 The Protestant Academy of Sedan had been founded in 1579 at the initiative of Françoise de Bourbon, the widow of Henri-Robert de la Marck.In 1682 the Protestant Academy at Sedan was suppressed, and de Moivre enrolled to study logic at Saumur for two years.Although mathematics was not part of his course work, de Moivre read several works on mathematics on his own including Éléments des mathématiques by the French Oratorian priest and mathematician Jean Prestet and a short treatise on games of chance, "De Ratiociniis in Ludo Aleae", by Christiaan Huygens the Dutch physicist, mathematician, astronomer and inventor.