May the last king be strangled in the bowels of the last priest  

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"May the last king be strangled in the bowels of the last priest" is a famous anti-religious and anti-establishment dictum, originating in the writings of the atheist priest Jean Meslier (1664 – 1729) and popularized by Voltaire (1694 – 1778) and Denis Diderot (1713 – 1784).

Its original version reads:

"[Un homme, qui n'avoit ni science ni étude] souhaitait que tous les grands de la terre et que tous les nobles fussent pendus et étranglés avec des boyaux de prêtres."

English translation:

"[A man, who had neither knowledge nor education] wished that all the great men of the earth and all the nobles should be hanged and strangled with priests' guts."

Spurious versions

"je voudrais que le dernier des rois fût étranglé avec les boyaux du dernier prêtre"[1] in L'Intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux

or

"Je voudrais, et ce sera le dernier et le plus ardent de mes souhaits, je voudrais que le dernier des rois fût étranglé avec les boyaux du dernier prêtre."

English translation:

"I would like — and this would be the last and most ardent of my wishes — I would like the last of the kings to be strangled by the guts of the last priest"

Diderot version

Denis Diderot popularized the dictum in two lines from the poem "Les Éleuthéromanes" (1796):

"Et ses mains ourdiraient les entrailles du prêtre,

au défaut d’un cordon pour étrangler les rois.[2]

English: And his hands would plait the priest's entrails, for want of a rope, to strangle kings or "his hands would plait the priest’s guts, if he had no rope, to strangle kings."

There is a second different version, also attributed to Diderot and according to this source[3] , to the same poem:

Et des boyaux du dernier prêtre
Serrons le cou du dernier roi.

(Let us strangle the last king

with the guts of the last priest.)

However, it cannot be found in most versions of that poem.

Ultimately the quote is from Jean Meslier, a French atheist priest, famous for his Testament (1725), of which Voltaire published extracts.

See also

• Bowel
• Priest