His exact birthdate is unknown, but he was listed as a chaplain in November 1518, and named as a priest when installed as vicar of West Harptree in April 1519.
Goodman had modest connections within the church, as he served as a messenger for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, and was present for the interrogation of Richard Wytcombe, a man suspected of sacramentarian heresy, in 1518.
In order to cement his holdings within his family, Goodman signed a lease for the lands with his kinsman, Thomas Fulwell, for a term of ninety years.
By signing the lease with long terms to Fulwell, Goodman prevented future succentor from renting the land to someone outside his influence.
[11] Goodman's career stalled in the mid-1540s until the death of Henry VIII and the Bishop of Bath and Wells, William Knight, both in 1547.
[12] After Henry died in January, Seymour, Hugh Paget, and other evangelicals (i.e. more reformed) moved to take control over the new king, Edward VI and his council.
Through a mixture of coercion and persuasion, Somerset managed to get the current Dean of Wells to resign, dissolve the chapter, re-found it as a royal donative, and seize much of the land holdings of the new Bishop and the Cathedral.
[14] Somerset used his influence over the boy king to issue a letter patent ordering the newly re-founded chapter of Wells to install John Goodman as their new dean on 8 January 1548.
The years were a period of rapid religious change, such as introducing a new Prayer Book, and removing restrictions on clerical marriage.
Protector Somerset and the council he appointed worked to implement a more evangelical religious settlement on England than that envisioned by Henry VIII at his death.
[16] Barlow was a major promoter of the new more evangelical position, and had implemented similar reforms during his time as Bishop of St Davids in Wales, especially against the presence of images in churches.
[18] Barlow's zeal for the new religion found this pace intolerable, and worked to supplant Goodman with a new, more radical dean, in the person of William Turner.
When the cathedral Chapter had been dissolved, much of the lands and rents had been regranted to Protector Somerset, cutting the income of both the bishop and dean.
Cranmer stated that, though he agreed that Goodman should be deprived, Barlow had no authority to do it, and petitioned lawyers at the Court of Arches for their comments.
[28] As a partial solution, Turner was given dispensation from residency, so long as he traveled around the country to preach a more evangelical message to the populace.
Turner managed to escape to the continent a few days after Barlow's imprisonment, and Goodman used his flight to regain his position as dean under Mary.
[34] They point out that Goodman was not immediately deprived when Elizabeth became queen, and she even re-granted him lands that the deanery had surrendered when they dissolved in 1547.
Instead they refer to personal and economic slights, such as Barlow “running flocks of sheep on the Mendips and for evicting poor tenants from their copies.”[36] When Turner returned from exile on the continent, the Queen and Archbishop Matthew Parker re-opened the legal case of his praemunire and deprivation.
[41] The longest lasting, and most significant set of cases were exercised between two main English law courts, that of Chancery and Star Chamber between Goodman and his former bailiff, Thomas Fulwell.
Fulwell chose Star Chamber because it was a cheaper court that was popular among people alleging riot against the defendant, and offered “some people relatively fast, flexible solutions to problems that other courts could not address.”[47] Goodman claimed ignorance of the violence against Fulwell, but the records make this claim disingenuous.
The men arrived “armed with swords, bucklers, daggers, staves,” and other weapons, forced Bucher and his wife out of the house and occupied the land for five months.
The modern editor of Ars Adulandi, Roberta Buchanan, argues that of the characters, Sir Simon, a parson, may have been inspired by Goodman's treatment of his father.
Ulpian Fulwell has Sir Simon claim he is not done acquiring his plurality, and that friendship and hospitality are repaid by treachery, the Judas kiss, and the confiscation of his friend's home.