Catholics and Protestants were alike scandalized.

Catholic France spurned him, and Jurieu, the great Reformed divine, called his cometary views "atheism," and tried hard to have Protestant Holland condemn him.

Though Bayle did not touch immediately the mass of mankind, he wrought with power upon men who gave themselves the trouble of thinking.

It was indeed unfortunate for the Church that theologians, instead of taking the initiative in this matter, left it to Bayle; for, in tearing down the pretended scriptural doctrine of comets, he tore down much else: of all men in his time, no one so thoroughly prepared the way for Voltaire.
Bayle's whole argument is rooted in the prophecy of Seneca.

He declares: "Comets are bodies subject to the ordinary law of Nature, and not prodigies amenable to no law." He shows historically that there is no reason to regard comets as portents of earthly evils.