uvres complètes de Voltaire (Complete Works of Voltaire) 49A: Sermon des Cinquante; Writings of 1758-1759

Voltaire''s most scathingly anti-Christian text, the Sermon des cinquante , of which he consistently denied authorship, develops the arguments he was to use over the coming decades in a multitude of virulent texts. In the period 1758-1759, biblical questions remain prominent with the Lettre sur le Messie and, in a gentler tone, the Precis de l''Ecclesiaste and Precis du Cantique des cantiques . These years also saw the culmination of a long-brewing quarrel over the reputation of the deceased minister Joseph Saurin, which brought Voltaire''s stay in Lausanne to a close. A series of philosophical dialogues and a conte round out his literary productions of this two-year span. See more