Jean-Martin de Prades

Jean-Martin de Prades (c.1720–1782) was a French Catholic theologian. He became famous through a thesis he presented that was considered irreligious.

Prades was born at Castelsarrasin, Tarn-et-Garonne. 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 Encyclopédie, and supplied them with the article on "Certitude".

About the end of 1751, he presented himself for the doctorate, driven, as a mémoire 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 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 Abbé 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 empirical; revealed religion is only natural religion in its evolution; the chronology of the Pentateuch is false; the healings operated by 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, Pope Benedict XIV condemned the thesis; at last the Parlement of Paris issued a decree against the author; further, Stanislas, Duke of Lorraine, incited the Faculty against the Abbé. Voltaire gave a detailed account of the events in his book "Le tombeau de la Sorbonne", published anonymously in 1753.

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