Atheist's Bible
The Most Dangerous Book That Never Existed
Like a lot of good stories, this one begins with a rumor: in 1239, Pope Gregory IX accused Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor, of heresy. Without disclosing evidence of any kind, Gregory announced that Frederick had written a supremely blasphemous book – "De tribus impostoribus", or the "Treatise of the Three Impostors" – in which Frederick denounced Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad as impostors. Of course, Frederick denied the charge, and over the following centuries the story played out across Europe, with libertines, freethinkers, and other "strong minds" seeking a copy of the scandalous text. The fascination persisted until finally, in the eighteenth century, someone brought the purported work into actual existence – in not one but two versions, Latin and French.
Although historians have debated the origins and influences of this nonexistent book, there has not been a comprehensive biography of the "Treatise of the Three Impostors". In "The Atheist's Bible", the eminent historian Georges Minois tracks the course of the book from its origins in 1239 to its most salient episodes in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, introducing readers to the colorful individuals obsessed with possessing the legendary work – and the equally obsessive passion of those who wanted to punish people who sought it. Minois's compelling account sheds much-needed light on the power of atheism, the threat of blasphemy, and the persistence of free thought during a time when the outspoken risked being burned at the stake.
Reviews
"Georges Minois's timely and elegant study 'The Atheist's Bible' is a landmark addition to both the history of ideas and the history of the book. The 'Treatise of the Three Impostors' set a record for advance publicity – before it was finally published, intellectuals accused one another of writing it for nearly half a millennium. Its real author was not any single thinker but the cumulative, nervous imagination of the entire European intelligentsia. Like a Freudian id, it exposed the repressed, traumatic thought that all religion was a hoax: centuries before avowed atheism became possible, accusations that someone else had written the 'Treatise of the Three Impostors' explored the particulars and possibilities of irreligion. Readers who are intrigued or scandalized by the diatribes of Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens will discover in 'The Atheist's Bible' that, as that other Bible says, there is nothing new under the sun" – Walter Stephens, author of "Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of Beli"
"The 'Treatise of the Three Impostors' is a book that enjoyed centuries of notorious nonexistence until (as Voltaire would say) it became necessary to invent it. Georges Minois writes with empathy, erudition, and a novelist's sense of buildup and timing, weaving in the parallel story of Europe's courageous freethinkers. In the face of today's social and even legal pressures against criticizing religion, it is good to see an honorable French tradition asserting itself" – Joscelyn Godwin, author of "The Pagan Dream of the Renaissance"
"Just as in Umberto Eco's novel 'The Prague Cemetery', if you create false evidence in order to discredit your enemies – be they Jews or Jesuits, Carbonari or Bolsheviks, Masons or the Vatican – you will soon find people eager not only to believe you but also to serve the cause you have been trying to undermine. The text that is the object of Georges Minois' study, the 'Treatise of the Three Impostors', provides a perfect illustration of this peculiar dynamics of deceit, credulity and paranoia" – Times Higher Education
