[The Jansenist Pierre Nicole died in 1695 giving Bayle the opportunity to include in the Dictionary's first edition an appreciation of his work. The article is, I believe, a landmark in political theory insofar as it shows, a century before Kant, that Bayle foresaw an evolving role for the philosophe théologien. For ecclesiastics were apt to believe that their judgements concerning heresy should, as under a once-united church, remain binding on every Christian. Bayle's view, hardly grasped by those whom he challenges, was that a theologian had no more claim than any lay thinker to escape assessment by peers in the republic of letters. When Bayle refers to a ‘death of controversy’ he is mocking the prediction of ‘certain persons’ for whom the outcome of such respect for religious ‘error’ would supposedly be religious apathy.]