Charron (Pierre), French priest and sceptic, b. Paris, 1513. He was an intimate friend of Montaigne. His principal work is a Treatise on Wisdom, 1601, which was censured as irreligious by the Jesuits. Franck says "the scepticism of Charron inclines visibly to 'sensualisme' and even to materialism." Died Paris, 16 Nov. 1603. Chasseboeuf de Volney (Constantin François). See Volney. Chastelet du or Chatelet Lomont (Gabrielle Emilie le Tonnelier de Breteuil), Marquise, French savante, b. Paris, 17 Dec 1706. She was learned in mathematics and other sciences, and in Latin, English and Italian. In 1740 she published a work on physical philosophy entitled Institutions de Physique. She afterwards made a good French translation of Newton's Principia. She lived some years with Voltaire at Cirey between 1735 and 1747, and addressed to him Doubts on Revealed Religions, published in 1792. She also wrote a Treatise on Happiness, which was praised by Condorcet. Chastellux (François Jean de), Marquis. A soldier, traveller and writer, b. Paris 1734. Wrote On Public Happiness (2 vols., Amst. 1776), a work Voltaire esteemed highly. He contributed to the Encyclopédie; one article on "Happiness," being suppressed by the censor because it did not mention God. Died Paris, 28 Oct. 1788. Chatterton (Thomas), the marvellous boy poet, b. Bristol, 20 Nov, 1752. His poems, which he pretended were written by one Thomas Rowley in the fourteenth century and discovered by him in an old chest in Redcliffe Church, attracted much attention. In 1769 he visited London in hopes of rising by his talents, but after a bitter experience of writing for the magazines, destroyed himself in a fit of despair 25 Aug. 1770. Several of his poems betray deistic opinions. Chaucer (Geoffrey), the morning star of English poetry and first English Humanist, b. London about 1340. In 1357 he was attached to the household of Lionel, third son of Edward III. He accompanied the expedition to France 1359-60, was captured by the French, and ransomed by the king. He was patronised by John of Gaunt, and some foreign missions were entrusted to him, one of them being to Italy, where he met Petrarch. All his writings show the influence of the Renaissance, and in his Canterbury Pilgrims he boldly attacks the vices of the ecclesiastics. Died 25 Oct. 1400, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.