Bower, Archibald

BOWER, ARCHIBALD: Professed convert from Roman Catholicism to Protestantism; b. at Dundee Jan. 17, 1686; d. in London Sept. 3, 1766. He was educated at Douai, went to Italy, became a Jesuit 1706, and in 1723 was made a counselor of the Inquisition at Macerata, Italy. In 1726 he fled secretly to England, and, after some years, joined the Established Church; he gained influential patrons, who procured him employment in literary work and teaching. In 1745 he was readmitted into the Society of Jesus, but, after two years, again professed to leave the Church of Rome. His principal publication was the History o/ the Popes (7 vols., London, 1748–66; reprinted with a continuation by S. H. Cox, 3 vols., Philadelphia, 1844–45), which was attacked by Alban Butler and John Douglas as a mere translation of Tillemont and earlier writers without proper acknowledgment. Bower's character for virtue as well as veracity is not above suspicion.

Bibliography: The DNB, vi, 48–51, furnishes a succinct account of his life and the charges against him, with a list of literature upon him.