RATIO'S (Latinized form of La Ramee), PIERRE, an illustrious French "humanist." was the son of a poor laborer. and was born at the village of Cuth, in Vermandois. in 1515. his thirst for knowledge was so great, that twice before he had reached his 12th year he traveled on foot to Paris, with the hope of getting into some school there, but the misery of want twice drove the brave boy home again. In his 12th year, however, he got a situation as servant to a rich scholar at the college de Navarre; and by devoting the day to his master, obtained the night for study, and made rapid progress. The method of leaching philosophy then prevalent dissatisfied him, and he was gradually led to place a higher value on "reason" than on "authority," contrary to the mental habit of his time. His contempt, indeed, for "authority" blinded him (as is often the case with a young reformer) to what truth " authority" might contain, and when taking his degree of M.A., in his 21st year, he maintained the extravagant thesis that "all that Aristotle had sai4 was false" (quacungae ab Aristotele dicta essent, commentitia esse). It says a great deal for the ability he showed on this occasion, that his judges, although themselves Aristotel ians. were compelled to applaud him. Immediately after, Ramus became a teacher in the college du Mans, and along with two learned friends opened a special class for reading the Greek and Latin authors, designed to combine the study of eloquence with that. of philosophy. His audience was large, and his success as a teacher remarkable. He now turned his attention more particularly to the science of logic, which, in his usual adven turous spirit, he undertook to " reform ;" and no one acquainted with his system will deny that many of his innovations were both rational and beneficial. His attempts excited much hostility among the Aristotelians, and when his treatise on the subject (Dialectics! Purtitonce) appeared in 1543 it was fiercely assailed by the doctors of the Sor bonne, who managed to get it suppressed by a royal edict, and even barbarously demanded that its author should be sent to the galleys. But Ramos had (at this tine)
two powerful friends, cardinals Charles de Bourbon and Charles de Lorraine, who pro tected him from personal injury, and through whose influence he was, in 1545, appointed principal of the college de Presles, which lie raised front a condition of decay to the most splendid prosperity. In 1551 cardinal Lorraine succeeded in instituting for him a chair of eloquence and philosophy at the college Royal; and his inaugural address (Pro Philosophica Diseiplina, Par. 1551) is reckoned a masterpiece of the kind. Ile devoted the first eight years of his teaching to the first three of the "liberal arts" (grammar, rhet oric, and logic), which he called elementary or exoteric, and published three gram mars successively, Greek, Latin, and French. He also miegled largely in the literary and scholastic disputes of the time, and, on account of his bustling activity, came under the satire of Rabelais. But though Ramos had innumerable adversaries, he might have defied them all, so great was his influence at court, had his love of refor mation" not displayed itself in "religion" Its well as in logic. In an evil hour (for his own comfort) he embraced Protestantism. He had long been suspected of a leaning that way, and, as we have seen, his intellect was by nature scornfully rebellious toward the ipse digit of "authority;" but he had for years decently conformed to the practices of the Catholic cult, and it was only after cardinal Lorraine, in reply to the conference of Poissy (1561), frankly admitted the abuses of the church and the vices of the clergy, that he ventured formally to abjure the older faith. The outbreak of the religious wars in France plunged him into the dangers of the time, and he finally perished in the fatal massacre of St. Bartholomew, Aug., 1572. It is believed that lie was assassinated at the instigation of one of his most violent and persistent enemies, Charpenticr, rector of the college de Presles.