Peterramu Educational Reformation

II
PETER RAMUS
AND THE
EDUCATIONAL REFORMATION OF THE

SIXTEENTH CENTURY
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PETER RAMUS
AND THE
EDUCATIONAL REFORMATION
OF THE
SIXTEENTH CENTURY
BY
FRANK PIERREPONT GRAVES

(PH.D., COLUMBIA)
PROFESSOR OF THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION

IN THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

1912
AU
rights reterved
COPYRIGHT, 1912,
BY
Set
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
up and
electrotyped.
Published September, 1912.
TO
PAUL MONROE
WHO HAS
GIVEN TO THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION

ITS
PRESENT HIGH STATUS

IN
AMERICA
PREFACE
IT
difficult to
is
much
been so
understand
why Ramus
has
upon the sixteenth century.

He was probably the foremost
French philosopher of his century, and he stands
neglected by writers
the great educators, effective orators,

In
characters
of the world's history.
lofty
many respects he seems a striking forerunner of
well
among
and
modern
times.
Alcuin, Abelard, Petrarch, Valla,
Erasmus, Luther, Ramus, and Descartes are milestones that mark the pathway of progress from
medievalism.
Yet in few general histories do
the life and work of this remarkable reformer
figure in
any
detail.
In treatises written in
Eng-
barely mentioned, and while there have

been for half a century some extended accounts
lish
he
is
by French writers, and of late Gerscholars have been making careful contribu-
of his career
man
tions to elucidate the various phases of his work,

there scarcely exists anywhere a complete account
of his
achievements that includes an analysis of
his works.
vii
PREFACE
Vlll
Yet many pages are devoted in histories of

education to such contemporaries of Ramus in
France as Rabelais and Montaigne. While these
men were
ment
seem
great importance in the developof literature and educational theory, they

of
to have
had comparatively
little effect
upon
movements of the times.
Ramus, on the other hand, was a practical re-
the schools
or
the
former, a writer of textbooks, the founder of

a new and influential point of view in subject
matter and method, a popular and successful

teacher, and an active correspondent and personal acquaintance of the educational leaders of
No man more fully

day in all countries.
embodies the spirit of this age of reconstruction,
the storm and stress period of the sixteenth
Aside from the account of his own
century.
contributions to education and theology, the life
and work of Ramus are well worth studying for
the light they shed upon such a critical epoch in
his
history.
In presenting this account of Ramus, I wish to

tender my thanks to Professor Frederic Ernest
Farrington,
who
first
called
my
attention to the
of the subject, to Professor
importance
roe, who has
and
me
Paul Mon-
reviewed the whole work,

David E. Smith, who furnished
critically
to Professor
with written suggestions concerning
my treat-
PREFACE
ment
of
Ramus
ix
as a mathematician.
am also
my wife,
indebted to Miss Betty Joffe, and to

Helen Wadsworth Graves, for several changes in
the manuscript and assistance in carrying the

book through press.
The engraved likeness of Ramus, which forms
the frontispiece of this book,
also
owe
to Pro-
fessor Farrington, who sought it out for me, and

to the distinguished M. Chatelain, Conservateur
de la Bibliottieque de la Sorbonne, who photographed the picture for me from the Bibliottieque
de Boissard and developed the plate with his own
hands.
F. P. G.
AUGUST, 1912.
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER
I.
II.
THE TIMES OF RAMUS

THE BREACH WITH ARISTOTLE
III.
PROFESSOR IN THE ROYAL COLLEGE
IV.
CONVERSION, PERSECUTION, AND DEATH
V.
19
...
.
.71
GENERAL PRINCIPLES AND THE ORGANIZATION OF

EDUCATION
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
48
108
THE CONTENT AND METHOD OF THE TRIVIUM

CONTENT AND METHOD OF THE QUADRIVIUM
HIGHER AND PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
VALUE, SPREAD, AND INFLUENCE OF RAMISM
SOURCES, PRIMARY AND SECONDARY
120
.160
.173
204
219
PETER RAMUS
CHAPTER
THE TIMES OF RAMUS

BEFORE undertaking a sketch
achievements of Ramus,
it will
of
the
life
and
be well to gain some
To underwe must make a rapid
notion of his social and political setting.
stand the work of this leader,
survey of the forces that were struggling for suprem-
acy during the sixteenth century in northern Europe,

This period, in the first place,
especially in France.
witnessed the development of the Renaissance and
of
humanism
in the countries of the north.
Here the
Greek and Latin literature came to enrich the medieval ideals
and the course
in the seven liberal arts.
While the preceding century had been marked by

the growth of the
movement
in Italy, this vitalizing
development of the Italian peninsula was now senescent and was degenerating into a mere Ciceronian
'
formalism.
The
'
introduction of printing, however,
had given the movement a wider
field of
action,
PETER RAMUS
and the renewed
spirit of
independence and criticism
The
could not be confined to a single country.
Renaissance and the classic literatures had leaped

the Alps and had rapidly
Toward
their
way northward.
the close of the fifteenth century the
movement came
human-
became very numerous, and the
outside of Italy
ists
made
to its height in the northern lands
during the sixteenth century.'
Probably the
earliest
beyond the peninsula was
appearance of humanism
in the education furnished
through the religious order of the Hieronymians.

This brotherhood had been founded in Holland for
the purpose of instructing the poor, in religion and
the rudiments, but during the latter half of the
fifteenth
century the brethren added humanistic
elements to their course and soon had a chain of
through the Netherlands, Ger-
schools extending
many, and France.
Connected with
this
humanistic
development, either as teacher or pupil, were such
men
as Agricola (1443-1485), Reuchlin (1455-1522),
and that great leader

(1467-1536).
x
lt is
Common
still
humanism, Erasmus
The Hieronymian schools had a proof northern
somewhat mooted whether these Brethren
Lot actually maintained schools of
their
of the
own, or
fur-
nished 'colleges' or dormitories near schools already established.
THE TIMES OF RAMUS
upon education and tended to introduce

the classics into the universities and other educational
found
effect
But
institutions.
there
were other schools that
were even more directly the outgrowth of humanism,
among which were the Gymnasien and the

Jesuit 'colleges.' The Gymnasien were given their
chief
greatest impulse
and more
form by Sturm
definite
during the generation succeeding the foundation

of his school
and university at Strassburg
The gymnasial course

largely of Latin
spread in
of ten years,
which consisted
and Greek, proved
all directions.
(I538).
successful
and
Just before the middle of
the century the Jesuit 'colleges/ also with a purely
humanistic
curriculum,
were started by Loyola,
and sprang up rapidly throughout Europe.
The universities, though narrow,
conservative,
and
generally reluctant to admit the classics, were like-
wise feeling the effects of the
movement.
By
1470,
a professorship of Greek was established at the

University of Paris, and while the
1
the
The great repute of this

name Gymnasium upon
term
for the great
new
learning
school at Strassburg probably
the
German language
met
stamped
as the technical
secondary schools in which the classics have
ever since formed the basis of the course.

2
For the course
in full, see Barnard's
Educators, pp. 196-208.
German Teachers and
PETER RAMUS
with formidable opposition,
it
patron in the king, Francis I

protected
and,
the
urged
found an influential
(r.
He
1515-1547).
humanistic scholars and educators,
by Budaeus
and
(1468-1540)
other
humanists, founded in 1530 the College of France, or
Greek and Latin, as

a protest against the scholastic and dogmatic course
of the university.
It was in this college that Ram us,
College Royal, with its chairs of
who had shown
himself
an ardent humanist, was
Humanism
eventually appointed to a professorship.

also
spread in the
German
universities.
By
the
early part of the sixteenth century, the course at

Erfurt,
Leipzig,
Heidelberg,
to include the classics,

istic
and Tubingen came
and a number
of
new human-
universities, such as Wittenberg, Konigsberg,
and Jena, were started about the middle
of the cen-
tury.
Similarly profound changes were being effected

in
England.
revival of the classics, which
had
been gradually gaining strength, began in earnest

at Oxford toward the end of the fifteenth century
with the work of Grocyn and Linacre, and at

bridge in the
lectures
of
and Wolsey
first
Cam-
half of the sixteenth with the
Erasmus, Cheke, and Ascham.

also lent substantial aid to the
More
movement
THE TIMES OF RAMUS

through their influence at court.
foundation of his humanistic school at
was
1509, a successful example
by
Finally,
set
Colet's
St. Paul's in
for secondary
education, which resulted in the Latin
'
grammar
school becoming the typical secondary organization

in
England.
But the character and the

sance and
humanism
from those in
the Renais-
in the north differed greatly
The people
Italy.
and more
of the north
were
temperament than the

and mercurial Italians. With them the
of a deeper
brilliant
effects of
Renaissance led
serious
less to
a desire for personal develop-
and individual achievement,

and took on a more social and moral color. The
ment,
self-realization,
prime purpose of humanism in the north became

the improvement of society, morally and religiously,
and much
less attention
intellectual,
The
and
aesthetic
classical revival here
ing a
tures.
was paid
new and more
to the physical,
elements
pointed the
in
education.
way
to obtain-
exalted meaning from the Scrip-
Through the
scholars sought to get
revival
of
away from
doctrines and traditions,
Greek,
northern
the ecclesiastical
and turned back
to
the
essence of Christianity
by studying the New Testa-
ment
This suggested a similar
in the original.
in-
PETER RAMUS
6
sight into the
Old Testament, and an interest
Hebrew was thereby

in the
as important a feature of
tion of the classics,
To most
people
of the Bible
became
aroused.
North a renewed study
in
humanism
and the purer
logical conception that resulted
as an apprecia-
religious
mark
and theo-
the Reforma-
an accompaniment of the Renaissance. In

consequence, most of the humanists of the north
tion as
were also religious reformers, and in Germany, the

Netherlands, France, and England humanism passed
over into the Reformation.
Luther
only
in
believing
Erasmus
that
is
So Melanch-
ranked as a reformer, but he was
much a humanist,
from
would
education
eventually effect the desired changes.
thon
differed
fully as
while the great humanistic educa-
Sturm, was in hearty sympathy with the Reformation. Lefevre and others gave the first imtor,
pulse to French Protestantism through a
new
trans-
lation of the Bible.
Colet endeavored to dethrone
dogma and
by a
the
Pauline
And
it
tradition
Epistles
was evidently
that caused
and
better interpretation of
the pseudo-Dionysius.
his humanistic bent
and insight
Ramus, the educational reformer under
consideration, to cast in his lot with the oppressed

religious reformers.
THE TIMES OF RAMUS
Undoubtedly it was the support lent the cause of

religious and theological reform by the awakened
social
and moral, as
humanism
of
revolts
in
the
well as intellectual, attitude of
the north, that enabled
in
which arose
sixteenth
the
series
against
papal
authority
century, to be
more
successful
than were those of the Albigenses and Waldenses,

Wyclif and Huss, in the preceding centuries. Luther 's
revolt
(1517-1521) was primarily the result of his
spiritual struggles
and
of his intellectual desire to
formulate a better doctrine, but his persistence and

success
must be attributed to the sympathetic
attitude of the
times.
start (1519)
learning from
by
humanists how
Zwingli
actually got
his
Erasmus and other

was
in the Bible for
the traditional theology and ritual.
Calvin (1535)
little
basis there
was among those who,
after the
work
of Lefevre,
were led to reject the traditional doctrines and forms

through the influence of northern humanism and
the study of the Greek Testament.
While the im-
mediate cause of Henry VIII's revolt (1533) in
England was personal advantage and statecraft,

it was somewhat the result of the northern Renaissance, for without the aid of the independence
individualism that had been growing
up
in
and
England
PETER RAMUS
as the concomitant of
not have
humanism, even the king could
Hence there
pope.
and the Reforma-
but different phases of the
are, in truth,
they
the
a close connection in the northern
is
countries between the Renaissance

tion
with
successfully contested
same movement.
Such was the general
situation
the
of
in
sixteenth
and
specific political
the different
and
intellectual
century.
social conditions
countries
religious
The
more
and problems
during this period are
equally important and interesting in the history of

civilization.
This century marked the climax of

In 1516 Charles
the Hapsburg power.
inherited
from four grandparents, each a sovereign in his own

right, dominion over Burgundy, the Netherlands,
Spain and the Spanish possessions in America, portions of Italy,
and the Austrian
territories,
and three
years later he was, in keeping with precedent, elected
emperor.
But
nominal.
As an inheritance from
many
consisted of two or three hundred states,
still
differing
his
imperial
greatly from
character, but
all
one
occasion
feudalism,
another
independent, and
tended that the emperor,
was mostly
control
who was
by a mixed commission
in
it
size
Ger-
and
was not
in-
elected on each
of seven powerful
THE TIMES OF RAMUS

should be, outside his
princes,
own
much
This condition of things
more than a figurehead.
accounts for the inability of the Diet of
and the succeeding imperial

its
realm,
Worms
(1521)
legislation to enforce
decrees against Luther, and for
the
eventual
acceptance by the emperor of the Peace of Augsburg
whereby each German state was allowed

to choose for itself between the Lutheran and
(1555),
Catholic
confessions.
Charles laid
down
transferring
his
The next year
the
gouty
the cares of government, after
eastern
possessions to his brother,
Ferdinand, and the western to his son, Philip
By
II.
time the Council of Trent (1545-1546 and
this
1562-1563) and the
rise
and spread
of the Jesuits
were bringing the religious controversy in Europe to
and Philip soon showed himself the

most ardent supporter of the pope and the persecutor
an acute
of
all
stage,
Protestants,
dominions.
especially
Netherland
in his
Meanwhile the revolt
of
the
English
church had taken place during the reigns of Henry
VIII (i533~ I 547) and Edward VI (i547~ I 553), and

after a brief return to Catholicism and Protestant
persecution
under
Mary
(1553-1558),
greatly widened the breach (1558).

of the
century
she
had
assisted
Elizabeth
Before the end

the
Protestant
PETER RAMUS
10
the attempt of
Netherlands, frustrated
land troops in Ireland, and beaten
Armada
(1588).
But
more
of
Philip to
the Spanish
off
direct importance to our understand-
ing of the career of
Ramus
Here the
is
(1515-1572)
the situation
religious controversy
took
the form of civil wars between the Catholics
and
in France
itself.
Protestants, which lasted
reformer.
The
lifetime of our
beyond the
Protestants were protected
garet of Navarre, sister of Francis I
but the king himself
was
stirred
up by
by Mar-
1515-1547),
(r .
the theologians
of the University of Paris against the reformers.
He
consented to the burning of heretics in 1535, which

led
the flight of
to
Here the
Calvin to Basel.
great reformer prepared the defense of his belief

in
The
Institutes
of Christianity
(1536).
Shortly
he was called to the spiritual and civic

directorship of Geneva, which, except for a brief
after this
interval,
he
held
until
his
successor at Geneva, Theodore
death
(1564).
His
Beza (1519-1605), had
displayed great ability in the defense of Protestantism

at the Colloquy of Poissy (1561),
and both on
this
occasion and later was destined to play an important
part in the
life
of
Ramus.
grew more and more
Francis
intolerant,
meanwhile
and two years be-
THE TIMES OF RAMUS

fore his death
II
had some three thousand Waldenses
His successor, Henry II
massacred.
(r.
1547-1559),
also pledged himself to exterminate the Protestants,
but did not hesitate to
Germany when he wished
religionists in
away part
weak sons
of
Charles EX, and Henry III
almost constant
civil
war.
had married Mary, Queen

occupancy
controlled
Francis,
Lorraine,
by
Francis
Henry
there was an era
Francis II
of
to wrest
Under the
of the dominions of Charles V.
short reign of the
brief
with their co-
ally himself
Scots.
of the throne, the
(r.
II,
of
1559-1560)
During
his
government was
two powerful French uncles,

Guise, and Charles, Cardinal of
his wife's
Duke
of
and even
after the death of the
young
king, the Guises never surrendered their influence.
The Guise
cardinal
of
first
Ramus,
is
as his
most prominent in the life

patron and protector, and,
after the reformer's conversion to Calvinism (1561),
as his inveterate enemy.
During the reign
of Charles
IK(r. 1560-1574), his mother, Catherine de' Medici,

was virtually the sovereign, and affairs were further
complicated by the union of the Bourbons, or younger
'
branch of the reigning family, with the Huguenots/ as

the French Calvinists had
of the
come
to be
known.
Many
Huguenots belonged to noble families, as in
PETER RAMUS
12
who
the case of the Prince of Conde",

collateral
branch
of the
represented a
Bourbons, and of Admiral
Coligny, whose father had been a marshal of France
mother a Montmorency. These leaders were

generally 'Huguenots of state, 'and their connection
and
his
with Protestantism came to confuse politics with
and often proved embarrassing to such

'Huguenots of religion' as Ramus. For a time it
religion,
seemed as
the
Huguenot party might control the

government, and the queen-mother was forced to
if
issue the Edict of Toleration
(January
1562),
17,
permitting the Protestants to assemble for worship
during the day in
all
places outside the towns.
But the Guises had no

matters to
rest.
intention
of
In the same year, by a brutal
massacre of one thousand Huguenots,
who were wor-
shiping at Vassy, they precipitated the

civil
wars.
allowing
During the
life
of
Ramus
three such outbreaks (1562, 1567,
and
first
of the
there were
which
1572),
were characterized by the utmost savagery upon

both sides. In the first two conflicts Ramus and
other Protestants were driven into temporary
exile.
In 1570 peace was declared, and the Calvinists were

allowed, for their protection, to fortify certain towns,
such
as
La
Rochelle,
Montauban,
and
Nimes.
THE TIMES OF RAMUS
13
Coligny became a sort of privy councilor to the king
and queen-mother, but the Guises soon
the
led
queen to believe that this Huguenot leader was

plotting against her, and they eventually brought
about
the
massacre
of
Bartholomew's
St.
In the course
(August 23-25, 1572).
of this
Day
butchery
Coligny was slain, Conde barely escaped by recanting,

and Ramus suffered a most horrible death. After
the massacre, civil war again broke out, and the
Guises, with the aid of the
pope and the Parlement
formed the Holy League for their own interand the crushing of Protestantism, and nearly
of Paris,
ests
succeeded in winning the
throne.
Not
until the
time of Henry IV and the Edict of Nantes (1598)
were the Huguenots ever
Throughout
conflicts
this
free
series
Ramus was
from persecution.
of
internecine
principal
of
the
religious
College
of
Presles, as well as a professor in the College of France.
may, therefore, be well at

the academic foundations of
It
this point to
examine
Paris, in order to get
the educational background of our reformer.

colleges of
The
which the University of Paris was com-
posed in the sixteenth century, in some instances

dated back three or four hundred years.
started
as boarding-houses, with
They had
resident masters,
PETER RAMUS
14
who conducted
Rue du Fouarre,
their students to the
upon which the university schools were

located and where the instruction was given.
Among
or street
these
was
'colleges'
Robert Sorbon
Presles, established in 1322, of
The various
so long the head.
were intended originally for students from
owed
the same district, province, or nation, and

their
foundation
to
munificence,
public
benefaction, or, as in the case of the

to both these sources.
Now
in time it
Sorbonne,
became more
in the
than to take them up to the Rue du Fouarre
for lectures,
and the schools were, by the
fifteenth century, practically replaced
as the centers of instruction
Some
Paris.
private
home
convenient to teach the students at

colleges
by
in 1257 for lay students in theology,
and the College of

which Ramus was
colleges
the famous one founded
of
these
in
close of the
by the
colleges
the University of
institutions
afforded
only
secondary training in grammar, rhetoric, elementary

dialectic,
and the rudiments
of
arithmetic,
others combined with this the higher

'arts'
faculty of
From
this
the university,
work
but
of the
which now con-
sprang the Sorbonne, or College of Liberal Arts of

In the sixteenth century it was the
the University of Paris.
stronghold of conservative theology.
THE TIMES OF RAMUS
15
sisted almost entirely of logic to the minimizing of
the other liberal arts.
'
Grammar'
schools, or sec-
ondary schools proper, had also grown' out of the

cathedral schools and spread to the various parishes,
so that there
was some confusion between secondary
and higher education. 1 It will later be seen that one

of the reforms recommended by Ramus dealt with
a more careful definition of these two grades of
education. 2
The way
in
which the College of France came to
be called into being in opposition to the traditional

'
arts
'
curriculum of the university has already been
described hi the account of humanism.

college
was
really
an association
thought and research.

treasury were paid to a
professors, of
Salaries
of
independent
from the king's
of royal
body
whom Ramus became
influence of the Cardinal
for
This new
lecturers or
one through the
Lorraine,
and, quite
contrary to the usage of the university colleges,

fees
tion
were required of the students.
was
spread of
1
bitterly
no
The new founda-
opposed by the university and the
humanism was fought
at every turn.
Joly, Trait^ historique des icoles episcopates
et
The
eccttsiastiques,
p. 304.
2
See his Advice on the Reformation of the University, on pp. 78-84.
PETER RAMUS
16
contest that arose may, therefore, be described as

between the conservative forces of scholasticism,
ecclesiasticism,
and the masters
of the university
colleges, on the one hand, and the progressive alliance of humanism, Protestantism, and the royal
lecturers,
most
on the
other.
of his career
Thus Ramus, who through
was a member
found himself between two
of
both
faculties,
As an avowed
fires.
humanist and opponent of Aristotle from the beginning, he was, we shall see, eventually forced by the
logic of the situation to declare publicly
sacrifice his
No
adhesion to Protestantism.
doubt before that time several factors had
combined to shape
with
its
word
His own educa-
his point of view.
tion at the College of

sort,
and at awful
for
Navarre was
of the traditional
word interpretation
of Priscian,
Donatus, and Alexander of Villedieu hi grammar, and

its
abstractions, trivialities,
and
hair-splitting dis-
upon the authority

But, like most great
putations, depending absolutely

of
the
medieval Aristotle.
Ramus was 'the heir to all the ages.' Abewho moderated the crudities of scholasticism
minds,
lard,
with selections from the classical poets and opposed

Plato to the dialectic of Aristotle
Erasmus, the
open enemy of barbarism and the old formulas that
THE TIMES OF RAMUS

held thought captive
ists,
and many
17
of the other
such as Valla, Vives, Agricola, and Sturm, must

In
be considered his spiritual forbears.
all
human-
the
preface to his Studies in the Liberal Arts, he says

of the visit of
"Since the
Agricola
is
Sturm to Paris
fair
the
days
first
of
in 1529
Greece and Rome, Rudolph
to recover the usage of logic
youth to search the poets and orators,

not only as the masters of style and eloquence, but as
models of reasoning and the art of thinking. Formed
and
invite the
first
made
applications
and
Sturm
at the school of Agricola, Johannes
Paris
these
recognize
excited in the
splendid
university an incredible
ardor for
the art of which he had revealed the utility.
It
was
in the lessons of this great master that I first learned
the use of logic -and then taught
it
to the
youth in
quite a different spirit from the sophists, relegating

to
them
their furor for disputation."
But the
himself,
opposed.
greatest master of
whom
in the
It will
Ramus was
Aristotle
medieval form he so bitterly
be seen that his logic and
spirit
were based upon those of the great Stagyrite, when

properly comprehended.
Undoubtedly, too,
owed much,
as he frankly confesses, to
Plato, Galen,
and the
Stoics,
Ramus
Socrates,
and even to Cicero and
PETER RAMUS
18
Quintilian,
admitted.
whose absolute authority he by no means
In his general attitude
was indebted
tomuV), and
2
Finee,
to Lefevre
it is
and Jean
le
in certain parts of his
likely that
Masson
work
he
('La-
to Oronce
the mathematician, and to Etienne Dolet,
Louis Meigret, Jacques Dubois, and other grammarians of his
own time and
further
opportunity
fairly as
we
former.
We
political,
what
1
to
follow out the
But we
land.
witness
life
these
and work
shall
have
influences
of our re-
have now surveyed his intellectual,

and social setting, and can hold him some-
in perspective.
See pp. 42
ff.
See p. 59.
CHAPTER
II

PIERRE DE LA RAMEE/ later known as Petrus
2
4
3
Ramus, was born in i5i5, at Cust, Picardy.
His struggles to secure an education remind us of the
many a more recent scholar and educator.
early days of
1
The
three
Ramus
chief sources for the life of
disciples,
John Thomas
are the accounts of his
Freigius,
in
a preface to his
Commentaries on Ramus' s Discourse on Cicero; Theophilus Banosius,

in a preface to Ramus's Posthumous Commentaries on the Christian
Religion;
and
Ramus.
Most
especially Nicholas of Nancel, in his Life of Peter

of the
works of Ramus himself also furnish us with
a great deal of information. Waddington, Desmaze, and others

have endeavored to unify these accounts.
2
He assumed
this Latinized
name upon
entering college.
It
is
not an exact translation and should rather have been Rameus or
a Ramo.
3
Joly and Goujet give the date of his birth as
of a note
upon the poem, Navarride,
502 on the basis
by Palma Cayet
in 1604,
but
former pupil of Ramus had not been associated with him for
half a century, and, to judge from the evidence of Freigius and
this
Banosius, his
4
An
memory played him
false.
ancient town on the border of the department of the Oise,
a short distance from Noyon, where Calvin was born.

spelt Cultia, Cusia, Cus, Cuz, Cuth, Cut,
ways.
19
It is also
and in half a dozen other
PETER RAMUS
20
He was
descended from a noble family, but the

conquest of Charles the Bold had driven his grandfather from the estate in
Burgundy and forced him
become a charcoal burner
to
The
father of
Ramus
in
an obscure
on a
when
Peter
small farm near the same place, and died
was
little
more than a
village.
passed his life in labor
child.
The boy
early
showed
a marked taste for study, and soon exhausted the
meager learning of the village schoolmaster. He

then pushed on to Paris in pursuit of further knowledge, but
At
was twice forced by poverty
length, however, he obtained
to return home.
employment as a
servant to a rich student at the College of Navarre, 2

1
and thus secured the

craved.
scholastic
opportunities he
Though but twelve years
Ramus was
large
and
strong,
of age,
and undertook
tend his master by day and pursue his

at night.
By
own
young
to atstudies
attaching a stone to a lighted cord,
he provided an automatic alarm for awakening after
a few hours of
l
This was not an
at Paris.
sleep,
and, although troubled at
uncommon
Cf. Mullinger,
procedure
with poor students
University of Cambridge, 346
f.,
for a
similar situation at that institution.

2
This institution was founded in 1304 by the queen, Jeanne de

Navarre, wife of Philip the Fair, upon the height of Sainte Ge"nevieve.
See pp. 13
f.
21
times with his eyes, his courage was never daunted.
In time he passed through the secondary curriculum,
and then spent three years and a half upon the higher
This latter period
course of the day in dialectic.

exercised a decisive influence
He
whole career
soon conceived a high esteem for dialectic, to-
gether with a disgust for the

in the colleges,
and
his
upon
and began
What
scholasticism.
way
it
was being taught
his attack
repelled
upon Aristotle
him most was
the barrenness of the current dialectic
any
real use in the 'arts' or in
to Paris/' he tells us,
"I
life.
method
"When
for
came
into the subtleties of
fell
the sophists, and they taught
me
the liberal arts
through questions and disputes, without ever showIn his

ing me a single thing of profit or service."
Studies in Dialectic
he gives a
much more
detailed
and graphic picture of the whole formal and useless

method of instruction then in vogue, together with
the
way
in
which a new point of view and freedom
in thinking eventually
came to him.
"Never amidst the clamors

passed so
many
He declares :
of the college
where
days, months, years, did I ever hear
a single word about the applications of

1
Remonstrance au conseil
Book IV,
151.
prive", p. 24.
logic.
PETER RAMUS
22
had
faith then
(the scholar ought to
have
faith,
was not necessary to

trouble myself about what logic is and what its
according to Aristotle) that
purpose
is,
but that
it
it
concerned
itself solely
with
creating a motive for our clamors and our disputes.

I therefore disputed
and clamored with
were defending in
If I
class
my
my might.
thesis
according
my
duty never to
opponent, were he one hundred times
to the categories, I believed

yield to
all
it
but to seek some very subtle distinction, in
right,
On
order to obscure the whole issue.
hand, were I disputant,
tended not to enlighten
my
all
my
care
the
and
were
like
a ball that
efforts
opponent, but to beat
him by some argument, good or bad even

been taught and directed. The categories
totle
other
we
so
had
of Aris-
give children to play
was necessary to get back by our

clamors when we had lost it. If, on the other hand,
with,
and that
we should
allow
all
it
get
it
it,
we should not through any outcry
to be recovered.
was then persuaded that
dialectic reduced itself to disputing with loud
and vigorous
cries.
"
Perhaps you will ask me when and how I finally

stumbled upon a better method. I will tell you
freely
and candidly,
in order that,
if
the remedy that

rescued
may
use
me may
be useful in your situation, you

I
it liberally.
you by argument
how
23
do not seek at
I only
all
to convince
wish to explain simply and
emerged from that darkness. After

having devoted three years and six months to scholasdirectly
tic
philosophy, according to the rules of our university
after
having read, discussed, and meditated on the
various treatises of the Organon (for of

of Aristotle those especially
all
which treated
the books
of dialectic
were read and reread during the course of

years)
even
after, I say,
having put in
all
three
that time,
reckoning up the years completely occupied by the
study of the scholastic
what end
arts,
I sought to learn
I could, as a consequence, apply the knowl-
edge I had acquired with so
much
toil
I soon perceived that all this dialectic
dered
me more
in
skillful
deficiencies
my
what a
fatigue.
had not ren-
eloquence, nor
better poet, nor wiser in anything.
stupefaction,
and
learned in history and the knowledge
nor more
of antiquity,
to
How
grief
How
Ah, what a
I did accuse
my
I did deplore the misfortune of
destiny, the barrenness of a
mind that
after so
much
labor could not gather or even perceive the
fruits
of that
wisdom which was
alleged
be
to
found so abundantly in the dialectic of Aristotle
PETER RAMUS
34
came upon a book

thoughts of Hippocrates and Plato.
"I
of
finally
Galen on the
That
parallel of
me much enjoymuch greater desire
Plato with Hippocrates furnished
ment, but
to read
it
me with
the dialogues of Plato which treated of
all
dialectic.
inspired
Then
was, to speak the truth, that I
it
That which I
found the haven so long desired.
especially enjoyed and even loved in Plato was the
.
method by which Socrates refuted

attempting
first
of all to raise his hearers
and traditions
senses, prejudices,
to lead
them
false
to their
own
of
opinions,
above the
men,
in order
natural sense of right and
liberty of judgment.
For
that a philosopher
should
it
appeared to him insane

allow
himself
act
to
according to the opinions of the masses, which for

the
most part
Ramus
refers
are false
to
and
deceitful, rather
than
the Ilepc T<OV 'iTriroKparovs KCU
Plato believed
See Galeni Opera (Kuhn ed.), V, 181 ff
8oyfuxT<ov.
that the nature of the mind could be discovered by a method
.
by which Hippocrates investigated the nature

Probably Ramus was little acquainted with Greek
similar to that
of
the body.
at
the time, and was indebted for his knowledge to a Latin translation of
Galen by Theodoric Gerard, which Sturm had published.
See Guggenheim, Beitrage zur Biographic des Ramus, p. 141.

Ramus later admitted this, as we find from the preface to his
Pro&ne des Math&matiques (1567) and at the beginning

Sckola
in liber ales artes (1569).
of
his
25
apply himself to ascertaining only the facts and their

In short, I began to say to myself (I
true causes.
should have hesitated to say
what hinders me from
to another)
it
'
'
socratizing
'
Well,
and
little,
examining, independently of the authority of Aristotle,
whether that doctrine of his dialectic
most true and useful
is
the
Perhaps that philosopher has
abused us by his authority, and in that
case, I
need
not have been surprised at having studied his books
without deriving any profit from them, when they

contained none.
trine should
And what
prove a delusion
'
that whole doc-
if
'
Thus Ramus gradually broke with the scholastic

philosophy and the Aristotelianism of the day. But,
owing to
and the impetuosity

the immoderate and con-
his impulsive nature
of youth, as well as to
temper of the times, Ramus, once convinced, pushed his opposition to an extreme, and
became straightway an ardent reformer, if not a
troversial
revolutionist.
He
attacked without discretion the
great idol of the day, whose
word was revered as that
an oracle and upon the basis of whose

But
the Church had built her doctrine.
of
dialectic
his very
Ajistotle several times narrowly escaped being canonized in
the Middle Ages.
See Cousin, Cours,
2 serie,
t.
II, p. 240.
PETER RAMUS
26
vehemence attracted attention and
number
of partisans.
His
combat came with
public
in I536,
putation
when
the
first
enlisted a large
opportunity for a
his master's
examination
he formulated as his subject for disaudacious
Aristotle has said
is
proposition:
false."
"All
that
In developing
his
subject, he maintained in the first place that the
writings attributed to Aristotle were spurious,
secondly
that
they
contained
only
errors.
and
His
disputants, the judges, were impaled on the horns of
a dilemma, since they could not, as was their wont,

appeal to the authority of Aristotle without begging
the question.
They were unable
make any headAs a
against the youthful disputant.
way
after assailing his thesis for

their
and
to
result,
a whole day and having
arguments refuted with great
spirit, subtlety,
directness, they were at length obliged to admit
the candidate to the degree with honors.
This paradox of the young scholar startled
all
the universities of France, and quickly spread to
Germany, Switzerland, and
Italy.
world stood aghast at his audacity.
The academic
If
Ramus were
According to custom, this probably occurred in Lent.
Quacumque ab
Freigius, op.
Aristotele dicta essent, commentitia esse.
cit.,
pp. 9
ff.
27
Europe were wrong. He

was denounced by many scholars as an ingrate on
the ground that he had used the weapons supplied
right, all the universities of
by
To
Aristotle to attack the donor himself.
this
he replied in the very words of Aristotle, when that

philosopher declared
that he preferred the truth
"Had my own
even to his master, Plato:
promulgated those
lack
force
precious
and
and
errors,
my
attack should not
The
persistency.
and dear to me than
my
truth
way
is
more
father himself,
I shall hold myself guilty to let
a single person stand in the
father
my regard
of all."
for
Thus when barely twenty-one, the son of a poor

widow became one of the most striking figures
within the realm of intellect.
his degree entitled
in the
university,
him
The attainment
literally to
'
of
become a master
and he began
'
his labors at the
Mans 2 under the auspices of Jean

This scholar, who had been his teacher
College of the
Hennuyer.
in philosophy at the College of Navarre,

3
ably likewise a professor at Mans, and
have been substituting
for him.
Ramus may
At any
Aristotelica Animadversiones, fol. 73-75.
See pp. 13
See
Du
was prob-
rate,
f.
Boulay, Hist, de
I'
Univ. de Paris,
t.
VI, 952.
he
PETER RAMUS
28
did not stay here long, but undertook to start at the

little
Aristotelians,
his
own
Ave Maria,
of
college
in
opposition
an education more
He
ideal.
to
the
in conformity with
associated with himself in this
endeavor Omer Talon of Beauvais, an able professor
who
of rhetoric,
friend
and
ever
afterward remained a
close
enthusiastic supporter of his educational
reforms, and Barthelemy Alexandre of
a noted Greek scholar,
who
Champagne,
could teach the Hellenic
philosophers and orators in the original.
Here, for the

sity of Paris,
first
time in any college of the Univer-
Greek and Latin authors were read at

'
the same time, and the study of eloquence/ or classical literature,
and
was joined with that
of philosophy,
with the orators.
His plan for
of the poets
enlarging the breadth and culture of higher instruction
proved interesting,
dramatic.
The students
and almost
stimulating,
flocked
to
hear Ramus,
whose reputation as an orator was established the

first
day.
This remarkable success he followed up by
planning to reform the work of the university in

general
put
and the
arts
faculty
in several years forgetting
in
particular.
much
of
He
what he had
learned at the College of Navarre and in reconstructing
all
the liberal arts.
He
especially en-

deavored to continue his reform in
2$
dialectic,
and
foresaw in the application of this subject to the other

liberal arts the
keystone to the entire arch, and at
that point he centered the structure opposed to Aris-
and the medieval philosophy founded upon

him. In this progressive step toward real humantotle
study and fruitful logic he probably had as
istic
guides such writings as
De
the
Sapiens
Disciplinis (1531) of Vives,
(1522)
and
which must have
been well known to him, and the lectures on dialectic

of Sturm,
who had
just
of teaching at Paris.
of
Ave Maria,
then,
completed his seven years
The masters
made
in the College
their lectures attractive
by seeking illustrations and models of

the operations of the mind in the classical poets and
and
practical
orators,
thus verifying hi an interesting
rules of logic
the
and banishing the barren disputes that
had long held sway at the

result of a
way
"As
university.
happy thought," says Ramus,
the
"I put
forth the proposition that the masters of the university were grievously in error to suppose that the
liberal arts
were well taught in making of them mere
interrogations
of
this
1
and
syllogisms,
should
sophistry
See p.
17.
be
and that the whole

cast
aside
Remonstrance au conseil
and the
prive, p. 25.
PETER RAMUS
30
subjects should
rather
explain
and
suggest real
usage."
To
crystallize this position,
Ramus
in 1543
pub-
two epoch-making books on logic,

the Divisions or Institutions of Dialectic 1 and the
lished in Latin
Animadversions on
Aristotle.
In the former work
he stated dogmatically a number of elementary
and elegant language.

however, had in it little that was con-
principles of logic in
This
treatise,
troversial,
but
tion,
terse
with the exception of the brief introducthe
work consisted
latter
in
fierce
upon Aristotle, filled with the bitter

invective that was characteristic of the age and his
onslaught
own
It
impulsiveness.
was most
unfair
and
indis-
creet in its critical analysis of the great logician,
representing
and a
him
sacrilegious
as
sophist/
man/ and
an
'impostor/
his disciples as
bar-
whose disputes were barren and noisy.

He ridiculed and condemned with great force and
barians/
eloquence their subtleties and
He
of
freedom
of thought,
himself ready to encounter

Dialectics partitiones ad
all
sorts.
all
labors
and he held
and dangers,
Academiam Parisiensem
tions called Dialectics institutiones}.

2
of
boldly declared himself the opponent of a routine,
and the apostle
follies
Aristotelica animadversiones.
(in later edi-
31
in order to destroy the sophistry of his opponents,
even to the extent of laying down

cause.
of his
2
tion,
his life for the
famous paradox
master's disputation with scarcely any moderaand discharged a fusillade of abuse at the
Finally, he reiterated the
effete teachings of the professors in the faculty of arts.
So determined an attack upon the Aristotelian

citadel could no longer be passed over unnoticed,
and the Peripatetics massed themselves

Ramus, too, seems to have understood
for battle.
fully
what
the consequences of his treatises were likely to be.
He
undertook to intrench himself behind the good
will
of
the
king,
Francis
I,
to
whom
he
pre-
sented a handsome copy of the Divisions of Dialectic,

together with a eulogy of his reign and wishes for his
3
prosperity.
With a
similar motive he dedicated the
Animadversions to two former college mates, both

afterwards cardinals, Charles of Lorraine and Charles
of Bourbon,
1
and appealed to
See Animadversiones,
fol.
their kindness of heart,
15 v.
His later works on the subject, notably the Scholce dialectics,

were much less extreme and vehement, and were directed rather
against the scholastic interpretation of Aristotle than the master
himself.
3
Waddington (Ramus, p. 37) says this volume is in the Bibliothtque Imperiale (now Nationale), No. 6659, of the Latin manuscripts, and quotes from the dedication (pp. 421 ff.).
PETER RAMUS
32
which he declared had often been experienced by

himself and had been much praised by their revered
While these precautions were
master, Hennuyer.
well taken, they were not sufficient to withstand the
storm that immediately arose and broke over the
head
of
The conservative masters
Ramus.
of the
university, perceiving the
sympathy of the students

for the vigorous reformer, and fearing a revolution,
were alarmed and enraged. The rector of the
university, Pierre
of
Galland, principal of the College

felt
Boncour, especially
himself aggrieved, and,
while taking no overt step, secretly urged two well-
known masters
to
These men were
Perion, a professor of theology,
expose the
fallacies of
Ramus.
who
had made a pretentious and inaccurate translation

of Aristotle, and Govea, a conservative, but rather
and witty jurist. The arraignments of
Ramus, which they were only too eager to make,
were filled with pedantry and invective, and inlearned
timated that dire calamities were in store for the

should he
reformer,
not
peace with honest folk/
had more
1
As
repent
and 'make
Their defense of Aristotle
force than point,
and the writings
sources, see (i) Perionii pro Aristotele in
orationes II
and
(2)
his
Hispania bibliotheca,
t.
of that
Petrum
II, class.
Ramum
VII, pp. 300
f.
33
philosopher, with their austere dignity, would have
proved by themselves a more weighty answer than

these violent and unjust anathemas of his disciples.
Galland, however, was succeeded the following

1
by Guillaume de Montuelle,
year
College of Beauvais,
ness
in
the
matter.
who
He
principal of the
acted with more directat once
presented the
two offending works to the faculty of theology for

censure, and when this had been passed, he had the
university ask the civic authorities to suppress the
books.
Ramus was summoned before
Paris as an
enemy
and a corrupter
Govea,
case
who
the provost of
and the public peace

youth, and at the request of
to religion
of
acted as the university's advocate, the
was brought before the Parlement 2
of Paris.
Then, since the procedure of this tribunal appeared

too deliberate and regular to satisfy the anger of
the Aristotelians, Galland got Pierre du Chastel,
The term of the rector's office was but one year.

The functions of this body are not to be confused with those
a parliament. The local parlements, of which that of Paris was
1
of
the most important, were primarily higher law courts, but, in addition to trying cases, they claimed the right to register or disapprove
the decrees of the king, and maintain certain other legislative
powers.
PETER RAMUS
34
bishop of
Macon and a
close friend of the king, to
intervene and bring the complaint to the royal notice

Francis, finding the growing tempest
at once.
uproar unendurable and wishing
and
to subside as
it
Du Chastel's
of whom were
quickly as possible, referred the case, at

suggestion, to a commission of five,
to be chosen
Ramus
by each
side
two
and a
succeeded in getting
fifth by the king.

two talented personal
friends to act for him, but, although their
completely
who were
vanquished
the
other
arguments
three
judges,
zealous Aristotelians, they were overborne
and withdrew from the
farcical
in
trial
disgust.
Sentence was then pronounced upon the defendant

as follows
"Our most
osophy and
Christian king, in his love for phil-
liberal studies,
has committed to us the
task of examining the book which P.
published against Aristotle under the
on
versions
Aristotle
and
Ramus
title of
has
Animad-
of passing
judgment upon
have read the book carefully and have
examined and weighed every one of its propositions
it.
We
and have come

rashly,
to
to this decision
arrogantly,
Ramus
and impudently,
condemn and impugn the
been accepted among
all
in undertaking
art of logic,
nations;
has acted
which has
and which he

himself does not understand at
35
Moreover, the
all.
reproaches which he heaps upon Aristotle are of such
a kind as to exhibit his ignorance and stupidity, as

well as his wickedness
and bad
faith, since
and
he repre-
hends
many
much
to Aristotle that this philosopher has never
held.
In
fictions
of the truest doctrines,
short,
and
book contains nothing but
his
scurrilous
have judged that
it
slanders.
and that
book be suppressed by
are
all
many
statements
untrue and falsely attributed, shall be
treated likewise."
we
his other book, Institutions
of Dialectic, which also contains
that
Wherefore,
to the best interest of the
is
republic of letters that this

possible means,
attributes
Thus not only was the Animadversions not granted

fair trial, but even the more constructive work of
Ramus was condemned
without even
amined, solely because
was by the same author.
The
king,
who boasted
it
of his title of
'
being ex-
father of let-
was swayed by the clamors and confirmed the

unjust decision and did everything possible to make
ters/
effective.
it
t.
In his decree, after giving a lengthy
See footnote on p. 30.
The original text is given in Du Boulay, Hist, dc VUniv. de Paris,
VI, p. 394-
PETER RAMUS
36
account of the trouble that had disturbed his 'dear
and beloved daughter, the University of Paris/

of the trial that had ensued, he declares
and
"Be it known
and abolished the

and warnings
kingdom,
we have condemned, suppressed,

said books, and made prohibitions
that
to all printers
fiefs,
and booksellers
of our
domains, and seigniories, and to
all
our other subjects of whatever estate and condition,

that they neither print, spread abroad,
the said books, in our kingdom,
fiefs,
sell,
and
or utter
seigniories,
under pain of confiscation of their books or of corporal
And
punishment.
likewise to the said
Ramus
that
he neither lecture upon said books nor have them

written or copied or spread abroad in any manner,
and that he do not

of
any
lecture
on
dialectic or philosophy
sort whatsoever, without our express per-
mission,
and
also
he no longer use such slanders and
invectives against Aristotle or other ancient authors
received
and approved, or against our
said daughter,
the university, under the penalties above mentioned.
So we commend and decree to our provost

1
La fille
ainee
du
roi de France,
'
of Paris,
the eldest daughter of the king
was the name given in 1515 by Francis I to the University of Paris and generally used after that. See Pasquier, Recherches
of France,'
de la France, p. 811.

that he
ment
may
cause the present ordinance and judg-
to be executed."
The
37
edict of the king
was
registered
by the
parle-
ment without
opposition, and was published by

trumpet and posted in French and Latin in all parts of
was dispatched throughout France, and

sent to foreign towns and universities to vindicate
the city.
It
the orthodoxy of Paris.
It
was received by the
conservatives of the university with transports of

joy.
The obnoxious books were burnt
the College of Cambrai
by one
of the biased judges,
and the Peripatetics indulged in a

than would ordinarily be held
2
Some
victory.
greater celebration
after
let
Ramus off with so light a penalty,
and insisted that he should have been
common malefactor.
the galleys as a
Ad
Given in
a military
of his opponents, however, regretted
that the king had
ever, could
hi front of
exiled or sent to
Ramus, how-
do nothing except submit to these
full in
Du
Boulay, op.
cit.,
t.VI, p. 657
indig-
Charpentier,
expositionem disputationis de methodo Responsio; and
La Choix
du Maine,
Bibliotheques Francoises under Pierre de la Ramie;

Niceron, Memoires, XIII.
2
This was the testimony given by G6nebrard in his eulogy at
the funeral of Danes, the judge
See Vie, Eloges,

3
et
See Charpentier,
P. Ramiy
fol.
13
r.
who burnt
Opuscules de Pierre Danes.
the book of
Ramus.
(Paris, 1871, p. oo.)
A nimadversiones in Dialecticarum Institutiones
PETER RAMUS
38
nities
resentment as much as posLater he declared with his characteristic
and conceal
sible.
philosophy
his
"I had undertaken to make known the

of Socrates,
self
and found that
principles
had drawn upon my-
the same sort of calamity as that which over-
whelmed him.
For a complete resemblance
lacked only the hemlock.

Nevertheless,
It
forbidden to teach,
we
my
case
Ramus seems
gether silenced.
viction (1544)
"
not to have been alto-
was only philosophy that he was

and in the very year of his con-
find
him
at
work as usual with

2
Talon and Alexandre at their
college.
While he
could not deal with logic or any part of philosophy,
and confined himself

3
mathematics, he
still
entirely
to the classics
and
defended the union of literary
studies with philosophy.
Moreover, Talon was not
the least intimidated, and publicly announced
in
1
Schola mathematic(B,
There are
1.
Ill, p. 74.
preserved the addresses of the three colleagues

to their students in November,
Tres orationes a tribus liberalism
still
disciplinarum professoribus, Petro Ramo,
Audomaro
Talceo,
Bar-
tholomao Alexandra, Lutetia in gymnasia Mariano habitce.

3
During this period he made his first Latin translation of Euclid,
which he anonymously dedicated to his patron, the Cardinal of
Lorraine.
later on.
More
will
be heard of his mathematical publications

his
39
complete agreement with the position taken by
Ramus and
his intention to rescue philosophy
the darkness in which
it
was groping.
from
He praised the
Animadversions most heartily and announced that
he would produce a similar work on rhetoric. 1
The next year an even more

ity presented itself to the
favorable opportun-
two reformers.
was invited by Lesage, the aged principal

College of Presles, to
school.
The
college
Ramus
of the
take charge of this historic
was badly run down
in finances
and attendance, but, through the eloquence and improved management of Ramus, it shortly became
one of the best. 3
who soon
Here, with the assistance of Talon,
followed
him
to Presles,
Ramus
continued
same reforms and even to push

He had the temerity to announce as
to introduce the
them
further.
the subject of his
first
lectures that passage of
The
Republic of Cicero that treats of Platonic philosophy,
and, in spite of the ban upon his lecturing upon the

subject, he
commented without
reserve,
on the ground
teaching the classics or 'eloquence/ upon
of
1
Collectan. prcefat., epist. (1577), pp. 19
It
Philip
was founded
in 1314
the Fair, according
by Raoul de
to
the
ff.
Presles, a secretary of
Waddington.
Farrington, from
Jourdain and Chaavin, estimates 1322 as the date.

J
See Nicholas of Nancel, Rami vita, p. 19.
PETER RAMUS
40
Dream
Moreover, the two friends again

taught the Latin and Greek authors in the same class,
and joined the study of eloquence' with that of
of Scipio.
'
While not nominally permitted to teach

philosophy himself, Ramus still insisted upon the need
philosophy.
of the union of the
two
lines of study,
1546, delivered his oration
and in October,
upon the
subject.
To
carry out this idea and yet live within the interdict,
it
was arranged that Talon should give a course on
philosophy in the morning, while

in the afternoon
upon
Ramus
rhetoric, illustrating
lectured
through
the poets, orators, and other authors the usage and

application of the principles of logic.
This double
system of lectures was in itself a startling innovation,

but Ramus undertook to show that it was in keeping
with the intention and example of Aristotle and with
the practice at the College of France, 3 and expressed
the hope that the plan might become general in the
university colleges also.
Such
vitality
and attractiveness
in instruction not
only seemed destructive of the 'arts' traditions, but
soon lured students in large numbers away from

1
His Somnium Scipionis ex
Petri
Kami
libro sexto Ciceronis de
prcdectionibus explicatum
Oratio de sludiis philosophic
See pp. 4 and 15
f.
el
was published
all
Republica
in 1546.
eloquentia conjugendis.
41
This was a constant source of
the other colleges.
grievance to the conservatives, and, failing in their
attempt to make trouble between
Ramus and
the
retired principal, Lesage, they constantly complained

officially of this
On several
'
subversion of the College of Presles.' 2
occasions the rectors felt called
upon
to
and once Ramus was haled before the
investigate,
parlement by Galland for this revolutionary offense,

but through the influence of his patron, Charles of
he was acquitted. 3 Moreover, by the

fortunate circumstance of the succession of Henry II
Lorraine,
to the throne in 1547, the

protector,
who had been
power
of this cardinal
the preceptor of the
new
was greatly increased, and almost his

act was to procure from the king an abrogation
monarch,
first
of the edict against
The ecclesiastical favor-
Ramus.
showed the king the necessity to philosophy of

freedom hi thinking and of the right to adopt or
ite
reject
without limitation
Aristotle, or
1
any other
Banosius, pp. 9
f.
the
opinions
Plato,
The king promptly
thinker.
Nancel, p. 18.
of
The
accusation of having
was repeated a decade later by his worst

enemy, Charpentier (Animadversiones adverse P. Ramum, 1555,
forced out the old principal
fol.
2
4v.,
See
et alibi).
Du
Boulay, op.
denominated turbator
3
Ramus, Pro
cit., t.
VI, p. 399.
Ramus was
repeatedly
collegii Prcdlei.
phil. disciplina (in Collectan. prcefat., p. 310).
PETER RAMUS
42
canceled the interdict and the parlement registered
Thus, says Ramus, "the true God who
his decision.
knows
what end he has produced
to
his creatures,
reserved the conclusion of
my case
Henry, who having heard
the controversy recounted,
unbound
right
my
to pursue
Ramus
my
studies.''
literary
the
Academy
(i.e.
me
the
a latitude in pursuing his studies
work that he was not slow
and
good King
tongue and hands, and gave
and power
This gave
for the
to utilize.
In
University) of Talon he had the
story of his persecutions narrated, and through the

offices of
the
same
friend there were published
new
two condemned books with many

modifications and additions.
Ramus himself within
editions of the
a few years collected his commentaries on the letters

of Plato and on the orations and rhetorical works of
Cicero and Quintilian in eight or ten publications, 2
dedicating most of
1
them
to his powerful patron, the
See Remonstrance au conseil prive (1567), p. 25.

Brutinc? qitastiones in Oratorem Cicenms. 1547
Rhetorics distinctiones (in Quintilianum) , 1549;
a Petro
Ramo
expositor,
1549;
ronis epistola
illustrata,
M.
M.
et
dialecticis
rerum summis
T. Ciceronis de fato liber, 1550;
M.
M.
1549;
brevtter
T. Cice+.
nona ad P. Lentulum dialecticis rerum summis
1550;
oratio, 1551
latino; factce,
and
Platonis epistola
breviter
T. Ciceronis pro Caio Rubirio perdnellionis re
Pralectiones in librum I Ciceronis de legibus, 15521
T. Ciceronis de lege agraria, 1552.

In these writings
cardinal.
more
humanistic
and
methodical
and even ventured
rhetoric,
Quintilian.
Ramus
43
called
for
treatment
a
of
to criticize Cicero
and
new
at-
This insurgency precipitated
by the conservatives. His old opponent Perion,

who had attacked the Animadversions, now took up
tacks
the cudgels as vigorously in defense of Cicero.

the dedication of his
work
to
Du
Chastel,
In
who had
brought the former case before the king, he virtuously
"You know that I defended Aristotle

against Ramus four years ago in a lengthy speech and
I now believe that I cannot give up Cicero, the father
of Roman eloquence, to him without a defense/'
And addressing the professors of all faculties, he
declares:
his
recalls
Ramus
former predictions and the threat of
to reform all the arts,
until logic has
and "not
been entirely delivered from the dark-
ness of Aristotle
and
it
has been shown
to be applied to all sciences."
appeals
in
to stop
alarm
to
his
how
it
ought
Perion, therefore,
fellow-masters
against
"Ramus, who is preparing to reject Hippocrates

and Galen, Euclid and Archimedes, and to declare
that you are ignorant of medicine, geometry, and
Ramum
Pro Ciceronis Oratore contra Petrum
Preface to the Platonis epistola latince facta.
oratio.
PETER RAMUS
44
astronomy," and beseeches
all
"who
cherish Cicero
Ramus, who
as the father of eloquence to resist

skill
repudiates
and judgment."
This absurd out-
burst he followed by reprinting his former speeches in

defense of Aristotle against the Animadversions. 2
But
this excited response
was tame
in
comparison
Ramus
Galland, who
with the invective that was heaped upon

because of his criticism of Quintilian.
had
stirred
sions,
up much
of the fury over the
was quite as indignant at the attack
fessor of rhetoric
edition of Quintilian
In the dedication of his
to DuChastel, he assails
as 'the corrupter of youth
While
all
of a pro-
at a logician
upon Quintilian as
for a criticism of Aristotle.
nearly
Animadver-
Ramus
and as a man guilty
of
the vices and crimes in the calendar.
Ramus
followed his custom of not replying to
these anathemas,
the
whole discussion seems to
have reached such absurd proportions as to amuse

many outside the university circle, and to be of
enough moment to attract the humor

Rabelais, and the poet, Du Bellay.
poked at
this
of the satirist,
Much
fun
is
'
'
Petromachy or war of the Peters, and
various changes are rung on the easy puns upon

1
P6rion, Pro Ciceronis Oratore,
See pp. 32
f.
fol. 3.
Paris, 1549.

Peter
('
rock')
Ramus
('
45
branch'), and Gotland ('gal-
lant').
In
fact, this
whole
tempest in a teapot
had
'
might
not been for
have subsided through ridicule,

the entry of a new and more vigorous champion into
the lists against Ramus. This was Jacques Charit
'
pen tier or Carpentarius,' a professor in the College

of Boncour and a former pupil of Galland, who remained until death the vicious and implacable enemy
of
Ramus.
with
many
clergy,
He came
of a rich
and well-known family
powerful patrons, especially
among
the
and he had at the age of twenty-five manipu-
lated himself into the rectorship of the university.
Thinking to signalize his induction into
office
by a
popular stroke, and urged perhaps by Galland, he

began by bringing, in the name of the University,
trumped-up charges against Ramus and accusing him

of violations of the rules.
He
declared in particular
that the professors of the College of Presles, contrary

to university statute,
expounded the poets and ora-
tors, instead of confining
themselves to philosophy.
Then, without any investigation of the teaching or any

defense from Ramus, in a packed meeting of his cabi1
Rabelais, Panlagritel,
Maistre
Pierre Cuignet sur la
1.
IV, Prologue
Du
Bellay, Satyre de
Petromachie de V Universite de Paris; etc.
PETER RAMUS
46
net, he
had the students of that
college debarred
the degrees and privileges of the university.
from
sharp
controversy followed, in which Carpentarius accused
Ramus
of treason to the university.
And
the latter
was convicted by a biased commission of six selected

from the higher faculties. An appeal was had to the
parlement, and once more
Ramus was
given his
rights through the influence of the Cardinal of Lorraine.
The
usual slow procedure was
somewhat expedited,
and the vigorous defense made by Ramus for academic freedom in interpreting Aristotle and other
authors and his protest against the tyrannical rules
and abuses
of the university
won him from
fair-
minded judges a favorable verdict. Although the

University custom was sustained by requiring
the reformer to explain the regular authors in the
way
by the
prescribed
upon holidays,
feast days, Sundays,
as were left open
by the
authors he chose and as
amounted
he was permitted
statutes,
to giving
rules,
and such hours
to teach whatever
freely as he liked.
him nearly two
This
thirds of the year
to interpret as he wished.
1
The
response
philosophica
oi
Ramus
to this charge
is
embodied
in his
Parisicnsis academiK discipline oratio, which he
livered in 1551.
Pro
But
to prevent
any recurrence
47
of this chicanery
and persecution, the cardinal now persuaded the

king to establish a new chair of Eloquence and
Philosophy at the College of France, and appoint
Ramus
to the position.
This step was taken, and,
while as principal of the College of Presles,
was
Ramus
amenable to the University, as lecturer

at the Royal College he became dependent only
still
upon the
king.
He was
freedom to develop
and envy
thus afforded an unwonted
his reforms,
of the Aristotelians
for a brief space estopped.
and the
hostility
and conservatives was
CHAPTER
III
RAMUS began
new
duties in the
fall of
fame was widespread.

enemies and the stubborn
virulence of his
opposition of the conservatives, quite as
own
his
and the worth
brilliance
centered
the
1551.
thirty-six, his
Although only
The
his
attention
the
of
much
of his reforms,
as
had
world
intellectual
upon him. His opening address at the College of

France was attended by many masters of the
university,
members
and persons
thousand.
crisis in his
will
at
of the parlement, higher clergy,
in all classes to the
The importance
career
number
of
two
of the occasion as a
and the eloquence
of the orator
2
perhaps justify quoting this inaugural speech
some length
"There are two
:
Banosius, p. 10
vita, p.
2
things,
Nancel,
p.
my
20
hearers,
which at the
Zwinger, Theatrum humane*
3697, col. b.
This inaugural address (Oratio
was published the same year and

48
initio
is still
sua professions
extant.
habitd)
EROFESSOR IN THE ROYAL COLLEGE

beginning of
my
49
professorship every one will ex'
in the first place, that I express my

pect from me
thanks to those through whom I have been chosen for
;
in the second place, that I explain
this position;
you the reason
to
On
my
for
the 6th of August,
appointment to the
when
Lorraine, brought the case of
office.
Charles, Cardinal of
my
teaching to the
notice of
King Henry, it pleased the king that I

should be among the number and body of the royal
and
professors,
that, as I
have done from the begin-
'
ning, I should teach
'
eloquence
at the
same tune
with philosophy, and he announced that decision

to
me
hi
honor.
Henry
an
epistle
couched in terms of
Wherefore, I
of Valois,
as long as
life
am
exceedingly
most Christian
endures.
For,
of kings,
my
grateful to
and
hearers,
with helpless children should find
special
if
shall
be
a father
silver, gold,
and
and precious wealth that had been left by his

ancestors, and yet could not on account of the rocks
great
and the roughness

or share
it
of the
ground either carry it home
with his children;
and at length some
Hercules, having pitied the wretched fortune of the
and roughness,
for him to take
father, should rid the place of rocks
and should make

it
away, share,
it
quite possible
and enjoy
it,
would not that happy
PETER RAMUS
50
What thanks
father exult with exceeding great joy ?
he would give to that Hercules
"But
Many
was
pupils
just such a wretched father for years.
had been committed to
my
and
care
and the great and precious wealth of

eloquence and philosophy I saw had been left as an
affection,
'
'
inheritance in the works of the ancient orators, poets,
and philosophers, but overlooked through the

lessness of the heirs.
it
rationally
and systematically,
and share
life,
And when
with
it
my
hands were
my
my lips were sealed,
and
I
was forbidden
writing.
as
it
I desired to collect
to use
it
suitably in
pupils, incredibly harsh
conditions hindered and opposed
even
care-
my
fettered, lest I
lest I tell
efforts.
Nay,
should take
some one
to disclose anything
of
it,
it,
and
by speech or
Meanwhile, King Henry, a Gallic Hercules,
were,
came
to aid
me
in
my
distress, and, four
years ago, at the request of Charles, Cardinal of
hands and tongue, and gave

teaching, practicing, and illustrat-
Lorraine, unloosed
me
the power of
'
ing eloquence
'
my
and philosophy.
And within
the last
few days, when he perceived that the old burdens

were being renewed and made heavier, he even more
bountifully and magnificently revealed his kindness
and decreed that
my
labors should be not only
51
unfettered, but even honored with a royal stipend.
Wherefore,
Henry, most Christian king, should I
say that I owe the

dost
within this body to thee,
who
support, and honor me, I should put
free,
mildly.
life
owe
my body and
to thee that which
my soul,
life,
is
than
far dearer
whose labors and
it
vigils
are nourished and live through thy benefits, and, I
hope, will be nourished and live to herald thy praise

to future ages.
"
The second place for
thanks,
my hearers, is due to
Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, who, as soon as he
knew
my
straits, offered to
protector,
and
become
my
patron and
a real Maecenas in his love of letters
in his zeal
and aid
was he attracted by
my
meager
ability so
induced by the remarkable excellence of

nature and training.
of contradiction,
still
living
credence to
I declare the truth,
since the
and present
my
speech,
Nor
in relieving virtue.
will
memory
much as
his own
without fear
of very
many
bear witness and give
when
say that Charles
from early years was so greatly devoted

to learning and virtue that all of us who knew him
admired the eager mind of the youth. His atten-
of Lorraine
tion in listening to the master, his meditation
and
study of what had been taught, his pains in imitat-
PETER RAMUS
52
and
ing the example of the author expounded,

efforts in practicing
his
every variety of speaking and
writing were of the very highest.
have read an elegy
of
Only recently I
most brilliant language and
thought written by him in the midst of an exceedingly busy life; so sound
rooted learning.
"In
my
most
is
the fruit of his well-
bitter hours, as I
mated, when I was surrounded on
have before
all sides
was
sort of annoyance, Charles of Lorraine
comforter.
all
It is
inti-
by every
my
sole
he that has taught King Henry at
times to be liberal in philosophy toward every one.
Therefore, attribute to Charles of Lorraine the credit

for
my
being freed and restored by King Henry, and
for the four years that I
peace.
As the
'
eloquence
my studies
latest favor, this last winter,
was indicted and

'
have pursued
in
when
called into court, because I joined
with philosophy
my
(in
teaching),
how
great was his kindness and equity in perceiving and
expediting the whole affair
most
serious
He
heard
charge had been made.
declared that I was an Academic, an
first
that a
Some one
enemy
to
God
and humanity, flouting all laws, human and divine,

and even teaching my pupils to scorn them, that I
expounded misleading passages
of St. Augustine in
53
the interest of unbridled and impious license, and
order
in
that,
easily, I
abuse unguarded minds more
to
wished to eliminate
(from the curriculum of
all logical
disputations
my college).
"
When the cardinal told me at dinner of this and

bade me answer,
'Alas !' I cried, 'my Maecenas,
what do
entire
could any one fabricate so false a suspicion
life
hear
Out
and base a slander ?
of
what occurrences
in
my
know, and
approve of no curriculum, save that which is consistent and harmonious with the true and useful
For
I subscribe to,
precepts of grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy, our
and the Christian
state,
this
religion.
absurd piece of mendacity,
principles of the true
and
Quite contrary to
I maintain
useful arts, illustrate
the
them
with examples, and exercise and practice them daily.
So
far
am
to do so
from scorning them or teaching others

My books, inscribed with familiar exam-
from the poets, orators, and philosophers, I

have shown thee. Nor have I cited misleading passages from Augustine, and, I believe, there is no
ples
college in the entire
disputations are
mine.
living
more
Wherefore,
my
university
in
which
diligently pursued
Maecenas, in the
logical
than in
name
of the
God, most just and holy, exert thy valor and
PETER RAMUS
54
my innocence of this foul and horrid charge.

are the accusations under which I am con-
vindicate
Such
me
demned, unless thou bearest

"
my
Thereupon,
aid
'
!
hearers, I witnessed the indigna-
most noble and virtuous cardinal violently
tion of this
On
aroused by such an atrocity.
the next day, then,
he demanded of the president of the parlement that
my
case be at once brought to
who were
trial.
They
present can remember with what true and
weighty words the cardinal assailed
my
accusers.
With equal firmness the next day the judge sat

the court for almost three continuous hours and
.
At the
heard the case.

decided
close
he and the parlement
my
unanimously that
in
students should be
completely restored to their former privileges, that
on philosophy should be given at the regular

hours on the days ordinarily set for university
lectures
and that
sessions,
in the remaining hours of the
regular days I might lecture
and
other
classic
And
losophy.
it
and philosophy
tending
authors,
was
for
upon the
instead
just this
which
poets, orators,
of
union of
had been
upon phil
'
eloquence
so long con-
'Therefore,
my
Maecenas, by gaining this most
righteous verdict, thou hast obtained leisure and
my studies, and
peace for
losophy.
come
sincerity
And when the
to realize
how
55
and truth
for phi-
university of Paris shall
vast and infinite a benefit thou
hast bestowed, she will hail thee as her Maecenas,
and not mine
She
alone.
will
compare thee not
only to the great cardinals of the ages, but will judge

that Charles the Great (Charlemagne), her founder,
has miraculously returned in the guise of Charles of

Lorraine to mold and
complete
the
inchoate beginnings of his ancient university.
such
is
the case,
my
hearers, in
and
crude
Since
my own name
and
that of the state, I render most hearty thanks to
Charles of Lorraine."
In an equally poetic
of his vindication
ethical
way he
followed the account
with a general exposition of his
and educational
ideas.
At the
close of the
was met with deafening plaudits from the

assembly, in which were seated many of his adverThis brilliant inauguration was the foresaries.
oration he
runner of a most remarkable career.

of
Ramus were no
The
utterances
longer confined to the students of
a single college, but resounded throughout Paris, and
an innumerable body
of students not only
parts of France, but from
Europe, flocked to hear
from
all
many other countries of

him. He realized that the
PETER RAMUS
56
friends
who had stood by him had formed high
ex-
pectations of his achievements, and never allowed his
work
was capable.
the ordinary routine method of droning
to fall below the best of which he
Instead of
through a commentary upon a given passage, he made

a treatment of the author that was at once free and
and gave illustrations and applications

that greatly added to the value of his exposition.
interesting,
The
material of his lectures on the classics he soon
began to publish, and rapidly put out a number of

commentaries relating to the works of Cicero,
and
logic,
the
His interest in philosophy and

however, did not flag, and he took advantage of
Vergil,
new
Caesar.
liberty given
him
the poets and orators the
to
way
show
in
in his lectures
on
which the principles
Hence
any work of the intellect.
old method of joining the study of elo-
of logic obtained in
he revived his
'
quence
with that of philosophy.
'
Similarly,
when-
ever he explained any classical author, he endeavored

1
Tidii Ciceronis de lege agraria contra P. Servilium
Ridlum
tribunum plebis orationes Ires (1552), M. T. Ciceronis in L. Catilinam

oraliones IIII (1553), P. VirgUii Maronis Bucolica (1555), P.
Virgilii
Maronis Georgica (1556), M. T. Ciceronis de Optimo genere
oratorum prafatio (1556), Ciceronianus (1557),
M.
T. Ciceronis
familiarium epistolarum libri XVI (1557), Liber de moribus veterum

Gattorum (1559), Liber de C&saris Militia (1559).

to see
what
art or science he could teach through this
Thus the
medium.
57
orations
and the
treatise
On
Fate of Cicero served as texts on rhetoric and dialecthe Georgics of Vergil were used as a means
tic,
'
of teaching
Dream
of Scipio in
He
astronomy.
natural science, and
physics' or
felt
that he might thus advance
the study of the liberal arts and
This
useful.
the
Cicero's Republic for treating
practical
make them more
tendency of
his
teaching
caused his opponents to give him the nickname of

usuarius, or
In
fact,
'
utilitarian/
Ramus planned
of all the liberal arts,
most
nothing short of a reform
and during
this period
wrote
works upon each of the disciplines in the

In grammar he published his lectures on
of his
trivium.
and other grammarians under the title of

Studies in Grammar? This was not merely a critiPriscian
cal
treatise,
but undertook to establish construc-
About the same tune he put out

works upon Latin grammar, 3 and in the succeeding
tive principles.
220.
See Turnebi disputatio ad librum Ciceronis De Fato (1556), fol.

If pragmatist were not so modern, it would render this word
'
most
'
aptly.
Schoice Grammatics
Grammatics
(i559).
libri
(1559).
quattiwr (1559)
and Rudimenta grammatics
>J
PETER RAMUS
58
1
years he wrote treatises upon Greek grammar, and
even a work on the vernacular, 2 which ran through
many
On
editions.
The
reform works.
rhetoric
Ramus
critical treatises
also
produced
on Cicero and
which had led to such an uproar, 3 he

now modified and united under the less aggressive
Quintilian,
title of
if
no
The more
Studies in Rhetoric.*
less difficult,
principles of rhetoric
to his colleague,
constructive,
task of positively formulating the
who
from
view he
his point of
left
published during the early part

5
ofOmer Talon on Rhetoric.

continued his works upon dialectic. While
of this period the Lectures
Ramus also
he
still felt
that all the liberal arts were merely applica-
tions of this subject, he published separate treatises
upon
it.
First of
all,
however, there appeared a
much improved edition of the Institutions of Dialectic. 6

The next year was printed his vernacular work on the
7
subject,
1
which
is
considered
by some
to
be his most
Grammatica graca (1560) and Rudimenta grammatica graccz
(1560).
*Gramere (1562), afterward (1567, 1572, 1587,
etc.)
Gramniaire
de Pierre de la Ramee.
3
See pp. 42
Pralectiones in A. Talaei rhetoricam, 1554
See pp. 30
ff.
Scholce rhetorics.
and 1562.
f.
Dialectique (1555).
See Cousin, Fragments Philosophiques Moderms,
I, p. 14.
59
important contribution to philosophy, and in the two

years following he published respectively his final
word on
logic in
two books, 1 and a modified and much
enlarged edition of the Animadversions
books which he called Studies in
Thus by 1559 the
position of
Dialectic.
Ramus
in
with regard
had been
to the trivium, or elementary liberal arts,

fairly formulated, and
he was
now
twenty
21
at liberty to under-
take works on the quadriviumj especially mathematics.
In this subject, however, he was one of the pathbreakers, as not
much had been done up
at the University of Paris.
He
to this time
thus had need of
instructing himself before attempting to impart his
knowledge to others. He had been one of the best

4
pupils of Oronce Finee, the first professor of mathematics at the University, and while
Ave Maria, he had produced a
of
still
at the College
translation of the
books of Euclid, in which he tried to apply

to the presentation of the subject. 5 Eleven
first six
logic
years later he had published an elementary arithmetic.
He now
with great ardor.
returned to the study of geometry
For a time, however, he
tells us,
Dialectics libri duo (1556).
See p.
10.
Scholce dialectics (1557).
See p.
18.
Eudides (1554).
Arithmetics
See p. 164.
libri Ires (1555).
PETER RAMUS
60
he was unable to get beyond the tenth book of Euclid
and abandoned the subject in disgust. "But soon/'

"
says he, I was ashamed of stopping so, and bringing
myself back to the place where I had gone astray
I
devoured the tenth book, and continued the study
pyramids, prisms, cubes, spheres, cones, and

Moreover, once I had clambered over
cylinders.
of
the
first
crags
and learned the elements
of Euclid, I
read through the Spherics of Theodosius and the
had already mastered

Apollonius, Serenus, and Pappus, and after a few
months I was able to pierce the last mysteries of
Cylindrics of Archimedes.
geometry/'
From
this account it
can be realized
how difficult was the study of geometry at that time.

He who would master it had largely to make his own
translation from the very imperfect editions of the
Greek mathematicians as he went along. Ramus

worked at the subject persistently, both alone and
with chosen pupils, and not only
made
himself one
of the leading mathematicians of France in his day,
but helped to train a number of distinguished mathematical scholars.
He did not, however, begin

in earnest until
1
work on the subject

he had been able to secure more
to
Oratio de professione liber dliwn artium (1563).

leisure
and material.
61
Later he was able to procure
copies of the Greek mathematicians from the royal
some
library at Fontainebleau,
of the treasures
from
Venice and the Vatican through the Italian ambassadors,

rius
and works from foreign scholars, like Cameraand Rheticus of Germany and Ascham of Eng-
land.
From 1566 on he gave
mathematics.
nominated
for
considerable time to
While he had Forcadel, whom he had

a professorship in the Royal College,
teach arithmetic and geometry in French, he himself

lectured on the Greek mathematicians, of
He
whom
he
bought or had copied

manuscripts of Archimedes, Proclus, and others, and
had several of the young mathematicians translate
had obtained
them
into
copies.
also
Latin under his direction. 1
Within a
space of four years he wrote some five or six important
works on mathematics
in Latin or French.
Just before this, while he was enduring an exile
which we
of
shall shortly hear,
Ramus
also
found
time to complete the only one of his treatises that
Nancel, Epistola, p.
Actiones
i, 1.
61.
dua mathematics (1566), Preface sur le Proeme des

Mathematiques (1566), Prooemium mathematicum (1567), Geometric libri septem et viginti (1569),
libri
unus
et triginta
(1569), are
and Scholarum mathematicarum
still
in existence.
MUS
62
we have upon
taught
1
Physics, or natural science.
in the College of
furthering
had
it,
now
that were
was
France and elsewhere, and
he would gladly have devoted

it
It
much
of his life
to
not been for the persecutions
approaching.
After his return to
Paris the book was sent to press.
must not be supposed that the enemies
It
were
idle
of
Ramus
during this period of his productiveness or
that this reform of the matter and method of the liberal

arts
was carried on without a
troversies were of
much
struggle.
But the con-
the same type of guerilla
warfare that he had previously endured and had
about as
little
result.
typical
instance
is
his
quarrel with the doctors of the Sorbonne over pro-
The
nunciation.
tried to bring
professors of the College of France
back the
original pronunciation of
Latin in place of the erroneous and slipshod methods

into which the university colleges
The
qu,
had degenerated.
was the pronunciation of

from which combination the Sorbonists were wont
chief point of discussion
to omit the
in speaking.
nounced the Latin words as
and
For example, they prokiskis,
kankam, kantus,
kalis instead of giving the initial value of kw.
Similarly, h in mihi
1
was pronounced gutturally as
Scholarum physicarum
libri octo (1565).
ch.

In the controversy which followed,
it is
63
even said
summoned
that one of the reformers was
before
parlement and prosecuted for grammatical 'heresy/

and, had it not been for Ramus and his other col-
who attended
and gave the judges

to understand that grammar was out of their jurisdiction, it might have fared badly with the luckless
leagues,
professor.
The
in rhetoric
was
and
the
trial
contest over the reforms of

also continued
by Galland,
our
positions of
pentarius, jealous
defeat
lecturer
in
reformer
and
was
i55i,
not
did
the
on
Royal
raised to the
Here Car-
logic.
for revenge
thirsting
in
He
bitter.
most
dare
attack
College,
renew
all his
virulent methods.
Crevier (Hist, de VUniv. de Paris,
1.
after
and
persistent
but
Ramus
the
position in the College of Presles enabled
Perion,
their sympathizers.
But the most rabid opposition was
his
Ramus
He
X,
as
latter's
him
to
again insisted
2)
claims that the
whole story of prosecution for heresy in grammar is very unlikely,

although one would hesitate on that account to impeach wholesale,
as he does,
is
all
narrated by
Ramus himself
Zwinger (Theatrum humance
Waddington
by the Ramists. The incident

(Schol. gram., 1. II) and confirmed by
the testimony offered
vita, Vol.
intimates (pp. 87
f.),
IV,
1.
i,
p.
noo), and, as
there were few lengths to which
the theologians of the day would not go.

2
See pp. 32
ff.
and 43
ff.
See pp. 45
ff.
PETER RAMUS
64
that
reformer
the
statutes
was
breaking
when he taught
Aristotle
the
university
by going
freely
from idea to idea rather than by the traditional wordfor-word method, and he opposed more vigorously
'
than before the union of the study of

with that of philosophy.
ment held
'
eloquence
Happily, however, the parle-
to its previous decision to let
Ramus
teach
some two hundred days of the year

and at odd hours on other days. 1 Thereupon,
as he wished on
Carpentarius, under the pretext of a
on the Institutions
of
Ramus,
epithets with which he

is
commentary
let loose
the vials of
In this pamphlet he repeats
his wrath.
Ramus
called
had previously
'
all
assailed him.
'
'
slanderer/
the pet
plagiarist,'
'
'comedian/ skeptic/ and 'corrupter
sophist/
of youth.'
He
brutally recalls the verdict of the king a dozen

3
and gets a malicious pleasure out of

that Ramus was constantly modifying his
years before,
the fact
statements about dialectic. 4

er's
He mocks
the reform-
pretensions to dignity and jests about his long
beard, declaring that without such artificial aid he

himself
had been able to attain
to the rectorship.
See p. 46.
Jacobi Carpentarii Animadversiones in libros
institutionum Petri
s
See pp. 34
ff.
Kami
tres
Diakcticarum
(1555).
4
See footnote
3, p. 65.
Ramus
65
did not consider this mountebank worthy
of a reply,
but the case seemed different when
cism was offered by Adrien Turnebus.
The
criti-
latter
was a learned professor and a man of character

and social position, but he had been piqued because
the loss occasioned by the death of his predecessor
France had in a eulogy 1 by Ramus

been declared to be quite irreparable. In editing the
in the College of
De Fato
of Cicero,
Turnebus embraced the oppor-
tunity for venting his displeasure upon

2
Ramus, who
In this work
had commented upon the same work.

Turnebus criticizes the modifications which Ramus
made
ened.
ity,
in his dialectic
works as
He accuses him of
and asks "Which

:
is
knowledge broadinconsistency and instabilhis
your genuine position
in so
many shifting editions ? Do you yourself know what

1
The
predecessor of Turnebus in the lectureship was Jacques
Tousan, who had been one of the former teachers of Ramus, and
had given him much encouragement in his ideas on logic. See
preface to his Platonis Epistola,
2
The
title of
ad librum
Ciceronis de fato,
logicus esse,
3
While
and
Collectan. prafat., pp. 99
the book shows his animus
verum etiam
Ramus
f.
Ad. Turnebi disputatio

adversus quemdam qui non solum
:
dialecticus haberi vult (1556).
did not answer this
common
criticism at the
time, he had the year before said in the preface to his Dialectique:
"But truly this inconsistency is praised as a real consistency not
only by Horace and Apelles, but also by philosophers, especially

Aristotle, who teaches us that philosophy ought, for the sake of
PETER RAMUS
66
you wish ?
"
And again he declares
to conceal your ignorance
the great authors.
"
:
It is a
by unceasingly
poor way
slandering
You have
only gained thereby a

"
sad reputation for ignorance, impudence, and vanity.
Ramus
felt
that an adverse opinion from such a
source must be met, and while he could not openly
break his custom of keeping

without
loss of
silent
under
criticism,
time he issued under the name of
Talon a dignified and courteous reply. 1 He made

it very clear that he did not rank Turnebus with
Carpentarius, and rebuked
him mildly
for his attack.
through a friend, and the

quarrel stopped with mutual respect, if not agree-
Turnebus
in turn replied
ment, and before long the two scholars became firm

friends.
Thus Ramus escaped

the various attacks
practically unscathed
upon
his
from
reforms, and, as the
years passed, his reputation as an educator grew

constantly greater.
too,
During
this period of prosperity,
he was able to demonstrate his
gifts as
truth, to criticize not only all others, but also
itself.
an orator
Moreover,
accused of being inconsistency, is ordained of

and of Nature, as a difficult and slippery ascent, by walking
this consistency,
God
up which we discover and

and learning."
define the only road to the knowledge
of science
1
A. Tdcti Admonlt'w ad A.
(1556).
and diplomat.
chosen by the university to
before the king
it
represent
He was
67
upon various
occasions.
In 1557, especially, he was greatly commended for

pleading the cause of the university under very
important circumstances.
quarrel of long stand-
ing between students of the university and the
monks
'
Germain over the possession of the student

fields' (Pre-aux-dercs) had broken out again with
much violence and rioting. 2 While the students
of St.
were mostly to blame for stirring up the old dispute,

they were not the first to shed blood. Yet they
alone suffered for the disturbance.
condemned one student
to be
The parlement
hanged and burnt,
l
For a former (1548) outbreak, during which the students
devastated the abbey gardens and broke the windows of the monastery with stones, see Du Boulay, Hist, de I' Univ. de Paris, t. VI,
pp. 406
While Ramus apparently tried on this occasion to pacify

by haranguing them, he was ever afterward, on the
ff.
the students
strength of his speech, accused by his enemies of further inciting
the students.
E.g. Felibien, Hist, de I'Abbaye royal de Saint Ger-
main-des-Pres, p. 185, and Hist, de la
105
ff.
But
in the affair.
ville
de Paris,
t.
II, pp.
102-
Du
Boulay and De Thou do not even mention Ramus

In fact, the evidence against Ramus seems to come
from a prejudiced source, Jacques du Breul, who was a member

of the order and declares he was present at the riot.
See Thedtre
des antiquitez de Paris (1612),
2
Du Boulay,
de Paris,
pp. 125
t.
ff.
op.
VI, 29
cit., t.
ff.
1,
II,
pp. 385
VI, pp. 491
ff.;
f.
Crevier, Hist, de I'Univ.
Felibien, Histoire de la ville de Paris,
t.
II,
PETER RAMUS
68
and
others,
who had been
The same
doomed.
of the university
evening,
lectures
colleges
fields,
be closed at
disarmed,
and
six
all
every
public
Moreover, the king, hearing
suspended.
and being exceedingly wroth, confiscated
of the riot
the
seemed to be
tribunal ordered that the gates
students
the
arrested,
required
all
foreign students to leave the
kingdom within a fortnight, and expelled the 'externs/

or students living at Paris with their parents, from
the
In
university.
dismay the
faculties
sent
delegation to the king, to secure some modification

of
the judgment.
commission,
and,
influence with
Ramus was
member
of this
through his eloquence and his
the Cardinal of
Lorraine,
its
most
member, met with great success. Upon

the promise of reform, the king was at length per-
influential
suaded, quite contrary to

the
all
expectations, to revoke
measures against the university, reprieve the
condemned students, restore the public lectures,

countermand the banishment of the foreign students,
and order parlement to stop its prosecutions. The
delegates were overwhelmed with praise, especially
Ramus, when by request he gave
in a public address
an account
But the king was
of the
whole
affair.
also inclined to insure the fulfillment of the promised
69
academic reforms, and insisted upon the selection
committee of seven to investigate and
of a special
propose what would be most necessary and useful

for the
improvement
appointed by the faculty of

old opponent,
he offered later
Ramus was
of the institution.
arts, together
with his
Carpentarius, and the report that

l
was most important
in its effects
2
upon the University of Paris in particular.
Another diplomatic mission of Ramus that was of

great service to education was his securing the arrears
due the professors in the College of France.

During the one-year reign of Francis II and the first
three years of Charles IX's reign, the Guises were
in salary
3
complete control of the government, and the
in
For two years
finances were notoriously mismanaged.
the professors of the Royal College failed to receive

their stipends,
although they continued conscien-
tiously to
their duties,
fulfill
for the university, as
of each reign.
t.
See pp. 78
Du
II,
1
See pp. ii
and renewal
had
Ramus was
of the privileges
to be done at the beginning
Although
his patron, the Cardinal
ff.
Boulay, op.
pp. 1057
in 1561
He was also commissioned
sent to petition the king.

to solicit a confirmation
and
f.
ff.
cit., t.
VI, pp. 489 and 517
f.
F61ibien, op.
cit.,
PETER RAMUS
70
was no longer at the court to intercede

him, the Prince of Conde, who was in favor with
of Guise,
for
the queen-mother, 1 and other persons of prominence
supported his claim and enabled him to bring back a

goodly portion of the accrued salaries and
former charters
bound
in
and
privileges of
all
the
the university,
His zeal and tact aroused
a single volume.
great enthusiasm in the academic circles, and an ac-
count of his services to the university was inscribed

at the end of the manuscript of privileges.
Hence by 1561 nearly
all
the old adversaries of
Ramus, including even the fanatical Galland and the

offended Turnebus, had been conquered through his
persistence
hostility
and evident
sincerity.
Esteem succeeded
with every one save Carpentarius.
position of that unprincipled leader was
through envy, for
Ramus had come
with king, parlement, and university.

1
See pp.
1 1 ff .
The
op-
now increased
into high favor
CHAPTER
IV
MUCH
of the prestige that
Ramus had
obtained
would seem to have been due to the friendship of the

Guises, who were so influential in church and state.
It
now remains
for us to see the effect
upon his
career
becoming a Protestant and so sacrificing their

The Duke of Guise and his brother, the
friendship.
of
Cardinal of Lorraine, represented the extreme Catholic
party,
Aristotle,
and Ramus, while endeavoring to dethrone

had remained a member of the church in
good standing.
life all
went
Until 1561 he maintained in his
the observances of a zealous Catholic.
to
mass every morning at
six,
own
He
and, under
penalty of a severe reprimand, required the same

1
practice of the students in the College of Presles.
He was
attached to Mother Church by bonds of
unusual emotion and material interest, but the process of his conversion, while slow,
was too clear-headed not
to
was inevitable.
He
have misgivings as to
the efficacy of the ritual and dominant theology of

1
Nancel, up.
cit.,
pp. 23
f.,
53, 70.
PETER RAMUS
72
the church of the times, and his personal and pro-
draw him
fessional associations all tended to
Protestant
camp.
The medieval
he had vigorously assailed, was
into the
whom
Aristotle,
protected by
still
the church, and the two were so thoroughly identified

as to be almost indistinguishable.
Those who de-
parted from the traditional views of the Greek phi1

losopher were reputed to be heretics, and
it
could
not be denied that such reformers as Luther, Zwingli,
and Calvin had
first
dreamed
of suppressing Aris-
Moreover, the clergy were generally very

ignorant, and an intellectual man was bound to find
totle.
himself associated, to a great extent, with the

nots,
who at the time had
ing.
Hugue-
nearly a monopoly of learn-
majority of the professors at the College
France were actually Protestants or suspected of
of
being such, and
many
Ramus were more
of
the
new
religion.
of the patrons
and
friends
or less under the influence of

large
number
of
his
pupils
VI.
Rapin, Reflexions sur I'usage de la philosophic,
of the propositions of Luther condemned in 1521 by the
Two
faculty of theology at Paris related definitely to Aristotelianism.
See also pp. 5

*
It
is
ft.
said that
even the Cardinal of Lorraine sympathized
secretly with the aims of Protestantism,
Colloquy of Poissy points that way.
and
his attitude at the
Jean dc Montluc, bishop

at the College of Presles, too, were of
73
Huguenot
parentage, or became converted through the influ-
ence of the school.
Ramus
himself was early suspected
Ascham even wrote
leanings.
of Calvinistic
Sturm
to
Ramus had
that one of the pupils of
in
1552
stated that
while his master's convictions were secretly Protestant,
he
hesitated to
still
But
of his faith.
make an open
for nearly
confession
a decade longer
Ramus
protested his attachment to the church, and insisted

that he
had attacked
Aristotle simply in the
name
of
the Gospel, on the ground that his Ethics was hereti-
and pagan. 3 The immediate cause of his conversion was the Colloquy of Poissy.
This conference
cal
took place in September, 1561, with the idea
of
bringing out a discussion of the points of difference
between Catholics and Protestants and so effecting

some degree of toleration between the two parties,
but
it
4
resulted only in increasing the bitterness.
Strangely enough,
of
Valence,
was
also
showed himself a good

1
2
3
Nancel, op.
Letters of
cil.,
it
was not the speech
Theodore
sympathetically inclined, and frequently

friend to the Protestants.
pp. 33
Ascham
of
and
63.
(Oxford, 1703),
Book
I,
Du
Verdier, Bibliotheque fransaise, article
See
p. 74-
Letter
on
9.
Aristotle.
PETER RAMUS
74
1
Beza, the able exponent of Calvinism, that convinced
Ramus, but the argument made in reply by the CarThat prelate publicly admitted all
dinal of Lorraine.
the abuses of the church, the vices of the clergy, and
the superiority of the primitive church to that of
the day, but did not grant the obvious conclusion. 2
Ramus and
others felt
letter written
by Ramus
it
3
A
upon them.
former patron some
forced
to his
nine years later states definitely

affected him.
"It
is
He
says in part
not through myself,
the address
it is
through your favor
many you have heaped upon
(the greatest of all the
me) that
how
have come to understand the precious
truth, so well presented in
Colloquy of Poissy
your discourse at the
namely, that of the fifteen cen-
which have passed since the advent of Christ,

the first was truly the golden age/ and that, in pro-
turies
'
portion as
it
has been departed from,
all
ages which
have followed have been more vicious and corrupt.

Hence, having to choose between these different ages
1
See p.
Guillemin, Le Cardinal de Lorraine, p. 487.
10.
The colloquy is now believed to have greatly increased the

number of Huguenots. See Crevier, op. cit., t. VI, p. 127; Pueux,
Hist, de la Reformation Franqaisc, Book IX, Chaps. VIII-XIII.
3
Among
the converts
was
also Caraccioli, bishop of Troyes.

of Christianity,
age,'
and
75
'
attached myself to the
golden
have never ceased to read
since that time I
the best writings of theology.
have put myself
in
harmony and communication with the theologians

and have further, for
themselves as far as I could
;
my own
edification, written
Commentaries upon the
chief points of religion."
Thus, having once started on the new line of

thought,
taries
Ramus went
the
full
way.
mentioned above were the
The commen-
result of his
to apply dialectic to theology, as he
attempt
had to
all
the
other sciences of the day, but they were not completed

until after his contact with the reformed theologians
and were published after his death.

He began to absent himself from mass and the other
usages of the church, and even quietly protested
in Switzerland,
against them.
that
"two
To an
intimate friend he declared
things have been especially misunder-
stood and distorted by
all
Christians of latter days, -
Holy Supper, and the

the law, which forbids all
to wit, the sacrament of the
second
commandment
worship of images;
so
in
much
so that, in these
under the pretext of piety, we have

more and more into an execrable idolatry."
respects,
Collect, pr&f., pp.
257
f.
Banosius, op.
cit.,
two
fallen
p. 25.
Of
PETER RAMUS
76
course no sentiment could be more clearly Protestant
than
this,
and we cannot be surprised
to find that
Ramus now, while not openly out of communion with

the church, showed great toleration,
favor, to all
Huguenots among
if
his
not marked
students.
It
seems hardly possible that he ever went to Protestant
much
services,
as did
some
less
that he took his students there,
professors,
but
it is
more than
likely that
he was among those intended to be reprimanded by

the rector in his address of
And
it is
November
30,
I56I.
certain that the students of the College of
Presles were generally
becoming reformed and de-
A pupil
serting the Catholic observances.
of
Ramus
tells
us that at the Feast of the Passover in 1562 he
and
his
master were the only two communicants in
the chapel, except for one visitor,
who had strayed
The Reformation, however, had grown
in.
to such
proportions that the queen-mother, upon the advice

of the fair-minded chancellor of the
de PHospital,
eration.
felt
While
kingdom, Michel
obliged to issue the Edict of Tol-
this did
not go the
full
distance and
allow the Protestants to worship in the cities or in

1
See the account of Crevier (op.
Boulay
3
(op.
cit.,
Nancel, op.
tit.,
t.
VI, p. 126) and of
p. 545).
s
cit.,
p. 72.
See p. 12.
Du
was hailed with great delight on the

the Huguenots and with much indignation and
the evening,
part of
77
it
opposition from the Catholics.
The students
College of Presles celebrated the event
of the
by bursting
and tearing down the images and

Ramus, of course, had little to do with such
into the chapel

statues.
a desecration, but he received the
full
His
blame.
opponents incited the populace against him,
and
denounced him to the university authorities as an

iconoclast, but an investigation by the rector failed
2
to reveal the evidence desired against him.
On
the
other hand, the rector and a majority of the princi-
made a
pals of the university colleges
demon-
violent
against the decree, and exhausted every
stration
expedient to prevent the parlement from registering

it.
When,
ment did
two months
after
finally register the
of delay,
the parle-
obnoxious edict,
all
the
smoldering wrath of the Guise party burst into

flame.
The Duke
of Guise declared openly that
"his sword would never be sheathed until he com1
Nancel, op.
cit., t.
op.
J
cit.,
Banosius, op.
Du
p. 7:.
cit.,
p. 24
Nancel, op.
cit.,
p. 71
and
Du Boulay,
VT, p. 549.
Boulay, op.
cit.,
pp.
549
f.
Genebrard, Chronographie,
P- 746.
4
Crevier, op.
cit., t.
VI, p. 129.
See pp.
ff.
PETER RAMUS
78
Frenchman
pelled every
leave the realm."
By
this
time
Ramus must have
or
warm
completely sacri-
As
with the Guises.
ficed all his influence
seen later, his
become a Catholic
to
be
will
patron, the Cardinal of Lor-
had completely turned against him. While

himself inclined toward the position of the Protesraine,
tants, statecraft forced
bitter
turbed conditions,
conflict
to
Meanwhile,
opponent.
works on the
him
Ramus
liberal arts,
(1562), as a
despite
their
most
these
dis-
continued to produce his
and
member
which he had been chosen
become
in this very year of
of the
committee to
five years previously,
he
presented his report upon academic reform to the
king and queen-mother.
This Advice on
tion of the University of Paris
of the abuses that
number
1
of
1.
the
Reforma-
boldly attributes
had sprung up
professors.
Pasquier, Lettres,
many
to the unlimited
"For, instead of a given

2
IV, 10.
See p. 120.
Advertissements sur la reformation de Vuniversite de Paris au
roy, or, in the
Latin edition, Proaemium reformandce Parisiensis
was published anonymously, but, coming

Andre Wechel, his coreligionist and regular
origin was evident, especially as, from internal evi-
academics ad regem,
from the press

publisher, its
of
dence, the author was clearly a Protestant, a professor of philosophy,
a royal
lecturer,
and a member
of the
commission of investigation.
See Archives Curieuses de I'Histoire de France,
t. 5,
pp. 115-163.
number
of doctors for teaching,
an
infinity of
79
men
have been raised up, who, provided they have acquired the name and degree of master in the faculty
which they make profession, whether ignorant or

learned, without other selection, have undertaken to
of
make a
trade of teaching philosophy, medicine, juris-
prudence, or theology.
Hence has
' '
arisen the storm
which has despoiled all our fields.

But while the instructors have gradually multiplied, the number
of students has remained practically the same,
and
the result has been a great increase in the fees for tuition
and
Thus, for philosophy, the expense
degrees.
of the pupils,
which was
first
statute at four to six ecus
been raised to
fifty
by ordinance and
the most, had finally
fixed
at
or fifty-six
shows that the professional

even more disproportionate.
livres.
faculties
The
Later, he
have become
faculty of law,
in obedience to the statute of 1534,
twenty-eight ecus per student, but
is
"
content with
the faculties of
medicine and theology, in comparison with that of

1
Advertissements, p. 8.
The
ecu mentioned
must have been the ecu
d'or,
as the silver
name was not
introduced until 1642, and the franc

d* argent, often called ecu, was not authorized until 1575.
The gold
coin of that
piece
livres,
was worth a
little
more than
fifty sols,
or two and one half
and, judged by the weight and fineness of the American
PETER RAMUS
80
philosophy, which has only quadrupled
former
its
revenue, have increased their fees, not in arithmetical

proportion,
which would have been beneath their
The
dignity, but in geometrical proportion."

fessors of
now ask
pro-
medicine, instead of twenty-eight ecus,

eight hundred
and eighty
without
livres,
counting the presents to apothecaries and barbers,

their former pupils,
more than one thousand
of their unfortunate students
This large sum
livres.
demand
while the theologians
is
distributed from the begin-
ning of the course under some thirty items, which
in-
clude fees for the professors, priors, porters, and president, for the banquets and suppers of the teachers,
president, classmates,
and examiners
and
for the
various grades of examination, theses, seals, degrees,
sermons, hoods, and perquisites.

the honor of being proclaimed
Moreover, even
first
at the master's
examination can be bought for a high price. 3

regard to these unnecessary expenses,
"Of what use

dollar,
are so
many
worth something over two
With
Ramus asks
gloves, caps, banquets,
dollars.
Hence the
fees in this
case were raised approximately from $8 or $12 to $40 or $44.80;
they were practically quadrupled. Of course the purchasing

much greater than it would be for the same sums to-day.
i.e.
value was
1
Op.
cit.,
p. 18.
Op. cit., pp. 27

of the other dcgrect.
ff.
Cf. also pp.
n,
22,
Op.
and 59
cit..
p. 24.
for the expenses
and competency
many purses go, and
to prove the diligence
dents
Where do
so
are they converted
They
of the stu-
to
what use
are partly distributed to
the procurers, receivers, singers, and priests
mass and solemn vespers

is even spent on candles
81
who say
a good part of this
for the
Day of
money
Purification.
In short, the money and the receipt of the degree

are administered in such a fashion that those
who do
the least service for the students receive the most

spoils
from them.
By an
ordinance then,
sire,
abol-
numerous
worthy
and competent men as lecturers, remove those expenses and charges, not only the unnecessary, but
ish that
troop of professors, select
an unworthy thing that

the road to knowledge should be closed and forbidden to the poor, no matter how learned and well
even the former
educated they
fees, for it is
may
be,
and
it
cannot at present be
and necessary
otherwise, because of the expenses

charges.
Sire,
but say the word.
vents, monasteries, colleges,
Numerous
and canonries
con-
of the city
happy and greatly

expenses and will easily
of Paris will think themselves
honored to furnish these
and promptly do
Bring
it
so,
if
only you
command them.
to pass that the only legitimate expenditures
for the scholar shall
be those of his
living, dress,
PETER RAMUS
82
books, work,
greater part of his
He
of letters for the
life."
The
gives a further description of the abuses.
masters not only has engendered in-
infinitude of
finite
and the pursuit
vigils,
expense, but has produced neglect in the matter
and method
The
of instruction.
faculty of arts
perhaps the least reprehensible in this direction,
abandonment
the
Rue du Fouarre
of
It
is
public
of
but
the
inferior
by each coUege has been
unfor-
especially to be regretted that the
teachers of philosophy use the questioning

Aristotle
in
lectures
and the substitution
private instruction
tunate.
the
is
and require nothing
the
in
method
way
in
of real
The grammarians and

rhetoricians, however, have set them an example, as
they have come to discuss the rules but little, and
practice in the use of logic.
train
through reading and imitating
their pupils
good authors.
The
situation
is still
In the faculty of law, only canon
fessional faculties.
taught, and the civil law
law
is
The
professors of
worse in the pro-
is
entirely neglected.
medicine and theology are even too
more than preside at the presenat public debates, and out of their
lazy to do anything
tation of theses or
1
Op. cit., pp. 13

See pp. 13 fit.
ff.
Cf. pp. 25, 26, 34, etc.

*
Op.
cit.,
pp. 35
ff.
enormous
pay a few
83
any bachelor
or newly made master that they can get to do their
work for them. For the same reason, in medicine the
salaries
ecus to
practical exercises in searching after
and analyzing
herbs and simples, in experimenting with their effects
upon the body, and in discussing symptoms and remedies are totally neglected; and the theologians are
likewise too lazy to be anything but blissfully igno-
rant of the Scriptures. 1
The remedy
and
cost
of
Ramus
for
both this exorbitant
this inferiority of university
training
is
exceedingly simple, but apparently very revolution-
He
ary.
proposes that the king appoint a small
number of public professors, who shall be paid by the

state, and teach the various branches of philosophy,
and theology, and lay aside all dispuThus he would
tations and barren argumentations.
law, medicine,
have strong, regular, and gratuitous instruction given

in all the faculties.
Specifically, he would establish
in the faculty of arts
work
civil
in
law
'
'
physics
;
a chair in mathematics and add
in the faculty of law, instruction in
hi the faculty of medicine, chairs of botany,
anatomy, and pharmacy, and the genuine practice

of medicine under the supervision of the professors;
l
Op.
cit.,
pp. 6 1
and
82.
PETER RAMUS
84
and
finally, in theology, besides the regular lectures,
he would give the students a training in the study

of the Bible
and the interpretation
line of
subjects
and
both testaments
Further, he suggests that
in their original languages.
of
demarcation be drawn between these higher
and the lower work
dialectic,
and that the
in
grammar,
latter studies
rhetoric,
be relegated
to the colleges, which, after the establishment of
public chairs, would otherwise be without a function.
These suggestions were badly received at the time

Ramus offered them, but they were largely carried
out in the succeeding reigns of Henry III and Henry
IV.
In the suggested distinction between secondary
and superior
movement
instruction, however, he anticipated a
that
was not
realized
after the
until
French Revolution.
Throughout
attitude of
this treatise
Ramus
on academic reform the
toward the theologians and the
clergy, together with his insistence
upon a
purified
Bible and the careful study of the Scriptures, shows
how much
further he
had progressed
In every reform suggested he
in Calvinism.
now appears
in spirit
to be a zealous Protestant.
His religious practices
reveal a similar change.
is
of the
This
seen in the character
worship in his college chapel.
He
here modi-

lied Llic
85
nature of the sermons, abolished services for
the dead and prayers to the saints, and followed in
general a service very different from the orthodox

one.
This afforded his enemies a hold upon him
that they had never been able to secure through his

heresies in philosophy
and
rhetoric.
Meanwhile, the bitterness between Catholic and
Huguenot had been increasing.

cal ambitions of the Guises
1
Owing
to the politi-
on the one hand and the
'
Huguenots of State on the other, the chancellor of

the realm had been unable to bring about the peace
and harmony for which he had striven.

at Vassy occurred (1562),
the outbreak of the
first of
The massacre
and became the

the civil wars.
signal for
The
out-
raged Huguenots, despairing of justice, flew to arms,
and France was deluged with blood. In July of this

year the war governor of Paris banished all Calvinists
from the
city,
and Ramus was forced
to
flee.
He left
the administration of the College of Presles to one of

his professors,
traitor,
and
orthodox,
1
vllle
if
but the absent principal was declared

his office
was turned over
to a
somewhat ignorant, incumbent.
more
Safe
*
See p. 12.
Nancel, op. cit., pp. 71 f.
See Du Boulay, op. cit., t. VT, p. 659; F61ibien, Histoire de la
de Paris,
t.
II, p. 1084.
PETER RAMUS
86
Ramus by
conduct was, however, assured
and queen-mother, and he found asylum

palace at Fontainebleau.
Amid
the king
in the royal
the beautiful sur-
roundings of this place and the treasures of the royal

library,
he forgot everything except his studies, until
enemies discovered his whereabouts.
Then he
es-
caped death at their hands only by fleeing again, and
was pursued from
for a time
March
in
of
pillar to post.
the next year
Amboise enabled him
(1563), the
to enter Paris again,
Finally,
peace of
and
live in
quiet for a few years.
Upon
back
return
his
Ramus
without difficulty got
his principalship at Presles
and
his chair in the
Royal College. At the beginning of the academic

year he delivered his famous address upon the twelve
years of his work as a professor in the College of
France. 2
In
it
he
tells of his
intention to gather
up
the threads of his writing once more and indulges the
vain hope that war will never again disturb the liberal
arts, 'the
During the next few

works on physics and mathe-
daughters of Peace.'
years he published his
matics already mentioned

1
Freigius, op.
cit.,
pp. 26
ff.
and completed a work
Ramus
himself in his Oratio de sua
profession* also furnishes us with full details of his stay here.

2
Oratio de sua professione liber alium artium (1563).
See pp. 61
f.
87
upon the metaphysics of Aristotle. But the theological and medical faculties could not forget his address
l
upon the reform of the university, and were on the

lookout to catch him upon the hip. More implacable
than any other was his inveterate enemy, Carpen-
who
him with pamphlets.

To that blatant individual Ramus, as usual, paid no
tarius,
constantly hounded
attention, but his distinguished pupil
Arnaud
d'Ossat,
afterward a cardinal, did reply with a strong defense of

the dialectic of his master, 2 which Carpentarius an-
swered only with a storm of abuse.

3
Jesuits,
who had been
Moreover, the
vainly endeavoring to have
Clermont recognized by the univerhad at length found a complaisant rector 4
their College of
sity,
who was
willing to issue the 'letters of scholarity.'
Ramus was among
those
who were
active in their
opposition to the recognition of this order, and in the

suit before the
parlement that resulted, he was one of
the two advocates chosen to oppose them.

1
Scholarum
metaphysicarum
libri
quattuordecim
But the
in
totidem
melaphysicos libros Aristotelis (1565).

2
Expositio Arnaldi Ossati in disputationem Jacobi Carpentaria
de mclhodo (1564).
See p.
4
3.
Julien de Saint
Crevier, op.
Germain
cti., t.
(1564).
VI, pp. 165
f.
PETER RAMUS
88
parlement was afraid of the Guises, who

selves with the cause of the Jesuits,
allied
them-
and yielded to
Ramus further enemies,

who had toadied to these
contest, won over thereafter
This .brought
pressure.
whereas Carpentarius,
powerful foes during the
the Cardinal of Lorraine as his 'Maecenas.'
more formidable controversy
for
Ramus was
occasioned by the seating of Carpentarius in a chair

of
mathematics at the College
of France,
he was quite ignorant of the subject.

ship
had through
politics
been
The
although
professor-
given in the first place
mediocre mathematician
Dampestre Cosel,
from Sicily, who could speak neither Latin nor
French, but upon the request of Ramus and his other
a
to
colleagues that he be examined, this incumbent un-
dertook to
sell
was an unheard
the position to Carpentarius.

of proposition,
by the Cardinal
gested
This
but was probably sug-
of Lorraine
and connived at
Although ignorant both of Euclid

by the court.
and of the language in which that author wrote,
Carpentarius was appointed in February, 1566, and
refused to submit to the examination which the king
had established by edict.

1
Du
Boulay, op.
Sec Oratio
cit., t.
When
the case was brought
VI, p. 521.
initio SUCK professionis habita (1566), fol. 7 v.
S(J
before the parlement, the professor-elect admitted his

ignorance, but declared there were other subjects upon
which he could temporarily lecture and that he could

become posted on mathematics 'within three days.' 1
He
further pleaded his service to the university,
Catholicism, and the Aristotelian philosophy so effectively that the parlement provisionally confirmed
the appointment and gave
him
three
months within
which to prepare himself to teach mathematics. 2

But even these terms were not favorable enough for
Carpentaria. Accordingly he induced the corrupt
recorder to change the decree of parlement so that
it
would read that he should begin the study of Euclid

within three months and set no limit to the tune when
he should be prepared to lecture, and that, instead of
teaching mathematics and philosophy, he should
teach
mathematics
or
philosophy.
As a
result,
Carpentarius began by lecturing on Aristotle's De

Coelo and then turned to the Commentaries on Plato
by
Alcinous, and never touched mathematics. _
further
presumed to demand a
fee
a proceeding quite contrary to the

l
Schol. Math.,
Collect,
1,
I.
his students,
spirit of the College
p. 21.
prafat., p. 544;
Schol. Math.,
from
He
II, p. 63.
Du
Boulay, op.
cit., t.
VI, pp. 650
ff.
PETER RAMUS
QO
and hitherto unknown
of France
This
institution.
to endure,
was too strong to

be effective, and Ramus, for
fear of the Guises, however,
pains, succeeded only in changing the
soon showed
itself in
and serious
The
a series of
libels
to
retract.
Ramus,
this
There-
have him mobbed or
assassinated, but, thanks to the courage
About
and accu-
Ramus, which grew so scurrilous

that the reformer was forced to have his
upon Carpentarius endeavored

of
of
spite of Carpenta-
defamer prosecuted and forced to
mind
envy
sations against
of
Ramus
his rival to a mortal hatred.

rius
for
and he straightway addressed a Remon-
permit any appeal to

all his
was too much
last step
strance to the Privy Council.
The
in the history of the
and presence
these attempts also failed.
time (September, 1567) the Guises had
succeeded in fanning another
civil
war
into flames.
Ramus
escaped the massacre that ensued by fleeing
to the
camp
of the Protestants at St.
Denis, and
while not taking part, he was a spectator at the in1
Remonstrance au conseil prive (1567).
portions of this are quoted
The most important
by Waddington, pp. 411-417.
It
gives a good account of the details that have been outlined above.
2
See Jacobi Carpentaria admonitio ad Thessalum (Paris,
/. Aurali Poematia,
*
Nancel, p. 63.
1.
IV, pp. 275
ff.
567)

decisive battle that took place there.
He
how-
did,
a conspicuous service to the Protes-
ever, render
tants through his eloquence in inducing
man
9!
troopers
who had been summoned
Conde and Coligny
to continue
the Ger-
to the aid of
to serve for less
than one third the sum they had been promised. 1
Peace of 1568 enabled Ramus to

reenter Paris and take up his duties once more, but
Soon
after this the
he was scarcely settled before he perceived another

storm brewing. He thereupon persuaded the king to
grant him leave of absence to visit the chief universities of
Germany and
Before leaving, however, he drew up his will
to do.
and
Switzerland, as he had long hoped
patriotically left the bulk of his fortune to found
a chair of mathematics at the College of France. 2
He
then wrote a most eloquent Farewell Letter
to the
University of Paris?
The
travels of
Ramus
during the next two years
(1568-1570) were nominally a species of thinly disguised
expatriation, but
they
soon took
on
the
character of almost a triumphal journey and a matter

1
1.
Brantome, Hommes
illusires, disc.
LXVI De
;
Thou,
op.
cit.,
XLIL
2
This
Pelrus
will is
given in
Ramus
full
rectori
by Waddington,
et
op. cit., pp. 326-328.

Academics Parisiensi (1868).
See
Collect. Praf., epist., etc., p. 206.
PETER RAMUS
Q2
of great
moment
picture of
of
them in detail would furnish a very fair

the intellectual and religious activities in
review of
some
to the entire scholastic world.
the most
important centers in northern
humanism and the Reformation. 2
Ramus
pupils as secretaries,
Germany and
With two
of his
visited a large part of
Switzerland, and conferred with the
most renowned scholars
in
mathematics,
classics,
He
logic,
and
ward
to correspond with those he visited,
especially theology.
letters, as far as
continued after-
and the
they have been preserved, form a
thesaurus of source material on the movements of the

sixteenth century.
was
all
The 'French
Plato,' as
Ramus
was received with great consideration by

the universities and cities to which he came. At
called,
times, of course, he found opponents, but he
more
partisans,
ophy
left
and the dissemination
academic Germany divided
the Aristotelians and the Ramists.
was
fully maintained,
eral places to hold
chairs were offered
efforts
of his philosin
See pp.
ff.
two camps,
His reputation
were made at sev-
him permanently. Well-endowed

him in the Palatinate, Westphalia,
See especially the account of Banosius (pp. 26
secretaries.
2
and
made
ff.),
one of the
93
and even Poland, Transylvania, and Hungary. While

there is reason to believe he might have liked to
lecture at Strassburg, Heidelberg, or
some other
uni-
versity near the French border, in order to impress
Paris with his overwhelming success, he generally
made him.
declined the offers that were
that he did this for the
when
dozen years before
am
"I
Bologna half a
a Frenchman, and it is
of
through the favor of the king of France that
pursued
my
studies for
therefore, entirely to
Under the
moved almost
first
safe
many a
my
country and
the
have
I belong,
long year.
conduct of
my
king."
2
king,
directly east across France,
to Strassburg.
may be
same reason he had assigned
by the University
called
It
Ramus
and came
Here he was met by a large
delegation and acclaimed like a prince of the blood.
He was
entertained at the
3
humanist, Sturm, with
The two
friends
Collectan. prafat., pp. 195
It
was supposed
whom
were now
home
and
of
the famous
he had corresponded.
able to discuss personally
198.
until recently that
*Op.
rit.,
p. 190.
Sturm and Ascham were
complete converts to Ramism, but Guggenheim (Beitrage, pp. 141 ff.)

has shown by a letter that passed between the two scholars that
by the new dialectic and were somewhat sympathetic, they did not altogether approve his criticism
of Aristotle and Cicero.
while they were influenced
PETER RAMUS
94
the study of the liberal arts, the education of youth,
the nature and effect of rewards, and other problems

in school
and educational work
fessors of the university
nasium
gave Ramus
generally.
and the teachers
The
in the
pro-
gym-
a public proof of their esteem
by tendering him a banquet.

Next, the reformer followed the Rhine south to
Basel.
He
on the way, and, meet-
visited Freiburg
ing there the mathematician, Schreckfuchs, studied

in his library a
marvelous
celestial globe of brass
arranged according to the system of Copernicus.
At Basel he sojourned
the following year.
of rhetoric,
for the rest of 1568
Here he met
who became one
ciples.
of
Freigius, professor
most devoted
of his
He also found a number of
and most
his
dis-
former pupils,
including the printer, Hervagius, and the professors
Jerome Wolf and Theodor Zwinger, and became

acquainted with the grammarian,
1
See p.
The
We
of Basel in his
work known
mostly from his eulogy
as Basilea.
See pp. 99
f.
are indebted to Freigius for one of our most authentic
accounts of the
4
Platter,
3.
details of his visit here are taken
on the people
3
Felix
life
and work
This was the son of that
of
Ramus.
Thomas
See footnote
on
p. 19.
who, at his son's request, wrote the autobiography that has shed so much light on
the schools and education of the sixteenth century.
See Monroe's
Thomas
Platter.
Platter,
95
and the theologian, Samuel Grynaeus, and with many

scholars and men of prominence.
The hostess of
Ramus
in Basel, however,
Petit.
This lady had entertained Calvin while he
was the pious Catherine

1
was writing his Institutes of Christianity, and was

Ramus
filled with memories of that great leader.
was also much impressed at Basel by a memorial of
another famous reformer,
to the wise
the
monument
and pious (Ecolampadius.
At
erected
this center
of Protestantism, he seized the opportunity for in-
creasing his knowledge of theology

lectures of Sulzer
by
listening to the
and Coccius on the Old and
New
Testaments in the original languages, and here laid

the groundwork of his posthumous Commentaries on
the Christian Religion?
He
likewise
made
it
con-
venient, before leaving this part of Switzerland, to
confer at Zurich with Bullinger and Simler, leaders

in Swiss Protestantism,
and get
of the other theologians
upon his projected
Ramus
1
See
their advice
did not, however, give
all
his
and that
treatise.
productive
p. 10.
His pleasant relations at Basel were marred only by a controversy with this same Sulzer, and probably for this reason he alludes
to the tolerant Brandmiiller as the real successor of (Ecolampadius.
See Bernus, Pierre

3
Ramus
Commentariorum de
d Bdle (Paris, 1890).
religione Christiana libri quattuor (1576).
PETER RAMUS
96
time in Switzerland to theology.
While at Basel,
one of the centers of printing, he produced two of his

chief treatises
on mathematics, and combined
his
views on grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, physics, and
metaphysics into a single work, Studies in

Arts.
Here
were published the
also
the Liberal
letters that
had
sprung from a rather unpleasant controversy over

2
dialectic with Schegk, professor of philosophy at
It
Tubingen.
was from Basel
also that he
Sturm he would accept a position

in order to
of the
make known
recommendation
tant tendencies of
his
in the
method.
of that scholar
Ramus,
wrote
gymnasium,
But in spite
and the Protes-
his services
were declined
by the conservative authorities, on the ground that

he was 'not an Aristotelian.'
He
visited other centers in Switzerland
many prominent
scholars, theologians,
and met
and reformers
but in no other place was his stay very long.

next went north along the Rhine to Heidelberg,
in each,
He
where he sojourned
for
some time
Tremellius, the professor of Hebrew, from

1
home
of
whom
he
at the
Scholcs in liber ales artes (1569).
P.
Rami
et
Jacobi Schecii epistola, in quibus de artis logica
institutione agitur (1569).
lished
Two
years later at Lausanne he pub-
on the same subject Petri Rami Defensio pro
a l^rsus Jac. Schccium.
Aristotele
97
acquired a complete defense of the reformed theol-
He met
ogy.
here also the leading professors and
and was invited by the
councilors of the Palatinate,
elector, Frederick III, to accept
in the university.
this
While the faculty of
Ramus
fessed to admire
Protestants, they were
Although devoted
too conservative to sym-
still
man who
'arts' pro-
personally, they resisted
appointment to the utmost.
pathize with a
a temporary place
taught his
own
philosophy,
'
which was quite opposed to the truth and the doctrine of Aristotle/
The
sovereign exerted his author-
ity to the utmost, and, in spite of repeated
remon-
Ramus was announced to lecture on Cicero's

For Marcellus. Two factions also appeared
strances,
oration,
the students, and every obstacle was thrown
among
in the
way
of his lecturing,
but in the end, owing to

this subject
was
When, however, by
spe-
his eloquence, his instruction
enthusiastically received.
cial request,
Ramus undertook
on
to lecture on dialectic,
a more serious insurrection broke out in the fanatical

1
2
3
Letter to Sturm,
October or November, 1569.

October 30, 1569.
Letter to Zwinger,
Even the
steps to the lecture platform were taken away,
and
Ramus mounted to his rostrum only by the aid of one of the French
students,
and the lecture was at
and stamping.
first
interrupted with hisses, hoots,
PETER RAMUS
Q8
faculty,
and the
elector
was forced to suspend the
Whereupon, writes Ramus
tures for a time.
lec-
to his
friend Zwinger "

Seizing the opportunity of disengaging myself, I
:
told the elector that there
opposition, since,
month
for the
should continue to teach a
longer, a revolution in studies
sarily result.
it
if
was some ground
However,
would neces-
remarked how surprising
was in my judgment that, when the legitimate child,
the noble daughter of the University of Heidelberg,
was brought back by me
to her
own home,
she should
be treated as a stranger, and repudiated by the professors
of
The
the university.
meaning, and
answered that
true dialectic, as
it
prince asked
my
had reference to the
had formerly been interpreted at
Heidelberg by Agricola with the applause of Ger-
many, France, and
Italy."
However, this very fear

and strenuous opposition to
Heidelberg, the
how
it
Ramistic dialectic
at both Strassburg
and
great centers of humanism, shows
was becoming. In fact, the

Ramus to Germany and Switzerland must be
great
visit of
of the
its
influence
regarded as epoch-making in the history of humanism, Aristotelianism,

1
and theology.
Letter to Zwinger,
January
His experience
23, 1570.

in other places
When he
first
left
was
99
similar to that already described.
Heidelberg, a couple of months later, he
journeyed north to Frankfurt, and thence southto
east
Nuremberg and Augsburg.
At
these
all
places he held intercourse with the leading humanistic,
mathematical, and
scientific scholars,
the chief libraries and museums.
and
visited
In Augsburg he
became acquainted with the famous Tycho Brahe,

who, although but little more than a boy at the time,
had already made numerous astronomical observations and begun the hypotheses upon which his later
renown
rests.
Now, however, hearing rumors

peace,
Ramus
of
approaching
hastened south rapidly through Swit-
zerland to Geneva, in the hope of reaching France
He was kindly received by Geneva, although
sooner.
considerable opposition to his dialectic had arisen
through his correspondence with Theodore Beza, the

successor of Calvin in the administration of the city.
Upon
request he gave a brief course here upon
Cicero's
Catilinarian
orations
according
to
his
He made a profound impression, and many

of the students adopted his logic at the time.
Ramus
method.
next went a
lish
some
little
out of his
way
to
Lausanne
to pub-
of his works, especially the discourse in
PETER RAMUS
100
honor of the people of Basel. 1

In this city again he
met a number of humanists and theologians and gave
on
lectures
dialectic,
but soon
felt
impelled to start
back to Paris.
Ramus found
his return to the university,
Upon
that his enemies had not been idle during his absence.
In the face of the general amnesty, they had
induced the timorous king to interpret the agreement

in such a
way
Ramus under the head of

faith,' who had forfeited their
Two obscure men had been
as to bring
'deserters
from the
privileges
in
Paris.
installed in his positions at the College of Presles
and the College of France,
respectively,
and
realizing
that the Cardinal of Lorraine had abandoned

to his persecutors, he appealed to his old
him
comrade
and protector in this letter of protest

"It was in your early youth, nearly thirty years
I was
ago, that our mutual attachment arose.
:
myself very young then, but since those days I
have never ceased to publish and celebrate through

all the world your friendship for me.
However,
such
the misfortune of the times that to-day
is
certain evil-minded persons go about declaring that

1
De Thou,
Du
1.
XLIV
Boulay, op.
to the year 1568.
cit., t.
VI, pp. 658
ff.
and 712
ff.
removing Peter Ramus

chair at the Royal College, to which
the Cardinal of Lorraine
not only from his
IOI
is
he was appointed by King Henry upon your nomination, but also from the principalship of the College
of Presles,
that
recompense of
all
ing
my study and
is
from the
to say,
my former labors.
reform of the
fruit
and
After complet-
first five liberal arts,
and showing an equal zeal, or even greater, for the

advancement of the last two, I had reason to expect
a different treatment.
Wherefore, in the
name of the
white hairs that advise us both that death

distant,
do not
suffer the
is
not far
end of our relations to be
so vastly different from the
commencement, and from
a smiling beginning to close the whole course of our

years with so sad a finale. Do better than this;
condemn me rather
and unremitting task

of forging and polishing the sciences.
I would cheerfully do more than that, and such a vengeance would
to the hard
be more becoming your magnanimity and high-mindedness."
But he was not destined

from
to receive either favor or
In reply, the
cardinal evaded the issue by reproaching him in a
satisfaction
friendly
way
1
his
for not
See
former patron.
coming to see him, and then
Collect, prafat., episL,
pp. 254
ff.
PETER RAMUS
102
accused him of ingratitude, impiety, and rebellion.
Taking
this as a sincere expression,
another
letter.
dinal in person
He
Ramus
wrote
explained his not seeing the car-
on the ground that he would have run
grave risks in so doing.
As
'
to
declared that he had, through his
'
ingratitude,'
own
labors
he
and the
sweat of his brow/ shown himself worthy of the chair
bestowed upon him, and that he would long since

have resigned and accepted the better endowed chair
at Bologna,
had he not hoped by remaining to show
his appreciation of past favors.
As
to
'
impiety/ his
change should not be considered an apostasy, but a return to the truth of the Gospel and the
religious
primitive church which the cardinal himself had
With regard
praised at the Colloquy of Poissy.

'
to
rebellion/ he insisted that his flight to St. Denis
was the only way in which he could escape assassination and that he had not borne arms in the battle 2
against the government, and that he had soon left the
country for his
He
Germany and
visit to
Switzerland.
further besought the cardinal that, instead of
descending to such petty matters, he should allow him

to complete his treatises
arts
on the two remaining
and then devote the

1
See footnote on p. 101.
rest of his life to a

2
liberal
study of
See pp. 90
f.
103
the Scriptures, and that the prelate himself should
turn to the more holy occupation of establishing
through the income of one of his numerous abbeys an

association of scholars who should carefully translate
both testaments into Latin and the vernacular, and

make a systematic arrangement of the principles of
1
Christian doctrine and practice.
cardinal
had no time
But the
for such
intriguing
an ultramundane
old friend not

program, and began to find
only a nuisance, but possibly an obstacle to his
his
Without more ado, he refrained from
ambitions.
interfering with the
program of the reformer's ene-
and on the i$th of December, 1570, Ramus

was excluded from active teaching and administramies,
tion in the university.
In these extremities
Geneva, where
Ramus thought
of retiring to
many would have been glad to see him
installed as a professor,
and he asked a friend to sound
Beza, the head of the government of that city.
Beza
clearly,
though
But
politely, repulsed his overtures
upon the excuse that there was no vacancy in the

faculty and the university had no funds to establish
another chair.
real
He added what was
probably his
animus, that he was inflexibly attached to Aris1
See
Collect, prcefat., epist.,
pp. 255 S.
PETER RAMUS
104
totle in logic
and
forced to give
up
Ramus was
thus
all
other studies.
all
hopes in this direction, and
moment
the Cardinal of Bourbon, who
into the depths of despair.
another old schoolmate,
fell
had become the chancellor
But
at this
of the university, inter-
ceded for the reformer with the queen-mother, and
him an honorable compromise.
secured for
arranged that he should have his
titles
It
was
as principal
and as professor in the Royal College rehim, and that his salary in the latter capac-
at Presles
stored to
ity should
even be doubled, but that he should
retire
from active service and give his time to writing and

translation.
Ramus
joyfully accepted these conditions,
1571 settled
plete
and
down
at the College of Presles to
revise all the liberal arts.
cutors were
not
and
yet satisfied.
But
They
in
com-
his perse-
continually
maintained that the very presence of a Huguenot professor
was keeping proper-minded parents from send-
1
ing their sons to a university infected with heresy.
Carpentarius further attempted to persuade his colleagues in the College of France that the reputation of
having a heretic on the

tution,
staff
was injuring the
and threatened them with the wrath

1
Du
Boulay, op.
cit., t.
VI, p. 669.
insti-
of the
PERSECUTION, AND DEATH
CONVERSION
105
Cardinal of Lorraine and the suppression of the colthe offender were not expelled.
lege, in case
It
must have become more and more evident that
Ramus was doomed.

be
satisfied
death.
His enemies would obviously
with nothing short of his banishment or
Among
those
who
this
realized
was
his
Jean de Montluc, Bishop of Valence, who

seems to have been a Protestant at heart and often
friend,
2
It is not
proved a good friend to the reformers.
unlikely that he had heard rumors of an impending
massacre of the Huguenots, and had especial fears for
Ramus.
At any
rate, it is
known
that he tried to
attach that reformer to his embassy,
when on
the
1 7th of August, 1572, he was sent to persuade the

Poles to accept the French king's brother as their
Ramus had some
sovereign.
taking the mission
scruples about under-
and thus was
during the terrible slaughter of
left in
St.
the city
Bartholomew's,
which began just a week later.

It was not, however, until the third day, the
twenty-sixth, when most of the excesses were over,
that
Ramus met
1
his death,
and the outrage seems to
Carpentaria, Orationes (1568).

Dareste, Essai sur Fr. Hotman,
Banosius, op.
cit.,
p. 18.
p. 9.
PETER RAMUS
106
have been a piece
of private revenge
on the part
of
Carpentarius rather than a result of the general

massacre. 1
Hired assassins, led by a
tailor
and a
sergeant, forced their
and
at length
way into the College of Presles

found Ramus in his little study on the
He was
fifth floor.
devoting his last moments to
prayer, and, as the old
man
rose
from
venerable dignity seemed for a
overawed the intruders.
his knees, his
moment
Seeing, however, that he
could hope for neither pity nor mercy, he
gressions.
last utterance
on Calvary.
was strangely like that of his Master

"Pardon these wretched men, my God,
Waddington devotes a chapter (IX)
tion.
to this very likely supposi-
Besides the testimony of Nancel (p. 74),
was contrary
the murder
commended
God and sought forgiveness for his trans2

If we may believe his biographers, his
his soul to
have
to
to the wishes of
who
declares that
the king and queen-
mother, he bases his further proof upon the unanimity of

historians,
especially those
the character of Carpentarius and his writings.
had been reared by Galland

the only
man
his ignorance
had been exposed and
Royal College; and

the death of
Ramus
his pride injured
he was
Ramus
by Ramus
;
assumption of the chair of mathematics in the

his constant
attempts afterward to explain
as due to public feeling
and as a
ment, look suspicious.

5
Carpentarius
in hatred of all innovations
at the time systematically writing against
in the matter of his
all
who were contemporary, and upon
See Banosius, pp. 34
f.
Nancel, pp. 74
ff.
just punish-
know not what they do
"
Shot through the

head and pierced with a sword, he was flung from the
window. His fall was somewhat broken by a pro-
for they
jecting roof,
and the body
fell
palpitating into the
There further indignities

were heaped upon the body, and it was dragged with a
rope through the streets until the Seine was reached,
courtyard of the college.
where a surgeon struck

cast into the river.
and hacked
to pieces
off
the head, and the trunk was
was drawn ashore again

on the banks of the Seine.
Later
it
CHAPTER V
GENERAL PRINCIPLES AND THE ORGANIZATION OF
EDUCATION
DURING
stormy career Ramus had demonpractice at the two colleges he served,
his
strated in his
and formulated
in the textbooks
the liberal arts and theology, the

of broader scope
aim was
way
to an education
efficiency.
to spare the student the barrenness
less difficulties
face.
and greater
he had written upon
and need-
that he himself had been obliged to
As we have
grew out
His chief
seen, his denunciation of Aristotle
of the formal dialectics
and
senseless dis-
putations that passed for an education during his
studentship at the College of Navarre.
Accordingly,
he turned from the whole system in disgust.
He pro-
ceeded to divest himself of scholastic philosophy and

strove to rationalize
schools.
He
"It was
path of the
declares
my
the training afforded
by the
constant study to remove from the
liberal arts the briers
intellectual obstacles
and
rocks,
and
all
and retardations, and to make

1
08
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
1 09
even and straight the way, in order to arrive more

easily not only at intelligence, but the practice and
use of the liberal arts."
explicitly discussing the ultimate
Without
and value
of education, then,
meaning
Ramus wished
to im-
prove the material studied, and to render the meth-
He
ods of acquisition easier and more interesting.

struggled to free
all
the arts from the barbarism into
which they had degenerated by
and presenting
The
nite plan.
selecting, arranging,
their content according to
some
principles for these reforms
summed up hi three key- words,
defi-
may
nature, system,
be
and
practice.
While he nominally sought
guidance with
his
complete independence of thought and investigation,
he seems to have borrowed this trinity of ideals
from Quintilian, whose rhetorical work was most

3
Of the three
influential among the humanists.
principles mentioned, the first applies
more to the
determination of content and the last of method,

while the second conies somewhat into consideration
His standardization for the
both connections.
in
1
2
3
See Remonstrance au conseil

Natura,
See
Instit.
probably used
Or at.,
first
by
Ill,
prive, pp. 27
See
ratio, exercitatio.
2.
Aristotle.
f.
Instil, dial., I, 2.
These principles were, however,
PETER RAMTJ6
110
subject matter, then, he finds in the observation of
For example, the material for grammar or

language study he desires to have derived from
nature.
actual usage,
cal writers,
people.
the ancient tongues from the classi-
and the modern from the speech

he holds that
Similarly,
of the
should be
logic
human mind, and
based upon observation of the
natural sciences upon the investigation of nature.
The
shown
application of this principle will be
defi-
nitely in his treatment of the different liberal arts.
When
the subject matter has been obtained, he
and arranged.
The principles for system, or arrangement, he seems
to have taken from Aristotle, and the laws for defin-
holds that
it
must be thoroughly
sifted
and organizing the various subjects
ing
may
be termed
of study
and primworks describe
universality, homogeneity,
acy of the general.
His dialectic
these underlying standards in
but
full,
in his other
important treatises he also states them, though without

1
much
Kara
discussion.
TTUI/TO?, /ca0'
The Latin forms
4.
UVTO,
and
Ramus may have been more

tliis
*
*u0' oAou
are de omni, per
and Sturm's lectures on
logic,
how
This shows
sc,
see
and
A nalytica
he
Hystcra,
universal Her
influenced in this
both of which were
Aristotelian scheme.
See preface to Schola in liberates
rigidly
artcs, etc.
primum.
by Vives's works
in
agreement with
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
applied the rules of real logic to
all
III
1
subjects, although
he strenuously objected to the stereotyped scholastic dialectic,
and method
While the applica-
of the liberal arts.
and elaboration
tion
will
which had so restricted the content
be made clearer as each one of the

it
treated,
may be
of these principles of
well to elucidate
system'
liberal arts is
them
in general
here.
In the
first place,
the law of
'
'
is
universality
that
every precept must be in keeping with truth, not

only in some instances, but always.
and not
sarily,
must be
2
trine,
accidentally, be true;
rest
must
its
upon
ideas, since
existed.
they are not created, but
Judged by
this principle,
of scholasticism, especially in dialectics,
found invalid, since
tion that
two
to
1
'
it
would be
would not be universally
the
sum
of the angles of a triangle is equal
right angles'
is valid,
is
but the statement that

equal to sixty degrees'
See Remonstrance au conseil prive, p. 27.
This reference to Platonic idealism
is
found in the Schola
IX, 333. See Plato, Republic, Book VI; Phadrus, 246

Menu, 80 ff. etc.
rhetorics,
;
much
For instance, the geometrical proposi-
every angle of a triangle
ff.
validity
they must, in accordance with Plato's doc-
have always
applicable.
neces-
For the arts must have a
incontrovertible.
sure basis
It
PETER RAMUS
112
would not hold, since

or scalene triangles.
and
all fallacies
is
subject
that
and
Thus
this
inaccuracies,
all
isosceles
standard eliminates
and
is
called
by Ramus
His second law, that of 'homo-
'the law of truth.'

geneity,'
would not apply to
it
precepts must be germane to the
For example, Aristotle
to each other.
'
would be unarithmeticaP to speak of

arithmetic, and ungeometrical' to deal with
states that
it
'
size in
number in geometry.
Similarly, it
is
invalid to treat of
grammar, or of the parts of speech

The boundaries between the arts should
rhetorical figures in
in rhetoric.
be carefully marked so that clarity
may be maintained,
and, since this principle defines the province of each

subject,
Ramus names
third rule
is
it
The
'the law of justice.'
deductive and maintains that the general
should precede and the particular should follow. 2
In other words, whatever applies universally throughout a subject should be stated at the outset of the
and only then. For if the particular is

stated first, it will not be characteristic of the entire
exposition,
class
and
if
the universal
is
postponed,
to be repeated in each particular case.

1
Cf. Schola grammatica, I, 7.
Ramus
expresses
non generatim.
it
tersely as generalia
it will
To
have
use the
non sfeciatim
specialia
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
former illustration, 'the
is
angle
sum
of the angles of a tri-
equal to two right angles
teristic of
the figure;
it
113
'
a general charac-
is
should be stated once at
the beginning, and not repeated each time in dealing with equilateral, isosceles,
and scalene
triangles.
This principle helps to produce a clearer arrangement

of the material, and, through a natural
and appro-
priate development of each subject, greatly facilitates
memory of the pupil. Consequently it is denominated by Ramus 'the law of wisdom.'

the
Thus by means
undertook to
of these three laws
criticize
the mass of subject matter em-
ployed in the education of the times.

tle
our reformer
He added
lit-
to the curriculum, but, as Vives, Sturm, Melanch-
thon, and other humanists had done in a less degree,
he separated the wheat from the
chaff.
The
useless
had crept in through medieval

commentaries, sophistry, and faith in authority, he
was able, by means of the law of truth,' to detect
and
false material that
'
'
and eliminate, and, by means of the laws of justice

and 'wisdom,' he found a more logical and more
remembered arrangement, and rid the various

In this respect
subjects of confusion and tautology.
his educational ideal of 'nature' and 'observation'
easily
may
be said to have led to the further aim
of clear-
PETER RAMUS
JI4
ing the liberal arts of falsehood, surreptitious matter,
and
his
Or to
repetitions.
ideal
of
state the matter positively,
'
system'
implied
that
the
subjects
should be given a true, homogeneous, and simple

exposition.
In the matter of method, by means of his third

principle, practice,
Ramus
considerable improvement
The
ure.
endeavored to make
also
upon the current proced-
scholastic instruction at the University
of Paris consisted hi lectures, repetitions,
These methods were not bad
tations.
and dispu-
in themselves,
but serious abuses had grown up in them.

to the scarcity
and
Owing
great cost of textbooks, the lec-
tures
had come
tions
from the authors under consideration.
to consist mostly in lengthy dicta-
Such
time as was given to exposition was largely wasted in

literal
explanations of the passages read, and there
was a plethora
of quibbles
and
hair-splitting distinc-
The
tions in the discussion of all the liberal arts.
repetitions consisted in the
tion of
the
rhymed
most
fixed
rules
and
mere mechanical
difficult definitions.
and formal
feature
of
tation.
the
But
uni-
method was, as Ramus declared, the dispuThanks to the prominence of the scholastic
1
versity
recita-
See pp. 21
ff.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
dialectic
and philosophy, these
115
fruitless affairs
seem
to have been the chief goal of instruction from the
very beginning of the course.
As Erasmus and other humanists had

such methods spelled death for the liberal
it
was the increasing aim
of
Ramus
foreseen,
arts,
and
to reform them.
Like the humanists generally, he constantly attempted

to simplify
and render the subjects
intelligible.
stead of dallying over abstract rules,

the principles be
from the works

tation of
them
made
clear
by
In-
he advised that
illustrations
taken
and by imiBut he
exercises.
of the classical authors
in written
went much further
in
and
oral
his
pedagogy
than Vives, Sturm, and any of the other humanists,
rationalizing
although their works doubtless proved suggestive

to him.
He
strove to render the general approach of
humanism more
specific,
and
laid out a definite pro-
1
cedure for each portion of the school day.
During the
on the topic of the

day, give the underlying principles, develop, and explain, but make very little of the exercise a dictation.
first
hour the teacher
The next two hours
is
to lecture
are devoted
by the
pupils to
working up, each by himself, what has been learned

1
Pro philosophica Parisiensis academics disciplina
Praf., pp. 325
ff.
in
Collect.
PETER RAMUS
Il6
The
during the lecture.
fourth hour
is
given to recit-
and making sure that the meaning

are understood and memorized.
During
ing to the teacher
and
rules
the last two hours
come a
and disputation,
discussion
to discover whether the pupil can develop for himself
what has been learned and can explain and apply

This completes the work of the
it independently.
morning, and the afternoon
is
given to a similar
combination of methods.
Thus, according to the general plan of Ramus, five
hours are required in every instance to impress and
make
of value
what
is
He
learned in one hour.
defi-
nitely held that the activities of the teacher should
not close with his lecture and dictation, but that he

should continue working with his pupils, hearing
them
recite
and correcting
especially stamping
*
home
practice' or application.
seems to
false
the
impressions,
right principles
and
by
Ramus here, as everywhere,
stress application
and
utility.
Practice
'
plays the most important part in his method, since
out of
it
subject.
grow the use
of rules
and the
He frequently makes
real value of the
a division of the daily
'
'
'
routine into two chief phases, explanation and practice/
The former term appears prominently
exposition, repetition,
and even
discussion,
in
but he
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
held that
we
it
in itself senseless
is
Ilj
and
useless.
stop with the explanation," says he,
the guests of Heliogabalus."
method
of all
in this
The
real
in his mind,
are like
end and aim

2
'
is,
"we
"If
practice/
since only
the student learn to use his knowl-
way does
There are two aspects to this process,

3
The one consists in a
analysis' and 'genesis.'
edge.
1
critical dissection
of the
and
testing to see
how
the author
example conforms to the rules; the other in
copying the style and thought and producing
first
something akin to the model, and in later creating

independently and forming without outside help a
work
of one's
own, which
not only equal the
shall
model, but possibly surpass
By means
it.
of this
combination of analysis and synthesis there can be

generated a genuine
self -activity,
and the pupils can
be enabled to secure an excellent mastery of the subject matter.
In this
way Ramus
at the College of Presles
and
1
effective.
Thanks
more
to the
An
Schol. dial., IV, 189.
Schol. did.,
See
and
ibid.,
XX,
interesting, critical,
explanation,' the stu-
Rome
in a
which
shower of
this
roses.
604.
VII, 262
Schol. rhet.,
'
the instruction
allusion to the banquet at
emperor smothered the chief men of

*
make
strove to
ff.
and 299
XVIII, 381,
etc.
ff.
Instil. dial.,\Ill,
360
ff. ;
^PETER RAMUS
Il8
dents were never forced to commit what they did not
understand, and only so far as
it
was absolutely neces-
sary did they merely learn and recite, but, by means

'
of the twofold process of
practice/ they
became
in-
dependent and original. The procedure at which our

French reformer aimed was in line with that of Vives,
Sturm, and other humanists.
These reformers gen-
erally tended to abbreviate the theoretical
tion'
and
stress the real
'
practice/ and
purpose examples from the
no one
of
them developed
'
explana-
to use for this
But
classical authors.
his position so clearly
and
Ramus, although he did not cryscurriculum and method into any such sharp
systematically as
tallize his
by years as did Sturm. In the next three

chapters we shall see how these principles of con-
division
tent
and method worked out
in the specific subjects
of the liberal arts.
Numerous pedagogical advantages could

prophesied for these principles of
and method.
They
Ramus
easily
be
in content
naturally augured clearness and
brevity in the curriculum, and facility, interest, and
economy
to the student.
be surprised to learn that
We can, therefore, scarcely

Ramus
reduced the length
of the course in the liberal arts to seven years.
Three
years, instead of five, or even seven (with Vives
and
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
Sturm), were given to the languages or 'grammar/
and one year each to rhetoric, dialectic, mathematics,

and physics. This curtailment of the years of study
was, however, undoubtedly effected
by Ramus not
only through a better arrangement of the content,
but by the fact that he would grant a much smaller
number
of holidays.
With the exception
of about
thirty days, he believed in holding school the entire

1
Under
year.
this system, therefore, the pupils,
who
were supposed to enter at eight, would have completed their work in the liberal arts by the time they
were
fifteen,
and, since
Ramus
holds elsewhere that
the transition to the university should begin at this

2
stage of their work, they would be able to complete
their professional course in the latter institution at
a comparatively early age.

1
See pp. 46 and 64.
See p. 84.
CHAPTER
VI
THE CONTENT AND METHOD

SUCH were the
Ramus wished
and method
He was
OF THE TRIVIUM
general principles and laws that
to follow in determining the content
of the liberal arts
and other
subjects.
thoroughly convinced of the validity and
efficiency of these logical ideals,
applying them
and
that
felt
by
rigidly to each of the disciplines he
could greatly clarify and simplify their study.

liberal arts of the
The
'
times he divided into the exoteric/
which were the grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic of

the old trivium, and the esoteric/ which corresponded
l
roughly to the former guadrivium, and with him

cluded mathematics
physics,
(i.e.
in-
arithmetic and geometry),
metaphysics, and ethics.
The
'exoteric'
approach and of more

and with them he began his reform.
arts were, of course, easier of
general utility,
'
While dialectic/ or logic, has been shown to underlie

the arrangement and presentation of them all, we will
here take
them up in order and turn

120
first
to
grammar.
As
far as
grammar was concerned,
Ramus
time of
121
at Paris in the
the medieval textbooks and methods
The Elegancies of Latin
held complete sway.
Valla had for almost a century been paving the
an improvement
for
was
scarcely
Priscian
of Latin writing,
known
in Paris.
by
way
but the work
There Donatus and
had been replaced by such works as the
Doctrinale of Alexander of Villedieu, which, for the
sake of easy memorizing, were often written in bad

verse.
One of the most popular of these was the Rudi-
ments of Despantere, which began

time that
Ramus was
born.
unintelligible presentation of
way
to
any
vogue about the

The most difficult and
its
grammar blocked
the
knowledge of the subject, and while

Vergil and Ovid, were able to persist
real
the poets, like
and furnish some notion

writers were
still
of style, the Latin prose
2
generally forbidden as heathen.
In consequence, the most atrocious Latin was com-
mon.
The
and the
colloquial abominations of the schoolmen
mixed with an extensive
theologians,
collec-
and Gallicisms, were in general

the higher schools. At times even the pro-
tion of barbarisms
use in
1
Elegantia Latina.
See Voigt, Die Wiederlebung des das-
sischen Alterthums, II, 378.

2
See Paulsen, Geschichte des gelehrten Unterrichls, pp. 24
f.
PETER RAMUS
122
were positively ungram-
fessors of the university
matical.
Moreover, the grammatical treatises of
the day were inaccurate, repetitious, and
filled
with
and metaphysical discussions quite foreign
dialectic
to the subject.
We have already narrated
how, between the years
1559 and 1562, in order to effect some reform in this

subject,
Ramus produced
at least half a dozen works
Three of these were devoted to
upon grammar.
Latin, and two
to Greek, while the sixth treatise
dealt with the vernacular.
ing to his principle of
'
He
actual use.
1
Ramus even
In each of these, accord-
nature/ he was guided by
did not set himself
up
as an arbiter
affirms (Schol. gram., II, 15) that ego
amat seemed
as correct to certain Sorbonists as ego amo.

satire in the Epistolce
Probably the racy

obscurorum virorum, while an exaggeration,
At any rate, a work in four volumes

Gr&carum institutionum rudimenta, which was published
had a
real basis of fact.
known
as
in Paris
by George Mauropaedius only
matical works of
exhibits the
Ramus began
five years before the
to appear,
most barbarous blunders in
and
its
is still
gram-
in existence,
Latinity.
See pp. 57
His interest in his native language to the extent of producing

grammar and dialectic, at a time when,
f.
vernacular treatises on both

according to Pasquier,
to
couch the arts
modern
spirit.
in
He
it
was doubted whether
it
was "worth while
French," shows his progressive patriotism and

also demanded unceasingly a vernacular trans-
lation of the Scriptures,
and
to see his native land build
it is
well
known
that he was ambitious
up a genuine national
literature.

of speech, like
of the Latin
authors,
and
In
people.
Donatus and
Priscian, but judged
and Greek by means

of the
of the classical
French by the speech of the
grammar of each language, he

and easy method according to the
the
adopted a short
definite rules which obtain throughout his texts on
the liberal arts,
fallacies,
and thus eliminated most
and
impertinences,
ing grammars.
the
of
repetitions of the exist-
Also, in keeping with his plan, he

'
'
endeavored to turn his explanation into

as soon as possible.
The form
in
'
practice'
which the works
themselves were written furnished a model of correctness and elegance that
had been
little
known
for
centuries.
The
limitations of space forbid our even outlining
the plan employed
by Ramus in each
of his
grammati-
but that used in his works on Latin, 4 the

most important language of the times, 5 may be given
cal treatises,
them
here as an example of
all.
In order to avoid
repetition, in keeping with his principle of the

1
Schol. gram., II,
See pp. 109
See pp. 1145.
I.e.
ff.
See also p. no.
ff.
malices,
the Grammatica Latina
and
'pri-
libri quattuor,
his extensive Schola grammatica.
See footnote 3 on p. 122.
Rudimenta gram-
See p. 57.
PETER RAMUS
124
of the general/
macy
He
tively.
defines
He
correctly.'
grammar
thus
as 'the art of talking
and outlines the subject as
His first large division of grammar

3
'
and
establishes
Throughout he avoids
practical goal.
topics,
he treats the subject deduc-
begins with the most general statement
and
possible,
syntax/
for
and
definite
all
extraneous
clearly as possible.
'
is
into etymology
'
he scorns any such tautological
heads as the 'orthography' of Quintilian, the 'anal-
ogy' of Varro, or 'prosody/ which he deals with in

rhetoric.
In etymology he begins with a discussion of the

letters
and pronunciation.
these subjects
In
Ramus attempted
He recommended
the
See p. 112.
Books
ogy'
Books
est
had up
ars bene loquendi.
They
were, in conse-
See Gram. Lai., IV, Preface.
and II of Grammatica Latina are devoted

III
and IV
to that
and u and were subject to
confusion with the vowels. 5
Grammatica
both
the use of the characters j and v to
time been included hi
of
to institute reforms.
represent the consonant sounds, that
case
to 'syntax.'
to 'etymol-
See Schol. gram.,
II,
10
ff.
His priority in this distinction is conceded by all his contemporaries from Freigius (pp. 23 f.) and Nancel (pp. 39 f.), who enthusiastically praise the step, to Scaliger
considers
it
Gram.,
II).
1.
foolish
and vexatious.
(Scaligerana, p.
See also
Ramus
288),
who
himself (Schol.
THE CONTENT AND METHOD OF THE TRTVIUM

quence, for a long time
He
nants.'
made
also
known
'
as the
125
Ramist conso-
prevalent in the schools an
exact and elegant pronunciation, although, as has
been pointed out,
this cost
with the Sorbonists.
and
him a
serious struggle
Next, he discusses syllables,
and quantity, as well as accent

and expression, and the origin and formation of
their formation
words.
Then he
considers the parts of speech, which he
again divides into two classes,

ber'
'
words with
and words without number.'
num-
Under the
first
Substanhead he groups substantives and verbs.

tives include pronouns and adjectives, as well as
tions,
and have, as their distinguishing modificaInstead of the five declengender and case.
sions,
employed by Varro and grammars
nouns,
ent day,
1
Ramus
See pp. 62
f.
of the pres-
groups his substantives under two
In French he also wished, like Etienne Dolet

theorists, to introduce reformed spelling, but
and other humanistic
proved too radical, when the pronunciation of that language has differed so greatly in different sections of the country
and from century to century. Even Pasquier (Letlres, 1. Ill, 4) disthis step
approves of this reform on the grounds stated above, and

anticipated
Ramus
(Gram. Lat., VII, 56) that these objections would
be made.
2
The
first
part of
second to 'verbs/
Book
I is
devoted to 'substantives' and the
PETER RAMUS
126
declensions, (i) that
same number
where
the
it
where the substantive has the
and
of syllables in all cases,
He
has a different number.

'
'
equal-syllabled
further divides
declension, according as -is ap-
pears in the dative plural (as in the
first
declensions of our present-day Latin
does not; and the
that
(2)
'
and second
grammar), or
'
declension he
unequal-syllabled
two heads, which correspond respecto our third declension and to our fourth and
groups under
tively
While, therefore, he really discriminates four
fifth.
seems
like
much
declensions,
it
more
arrangement, and
logical
it
simpler, easier,
enables
the irregular nouns with the others.

deals with the indeclinables,
him
and
to treat
Last of
all
he
among which he men-
tions the cardinal numerals.
The
modifications of verbs he gives as tense and
He makes
person.
moods
of little account,
examples that there

2
The
meaning.
and future
and then
1
is
showing by a number of
no
clear distinction in their
three chief tenses
are explained,
for the infinitive.
present, past,
first for
the finite
moods
Here
he
able to
also
is
In his larger work, Schola grammaticcR, XIII, he also discusses
the irregular adjectives.

2
the important modification of
See SchoL gram.,
XIV.
127
and variations without a separate

He also gives due attention to the gerund
treat irregularities
discussion.
and the supine on the one hand, and to the participles

on the other, treating the former as substantives, and
the latter as verbs, instead of as separate parts of
Under
speech.
their
verbs into personal
divides
Ramus
and impersonal. He
second modification,
does not distinguish the personal verbs, according

to their variations, as inchoative, frequentative,
desiderative, since this seems to
him
to the student, but he does divide
and
to be valueless
them
into active,
and deponent.
In the matter of conjugation he makes two classes, according as the future
1
passive,
ends in -bo or -am.
As, however, he subdivides both
these classes, he practically distinguishes the four
conjugations that are usually given now, although

here again he does not treat the irregulars
by them-
selves.
The second part
of etymology,
words that do not have number,
is
which deals with

exceedingly brief.
upon the four indeclinable parts of speech,

adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjecIt bears
tions,
syntax
but the use of the

is
last
reached.
i
Ibid.,
XVI.
two
is
deferred until
PETER RAMUS
128
Ramus
then takes up syntax, which he defines as
'the construction of words,'
the main heads of
and deals with
'
'
it
under
'
and government.' l
Under both these divisions he again considers words
'
with
agreement
number' and words without 'number.'
He
groups under words with number the agreement of

substantive with substantive, in which adjectives
are included,
and
with substantive.
of verb
Under
the former are given the rules for apposition and

attributive, including all irregular cases
word
where the
in apposition or the attribute refers to several
substantives.
subject
Under the
and predicate.
latter
come the
rules
for
In the agreement of words
without number, he deals
first
with adverbs that
form the comparative and superlative degrees, and

then with conjunctions, according to their place in
the
sentence.
He
also
mentions 'asyndeton/ or
omission of the conjunction, and 'polysyndeton/ or

figurative repetition of the conjunction.
The government
nouns and verbs.
of
Under the former come
subjective, objective,
1
Book
III of the
words with number considers
and
characteristic genitive,
Grammatica Latina
consideration of Syntaxis convenientia

rectionis.
(i)
the
and
is mostly taken up with a

and Book IV with syntaxis
129
the ablative of characteristic, including adjectives

in these constructions,
and
(2)
the partitive genitive
with comparatives, superlatives, and numerals, the

genitive with adjectives of 'plenty
the dative of
'
benefit or injure.'
and want/ and

Under verbs are
treated transitive verbs, active
first
intransitive verbs of
'
acquisition
transitive verbs with the
and
passive,
taking the dative,
double
accusative,
and
verbs of 'plenty and want' with the ablative or

genitive.
He
then
discusses
the
verb governing
another verb, including an infinitive as the object

of a verb of 'wish' or 'desire,'
after
verbs of motion.
He
and a supine
finally
in -urn
mentions
the
and the ten impersonal verbs

that take the genitive. The government of words
infinitival construction
without number
is
very briefly considered.
It deals
which take the genitive, and

constructions with interjections and prepositions.
with adverbs of
'place,'
The diagram on the next page may perhaps serve

to make clearer the organization of grammar according to
Ramus.
An examination of the scheme reveals
how completely Ramus,

and arrangement
Grammar, has fulfilled his

'truth,' 'justice,' and 'wisdom.'
of his
three principles of
He
in determining the content
seems to have
skillfully
avoided
all fallacious,
PETER RAMUS
130
There
extraneous, and repetitious material.
wise appears here

tion,
of
a new
principle
of
which savors more of a scholastic
which we
shall
hear again
later.
organizaorigin,
This
'dichotomy/ or consistent division of each
two
species.
like-
is
and
his
class into

related
sundered in presentation.
are
131
Moreover,
while in etymology this clever scheme covers every-
thing of importance about the parts of speech, in
syntax it omits much from their possible constructions.

Yet it can easily be seen how much more convenient
must have been such a

and what an advance
that were in use.
into
slipped
struggled
logical classification,
marks over the grammars

has eliminated most of the
dialectic
had been
ballast that
instruction,
syntactical
more
and
it
It
and
philosophical
brief
and
it
has
energetically even than the attempts
of other humanists to free itself of scholastic influ-
ence.
grammar, pure and simple,

illustrations from the usage of the
It limits itself to
and secures
its
To
best Latin writers.
language.
all of
and
definiteness of
added brevity and intelligibility of

While but few directions are given, they
organization
are
clarity
it
immediate
from dry and
use,
difficult
and the learner
must have
It
interest in the pupil,
and made the work
rapid.
The
soon led
called forth a
authors themselves.
more
is
rules to a vital study of the
lighter
close connection of this
new
and
grammar
with the humanistic movement, as well as its remark-
shown by the attempted

with the work of Melanchthon that ap-
able success in the schools,
union of
it
is
PETER RAMUS
132
peared in a Philippo-Ramian Grammar? published
twenty years after the death
Ramus
the
way
of our reformer.
has also furnished us with some account of
grammar should be
this subject of
taught.
2
During the three years to be given to grammar, he
seems to have intended that both Latin and Greek

should be pursued, but that most emphasis should
be given the former subject, and the arrangement

in the four
followed.
books
of his Latin
Grammar should be
After acquiring the letters and syllables
and securing a
reading and writ-
facility in
little
ing Latin, the student
was
and conjugations.
few rules of syntax, and
sions
to take
up the declenBut he was to be given
to learn
more through
ex-
amples than formal grammar.

Easy illustrations
and selections were to be taken from the Bucolics
of Vergil
and the Comedies
of
Terence, and from
The
the simpler works of Cicero and Homer.
first
year was to be given mainly to etymology and to

teaching the pupils to express themselves and acquire a vocabulary.
The second year
these acquisi-
tions were to be strengthened, deepened,

1
See Schmid, Encyclopedic, IV, p.
Ramists
2
in dialectic, p. 217.
See pp.
n8f.
931.
Cf.
and wid-
the
Philippo-

cned.
Considerable
mastery of the
and
practice
classical writers
133
more complete
were to be afforded.
In the third year etymology was to be reviewed, with
by the student himself, and

syntax was to be completed. But in this explanation
and in practice' * the knowledge and power of the
illustrations furnished
'
'
'
youth were gradually to be increased. The models

2
analyzed were to be more and more extended, and,
while dealing with them, the student was to learn
from
this
usage of the best authors his etymology
and syntax, orthography and prosody. Then, after

the practice' in analysis,' the pupil was to take up
'
'
'genesis/ or production on his

too, there is
own
a gradual increase in
account.
difficulty,
Here,
beginning
with mere imitation and later coming to more inde-
pendent composition.
Ramus seems to have spent much time and effort
in elaborating the best methods of acquiring Latin
and Greek.
lectic
felt that,
whereas rhetoric and dia-
were to some extent natural
of these
gifts,
a knowledge
dead languages, both because of their
See pp.
An
may
He
intrin-
u6f.
excellent illustration of the
nobis hoc otia fecit,
'Seep. 117.
way
in
which
this 'analysis'
given with the hexameter, O Melibcee, deus

in the Schola dialectics, VII, 191.
be carried on
is
PETER RAMUS
134
and
key to the other

arts, required the greatest industry and the most
skilled instruction.
Instead of basing his methods
sic difficulty
upon
lure
their being the
and formal grammar, Ramus hoped to

the youths into a study of Latin and Greek
logic
by having them read the
classical
selves as soon as possible.
In this respect he was
authors them-
not unlike the rest of the humanists, but he seems

to have excelled
the
number
them
all in
of years that
reducing to a
must be spent
minimum
in acquiring
grammar.
In the reforms he proposed for rhetoric, however,
obvious that
it is
Ramus
received
more opposition
than he did in the matter of grammar. 1
The reason
lying back of the storm that arose over his efforts to
improve the teaching of rhetoric was that the authority upon which rhetoric was based was not merely
that of some medieval writer, like Martianus Capella
or Cassiodorus, but of Cicero
selves.
and Quintilian them-
Even the humanists, although they were
from the scholastic verbosity and the digressions

that appear in most of the textbooks of the times,
free
taught rhetoric according to Cicero and Quintilian,
and Melanchthon even intended

1
See pp. 42
ff.
his Institutions of
Cf. also preface to the Schola rhetorics.
135
book to these authors. 1
Rhetoric as an introductory
But Ramus did not bow down before even such

While he
great authorities.
and
fully appreciated Cicero
Quintilian, he held that they
and that
their antiquity
were not
was not
infallible
sufficient
warrant
the abuses which the current textbooks had
for
name.
in their
wrought
his laws of
content of
He, accordingly, applied
'
truth/
justice/
and
rhetoric,
'
and
wisdom
'
to the
rigidly rejected all that
had been smuggled into the

declared, should be an art
subject.
Rhetoric, he
in itself,
and not the
ground of another art.

seemed fallacious to him to combine rhetoric
exercising
It
with grammar, as suggested by Quintilian, and he

held it confusing to insist, with Cicero, that dialectic,
and various other subjects are

These matters,
to the orator as such.
philosophy,
essential
ethics,
do with
his rhetorical
know
the rules of the art of speech,
necessary only to
so as to use
grammar
1
them
as a
effectively, in the
same way that
consists in the use of correct language.
Quintilian als didaktiker (Neue
See Messer,
Philologie
him
man, have nothing to

For rhetoric it is
training.
while improving to
und P&dagogik,
Sckol. rhel.,
I,
pp. 233
1897, pp. 415

ff.
f.).
JahrblUher
fttr
PETER RAMUS
136
The content
of
what one
to say
is
must not be con-
fused, as in Cicero, with the outer form.
Ramus,
therefore, defines
of effective speaking,'
'expression'
and
'invention'
and
'
memory/ which
and
'the
art
limits its divisions
He
'action.'
altogether
to
ignores
together
with
really a reflection of them,
on the
'arrangement/
is
as
rhetoric
ground that these topics belong more properly to

logic, even if all five divisions are given by the ancient writers.
Expression he defines as the elegant

'
'
adornment of speech, 3 and he divides it into tropes

and 'figures.' The former of these refers to the
figurative
use
of
single words.
It
is
subdivided
metonymy, irony, metaphor, and synecdoche,

and some of these classes are still further divided.
into
'Figures' indicate a change of dress in a combination of words,
diction
and
and are
of
figures of thought.
have reference to a change

cated
by a turn
4
of
Figures of diction
in the outer form, indi-
'prosody,' which, as
has
Ramus
does not recognize in grammar.
Rhetorica
est ars
*Schol. rhet.,
9
figures
rhythm or meter, and are
in the
ordinarily treated under
been stated,
two kinds,
I, p.
Ibid., V, pp.
Seep. 124.
bene dicendi.
290
237
f.
DC,
p. 319.
Under
this
head are enumerated nine
known
speech, of which the best

climax,
and anaphor.
some movement
include
of the
apostrophe,
rhetorical question,
137
figures of
are paronomasia,
Figures of
thought imply
mind expressed
in speech,
personification
and
(prosopopoeia),
and other means
of enlivening
a speech and captivating an audience.

His second main topic,
'
action/ which deals with
had been valued up to this time,

but had not been explicitly taught. With Ramus this
suitable delivery,
subject comprises the use of the voice and gestures.
Under the head
of vocal control,
he discusses how,
both in the case of single words and of sentences or

combinations of words, expression
may
be given
through proper modulation to the various emotions,

such as
fear, grief,
and sympathy.
Under the other
division he deals with all the details of effective ex-
pression through gestures with the body, head, eyes,
arms, hands, and fingers,
and with the kind of
gesticulation to be avoided.
The
rhetoric of
Ramus may be
fully indicated in the analysis
outlined as
more
on the next page.
PETER RAMUS
.3
I
i
71
a
.
ii|
II
J8
a
.9
|
S
10
.SB*
.a .a
il|!
Mil

Here, as in grammar,
selection
three
of
content
for
principles
Rhetoric
dichotomy.'
find a clear
subject matter
the
'
we
is
silent
careful
according to
and
limited
Ramus
his
method
his
strictly
outer clothing of speech, and
and
139
is
of
the
to
absolutely
about invention, arrangement, memorizing,
parts of speech, syntactical construction, and
all
kindred topics that might seem to overlap dialectic
and grammar.
material
is
His position in abbreviating the

In comparison
again most radical.
with the ancient writers and even his humanistic

contemporaries, at
of scantiness
first
sight he gives the impression
and inadequacy.
This
is
most apparent
Melanchthon, who so closely approached

him in grammar, 1 but whose rhetoric held fast to all
in the case of
the traditional matter, especially as presented by
The
Quintilian.
attitude of
Ramus, however,
is
here
consistent with his point of view in the other liberal

arts,
He
and he defends
is
it
on the score
good pedagogy.
actuated by the principle of not overburdening
the youth early in school
conceptions that
preference
easily
of
is
to
life
with a
lot of abstract
mean little or nothing to him. His

give him only such elements as can
be grasped and leave

1
all
See pp. 131
f.
the rest to practice
140
PETER RAMUS
through reading.
However, as we
is
shall
see,
it
only by means of dialectic that rhetoric attains
to real completion.
The method
Ramus advocated
that
rhetoric, which was to
of the course,
was
be carried out
in the fourth year
similar to that of
consisted in a close combination of

tice.
for teaching
grammar. It
theory and prac-
In 'explanation/ rules were progressively laid

'
down, and practice' in them was afterward attained

2
by the twofold process of analysis' and 'genesis.'
'
The
some practice by analyzing the

authors that had become known during his three
pupil obtained
years in grammar, but the model for the right use

of the voice
self
and gesticulation the teacher had him-
to furnish, since a literary passage
is
necessa-
on these points. Wherever he could, the

instructor quoted from actual speeches, and called
rily silent
attention to the laws of the art.

this
He
asked whether
kind of speech, that modulation of the voice,
and such and such gestures, were most fitting. Even

more than in the other arts, the spoken word was of
the utmost importance, and for that reason the
teacher had to
be a practical orator, as well as

1
See p. 148.
See pp. 117 and 133.

versed
the
in
of
precepts
rhetoric.
'analysis/ 'genesis' in this subject
After
141
the
was secured by
working out a theme for delivery, at first according to

a definite model and later with greater independence.
To guard
against superficiality,
the ancient rhetoricians
written
down
before
it
was
year devoted to rhetoric
Ramus
advised, as
had, that the oration be

delivered.
While in the
Ramus thought
to repeat the material acquired in
it
an error
grammar, he strove
to see that the pupil did not lose the fruit of his earlier
The
work.
teacher of rhetoric was to insist that
pure speech be observed and thus amalgamate the

This method of economy Ramus
result of both arts.
and energetically defends its

advantages against the protests and even the abuse
calls
'combined
use,'
of the conservatives.
But the
Ramus
soul of the system
to
should desire that the
my memory
logic."
For
*
it
monument
of
Said
"If I had to pass judgment upon
works,
4
and the true renown
rest in his reconstruction of dialectic.
he himself:
own
my
raised
should commemorate the reform of
was
Schol. rhet. t
*Schol.dial.,
his
improvements
XVIII, 381.
XX,
603.
'
See pp. 159 and 165.
Dialectics libri duo, Preface.
in this sub-
PWTBR RAMUS
142
ject that started the reformation that

in all the other liberal arts
tion for their organization.
Ramus made
and served as
It
his founda-
gave his system and
an honorable position up to the eighteenth

century, and has always constituted his most endurhis texts
ing title to the esteem of philosophers,
The success of
and educators.
only after a long
had dominated
and
its
grip
these reforms
and stubborn
scholars,
was won
fight, since dialectic
the medieval fields of knowledge
all
upon the academic world was
practically
For three centuries
identical with that of Aristotle.
the cultural centers had been offering instruction in

the Organon enlarged
and had mixed
by the medieval commentaries,
its
in
positions
with grammar,
and metaphysics. Dialectic and other subhad in consequence become a mere formal-
rhetoric,
jects
ism, empty, dry,
minds.
effort
and much too
The pupils became lost
was made by
or to prepare for
difficult for
No
dialectic instruction to find truth
life,
but the end and aim was to
prepare for school disputations.

tried
youthful
in the labyrinths.
The humanists had
hard to overcome this barren condition of
and, before the time of
Ramus,
Valla had
logic,
written
Agricola had produced his
Dialectic
Disputations,
work On
the Institutes of Dialectic,
and Vives had
is-
143
sued his three books On the Transmission of Learning.
Although Paris remained faithful to the scholastic

dialectic, and the theological faculty in particular
opposed with
might any sort of innovation,

of the humanists had paved the way
these efforts
for
all its
independence of thought and the assertion of
common
sense.
was, however, the
It
orous cultivation of the
by Ramus
field
more
vig-
that
was
largely the cause for the germination of the seed
which had been sown.
The
dialectic
reform of
Ramus
falls
naturally
under the two heads which he himself distinguishes.
These
relate to the destructive or 'refutative' side
of his
work, in which he makes an examination of
the current dialectic and refutes the errors that
accuracy
injure
and
art;
the constructive or
'
in
of
thinking.
appears in
sions
upon
its
The former phase
most extreme form
Aristotle.
the
demonstrative
where he makes a dogmatic exposition
side,
art
to
and proper arrangement
of
hi the
'
of the
his
work
Animadver-
As has been shown,
he
is
altogether too severe with Aristotle, failing utterly
and accusing him of

obscurity, confusion, and contradiction, and even
to see the merit of his work,
See pp. 30
f.
PETER RAMUS
144
and ineptitude. To excuse this vehemence, we must recall the dogmatism of the times, the
stupidity and fanaticism of the defenders of Arisof puerility
and the
yoke with which they were

endeavoring to burden all intelligence and love of
But these ebullitions
truth, science, and progress.
totle,
intolerable
of his youthful audacity
cooled.
were afterward somewhat
In later editions of the Animadversions he
was more moderate, and in his Studies on Dialectic

and the works that grew out of his contest with
Schegk he even shows a great admiration for Aristotle
and professes
to be a better Peripatetic than
his adversaries.
This milder tone
is
also
shown
in his
borrowing
certain detached principles from Aristotle to shape

his
own
While Ramus never accepted the

that
Aristotle as a whole, we have seen
works.
system of
he at least obtained the laws by which he selected
his
content in
from a
all
studies,
directly
indirectly,
These
treatise of that philosopher.
ples are consequently applied in the
or
'
princi-
demonstrative
'
or expository side of his dialectic, which appears in a

2
succession of publications at different periods.
1
The
See pp. noff.

E.g., Dialectics Partitiones or
lectics libri duo,
and Schola in
Institutiones, Dialectique,
liberates artes.
Dia-

scholastic
works on
dialectic in general use
145
brought
into their subject matter parts that belonged rather

to other arts, such as
grammar,
but, subject to his three laws,
rhetoric,
Ramus
and
ethics,
confined his
material strictly to the art of thinking.
This discipline, he claimed, should be constituted
without regard to the prejudices
as nature teaches
it,
or
men.
of
opinions
according
to
our
reasoning in daily
It
should
for
determined
and observation
experience
life,
be
the
rules
of
of
thought
should be formulated after the fashion in which our
common sense solves problems. We should,

he states, thoroughly investigate how men use their
ordinary
reason.
nature
"
The way
is
of discovering
given at length in an early
Wherefore to understand
reason, observe
among
method
this
the
of
work :
functioning of
the thousands of
most distinguished for their natural

sagacity and suppose they have to give
men
ability
those
and
their advice
an important matter. Their

give you an image of the nature
in the discussion of
reasoning ought to
of reason, even as a faithful mirror.
what those
1
Cf Vera logica
.
et
advisers, through
whom
artis descriptio proficisci debet
usus observatione (Schol.

fc
Examine, then,
dial.,
XX,
941).
nature reveals
a natwalis rationis
PETER RAMUS
146
wish to do.
herself,
will search silently in their
and
reason,
if
First,
will invent
mistake not, they
minds
for every possible
every possible argument by
which to exhort
you
plated or to turn
you from
to undertake
it.
what
is
contem-
Then, when they have
found satisfactory arguments, they will express their

thought, not at random, but in order and methodically;
not content with demonstrating each separate
point elegantly and forcefully, they will embrace the
descending from the most
question as a whole,
general ideas to the individual and particular cases

falling
under them.
If this is their
procedure in a
single discussion, there is the greater
their following it
reasoning in
when they study
its entirety,
who had no
artificial
as did the
logic at
argument
for
the nature of
first
philosophers,
Hence
all.
at
all
times that an occasion arises for exercising our reason, nature invites our
minds to a twofold
effort
on
the one hand, greater activity and more penetration

for solving the
problem;
calm
for
reflection
solution
and on the other more
examining and weighing that
and properly arranging
its
various parts.
Herein we recognize with certainty the action of

nature from which science should never depart,
but should follow
religiously, for it will
have
fulfilled

purpose only when
its
of nature.
it
has reproduced the wisdom
Science ought, therefore, to study the
lessons that are innate in select
when
minds; and then,
has collected them with care,
it
147
turn transmit
them
and upon them

dialectic should,
as
most natural
desire to reason well.

it
were,
nature, but should later

for nature is
their
should in
order,
model should formulate the
as a
who
rules for those
in
it
first
be the pupil of
become her
by no means
Thus
schoolmistress,
so energetic
and strong
that she cannot gain an advantage through under-
standing herself and recognizing her functions, nor

yet so feeble and languishing that she cannot, with
the help of this art, acquire greater power and in1
tensity."
Hence Ramus would base

experience and usage.
upon actual
As grammar and rhetoric
dialectic
were to be founded upon the practice of those who

wrote and spoke well, dialectic is to take its principles
and
reason
1
146
2
from the procedure of those best fitted to

2
His very practical dialecnamely, the wise.
rules
;
Dialectics
partitiones, fol. 3, 4;
Schola dialectics,
IV, pp.
ff.
After
term
P- 57-
this,
we can
'utilitarian,'
better understand the significance of the
with which he was frequently taunted.
See
PETER RAMUS
148
1
more the art
is
therefore,
tic,
of persuasion
position than of the discovery of truth.
the
leaned
subject
toward
rhetoric,
and
ex-
With him
and
could
better be learned, he held,
by observing Cicero than

2
At the
by studying the canons of the Organon.
outset of his treatises, he defines dialectic
3
art of discussing well/
we have
and from the two methods
just seen that he discerned in the reasoning
of the wise,
ment/ 4
as 'the
'
it is
'
'
divided into invention and arrange-
The former division of the
defines as that of
'
subject,
which he
5
inventing the arguments,'
is
con-
cerned with the separate parts of which the subject

is
composed.
The
latter, defined as 'the
suitable
arrangement of the things invented/ deals with the

combination and classification of these parts in the
completed presentation.
2
See pp.
Dialectica est ars bene disserendi is the opening of his Latin
54
f.
Hence Prantl
'
calls it
Ciceronian-rhetorical.'
treatises.
4
and judicium (cf Cicero) or dispositio. Dial, libri duo,

Here again his dichotomy
Chap. II; Dialectique, p. 4.
in evidence.
These are the main divisions, it will be noted, that
Inventio
Book
is
are usually assigned to rhetoric, but which
that subject.
5
'
'
I,
Ramus
discarded from
See p. 136.
Pars de inveniendis arguments or doctrina cogitandi
et
inve-
niendi argumenti.
6
Apia rerum inventarum
mentis ad judicandum.
collocatio or
parsde disponendis argu-

'Invention'
'
of arguments,
and
separated into two main
is
artificial/
inartificial,'
heads,
ment
Ramus
all
arranges
them with examples from the

Of the
Under these
the chief forms of argu-
human thought
into which
groups
which are demonstrated,
which are assumed. 1
'
149
falls,
and
illustrates
and
classical poets
arguments the first four

are based on (i) causes, which are to be distinguished
as efficient,' 'material/ 'formal/ and 'final'; 2 (2)
orators.
artificial
'
effects;
(4)
or
'subjects'
(3)
These
adjuncts.
all
come under the head

6
agreeing, but there are also disagreeing
among which
and
presuppositions,
are included (5)
arguments
'different'
and
simple, there are (6)
'op-
Besides these five groups, which are
posed.'
of
all
While
compound arguments.
these groups are 'primary/ there are also 'secondary'

1
Argumentum
est
out inartificiale.
artificiale
Artificiale,
quod
ex se arguit.
2
These
The word used is subjecta
explains
subjectum
classes of causes are
it: subject-urn
scientice,
est,
borrowed from
Aristotle.
(Aristotle's v7roKci)u,cva)
cui
ignoranlia,
conjungitur.
aliquid
virtutis,
vitii;
quia
Ramus thus
Anima est
hac
prater
essentiam accedunt.
4
Adjunctum est, cui aliquid subjicitur.

Consentaneum est quod consentit cum
Dissentanea
is
used here.
re
quant arguit.
Like consentanea,
from Cicero and indicates again the leaning of his

rhetoric.
it
is
borrowed
dialectic
toward
PETER RAMUS
150
The latter are
arguments.
1
distinguished as (7) quali
tative,
which relate to names rather than things and
may be
connotative and denotative,
or (9) definitive.
The second main
(8) distributive,
division of the
classes of arguments, 'inartificial' or (10)
assumed,
embraces 'divine' and 'human' testimonies that
have been inherited, and these may be further

divided, the one as it comes from oracles or prophecies,
and the other from actual laws or from the
sanction of proverbs.
The second book treats

'arrangement.'
Here
the second part of dialectic,

also is a twofold division,
the 'axiom' or proposition, 3 and the 'dianoia' or

deduction. 4
gism and
'
Deduction
is
divided into syllo-
itself
There several divisions
method.'
propositions are suggested, but
note here
'
its
it
to
quality as affirmative or negative, and
consists in deriving a conclusion

1
sufficient
'
'quantity' as general or special.
its
is
of the
The
syllogism
from a 'proposition'
Notaiio (Aristotle's <rv/x/8o\ov or <rvuyov)
est
nominis interpre-
tatio.
2
These categories for reducing the terms of thought to ten

were borrowed from Aristotle.
chief
classes
3
Axioma
est dispositio
quid aut non esse judicatur.

*
Dianoia
est
cum
argumenti
cum
argumento, qua esse
Latine, enunciatum dicitur.
aliud ex olio deducitur.
all-
151
and an assumption,' or a major and minor premise.

the 'simple' or categorical
It includes two classes,
l
and the
which
The
'
conjunctive
is
or conditional, the latter of
divided into hypothetical and disjunctive.
categorical
syllogism,
which
in
consists
judgment derived from two simple propositions, is

divided according to quantity and quality into
l
fourteen
the
modes.'
These correspond to those
Ramus
'
first
three figures' in Aristotle, as
the fourth figure, with
its
five
of
rejects
modes, as invalid.
The hypothetical and disjunctive

named from the nature of their
so
syllogisms,
have
premises,
each two modes, one of which leads to positive

conclusions and the other to negative.
Ramus
also
explains the meaning of several other forms of the

syllogism,
enthymeme,
lemma, and
sorites,
are derived.
To
induction,
through which
the
example,
di-
false conclusions
enthymeme and the
sorites
grants a certain validity, but the syllogisms
he
cited,
he declares in closing, are 'the golden rule' by which

the good, just, true, useful, and their opposites can
be judged.
'Method,' the other form of deduction,
as
"
the
is
defined
the arrangement of a variety of arguments so that

first in
importance
is
placed
first,
the second next,
PETER RAMUS
152
the third in the third place, and so on in order."
This process
and that
'
divided into the method of learning
is
'
of
There
sagacity.'
is
'
apparently no
and purpose, but

they represent one and the same method in two fields
and compose simply a twofold phase of one process.
difference in their origin, nature,
The method
of
'
is
learning'
strongly scientific, and
follows the laws of logic, going from definitions
and
general principles to the distribution and special
Just as this
arrangement of parts.
method
is
used
in the liberal arts, 'sagacity' is the corresponding
form among poets, orators, and

latter case the
method
In the
historians.
not in logical form, but
is
thoroughly natural and comes simply from the
is
and wisdom.
application of reason
which
in
and
of
whole subject is treated are regarded

as the most important part of his dialecIn one place he says -
works.
'
"But
this
by Ramus
tic
The chapters
method,' both in the form of
sagacity,'
is
learning'
the sovereign light of reason.
In this not only have the other animals nothing in
common
tion,'
1
with men, as they
but even men
Dialectics libri duo,
tique, pp.
119
ff.
differ
Book
II,
may have in the
very widely
Chaps.
'
proposi-
among them-
XVII and XVIII
Dialec-
153
much
they
For, however
selves in the qualification.
may
the
naturally share in the syllogistic faculty,
all
number
of those
who study how
to use
it
well
very small, and of that small number there are

fewer
who know how
to good
'
method/
much
as
the beasts in the syllogism,
men through
other
'
man
is
sum
of that universal
reflected in
Evidently,
as
may
man
surpasses
he himself excel
method/ and the divinity
no part
Ramus
still
and judge according
to arrange
By
is
of
of reason so fully as in the
method
of
judgment."
holds, the
way taken
in wise
from general to particular, and the

reader especially meets this method in literature,
deliberation
is
'
'
and
since the author necessarily struggles to be clear
develop his material in proper sequence.
If
be neglected in either science or practical

fusion
ensues.
Since
this
arrangement of material,
ment
of the pupil's
it
method
life,
method forms a
assists
'
conclear
a natural develop-
memory, and,
in consequence,
the second book closes with a chapter on this mental

function.
In this
Ramus
introduced the
on memory that ever appeared
in a
first rules
work on the
art
of thinking, but they were little developed here.
An idea of the treatment of dialectic by Ramus may

1
Dialectique, p. 135.
PETER RAMUS
154
be gained from the abbreviated analysis on the next

It can easily be seen that the great contripage.
butions of
Ramus
to the study of dialectic were brev-
As a corresponding
failing, his system has been supposed to be somewhat
But logic with him was not the science
superficial.
simplicity,
ity,
and
clearness.
the normative laws of
of
held
it
human knowledge.
He
to be simply the practical art of debating
a question, and whatever subject matter

for his purpose,
he rejects from his
clines to consider
any
of the
is
not needed
He
treatise.
de-
fundamental ontological
or epistemological problems that are often thought

to be preliminary to logic.
the word
'
'
concept
He
even refuses to use
(notio), since
it
seems to him
too philosophic, and simply speaks of
'
arguments/
Logic for him deals not with the discovery of truth
much
so
inclined
is
and persuasion, and he

to make dialectic lean toward rhetoric. 1
as with exposition
This, however, grew out of his desire to produce a

practical
1
who
and useful
dialectic, as
opposed to the formal
This accounts for the criticisms of some of his contemporaries,

declared that he was another Erasistratus and an ignoramus,
and that he wished
to teach his pupils to fly without wings.
Schegk, Hyperaspistes ad epistolam P. Rami, pp. 4
ff.
See
Ursinus,
Bedenken ob Rami Dialectica in Schulen einzufiihren (Heidelberg,

1586).
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PETER RAMUS
156
minute analyses, and barren rules of the

scholastic treatises, and such a simplification and
definitions,
the technique of the art of
clarity in presenting
thinking was of
much
over, his conception of dialectic

free
More-
value to education.
would tend to
foster
thought and inquiry, and harmonize the rules
of thinking with
nature.
To be
sure,
he sought
these principles of thought in the works of the great

classical writers, rather
than in his own
reflection,
and so may have somewhat aided the formalized
humanism eventually
intellectual progress,
to establish a
new yoke upon
but in his time he must have
been a great factor in freeing education from the

tyranny of a scholastic conception of Aristotle and
in breaking with the barbarism of the
Through
Middle Ages.
his dialectic he dared to tackle the philo-
sophic positions accepted unquestioningly for several

centuries
and
to resist the absurd distinctions of the
He made
schoolmen.
it
clear that
it
was time to de-
part from the tutelage of Aristotle, and to this extent
he
is
still
contributing to the advancement of the
science of logic.
1
For, as has well been said,
"
he alone
dared to say openly and without reserve what others

only lisped
1
Brucker, Hist.
he alone realized what they scarcely

crit. phttos.,
Per. Ill, pars II,
1.
II, c. i,
2.
157
dared to wish, in his preparation of a new dialectic."
Ramus
dialectic,
fifth
deals also with the
which
method
of teaching
to occupy the pupils during the
is
As
year of the course.
in
grammar and
rhetoric,
'
he insisted upon practice' as of more importance

even than explanation.
His opponents, he mainl
tained, were teaching only 'dead logic/
using the precepts of the art for a
game
and were
of ball over
which to shout and quarrel, and he declared that

their
disputations
sophistic
were not only
fruitless,
dialectic
but injurious.
nature/
follow the mastery of content.
'
practice
The
theses
Just as the
'
'
content was to follow
make an
over
should
teacher should
'explanation' of the logical rules, as con-
tained in 'invention' and
'arrangement/ and the
pupil should learn and discuss them, but the matter
could not stop there.
The knowledge
of the classes
arguments and the forms of judgment must be

zealously applied, if it is to be of value.
of
The
material here also, as in the preceding arts,
to be furnished
by the
classical writers, especially
Cicero and Demosthenes.

1
Dial, partit.,
fol.
i,
habeat, exercitalio artem.
is
With
his conception of
ars igitur naturam sibi propositam semper
PETER RAMUS
158
dialectic,
he naturally turns to the orators for
trations,
but he
is
no longer
To understand
excerpts.
satisfied
in 'practice'
'
analysis
are picked out
and
comes
classified,
first;
As
whole
elsewhere,
the arguments
and the cases
'
'
'
with mere
their argumentation,
speeches are laid before the student.
of
'
'
illus-
'
syllo-
'
gism and method have their figures and modes

determined.
duction,
writes
Then
must be
first
'practice' in 'genesis/
afforded, during
'
or pro-
which the student
a close imitation of the passage, and later
makes a more independent production.
Ramus
furnishes several illustrations of his entire method.
For example, we may take the speech

For Milo. In the 'analysis/ he would
the defense read
all
of
Cicero,
first
have
then the student should examine
the arguments adduced
cording to the ten classes;
and place them acand finally determine
the 'premises/ 'conclusions/ and 'methods/ according to which the arguments were arranged.
'genesis/
what Cicero urged
applied in a similar theme.
man
is
in
In the
behalf of Milo
is
For example, a noble-
to be defended in an indictment for murder,
and the pupil has to seek and arrange the arguments

and conclusions in a fashion like that of Cicero.
1
See pp. 117, 133, and 140.
159
Gradually, however, he should strive not to imitate
the
great
Roman
orator
become as independent as
surpass him.
Throughout
while, in keeping with the
no repetition
of
but
to
and even
to
slavishly,
possible
this training in dialectic,
law
grammar and
of 'justice/ there is
rhetoric,
no part
the instruction of the previous four years
is
of
to be
neglected, and, according to his principle of 'com-
bined
use,'
every exercise must be couched in correct
grammar and ornate
language.
1
See p. 141.
CHAPTER
VII
As we have
indicated,
Ramus was
not satisfied
to limit his reforms to the lower trinity of liberal
He
arts.
'
soon turned his attention also to the
esoteric' studies, or quadrivium,
still
which in
his
day
included the mathematical subjects of arith-
metic and geometry, together with music and astron-
omy
as minor fields.
Music had
fallen into the
background and he never attempted to revive

Astronomy he included to some extent under
it.
his
wider term of 'physics/
To mathematics,
and the
however,
Ramus gave
great at-
results of his labors here are
worthy
more detailed consideration than could be given
tention,
of
when
dealing with the account of his
subjects have been so immensely expanded
proved since
1
See
p.
20.
his
These
life.
and im-
day that a mere inspection of his pro-
Kami actiones
duce in senatu, pro regia mathematics
professionis cathedra, published in
two editions
in
566,
and extant
also in Collectanea pr&fationes, epistola, orationes, p. 533.
160
l6l
ductions will give but a very inadequate notion of his

to the last quarter of the
Up
actual contribution.
fifteenth century, the texts
ited to little
on mathematics were lim-
more than those
wretched condensations
of the ancients
made during
and the
the Middle
Ages, and while just before the close of the century
a few editions of Euclid had been published at

humanistic centers in Italy, 2
with the subject.

collected
little
had been done
The humanists who might have
and translated these
treatises
were largely
absorbed in the development of linguistic study. 3
At the opening
of the sixteenth century conditions
began to improve
came
into the
field,
a number of earnest scholars
and
several textbooks
on mathe-
matics appeared in Germany, Italy, and France.
But while
several prominent mathematicians were
developed at Paris before Ramus, he must

1
Paciuolo's
of this order,
work (1494) and Valla's
and there were a number
still
be
edition (1498) were hardly

of excellent
on arithmetic published before 1501, such as those
modern works
of
Borghi and
Calandri.
2
Such as the 1482 edition of Ratdolt in Venice, the 1491 edition

and Valla's edition of 1498.
at Vincentia,
3
Even Sturm
entirely ignored the subject in his curriculum.
Faber Stapulensis, Clichtoveus, Bouvelles, Budaeus, Jean

Fernel, Oronce Finee, and Jacques Peletier were among those to
advance the subject before the work of
Ramus
began.
PETER RAMUS
1 62
accounted a pioneer.
come one
of
Before his death he had be-
the best-known mathematicians that
France possessed, and his reputation endured until

the time of Descartes. His works, too, compare
1
favorably with most of the others produced during
As
the entire century.
late as 1625, his arithmetic
was still in good standing, and it was, together with his

geometry and posthumous algebra, republished and
commented upon
in France,
Germany, Holland, and
throughout academic Europe.
Moreover, his lectures
on the subject at the College
into existence a host of brilliant

ticians,
who became
the
means
France brought
of
young mathema-
of stimulating
an
in-
advancing the work during the

next half century, and at his death he left most of his
terest
and
of greatly
fortune to found a chair of mathematics at the College

of France.
Hence
were, entitle
him
his achievements, crude as they
to an honorable place in the history
of mathematics.
The
special interest that
Ramus showed
in
mathe-
matics was probably due not only to his appreciation
mental discipline and as

practical pursuits, but equally to its
of the subject as a
a key to
many
means
of
defmiteness and the possibility of illustrating thereby

1
Vfete's incomparable
work would have
to be excepted.
down
the three rules he had laid
content of a subject.
1
'
justice
too
He
for determining the
held that the laws of
'
and wisdom' had been
much complexity and
163
violated,
and that
obscurity appeared in the
current works on mathematics, and even in Aristotle.
Ramus declares that the great

much of the subject matter of
philosopher mingled
arithmetic with that
and treated geometry before arithmetic,

although this forced him to repeat certain general
of geometry,
conceptions, such as 'size,' under
Most
of these difficulties for
avoided, he
insists,
the subjects and

first.
several heads.
mathematics could be
by sharply separating the fields
of
treating all general conceptions
by
Ramus
declares the subject matter of arithmetic
to be that 'of proper calculation.'
He
divides
it
as
and 'comparative' or compound, and devotes a book to each class.

"The simple arithmetic
'simple'
considers the nature of
numbers
singly," while
"com-
parative arithmetic treats the comparison of numbers

in quantity
1
and quality."
Schol Math., praf., in
Schol. Math., I, pp. 2
Arithmetics
est
is
Cottect. pratf., p. 166.
doctrina
shown by
includes no-
ff.
bene numerandi.
the only one of the arts where ars

accidental, as
The former
is
This seems to be
not used,' but this
Dialectica, lib. I, cap. III.
is
probably
PETER RAMUS
164
tation, the
and
four
improper
fundamental operations, fractions,

numbers; the latter deals with
arithmetical and geometrical proportion,
the rule
of three ('golden rule'), alligation, equations,

allied topics.
ing properly.'
and
Geometry he
The
calls
'
and
the art of measur-
subject falls naturally into plane
but the division into twenty-seven books

treats the subject from the standpoint of separate
solid,
topics rather than of groups.
geometry covers
lines,
His treatise on plane
angles,
and such
figures
as triangles, quadrangles, polygons, parallelograms,

squares,
and
circles,
together with their
relations
and subdivisions; that on solid geometry covers

the properties and subdivisions of pyramids, prisms,
cubes, spheres, cones,
and
cylinders.
The diagrams on the following pages, giving more

detail, show how carefully Ramus observed his fundamental principles in the content of mathematics,
and how both arithmetic and geometry could be
divided according to his favorite method of
omy.'
While by
his clear presentation
he
'
dichot-
may have
something of the rigorous discipline that

has been claimed by some as the chief value in the
sacrificed
study of mathematics, he
felt clearness
importance and ruthlessly eliminated
to be of
all
most
extraor-
The
dinary complexity.
165
order and simplicity of his
arrangement are admirable, and his demonstrations

are clear and easily remembered. We are further
indebted
to
him
as perhaps the
first
to put the
problems of Euclid in the form of propositions and

theorems, which has proven such a boon for the
memory.
The method
of teaching
which Ramus advocated
mathematics was quite as effective as that in the

other subjects, and was based on the same principles.
for
After the rules had been explained as simply as
knowledge was put in practice.

Here again he stressed the process of 'analysis' and
The examples were to be borrowed from
'genesis.'
possible, the pupil's
the mathematical writings of the ancients, chiefly

Euclid, or formed
by the teacher himself. In geometry the figures were first to be drawn by the instructor
and then imitated by the student. 1 Again, in order
that the work of the trivium might not be forgotten,
he advised that discussions be held upon mathematical theses, and that the arguments and diction
used be held to a high standard of efficiency.
We may now
turn to the other quadrivial subject
upon which Ramus wrote.

1
See Praf. math., in the
Until his time, 'physics,'

Collect, praf., p. 166.
PETEK RAMUS
l06
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PETER RAMTJS
1 68
like
played a decidedly subordinate
mathematics,
And neither in
part in the colleges of the university.

his
day nor for a long time afterward was
it
generally
with careful organization or methodical
dignified
Even
instruction.
the
natural
since
humanists,
science lay quite outside their sphere of interest,
did
or nothing to disturb
little
the authority of
Aristotle in this field, although they tried to disrupt
the traditional scholastic methods and the super-
Ramus undertook
stitions of astrology.
to intro-
duce the same system into the content and method
had
of physics as he
arts.
and
He
vigorously attacked both the schoolmen
Aristotle,
latter 's
in the case of the other liberal
and
criticized the eight
work on natural
He
of Studies in Physics?
of
science
in the
logic
in
indulged
same number
claimed that this treatise
the great philosopher secured
from
books of the
its
material more
than from nature, and that Aristotle

too
many
nothing to do with the

exaggeration, he says
speculations,
field of physics.
which have
With some
"If one should by means of his senses and reason

investigate heaven
1
and earth and
'-
all
that therein
Witness Melanchthon's Institutiones physica.

3
S choice
physica.
is,
1 69
and then compare his

Aristotle, he would find
as a physicist ought to do,
with the Physics of
results
in that
work no observation
of
anything in nature,
but only sophisms, theoretical speculations, and unsupported assertions.
7 '
The proper method, he held, is quite contrary

Aristotle's.
One should develop the subject
by avoiding
physics
philosophical digressions
to
of
and
searching with his senses through visible nature,
where
lies
the genuine and useful material, which
needs only to be observed, tested, and arranged

methodically for instruction.
However,
this
invective
against
senseless
and
pernicious abstractions and the suggestion of a real
nature must not mislead us into
investigation of
supposing that
Ramus
himself held to induction in
In building up his physics he did
natural science.
not resort directly to nature for his material, but,

similarly to his
mentative
arts,
method with the
and argulargely from the
literary
he took his facts
Physics of Aristotle, the Natural History of Pliny,
and the Georgics
of Vergil.
And
the order of ar-
rangement is as deductive as it is in his geometry.

His Studies in Physics tell us that the "aim of
.*
Praj'at. physica,
in the Colkctan. prcefat., p. 69.
PETER RAMUS
170
genuine natural science

then
the
is
meteors, then the
animals, and
nature, which
finally
man."
minerals, vegetables,
Physics
an 'essence constant
is
'
'God' and intelligence

chief
to study first the heavens,
'
with
in itself.'
(mens) are assigned as the
underlying
principles
deals
nature, but
not
are
further mentioned, since he rigidly eschews meta-
physical discussions, and he quickly turns to the
After a very brief chapter upon
material world.
forms of matter in motion,

decay, and the
like,
birth, death, growth,

he takes up astronomy and
deals with the heavenly bodies, zones, poles, zodiac,
chronology, and temperature.

are discussed under the first
The heavenly bodies

'fire.'
The
element,
three remaining elements include
nomena.
His chapter on
thunder and lightning,
hail,
'air'
natural phe-
all
deals with clouds,
winds, and rains.
Then
from the phenomena of the air he goes to 'water,'

under which he considers oceans, rivers, springs,
and wells. Finally, he deals with the 'earth,' including the stones and metals in
the plants, animals, and
The
outline
on page
Natura
men that
its
172,
est essentia
which
bosom, and
thrive
is
upon
it.
taken from a
per se constans.
CONTENT AND METHOD OF THE QUADRTVIUM
summary
of his lectures
by one
of his pupils,
171
1
will
give some idea of the classification of the subject.
Thus
physics
in
the
selecting
Ramus
He
matter for his
treats the supersensible cursorily
devotes himself almost

jects.
subject
and
exclusively to visible ob-
purposely rejects hypotheses and specu-
Astronomy, meteorology, and agriculture

occupy the bulk of his work, but considerable attention is also given to botanical, zoological, and anthrolations.
pological material.
Very
clearly,
however, he has
investigated none of these topics for himself, but has

relied
upon the records
of the classical authors.
His
great contribution rests in his substantial and objective treatment, free
of the times,
clear
and
from
all
the philosophic theories
in his excellent organization
and
down from
the
arrangement, which passes
heavenly bodies and the phenomena of the

earth with
realizes its
its
air to the
organic and inorganic features, and
ami and end
in
man.
This work in physics, which was planned for the

seventh and
final
year of the course, was to be taught
like the other arts,
and 'genesis/ as
1
by
well as
Projessio regia (pp. 285
after the death of
'practice,' including 'analysis'
Ramus.
ff.),
by
'explanation.'
Unfor-
published by Freigius four years
**"
PETER RAMUS
172
tunately, the real spirit of science
as yet so
little
and induction was
understood that the student gained
through an interpretation of the descriptions of various classical authors rather than by

this exercise
actual observation, and the study

rather than scientific.
became verbal
But, compared with the texts
of the time, the physics of
Ramus must have
pre-
sented an admirable body of well-arranged material
and must have proved more

to learn.
interesting
and
easier
CHAPTER
VIII
WHEN Ramus retired from active teaching in

was understood
it
1571,
that, in continuing his reform of
the liberal arts, he would include treatises on ethics
and
politics,
which were coming to be added in the
1
higher curriculum of the quadrivium.
stated that he had prepared a

of ethics,
death
treatise
ever,
it
short
his
even
work upon the subject
which awaited only a
cut
It is
literary
final revision,
activities.
If
when
this
was ever published or even produced, howhas now been lost, and we have to depend
upon other works

moral teachings.
of his for our
Happily
knowledge of his
his references to the sub-
ject elsewhere are so extensive that it is
to reconstruct his general positions.
not
difficult
His polemics
are developed in occasional outbursts against Aris-
totelianism in his orations and
more systematically
See p. 120.
Referred to in his Oratio de profession liberalium artium. (Paris,
1563.)
See p. 104.
173
PETER RAMUS
174
in
Studies
his
in
His constructive
Metaphysics.
attitude in pure ethics
is
found in the treatise
On
the
Customs of the Ancient Gauls, although this was intended to be more of an historical work than a trea-
on morals, and
tise
a Christian ethi-
developed in the second and third books of
cist are
his
his positions as
posthumous Commentaries on
the Christian
Re-
ligion.
The
ethical attitude of
Ramus
in
many
purely anti-Aristotelian and destructive.
somewhat
places
He
is
fails
to understand Aristotle, but as an ardent
incumbent upon him

Like
to combat the paganism of that philosopher.
most theologians until a very recent day, he proves
Christian he evidently holds
a naive
He
dualist.
it
cannot conceive of ethics with-
out the direct action of
God upon
the
human
soul.
Hence he inveighs against the scholastic instruction

"
in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics,
where the boy
learns a
principle
mass
and
man, that
all
of impieties
ideals of
man
of
for example, that the
the good
'
are innate in every
the virtues are within his
that he acquires
labor,
'
and that
them by means
for this
own power,
of nature, art,
and
work, so grand and so sublime,
has need of neither the aid nor the cooperation
God.
Nothing about providence; not a word

about divine justice
175
in short, since, in the eyes of
man
Aristotle, souls are mortal, the happiness of
is
"Such," he exclaims, "is the philosophy out of which we build the

foundation of our religion!" 1 In fact, to the inreduced to this perishable
life."
genuous mind of Ramus, Aristotle's very idea of God

savors of atheism. In another connection he declares at length:
"
God, according to Aristotle, is an eternal essence,

which knows not matter, magnitude, parts, division,
passion, or change,
pletely
happy
and leads a perfect and com-
existence.
what a further mass
Even
of errors
if
this
be granted,
and impieties
God
an animal; there are as many gods as there are

celestial globes.
God has no real power whatsoever
is
he would not know
how
to act or move,
not possessed those characteristics from
God
is
the
first
had he
all eternity.
cause of the world, but without wish-
He thinks only of himself

and disdains all the rest. He is neither creator
nor providence/
He moves the world eternally
even as the loadstone moves iron.
He has neither
ing or even knowing
it.
'
'
'
love, benevolence, nor charity.

1
What, then,
Pro phUosophica Parisiensis Academics disciplina
Collectanea prafationes, epistola, orationes, pp. 337
f.
is
oratio.
such
See
PETER RAMUS
1 76
an
atheistic conception of
gle against
Such
rily
is
him?"
God
save a Titanic strug-
the vehemence with which
Ramus
ordina-
attacks the foundations of Aristotle's ethics, but
at times he shows that the ancient philosopher
had
anticipated the true Christian doctrine and accepts

his positions,
even at the expense of certain usages
the Church.
of
For example,
after
showing that
Aristotle completely rejected the gods
made
in the
image of man, he remarks that "this philosopher,

pagan though he was, has therein shown himself
more pious than a great many Christians, who place

in their temples visible and gross images of the Trinwhich even the mind can scarcely conceive." 2
Occasionally he goes so far as to claim to rely abso-
ity, of
upon reason, and "not even to employ any

argument drawn from the Holy Scriptures, nor
appeal to the authority of Christ and Moses."
lutely
His commentary on the institutions and customs

the ancient Gauls, which
of
179, treats ethics
Schol. met.,
/Wd.,
1.
1.
XIV,
XII, cap.
Schol. phys.,
1.
outlined on page
from the standpoint of the four
at the close.
8.
Cf. Schol. phys.,
end.
s
is
VIII, at the clo S e.
1.
VIII, toward the

cardinal virtues
and almost
177
in the terms of Plato
and Cicero.
As a
however,
rule,
Ramus
such complete emancipation.
does not desire any
In the treatment of
ethics hi his Commentaries on the Christian Religion
he
is
a true Protestant Christian, and bases his solu-
tion of ethical problems
upon the
Scriptures, espe-
cially the decalogue and the Lord's prayer.
Yet he
never hesitates to refer to examples from antiquity

in defense of his position, as well as to contrast
with his conception of Christian ethics.

stances of this,
we may note
daemonian and primitive
them
As
in-
his citation of the Lace-
Roman mandate
to
'
honor
thy father and mother/ of Cicero's and Menander's

prohibition of bearing false witness,' and of a variety
'
of
'
'
pagan warnings against covetous action and even
He
thought.
was more
hi
felt, of
course, that the ancient world
harmony with the
later five
command-
ments, which deal rather with man's social relations
and not so much with
his reconciliation with
God,
whereas the Christian world holds that primarily in

God, and not in ourselves, rests the motive for human
struggles
and human happiness.
He
maintains at
the start, therefore, that the fundamental principle

1
Commentarla de
religlone Christiana, II, 2-10.
PETER RAMUS
178
man's obedience to God and
of ethics is
submit to his
ing
God
will in all things.
his desire to
The means
near and unifying him with
man
in the Father's benefits to his church or
upon
of bring'faith'
is
kingdom
earth.
Then, through
illustrations
from the Sermon on the
Mount and
quotations from other parts of the
Testament,
Ramus
enlarges, deepens,
and brings
command-
out the inner meaning of each one of the
ments.
He
converts
all
New
these negative statements
commands, and gives to the Old Testament form a New Testament content, thus produc-
into positive
ing from a code of statutes a system of Christian

ethics.
In carrying this out, he states that
Chris-
all
and virtues can be embraced under "piety

and charity as the sum and substance of the law.
tian duties
Charity
filled
is
both the cause and
effect of the law.
with faith, hope, and sympathy, and
malice, pride, hatred,
and
injustice.
and all-comprehensive virtue."
works.
1
2
>
Content
Commentaria de
Ibid., II, 7,
Ibid., II,
202.
one
this root,
and
all
good
accordingly given to these general
religion* Christiana,
229;
I3,
is
is
void of
It is the
From
then, spring all the Christian virtues
is
It
II, 10,
179; and
I,
II,
2,
u,
10 and
251.
I,
i,
f.
i!
IWff
a-S/s
P
h
2
J5
>,
IKI* 1
nil
~ > >
<&
>
.9
=5
179
PETER RAMUS
180
principles in his treatment of all
Marriage, which
human
relations.
is
concerned in the seventh com-
mandment, Ramus
outlines historically, beginning
with God's sanction of the relation in the case of
Adam and
Eve, and citing Christ's approval by his
presence at the wedding feast in
Cana and by the
He
symbolic marriage of Christ with the Church.
further holds that marriage should take place only
between members of the Church.
He specifies that it
should be forbidden between Christians and pagans
and within certain degrees of consanguinity, and cites

instances in the Bible where violations of this prinhave been punished. The Old Testament polygamy cannot be taken as the norm, for the relation
was in its institution monogamous. Celibacy, howciple
ever, is not holier
than marriage, and he condemns the
requirement in the case of monks, nuns, and secular

priests.
Divorce should be granted only on the
grounds of adultery.
The
parents and children
Ramus
mandment, and more
rule for the relation of
finds in the fifth
specific
com-
guidance he gathers
from the Epistle to the Ephesians and the works

various classical writers.
1
He
of
gives as a warning for
This forms the substance of the second book of his Commen-
taries.
l8l
the violation of this law the punishments meted out
Ham
to
and
political life,
will
to
Absalom.
Ramus
not sanction
truth
by
'
all social,
civic,
and
duty of truth. He
concealment of the
stresses the
white
lies/
physicians, rhetorical turns of the orator, or

in
deceptions
diplomacy.
concealed, the proper

or
In
way
by such an answer
If
the
must be
truth
to achieve this
is
by silence
as will produce silence on the
part of the questioner, as in the case of Jesus with the
Oaths are not unconditionally forbidden,
Pharisees.
for
Abraham, David, Paul, and other
biblical
models
swore in God's name when the circumstances called

for
In general, asseveration of this
such action.
be permitted when made concerning the

truth, but should not be done wantonly in cursing or
sort should
in supporting falsehood
latter
grievous sin
severely.
brings
not to
sions
Ramus
through perjury.
God has
For
often punished
this
men
ranks tithe-taking with usury, and
them both under the eighth commandment,

steal.
One may, however, increase his posses-
by
all
honorable means.
in general, this
Like the reformers
French moralist was very
his ideas of amusements.
strict in
Dancing, for example, he
would permit among young maidens by themselves,

as in the case of the sisters of Moses and their com-
PETER RAMUS
182
pardons, but dancing with a
of the opposite
was too often associated with
sex, in his opinion,
Obedience
immorality.
member
to
was
magistrates
counseled by Ramus, as implied in the
mandment,
up to
live
especially
fifth
but, on the other hand, magistrates
War and
their duties.
com-
must
capital punishment,
he maintains, are somewhat limited in their extent
and character by the

they
may
be
sixth
commandment, although
justified in the case of
murder, unjust
attacks, or defense of one's native land.
After the detailed discussion of 'obedience' he

takes up the Christian duty of 'prayer.'
tude
is
an evidence
of faith.
of piety,
It is the gift of
that kindles the zeal for

tion through Christ
"Christ
ful soul.
talk to the Father
see
him
offerings to
who
him."
himself, since
and
this subject
just as the second
*Ibid., Ill,
it is
he
his fatherly relait
in the faith-
our eye, through
inspires us to prayer,
To
in us,
Hence
pledge of being heard.

1
God
our right hand, through

~
atti-
whom
whom we
our mouthpiece, through
we
This
and the other great proof
justification for
is
is
it
it is
whom we make
the Father himself
and gives us
in his son the
Prayer, therefore,
is
the ex-
he devotes the third book of his Commentaries,
was concerned with 'obedience
2,208
ff.
to the divine law.'

pression and proof of Christian
is
revealed.
As the new
life,
life is
and
evil inclinations.
It
it
penitence
expressed in prayer,
we are strengthened and advanced in

our
in
183
the fight against
therefore, necessary to
is,
renew prayer daily and ask forgiveness for our sins,

since continual and manifold temptations are constantly arising both from our misfortunes
1
prosperity.
He
further
from the standpoint of

of punishment.
and our
makes a gradation in sins

heinousness and worthiness
The most
unforgivable breach
is
the sin against the Holy Ghost, as in the case of the

Pharisees that attributed the miracles of Jesus to
demons. 2
The
Lord's prayer
for all conditions of

is
Ramus
holds to be a model
and the
life,
clearly a detailed paraphrase
several petitions.
its
It
is
treatise
on prayer
and explanation
of
not necessary to enter
further into his discussion, but
it is
of interest to note
the ingenious comparison that he makes between the
ten
commandments and
Lord's prayer.
shown
The second
the prayer
of
half
is
to correspond in general to the second half of
the decalogue.
is
the various petitions of the
This analogy
is
not so
much one
strained after in an effort to attract

*
Ibid., Ill, 8, 241
f.
that
and hold the
Ibid., Ill, 9.
PETER RAMUS
1 84
intended to convince
attention of the reader, as
it is
him that the Christian
in fulfilling the law,
fests itself as in
we
harmony with the
are bidden to ask.
It
Ramus
which
ethics, like
the last half century, was essen-
dogmatic, and shades
more properly
fact,
benefits for
mani-
can thus be seen that the Ramian
all treatises until
tially
life,
off
into
called 'theology.'
what may be
As a matter
of
includes both subjects in a single work,
Four Books of Commentaries on the Christian

Religion? The two middle books, which have been
his
discussed, are really ethical
and 'prayer/ but the
first
'
and deal with obedience

and
upon 'faith' and

would come rather
last,
'the sacraments' respectively,
under the head of theology.
'
Yet, as compared with
the treatises of the times, especially those of the
orthodox Catholic authorities,
by dogmatism.
Ramus
is
not guided
He strives, like most of the
reformed
theologians, to deliver the subject from all the idle

1
Ibid., Ill, 10, 249.
This treatise was begun in Switzerland and Germany in
568-
known Protestant
It was completed upon the return of Ramus to Paris,
theologians.
but was not published until four years after his death, when his
1569,
and the
outline laid before
pupil, Banosius, got out
96
f.
the
best
an edition at Frankfurt.
See pp. 95 and
and various
questions
with which the
subtleties
had embarrassed
scholastics
He was
it.
185
disgusted
with the unfruitful learning, formal attitude, and

dissociation with
life
in the theology of the times,
and struggled to advocate upright living rather than

mere doctrine. He wished to make the Scriptures
the supreme rule of faith, and continually expressed
a wish for exact translations in both Latin and the

1
vernacular,
but he stressed the knowledge of
re-
vealed truths less than actually putting them into

effect.
His practical point of view
is first
embodied
in his
definition of theology as 'the science of living well/
He
further specifies that "the final purpose of the
science
ing to
is
not mere acquaintance with matters relat-
it,
but use and practice," and that by 'well
living' is
meant "living
in
harmony and conformity
with God, the source of
all
good things."
This
attitude in theology cannot but remind us again of
the reproach of being

3
opponents,
1
on
and
utilitarian
Reformation
of the University
of Lorraine in 1570.
*Comm.
de
See p. 57.
'
made by
of his definitions in
Illustrations of this desire were
the
'
found in
and
the various
his Advice to the
King
his letter to the Cardinal
See pp. 84 and 103.
relig. Christ., I, i, 6.
his
Cf. I, 25, 89.
PETER RAMUS
86
arts.
liberal
way
Ramus
himself says: "In the same
the liberal arts teach
correctly, to
make an
to calculate well,
by
their precepts to speak
effective speech, to reason well,
and
measure
to
well, respectively."
Hence, since theology should be of practical value,

he holds that it must not be filled with fine techni-
and popular.
venerate and honor the mystery of sacred and
calities,
"As
should be
but
intelligible
divine things, so I desire
all
instruction relating to
these matters to be free from the rocks and thorns of

scholastic problems,
whole course of
The
and
its
masses.
and manifold content
of
prophecy, history, poetry, and
divine revelation,
may
distinct in the
and treatment."
exposition
Scriptures hold a rich
song, which
and
clear
be made of
infinite
value to the
This body of simple and inestimable truth
was praised most highly by the Christian Fathers,

but had been ignored and rejected by the scholastics.
"Wherefore,"
Ramus
declares,
recent darkness should be cast

ble
and the ancient
light
See pp. 124, 136, 148, 163, and 164.
Comm.
de. Relig. Christ., I,
Ibid., I, preface, pp.
f.
away
preface, p.
Cf.
ibid-.,
this
as far as possi-
brought back."
2
3
"I think that
i.
IV, 18, 343
"Let us
dis-
miss the profane logomachies and empty talk; let us speak the
words of the Holy Scriptures, let us use the language of the Holy
187
In order to restore this enlightenment, he proposes

a twofold method. In the first place, the text he
would make should be

sages from the
Holy
illustrated with suitable pas-
"We
Scriptures.
must act
in
divine matters," says he, "not otherwise than ac-
cording to the divine writings."
ment must be used

they form the
The Old Testa-
as well as the
rule for piety
and
New.
Together
offer the forgiveness
In the Old, the covenant
of sins through Christ.
is
promised in the New, it is granted. Both contain

a revelation of God and have substantially the same
;
content, although one
the
other
is
prophetic and veiled, and
and
fulfilled
clear.
Ramus
Secondly,
would add to the text and sacred examples, passages

taken from the greatest classical poets, orators, and
By
historians.
Spirit.
For that
is
this secular spicing of the religious
the truest doctor of wisdom and the most
renowned orator of eloquence, and it uses words that can be understood by us,
For that will be to
clear, significant, and suitable.
Then
divide the truth rightly.
let
and language with sophisms and
us not supplant divine wisdom
folly."
Similar
is
his continual
suggestion of a return to the 'golden age* of primitive Christianity.
See
ibid., I, 6,
344,
and 346
25; II,
9,
165; IV, 17, 338; IV, 18, 342
f.
IV, 19,
f.
Ibid., I, preface, p. 5.
2
See his comparison of the decalogue with the Lord's prayer,
pp. 183
f.
PETER RAMUS
1 88
materials he believes that the attention of the reader
can be attracted and stimulated, "not that any authority or approbation for religion can be derived from
it,
but
that
it
may
be clear Christian theology
not so abstruse or so remote from the

that
cannot
it
illumine
natural light, and so
and
allure
ness."
which
men
its
human
is
senses
people with a certain
all
very humanity
may
invite
to engage in divine studies with eager-
This use of classical authors by Ramus,

is
not intended merely as a rhetorical
illus-
tration of Christian truth, but a general attempt to
transmit
natural and supernatural revelation,
its
is
one of the most interesting and characteristic features

of his theology.
the
harmony
cal antiquity
He
constantly undertook to show
of the loftiest representatives of classi-
with Christian principles, to
feel
and
point out in the pre-Christian world prophecies of
them up to the appearance

of the Gospel, not only from Moses and Isaiah, but
also from Plato and the academies of ancient philosChristianity,
ophy.
ciliation
and
to trace
In this he illustrates the complete reconof
the
Northern
Renaissance
with
the
Reformation, and reveals himself a typical humanist
and a Protestant theologian.

1
Comm.
de
relig. Christ.,
While he agrees
preface, p.
2.
in the

essentials
189
with the evangelical principles of the other
reformers, in his position toward classical antiquity
he represents a peculiar breadth of view.

this basis
Upon
Ramus
He
his theology.
organizes the material of
holds that obscurity and confu-
sion in this field have been due in

to the fact that there are as
ing
many methods
of divid-
and arranging the subject as there are theologians.
Each one
feels fully entitled to his
instead of seeing that, as in

is
no small measure
own
viewpoint,
any other science, there
He
only one correct method.
insists that there is
a definite arrangement based upon general logical
and puts into effect his three laws of

and his classification by dichotomy/ 2 In
principles,
content
'
accordance with this method, he divides the science

into
'
doc trine
'
and
'
subdivisions
and 'works,' and

'works' are 'obedience' and 'prayer'
of doctrine, in turn, concern
the classes of
The
'discipline.'
faith'
on the one hand, and 'sacraments' on the other.

Obedience' and 'prayer,' which he deals with in
1
books two and three respectively, 3 relate more closely

4
to his ethics and are treated under that head,
'
while
sacraments
no ff.
See pp.
See pp. 178
ff.
'
belongs with
2
'
faith
'
to his dog-
See pp. 130, 139, 150, and 164.

4
Scep. 177.
PETER RAMUS
go
matics, and
main
1
is
treated in the fourth book.
division of
'
'
discipline
doctrinal practice'
of theology
is
the subjects of
'
and church
polity.'
This part
not treated in his Commentaries, but
we have other ways

in the matter.
falls into
His second
of
knowing the position of Ramus
Meanwhile, the general outline of

'
'
both the 'ethics' and the theology proper included

in
his
Commentaries,
diagram.
Theology (including Christian
Ethics), 'the art
of living well,'
is
divided into
is
shown
in
the
following
191
dence, and predestination, but between the chapters
on creation and providence

'fall
is
inserted one
The Ramian conception
of man.'
trinitarian/ although
it is
upon the
God
of
is
not treated as a dogma
toward the close of the book, when the doctrine

1
of the Holy Ghost is discussed.
Upon creation and
until
providence
Ramus
presents nothing worthy of note
he simply makes a collection of biblical and
classical
quotations without going closely into the kernel of
His explanation of the
these questions.
fall of
man
'
and the consequences thereof is also superficial and

rather brief. Our first parents, he holds, were forgetful of the wonderful benefits of the Creator
and
wished to be his equal, and thus threw away the great

gifts they might otherwise have enjoyed forever.
In place of an immortal body they thus obtained
a mortal one subject to a thousand miseries, and,

through the contagion of the original
quired a propensity to every
sin,
sin,
they ac-
and polluted
their
entire posterity.
Providence he treats more fully later on under

'-
'
predestination.
of Calvin or
In comparison with the
even Zwingli,
Ramus
mild conception of 'predestination.'

1
I.e., I,
19, 72
ff.
1, 6,
24.
dogma
presents a very
He
viewed the
Cf. also II,
i,
27.
PETER RAMUS
1 92
problem from an ethical standpoint, while they

regarded it purely in a logical light. Hence he can
speak of
free
it
as "that act of God,
mercy he
selects
some
whereby out
of his
for everlasting salvation
and out
of his justice relegates others to eternal per-
dition."
of
This position he supports by a number
Old and
New Testament
quotations, which furnish
proof of both election and damnation, and more
by the approval of Augustine in his Letter

Vincent and in his treatise On Predestination.
especially
to
Nevertheless, while he rejects every evidence of universal salvation that appears in the Bible, he appar-
ently does so to be consistent with his Calvinistic

confession
zeal,
and does not show at
and almost grewsome
found in
all
satisfaction that Calvin
this resultant of his logic.
The second
article of the creed,
the person and
work
the conviction,
of Christ,
which concerns
Ramus
interprets
mainly in conformity with Catholic doctrine, as determined by the Councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon.
Now
and then, however,
characteristics
Protestant point of view Appear, and while

the traditional formulations, he clothes
1
1, 8, 28.
See Chaps. 9-18.
See especially
of
the
lie
uses
them with
I, 8,
32.

biblical, rather
193
than scholastic, concepts and terms.
Another peculiarity of his treatment appears in the

way he deals with the twofold nature of Christ. His
humanity, he holds,
is
shown
in his birth, sufferings,
death, and burial, while his deity
In this
resurrection.
way
is
doctrines quite separate
in orthodox dogmatics are connected.
to the description in the creed
human
revealed in his
He
also
an account
adds
of the
from birth to the passion, 1

although he renders it largely nugatory by mainlife
of
Christ,
taining that Christ reveals his real self only in his

2
divinity.
But the
especial contribution of
Ramus
his
is
treatment of the earthly mission of Christ, which, as
we have
noted,
is
upon, his person.

definite scheme,
closely related to
His work
is
and throws
light
not brought under a
nor subsumed under such concepts
as 'reconciliation' or
redemption/ but the author
merely relates the history of Christ's passion.
comments upon the Jewish and Roman methods
He
of
capital punishment, discusses the time of the crucifixion, collects typical references
from the Old Testa-
ment and pagan analogies from the classical writers,

and concludes with a most graphic description of the
I, ii,
43
*I, 11,45-
PETER RAMUS
194
of
mourning
Nature over the death
Similarly detailed descriptions are
He
rection.
into hell,
abode
at the right
hand
judgment'
is
This
final
he depicts as a definite place,
God
of
the whole narration
and
of the resur-
and the ascent into heaven. 3
of the righteous
'final
made
gives a minute account of the descent
'the highest part of the universe,'
The
of the Savior.
'
is
and 'the seating
also locally conceived.
likewise described.
is
While
written in highly impassioned
rhetorical language,
it is
now and then
only
that
dogmatism is displayed.
Next Ramus presents the third
and
article of the creed,
interprets the doctrines of the
church universal, the communion
Holy
Spirit, the
of saints, the for-
giveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and

the
He
life
everlasting.
first cites
typical passages
where the Godhead and the personality of the Holy
Ghost are described, and then names the specific

attributes and activities of the final member of the
In his general attitude toward
Trinity.
trinitari-
anism, he appeals to the traditions and usages of

l
l, i2,
1,
8
16,63.
57
f-
Chaps. 19-25.
'1,
1, 14, 55-
1,
16,62
f.
17,66.
Occasional examples are found, as in
I; 14,
7
4 6ff.
<
I, 11,
46;
I, 12,
50; and
and
the church
195
to the Athanasian Creed,
very strongly orthodox.
and
is
He also retains unmodified
the doctrine of the church as the visible evidence

of the invisible
kingdom
of
perceived by
God,
faith, although apparent to the eye of none.'
characteristics of the church or
kingdom, however,
are developed according to the Apostles' Creed,
are but
more than a paraphrase
little
'
used there.
The
Holiness' here below
of the
is
and
words 3
only approxi-
mate and imperfect, though
real, since
through faith in Christ.
Likewise, the Christian
Church
mediated
Where the Old
Catholic' or universal.
is
it is
Testament congregation of God referred to a definite land and a peculiar people, Christianity aims to
include
bond
all
'
peoples and
times, for
common
4
Holy Ghost through the Gospel.

thus the means of a communion of saints'
*
or the redeemed.
made, but
is
Further, since salvation
granted by the grace of
mediation upon the part of Christ,

the
is
the
in
It is
it
forgiveness of sins.
But
'
19,695.
'I.e., 'holy
<I, 22, 77
self-
God through
comes about by
resurrection of the body*

2
1,
21,79.
Catholic (or universal) Church.'
ff.
not
his conception of the
'1,
it
is
I,
23,83.
PETER RAMUS
196
Ramus
takes from several of the old Church Fathers
rather than from the Scriptures themselves.
He
in-
body as not one of flesh, but of a

heavenly nature, and implies that the Bible is using
terprets the risen
The
the language of symbolism.
which he deals with in the

is
last
'life
everlasting,'
chapter of the book,
considered less as a specifically Christian hope of
the future than as a general belief in our immortal

nature.
The
eternity
of
punishment
emphasized, but no purgatory
is
in
hell
is
mentioned.
'
'
The fourth book, discussing the sacraments, is,

as we should expect, much more dogmatic even than
the
first.
It is
more
definite in its facts
and more pre-
and more nearly approaches the

methods from which Ramus had broken.
cise in expression,
scholastic
It is
more
strictly theological
than his semi-popular
treatment of the three articles of Christian
He begins with a
faith.
general definition of the sacraments
taken from the Old and
New Testaments.
He makes
the sacraments analogous to military oaths, and inclines
tions
more toward Zwingli than Luther

on the subject.
"A
in his posi-
sacrament/' he says, "is
an act of public faith instituted by God for commemorating the death of Christ and participating in its

fruitage through
of
human side of
"On
an objective sign and solemn
He
Church."
the
197
especially
the ceremony
the part of
God
it is
rite
emphasizes the
by further explaining
a sign of divine grace and
on our part it is a sign of confession and

duty, by which we publicly swear allegiance to the
name and authority of God, and we profess a divine
salvation
mutual charity among ourselves, a church,

and a religion, so that by visible signs we make and
state of
swear to invisible and spiritual treaties."
The most complete
illustrations of this general con-
ception of a sacrament are baptism
munion.
is
"Baptism
when once
and holy com-
the sacrament
by which,
the name of the
by water in
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we are
cleansed
initiated into a
profession of being cleansed of our sins

4
of Christ."
"The
Lord's supper
is
by the blood
the sacrament
by which through the gracious acts of God we use

the bread and wine for professing that we have been
through the crucified body
of Christ and his blood which was spilled for us." 5
raised
up
into eternal
life
In this conception of the eucharist, which he defends

1
IV,
i,
257.
IV, s-7*
IV, 8,284.
IV,
3,
264
*IV,
5,
271.
f.
PETER RAMUS
198
at length, he diverges further from the orthodox views

of
'transubstantiation'
Luther.
He
than did either Calvin or
evidently comes closer to the Zwinglian
idea of a 'commemoration' than to the mysticism

of Calvin, which,
on the one hand, teaches a conde-
scension of the divine powers of Christ into the com-
municant through the Holy Spirit, and, on the other,

affirms an elevation of the communicant to heaven.
Nor
of
'
is
Luther's real presence
'
of Christ, in rejection
which he makes seven counts, 1 or any other form
of 'consubstantiation,' acceptable to
Ramus.
Even a cursory examination of the organization of

his 'theology' reveals the same procedure, with its
merits and defects, that
hi
his
formulation
of
Ramus was found
to
employ
the studies in the trivium
and quadrivium. The presentation is clear, simple,

and logical, but at times it seems forced upon the
material and does not altogether grow out of the
nature of the discussion.
Subjects somewhat cognate
are occasionally sundered
by a too
the schema.
The
doctrine of justification
for example, is separated
and
by
from 'remission
'
is
pursuance of
rigid
'
explained later, while free will
faith,'
of sins,'
'
is
quite irrele-
vantly discussed in connection with this latter topic.

'
See Chaps. 11-14.
H,
i,
96.
I, 23, 83.
Yet the work

its
is
most remarkable
composition and
scholarship restrained
for its clarity
It exhibits
style.
199
and
a wide range of
by a strong and simple
logic.
The argumentation on the sacraments is a marvel of

strength and simplicity, when we consider the theology of the tunes. Also especially praiseworthy is the
combination of active piety and broad charity with
Most touching is that last

which he makes his eloquent appeal for
which the work

1
chapter,
in
Christian
rings.
unity,
an
exhortation
had
that
its
hearing years after the author's voice was hushed
by martyrdom.
The second part
of the
Ramian theology
is
not
given in his Commentaries, although the division

recognized there.
matters of
is
His general position on several
doctrinal practice
and church
polity,
however, appear in his various controversies, and we
have
reliable sources for judging of the attitude
and
On the very
mentioned
above, he had a
question of the eucharist
opinions of
Ramus
in these matters.
'IV, 19.
2
There are extant three unpublished
letters
on these subjects
whom he had
to his friend, the Protestant theologian, BulHnger,
consulted in shaping his views.

pp. 63
f.,
See Lobstein,
and Waddington, Ramus, sa
pp. 239-246.
Ramus
als Theologe,
vie, ses Merits, et ses
opinions,
PETER RAMUS
200
public contest with Beza, who, of course, held to the

Calvinistic interpretation.
The
use of the words
'substance' and 'substantial' he recognized as an

effort to
hold partially to tradition, and he charac-
terized both terms as 'foolish
and misleading.'
With regard to polity, it is obvious that Ramus

advocated a more democratic government of the
church than that practiced by the Calvinists.
In
open opposition to Beza, he urged that the Calvinistic
churches should grant more powers
to
the
membership, and he objected strenuously to the increasing domination of the elders and the exclusion of
the deacons from the administration, whereby the
church was becoming decidedly oligarchic.
These
enlarged rights and privileges for the elders had been
voted by the synod of the church held at La Rochelle

in
April,
1571, under the moderatorship of
Propositions offered
by Ramus
Beza.
as a protest against
were adopted in March,

1572, at the provincial synod of Ile-de-France, but
were rejected at the national synod of Nimes two
this aristocratic innovation
months
chelle,
1
cti.,
later.
This assembly,
was dominated by the
Hate utraque inanis

p. 434.
et
like that at
La Ro-
influence of Beza, and
falsa videatur.
See Waddington, op.

1
decreed
remain
2OI
that the "discipline of our church should
in the future, as
and practiced up
it
has always been observed
to this day, without
least change or innovation, since
the word of God."
And Beza
in
it is
making the
founded upon
triumphant bigotry
declares :
"That
of old
whom
pseudo-dialectician,
surnamed 'the branch
several scholars
of Mars,' stirred
up a
very serious discussion concerning the whole gov-
ernment
which, he claimed, ought
of the church,
to be democratic, not aristocratic, leaving to the
council of elders only the proposal of legislation.
Wherefore, the synod at Nimes, in which I participated, upon
my
advice condemned that view, which
most absurd and pernicious." 3

We find that Beza returned to the subject later, 4
and seemed to fear that Ramus would not submit
is
tamely, but would yet

this
stir
up
dissension.
But at
time the reformer's enemies had accumulated
numbers to prevent further disturbance

the theological strata, Catholic or Calvinist, and
in sufficient
of
1
See
Aymon,
Actes ecclesiastiques
el civiles
(La Haye, 1710), pp. 112 ff.

2
A pun on the name, Ramus.
3
Theological Letters (Geneva, 1573),
See
ibid.,
No.
68.
No. 67.
de tons les sytwdes
PETER RAMUS
202
within a few months the courageous theologian was
no longer able to attempt any change
in ecclesiastical
'discipline.'
Had Ramus
lived longer, there
is
reason to believe
that he would also have written upon the other professional subjects of medicine
and law.
We
have
already seen in his Advice on the Reformation of the

1
that he had decided views upon these
University
subjects,
and that
had been
entirely
his
emphasis upon
abandoned at
civil
Paris,
law, which
and upon labo-
ratory and field work in medicine was decidedly
mod-
While Ramus himself never studied medicine,

and had read only a few works of Galen, 2 he recomern.
mended a
logical
arrangement of
this subject,
which
he probably hoped to have similar to that he had

adopted for the liberal arts and theology. This would
undoubtedly have furnished a much
intelligible,
clearer,
more
and more humane presentation than that
vogue for medicine. Similarly, his knowledge of

law was confined to passages in legal authorities that
in
he had read to secure light upon the speeches of Cicero,

but he ardently wished to see the subject reorganized,
and had
definite views as to the right
See
See Schol. math.,
p.
83
method, which
1.
II,
and Nancel, Kami
vita, p. 34.
203
would probably have been similar to that used elsewhere. Witness his appeal to the noted men in this
line at the time.
"Among
rhetorically, "is there to
so
many
jurists/'
be no one who
will
take to clear up and simplify this chaos?"
he asks
under1
His
exhortation was afterward effective, and such logical

principles as his
came
to be generally utilized in the
organizing of law.
Hence within the purview

former
times.
fall
of this
remarkable
re-
the theology and education of the
all
He wished to
rid Christianity of all scholastic
and medieval agglomerations and bring

simple belief and informal organization
it
back to the
of the primi-
tive days, and, in his efforts to accomplish this, did
not hesitate to oppose both Mother Church and her

Calvinistic daughter.
ter
and method
His reconstruction of the mat-
of education
is
quite as worthy of
and eventually resulted in a new presentation

studies in the secondary and higher curricula.
note,
all
Schol. math.,
1.
II,
near the end.
of
CHAPTER IX
SUCH were the
the progress of civilization

pulse out of which
was
made by Ramus to
and education. The im-
contributions
these improvements developed
all
his persistent struggle against the servile attach-
ment
to Aristotle
and scholasticism that had en-
thralled the sixteenth century.
It
was because the
implications of the medieval conception of the Aristotelian logic underlay all the
times that he found

rite
so vehemently,
aroused so
much
it
life
and studies
of the
necessary to oppose the Stagi-
and
that, in turn, his breach
passion and hostility.
Hence the
most fundamental and far-reaching contribution of

Ramus was his aid to the emancipation of society
from the bondage to medieval authority, and to
the enfranchisement of truth and free investigation.
Through him were secured some latitude in the field

.of knowledge and freedom from the ecclesiastical
domination of reason.
In turning his back upon the scholastic wisdom,
204
Ramus
this
substituted for
it
a return to antiquity.
20$
In
he reveals his temperamental sympathy with
northern humanism,
and, although his Protestant
inclinations did not materialize at

tion attitude
was innate
in his logic.
He
has
all
in
the Reforma-
first,
him and seems implied
the merits and faults of hu-
manism, and seems to have been largely influenced'

by the treatises of Agricola, Vives, Sturm, and
Melanchthon.
while
However,
leaders of opinion,
he
was,
somewhat a product
like
all
of the times,
more than any other of his day he crystallized and

shaped the vague and inchoate sentiments that were
seeking expression.
No
other humanist was so ex-
treme in his opposition to medieval and scholastic

thought, or carried his principles into such radical
execution.
While
somewhat upon
building
his
predecessors and the advanced thought of the day,
the reforms suggested for the organization, content,
and method
of education are found to
reconstructed, systematized,
have been quite
and given
their greatest
advancement through him.

This humanistic attitude of
Ramus
prepares us to
him something of that overemphasis upon

Latin and neglect of the vernacular that afterward
find in
plunged education into almost
as
fixed
a mold
PETER RAMUS
206
He
as scholasticism.
principles
he
is
The
their thought.
fi*
decidedly eclectic in his use of
Aristotle.
cures his principle of
and
From
making each
the one he se-
art follow nature
of following the presentation of the art

1
tice,
and from the other
wisdom
classical
basis of his reforms he borrows
from Quintilian and
t t
educational
and material mostly from the
writers, although
fc
even his
takes
by
prac-
his laws of truth, justice,
and
in arranging the content of the liberal arts.
Likewise, he took most of his material in
from the usage of
grammar
although he did not
classical writers,
recognize the absolute authority of Varro, Donatus,
and Priscian
-"
his rhetoric
Cicero and Quintilian
he borrowed largely from
in dialectic
he used not only
X*Cicero, but even the despised Aristotle
^ was his
guide in mathematics
Aristotle furnished
most
while Euclid
and Pliny,
Vergil,
and
'physics' he held
of the
should be taken from nature.
Yet Ramus
ishly.
He
is
unwilling to follow any author slav-
J>etects,
in accordance with reason, the
While the
material that seems to be natural.
classi-
cal writers are the sources of his subject matter,
deals with each one critically
See pp.
refuses to acknowl-
He estimates the value even of those
edge authority.
1
and
he
16
ff .
See pp.
10
ff .
from
207
whom he selects according to his fixed principles
of subject matter.
Whatever portion
of a treatise
does not conform to these laws he either reorganizes

or entirely rejects.
the foreign and
He
false,
eliminates from
all
the arts
he closely distinguishes the
boundaries of each science, and he rearranges the

content so that no repetitions occur.
Hence we have
seen that much which had the sanction of antiquity or
the indorsement of medieval traditions was dropped
from his reconstruction of the liberal arts and from his

ethical
sult
and biblical formulation
was a great shortening
of theology.
The re-
of the course of study
and a remarkable improvement over the faults

scholastic texts and instruction, and even the
of the
short-
comings of the classical works. This economy of

time and effort, and increase in clearness, simplicity,
and
interest
may have
tended a
little
to dilute the
material and separate related topics, and certainly
subjected
Ramus
to the criticism of both the Pari-
and German humanists on the ground of opening

the door to superficiality and a half-baked education.
sian
But
his reformation in the content of the curriculum
was, as a whole, decidedly in the interest of social

progress and improved pedagogy.
Of even more educational value was
his develop-
PETER RAMUS
208
He always advocates gradual
ment of method.
ress
from the easy to the
with practice in
He
all studies.
rules for the sake of
an end
difficult,
'
'
discipline
and
prog-
fuses theory
does not heap up
and thus make them
but recognizes that they are

but the means to the true end of use. This is sein themselves,
cured by practice in which there

in
is
independence for the student.
a steady advance
Moreover, while
the various liberal arts are taught hi different years

of the course, in each one,
use/ practice
is
by means
of his
'
combined
supposed to be afforded in
all
those
that have been previously presented.

In all this advance in material and procedure,
while no definite aim is formulated, Ramus seems to
have been guided by that underlying principle which

is,
after
all,
in every age the real purpose of education.
His system implies an

ciency/
The content
effort to
produce
'social effi-
of this ideal must, of course,
from age to age, as the society in which the pupil

lives develops and changes, and the school practice
is, from the force of inertia and habit, liable to be left
differ
behind.
The
true reformer
is
he who
strives,
whether
consciously or not, to present a reconstruction of
theory that will meet the needs of the times, and to

insist
upon
its
incorporation and realization in the
Ramus fully meets
existing educational institutions.
those tests.
2OQ
His reorganization of matter and refor-
mulation of method were intended to meet the de-
mands
of the
day for effective expression hi writing

and speaking, and for leadership through oratory
and a mastery
of Latin.
If his
these ends, especially in such
matics and physics,
'
methods
real
'
of attaining
studies as mathe-
now seem to us verbal and formal,
we must not be guilty of the historical fallacy through

neglecting to image the situation as
forget the constant emphasis that
it
was then, nor
Ramus
laid
upon
'use/ even to the extent of being pilloried for utili- j

His struggles to make these reforms
tarianism.
effective
and embody them
in educational organiza-
tion are witnessed not only in his specific orations
upon this subject, but

work that he wrote.
in practically every treatise or
Together with his constant
effort to strike the shackles
and
to point the
way toward
ligion, these strivings of
great reformer,
from the search
for truth
a broader ethics and re-
a lifetime
intellectual,
mark Ramus
social,
religious,
as a
and
educational.
The
ideas of
Europe.
tury or
Ramus
spread rapidly throughout
They were vigorously debated for a cenmore by partisans and adversaries in all the
-^
PETER RAMTJS
210
and made a tremendous impresupon philosophic and educational thought.
different countries,
sion
While eventually new doctrines replaced those of the

French reformer, the intellectual situation was per-
manently modified because of his teachings. Ramism

had perhaps less influence in France than in Germany,
but even there
depicting his
found
it
life,
ardent advocates.
many
we have touched upon much
In
of
the discussion and strife that were aroused over his

1
teachings in his native land.
conservatives
who defended
and does not need
The animus
Aristotle
repetition.
of the
was evident
At various French
were soon presented by various professors and met with wide

universities the Ramistic principles
adoption.
I
At Paris the
and a
Gorris,
large
physicians, Fernel
number
and De
in the faculty of arts
supported the new doctrines; at Rheims, a former
Ramus, the Greek scholar, Alexandre,

continued the teachings he had acquired at Presles
colleague of
up the cudspread and met
while Jean Bellon, a learned jurist, took

gels at Toulouse.
The
principles
who were ready
with a host of followers,
to risk an
indictment for heresy and the wrath of the Holy

2
League.
1
Even
See pp. 31
after the
ff.
and 43
development of Cartesian-
ff.
Se p.
13.

ism,
we
Ramus
find the philosophy of
discussed,
and as
late as 1651 it
serious controversy at Paris
211
frequently
was the occasion
of a
between a well-known
and a professor in the College of France on

the one hand and certain Jesuit scholars on the
historian
other.
While, with the complete rejection of
all
attempts at ecclesiastical reform and the domination of the Jesuits in the seventeenth century, the
reformation
educational
left
also
a definite impression
vanished,
Ramism
French
thought.
upon
In the suggestions of this sixteenth-century reformer must to some extent be sought the spiritual
ancestry of Descartes, the Port Royalists, Gassendi,
and
Voltaire.
In Spain and Portugal,

ceived.
Ramism was
not well re-
Yet the celebrated grammarian, Sanchez,
taught the liberal arts according to the Ramian principles,
and
left definite traces of
the
new system in
the University of Salamanca, the most flourishing in

Spain.
The philosophy
posed, too, in
all
of
Ramus was
bitterly op-
the universities of Italy, except
Bologna, and most of its partisans
felt
obliged to with-
draw from the country sooner or later. The most

distinguished of all these was Simoni, who defended
1
See Cossart, Orationes
el
carmina, pp. 73 and 104.
PETER RAMUS
212
Ramism
against the attacks of Carpentarius
and
But we might perhaps consider as continuing the spirit of Ramism a number of later Italian
Schegk.
writers, including the unfortunate
tinguished themselves
by
Bruno, who
their attack
dis-
upon Aristotle's
The Ramistic philosophy appeared also

Denmark, thanks to Krag, who taught it zealously
philosophy.
in
and defended
it
was
it
in his writings.
early brought to
pupil of
In the
Low Countries
Douai by Nancel, the loyal
Ramus, and throughout
these lands
it
found
an untiring interpreter in Snellius. Nor could the

new philosophy be kept out of the universities of
Holland, and the authorities at Ley den were forced
to admit
it
In England
upon equal terms with the

it
was devoted to
made
little
Aristotle,
Aristotelian.
progress at Oxford, which
but Cambridge proved more
At the latter place, through the influence

Ascham and Sidney, who were friendly to Ramism,
hospitable.
of
it
was
largely adopted.
scholastic
When it was attacked by the
and mystic, Everard Digby,
defended by William Temple,

give
it
vogue.
The
Sr.,
it
who
was warmly
also helped to
discussion that arose
may have
been the means of starting the opposition of Bacon to

all deductive systems, especially as Digby was probably his tutor.
However that may
be,
Ramism
As
survived and flourished.
213
late as 1672, the Uni-
Cambridge published the logic of Ramus

with a commentary by Amesius, and the same year
a more distinguished honor was done the system
versity of
through the appearance of a Latin treatise by the poet

Milton upon A More Complete Organization of the Art 1
of Logic Arranged according to the System of Ramus.
An even better footing was afforded Ramism in
Scot-
land, since the regent of the country,
Count
James Stuart,
had
been
a
Murray,
pupil of Ramus.
of
Through George Buchanan, another
friend,
is
it
probable that the Ramistic philosophy was established at the University of St.
It
was
in
Germany and
the principles of
tion
Ramus
Switzerland, however, that
received the greatest atten-
and exerted the widest
opposition of Beza, the
number
of
Genevan
Andrews.
influence.
new philosophy
scholars,
Despite the
attracted a
among whom was
the
Basel, Zurich, Bern, Lausanne,

martyr Arminius.
and other cities of Switzerland received the new dialectic
with even more favor, and
professed
by men
like
Zwinger, Freigius, and Aretius.
was not a passing
It
1
Ramism was openly
infatuation, either, for
Joannis MUtoni Artis Logica Plenior Institutio ad Petri
Methodum Concinnata.
(London, 1672.)
it
is
Kami
PETER RAMUS
214
known
that well into the eighteenth century
it still
existed in Switzerland.
In Alsace the influence of Sturm accomplished a
Ramian doctrines, and at Strass-
general spread of the
burg and Savern the German humanist was ably aided
by
several scholars.
Freigius,
who taught both
at
Freiburg and Altorf, as well as at Basel, Fabricius,

rector of the University of Diisseldorf
and Chytraeus,
rector at Rostock, also greatly aided in the dissemi-
nation.
A swarm
convictions
of disciples
sities,
Germany.
throughout
philosophy at nearly
all
openly avowed their
The
chair
of
the other Protestant univer-
such as Gottingen, Helmstadt, Erfurt, Leipzig,
Marburg, and Hannover, came to be occupied

time by a Ramist.
Leading philosophers,
for a
jurists,
and
The Lutherans, howRamian principles were
theologians joined the cause.

ever,
suspecting that the
some way an outgrowth
in
propaganda
opposition,
of
the
of Calvinism,
dialectic
of
made a
Melanchthon
and prominent adversaries
of
in
Ramism
arose at Tubingen, Altorf, Heidelberg, Wittenberg,

1
The Melanchthonian
universities,
logic,
which was in general use at German
was based on that
improved and
of Aristotle, although
rhetorically written.
somewhat
While Melanchthon admitted
that certain of Aristotle's writings had been lost, he would not
concede that merely fragments were
left,
as
Ramus
claimed.
and other
and
and the contest waxed
universities,
215
fast
furious.
The controversy
at the University of Leipzig be-
which we possess a detailed

account, is probably a fair type of what was generally occurring at most of the institutions.
Johannes
tween 1576 and 1592,
of
Cramer, a master of standing at Leipzig, several times
dean of the philosophical faculty and twice even

rector of the university, was an ardent Ramist and
challenged the professor of dialectic,
dox
in his philosophy, to
who was
a public debate.
ortho-
When,
however, the theses of Cramer were sent to the dean,
he condemned them as Ramistic, and declared the
Cramer continued, however,
debate out of order.
both
in public
and private,
to present
Ramism
to
the youth of the university, and for a series of years
was
in
An
interdict against his lectures
issued
a wrangle with one or another of his colleagues.
by the
without
much
notes of his
on the subject was
faculty of philosophy
effect,
and the
and, after examination of the
students and the discovery of much hereti-
cal logic,
he was suspended from his chair.
to a riot
on the part of the students, and while
Voigt,
gesett.
rector
Ramismus an
This led
it
was
der UniversitM Leipzig, in Leips. SiXhs.
der wiss. Berkhte phil., 1881.
FETBR RAMTJS
suppressed by the rector, the faculty was forced
by
public sentiment to reinstate Cramer, after a public
statement that he had never intended to calumniate Aristotle or Melanchthon.
continued to
However, he clearly
teach the Ramian doctrines, and the
effects of this instruction
were only too obvious when
students were examined for their degree.
In three
cases they were allowed to graduate only

ising
the faculty never to
upon promteach Ramism. More
was soon precipitated and Cramer was once

more unseated, but this tune the case was appealed
trouble
to the elector.
in years,
son,
As
this sovereign
he referred the matter to his progressive
who, much to the chagrin

expressed
faculty,
was getting along
his
of the conservative
surprise
that
university
instruction in philosophy should be limited to tra-
and declared that only by free

expression could any progress be made. He repriditional doctrines,
manded
the faculty for their attempt to dispossess a
professor appointed
that
Cramer be
by the
sovereign,
restored.
and demanded
After his rehabilitation
half a dozen outbreaks against
Cramer occurred, and
both he and his supporters were as far as possible deprived of
by the
official
faculty.
recognition
Finally, in
and constantly hounded

1592, Cramer, worn out
21 7
with the controversy, resigned voluntarily and be-
came the municipal physician for his native town.

The faculty then were careful to see that his successor
was not a Ramist.
Similar contests over
Ramism must have been
ing on at the other universities.

servatism were not quickly or
their routine, as
we have
go-
These seats of con-
from
easily aroused
seen in the case of
Ramus
and Heidelberg.
Early in
the seventeenth century Ramism was generally pro-
himself
at Strassburg
scribed at the universities of Saxony, the Palatinate,
and Bavaria, and the Ramists sought to compromise

by combining their dialectic with that of Melanchthon.
A new
so-called
school arose out of this union,
'Philippo-Ramists,'
the
which included such
philosophers as Frisius, Buscher, Casmann, Kecker-
mann, and
menius.
Alstedt, the teacher

like
But,
most
and friend
compromises,
cretism was unsatisfactory and
of
this
Cosyn-
led rather to the
preservation of Aristotle than of Ramus.
Yet the
as entirely lost to
either in
Aristotle
1
Ramism cannot be regarded

philosophy or human intelligence,
influence of
The authority of
was rudely shaken, and the way to free
Germany
See pp. 96
f.
or elsewhere.
Cf. the
Philippo-Ramian Grammar on
p. 132.
PfcTER
2l8
thought was opened.
came the work
of
RAMUS
Early in the next century
Bacon, Descartes, and Comenius,
and from them has grown that apostolic succession

of modern thought,
Locke, Berkeley, Leibniz,
Hume, Kant, and Hegel
in the
realm of speculation,
and, in the reformation of education, Rousseau,

Pestalozzi, Herbart,
his philosophy
this
and Froebel.
it
was
to
his efforts that the transition
light.
human
and drew
it
He improved
studies,
some extent through

was made from scho-
modern philosophy and education.
at least freed the

Aristotle,
Ramus and
cannot be interpreted as belonging to
awakened group,
lasticism to
While
He
from the dungeon of

forth from the medieval twispirit
and expression
and helped give mathematics and science a
seems
all
the literary
fitting, therefore, to
account Peter
start.
It
Ramus
a leader in sixteenth-century reforms and in
the progress toward
enment.
modern
civilization
and
enlight-
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FREIGIUS,
M.
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NANCEL, N. DE.
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Kami
Petri
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544
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prsfatio in contrarias Mschinis et Demosthenis orationes,
1557; Ciceronianus. 1557; Marci Tulii Ciceronis familiarium epistolarum libri XVI, 1557; Oratio de legatione,
1557; Liber de moribus veterum Gallorum, 1558; Libri
de C&saris militia, 1559
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libri quattuor,
1559
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matics, 1559; Grammatica grsca, 1560;
Gramere, 1562; Procemium
reformands Parisiensis academis, and Advertissements
grammatics grscs, 1560;
sur la reformation de Vuniversite de Paris, 1562; Oratio

de professions liberallum artium,
carum
libri octo,
563
Scholarum physi-
1565; Scholarum metaphysicarum
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dus habits
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cathedra,
sur
Proeme
le
des
mathematiques,
libri
in senatu pro
1566;
1566;
Preface
Procemium
mathematicum, 1567; La Remonstrance faite au conseil

1567; Audomari Talsi Rhetorica, P. Rami prslec-
prive,
lionibus
1567;
illustrata,
1568;
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siensi,
carum
Rector /
et
Ge.omctria libri septem
libri
unus
et
artes,
1569;
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viginti,
1569;
Scholarum mathemati-
1569; P.
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et
Jacobi
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Schecii Epistola, 1569;
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Basiliensem,
1571
221
Defensio pro Aristotele adversus

Basilea ad senatum populumquc
Testamentum,
1571;
Pralectioncs
1574;
in Ciceronis orationes octo consular es, 1574; Commenta-
riorum de religion e Christiana

fessio
1576;
regia,
M.
1577;
orationes,
In Ciceronis orationes
oratio,
1582
1582;
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des
Jugements
ouwages des auteurs,
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M. CL Marcello
scripta nonnulla,
Algebra todidem, 1586;
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varies.
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204
duo
libri
Aristotelis Politica, 1601
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T.
1576; Pro-
libri quattuor,
Collectanea
Savans
Amsterdam,
sur
1725.
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V, 125
f.
VIII,
f.
J.
BAYLE, P.
1697.
R.
Les Martyres de la
Dictionnaire
libre pensee.
et
historique
Pp. 107-135.
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CREVIER, J. B.
V and VI.
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Histoire des revolutions de la philoso-
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ff.
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CHATELAIN,
Chartularium universitatis
Parisiensis, Paris, 1889-1897.
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France, sa
Du
Petrus
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BOULAY, N.
College
de
sa mort, Paris, 1864.
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V University
de Paris.
GAILLARD, G. N.
Histoire de Francois I, Paris, 1766.
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GUGGENHEIM, M.
Beitrage zur Biographic des Petrus
VII
Ramus
PETER RAMUS
222
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(Zeitschrift
Band
120, Heft
2, ss.
Histoire de
JOURDAIN, C.
au XVIII'
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140-153), Leipzig, 1903.
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et
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LANTOINE, H. Histoire de V enseignement

France au XVII* siecle, Paris, 1874.
secondaire
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LOBSTEIN, P. Petrus Ramus als Theologe, Strassburg, 1878.

OWEN, J. The Skeptics of the French Renaissance, London,
1893.
Chap. IE.
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SAISSET, E. E.
Die Philosophic des Petrus Ramus (Erster

Die Entwickelung des Moralsystems in der
SCHWEITZER, A.
Artikel, 10, of
Reformirten Kirche), Leipzig, 1850.
VOIGT, G.
Ueber den Ramismus an der Universitdt Leipzig
(Berichte
die
ilber
Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft der
Band 99), Leipzig, 1887.

De Petri Kami vita, scriptis,
Wissenschaften,
WADDINGTON, C.
philosophia,
Paris, 1848.
WADDINGTON, C.
Ramus, sa
vie,
ses ecrits, et ses opinions,
Paris, 1855.
WURKERT, G.
Die
encyclopddie
des
Petrus
Ramus,
Ein
Reformversuch der Gelehrtenschule des 16. Jahrhunderts,

Leipzig, 1898.
INDEX
Abelard, 16.
Bullinger, 95.
Academic, 52.
Academy, Talon, 42.
Advice on the Reformation of
Buscher, 217.
the
Uni-
Calvin,
7, 10, 72,
95, 191, 198.
Aim
Agricola, 2, 17, 98, 142, 205.

of Ramus, 108.
Calvinism n, 214.
Cambridge, 4, 212, 213.
Camerarius, 61.
Albigenses, 7.
Carpentarius, 41, 45, 46, 63
versity of Paris,
78-84, 202.
Alexander of Villedieu, 16, 38, 121.

Alexandre, Barthelemy, 28, 210.
Casmann,
Altorf, 214.
of, 86.
on
Aristotle,
30, 34,
Charles, Cardinal
Lorraine.
of
Lorraine,
39, 59, 143Apollonius, 60.
Charles V, 8, 10.
Charles IX, n.
Archimedes, 43, 60, 61.
Charpentier, see Carpentarius.
Aretius, 213.
Cheke,
Aristotelianism, 98.
Chytraeus, 214.
Cicero, 17, 42,
206.
Aristotle, 16, 17, 22, 25, 26, 27, 30, 64,
72, 144, 169, 175, 176, 206, 217.
Arminius, 213.
Ascham,
ff .,
Cayet, 19.
'Analysis,' 117, 140, 165.
Animadversions
70, 88
217.
Catherine de' Medici, n.

Catherine Petit, 95.
Catholics in France, 10 ff
Alstedt, 217.
Amboise, Peace
Amesius, 213.
f .,
104, 106, 212.
4, 61, 73, 212.
Augsburg, 98.
see
4.
43,
134,
135,
157,
Coccius, 95.
Colet, 5, 6.
Basel, 10, 04, 96, 213, 214.
Coligny, Admiral, 12, 13.

College of Ave Maria, 28, 29, 59.
College of Beauvais, 33.
College of Boncour, 32, 45.
College of Clermont, 87.
Bavaria, 217.
College of France, 4, 13, 15, 40, 45,
Bacon, 212, 218.

Banosius, 19.
Bellon, 210.
Berkeley, 218.
Bern, 213.
Beza, 10, 74, 99, 103, 200, 201, 213.
Bourbon, Charles of, 31, 104.
Bourbons, n, 12.
Brah6, 09.
Bruno, 212.
Buchanan, George, 213.
Budaeus,4.
100, 104, 162.
College of Mans, 27.

College of Navarre, 16, 20, 27, 108.
College of Presles, 13, 14, 39, 45, 47,
85, 100, 104.
College Royal, see College of France.
Colloquy of Poissy, 10, 73, 100.

Comenius, 217, 218.
Commentaries on the Christian Religion,
97, 184
223
ff.
INDEX
224
Committee
Forcadel, 61.
Francis I, 4, 10, 31, 34.
Francis II, n.
of Seven, 69, 78.
Cond6, Prince of, 12, 13, 70.

Consonants, Ramist, 125.
Cosel, Dampestre, 88.
Cramer, 215 f.
Curriculum in University of
Paris,
Francis, Duke of Guise, see Guise.

Frankfurt, 99.
Frederick III, 97.
14 f.
Cust, 19.
Freiburg, 94, 214.
De
Frisius, 217.
Freights, 19, 94, 213, 214.
'French Plato,'
De
De
De
Disciplines, 29.
Gorris, 210.
92.
Froebel, 218.
PHospital, 76.
Montuelle, 33.
Galen, 17, 24, 43.
Demosthenes, 157.
GaUand,
Descartes, 162, 211, 218.

Despantere, 121.
Gassendi, 211.
Dialectic, 17, 21, 29, 58, 141-159.
Geneva,
32, 33, 41, 44, 45, 63, 70.
'Genesis,' 117, 140, 165.

10, 99, 103.
'
Dichotomy,' 130, 164.

Digby, Everard, 212.
Diplomatic missions of Ramus, 67
Disputation, 21
Doctrinale, 121.
f.,
Gottingen, 214.
Gov6a, 32, 33.

ff .
29, 114.
Grammar,
Grocyn,
57, 121-134.
4.
Dolet, Etienne, 18.
Grynaeus, Samuel, 95.

Guise, Duke of, n, 77.
Donatus, 6, 121, 123, 206.
Guises, 12, 13, 69, 71, 78, 88, 90.
D'Ossat, 87.
Douai, 212.
Gymnasien,
Dream
Hannover, 214
Du
of Scipio, 40.
Du
Hegel, 218.
Heidelberg, 4, 93, 96, 98, 214, 217.
Heliogabalus, 117.
Bellay, 44.
Dubois,
1 8.
Chastel, 33, 43.
Edict of Francis against Ramus, 36.

Edict of Nantes, 13.
Edict of Toleration, 12, 76.
Edward VI,
9.
Elegancies of Latin, 121.

Elizabeth, 9.
Erasmus,
2, 4, 6, 7, 16,
115.
Erfurt, 4, 214.
Esoteric,' 120.
'
Ethics, 73.
Ethics of Ramus, 173-184.
Euclid, 38, 43, 59, 161, 165.

'Exoteric,' 120.
'
Explanation,' 116, 117, 118, 140.
Helmstadt, 214.
Hennuyer, 27, 32.
Henry II, n, 41, 42,

Henry IH, n.
Henry IV, 13.
Henry VHI, 7, 9.
Herbart, 218.
Hervagius, 94.
Hieronymians, 2.
Hippocrates, 24, 43.
Holy League, 13.
Huguenots, u, 105;
1 8,
59.
49, 50.
of state, 12, 85;
of religion, 12, 13.
Humanism,
Hume, 218.
Huss,
Fabricius, 214.
Ferdinand of Hapsburg, 9.
Fernel, 210.
Finfc,
3.
ff.,
15, 98.
7.
Inaugural address, 48
ff.
Institutes of Christianity, 10.

Institutions of Dialectic, 30, 35, 58.
INDEX
CEcolampadius, 95.
Organon, 23, 142.
Oxford, 4, 212.
Jena, 4.
Jesuit colleges, 3, 87.
Jesuits, 211.
Palatinate, 92, 96, 217.
Kant, 218.
'appus, 60.
'arlement of Paris, 13, 33.
Keckennann, 217.
Konigsberg,
Krag, 212.
4.
'eiion, 32, 43, 63.

J
La
Rochelle, 12, 200.
Latin
grammar
Laws
school, 5.
of 'truth,'
Lefevre,
f.,
'justice,'
and 'wis-
135, 163, 206.
'hilippo-Ramian Grammar, 132.

Philippo-Ramists, 217.
hysics, 62, 168-172.
Plato, 1 6, 17, 24, 27, 42.
6, 7, 18.
Platter, 94.
Leibniz, 218.
Pliny, 169.
Leipzig, 4, 214, 215.
Le Masson,
estalozzi, 218.
Philip II, 9.
79, 82, 202.
dom,' ii
eripatetics, 31, 37.
êtromachy, 44.
Lausanne, 99, 213.
Law,
225
Poles, the, 105.
18.
Lesage, 39, 41Ley den, 212.

Linacre, 4.
Locke, 218.
Lorraine, Charles, Cardinal
Port Royalists, 211.

Practice,' 109, 114-118, 140.
Principles of Ramus, 109-119, 206.
'
Principles of system,' 110-113.
of,
n,
15,
31, 41, 46, 49, Si, 74, ?8, loo, 105.
Loyola, 3.
Luther, 6, 7, 72, 196, 198.
Lutherans, 214.
Priscian, 16, 121, 123, 206.

Proclus, 61.
Pronunciation, 62 f., 125.

Protestants, 10 ff ., 72, 95.
Quadrivium, 59, 120, 160-172.

18,
Quintilian,
'
Maecenas,' 53
ff-,
88.
Marburg, 214.
Margaret of Navarre, 10.
Masters of university colleges, 16.
Mathematics, 59, 88 f., 160-165.
Medicine, 80, 82, 202.
Meigret, 18.
Melanchthon,
6,
113,
Montauban, 12.
Montluc, Jean de,
More, 4.
f.
135,
Reformation,
Renaissance,
6, 8, 188.
i, 2, 5, 8,
188.
134, 139
2.
Rheims, 210.
Rheticus, 61.
Rhetoric, 58, 134-141.
Rostock, 214.
Rousseau, 218.
105.
Royal lecturers, 16.

Rue de Fouarre, 14.
St.
Nature,' 109 f
Nicholas of Nancel, 19, 212.
Nlmes, 12, 200.

Nuremberg, 98.
134,
Rabelais, 44.
Reuchlin,
131,
'
.
43, 44,
Republic, 39.
205, 214, 217.
Metaphysics, 87.
Methods, 21 ff., 56
Milton, 213.
42,
139, 206.
Bartholomew's Day,
13, 105.
St. Denis, 90, 102.
St.
Germain, 67.
St. Paul's School, 5.
mamcre
of,
INDEX
226
Sanchez, 211.
Tremellius, 96.
Sapiens, 29.
Savern, 214.
Trivium, 57, 59, 120-1^,9.
Saxony, 217.
Schegk, 96, 212.
Tumebus, 65
Schreckfuchs, 94.
Serenus, 60.
Sidney, 212.
University
University
University
University
Ttibingen,
Simler, 95.
Simoni, 211.
Snellius, 212.
Socrates, 17, 24, 38.
Sorbon, Robert, 14.

Sorbonne, 14, 62, 125.
Stoics, 17.
3, 93, 98, 214, 217.
Stuart, James, 213.

Studies in Dialectic, 21, 144.
Studies in Physics, 168.
Studies in the Liberal Arts, 17, 96.
Sturm,
3, 6,
f.,
70.
of Bologna, 93, 211.

of Diisseldorf, 214.
of Leipzig, 215-217.
of Paris,
3, 10, 13,
14, 28,
36.
Social efficiency, 208.
Strassburg,
4, 96, 214.
University of St. Andrews, 213.

University of Salamanca, 211.
'Usuarius,' 57.
Valla, 17, 142.
Valence, Bishop of, 105.

Varro, 206.
Vassy, massacre at, 12, 85.
Vergil, 121, 169.
Vives, 17, 113, 115, 118, 142, 205.

Voltaire, 211.
17, 29, 73, 93, 113, 115,
118, 161, 205, 214.
Sulzer, 95.
Syntax, 124, 128 f.

'System,' 109, 110-114.
Talon, 28, 38, 39, 40.
Temple, William, 212.

Theodosius, 60.
Theology, 98, 184-202.
Toulouse, 210.
Tousan, 65.
Waldenses, 7, 10.
Westphalia, 92.
Wittenberg, 4, 214.
Wolf, 94.
Wolsey, 4
Wyclif, 7.
.
Zurich, 213.
Zwinger, 94, 98, 213.

Zwingli, 7, 72, 191, 196, 198*
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II

EDUCATIONAL REFORMATION OF THE

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

fws Callis'cs, quod ^Latto

FRANK PIERREPONT GRAVES

PROFESSOR OF THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Published September, 1912.

GIVEN TO THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION

PRESENT HIGH STATUS

upon the sixteenth century.

the great educators, effective orators,

Alcuin, Abelard, Petrarch, Valla,

barely mentioned, and while there have

tions to elucidate the various phases of his work,

achievements that includes an analysis of

Yet many pages are devoted in histories of

great importance in the developof literature and educational theory, they

former, a writer of textbooks, the founder of

matter and method, a popular and successful

No man more fully

In presenting this account of Ramus, I wish to

of the subject, to Professor

reviewed the whole work,

with written suggestions concerning

indebted to Miss Betty Joffe, and to

the manuscript and assistance in carrying the

the frontispiece of this book,

fessor Farrington, who sought it out for me, and

THE TIMES OF RAMUS

PROFESSOR IN THE ROYAL COLLEGE

CONVERSION, PERSECUTION, AND DEATH

GENERAL PRINCIPLES AND THE ORGANIZATION OF

THE CONTENT AND METHOD OF THE TRIVIUM

HIGHER AND PROFESSIONAL STUDIES

VALUE, SPREAD, AND INFLUENCE OF RAMISM

SOURCES, PRIMARY AND SECONDARY

THE TIMES OF RAMUS

be well to gain some

To underwe must make a rapid

notion of his social and political setting.

stand the work of this leader,

survey of the forces that were struggling for suprem-

acy during the sixteenth century in northern Europe,

in the countries of the north.

Greek and Latin literature came to enrich the medieval ideals

and the course

in the seven liberal arts.

While the preceding century had been marked by

in Italy, this vitalizing

introduction of printing, however,

had given the movement a wider

and the renewed

independence and criticism

could not be confined to a single country.

Renaissance and the classic literatures had leaped

the close of the fifteenth century the

became very numerous, and the

to its height in the northern lands

during the sixteenth century.'

beyond the peninsula was

through the religious order of the Hieronymians.