Goodman, Godfrey

, an English prelate, and the only one who forsook the church of England for that of Rome since the reformation, was born at Ruthvyn in Denbighshire, 1583. He was educated at Westminster school, whence, in 1600, he went to Trinity college, Cambridge. After taking orders, he got the living of Stapleford Abbots in Essex in 1607. Becoming acknowledged at court as a celebrated preacher, he obtained in 1617, a canonry of Windsor; in 1620, the deanery of Rochester, and in 1625 was consecrated bishop of Gloucester. In 1639, he refused to sign the seventeen canons of doctrine and discipline drawn up in a synod, and enjoined by archbishop Laud, who, after admonishing him three times, procured | him to be suspended, and it appeared soon after that he was in all principles a Roman catholic. After this, and during the rebellion, he lived privately in Westminster, employing much of his time in researches in the Cottonian library. He died, in the open profession of popery, Jan. 19, 1655. He wrote, 1. “The Fall of Man, and Corruption of Nature, proved by reason,” 1616, 1624, 4to. 2. “Arguments and Animadversions on Dr. George Hackwil’s Apology for Divine Providence.” 3. “The two mysteries of Christian Religion, viz. the Trinity and Incarnation, explicated,” 1653, 4to. 4. “An Account of his Sufferings,” 1650. 5. “The Court of King James by Sir Anthony Weldon reviewed,” a ms. in the Bodleian. ¹