Background
He was the son of Godfrey Goodman (senior) and Jane Croxton, landed gentry living in Wales. Goodman was born in Ruthin, Denbighshire.
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Godfrey Goodman
Edit ProfileEducation
He graduated there in 1604 and shortly after was ordained at Bangor, Wales.
Career
His contemporaries describe him as being a hospitable, quiet man, and lavish in his charity to the poor. Goodman"s first appointment was to the rectory of Stapleford Abbotts, Essex, in 1606. He made rapid progress in the Church, and was made successively prebend of Westminster in 1607.
Rector of West Isley, Berkshire, in 1616.
Rector of Kinnerton, Gloucester. Canon of Windsor in 1617.
Dean of Rochester in 1621. And finally Bishop of Gloucester, 1624-1655.
In addition, he held two livings in Wales, at Llandyssil and Llanarmon.
Even as a bishop, he was allowed to retain most of these appointments. A few years later, he was severely reprimanded for having erected a crucifix at Windsor and using altar-cloths with a cross design in his own cathedral at Gloucester, and further for having suspended a minister who insisted on preaching "that all who die papists go inevitably to hell". lieutenant is likely that doubts were arising in his mind about the legitimacy of the Church"s separation from Rome, and he sought the society of Catholic priests who were in hiding throughout the country.
He was frequently at variance with Archbishop Laud, and in 1640 refused on conscientious grounds to sign the seventeen Articles drawn up by the Archbishop.
He was thereupon arrested, but after five weeks in prison he overcame his scruples and signed the Articles. This, however, availed him little, as he was soon impeached by Parliament along with Laud and the ten other signatories of the Articles and was sent to prison for treason in the Tower of London for four months.
In 1643, Goodman"s episcopal palace was pillaged by parliamentarian soldiers and over the course of a couple of years he was stripped of all his emoluments. In about 1650, he came to London, and gave himself up to study and research.
He was befriended by some Catholic royalists and lived in close connection with them until his death in 1656.
Father Davenport, O.S.F., former chaplain to Queen Henrietta, was his confessor and attended him in his last illness. He died, aged 62 or 63, at Westminster. By his will, in which he made a profession of his Catholic faith, he left most of his property to Ruthin, his native town.
His manuscripts and books, however, were given to Trinity College, Cambridge.
Achievements
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Born
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Died
January 19, 1656 (aged 73) -
Religion
Protestant Catholicism