Joseph Turmel

Joseph Turmel, born on 13 December 1859 in Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine) and died on 5 February 1943 in Paris, is a French Catholic priest, historian of Christian dogmas, who was excommunicated.

Biography

Joseph Turmel was born on |December 13, 1859 in Rennes, 142, rue de Saint-Malo. After studying at the seminaries of Rennes and Angers,[1] he was ordained priest in 1882 and appointed professor at the Major Seminary of Rennes where he lost his faith. He was excommunicated in 1930. He died during the World War II on February 5, 1943.

Studies and priestly activity

From 1876 to 1880, he studied philosophy and theology at the Major Seminary of the Archdiocese of Rennes, thereafter he continued until 1882 his studies at the Faculty of Theology of University of Angers.[2] He was ordained a priest on June 3, 1882, and was gharged the same year with teaching dogmatics at the Major Seminary.

Loss of his teaching chair

His liberal opinions on Old Testament exegesis led him to be deprived of his chair; in 1893 he was given a place as chaplain in a convent of nuns in Rennes and he kept it until 1930. During these years of solitude he worked as a historian of dogmatics and became an expert in Patristics.

Modernism and excommunication

As early as 1886, according to what he said himself, Turmel had lost the Catholic faith, but he nevertheless wanted to remain in the Church. He published, under his own name, studies which did not attack the Catholic doctrine frontally and, under pseudonyms (for example Henri Delafosse), more audacious works. An attempt was made to attribute to him two of his pseudonymous works against Trinitarian and Marian dogma (“The Dogma of the Trinity in the First Three Centuries” and “The Blessed Virgin in History”) but without success. In 1910, he refused to take the oath against modernism. Unmasked, suspended, then excommunicated in November 1930, the old man nevertheless continued to wear the cassock, to say mass at home to a few faithful and to work. He then benefited, until his death on |February 5, 1943, from the friendship, comfort and material assistance of the militants of Freethought in Rennes. He died during the Second World War on February 5, 1943, at 11, rue Waldeck-Rousseau, in Rennes.

He is sometimes referred to as patristician.[3]

Placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum

Turmel's works (some of which were written under the pseudonyms Antoine Dupin, Henri Delafosse, Louis Coulange, Hippolyte Gallerand, Guillaume Herzog, Edmond Perrin, André Lagarde) were condemned and banned by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Catholic Church, as well as Félix Sartiaux's study on him.[4]

Works

Under his name

  • Histoire de l'angéologie, des temps apostoliques à la fin du ve siècle, Revue d'histoire et de littérature religieuses, 3, 1898.
  • Histoire du dogme du péché originel, Macon, Protat, 1904.
  • Tertullien, Bloud, 1905
  • Histoire de la théologie positive, du Concile de Trente au Concile du Vatican, Paris, Beauchesne, 1906.
    • vol. I
    • vol. II
  • Histoire du dogme de la papauté, des origines jusqu'à la fin du IVe siècle, Paris, Picard, 1908.
  • Histoire du diable, Paris, Rieder, 1931.
  • Histoire des dogmes, Rieder, 1931–1937, 6 vol., 3151 p.
    • vol. I : Le péché originel. La rédemption, 1931, 464 p.
    • vol. II : La Trinité. L'Incarnation. La Vierge Marie, 1932, 529 p.
    • vol. III : La papauté, 1933, 498 p.
    • vol. IV : Le créationisme, les anges. La vie d'outre-tombe. Canon et inspiration des Écritures. La grâce sanctifiante, 1935, 485 p.
    • vol. V : La grâce actuelle, les sacrements en général, le baptême, la confirmation, l'eucharistie, le mariage, 569 p.
    • vol. VI : La pénitence, la confession, l'extrême-onction. L'ordre. Conclusion, 1937, 547 p.
  • Comment j'ai donné congé aux dogmes, Éd. de L'Idée libre, Bibliothèque du libre penseur, Herblay, 1935. Reissue under the title En Soutane. Mémoires, Éd. des Malassis,[5] 2016.
  • La Bible expliquée, Herblay, Éd. de L'Idée libre, 1936.
  • Réfutation du catéchisme, Herblay, Idée libre, 1937.
  • Comment l'Église romaine m'a donné congé', Herblay, 1937. Reissue under the title En Soutane. Mémoires, Ed. des Malassis,[6] 2016.
  • Les Religions, Herblay, Idée libre, 1938.
  • Le suaire de Turin, suivi d'un « Courte histoire du faux suaire de Cadouin », Éd. de l’Idée libre, Bibliothèque du libre penseur, Herblay, 1938.
  • Dieu, Herblay, Éd. de L'Idée libre, Bibliothèque du libre penseur, 1940.

Works under pseudonyms:

  • Antoine Dupin, Le dogme de la Trinité dans les trois premiers siècles, Paris, 1907.
  • Guillaume Herzog, La Sainte Vierge dans l'histoire. Paris, Nourry, 1908.
  • Henri Delafosse, Le quatrième Évangile, Rieder, 1925
  • Henri Delafosse, Les écrits de saint Paul, Paris, Rieder, 1926–1928, 4 vol.
    • vol. I : L'épître aux Romains
    • vol. II : La première épître aux Corinthiens
    • vol. III : La seconde épître aux Corinthiens
    • vol. IV : L'épître aux Philippiens
  • Louis Coulange, La messe, Rieder, 1927
  • Armand Dulac (= Joseph Turmel) and Albert Houtin, Courte histoire du célibat ecclésiastique, Rieder, 1929
  • Louis Coulange, Catéchisme pour adultes, Rieder, 1929-1930
    • vol. I : Les dogmes
    • vol. II : Les institutions

Notes and References
  1. or at the faculty of theology of Angers
  2. Du catholicisme au rationalisme (From Catholicism to rationalism)
  3. The Contemporary World and the Bible, by Claude Savart, Jean-Noël Aletti, Éditions Beauchesne, 1985, p. 402 .
  4. Index of prohibited books
  5. Éditions des Malassis - Les Cinquante sarl.
  6. Éditions des Malassis - Les Cinquante sarl.

See also

Bibliography

Studies:

  • Dujardin, Edouard. The rise and fall of criticism. Its renovation. The case of Father Turmel. Paris, Messein, 1931.
  • Sartiaux, Felix. Joseph Turmel, priest, historian of dogmas. Paris, Rieder, 1931.
  • River, Jean. The dogma of redemption before history, a plea by M. Turmel, Paris, J. Gabalda & Cie, 1936.
  • Proceedings of the symposium News of the anticlerical and anti-religious work of Father Joseph Turmel on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of his disappearance. ed LA LIBRE PENSEE 35 / association Joseph Turmel.
  • Department of Manuscripts of the National Library, documents concerning Joseph Turmel given by Mme. Félix Sartiaux (n. a. fr. 17780–17792). (Reported in Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes, 1985, vol. 143, p. 317, available at article/bec_0373-6237_1985_num_143_2_450381 online.)

Articles:

  • Hervé Baudru, “A life of a hircocerf: Joseph Turmel”, in Annales de Bretagne et des pays de l'Ouest, 2007, vol. 114, ISSN 0399-0826 Publisher University of Upper Brittany, Rennes
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