FRANCOIS

See also:

• FRANCOIS LAURENT (1810–1887)

LAURENT (1810–1887)  , Belgian historian and jurisconsult, was born at Luxemburg on the 8th of July 18ro . He held a high appointment in the ministry of justice for some time before he became professor of civil law in the university of Ghent in 1836 . His advocacy of liberal and anti-clerical principles both from his chair and in the press made him hitter enemies, but he retained his position until his death on the 11th of February 1887 . He treated the relations of church and state in L'Eglise et l'etat (Brussels, 3 vols., 1858–1862; new and revised edition, 1865), and the same subject occupied a large proportion of the eighteen volumes of his chief historical work, Etudes sur l'histoire de l'humanite (Ghent and Brussels, 1855–187o), which aroused considerable interest beyond the boundaries of Belgium . His fame as a lawyer rests on his authoritative exposition of the Code Napoleon in his Principes de droit civil (Brussels, 33 vols., 1869–1878), and his Droit civil international (Brussels, 8 vols., 188o–1881) . He was charged in 1879 by the minister of justice with the preparation of a report on the proposed revision of the civil code . Besides his anti-clerical pamphlets his minor writings include much discussion of social questions, of the organization of savings banks, asylums, &c., and he founded the Societe Callier for the encouragement of thrift among the working classes . With Gustave Callier, whose funeral in 1863 was made the occasion of a display of clerical intolerance, Laurent had much in common, and the efforts of the society were directed to the continuation of Callier's philanthropic schemes . For a complete list of his works, see G . Koninck, Bibliographic nationale (Brussels, vol. ii., 1892) .