[When he writes about Japan, Bayle intentionally makes comparisons with public life in Europe. Most Europeans were merely entertained by travellers' tales from the East, but scholars of human behaviour could see in these writings the evidence of similar dispositions and similar political and religious institutions. In Remark (E), Bayle condemns the recent bloody slaughter perpetrated by soldiers and missionaries upon indigenous peoples of the East and in the Americas, which he contrasts to the mildness of the Christianity of the first three centuries. When he assesses a work by a Jesuit missionary concerning the expulsion of Christianity from Japan, he remarks that he would like to see such a history written from the Japanese point of view.]

The monarchy of Japan is divided into two estates, the ecclesiastical and the secular. The first is composed of the bonzes and the second of the nobility and the people. The name of bonze is given to all those ministers who are dedicated to the service of the Japanese Gods. […]