Thomas Goldwell

Not to be confused with Thomas Goldwell (prior), the last prior of Christ Church, Canterbury.

Thomas Goldwell (died 3 April 1585) was an English bishop, the last of those who had refused to accept the English Reformation.

Life

He began his career as rector of Cheriton in 1532, after graduating BA (probably at Canterbury College) and then MA at All Souls College, Oxford.^[1]

He became chaplain to Cardinal Pole and lived with him at Rome, was attainted in 1539, but returned to England on Mary's accession, and in 1555 became bishop of St Asaph, a diocese, largely within Wales, which he did much to win back to the Roman Catholic Church. Mary planned to make him Bishop of Oxford and ambassador to Rome in November 1558, and the documents were drawn up, but were not enacted due to her death. Thus, Goldwell attended Cardinal Pole's funeral by the queen's permission and then returned to St Asaph's. When Elizabeth came to the throne, Goldwell complained of not being invited to her first parliament as a bishop, but then by June 1559 decided to escape from England, which he then did.

In 1561 became superior of the Theatines at San Silvestro, their house in Rome. He was the only English bishop at the council of Trent, and in 1562 was again attainted. In the following year he was appointed vicar-general to Carlo Borromeo, archbishop of Milan. Later, he returned to Rome, where he is known to have ordained the famous Spanish composer Tomás Luis de Victoria as a priest.^[2] He died in Rome in 1585.

References

Dictionary of National Biography entry
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Robert Warton	Bishop of St Asaph 1554–1559	Succeeded by Richard Davies

Bishops of Oxford

Early modern	Robert King Thomas Goldwell Hugh Curwen John Underhill John Bridges John Howson Richard Corbet John Bancroft Robert Skinner William Paul Walter Blandford The Lord Crew Henry Compton John Fell Samuel Parker Timothy Hall John Hough William Talbot John Potter Thomas Secker John Hume Robert Lowth John Butler Edward Smallwell John Randolph

Late modern	Charles Moss William Jackson Edward Legge Charles Lloyd Richard Bagot Samuel Wilberforce John Mackarness William Stubbs Francis Paget Charles Gore Hubert Burge Thomas Strong Kenneth Kirk Harry Carpenter Kenneth Woollcombe Patrick Rodger Richard Harries John Pritchard

Persondata
Name	Goldwell, Thomas
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth
Place of birth
Date of death	3 April 1585
Place of death