Jean Chatel, a French fanatic, born in Paris about 1575, executed Dec. 29, 1594. He was the son of a rich shopkeeper, and studied divinity under the Jesuits, and philosophy in the university of Paris. He regarded Henry IV. as a heretic who reigned without the sanction of the pope, and was impelled by religious fanaticism to stab him on Dec. 27, 1594, in the apartment of the royal palace occupied by Gabrielle d'Estrees, the king's mistress, inflicting a slight wound with a knife upon the upper lip of the king and knocking out one of his teeth. Though it was believed that he had been instigated by the Jesuits, who were consequently for a short time expelled from Paris, he declared to the last, and while he was undergoing torture, that he had acted entirely of his own accord. His remains were mutilated and dragged through the streets after his execution. A colossal pyramid was erected on the site of the house which he had inhabited, as an expiatory memorial of his crime; but it was subsequently demolished upon the demand of Pere Cottin, who regarded the inscription upon it as disparaging to the society of Jesus.