Œuvres complètes de Voltaire (Complete Works of Voltaire) 69

In this period, Voltaire began serious study on Christian antiquity and early Church history, and particularly on the 'hidden' or apocryphal texts. In "Collection d’anciens évangiles", he brings together his researches, in preparation for his significant "Questions sur l'Encyclopédie" articles ‘Evangile’ and ‘Christianisme’. This was a point in Voltaire’s life where he began to give free rein to his dissatisfaction with the Church: its claims to exclusivity, intolerance, cruelty and arrogant triumphalism. In "Dieu et les hommes" he attempts to contest the Church’s historical importance and spiritual primacy in integrating Christianity into a larger historical and religious context.