A celebrated French philologist of the sixteenth century, who is said to have mastered twenty languages. He embraced Christianity, and about 1537 was made professor of Hebrew at Avignon. As he grew older, however, love for his old faith revived in him, and being unable to conceal his true sentiments, he was accused of being a Jew in secret, and in 1593 was deprived of his office. To avoid a worse fate he fled to Venice, where he openly returned to Judaism.