Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/474

458 enemy, and to Bourbon, who camo up and expressed pity for him, he replied, &quot;My lord, I thank you, but pity is not for me, who die a true man, serving my king ; pity is for you who bear arms against your prince, your country, and your oatL,&quot; He expired after repeating the Miserere. His body was restored to his fronds and interred near Grenoble. Chivalry, deprived of fantastic extravagance, is perfectly mirrored in the character of Bayard. He combined the merits of a skilful tactician with the romantic heroism, piety, and magnanimity of the ideal knight-errant. Even adversaries experienced the fascination of his virtues, and joined in the sentiment that he was, as his contemporaries called him, &quot; Le chevalier sans peur et sans reproche.&quot; (Of. Walford s Chevalier Bayard.)  BAYAZID, or, a city of Turkish Armenia, in the pashalic of Erzeroum, 50 miles S.S.W. of Erivan, situated on the side of a rugged mountain that forms, as it were, a bastion of the Ala-dagh chain. It contains two churches, three mosques, and a monastery, that of Kara Killeesea, which is famous for the beauty of its architecture, as well as for its antiquity and grandeur. The summit of the mountain is occupied by the ruinous Ak Serai, or palace, which was built by Mahmoud Pasha. TUe Pasha s tomb, a work of considerable richness, is in the neighbouring mosque. The position of the town, on the frontiers of Turkey and Persia and on the high road between Armenia and Azerbi- jan, gives it a certain importance. It was captured by the Russians in 1828 r.nd again in 1854, when they destroyed the fortifications on their departure. The population, which has decreased greatly within the last forty years, now numbers aboub 5000. Long. 43 26 E., lat. 39 24 N.  BAYEUX, formerly the capital of the Bcssin, and now the chief town of an arrondissement in the department of Calvados, in France. It is situated in a fruitful valley on the River Aure, 17 miles &quot;W.N.W. of Caen. Many of its houses are of considerable antiquity, especially in the Rue St Malo and Rue St Nicholas, one in the former street being a fine specimen of the woodwork of the 15th century. The cathedral is a majestic edifice for the most part of the 12th century, though the crypt probably dates from the time of Odo (10 i7). There are said to be no fewer than 297G capitals in its construction, all sculptured differently. Bayeux is the scat of a bishopric, and has tribunals of primary jurisdiction and commerce, a communal college, and au extensive library. The former episcopal palace is now the town-house, and the seminary is turned into barracks. The chief manufactures are linen and cotton goods, hosiery, lace, and pottery. Important fairs are held for the sale of horses and cattle. Under the Romans the town bore the name of Augustodurus, and was the seat of a military establishment. During the Middle Ages it was frequently burnt, and passed from one lordship to another till it was incorporated in the duchy of Normandy. Nothing, perhaps, has done more for its fame than the possession of the Norman tapestry, which is now deposited in the town-house. It consists of a strip of liuen 200 feet loug by 20 inches wide, worked in coloured worsted, and contains fifty-eight distinct scenes connected with the life of William the Conquerer. Seven colours only are em ployed, dark and light blue, red, yellow, buff, and dark and light green. In spite of the doubts that have been cast on the date of this tapestry, it seems almost certain that it is contemporaneous with the events it depicts, and it may even possibly be, as tradition would have it, the work of Queen Matilda herself. (See Bruce s Bayeux Tapestry, 4to, 1855; Freeman s Norman Conquest; Macquoid s Through Normandy, 1874.)  BAYLE,, author of the famous Historical and Critical Dictionary, was born on the 18th November 1647, at Carlat-le-Comte, near Foix, in the south of France. He- was educated at first by his father, a Calvinist minister, and was afterwards sent to an academy at Puy-Laiirens, where he studied with such assiduity as seriously to injure his health. After a short residence at home he entered a Jesuit college at Toulouse. While there he devoted much of his time to controversial works on theology, and ended by abjuring Calvinism and embracing the Roman Catholic faith. In this, however, he continued only seventeen months, abruptly resuming his former religion. To avoid the punishment inflicted on such as relapsed from the Catholic Church, he withdrew to Geneva, where he resumed his studies, and for the first time became acquainted with the philosophical writings of Descartes. For some years he acted as tutor in various families; but in 1675, when a vacancy occurred in the chair of philosophy at the Protes tant university of Sedan, he was prevailed upon to compete for the post, and was successful. In 1681 the university at Sedan was suppressed, but almost immediately afterwards Bayle was appointed professor of philosophy and history at Rotterdam. Here in 1682 he published his famous letter on comets, and his critique of Maimbourg s work on the history of Calvinism. The great reputation achieved by this critique stirred up the envy of Bayle s colleague, Jurieu, who had written a book on the same subject, and who afterwards did all in his power to injure his former friend. In 1684 Bayle began the publication of his Nouvelles de la, Republique des Lettres, a kind of journal of literary criticism, which was continued with great success for several years. In 1690 appeared a work entitled Avis aux Refagies, which Jurieu attributed to Bayle, whom he attacked with the bitterest animosity. After a long quarrel Bayle was deprived of his chair in 1693. He was not much depressed by this misfortune, being at the time closely engaged in the preparation of his great Dictionary, which appeared in 1697. A second edition was called for in 1702. The few remaining years of Bayle s life were devoted to miscellaneous writings, arising in many instances out of criticisms made upon his Dictionary. He died on the 28th December 1706, after some months suffering from chest disease, which he would not permit to interfere with his literary labours. Bayle s erudition, despite the low estimate placed upon it by Leclerc, seems to have been very considerable. He was an ardent student, and his reading was varied and extensive. As a critic he was second to none in his own time, and even yet one can admire the lightness and delicacy of his touch, and the skill with which he handles his subject. The Nouvelle- de la Republique des Lettres was the first thorough-going attempt to popularize literature, and it was eminently successful. The Dictionary, however, is Bayle s master piece, and in it appear to perfection his various qualities, extensive and curious information, fluency of style, and that light sceptical spirit which has became closely associated with his name. Bayle s scepticism is of a peculiar kind. It is not a distrust of the power of human knowledge- grounded on a scientific investigation of the nature of thought in itself. It is rather the scepticism of the literary man of the world, who in his reading has encountered so many opposing and well-supported arguments on all sub jects, that he feels inclined to hold that no certainty can ever be attained. On this account, perhaps, his sceptical criticism, though it did much to liberate thought from the bonds of authority, has had little influence on pure philo sophy. Examples of Bayle s critical mode of investigation may be seen in his articles on the Greek sceptical philoso phers, particularly those on Pyrrhonism, Zeno, Carneades. and Chrysippus.

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