Mr Bayle.was deeply affected by the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and the horrid persecutions to which the reformed in France were consequently sub jected ; and felt still more indignant when he ob served the popish writers boasting of their clemency, and celebrating the immortal glory which Louis the Great had acquired by rendering France entirely ca tholic. After speaking of these things in his Journal with more caution than was natural to him, he at last (1686) gave vent to his feelings in a little book, enti tled, C'e que c'est que la France tonic Catholigue sous le refine de Louis le Grand, in which he passes the se verest censures on France for the injustice, the treachery, the cruelties which it had practised to wards the votaries of the protestant religion. This was followed by another volume written with the same general view, and in a more argumentative strain. Its title was Commentaire philosophique sur ces paroles deJesus Christ contraigziez les d'entrer,Sce. This work should be read by every statesman and divine, for the sound and liberal ideas of toleration which it inculcates, and for the strength of argument ' and clearness of illustration with which almost all its positions on that important subject are accompanied. He who, after a careful and candid perusal of it, i would justify persecution in popish princes any case, or non•toleration in protestants, unless it be identified with the safety of the state, we must pro nounce to be neither an enlightened Christian, nor a wise citizen.
About this time Mr Bayle received letters from various quarters ; from the French Academy, from the Royal Society of London, and from the Society of Dublin, approving highly of his Journal, and express ing, in polite terms, their admiration of the genius which it indicated, and their sense of its utility to the cause of literature. But while this work advanced his reputation, it also involved him in some disagree able disputes. Some thing which he had published in it, was particularly offensive to that strange, clever, and eccentric woman, Christina Queen of Sweden. She made one of her servants communicate to him the ground of her complaint. This he answered by a note in his Journal, which would have satisfied any reasonable mind. But finding that the queen's dis pleasure was not to be removed so easily, he made a full recantation of his in the Journal, and in a letter which he was advised to address to Chris tina herself. The strain of this letter is adulatory and slavish. It is a great deal more than mere respect to the queen's elevated rank, or than mere complai sance to her headstrong humour. It is a practical exhibition of that belief which was then entertained by the reformed, as well as by the catholics, in the ab solute and divine right of princes ; and forms a strik ing and lamentable contrast to that noble indepen dence of language which we should expect to find in all the writings of a protestant philosopher. The great object of Mr Bayle, however, was gained. The queen was satisfied. She sent him a gracious and friendly answer, and sheaved him other marks of her favour. Mr Bayle having been seized with a fever at the com mencement of the year 1687, in consequence of the labour and fatigue which the publication of his Jour nal obliged him to undergo, he was under the neces sity of giving over that work. A continuation of it was undertaken at his request by Mr Beauval, under the title of I listoire des Ouvrages des Scavans. But at the same time it was regularly published under the old title for about two years longer by the original printer of it, with the assistance of a Mr Larroque, a Mr Barin, and other literary characters.
Mr Jurieu man of intolerant temper, was displeased with the Commentaire Philosophique, and undertook to write an answer to it, in which he at first suspected it to be the production of a cabal of French refugees, but afterwards distinctly laid it to the charge of Mr Bayle, who had been very anxious to make the public believe that he was not the author. Having, by proper care of himself,'recovered from his illness, Mr Bayle published a continuation of his Phi losophical Commentary by way of supplement ; and took occasion to notice Jurieu's work, in such a man ner as to make him contradict himself, and to expos him to ridicule and contempt. In 1690 there appear ed a book, entitled, Avis Important aux Ilcfugies sur leur prochain relour en France. From what Maizeaux has stated, we have sufficient reason for concluding, that Mr Bayle was the author of this work. But as it contains a severe censure on the refugees for pre tended calumnies and attachment to republicanism, and is quite inconsistent with the strain of his other writings, we are at a loss to know the motives which he had for such a publication. Notwithstanding all that his biographer has said to account for this part of his conduct, we cannot but consider it as represent ing him in a very suspicious and unfavourable light. Indeed, the attempt to justify an action so hypocriti cal and base, is far more absurd than an implicit be lief in the denial of Bayle himself, and the testimony of his eulogist, Mr Beauval. In the year following, one Goudet, a merchant in Geneva, composed a pro ject for a general peace, which Mr Bayle perused is manuscript, and which was afterwards published with his concurrence. Jurieu, who had accused him of being the author of the Advice to the Refugees, con necting it in this view with the project for a general peace, thought proper to regard them as decisive proofs of an existing conspiracy in favour of the court of France ; and, openly charging Mr Bayle as one of the leaders in it, pronounced him to be an impious and prophane person, without honour or religion, a traitor, a deceitful man, an enemy to the state; a per son to be detested, and deserving of corporal punish ment. To prevent the injury which such a serious attack, if unresisted, must have done to his reputation and his interests, Mr Bayle went to the magistrates of Rotterdam, asserted his innocence in the strongest terms, and demanded that he should not suffer in their estimation till the case was fairly tried. And not sa tisfied with this appeal to the civil authority, he deem ed it expedient to vindibate his character before the world by a public refutation of Jurieu's ridiculous and malevolent libels. This he did in a work entitled, La Cabale Chimerique, &c. In this work he kept no terms with Jurieu. He proved him to be igno rant, stupid, arrogant, and wicked ; and held him up as a man to be laughed at for his folly, and detested for his malevolence. The burgomasters of Rotter dam, to whom Jurieu applied for protection, advised a mutual reconciliation, and forbade the combatants to publish any thing against one another, without first submitting it to the inspection of Mr Bayer, pen sionary of the city. This order, however, was vio lated by Jurieu, and a long controversy ensued, in which he reaped nothing but disgrace, and which at length was terminated by a dignified silence on the part of Mr Bayle.