Historical and Critical Dictionary — Selections
Bayle was a French Calvinist who spent most of his life in exile in Rotterdam, persecuted for his faith — his brother died in a French prison because of Pierre’s religious activities. His Historical and Critical Dictionary (1697) was among the most widely read books of the seventeenth century. On the problem of evil, Bayle argued that no philosophical system had successfully reconciled evil with an omnipotent and benevolent God — and that perhaps the Manicheans, who posited two co-eternal principles of good and evil, had the better argument. Whether he believed this himself has never been settled. What is certain is that he directly provoked Leibniz’s Theodicy and set the terms of debate for two centuries.