In the mémoire, Voltaire claims that his Histoire Universelle has been disfigured by Jean Néaulme in Berlin and Duchesne in Paris. He notes that it is not his fault if there have been unworthy popes, bad princes, and bad bishops, and neither is it his fault that people at court are ignorant. He asks the recipient to get rid of the existing copies of the work if possible, and asks to make public the purity of his conduct before the King, adding that he is threatened with an outburst from the Archibishop of Paris.