610 in his work.
The anonymous author of the book De tribus impostoribus may have been inspired by Maimonides, who referred in his letter to the Yemen Jesus, Paul and Mohammed than three scammers. In the background there are theories of Islamic freethinkers of the 9th and 10th centuries. This includes the book of the seventh achievement ( Kitâb as- sijâsa or Kitâb al - balâg as- Sabi ) which allegedly came from the vicinity of the Qaramitah. The first mention of this work was shortly after 983 Therein the commandments of Judaism, Christianity and Islam were declared abolished, as well as the basics of all three revealed religions equally doubted: there was neither sin nor a life after death. " The treatise was one of the most popular texts of the radical underground literature. " Many freethinkers of the Enlightenment were inspired by him. In 1761, JC Edelmann created an annotated German translation.
Traité sur les trois imposteurs
The text De tribus impostoribus must never be confused with the coming of the late 17th century, based on Spinoza atheistic materialist treatise French. In him the youngest incorporated work is the 1677 published Ethics of Baruch Spinoza. It circulated first in manuscript and the public was known by 1716, published in The Hague reply Réponse à la dissertation de Mr. de la Monnaye Sur le traité De Tribus impostoribus.
In printing the treatise appeared in 1719 as La vie et l' esprit de Mr. Benoit de Spinosa. Preceded was the oldest biography of Spinoza's metaphysics of Jean- Maximilien Lucas ( 1636/40-1697 ), who is, therefore, as a possible author of the anonymously published work. Much of the rest was burned, but circulated copies and translations. Baron d' Holbach in 1768 edited a heavily revised version, Traité sur les trois imposteurs, which is aimed at a general audience. As she turns not only against the revealed religions, but also against the Natural theology, they also attracted attention among philosophers. Already in 1769 Voltaire published a rebuttal, Epitre à l' auteur du livre des trois imposteurs, with the famous quote: " If God did not exist, would have to invent him." ( " Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l' inventer. "). The Traité influenced the Marquis de Sade, the motifs such as the priest often took up fraud and sections on the critique of the concept of God and traditional morality almost literally took over in the Histoire de Juliette of 1796.
The anonymous author made use of religion in the critical literature since ancient times, as in Philo of Alexandria, the Platonist Celsus ( preserved in Origen's Contra Celsum ) and Emperor Julian. Significant suggestions provided Lucilio Vanini, François de La Mothe le Vayer, Guillaume Lamy (1644-1682), Thomas Hobbes and Baruch Spinoza.
The atheism, determinism, materialism of the Traité influenced the pace since the mid -18th century French materialism transforming how the wide beam Système de la nature d' Holbach. The Traité as a patch- work from set pieces of 17th-century philosophy served as the transformer and agents of the Age of Enlightenment.
Possible authors
As authors of a treatise De tribus or impostoribus many people have been suspected since the Middle Ages. Among the best known include: Emperor Frederick II, the ruler of Qaramitah State in Bahrain, Abu Tahir Al- Djannabi ( 907-944 ), Simon de Tournai ( c.1130 -1201 ), Petrus de Vinea, Guillaume Postel Jan Nachtegalenpark, Averroes, Peter Pomponatius, Pietro Aretino, Michael Servetus, Gerolamo Cardano, Niccolo Machiavelli, Rabelais, Erasmus, John Milton, Matthias Knutzen (* 1646, † after 1674), Angelus Merula, Giordano Bruno, Tommaso Campanella, Giovanni Boccaccio Paul Henri Thiry d' Holbach, Sa'd ibn Mansur ibn Kammuna, Uriel da Costa, Baruch Spinoza.
As the author of Traité sur les trois imposteurs should come into question by Wolfgang Gericke of the Geneva citizens Jacques Gruet. Then would the polemic against Calvin close. With its approval Gruet was executed in 1547 in Geneva. The historian of philosophy Frederick Niewöhner comes to the conclusion that it is, even if he can not identify exactly when the author of the book in order has to act a Marranos of the second or third generation. Winfried Schröder leaves open the question as to the author of the Traité, as there is on any proposed counter-arguments.