name: Pierre Bayle
birth_date: 1647-11-18 00:00:00
death_date: 1706-12-28 00:00:00
genres: Philosophy
avg_rating: 3.8
ratings_count: 318
about: French philosopher Pierre Bayle, considered the progenitor of 18th-century rationalism, compiled the famous Dictionnaire historique et critique in 1697 and championed the cause of religious tolerance. People later renamed Carla-le-Comte as Carla-Bayle in his honour. His father, a Calvinist minister, and an academy at Puylaurens educated him. He afterwards entered a Jesuit college at Toulouse and, a month later in 1669, joined as a Roman Catholic. After seventeen months, he returned to Calvinism and fled to Geneva. The teachings of René Descartes acquainted him. He returned, went to Paris, and for some years worked under the name of Bèle as a tutor for various families. In 1675, people appointed him to the chair at the Protestant academy French philosopher Pierre Bayle, considered the progenitor of 18th-century rationalism, compiled the famous Dictionnaire historique et critique in 1697 and championed the cause of religious tolerance. People later renamed Carla-le-Comte as Carla-Bayle in his honour. His father, a Calvinist minister, and an academy at Puylaurens educated him. He afterwards entered a Jesuit college at Toulouse and, a month later in 1669, joined as a Roman Catholic. After seventeen months, he returned to Calvinism and fled to Geneva. The teachings of René Descartes acquainted him. He returned, went to Paris, and for some years worked under the name of Bèle as a tutor for various families. In 1675, people appointed him to the chair at the Protestant academy of Sedan. In 1681, the government suppressed the university at Sedan in action against Protestants. Bayle fled to the Dutch Republic just before that event, and the École Illustre in Rotterdam almost immediately appointed him professor. He taught for many years, but a long internal quarrel in the college embroiled him. As a result, people deprived Bayle of his chair in 1693. Bayle in Rotterdam died. People buried his body and that of Pierre Jurieu, seven years later, in the Waalse Kerk. ...more