John Fowler

John Fowler (b. Bristol, England, 1537; d. Namur, present-day Belgium, 13 Feb., 1578-9) was a Catholic scholar and printer. Life He studied at Winchester College from 1551 to 1553, when he proceeded to New College, Oxford where he remained till 1559. He became B.A. 23 February 1557 and M.A. 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. He subsequently married Alice Harris, daughter of Sir Thomas More's secretary. 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. He was licensed as a printer to the University of Leuven on 5 May 1565. 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 St. Thomas of Aquin, and with a most excellent method did reduce them into a Compendium."