Francis Godwin (1562–1633) was an English historian, science fiction author and

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

, who was

Bishop of Llandaff The Bishop of Llandaff is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church in Wales Diocese of Llandaff. Area of authority The diocese covers most of the County of Glamorgan. The bishop's cathedra, seat is in the Llandaff Cathedral, Cathedral Chu ...

and of Hereford.

Life

He was the son of Thomas Godwin,

Bishop of Bath and Wells The Bishop of Bath and Wells heads the Church of England Diocese of Bath and Wells in the Province of Canterbury in England. The present diocese covers the overwhelmingly greater part of the (ceremonial) county of Somerset and a small area of D ...

, born at Hannington, Northamptonshire. He was the great-uncle of the writer

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer, essayist, satirist, and Anglican cleric. In 1713, he became the Dean (Christianity), dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and was given the sobriquet "Dean Swi ...

. He was elected student of

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

, in 1578, took his bachelor's degree in 1580, and that of master in 1583. After holding two

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

livings he was in 1587 appointed subdean of

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

. In 1590 he accompanied

William Camden William Camden (2 May 1551 – 9 November 1623) was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and herald, best known as author of ''Britannia'', the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland that relates la ...

on an antiquarian tour through Wales. He was created bachelor of divinity in 1593, and doctor in 1595. In 1601 he published his ''Catalogue of the Bishops of England since the first planting of the Christian Religion in this Island'', a work which procured him in the same year the diocese of Llandaff. A second edition appeared in 1615, and in 1616 he published an edition in Latin with a dedication to King James, who in the following year conferred upon him the

diocese of Hereford The Diocese of Hereford is a Church of England diocese based in Hereford, covering Herefordshire, southern Shropshire and a few parishes within Worcestershire in England, and a few parishes within Powys and Monmouthshire in Wales. The cathedral i ...

. The work was republished, with a continuation by William Richardson, in 1743. Godwin died, after a lingering illness, in April 1633 in Whitbourne,

Herefordshire Herefordshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England, bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh ...

Works

In 1616 Godwin published ''Rerum Anglicarum, Henrico VIII., Edwardo VI. et Maria regnantibus, Annales'', which was afterwards translated and published by his son Morgan under the title ''Annales of England'' (1630). He is also the author of a somewhat remarkable story, published posthumously in 1638, and entitled ''

The Man in the Moone ''The Man in the Moone'' is a book by the English Divine (noun), divine and Church of England bishop Francis Godwin (1562–1633), describing a "voyage of utopian discovery". Long considered to be one of his early works, it is now generally tho ...

, or a Discourse of a Voyage thither, by Domingo Gonsales'', written apparently some time in the 1620s. (On the date of composition, see John Anthony Butler's edition of ''The Man in the Moon'' ovehouse, 1995 pp. 14–15.) In this production Godwin not only declares himself a believer in the Copernican system, but adopts so far the principles of the law of

gravitation In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...

as to suppose that weight decreases with distance from the Earth. The work, which displays considerable fancy and wit, influenced

John Wilkins John Wilkins (14 February 1614 – 19 November 1672) was an English Anglican ministry, Anglican clergyman, Natural philosophy, natural philosopher, and author, and was one of the founders of the Royal Society. He was Bishop of Chester from 1 ...

' ''The discovery of a world in the Moone''. Both works were translated into French, and were imitated in several important particulars by

Cyrano de Bergerac Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac ( , ; 6 March 1619 – 28 July 1655) was a French novelist, playwright, epistolarian, and duelist. A bold and innovative author, his work was part of the libertine literature of the first half of the 17th ce ...

, from whom (if not from Godwin directly)

obtained valuable hints in writing of Gulliver's voyage to Laputa. Another work of Godwin's, ''Nuncius inanimatus, published In Utopia'', originally printed in 1629 and again in 1657, seems to have been the prototype of John Wilkins's ''Mercury, or the Secret and Swift Messenger'', which appeared in 1641. Another work was ''De praesulibus Angliae'' (1616).

References

External links

The Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, Astronomy and Space Flight

Concept of Weightlessness
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Godwin, Francis 1562 births 1633 deaths Bishops of Hereford Bishops of Llandaff People from West Northamptonshire District 16th-century English Anglican priests 17th-century Church of England bishops 17th-century English historians 17th-century English male writers English science fiction writers 17th-century English novelists 17th-century Welsh Anglican bishops