BARON DE MONTESQUIEU
Montesquieu was born to a noble family and educated in law in order to assume a hereditary seat on the parliament of Bordeaux. His responsibilities centered on the administration of criminal justice, including interrogating suspects and sentencing convicted criminals to penal colonies and executions.
Montesquieu poked fun at French society in The Persian Letters satire from the perspective of an outsider for instance the aristocratic salons that barely conceal marital infidelity and describe the pope as a magician. Anonymously he criticized religious intolerance and the oppressive effects of different form of government and social institutions. His character, Uzbek, is quoted saying he prefers the one that “controls men in the manner most appropriate to their proclivities and desires (PL78). The French monarchy is criticized indirectly with reports that Louis XIV’s remark that of all the governments in the world, he prefers those of Persia and the Turkish sultan (PL35). Though the observations of travelers Montesquieu presents a foreign perspective on French beliefs and customs and compares the conflicting views of East and West by commenting on the strengths and weakness of different forms of government.(PL99-101) His central theme revolves around
Laws should not concern offenses against God, since God does not require their protection; or prohibit what they do not need to prohibit; or prohibit inadvertent or involuntary actions. Laws should not be vague, and should make it as easy as possible for an innocent person to prove his or her innocence. Montesquieu's philosophy that "government should be set up so that no man need be afraid of another" prompted the creators of the Constitution of the United States to divide the U.S. government into three separate