William Good, S.J. (1527 – 5 July 1586) was an English

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

and educator in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

Life

Born at

Glastonbury Glastonbury ( , ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than across the River ...

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 ...

, he was educated there, and admitted to

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517 by Richard Fo ...

, 26 February 1546. He was elected a fellow there on 15 June 1548, and commenced M.A. 18 July 1552, being around then humanity reader in the college. He was one of the clerks of the market in 1552. In Queen Mary's reign he obtained the benefice of

Middle Chinnock Middle Chinnock is a village in the civil parish of West and Middle Chinnock, in Somerset, England, north east of Crewkerne. It lies east of the larger village of West Chinnock. In 1881 the parish had a population of 150. Middle Chinnock ...

, Somerset, the prebend of Comba Octava in the church of Wells, and the head-mastership of the grammar school at Wells. Soon after the accession of

Elizabeth Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Empress Elisabeth (disambiguation), lists various empresses named ''Elisabeth'' or ''Elizabeth'' * Princess Elizabeth ...

he left for

Tournai Tournai ( , ; ; ; , sometimes Anglicisation (linguistics), anglicised in older sources as "Tournay") is a city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia located in the Hainaut Province, Province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies by ...

, where in 1562 he was admitted into the Society of Jesus by

Everard Mercurian Everard Mercurian (1514 – 1 August 1580) was the fourth Superior General of the Society of Jesus. Early life Born 'Lardinois' into a humble family in Marcourt, near La Roche-en-Ardenne in what is now the province of Luxembourg in 1514, in t ...

. After he had passed his novitiate he was sent into Ireland with

Richard Creagh Richard Creagh (; 1523 Limerick City – December 1586, Tower of London) was an Irish Roman Catholic clergyman who was the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Along with the other Irish Catho ...

as a missionary for several years and there taught at a Jesuit school at Limerick. Then he went to

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

, where he became acquainted with Robert Parsons, whom he persuaded to join the Jesuit order. In 1577 he was professed of the four vows at Rome. Subsequently, he visited Sweden and Poland in company with

Antonio Possevino Antonio Possevino (; 10 July 1533 – 26 February 1611) was a Jesuit protagonist of Counter Reformation as a papal diplomat and a Jesuit controversialist, polemicist, encyclopedist, and bibliographer. He was the first Jesuit to visit Muscovy ...

in order to settle some affairs relating to the order. While living in Poland, he was elected by the provincial meeting as procurator to the fourth general congregation and took part in the election of

Claudio Acquaviva Claudio Acquaviva, SJ (14 September 1543 – 31 January 1615) was an Italian Jesuit priest. Elected in 1581 as the fifth Superior General of the Society of Jesus, he has been referred to as the second founder of the Jesuit order. Early life and ...

as general of the Jesuits (1581). After the congregation was over he remained as confessor to the

English College, Rome The Venerable English College (), commonly referred to as the English College, is a Catholic seminary in Rome, Italy, for the training of priests for England and Wales. It was founded in 1579 by William Allen on the model of the English Colleg ...

. Good died at Naples on 5 July (N. S.) 1586, and was buried in the college of the Jesuits in that city. His ''Ecclesiae Anglicanae Trophea, sive sanctorum Martyrum'', Rome, 1584, contained thirty-six plates, engraved on copper. They reproduced pictures that formerly covered the walls of the church attached to the English College at Rome, and presented by George Gilbert, S.J. Good had superintended the work and supplied the artist with the subjects. A reproduction of the engravings, under the editorial supervision of John Morris, S.J., appeared in 1888.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Good, William 1527 births 1586 deaths Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford People from Glastonbury 16th-century English Jesuits