in general, denotes a branch of anything, as of a tree, an artery, &c.

(Peter), was one of the most famous professors of the 16th century. He was born in Picardy in 1515. A thirst for learning prompted him to go to Paris when very young, and he was admitted a servant in the college of Navarre. Spending the day in waiting on his masters, and the greatest part of the night in study, he made such surprising progress, that, when he took his master of arts degree, he offered to maintain a quite opposite doctrine to that of Aristotle. This raised him many enemies; and the two first books he published, Institutiones Dialecticae, and Arithmeticae Animadversiones, occasioned great disturbances in the university of Paris: and the opposition against him was not a little heightened by his deserting the Romish religion, and professing that of the Reformed. Being thus forced to retire from Paris, he visited the universities of Germany, and received great honours wherever he came. He returned to France in 1571, and lost his life miserably in the massacre of St Bartholomew's day. He was a great orator, a man of universal learning, and endowed with very fine moral qualities. He published many books, which Teissier enumerates.