, in Latin Plateanus, a learned French writer, was born at Angoulême
, in Latin Plateanus, a learned
French writer, was born at Angoulême in 1526. He applied with success to the study of jurisprudence, and in
1548 published a Latin paraphrase on the titles of the
Imperial institutes, “De Actionibus, Exceptionibus et
Interdictis,
” in 4to. After this he was called to the bar of
the parliament of Paris, and acquired the character of a
learned, eloquent, and virtuous counsellor. Francis I.
appointed him advocate of his court of aids at Paris, and
he discharged the duties of that office with so much talent
and integrity, that Henry II. nominated him his first president in the same court. He became, in consequence of
hearing Calvin, a convert to the protestant religion in 1554,
and made an open profession of it on the death of Francis
II. On the breaking out of the civil war he retired to one
of his houses in Picardy; but at the peace in 1562 vindicated himself before the king from the several charges
which had been preferred against him. He was now appointed by the prince of Condé superintendant of the
household, and accompanied his highness to the castle of
Vè in the Valois, where he continued till Charles IX.
granted the protestants advantageous terms of peace in
1569, that he might the more easily extirpate them. La
Place, deceived by this treachery, returned to Paris, and
was executing the office of president to the court of aids,
when he was put to death in the most treacherous as well
as barbarous manner in the general massacre of the protestants on St. Bartholomew’s day, in 1572, at the age of
forty-six. His clear judgment and discrimination admirably
qualified him for the office of magistrate. His chief works
are, “Commentaries on the state of Religion, and of the
Commonwealth, from 1556 to 1561;
” “A Treatise on the
right use of Moral Philosophy in connection with the Christian Doctrine;
” and “A Treatise on the excellence of the
Christian Man.
”