Fontenelle had made his home in Rouen, but in 1687 he moved to Paris; and in the same year he published his "Histoire des oracles", a book which made a considerable stir in theological and philosophical circles. It consisted of two essays, the first of which was designed to prove that oracles were not given by the supernatural agency of demons, and the second that they did not cease with the birth of Jesus. It excited the suspicion of the Church, and a Jesuit, by name Jean-François Baltus, published a ponderous refutation of it; but the peace-loving disposition of its author impelled him to leave his opponent unanswered. To the following year (1688) belongs his "Digression sur les anciens et les modernes", in which he took the modern side in the controversy then raging; his "Doutes sur le système physique des causes occasionnelles" (against Nicolas Malebranche) appeared shortly afterwards.