Charles de Secondat, Baron de la Brède et de Montesquieu (original) (raw)

January 18, 1689 - February 10, 1755Charles de Secondat, Baron de la Brède et de Montesquieu—one of the great political philosophers of the Enlightenment—has been called the "ideological co-founder of the American Constitution along with John Locke". He argued that despotism could best be prevented by a system of separation of powers in which different bodies exercised legislative, executive, and judicial power. The Roman Catholic Church placed The Spirit of the Laws on the Index of Forbidden Books in 1751. Appointed councilor of the Bordeaux Parliament in 1714, In 1716 he inherited the office of President a Mortier, which he resigned in 1725. During this time he was active in the Academy of Bordeaux. He was elected in 1728 as a member of the Acadèmie Française and in 1730 as a member of the Royal Society in London. Montesquieu’s two most important works are The Persian Letters (1721) and The Spirit of the Laws (1748). Sometimes claimed to have been initiated in 1731 after his return from England to Bordeaux. Initiated: May 12, 1730 _The Horn Tavern Lodge_London Source: The British Journal 16 May, 1730, cited in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, vol. 81 p. 96. Cf.: Denslow, 10.000 Famous Freemasons claims Montesquieu’s initiation in London in 1720.