BAYLE, PIERRE French philosopher and man of letters, was born on Nov. 18, 1647, at le Carla-le-Comte, near Pamiers (Ariege), the son of a Calvinist minister. He entered the Jesuit college at Toulouse. He adopted the Roman Catholic faith (1669), but reverted to Calvinism, and in order to avoid persecu tion, fled to Geneva, where he became acquainted with Cartesian ism. Returning to France, he acted as tutor for some time, and was then appointed (1675) to the chair of philosophy at the Prot estant university of Sedan. On its suppression in 168i, he became professor of philosophy and history at Rotterdam where, in 1682, he published his Pensees diverses sur la comete de 168o and his critique of Maimbourg's history of Calvinism. Two years later he began to publish the famous journal, Nouvelles de la republique des lettres, which was the first thorough-going attempt to popular ize literature. He was deprived of his chair in 1693, in consequence of the attribution to him of the tract Avis important aux ref ugies. He now gave his whole attention to his Dictionnaire histori que et critique, a work displaying a universal curiosity and con siderable erudition, which had great influence on the French phil osophes of the i8th century, especially on Voltaire. Bayle's dic tionary was the source from which the French encyclopaedists drew many of their arguments, and the plan outlined by Diderot for the Encyclopedie itself was based on the method of Bayle's book. "Articles dealing with respectable prejudices" wrote Did erot, "must expound them deferentially; the edifice of clay must be shattered by referring the reader to the other articles in which the opposite truths are established on sound principles. This method of enlightening the reader has an immediate influence on those who are quick of apprehension, an indirect and latent influ ence on all." This is really the principle on which Bayle acted in his criticism of popular beliefs. He was a sceptic, strongly object ing to Spinoza's monism and inclined to manicheism. He regarded the realms of faith and reason as mutually exclusive. He taught that the history of civilization was the history of man's effort to overcome his own nature, but he was nevertheless politically timid and conservative. His writings paved the way for revolution, but he was no revolutionary himself. On one point only was he frankly an advocate of a complete change of front. Three years before Locke wrote his Letters on Toleration Bayle published his Com mentaire philosophique sur le Compelle Entrare, in which he argued that freedom of thought was a natural right, and that even an atheist was not necessarily a bad citizen.
Bayle died in exile at Rotterdam on Dec. 28, I 706. Two centu ries later, a statue in his honour was erected in his native place, "la reparation d'un long oubli." BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Editions:-Dictionnaire historique et critique (1695Bibliography.-Editions:-Dictionnaire historique et critique (1695- 97 ; I 702, enlarged ; that of P. des Maizeaux (Amsterdam, 174o) , is the best) , a number of English translations exist ; Les Oeuvres de Bayle (The Hague) . See P. des Maizeaux, Vie de Bayle (Amsterdam, 173o) ; L. A. Feuerbach, Pierre Bayle (Ausbach, 1838) ; Damiron, La Philosophie en France au XVIIe siecle (1858-64) ; Sainte-Beuve, Por traits Litteraires, vol. i. (1862) ; A. Deschamps, La Genese du scepti cisme erudit chez Bayle (Liege, 1878) ; J. Denis, Bayle et Jurieu (1886) ; Emile Gigas, Choix de la correspondance inedite de Pierre Bayle (189o) ; de Bude, Lettres inedites adressees a J. A. Turretini (1887) ; A. Cazes, P. Bayle, sa vie, ses idees, etc. (1905) ; J. Delvolve, Religion, Critique et Philosophie Positive chez P. Bayle (1906) ; H. E. Smith, The Literary Criticism of P. Bayle (Albany, 1912).