Peter Pierre De La Ramee (Ramus), a French logician, born at Cuth, Picardy, in 1515 or 1502, killed in the massacre of St. Bartholomew at Paris, Aug. 24, 1572. At the age of 12 he entered the college of Navarre at Paris as a servant, and made rapid progress. When he presented himself for examination for the degree of master of arts in 1536, the subject of his exercise was: Quoecumque ab Aristotele dicta esse commenticia esse ("All that has been affirmed by Aristotle is a fabrication"), and he maintained it with so much skill that he was admitted to his degree. He afterward taught in the college of Ave Maria, and in 1543 published Institutions Dialecticoe and Animadver-siones in Dialecticam Aristotelis. These books were attacked by the officers of the university of Paris, and the author was represented as impious and seditious, and as aiming to destroy all science and religion under the pretence of assailing Aristotle. To settle the quarrel between the advocates of the rival systems of logic, Francis I. ordered a trial in which two of the judges were nominated by Ramus, two by Govea, his chief accuser, and one by the king. After a hearing, Ramus was condemned on March 1, 1544, as having "acted rashly, arrogantly, and impudently;" he was prohibited from teaching and his books were suppressed.

Soon after he lectured on rhetoric at the college of Presles, and in 1545 was permitted to resume teaching in Paris. He began a course of mathematics, which was continued till 1551, when Henry II. appointed him professor of philosophy and eloquence. In 1561 he embraced Protestantism, and in July, 1562, he was forced to flee, but was offered by Charles IX. a refuge at Fontainebleau, his house having been pillaged and his library destroyed during his absence. In 1563 he returned to Paris, and for a time occupied the professor's chair; but in 1568 he received permission to travel. He once more returned in 1571. His followers were called Ramists or Rameans. A catalogue of his works is contained in Ramus, sa vie, ses écrits et ses opinions, by Wad-dington-Kastus (8vo, Paris, 1855).