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alTcrt, cViavgcd with incontinence, he i-eniaveJ, in I'jiCi, to 

 Perngia, :uiJ fccretly made his efcape to England. Of tlie 

 circumllances attending his efcape he has given a very ample 

 acconnt ; hut his written docnments and oral tcllimony have 

 been fonnd to difler in feveral particulars from each other, 

 and of courfe his integrity was not only fnfpefted but re- 

 proached. Soon after his arrival, he was introduced by 

 Dr. Afpinwall to Dr. Clarke and to bifhop Berkeley, from 

 intcrcourfe with whom, added to his own reading and rea- 

 I'oning, he obtained, as he fays, the fulled conviction that 

 many of the favom-ire dotlrines of the church of Rome were 

 not only repugnant to fcripture and realon, but wicked, 

 blafphcmous, and utterly ineoufiilent with the attiibutcs of 

 the deity. Under the imprcfTion of thefe fentiments he 

 withdrew himfelf from the Romifli communion, and aban- 

 doned the order with which he had been conneCled. His 

 mind feems at this time, according to his own account, to 

 have been in a Hate of fcepticifm and indecifion on the fub- 

 jeft of religion; and though he continued a Protcdant for 

 about fix years, he connected himfelf with no particular de- 

 nomination of Proteftant ChriRians. At length, however, 

 he conformed to the church of England, alleging that this 

 church was " as free in her fervice as any reformed church 

 from the idolatrous practices and fuperllitious of popery, and 

 lefs inclined than many others to fanaticifm and euthufiafm." 

 By the recommendation of Dr. Goodman, phyfician to king 

 George I., he obtained patronage in the family of loii'd 

 Aylmer, and was entruftcd with the education of two of his 

 lordlhip's children. By lord Aylmer, he was introduced to 

 lord Lyttlcton, v%'ho confidered him as a kind of religious 

 confeffor, and remained his adlive friend and zealous advo- 

 cate, even when he was defertcd by almoll every other perfon 

 of any diflinguifhed reputation. Whilft he lived with lord 

 Aylmer, he formed a conneftion with the bookfellers, and was 

 employed, firft, in a monthly publication, entitled " Hilloria 

 Literaria," and afterwards in the compilation of the " Uni- 

 verfal Hillory." The part of this work which he undertook 

 was the Roman hiilory ; but in the execution of it he is 

 charged by his coadjutor, George Pfalmanaazas, with having 

 unduly extended it in fome parts, and in others, particularly 

 in the Byzantine hiftorj^, with having injurioufly abridged 

 it. By the emolument accruing from his tuition and 

 writinE;s, he accumulated a confiderable fum of money, the 

 difpufal of which led to difcoveries which very materially 

 injured his character, and fubjeCled him to jull reproach. 

 According to his own ftatement, he propofed to purchafe a 

 hfe annuity with this money, amounting to iiool. ofold 

 Kouth-Sea annuities ; but being difappointed in thefe views, 

 he negotiated with Mr. Hill, a Jefuit, refpefting the loan of 

 it ; and obtained from him an intereft equal to that which he 

 might liave made of it by the purchafe of the annuity in 

 which he was difappointed. A very different account of this 

 tranfaftion has been given by thofe pcrfons who have 

 queftioned his integrity ; and it muft be acknowledged, that 

 it is accomparjed with lucli kind of evidence, as leaves little 

 room forhefitation in admitting the credibility of it. They 

 allege, that being defirous of re-admiffion into the church, 

 which he had abandoned, he made ufc of his money in a way 

 which would ferve to recommend him to the ftiperiors of the 

 fociety with which he wifhcd to be re-united. Accordingly, 

 he propofed to father Shirburn, then provincial in England, 

 to deliver up to him, as reprefentative of the fociety, his 

 whole dock, on condition of their granting him a life-an- 

 nuity, of 7 per cent. The offer was accepted ; and Bower 

 paid at fundry times fums of money, amounting in the whole 

 to I J50I. and ftipulated by a bond to receive yearly 94 1. los. 

 In confequence of this negotiation, Bower was re- admitted, 



BOW 



in a formal manner, into the order of Jefnits, at I-ondon, 

 about the end of the year 1 744, or beginning of the year 

 174_';. Afterwards lie determined, for reafons not fatis- 

 faftorily afcertained, to fcparatc from the order of Jefuits; 

 and upon leaving them he obtained a return of his money. 

 When a fecond edition of the " Univerfal Hidory" was in 

 contemplation, the bookfellers, very unforluately for tlicm- 

 felves and for the credit of the work, engaged Bower to re- 

 vife and corrcft it ; but though he received a coniidcrable 

 fum of money, not lefs than 300I. he publifhcd it without 

 any material emendation. In 1747 he announced (o the 

 public propofals for a " Hiilory of the Popes ;" the full 

 volume of which was prefented to the king in the following 

 year. In recompence of his labour, Mr. (afterwards lord) 

 Lyttleton, obtained for him the place of keeper of queen 

 Caroline's library ; and his credit being fomcwhat revived, 

 he married a niece of bilhop Nicholfon, v.'ith a fortune of 

 4000I. His " Hidory of the Popes" was continued, in 

 fucceflive volumes, printed at different periods. In i 7/54 hi* 

 unalterable friend, Mr. Lyttleton, appointed him clerk of the 

 buck-warrants, a place which, thongli of no great emolu- 

 ment, evinced his continued attachment. In this year the 

 lird attack was made on his " Hidory," which the advocates 

 of popery confidered as peculiaily hollile to their church, in 

 a pamphlet printed at Doway, entitled " Remarks on the 

 two lird volumes of the late lives of the popes," 8vo. ; a 

 publication afcribed by Mr. Bower to a popilh pried of the 

 name of Butler, one of the moll active and dangerous emiffa- 

 ries of Rome in this kingdom. But an event foon happened, 

 which was much more ruinous to the reputation of Mr. 

 Bower, and which funk him into total difgrace ; and this 

 was the divulging of his corrcfpondence with the Jefuits. 

 The charges alleged againd him were repelled with fpirit by 

 himfelf; but his veracity, though attelled by an affidavit, 

 was quedioned ; and he had fcarcely any friend left befides 

 lord Lyttleton. In the courfe of this controverfy, he was 

 in danger of being exhibited on the llage, as a mock con- 

 vert of profligate charadler, by Mr. Garrick, on account of 

 the manner in which he mentioned that incomparable adlor 

 and his lady, in his " Summary of the controverfy between 

 the papids and the author," 410. But Mr. Garrick, by the 

 mediation of lord Lyttleton, was induced to wave that 

 public chaftifement which he had intended. The reputation 

 of Bower's hidory declined with his own j the fourth volume 

 was publiflied during the agitation which the controverfy in 

 which he was engaged had produced ; the fifth appeared in 

 1761 ; and the fixtli and fevciith volumes were prefented to the 

 public a little time before his death ; and whatever may be 

 the edimation in which the preceding volumes deferve to be 

 held, tlicfe two are executed with fuch hade as to deferve very- 

 little regard. The whole period from 1600 to 1758 is com- 

 prehended in 26 pages ! Bower died in 1766, at the age of 

 I'o; and he left a will, dated in 1749, which contained no 

 written declaration of his religious principles, agreeably to 

 the praftice which very much prevailed in thofe times, and 

 which, in his peculiar circumdances, might have been reafon- 

 ably expedled. His widow, however, fometime after his 

 death, atteded his having died in the Protedant faith. New 

 Biogr. Di(ft. 8vo. 1798. 



Bower, Lut/y's, or Vir^hi's, in Botany. See Clematis. 

 Bower, in Carchnhig, a fliady place, under covert of trees 

 or branches interwoven. A bower differs from an arbour, in 

 that the latter is always built long and arched, but a bower 

 either round or fquare at the bottom, and made with a fort of 

 dome or ceiling at the top. See Arbours. 



'Rovit.t.-anchors, hejl andfmtill, in Sea-Language. See Ak- 



CHOR. 



Ui BOWES, 



