La tolérance et la règle d'or: Bayle face à la conscience de l'athée et du persécuteur

Bayle’s Commentary is one of the most radical apologies of freedom of conscience in modern age: however this work denies toleration to atheists and risks legitimizing religious persecution “in good faith”, on account of definition of conscience as «voice of God». Bayle’s toleration, nevertheless, is not founded on unconditional defence of conscience but on the golden rule, a moral principle acknowledged by everyone (atheist included). It is the persecutor, by contrast, who denies the golden rule, in point of fact or of law: for this reason the political authorities have the duty of not tolerating the intolerant. Bayle’s plea for toleration allows strong restrictions on religious freedom and so, from the beginning, it takes a quasi-Hobbesian flavour.