1647 – 1706

Pierre Bayle

Worth knowing

A French Protestant scholar who fled to Rotterdam in 1681.
After the Revocation of 1685 his brother Jacob, a pastor, died in a French prison, arrested in Pierre's place.
His Philosophical Commentary answers the use of "compel them to come in" (Luke 14:23) to justify persecution. Force, he argued, can make a person say the words but cannot make him believe them.

In Scholar’s Dream, Pierre Bayle has one book

Compel Them to Come InA Philosophical Commentary on These Words of the Gospel, Luke 14:23 (1686–88)RationalityEcclesiology

Pierre Bayle’s quotes in the game

Every quotation from Pierre Bayle that a player meets in Scholar’s Dream, attached to the move that says it. Or see them as a plain list →

In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other, and each thing a book can do in a debate is called a move. Every quote below is spoken by one of those moves. Open “How it works in the game” under a quote to see the move, which books learn it, and which arguments it answers best.

“It’s plain then, that Conscience wou’d apply the Command of God, for the establishing the Truth, to each Party’s own Religion.”
Pierre Bayle, A Philosophical Commentary on These Words of the Gospel, Luke 14:23, Part I, Ch. VIII (trans. anonymous, London, 1708, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Each Party’s Own Religion

RationalityArgument · power 82 · 100% accurate

In the gameBayle’s key argument. If compel them to come in allows force for the sake of truth, it allows force for anyone sincerely sure they have the truth, and that is every persecutor on every side. So the verse cannot mean that.

Learned byCompel Them to Come In (Lv 22)

“...if they extort Subscriptions from them by a dread of Death, they constrain them to deny with their Mouth, what their Heart adores as Truth; which is plunging them into much a greater Sin than their Error.”
Pierre Bayle, A Philosophical Commentary on These Words of the Gospel, Luke 14:23, Part III (trans. anonymous, London, 1708, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Plunged Into a Greater Sin

RationalityArgument · power 100 · 100% accurate

In the gameBayle’s answer to compel them to come in, aimed at Augustine’s Letter 93. A forced signature does not save anyone. It teaches a person to lie about his own heart, on top of whatever error he started with.

Learned byCompel Them to Come In (Lv 30)

Strong against

×4The Edict of Fontainebleaua book · why?

A forced signature is not a conversion. It is a lie the state has taught a whole kingdom to tell, on top of whatever it was trying to correct.

×2.5Baptised or Beheadedan argument · why?

Bayle answers the argument from compulsion a thousand years later: a signature taken under threat of death is not faith. It teaches a person to say with his mouth what his heart denies.

Words Pierre Bayle’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

How it works in the game: the move Affirm

Status

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

Learned byCompel Them to Come In (Lv 23)

Who else was alive

Pierre Bayle against everyone else in the game.

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Boethius Boniface John of Damascus Daniel of Winchester Timothy I Alcuin of York Pope Leo III Eulogius of Córdoba Paul Alvaro of Córdoba Rimbert Humbert of Silva Candida Michael Cerularius Peter III of Antioch Anselm of Canterbury Ari Thorgilsson Ebo and Herbord Thomas Aquinas John Wyclif Lorenzo Valla Girolamo Savonarola Pope Paul III Martin Luther Miles Coverdale William Tyndale Emperor Charles V John Calvin Teresa of Ávila John Jewel The Council of Trent The English exiles at Geneva Hugo Grotius René Descartes John Owen Blaise Pascal John Bunyan Louis XIV of France Pierre Bayle Joseph Butler Jonathan Edwards Thomas Reid George Campbell William Paley John Henry Newman J. C. Ryle Friedrich Nietzsche James Orr B. B. Warfield Herman Bavinck W. R. Sorley James Denney J. Gresham Machen

Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate51 authors sit outside this window