Grasse had been in the diocese of Antibes, but in 1243 Pope Innocent IV. transferred the seat of the bishop from Antibes to Grasse, on account of the unhealthiness of the former, and its liability to be plundered by the Moorish corsairs. The bishops of Grasse were not in general men of great mark. Perhaps the least insignificant of them was Godeau. Antoine Godeau, born at Dreux in 1605, lived in Paris with a kinsman named Couart; and as he thought he had the poetic _afflatus_, he composed verses and read them to his kinsman. Couart took the lyrics to some literary friends, and they were appreciated. Godeau went on writing, and a little coterie was formed for listening to his compositions; and this was the nucleus out of which grew the Academie Française. Couart introduced Godeau to Mlle. de Rambouillet, and he became her devoted admirer, and a frequenter of her social gatherings. The lady says, in one of her letters to Voiture: “There is here a man smaller than yourself by a cubit, and, I protest, a thousand times more gallant.” Godeau, who entered holy orders and became an abbé, through his devotion to Mlle. de Rambouillet, obtained the nickname of “Julie’s Dwarf.” Voiture was jealous of him, begrudged the favour of the lady who dispensed the literary reputations of the day, and he addressed a rondeau to Godeau:— “Quittez l’amour, ce n’est votre métier, Faites des vers, traduisez le psautier; Votre façon d’écrire est fort jolie; Mais gardez-vous de faire folie, Ou je saurais, ma foi, vous châtier Comme un galant.” Godeau lived at a time when dancers about the saloons of the toasts and blue stockings of Paris were rewarded with spoils from the Church; and Godeau, when aged only thirty, was offered and accepted the united dioceses of Grasse and Vence. He was consecrated, and went to Grasse. Thence he wrote to Julie:— “Dans ce désert où je suis retourné, Mon cœur languit, à souffrir destiné, Et mon esprit plein de mélancolie Ne pense plus qu’à la belle Julie. * * * * * J’aimerai mieux être aux fers condamné Dans le dur froid de l’âpre Corilie. O Rambouillet! O nymphe si jolie, Souffrirez vous que je sois confiné Dans ce désert?” However, Godeau did his duty at Grasse. Indeed, eventually, wearied with squabbles with his chapter there, he threw up Grasse and retained only Vence, the poorest of all the sees in France. [Illustration: CARROS] Godeau was a voluminous writer, theological, historical, and poetic; and excelled in none of these lines. In fact, all his works have been consigned to the literary dust heap. His appointment to Grasse had followed on his presentation of a paraphrase of the Benedicite to Richelieu. The Cardinal said, “Sir, you have given me Benedicite. I in return render you Grasse (Grâce).”