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FRANCOIS HOTMAN (1524-1590)

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 804 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FRANCOIS See also:HOTMAN (1524-1590)  , See also:French publicist, eldest son of See also:Pierre See also:Hotman, was See also:born on the 23rd of See also:August 1524, at See also:Paris, his See also:family being of Silesian origin . His name is latinized by himself Hotomanus, by others Hotomannus and Hottomannus . His See also:father, a zealous See also:Catholic, and a counsellor of the See also:parlement of Paris, destined him for the See also:law, and sent him at the See also:age of fifteen to the university of See also:Orleans . He obtained his doctorate in three years, and became a pleader at Paris . The arts of the See also:barrister were not to his See also:taste; he turned to the study of See also:jurisprudence and literature, and in 1546 was appointed lecturer in See also:Roman Law at the university of Paris . The fortitude of See also:Anne Dubourg under See also:torture gained his See also:adhesion to the cause of Reform . Giving up a career on which he had entered with high repute, he went in 1547 to See also:Lyons, and thence to See also:Geneva and to See also:Lausanne, where, on the recommendation of See also:Calvin, he was appointed See also:professor of belles-lettres and See also:history, and married Claudine Aubelin, a refugee from Orleans . On theinvitation of the magistracy, he lectured at See also:Strassburg on law in 1555, and became professor in 1556, superseding See also:Francois Baudouin, who had been his colleague in Paris . His fame was such that overtures were made to him by the courts of See also:Prussia and See also:Hesse, and by See also:Elizabeth of See also:England . Twice he visited See also:Germany, in 1556 accompanying Calvin to the See also:Diet at See also:Frankfort . He was entrusted with confidential See also:missions from the Huguenot leaders to See also:German potentates, carrying at one See also:time See also:credentials from See also:Catherine de See also:Medici . In 156o he was one of the See also:principal instigators of the See also:conspiracy of See also:Amboise; in See also:September of that See also:year he was with See also:Antoine of See also:Navarre at See also:Nerac .

In 1562 he attached himself to See also:

Conde . In 1564 he became professor of See also:civil law at See also:Valence, retrieving by his success the reputation of its university . In 1567 he succeeded See also:Cujas in the See also:chair of jurisprudence at See also:Bourges . Five months later his See also:house and library were wrecked by a Catholic See also:mob; he fled by Orleans to Paris, where L'H6pital made him historiographer to the See also:king . As See also:agent for the See also:Huguenots, he was sent to See also:Blois to negotiate the See also:peace of 1568 . He returned to Bourges, only to be again driven away by the outbreak of hostilities . At See also:Sancerre, during its See also:siege, he composed his Consolatio (published in 1593) . The peace of 1570 restored him to Bourges, whence a third time he fled, in See also:con-sequence of the St See also:Bartholomew See also:massacre (1572) . In 1573, after See also:publishing his Franco-Gallia, he See also:left See also:France for ever with his family, and became professor of Roman law at Geneva . On the approach of the See also:duke of See also:Savoy he removed to See also:Basel in 1579 . In 158o he was appointed councillor of See also:state to See also:Henry of Navarre . The See also:plague sent him in 1582 to See also:Montbeliard; here he lost his wife .

Returning to Geneva in 1584 he See also:

developed a See also:kind of scientific turn, dabbling in See also:alchemy and the See also:research for the philosopher's See also:stone . In 1589 he made his final retirement to Basel, where he died on the 12th of See also:February 1590, leaving two sons and four daughters; he was buried in the See also:cathedral . Hotman was a See also:man of pure See also:life, real piety (as his Consolatio shows) and warm domestic virtues . His See also:constant removals were inspired less by fear for himself than by care for his family, and by a temperament averse to the conditions of warfare, and a constitutional See also:desire for peace . He did much for 16th-See also:century jurisprudence, having a See also:critical knowledge of Roman See also:sources, and a See also:fine Latin See also:style . He broached the See also:idea of a See also:national See also:code of French law . His See also:works were very numerous, beginning with his De gradibus cognationis (1546), and including a See also:treatise on the See also:Eucharist (1566); a treatise (See also:Anti-Tribonien, 1567) to show that French law could not be based on Justinian; a life of See also:Coligny (1575); a polemic (Brulum fulmen, 1585) directed against a See also:bull of See also:Sixtus V., with many other works oh law, history, politics and classical learning . His most important See also:work, the Franco-Gallia (1573), was in advance of his age, and found favour neither with Catholics nor with Huguenots in its See also:day; yet its See also:vogue has been compared to that obtained later by See also:Rousseau's Contrat Social . It presented an ideal of See also:Protestant statesmanship, See also:pleading for a representative See also:government and an elective See also:monarchy . It served the purpose of the See also:Jesuits in their pamphlet See also:war against Henry IV . See See also:Bayle, Dictionnaire; R . Dareste, Essai sur F .

See also:

Holman (185o) ; E . See also:Gregoire, in Nouvelle Biog. generale (1858) . (A .

End of Article: FRANCOIS HOTMAN (1524-1590)
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