The End of Exile

In March 1691 Pierre Jurieu gave a sermon in the Walloon church of Rotterdam that made quite an impression upon his audience. As Pierre Bayle later reported, Jurieu had once again predicted the imminent restoration of Protestant worship in France, ‘sounding the prophetical trumpet with more emphasis and a more affirmative tone than ever before’. Bayle had little sympathy for such unfounded prophecies, but he gloomily observed that ‘our refugees left church full of happiness and hope, more or less persuaded by his enthusiasm’. ¹ Admittedly, Bayle was not an impartial judge, because only the year before Jurieu had accused him of atheism – an accusation that would lead to Bayle’s dismissal as professor at the Rotterdam academy in 1693. ² His letter none the less reveals that the refugees took Jurieu’s prophetical message to heart: sermons that promised the defeat of Catholicism and an end to exile were clearly more popular than Bayle’s scepticism.