Pierre-Daniel Huet, the last Christian skeptic in the line of Michel Eyquem de Montaigne and Pierre Charron, was born in Caen, Normandy. His father had been converted from Calvinism. Young Huet studied with the Jesuits and, after taking a degree in mathematics, went in 1652 with the Protestant scholar Samuel Bochart to the court of Queen Christina of Sweden. There, he discovered a manuscript of Origen, which later led him to write Origenis Commentaria in Sacrum Scripturam (Rouen, 1668). En route home in 1653 he stopped in The Netherlands, where he met many savants. A discussion with one of them, Rabbi Menasseh (Manasseh) ben Israel, led Huet to write Demonstratio Evangelica (1679).

From The Netherlands Huet returned to Caen, where he founded the Academy of Sciences, corresponded with learned men throughout the world, and worked on his studies on Origen. He often traveled to Paris and entered several...