On this day in 1585 – Bishop Thomas Goldwell died

Bishop Thomas Goldwell died on 3^rd April 1585. Born in 1501 in Great Chart, Kent. Goldwell went on to study at Canterbury College, Oxford.

Upon graduation in 1534 Goldwell travelled to Rome to be chaplain to Cardinal Reginald Pole, Goldwell did not approve of the religious changes that Henry VIII was trying to push through. He returned to England upon the accession of Queen Mary I where in 1555 he was appointed the Bishop of St Asaph. Mary had plans to make Goldwell Bishop of Oxford and her ambassador to Rome in 1558 even getting as far as drawing up the documents but then Mary died. At the time of Mary’s death Goldwell was in Rome attending to Cardinal Pole who had also died. When Elizabeth took the throne Goldwell fled England.

In 1561 Goldwell was the only English bishop at the council of Trent and was appointed the superior of the Theatines in Rome. In 1563 he was given the role of vicar-general to the Archbishop of Milan before returning to Rome where he died in 1585 and buried in the Theatine convent.