and wrote his "Just Discharge to Dr. Stillingfleet's unjust charge against the Catholic Church," and so ably did he acquit himself that he left his adversary no chance of meeting him with a direct reply.
But the period of security which the Catholics en joyed was of short duration. A storm was gathering and Dr. Godden had only just time to shelter himself from it. Public feeling had been excited to the utmost against Catholics, by the rumours associated with Gates Plot, and the numerous calumnies and perjuries circulated by the infamous Prance, the ready abettor of Titus Oates. This scoundrel, among a thousand perjuries which he afterwards acknowledged, made oath that the murdered body of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, a Protestant Magistrate, had been concealed in Dr. Godden's apartment. Though destitute of every degree of probability this deposition easily gained credit among men, whose passions had been roused by repeated tales of Catholic plots, invasions and assassinations.
Dr. Godden, to avoid the fate that was preparing for him, fled into France, but his servant Hill was seized and executed.
After three years residence in Paris, during which time popular fanaticism had considerably abated in England, Dr. Godden returned to his former dwelling and occupation in Somerset House. He died in the year 1688, about the sixty-sixth year of his age, while as Dodd remarks, the nation was struggling in the pangs of a revolution. In his Will he bequeathed to the College a sum of money on condition that a solemn Office and Mass should be performed annually for him, on the Thursday nearest the Festival of St. Andrew the Apostle. By a clause, he manifests his affection towards the Community over which he once presided, directing that a second course should always be added on that day, to the ordinary College fare. He was buried in a vault under the chapel in Somerset House. Dodd, Eccles. History, Vol. 3.
His principal published works are the following:
