Thomas Goodwin
English clergyman (1600-1680)
Thomas Goodwin (Rollesby, Norfolk, 5 October 1600 – 23 February 1680), known as "the Elder", was an English Puritan theologian and preacher, and an important leader of religious Independents. He served as chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, and was appointed by Parliament as President of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1650. Christopher Hill places Goodwin in the "main stream of Puritan thought".
Early life
He studied at Cambridge from August 1613. He was an undergraduate of Christ's College, Cambridge, graduating with a B.A. in 1616.
In 1619 he removed to Catharine Hall, where in 1620 he was elected fellow. At this time he was influenced by John Rogers of Dedham. Goodwin rode 35 miles from Cambridge to Dedham to hear this Puritan preacher. In 1625 he was licensed a preacher of the university; and three years afterwards he became lecturer of Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge, successor to John Preston, to the vicarage of which he was presented by the king in 1632.
Dissenter
Worried by his bishop, who was a zealous adherent of William Laud, he resigned all his preferments and left the university in 1634; he became a Congregationalist.
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This entry incorporates text from “Thomas Goodwin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.