GOTHOFRED, or Godefroy, Denis or Dionysius, a celebrated jurisconsult, born at Paris in 1549, was allied by birth to the highest families connected with the profession of law, and himself one of its most distinguished ornaments. After having completed his classical studies, he applied himself to that of law, and received the instructions of the famous professors who then taught in the universities of Louvain, Cologne, and Heidelberg. On his return to France, the civil disorders which broke out in all parts having forced him to seek an asylum in foreign countries, he retired to Geneva, where he hoped to find the tranquillity necessary for his pursuits. He was received with distinction, and nominated to a chair of law in 1580. Henry IV. appointed him magistrate of Gex in 1589; but this city having the year after been taken by the Duke of Savoy, his house was pillaged, and no resource remained for him but to pass into Germany. He, however, proceeded no farther than Strasburg, where he taught the Pandects from 1591 till 1600, when the elector palatine called him to Heidelberg. But the proceedings of his colleagues forced him six months afterwards to return to Strasburg, where he remained three years more, at the end of which time he consented to resume his functions at Heidelberg, upon an assurance which was given him that he should have nothing to apprehend from the jealousy of the other professors. It was only then that his countrymen became sensible of the fault which had been committed in not endeavouring to retain in Franc^ a man of such distinguished merit, and he was offered the chair which Cujas had just left vacant at Bourges; but he declined the offer upon the ground of his age, which did not admit of his attempting to form a new establishment; and he alleged the same excuse in opposition to all the instances which were made to draw him to Angers, to Valence, and to other universities of France and Germany. In 1618 he was sent as deputy by the elector palatine to Louis X1IL, who received him well, and solicited him to remain in Paris; but Godefroy had become attached to Heidelberg, where he enjoyed all the consideration due to his talents, and where he desired to end his days. In this expectation, however, he was disappointed. The war, which extended to the palatinate, forced him to return a third time to Strasburg, where, oppressed with grief and infirmities, he expired on the 7th of September 1632, in the seventy-third year of his age. His friend Bernegger pronounced his funeral oration, which is printed in the Opuscula of Loisel. Of all the works of Godefroy, that which does him the greatest honour, and ensures him a permanent rank amongst jurisconsults, is his edition of the Corpus Juris Civili», the publication of which forms an epoch in the history of the science. His text is that which had been adopted for ordinary reading in the universities and at the bar, and his notes are much esteem- et *∙ J⅛ C or P u * of Godefroy has passed through a num- ⅛ r Ŵ2° " 8 ’ bUt th ¶ most valuable are those of Paris, ))Vf , ,n tw ° , vo β ∙ f°l* 0 > and Amsterdam, Elzevir, 1S63, also in two vols. folio. Among the other works of Godefroy may be mentioned, 1. Note in Ciceronem, Lyons, lo88 and 1591, in 4to; 2. Antiquae Historiae ex xxvii.

auctoribus contexte libri sex, Basil, 1590, in 8vo; 3. Conjectura, variae lectiones, et loci communes in Seneca, printed at the end of the works of Seneca; 4. Autores Latinae linguae in unum redacti corpus, adjectis notis, Geneva, 1595 and 1602, in 4to; 5. Maintenue et Defense des Princes souverains et Eglises Chrétiennes contre les attentats et excommunications des Papes de Rome, 1594, in 8vo: 6. Dissertatio de Nobilitate, Spires, 1611, in 4to; 7. Statuta Galliae juxta Francorum, Burgundiorum, Gothorum et Anglorum in ea dominantium Consuetudines, Frankfort, 1611, in folio. (a.)