Bathelier, James Le

, sieur d’Aviron, advocate of the presidial court of Evreux, was celebrated in the sixteenth century for his knowledge of law. Henry III. king of France, having, in 1586, appointed commissioners to investigate and adjust some disputes respecting certain parts of the Norman law, the report they gave in, and the proceedings which followed, suggested to le Bathelier that able work on the Norman law, by which principally he is now known. Groulard, first president of the parliament of Normandy, to whom the manuscript was submitted, was so delighted with it, that he caused the whole to be printed, but without the name of the author, and when some insinuated that this might be interpreted to his disadvantage, as an attempt to pass for the author, Groulard answered, | that the book was so excellent, it must always appear the? work of James le Bathelier, and nerer could be mistaken under any other name. These “Commentaries on the Norman law” were reprinted with those of Berault and Godefroi, at Rouen, 1684, 2 vols. fol. We have no account of the time of Bathelier’s death. 1

1

Moreri. —Dict. Hist. where the life is twice repeated, vol. II. p. 89, and 303.