Charles François Dupuis (26 October 174229 September 1809) was a French savant, a professor (from 1766) of
rhetoric
Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...
at the Collège de Lisieux, Paris, who studied for the law in his spare time and was received as ''avocat'' in 1770. He also ventured into the field of
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
Trie-Château
Trie-Château () is a commune in the Oise department in northern France. On 1 January 2018, the former commune of Villers-sur-Trie was merged into Trie-Château.Oise), the son of a schoolmaster. His precocious talents were recognized by the
duc de La Rochefoucauld
The title of Duke de La Rochefoucauld is a French peerage belonging to one of the most famous families of the French nobility, whose origins go back to lord Rochefoucauld in Charente in the 10th and 11th centuries (with official evidence of nobili ...
, who sent him to the College d'Harcourt. Dupuis made such rapid progress that, at the age of twenty-four, he was appointed professor of
rhetoric
Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...
at the college of Lisieux, where he had previously passed as a Licentiate of Theology. In his hours of leisure he studied law, and in 1770 he abandoned the clerical career and became an
advocate
An advocate is a professional in the field of law. Different countries' legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a barrister or a solicitor. However, ...
. Two university discourses which he delivered in Latin were printed, and laid the foundation of his literary fame.
In 1778, he invented a telegraph with which he was able to correspond with his friend Jean-Baptiste Fortin in
Bagneux Bagneux may refer to:
Communes in France
*Bagneux, Aisne
* Bagneux, Allier
*Bagneux, Hauts-de-Seine
* Bagneux, Indre
* Bagneux, Marne
* Bagneux, Meurthe-et-Moselle
* Bagneux-la-Fosse, Aube
Other
* Bagneux British Cemetery, département of the Somm ...
, and must be considered among the first inventors of the telegraph that was perfected by
Claude Chappe
Claude Chappe (; 25 December 1763 – 23 January 1805) was a French inventor who in 1792 demonstrated a practical semaphore system that eventually spanned all of France. His system consisted of a series of towers, each within line of sight of ...
. The Revolution made it necessary to destroy his machine in order to avoid suspicion.
Dupuis devoted himself to the study of astronomy (his tutor was Lalande) in connection with mythology. After fifteen years of scholarly research, he produced the ''magnum opus'' entiled "''Origine de tous les Cultes, ou la Réligion Universelle''" (An III
795
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Year 795 ( DCCXCV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 795 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar er ...
., a 12-volume profusely-illustrated work in quarto or octavo format. An later abridgement (1798) saw a wider circulation amongst the reading public. In ''Origine'', he advocated the unity of the astronomical and religious myths of all nations, an aspect of the
Enlightenment
Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to:
Age of Enlightenment
* Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...
's confidence in the universality of human nature. In his "''Mémoire explicatif du Zodiaque, chronologique et mythologique''" (1806) he similarly maintains a common origin for the astronomical and religious opinions of the Greeks, Egyptians, Chinese, Persians, and Arabians. His basis was what he saw as the perfect correspondence between the signs of the zodiac and their significations had existed in Upper Egypt at a period of between fifteen and sixteen thousand years before the present time, and that it had existed only there. Subsequently, this harmony had been disturbed by the effect of the precession of the equinoxes. He therefore ascribed the invention of the signs of the zodiac to the people who then inhabited Upper Egypt or Ethiopia. His theory as to the origin of mythology in Upper Egypt led to the expedition organized by
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
for the exploration of that country.
He then contributed to the '' Journal des savants'' a memoire on the origin of the constellations and on the explication of myth through astronomy, which was published as a separate fascicle in 1781. He came to the attention of Frederick the Great, who appointed him secretary but died before Dupuis could take up duties in Berlin. The chair of humanity in the Collège de France having at the same time become vacant, it was conferred on Dupuis, where he taught Latin eloquence, and in 1788 he became a member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres. He now resigned his professorship at Lisieux, and was appointed by the administrators of the department of Paris one of the four commissioners of public instruction.
After the start of the French Revolution, Dupuis fled Paris for Évreux, appalled by the massacres of September 1792, only to return when he discovered he had been elected to the National Convention, where he sat on the Council of Five Hundred, and was President of the Legislative Body after the coup d'état of
18 Brumaire
The Coup d'état of 18 Brumaire brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power as First Consul of France. In the view of most historians, it ended the French Revolution and led to the Coronation of Napoleon as Emperor. This bloodless ''coup d'état'' overt ...
. He left political life in 1802.
Christ myth theory
Dupuis believed in an impersonal God that permeated everything. Charles Bradlaugh has classified Dupuis as a pantheist.
The beginnings of the formal denial of the existence of Jesus can be traced to late 18th century France, and the works of Constantin François Chassebœuf de Volney (1757–1820) and Dupuis.Weaver, Walter P. (1999). ''The Historical Jesus in the Twentieth Century, 1900–1950''. Trinity. pp. 45-50.Schweitzer, Albert. (2001)
913
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Year 913 ( CMXIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* June 6 – Emperor Alexander III dies of exhaustion while playing ...
''The Quest of the Historical Jesus''. Fortress. p. 355ff. Volney and Dupuis argued that Christianity was an amalgamation of various ancient mythologies and that Jesus was a mythical character.Van Voorst, Robert E. (2000). ''Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence''. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 7-11. .
In his book, ''The Origin of All Religious Worship'' (''Origine de tous les Cultes''), we find this intriguing reference to Zoroaster and Eiren. Erin/Eireann is Ireland's ancient name.
The God of Light and of the good principle, informs Zoroaster, that he had given to man a place of delight and abundance..
this place was called Eiren, which at the beginning was more beautiful than all the world...''
Nothing could equal the beauty of this delightful place.
Dupuis argued that ancient rituals in
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
, Egypt and Persia had influenced the Christian story which was allegorized as the histories of
solar deities
A solar deity or sun deity is a deity who represents the Sun, or an aspect of it. Such deities are usually associated with power and strength. Solar deities and Sun worship can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms. The ...
, such as Sol Invictus.Wells, G. A. (1969) Stages of New Testament Criticism ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', 30 (2): 147-160. He argued also that Jewish and Christian scriptures could be interpreted according to the solar pattern, e.g. the Fall of Man in
Genesis
Genesis may refer to:
Bible
* Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind
* Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...
being an allegory of the hardship caused by winter, and the resurrection of Jesus an allegory for the growth of the sun's strength in the sign of Aries at the spring equinox.
Volney argued that Abraham and
Sarah
Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch and prophetess, a major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a piou ...
were derived from Brahma and his wife Saraswati, and that Christ was related to Krishna.Leask, Nigel (2004). ''British Romantic Writers and the East''. Cambridge Univ Press. pp. 104 -105. . Volney published before Dupuis but made use of a draft version of Dupuis' work, and followed much of his argument, but at times differed from him, e.g. in arguing that the gospel stories were not intentionally created as an extended allegory grounded in solar myths, but were compiled organically when simple allegorical statements were misunderstood as history.
Jean-Baptiste Pérès
Jean-Baptiste Pérès (1752–1840) was a French physicist best known for his 1827 pamphlet ''Grand Erratum'', a polemical satire, translated into many European languages, that attempted "in the interest of conservative theology, to reduce to an ...
wrote a satirical refutation of Dupuis's work under the title of ''Grand Erratum'' (1827), in which he maintains, in parallel to Dupuis's thesis that the cult of Christ is merely a cult of the Sun, that Napoleon (who, in reality, died a mere six years before the publication of the pamphlet) never existed, but was only a sun myth.