GOYAU, GEORGES. - Historian, b. at Orléans on 31 May 1869, d. at Bernay (Eure) on 25 Oct. 1939. A member of the Académie française from 1922; from 1922 he was also its perpetual secretary; consultor of the Historical Section of the Sacred Congregation of Rites from 1930. A sensitive and refined spirit, he relives Christian history and tradition with an intimate power of suggestion, in what he defined as «histoire du droit de croire et du droit de prier» (v. L'Allemagne religieuse. Le catholicisme, I, Paris 1910, p. 11, his most solid work, including in the section concerning Protestantism).
As an example of his sensitivity, the small volume La pensée religieuse de Joseph De Maistre (Paris 1921) is noteworthy, in which he outlines a religious and not political profile of the Savoyard, the story of a soul and not of an attitude. In collaboration with A. Pératè and Paul Fabre, G. wrote: Le Vatican, les papes et la civilisation; le gouvernement central de l'Eglise, ibid. 1895; id., Le Vatican, la papauté et la civilisation, l'histoire et les arts, 2 vols., ibid. 1901; under the pseudonym Léon Grégoire, Le pape, les catholiques et la question sociale, ibid. 1907, 4th ed., a book that caused a sensation for its profession of Leo XIII's ideas on social matters; Autour du catholicisme social, 5 vols., ibid. 1897-1912; Catholicisme et politique, ibid. 1923. In the historical field, the nine volumes of Allemagne religieuse, ibid. 1898-1913, enjoyed well-deserved success; the two volumes: Une ville Eglise: Genève (1535-1907), ibid. 1919, on the vicissitudes of Genevan reformism, and, in the immediate post-war period: L'Eglise libre dans l'Europe libre, ibid. 1920, on religious freedom. He also composed other works on historical and literary subjects; particularly important was G.'s activity as a scholar and as an inspirer of missionary studies and questions. He was, among other things, director of the Revue d'histoire des missions and author of Missions et missionnaires (ibid. 1931), Les grands desseins missionnaires d'Henri de Solages (ibid. 1933), Clergé colonial et spiritualité missionnaire (ibid. 1937) and, fundamental,
L'Église en marche. Etudes d'histoire missionnaire, 5th series, ibid. 1928-36; La France missionnaire dans les cinq parties du monde, 2 vols., ibid. 1948.
Bibliography6 works
Massimo Petrocchi