GODEFROY,, gotd'-frwii (Lat. The name borne by a family of distinguished scholars of French origin. The first of these, DENIS GoIHYROY (1549.1622), was born at Paris, and after studying at Louvain under Ramus, completed his education at the universities of Cologne and Heidelberg. It was probably at this last place that he adopted Protestant tenets. In 1580 Godefroy quitted France and became a professor of law at Geneva. In 1589 he was made bailiff of the District of Gex, but his house having been pillaged and his library burnt by the troops of the Duke of Savoy, he retired first to Basel and later to Strassburg, where in 1591 he was given the chair of Roman law and history. In 1605 the Elector Palatine of the Rhine called him to be head of the faculty of law at Heidelberg. In 1618 he was sent as envoy to Paris from Frederick V. to Louis XIII. Though numerous offers were made to him, code froy preferred to remain at Heidelberg, but in 1621 the presence of the army of the Catholic League under Count Tilly forced him to seek refuge at Strassburg, where he died September 7, 1622. His most important work was his edi tion of the Corpus Juris Civilis (Geneva, 1583), which was long the standard text. He was also the author of numerous works on jurisprudence, and on the classics.—Tut000m GODEFROY (1580 1649) was the eldest son of Denis Godefroy. In 1602, after being educated at Geneva and Strass burg, he settled in Paris and abjured Protestant ism. Although an advocate before the Parlia ment of Paris, he devoted most of his time to the study of hiStory and eventually became the his toriographer royal of France. During the latter
half of the Thirty Years' War he was employed as one of the French diplomats at Cologne and Munster, and helped negotiate the Peace of West phalia in 1648. Ile died at 3Iiinster, October 5, 1649. He was the author of numerous works in French history and politics, and made a large and important collection of documents for the history of France, and of other countries. This was continued by his son DENTS , and in 1749 found its way into the library of the Insti tut de Franee.--JACQUES GODEFROY (1587-1652), the younger brother of TWodore, passed his life as professor of law at Geneva, and remained trio to his Protestant convictions. Ire is known as tho editor of the Theodoafan Code (Lyons, 1665), upon which he worked for twenty years, and which is still used by jurists. Besides this he published a multitude of works on law and juris prudence, and he ranks higher as a scholar than even his learned father. Others of the Godefroy family who were distinguished in their time are: JEAN GODEFROY, Sieur d'Aumont (1656-1732), the third son of the younger Denis, and an his torian of note: DENTS CHARLES GODEFROY, Mar quis of Meuilgloire (1795-1877), the family biog rapher, and a scholar of ability. He published Les savants Godefroy; Memoires d'une famine pendant les XVIeme, XVIIeme et XV Illerne siecles (1873).