ton, near Folkestone, in the diocese of Canterbury. This is probably the same person, but in 1532 Thomas seems to have been studying at Padua when William Goldwell urged him to write to the Archbishop of Canterbury a Greek letter of thanks (Gairdner, Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII, iv. 512).
Goldwell never seems to have accepted Henry VIII's religious changes, and he early attached himself to Reginald Pole, whose chaplain he became, and with whom he remained in exile as long as the papal power was unrecognised in England. In 1535 Nicholas Hobbes had succeeded him as vicar of Cheriton (Valor Ecclesiasticus, ii. 146), and in 1539 he was attainted with Pole. Accompanying Pole to Rome, he was in 1538 appointed ‘camerarius’ of the English hospital of the Holy Trinity in the Via di Monserrato in that city, under Pole as ‘custos.’ Before 1541 he had himself become ‘custos,’ while Pole was now called ‘protector.’ But in November 1547 Goldwell entered as a novice the Theatine house of St. Paul at Naples. He was specially allowed to return to Rome to attend Pole as his servant during the conclave which lasted from 29 Nov. 1549 to 7 Feb. 1550, and which resulted in the election of Julius III. He then returned to Naples, and in October 1550 made his solemn profession as a member of the Theatine order of regular priests. When, after Mary's accession, Pole was appointed papal legate to England, Goldwell was allowed to accompany him. In September 1553 he joined his master at Maguzzano on the lake of Garda. When Pole was detained by political complications, he sent Goldwell on from Brussels to London to urge on the queen to greater haste (Collier, Church Hist. vi. 63, 8vo ed., summarises his instructions from Cotton. MS. Titus B. 11). At the end of November 1553 Goldwell reached Calais (Cal. State Papers, For. 1553–1558, p. 34). In the spring of 1555 he was selected as bishop of St. Asaph, and, having on 12 May received the custody of his temporalities (Fœdera, xv. 422), was sent, when still bishop elect or designate, on 2 July by Pole to Rome to give information upon English affairs to Paul IV. Pole warmly commended Goldwell as an old Theatine to the Theatine pope (Pole, Epp. v. 14–15). Goldwell came back from Rome at the end of the year (Cal. State Papers, Venetian, 1555–6, pp. 288, 293), and on 7 Jan. 1556 received full restitution of his temporalities (Fœdera, xv. 427). His consecration was probably effected during his sojourn at Rome, where he was formally reappointed to his bishopric by papal provision (ib.). On 22 March 1556 Goldwell was one of the consecrators of his patron Pole. He had already served as an examiner of the heretic John Philpot (Foxe, Acts and Monuments, vii. 620, ed. Townsend). He is chiefly remembered at St. Asaph for reviving the habit of pilgrimage to St. Winifred's Well at Holywell in Flintshire, and as confirming the injunctions of his predecessor, Bishop Llewelyn ab Ynyr (1296) as to the constitution of the cathedral chapter (Willis, Survey, vol. ii. App. 134–6). In 1556 Goldwell issued a series of injunctions to his clergy, which prohibited married priests from celebrating mass, and forbade the schools which had begun to be held in churches for the benefit of the poor (Wilkins, Concilia, iv. 145). It was now proposed to make Goldwell ambassador at Rome, and to translate him to Oxford. On 31 Oct. letters of credence to the pope were made out, and on 5 Nov. 1558 he received the custody of the temporalities of his new see (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1547–80, p. 111; Fœdera, xv. 492), while on 5 Nov. Thomas Wood, already nominated to St. Asaph, was entrusted with the custody of the scanty temporalities of Goldwell's former bishopric (Le Neve, i. 74). The death of the queen prevented either scheme from being carried out. At the time of Mary's death (17 Nov.) Goldwell was attending the deathbed of Cardinal Pole, to whom he administered extreme unction. He gave an account of the archbishop's last days to Beccatelli (Calendar State Papers, Venetian, 1557–8, p. 1556; cf. Beccatelli, Life of Cardinal Pole, translated by Pye, p. 130).
Goldwell was uncompromisingly hostile to the restoration of protestantism. In December he wrote a letter to Cecil, in which, though expressing his desire to be absent from the parliament, he complained that the writ was not sent to him, as he still considered himself bishop of St. Asaph (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1547–80, p. 118). On 15 May 1559 he was summoned with the other bishops before the queen, when Archbishop Heath's ‘incompliant declaration’ showed Elizabeth that she had nothing to hope from their support. Goldwell was also 300l. in debt to the queen for the subsidy. On 26 June he wrote from St. Albans to his brother Stephen, asking him to go down to Wales and sell his goods there. He disappeared so quietly that his alarmed servants went to Stephen Goldwell's house to know what had become of their master (ib. p. 132). In vain Sir Nicholas Bacon ordered that the ports should be watched. He succeeded in gaining the continent in safety. The circumstances of his flight sufficiently refute the rumour
