Enciclopedia Cattolica

HOTMAN, FRANÇOIS

Volume VI · p. 867 · 1951

English translation · Testo originale italiano

HOTMAN, François. - Giurista, n. a Parigi il 23 ag. 1524, m. a Basilea il 12 febr. 1590. Abbracciata la «riforma» nel 1547, si ritirò a Ginevra; nel 1556 accompagnò Calvino alla Dieta di Francoforte.
HOTMAN, François. - Giurista, n. a Parigi il 23 ag. 1524, m. a Basilea il 12 febr. 1590. Abbracciata la «riforma» nel 1547, si ritirò a Ginevra; nel 1556 accompagnò Calvino alla Dieta di Francoforte.

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

HOTMAN, François. Jurist, b. in Paris on 23 Aug. 1524, d. in Basel on 12 Feb. 1590. Having embraced the “Reformation” in 1547, he withdrew to Geneva; in 1556 he accompanied Calvin to the Diet of Frankfurt.

He taught law at Strasbourg, Valence, and Bourges, and advocated the necessity of founding legal science on the study of history. After the St Bartholomew’s Night he took refuge in Geneva, where he taught Roman law, and later in Basel. He belonged to the group of Reformed monarchomachs, yet although he took part in all the struggles of the Huguenots, in his writings he did not give prominence to religious motives. In his *Franco-Gallia* (Geneva 1573), drawing on French history, he denies the absolute power of kings and affirms the supremacy of the Estates-General.

BIBL.: R. Dareste, *Essai sur F. H.*, Paris 1850; B. Reynolds, *Proponents of limited monarchy in sixteenth century France: Francis H. and Jean Bodin*, New York 1931; P. Mesnard, *L'essor de la philosophie politique au XVIe siècle*, Paris 1936, pp. 327-36.