Pierre Bayle was a French skeptical Historian and Philosopher. He is best known for his; The Historical and Critical Dictionary, a piece of work which influenced great philosophers such as Voltaire and Thomas Jefferson. Bayle was an anti-systematic thinker. Being skeptic, he always came up with a point and found a way to contradict it. This creates the best arguments possible on both sides, as well as creating an opposition to both sides. By doing this Bayle makes his position in the argument very hard to detect. This is called the “Bayle enigma,” He has changed the encyclopedia as we see it today thanks to his Dictionaries.
Bayle was a French Huguenot, from his birth on 18th November 1647 in Le Carla.
He left for the Jesuit college in Toulouse in 1669, converting to Catholicism,
After college Bayle started studying at a Calvinist seminary in Geneva for two years with Louis Tronchin in 1672
In 1674, after Bayle figured out that dedicating his life to god was not for him, he transferred to the University of Geneva and started studying Cartesian philosophy.
Bayle returned to France under the name of “Bâle” in late 1674
Bayle began his years as a philosopher in 1675 when he joined the Protestant Academy of Sedan.
Bayle met Pierre Jurieu (Calvinist theologian/Bayle’s mentor). Bayle and Jurieu started their life as best friends when the French government closed the Sedan academy in 1681 and they were left protesting together against their enemies.
Their friendship immediately broke once Bayle refused an arranged marriage made by Jurieu, because of these happenings their arguments grew stronger and stronger against each other until they became enemies.
During his initial years in Rotterdam, Netherlands Bayle burst out of his bubble and began writing his most famous pieces against Catholic theology and their practices;
General Critique of Maimbourg’s History of Calvinism (1682)
Diverse Thoughts on the Occasion of a Comet (1683)
One of the biggest steps in Bayle’s life as a philosopher was when he started working for News from the Republic of Letters (1684-1687), which gave him a route to news from the outside world and shined his mind with ideas.
Bayle’s father and brothers died in 1684 and 1685 which provoked hate in his life and eventually it transmitted onto his work. The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and the mix of personal hate provided reasons for Bayle to attack Catholic intolerance in his writing.
An Entirely Catholic France(1686).
His importance as an author was reflected in his work: Important Advice to Refugees (1690) Which Jurieu saw as evidence that Bayle had turned against his Huguenot roots, in pure hatred, he publicly announced that Bayle was a heretic and that he should not be trusted, this produced more and more critics who criticized Bayle’s work. This happening exceeded the peak of his tolerance and 7 years later he published his best work yet, which intensely criticized all beliefs in religion.
The Historical and Critical Dictionary (1697, 1st edition) The writing which proved Bayle was a danger to the Catholic Church was the Dictionary. The Dictionary criticizes Protestants as a whole ,especially Jurieu. The articles do not only criticize Protestants but religion in general.
The Historical and Critical Dictionary (1702, 2nd edition), Bayle greatly increased the number of his catholic critics as soon as he released the second edition of the Dictionary.
Bayle continued to write and respond to those who judged his opinions and state of mind until he died on December 28, 1706. On the day of his death Bayle wrote a letter to his friend stating that he died as a christian who has been hurt by those whom God has sent out, “I am dying as a Christian philosopher, convinced of and pierced by the bounties and mercy of God.”
Even though Bayle’s dedication to religion stayed till the end of his days, many enlightenment philosopher’s, generations after Bayle, saw him as their teacher and idol. Bayle’s most famous admirer was Voltaire. Bayle’s work was an enemy towards the French Reformed Church of Rotterdam and the French Roman Catholic church therefore at the end of his life they decided to criticize it and denounce it because of its intentions to destroy orthodox Christian ideas. Pierre Bayle showed in his Dictionnaire how, in only 40 years, the scientific renaissance had changed all thought in him and in the population around him.
"An Historical and Critical Dictionary." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Accessed April 28, 2016. http://www.britannica.com/topic/An-Historical-and-Critical-Dictionary” Irwin, Kristen. "Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Accessed April 28, 2016. http://www.iep.utm.edu/bayle/. Lennon, Thomas M. "Pierre Bayle." Stanford University. 2003. Accessed April 28, 2016. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/bayle/”
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