Pierre Grégoire (jurist)


Pierre Grégoire was a French jurist and philosopher

Career

He was born at Toulouse around 1540. After studies at Toulouse, he became an advocate. From 1570 he was professeur of law at Cahors; in 1580 he returned to Toulouse in a similar post. In 1582 he was called by Charles III, Duke of Lorraine to found a law faculty at Pont-à-Mousson, the École doctrinale de droit public. He died at Pont-à-Mousson.

Works

His Syntaxes artis mirabilis was an encyclopedic work on the sciences where magic and demonology were included with Astrology and mathematics. Grégoire is considered to be in the tradition of Raymond Lull. The work was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books.
In his De Republica he expresses political views in favour of monarchy, and uses the analogy of family and state. Although his faculty was dominated by Jesuits, Grégoire turned away from the policies of the Catholic League. A critic of Machiavelli and not a Gallican, he drew on both Jean Bodin and François Hotman, for an eclectic moderate Catholic position supporting the papal deposing power restricted to the Holy Roman Emperor, and the publication in France of the Tridentine decrees.