Peter Collett (1767 – 21 April 1823) was a Danish judge and writer. He was born in Zealand as a brother of

Johan Johan * Johan (given name) * Johan (film), ''Johan'' (film), a 1921 Swedish film directed by Mauritz Stiller * Johan (band), a Dutch pop-group ** Johan (album), ''Johan'' (album), a 1996 album by the group * Johan Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, Nunav ...

and

Jonas Collett Jonas Collett (25 March 1772 – 3 January 1851) was a Danish-Norwegian public official, legislator, and statesman. Born on the Rønnebæksholm estate at Næstved in Denmark, he remained in Norway after the termination of the personal union with De ...

. He was a rationalist and radical, and he published a long and favorable review of Michael Gottlieb Birckners 1797 book ''On the Freedom of the Press and its Law'', where amongst other things he defended the freedom to call for sedition as well as the right for government officials to profess

atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...

. The same year he was fired from his position as an

assessor An assessor may be: * ''Assessor'' (fish), a genus of fishes * Assessor (law), the assistant to a judge or magistrate * Assessor (Oxford), a senior officer of the University of Oxford * Assessor (property), an expert who calculates the value of pr ...

in Copenhagen for this. The editor of ''Lærde Efterretninger''

Rasmus Nyerup Rasmus Nyerup (12 March 1759–28 June 1829) was a Danish literary historian, philologist, folklorist and librarian. Biography He was born at the village of Nyrup near Glamsbjerg on Funen, Denmark. After graduating from Odense Lærde Skole ...

offered him his position as editor of this magazine, and later he accepted the position as co-editor of the popular journal ''Minerva''. He wrote numerous articles for these journals, many of them overtly critical of the government, as well as translations of texts by the English philosopher Francis Bacon.Thomas Hansen Erslew, ''Almindeligt Forfatter-Lexicon for Kongeriget Danmark med tilhørende Bilande'', vol. 1, 1843, pp. 306-7
In 1800 he emigrated to the Danish West Indies.

References

External links

* Hi
article
in the ''Danish Biographical Dictionary'', 1. ed., vol. 4, p. 60-61. 1767 births 1823 deaths Danish judges Danish male writers Danish editors Rationalists {{Denmark-bio-stub