PETRUS, the Latinized form of the name Pierre de la Ramee, a man celebrated alike by the persecutions of which he was made the object, and by the reforms which he endeavoured to introduce into philosophy, science, and public instruction, was born at the little village of Cuth in Picardy in 1515. His father, Jacques de la Ramee, pursued the humble occupation of a field labourer, but could date back his descent in a few removes to nobility. The boy lost his father at a very early age, and it was reserved for his mother, Jeanne Charpentier, to nurse him in poverty, and teach his young hands early to handle the instrument of toil. Thrift and want combined early to develop his mind; and when only eight years old, we are told of his visiting Paris all alone in pursuit of food and knowledge. Misery pursued the poor child there also, and he was compelled to retrace his steps. Again and again he visited the capital at short intervals, when his maternal uncle, struck with his great perseverance, afforded him temporary shelter. Honoré Charpentier, who pursued the carpenter's craft, could not do more than allow him fairly to commence his studies. Ramus, who had now reached his twelfth year, was endowed by nature with a singularly robust constitution, and entered the college of Navarre in the quality of a domestic. In this position he spent the day in his masters' service, and the night was devoted to study and sleep. He attended the public course given by the Faculty of Arts in 1527, when he left it greatly in love with logic, and with a profound aversion for the manner in which it was taught. The first occasion on which Ramus expressed publicly his dissent from the logic of Aristotle was at his examination for his master's degree. This occurred in 1536, when Ramus had reached his twenty-first year. He chose for his thesis the startling paradox, Quaecumque ab Aristotele dicta esse, commenticia esse (All that has been affirmed by Aristotle is a fabrication). A subject so novel placed the judges in the very greatest embarrassment. "The master said it," was no guarantee to Ramus of the truth of a single proposition; and it was entirely in vain that all the peripatetics which Paris contained, united their influence to crush him. The young candidate urged his replies with so much spirit and vivacity, he managed his objections with so much subtlety, and sent them home with so much address, that all Paris was filled with astonishment and admiration. His admission to the rank of Master of Arts was a real triumph.

Having thus enthusiastically won the right of instructing in the liberal arts, Ramus, in conjunction with Omer Talon, an able professor of rhetoric, and Barthélémy Alexandre, a distinguished Greek scholar, established themselves in the little college of Ave-Maria. When in his twenty-eighth year Ramus published two books in Latin, of which even Joseph Scaliger condescended to extol the style. The title of the one was Dialecticae partitio ad Academiam parisiensem; of the other, Aristotelice Anuadversiones,—the latter of which in particular subjected its author to incredible persecutions. Hardly had these two books seen the light when the university, by its rector, Pierre Galland, solicited and obtained from the magistrates an arrest for their immediate suppression. Their author was represented as an enemy to religion and to the public peace. After endless jargonism, François I. resolved to bring this quarrel to a close. A chairman and four judges, two of them selected by each party, were to sit in judgment between Ramus and his opponents. The upshot of it was, that Ramus was condemned, on the 1st March 1544, as having "acted rashly, arrogantly, and impudently." He was compelled to leave Paris, and he took up his residence at the college of Presles, where a number of students had taken refuge from the plague, and commenced a course of lectures on rhetoric. He returned to Paris in 1545, the royal decree having been cancelled through the influence of the cardinal of Lorraine. He began a course of mathematics, which he continued till 1551, when Henry II. appointed him professor of philosophy and eloquence in the College of France. The years which followed were the most tranquil of Ramus's life. He wrote a Greek, a Latin, and a French grammar, several treatises on mathematics, logic, and rhetoric. In 1551 Ramus embraced Protestantism, and his logical ardour, as it was said, compelled him to make an invasion into the domain of theology. "Dès ce moment," adds a French biographer, "il fut perdu." Lost or not, Ramus had to flee the halter in the month of July 1562, and found an asylum at the palace of Fontainebleau, the property of Charles IX. The royal protection was not sufficient for his defence, for while absent his house was pillaged and his library destroyed. After the treaty of Amboise in 1563 he resumed his chair in the capital, but did not long enjoy it. Civil troubles in Paris induced him in 1568 to ask permission to travel. He visited a great many towns in Germany and Switzerland, where "the French Plato" (Gallicus Plato) was received with much honour. He resided for some time in Bâle, in Heidelberg, in Geneva, and in Lausanne, and taught his logic to the citizens of the three last-mentioned towns. Ramus had found it necessary, during his residence in Paris, strongly to oppose the appointment of one Jacques Charpentier to the mathematical chair of the university, from his profound, yea his avowed, ignorance of the subject. This person never forgave him. On his return to Paris, Ramus fell a victim to Charpentier's revenge during the massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572.

Although Ramus had talent sufficient to overthrow the logic of Aristotle as it was then understood and interpreted, he was unfortunately incapable of raising anything better in its stead. He freed logic from the scholastic subtleties to which it was then applied, but forgot, in re-applying it, to settle its natural limits once and for all. He was not, in short, a profound thinker; he dealt more in rhetoric than in logic. Yet in freeing men's minds from the tyranny of a system he took a decided step in advance of his age, and deserves the gratitude of humanity for so doing. The system of Ramus speedily extended from France to Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Holland, Denmark, and Scotland, and was publicly taught in each of those countries. He left a great number of works, of which a detailed catalogue will be found in De Petri Rami Vita, Scriptis, Philosophia, by Waddington Kastus, Svo, Paris, 1818. Many of the author's works were translated into English and other foreign languages. The partizans of this philosopher are known by the name of Ramists or Rameans.