HOTMAN, FRANcOIS (HoTOMANu5) French jurist, was born on Aug. 23, 1524, in Paris, of a family of Silesian origin. He took his doctorate in law at Orleans, practised for some time at the Paris bar, and in 1546 became professor of Roman law in the university. But in 1S47 he was converted to the Reformed church, and left Paris for Lausanne, where, on the recommendation of Calvin, he became professor of belles-lettres and history, and married Claudine Aubelin, a Huguenot refugee. Returning to Geneva in 1584 he dabbled in alchemy and the research for the philosopher's stone. He died in Basle on Feb. 12, 1590, and was buried in the cathedral.
Hotman did much for 16th-century jurisprudence, having a critical knowledge of Roman sources, and a fine Latin style. He broached the idea of a national code of French law. His numerous works include De gradibus cognationis (1546) ; Anti-Tribonien (1567), a treatise arguing that French law could not be based on Justinian; a life of Coligny Brutum fulmen (1585), a polemic directed against a bull of Sixtus V. His most important work, the Franco-Gallia (1573) , was in advance of his age, and found favour neither with Catholics nor with Huguenots in its day ; yet its vogue has been compared to that obtained later by Rousseau's Contrat Social. It presented an ideal of Protestant statesmanship, pleading for a representative government and an elective monarchy. It served the purpose of the Jesuits in their pamphlet war against Henry IV.
See R. Dareste, Essai sur F. Hotman (185o) ; Blocaille, Etude sur Francois Hotman (1902) .