PLACETTE, plâ'set', JEAN LA: French Protestant theologian and moralist; b. at Pontacq (118 m. s.s.w. of Bordeaux) Jan. 19, 1639; d. at Utrecht Apr. 25, 1718. He studied theology at the Protestant academy at Montauban; became pastor at Orthez (1660), and at Nay (1664), where he earned a brilliant reputation as an orator; after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) he became pastor of the French church at Copenhagen, where he labored fruitfully as pastor and as writer till 1711, when he retired and went to live at Utrecht. His writings fall into three classes, those on systematic theology, on morals, and on practical theology. Among those in the former class to be named are: Observationes historico-ecclesiasticœ (Amsterdam, 1695); Traité de la foi divine (1697); and Réponse à deux objections . . . sur l'origine du mal et sur le mystère de la Trinité (1707). In the second class mention may be made of Nouveaux essais de morale (1692); a second series with the same title (6 vols., The Hague, 1715); Le Morale chrétienne (2 vols., Cologne, 1695); and Divers traités sur des matières de conscience (Amsterdam, 1696). In the third class are: La Mort des justes ou manière de bien mourir (1695; Eng. transl., The Death of the Righteous, 2 vols., London, 1737); La Communion devoté (2 vols., 1695); Traité de la conscience (1699; Eng. transl., The Christian Casuist, London, 1705); and the posthumous Avis sur la manière de prêcher (Rotterdam, 1733; contains a biography).