Ramus, Petbds, also known by his original name I'n in ,u lii Ramie, was the French philosopher of the 16th century who broke the fetters of barbarous scholas- tic thought ami led men into the clear light of Platon- ic philosophy. He is usually called one of tin found- ers ot modern metaphysics, and this is certainly true in
so Car as Ramus prepared the way for Descartes (q. v.i in philosophy, and for Pascal in theology, as we -hall see Ramus was born of very humble parentage at Cuth, a village in Ycrmandois, in 1515. lie was Obliged, H hi n old • nough to be Of any service, to per- form duties as a Bhepherd. lie loved the broad, open
Gelds, but lie loved i ks more. He studied as much
as his bumble assoi tations could afford him the means of knowledge, and finally, satisfied that he could only get more away from home, lefl for the city. He went straight to the capital, though yet a youth of a little
over eight. Homesickness compelled him to return to the paternal root, and he walked home as he had walked to Paris, but only to return soon again to the city where he had found SO much to learn, and tx lore he was twelve he was once more at Pari-. He could not enter school, as his pockets were empty and hi- stomach unsatisfied. He hired out as a servant to a rich -indent at the College de Navarre, and. hy devoting the day to his duties, ob- tained the night for study, and. uii.ler hi- master's guid- ance and help, made rapid progress. At the age of twenty-one he was ready to pa— examination as if be had been within the wail- ot a college. The indomita- ble spirit of the boy bad made a resolute man ; and, un- like most students. In- had not only learned the dtcta of the savans. hut had formed an opinion which was his only own. In presenting himself lor the degree of master, he came forward a- the champion of reform in ools ol thought. He undertook to prove the then almost impious task that Aristotle was not infalli- ble. He had gradually withdrawn from Aristotelian- ism a- an authority, and pleaded now for the exercise of individual reason as against the ••authority." which scholasticism imposed on all students of philosophy. Enthusiast as he was, he was led to make the extrav- agant statement in hi- thesis that ••.all that Aristotle had said was false" (qiuecungvi abAristotelt dicta essent, commentitia esa I. It speak-, however, a great deal for the ability he showed on this occasion that his judges, although themselves Aristotelians, were compelled to applaud him. Ramus was immediately made a teach- er in the College du Mans, and along with two learned friends opened a special (lass for reading the Greek and Latin author.-, 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 sci- ence of logic, which, in his usual adventurous 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 (Dialeclica Partitiones~) appear- ed in 1543, i: was fiercely assailed hy the do. -tors of the Sorhouue. the Academy of Geneva, the majority of the high-schools of the Continent, which had all. ill alliance with the Church, given Aristotelianism tin' supreme rule. The University of Paris linked itself with ju- rists, councillors, the king's ministers, the king himself,
to crush this bold innovator. He wa- charged with
impiety and sedition, and with a desire to overthrow 1 all science and religion through the medium of an at- tack on Aristotle. On the report of an irregular tribu- nal appointed to consider the charges made against him, ili« king ordered hi- work- to he suppressed, and forbade his teaching or writing against Aristotle on pain of corporal punishment. Ramus now devoted himself exclusively to the study ot mathematics, and to prepare an edition of Euclid. Cardinal- Charles de Bourbon and Charles de Lorraine befriended him, and through their intlueuoe he was permitted to begin a course of lectures on rhetoric ai the College de Presles, the plague having driven away numbers of Btudents from Paris. He was finally, in 1545, named principal of this college, ami the Sorhouue ineffectually endeav- ored to eject him on the ground of the royal prohibito- ry decree. The decree u a- cancelled in 1545, through the influence ol the cardinal de Lorraine. Ramus raised the College de Presles from a condition ofdecai to the height of prosperity, and his reputation went over all the land as an educator as well a- philosopher. In 1551 cardinal Lorraine BUCCeeded in instituting for him a (hair of eloquence and philosophy at the College
Royal, and his inaugural address i Pro Philosophica Dis- cipline | Pari-. 1551 | I i- reckoned a masterpiece of the kind. He devoted tin first eight years of bis teaching i.. i ho first three of the ■• liberal arts" (grammar, rheto- ric, and logic i, which he called elementary or exoteric,
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and published three grammars successively — Greek, Latin, and French. He also mingled largely in the lit- erary and scholastic disputes of the time, and on ac- count of his bustling activity came under the satire of Rabelais: But though Ramus had innumerable adver- saries, he might have defied them all, so great was his influence at court, had his love of "reformation" not displayed itself in religion as well as in logic. In an evil hour (for his own comfort) he embraced Protes- tantism. He had long been suspected of a leaning that way, and, as we have seen, his intellect was by nature scornfully rebellious towards the ipse dixit of "author- ity ;" but he had for years decently conformed to the practices of the Catholic cult, and it was only after car- dinal 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 ab- jure 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. Bar- tholomew, August, 1572. It is believed that he was assassinated at the instigation of one of his most violent and persistent enemies, Charpentier, rector of the College de Presles.— Chambers's Encyclop. s. v. See Eamists.