 There is a general problem in the interpretation of Bayle that has been acknowledged (and even insisted upon both by critics and admirers) in the literature from his own time to the present. It is a problem not just of deciding whether Bayle succeeded in what he was trying to do, which would be difficult enough given the charged topics that he often dealt with, but even and especially in deciding the nature of what he was trying to do. One might not go so far as to claim that meaning is author’s intention (the so-called intentional fallacy), but it is hard to deny that author’s intention is at least relevant to meaning. And what Bayle’s intentions were has been a matter of debate from the beginning.