Note 266 — Chapter V · FROM THE ACCESSION OF CHARLES IX. TO THE MASSACRE AT VASSY. [1560–1562.]

This was Pierre Craon, called Nez d’Argent, because he had lost his nose in a drunken brawl, and it was replaced by one of silver. He was at one time Professor of Humanity at Rheims, but resigned his chair on turning Protestant, and removed to Paris. The children used to sing a song about him. He was “fort renommé en science,” and worked quite a revolution in pronunciation and orthography, sounding c like ch, and substituting k for c in calendrier, Catherine, etc. He also introduced parentheses, commas, accents, diphthongs, and apostrophes. One account says he was hanged in December, 1561. See Jean Lefèvre: Hist. des Troubles, i. p. 140.