John Fowler

1537 (age 41)

Bristol, England

He became Bachelor of Arts 23 February 1557 and Master of Arts in 1560, though Anthony Wood adds that he did not complete his degree by standing in comitia. On Elizabeth I"s accession he was one of the fifteen Fellows of New College who left of their own accord or were ejected rather than take the Oath of Supremacy. On leaving Oxford he withdrew to Leuven (French: Louvain), where like other scholars of his time he turned his attention to the craft of printing. Thus Antony Wood says of him: "He was well skilled in the Greek and Latin tongues, a tolerable poet and orator, and a theologian not to be contemned. So learned he was also in criticisms and other polite learning, that he might have passed for another Robert or Henry Stephens. He did diligently peruse the Theological Summa of Saint Thomas of Aquin, and with a most excellent method did reduce them into a Compendium." To have a printing press abroad in the hands of a competent English printer was a great gain to the Catholic cause, and Fowler devoted the rest of his life to this work, winning from Cardinal Allen the praise of being catholicissimus et doctissimus librorum impressor. The English Government kept an eye on his work, as we learn from the state papers, where we read the evidence of one Henry Simpson at York in 1571, to the effect that Fowler printed all the English books in Leuven and that Doctor Harding"s Welsh servant, William Smith, used to bring the works to the press He seems to have had a press in Antwerp as well as in Leuven, for his Antwerp books range from 1565 to 1575, whereas his Louvain books are dated 1566, 1567 and 1568. While one of his publications, Gregory Martin"s Treatise of Schism bears the impress, Douay, 1578.

John Fowler

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Catholic scholar

Background

There is, indeed, no trace of any desire on his part to receive Holy orders and he subsequently married Alice Harris, daughter of Sir Thomas More"s secretary.

Education

He studied at Winchester College from 1551 to 1553, when he proceeded to New College, Oxford where he remained till 1559.

Career

He became Bachelor of Arts 23 February 1557 and Master of Arts in 1560, though Anthony Wood adds that he did not complete his degree by standing in comitia. On Elizabeth I"s accession he was one of the fifteen Fellows of New College who left of their own accord or were ejected rather than take the Oath of Supremacy. On leaving Oxford he withdrew to Leuven (French: Louvain), where like other scholars of his time he turned his attention to the craft of printing.

Thus Antony Wood says of him:

"He was well skilled in the Greek and Latin tongues, a tolerable poet and orator, and a theologian not to be contemned.

So learned he was also in criticisms and other polite learning, that he might have passed for another Robert or Henry Stephens. He did diligently peruse the Theological Summa of Saint Thomas of Aquin, and with a most excellent method did reduce them into a Compendium."

To have a printing press abroad in the hands of a competent English printer was a great gain to the Catholic cause, and Fowler devoted the rest of his life to this work, winning from Cardinal Allen the praise of being catholicissimus et doctissimus librorum impressor.

The English Government kept an eye on his work, as we learn from the state papers, where we read the evidence of one Henry Simpson at York in 1571, to the effect that Fowler printed all the English books in Leuven and that Doctor Harding"s Welsh servant, William Smith, used to bring the works to the press He seems to have had a press in Antwerp as well as in Leuven, for his Antwerp books range from 1565 to 1575, whereas his Louvain books are dated 1566, 1567 and 1568.

While one of his publications, Gregory Martin"s Treatise of Schism bears the impress, Douay, 1578.

Achievements

His intellectual attainments were such as to enable him to take high rank among the scholar-printers of that age.

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