Claude-Adrien Nonnotte

Claude-Adrien Nonnotte (b. in Besançon, 29 July 1711; d. there, 3 September 1793) was a French Jesuit controversialist, best known for his writings against Voltaire.

At nineteen he entered the Society of Jesus and preached at Amiens, Versailles, and Turin. When Voltaire began to issue his Essai sur les moeurs (1754), an attack on Christianity, Nonnotte published, anonymously, the Examen critique ou Réfutation du livre des moeurs; and when Voltaire finished his publication (1758), Nonnotte revised his book, which he published at Avignon (2 vols., 1762). He dealt with what he saw as historical and doctrinal errors contained in Voltaire's work. Nonnotte's work reached the sixth edition in 1774. Voltaire retorted in his Eclaircissements historiques, and for twenty years continued to attack Nonnotte.