GODEAU, ANTOINE. – French prelate and man of letters, b. at Dreux in 1605, d. at Vence in 1672. He frequented the Hôtel de Rambouillet and the literary gatherings at Contart’s house, from which the Académie Française was to arise; G. was among its first members when Richelieu officially established II.
He was fond of worldly life in his early youth, but, having been created a bishop by Richelieu himself, he led a very austere existence, writing hagiographies and treatises of a religious nature, which contrast sharply with his youthful works. He enjoyed a great reputation during his lifetime; his finest work is La morale chrétienne (3 vols., Paris 1709), reprinted under the title Theologia moralis (a vols., Augsburg 1774).
BIBL.: R. de Kerveler, A. G., Paris 1870; A. Cognet, A. G., there 1900; G. Doublet, G. évêque, there 1911; P. David, L'épître d'A. G. à la reine Louise de Gonzaguer, in Petit Courrier de France et de Pologne, October–November 1930. Elena Bosticco