François Laurent

He held a high appointment in the ministry of justice for some time before he became professor of civil law at the university of Ghent in 1836.

His advocacy of liberal and anti-clerical principles both from his chair and in the press made him bitter enemies, but he retained his position until his death in 1887.

[2] He treated the relations of church and state in L'Églisé et l'État (Brussels, 3 vols., 1858-1862; new and revised edition, 1865), and the same subject occupied a large proportion of the eighteen volumes of his chief historical work, Études sur l'histoire de l'humanité (Ghent and Brussels, 1855-1870), which aroused considerable interest beyond the boundaries of Belgium.

[2] He was charged in 1879 by the minister of justice with the preparation of a report on the proposed revision of the civil code.

Besides his anti-clerical pamphlets, his minor writings include much discussion of social questions, of the organization of savings banks, asylums, &c. Laurent had much in common with Gustave Callier, whose funeral in 1863 was made the occasion of a display of clerical intolerance, and he founded the Societé Callier for the encouragement of thrift among the working classes.