Goodman, Godfrey

Goodman, Godfrey, was born at Ruthven, in Denbighshire, 1583, and educated at Westminster School, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1607 he got the living of Stapleford Abbots, in Essex; in 1617, a canonry of Windsor; in 1620, the deanery of Rochester; and in 1625, the bishopric of Gloucester. Bishop Goodman was a Romanizer, even beyond Laud's tolerance. In 1640 the new canons were set forth, which he refused to subscribe, "and it appeared afterwards," says Fuller, "that he scrupled about some passages on the corporeal presence but whether upon popish or Lutheran principles he best knoweth." Laud, then archbishop, after the clergy had subscribed, advised him "to avoid obstinacy and irregularity therein, but he refused." It was in Henry VII's chapel, and being greatly offended, Laud said to him, "My Lord of Gloucester, I admonish you to subscribe." Goodman remained silent, and Laud again said, "My Lord of Gloucester, I do admonish you a second time to subscribe," and immediately after, "I do admonish you a third time to subscribe." Goodman "pleaded conscience," and was in consequence suspended. He was committed to the Gatehouse, "where," says Fuller, "he got by this restraint what he could never have got by his liberty, namely, of one reputed a papist, to become for a short time popular, as the only consequent suffering for not subscribing to the new canons." He died January 19, 1655, in open profession of popery. He wrote, 1. The Fall of Man, and Corruption of Nature, proved by Reason (London, 1624, 4to): — 2. Arguments and Animadversions on Dr. George Hakewil's apology for Divine Providence: — 3. The two Mysteries of the Christian Religion, viz. the Trinity and the Incarnation explicated (Lond. 1653, 4to): — The Court of King James, by Sir Anthony Weldon (edited by Breuer, Lond. 1839, 2 volumes, 8vo). — Hook, Eccl. Biography, 5:335; Darling, Cyclop. Bibliographica, s.v.; Gentleman's Magazine, volume 78; Fuller, Church History, book 11.