“Thus spoke Zarathustra, or Zoroaster.  Then, Voltaire—­Voltaire, who had heard what you were saying about his death, accosted me, and grasping me by the hand, effusively thanked me.

“‘Why so?’ I asked him.

“‘Your sons, mon cher Docteur de l’Eglise,’ he answered, ’have proved and continue proving by facts, that which I maintained.  And what was it that you maintained?  That besides being ignorant, they were liars.’

“To this I could not reply, for he was right.  You should know that he died when 84 years of age, possessed of all his faculties, and with so lucid a mind that when nearing his end and being importuned to make confession, he said:  ’Let me die in peace’—­and died.  But the worst of it all is, that Voltaire has been pleading with God to take you to Heaven alive and clothed, and when asked why so, he answered ‘So that we may have some fun.’

“On learning of all the indulgences that the Archbishop had allowed on your books, to allure buyers, old Peter, thumping his bald head, exclaimed: 

“’Why did I not think of granting indulgencies with the fish I sold, when a fisherman?  We would have been rich, and Judas, instead of selling the Master, would have sold sardines and tinapa! [6] I would not have been obliged to cowardly apostatize, and would not have suffered martyrdom.  Verily, I say, that my friend down Below leaves me behind in the matter of knowing how to make money; and yet I am a Jew.’

“‘Of course, don’t you know that your friend Below is a Gallego?’ [7] Said a little old man who had been Up There but a few years.  His name was Tasio, and, addressing himself to me, he continued: 

“’You are a great Doctor, and although you have contradicted yourself many times, I hold you as a privileged character of vast erudition, for, having written your books, Retractationum, and Confesiones; and since you are so different from your sons who try, when defending themselves, to make black appear white, and white green, I will state my complaints, so that you, as their Father, may put a stop to it all.

“’There exists on earth an unfortunate, who, amongst many foolish acts, has committed the following: 

“’1st.  He holds solidary of all that I have said during my earthly life, an Indian called Rizal, only because said Indian has quoted my words in a book that he wrote.  As you can see, should we follow such a system of reasoning, Rizal would also agree with the views expressed by friars, policemen, etc., and you, yourself, Holy Doctor, would also be solidary of all that you ascribe to heretics, Pagans, and above all, to Manichees.