Hotman, François (1524–1590)

French Protestant publicist and jurist. Hotman was born in Paris, France. He studied law in Paris and became a Calvinist. After the massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve he fled to Geneva, Switzerland, and never returned to France. At Geneva he was appointed professor of Roman law. In 1573 he published his Latin political treatise, the Franco-Gallia, in which he advocated a limited constitutional monarchy, with religion entirely divorced from politics; the work never proved popular with his co-religionists.