David

Summary

[Following an indictment before the Huguenot church in Rotterdam, Bayle removed from the 1702 edition of the Dictionary certain passages from the article ‘David’. Seemingly he had flouted convention by condemning David more for his cruelties and his betrayals than for his lapses in sexual morals. Furthermore he had implied that there were political parallels between the opportunism of the House of David and that of the House of Orange. For David, having married Saul's daughter, had taken over Saul's crown and lands, while William, having married the daughter of James II, had not only acquired his crown and the government of the British Isles but had resorted to warfare to retain them. In Remark (I), Bayle suggests that his accusers had merely emphasised his observation that a ruler's opportunism was often venerated by the very clerics who had a duty to condemn it.

For the second edition of 1702 Bayle supplied an amended text removing Remarks (D), (H), (I) and (M). The Paris edition of 1820–4, from which these texts are translated, restored them, showing how the text of 1697 compared with the amended version. In the body of the text, we print the restored lines in italics.]

David, king of the Jews, was one of the greatest men ever known, even though one should not consider him as a royal prophet who was after God's own heart.