Jean de Coras
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
jurist.
Born in Réalmont
Réalmont
Réalmont is a commune in the Tarn department in southern France.-References:*...
as the son of a notary
Civil law notary
Civil-law notaries, or Latin notaries, are lawyers of noncontentious private civil law who draft, take, and record legal instruments for private parties, provide legal advice and give attendance in person, and are vested as public officers with the authentication power of the State...
, he studied law in Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
, Cahors
Cahors
Cahors is the capital of the Lot department in south-western France.Its site is dramatic being contained on three sides within an udder shaped twist in the river Lot known as a 'presqu'île' or peninsula...
, Orléans
Orléans
-Prehistory and Roman:Cenabum was a Gallic stronghold, one of the principal towns of the Carnutes tribe where the Druids held their annual assembly. It was conquered and destroyed by Julius Caesar in 52 BC, then rebuilt under the Roman Empire...
and perhaps also in other cities, under teachers such as Franciscus Curtis junior and Marianus Socinus junior. After his 1535 promotion in Padua
Padua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
by Filippo Decio
Filippo Decio
Filippo Decio or Decius was an Italian jurist whose services were courted by European universities and rulers. He was one of the most influential representatives of the pre-Humanist scholastic ius commune tradition....
, he taught law at the University of Toulouse
University of Toulouse
The Université de Toulouse is a consortium of French universities, grandes écoles and other institutions of higher education and research, named after one of the earliest universities established in Europe in 1229, and including the successor universities to that earlier university...
starting in 1536, in Valence
Valence, Drôme
Valence is a commune in southeastern France, the capital of the Drôme department, situated on the left bank of the Rhône, south of Lyon on the railway to Marseilles.Its inhabitants are called Valentinois...
(1545) and in Ferrara
Ferrara
Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...
(1550), where he became one of the most popular professors of the time.
In 1552, De Coras became a member of the Toulouse parlement
Parlement
Parlements were regional legislative bodies in Ancien Régime France.The political institutions of the Parlement in Ancien Régime France developed out of the previous council of the king, the Conseil du roi or curia regis, and consequently had ancient and customary rights of consultation and...
and participated in the famous trial of Martin Guerre
Martin Guerre
Martin Guerre, a French peasant of the 16th century, was at the center of a famous case of imposture. Several years after the man had left his wife, child, and village, a man claiming to be Guerre arrived. He lived with Guerre's wife and son for three years. The false Martin Guerre was tried,...
, of which he wrote the best-known record, Arrest Memorable du parlement de Tolose (1560). In 1562, having converted to Protestantism
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
, he failed in an attempt to open Toulouse to the Calvinists, but was rehabilitated on account of his connections to the royal court. Even so, De Coras later assisted in organising the Protestant unrests that culminated in the first French War of Religion
French Wars of Religion
The French Wars of Religion is the name given to a period of civil infighting and military operations, primarily fought between French Catholics and Protestants . The conflict involved the factional disputes between the aristocratic houses of France, such as the House of Bourbon and House of Guise...
. He was convicted to death for having served the Prince of Condé
Louis I de Bourbon, prince de Condé
Louis de Bourbon was a prominent Huguenot leader and general, the founder of the House of Condé, a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon.-Life:...
in 1568, and was murdered in prison following the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre
St. Bartholomew's Day massacre
The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations, followed by a wave of Roman Catholic mob violence, both directed against the Huguenots , during the French Wars of Religion...
in 1572.
Together with scholars such as Baron
Eguinaire Baron
Eguinaire François, Baron de Kerlouan was a French jurist. He is also variously referred to as Baro, Eguinaire Baron, Eguinarius Baro, Eguinarius Baron, Eguinar Baro or Eguin Baron....
, Dumoulin
Charles Dumoulin
-Life:He was born in Paris. He began practice as an advocate before the parlement of Paris. Dumoulin turned Calvinist, and when the persecution of the Protestants began he went to Germany, where for a long time he taught law at Strasbourg, Besançon and elsewhere. He returned to France in 1557...
, Connan
François Connan
François Connan was a French jurist who took part in the humanist development of an historical jurisprudence. He was a student of Andrea Alciato at the University of Bourges and became one of the latter's most distinguished epigone. His most celebrated work is the Commentaria iuris civilis ....
and Douaren
François Douaren
François Douaren was a French jurist and professor of law at the University of Bourges....
, De Coras was part of the generation of jurists that established humanist
Renaissance humanism
Renaissance humanism was an activity of cultural and educational reform engaged by scholars, writers, and civic leaders who are today known as Renaissance humanists. It developed during the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries, and was a response to the challenge of Mediæval...
jurisprudence in France. His principal contributions to legal scholarship were his attempts to uncover dogma
Dogma
Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, or a particular group or organization. It is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from, by the practitioners or believers...
tic contexts beyond the mere exegesis
Exegesis
Exegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text. Traditionally the term was used primarily for exegesis of the Bible; however, in contemporary usage it has broadened to mean a critical explanation of any text, and the term "Biblical exegesis" is used...
of Roman law
Roman law
Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, and the legal developments which occurred before the 7th century AD — when the Roman–Byzantine state adopted Greek as the language of government. The development of Roman law comprises more than a thousand years of jurisprudence — from the Twelve...
, and his contributions to constitutional law
Constitutional law
Constitutional law is the body of law which defines the relationship of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary....
that influenced Jean Bodin
Jean Bodin
Jean Bodin was a French jurist and political philosopher, member of the Parlement of Paris and professor of law in Toulouse. He is best known for his theory of sovereignty; he was also an influential writer on demonology....
.
His works include various commentaries on the Pandects
Pandects
The Digest, also known as the Pandects , is a name given to a compendium or digest of Roman law compiled by order of the emperor Justinian I in the 6th century .The Digest was one part of the Corpus Juris Civilis, the body of civil law issued under Justinian I...
, a number of dogmatic papers on various topics, the discourse De iuris arte libellus (1560) and a compilation of legal cases, Centuria memorabilium Curiae Tholosane (1599).
The poet Jacques de Coras
Jacques de Coras
Jacques de Coras was a French poet born in Toulouse. Grandson of the Huguenot jurist Jean de Coras, he was raised in the Protestant Reformed Church of France. After serving as a cadet in the military, he studied theology, and exercised the functions of a Protestant minister in Guyenne...
was his grandson.