Pasquier, Étienne, 1529-1615, French jurist and man of letters. After study under Jacques Cujas, Pasquier began his legal career in 1549. Always a confirmed advocate of Gallicanism, in 1565 he pleaded a famous case for the Univ. of Paris against the Jesuits. In 1585 he became advocate general of a division of the Parlement of Paris. Pasquier's most notable book, Recherches de la France, a learned work on French history and literature, reflected the tendency of the humanists to write in the vernacular rather than in Latin.