Gabriel André Aucler[a] (mid 1700s–1815) was a French lawyer who after theFrench Revolution adopted the nameQuintus Nautius and tried toreestablish pagan religiosity with himself as its leader. He createdreligious clothing for himself and conducted pagan rites at his house. He published a book in 1799,La Thréicie, which presents his religious views. His teachings became the subject of an essay byGérard de Nerval, included inLes Illuminés in 1852.
Gabriel André Aucler was born inArgenton-en-Berry in the middle of the 18th century.[1] He became a lawyer by profession.[2]
Aucler admiredancient Greece andancient Rome and became a strong supporter of theFrench Revolution, which he viewed as a way to recreate an ancientrepublic.[2] During theFrench First Republic, he became known for his attempt toreinstate paganism. He began to call himself Quintus Nautius, claimed to descend from an ancient Roman priest family and fashioned himself as the leader of a revived paganism, creatingpriestly clothes for himself.[1] He performed rites conceived as restorations of the ancientmysteries of Orpheus at his house.[3] His followers primarily consisted of his household.[1]
Aucler wrote a book about his religious views with the titleLa Thréicie, ou la seule voie des sciences divines et humaines, du culte vrai et de la morale (lit. 'The Thracian; or, The Only Way of the Divine and Human Sciences, of the True Worship and Morality'). It is 440 pages long[2] and was published under the name Q Nautius Aucler by Moutardier in Paris in 1799, or VII according to theFrench Republican calendar. TheThracian of the title isOrpheus, referencing an epithet fromVergil.[4] The book promotes a revival of paganism in contemporary France and aPythagorean theme of universal animation.[5] It condemns the conversion to Christianity as violent,[6] presents Christianity as morally bankrupt and dismisses theesotericism ofMaximilien Robespierre.[4] The book was written when the revolutionary fervour had decreased; according to theBiographie universelle : ancienne et moderne, it obscures the full extent of Aucler's teachings.[7] Aucler continued to promote paganism after Catholicism had been restored in France.[1]
A poem Aucler wrote toward the end of his life has been interpreted as a recantation of his views. It was published inBourges in 1813 in a 32-page booklet with the titleL'Ascendant de la religion, ou Récit des crimes et des fureurs, de la conversion et de la mort chrétienne d'un grand coupable, qui ont eu lieu récemment dans la ville de Bourges (lit. 'The Ascendant of Religion, or Account of the crimes and furies, of the conversion and Christian death of a great culprit, which took place recently in the city of Bourges'). Aucler died in Bourges in 1815.[7]
TheoccultistLazare Lenain [fr] inAmiens was influenced by Aucler and continued to perform pagan rites after theBourbon Restoration. He produced a book in 1823,The Science of the Kabbalah, which combinesKabbalah and occultism with themes fromLa Thréicie.[8]
Gérard de Nerval wrote an essay about Aucler, published in November 1851 in theRevue de Paris as "Les Païens de la République: Quintus Aucler" (lit. 'The Pagans of the Republic: Quintus Aucler') and republished in 1852 as "Quintus Aucler" as the final entry in the bookLes Illuminés. Unlike other portraits inLes Illuminés, "Quintus Aucler" provides almost no biographical information, but quotes extensively fromLa Thréicie.[9] Together with the poem "Christ in the Olive Grove" (1844) and the bookVoyage to the Orient (1851), "Quintus Aucler" has been analyzed as central in Nerval's interest in religious decline.[6] Nerval presented Aucler's paganism as an example of the persistence of religiosity in spite of dwindling belief around him.[10] He wrote that Aucler might be taken for a madman when viewed from outside of his social context, but describedLa Thréicie as "a book which imposes respect through honesty of intentions and sincerity of beliefs".[11][b]
Jean-Joseph Gaume devoted a section to Aucler in his workLa Révolution (1856).[12] Gaume compared Aucler's paganism to contemporaneous projects such as the "allegorical mysticism" ofFrançois Antoine de Boissy d'Anglas,Pierre Gaspard Chaumette and Robespierre, the "timid polytheism" of Jean-Baptiste Chemin-Dupontès andFrançois Antoine Daubermesnil [fr], theCult of Reason and the plant-covered altars ofTheophilanthropy.[13] Gaume wrote that Aucler stood out with his dissatisfaction with everything except the full restoration of ancient polytheism and its establishment as state religion.[13]
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