Educated at the university of Orléans, he became professor and had Étienne de la Boétie as a student. He became counsellor of the Parliament of Paris in 1557. In 1559, during a mercurial (session of parliament), Du Bourg attacked the royal policy of repression against "those called heretics". He didn't make a secret of his Calvinist convictions. Henry II arrested him; after his death, the Guise monopolized power to the detriment of François II. After a trial, during which Du Bourg utilized all recourses of law, he was convicted as a heretic, to be hanged on the place de Grève and his body burned.