[Bayle takes for granted that Pope Gregory I had wielded massive civil power and that the historian should ask if he had used it well. He accuses Gregory of lacking principle in making conversions. For when his missionaries preached to the English pagans, he had taught that in Christ's kingdom there were only voluntary subjects. Yet within the Empire itself, the mission of ‘conversion’ had degenerated into debating the relative effectiveness of inducements vs. punishments. In Remark (E), Bayle shows that Gregory's ambiguity remained Christendom's received wisdom. He concludes, augmenting the thesis of his Commentaire philosophique (1686), that the society that was not tyrannical would propose to the unorthodox neither punishments nor rewards. In Remark (R), he shows how a critical scholar should approach a text that apparently gave credence to miracles.]