Jean Hardouin facts for kids

Portrait of Jean Hardouin by R. Biondi

Jean Hardouin (born December 23, 1646 – died September 3, 1729) was a French priest and a smart scholar of ancient texts. He was known for editing old books and writing about important church meetings called ecumenical councils.

However, Hardouin is mostly remembered today for his very unusual ideas. He believed that almost all the books, art, coins, and writings we think are ancient were actually faked in the 1300s! He thought a secret group made them up. Because of these strange ideas, some of his books were put on a list of "forbidden books" by the church.

Even though some people called Hardouin "crazy," his ideas were part of a bigger trend at the time. Scholars were starting to question old documents and find out if they were real or fake. Hardouin just took this idea to an extreme level.

Hardouin's Life Story

Jean Hardouin was born in a town called Quimper in France. He loved books because his father owned a bookshop. Around 1662, when he was about 16, he joined the Jesuits, a group of Catholic priests. He went to Paris to study and later became the librarian at a famous school called Lycée Louis-le-Grand in 1683. He lived there until he died.

His first published work was an edition of a writer named Themistius in 1684. He also worked for five years to edit the Natural History by Pliny the Elder, a huge book about nature.

Hardouin also became very interested in numismatics, which is the study of coins. He wrote several books about ancient coins. He always wanted to find new and different ways to understand things. Once, when a fellow Jesuit told him his ideas were shocking, Hardouin replied, "Do you think I would have gotten up at 4 AM my whole life just to say what others have already said?"

He helped supervise a large collection of church council documents. But he was accused of hiding some important papers and adding fake ones. This caused problems, and the book's publication was delayed. After he died, some of his other works were published. One person said that if his friends truly loved him, they would have left these works unpublished!

Hardouin's Unique Ideas

Jean Hardouin had some very unusual theories about history and ancient writings.

His Bible Theories

Most people believed that the Latin version of the New Testament (called the Vulgate) was translated from the original Greek text. But Hardouin argued that all the books of the New Testament were originally written in Latin. He thought that if they were written in Greek or Hebrew, those original copies were lost. He even believed that Jesus Christ spoke Latin every day! He thought that the parts in the Gospels where Jesus speaks Aramaic were just special cases.

Hardouin also had a strange idea about an event in the Bible called the "incident at Antioch." In this story, Paul the Apostle argues with Peter. Most people believe this was the same Peter who was one of Jesus's main disciples. But Hardouin said it was a different man, also named Cephas (another name for Peter). He argued this because he thought it would be wrong for Peter, a leader, to be rebuked by Paul. He even said that if Peter was rebuked, it would mean Peter was wrong, and that would shake people's faith in the Bible! Because of this extreme view, his commentary on the New Testament was also put on the forbidden books list.

His Views on Ancient Books

Hardouin's most famous idea was about ancient and medieval literature. He started to suspect that many old books were not real around 1690. By 1692, he believed he had "uncovered everything."

He thought that for the first 1,300 years of Christianity, religious teachings were passed down by talking, not by writing books. He believed that in the 1300s, a group of "atheist" monks, led by someone named "Severus Archontius," faked almost all the writings of the early Church leaders (called the Church Fathers) and medieval scholars. He thought they did this to spread wrong ideas into the Church.

Because of this, Hardouin believed that almost all of Church history before the invention of the printing press was made up! When someone asked him why he wrote a history of church councils if he thought they never happened, he just said, "God and I only know."

He also thought that nearly all ancient non-religious books were faked to support this big lie. He first hinted at this idea in a book about ancient coins. He wrote that a group of people centuries ago made up ancient history because none existed before. He believed they used books like those by Cicero, Pliny the Elder, and parts of Virgil and Horace to help them. Hardouin thought these were the only real ancient Latin writings, along with a few old inscriptions. He believed all other old books were written in a similar, lower-quality style of Greek or Latin, proving they were all made at the same time by the same forgers.

Many people disagreed with Hardouin. One Jesuit leader started an investigation into his ideas. Many other Jesuits said Hardouin's ideas were dangerous to their group and the Church.

In 1708, Hardouin's ideas were published in a clearer way. This forced his superiors to publicly say they disagreed with him. In 1709, a "Declaration" was published, stating that they rejected his "paradox" that the Greek Bible text and the works of the Church Fathers were not real. They also called his ideas about dating secular books "an unsustainable chimera" (a wild, impossible idea).

Hardouin then signed a statement saying he agreed with the declaration and condemned his own ideas about a "faction" that fabricated most ancient works. He promised not to say anything against this retraction.

However, it seems Hardouin still believed his ideas. He wrote another work after 1714 where he continued to explain them. In this later work, he said that only a few ancient Greek works like the Iliad and the Odyssey were real. He even changed his mind about Cicero, saying his works were also faked by the conspirators.

Hardouin also wrote special books to try and prove that famous works like Virgil's Aeneid and most of Horace's poems were not real. He even questioned if Thomas Aquinas, a very famous scholar, ever existed, saying his main work was written by an atheist. He also thought that Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy was fake and written by someone else.

Despite Hardouin's strong beliefs, most scholars and historians have always disagreed with him. His ideas are seen as very unusual and not based on strong evidence.

Images for kids

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  Portrait of Jean Hardouin by R. Biondi