What Lies Beneath The Cross

 When Cacombo says: "The reverend fathers own the whole lot, and people own nothing:that's what I call the masterpiece of reason and justice"(62). It finally came to me, I finally got one of his so called humor! Lets just take a look at what he is saying it is totally ironic and in a weird way it is funny. Obviously his main target is the church and he is criticizing the way religion had been handled, the institution and the misleading principles they had established even in the new world. It is not fair to see how people die of hunger, and the church that is suppose to be compassionate being the main reason of the injustice. That is the whole point of his irony, to criticize the church. 

When Voltaire writes:"I don't think I have ever seen such godlike creatures as the reverend fathers. They fight the Kings of Spain and Portugal over here and give them absolution in Europe"(62). We can see how the reverends approve war, when the church is totally against it, and the hypocrisy they manage to have. The words voltaire uses, "godlike creatures" is the perfect ironical description of the situation. The church in this parody is the description of the lack of moral they had  in their principles and the way they managed situations going against the will of God.

 I must remind you that Voltaire was facing a time in which the church oppressed the human mind and men were actually realizing.

It was time to open the mind to other thoughts that didn't involve a hidden conspiracy in the cross.