LOWE, JOHN

Friar, anti-Lollard bishop; b. c. 1382; d. Rochester, Sept. 3, 1467. He entered the augustinians at Droitwich, Worcester, and studied at Lincoln where he was ordained deacon on Dec. 20, 1403. After ordination and the earning of his doctorate at oxford, he was affiliated with the great house of his order in London (1420). He was the Augustinian provincial in England (1427–33); was appointed confessor of King Henry VI in 1432; became bishop of saint asaph in 1433, and of rochester in 1444. A bitter foe of the lollards, he contributed to the downfall of Bp. Reginald pecock both as a judge, and as adviser to John Bury in the writing of the Gladius Salomonis. As a humanist Lowe assisted in the foundation of Eton College (1442) and King's College, cambridge university (1444) and built the library of the Austin Friars in London (c. 1456). While bishop of Rochester, he rebuilt the episcopal palace. He was involved in politics as a Member of Parliament. Although he had been the confessor of Henry VI, he joined the opposing Yorkist cause in 1460 and served as an emissary to Henry in Northampton without result. After the second battle of St. Alban's (1461) he was a delegate of the city of London to Edward IV.

Bibliography: a. i. pearman, Rochester (Diocesan Histories; London 1897). a. b. emden, A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, 3 v. (Oxford 1957–59) 2:1168–69, 3:xxxiii. f. roth, English Austin Friars, 2 v. (New York 1961) 1:104–108.

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