GODEFROY (GOTOFREDO), DENIS, called the ELDER. - Jurist, b. in Paris on 17 Oct. 1549, d. in Strasbourg on 17 Sept. 1621 or 1622.
He studied at Louvain, Cologne, and Heidelberg. Having become a Protestant, he fled France and took refuge in Geneva (1579), where he became professor of law. Again forced to flee before the invasion of the troops of the duke of Savoy, after a stay in Basel he found refuge in Strasbourg, where he held the chair of the Pandects; having gone to Heidelberg, he refused to return to France to occupy Cuiacio’s chair and, after various wanderings, returned to Strasbourg, where he died.
He was responsible for an edition of the Corpus iuris civilis, cum notis (Geneva 1563), reprinted several times; he also published Fontes iuris canonici (Lyon 1583), Praxis iuris civilis (Frankfurt 1591), and a considerable number of legal and popularizing works.