BAYLE, Pierre.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Commentaire philosophique sur ces paroles de Jesus-Chrit [sic]. First edition of Bayle's brilliant and impassioned defence of religious tolerance, a Huguenot exile's response to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes which had been enacted the previous year, published pseudonymously under a fictitious imprint and most probably printed in Amsterdam by Abraham Wolfgang. In spite of the suggestion on the title page, the work was in fact originally written and first published in French and was only first translated into English in the eighteenth century. The Commentaire philosophique established its author as a defender of free conscience for all believers and for atheists. It detailed Bayle's notion of errant conscience, scandalous to Protestants, Catholics and militant atheists alike: that error believed to be truth must be allowed all the privileges of truth. Bayle's plan, outlined in his title and preface, mentioned a third part, on two letters of St Augustine. In fact, a subsequent edition dated 1686-8 was published in four volumes, the third and fourth parts having come out as Supplément in 1687 and 1688.

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