Thomas Goldwell

Thomas Goldwell C. R. (15013 April 1585) was an English Catholic clergyman, Bishop of Saint Asaph, the last of those Catholic bishops who had refused to accept the English Reformation.

Life Thomas Goldwell was the son of William Goldwell of Great Chart, Kent. He is thought to have studied at Canterbury College, Oxford; in January 1532 a student surnamed Goldwell was questioned concerning books in his possession which supported Catherine of Aragon, and Goldwell later referred to Richard Thornden, who was warden of that College from 1524 to 1534, as his "old friend and master". He graduated BA in 1528, MA on 17 July 1531, and BTh on 20 March 1534. While at Oxford he attained more eminence in mathematics, astronomy, and kindred sciences, than in divinity or the humanities.

He became chaplain to Reginald Pole and lived in his household in Rome, where he was appointed of the English Hospital of the Holy Trinity. Later, he returned to Rome, where he is known to have ordained the famous Spanish composer Tomás Luis de Victoria as a priest. In 1580, in spite of his advanced age, Goldwell set out for England at the head of the mission which included Campion and Persons, but he was taken ill at Rheims and obliged to return to Rome.

At Pentecost in 1584 he ordained to the priesthood Camillus de Lellis, the founder of the Camillians or Order of Clerks Regular, Ministers of the Sick. Camillus was subsequently canonized and became the Catholic patron Saint of the Sick, hospitals, nurses and physicians.

Goldwell died in Rome on 3 April 1585, the last surviving pre-Reformation bishop of Catholic England.

Episcopal succession During his activity as a bishop, Thomas Goldwell served as the principal consecrator of:

and was the principal co-consecrator of: