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Voltaire begins this declaration of his personal theology witha joke in which Mlle Duclos is so ignorant of her religion thatshe has the Credo confused with the Pater Noster (theLord\'s Prayer). The point of the paragraph at the bottomof p. 159 and the top of p. 160 is that the Christian Credo probablyevolved some time after Jesus, and does not reflect the beliefsof his early followers. The paragraph about the belief that Christdescended into Hell is based on a now-obscure doctrine calledin English \"the Harrowing of Hell,\" which at onetime was very prominent and is often depicted in Medieval artand literature. The so-called \"Credo of Saint-Pierre\"is, of course, Voltaire\'s own composition.
What does itsstrong insistence on monotheism imply about Christianity? Whatis the point of the long third paragraph of the \"Credo,\"and of the two paragraphs that follow? What is the evil that hemost strenuously attacks? How does he say priests should be treated?
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