Simon Lowth was an English nonjuring

Nonjuring schism

The nonjuring schism was a split in the Church of England in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, over whether William of Orange and his wife Mary could legally be recognised as King and Queen of England....

 clergyman, nominated by James II as Dean of Rochester, and later a controversialist on the position of bishops.

Life

He studied at Clare Hall, Cambridge

Clare College, Cambridge

Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1326, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. Clare is famous for its chapel choir and for its gardens on "the Backs"...

, where he matriculated 1653. He graduated B.A.in 1657 and M.A. in 1660. He was appointed rector of St. Michael, Harbledown

Harbledown

Harbledown is a village to the west of Canterbury, Kent in England, now contiguous with the city, although still a separate village. It forms part of the civil parish of Harbledown and Rough Common. The High Street is a conservation area with many fascinating colloquial buildings either side of a...

, in 1670, and vicar of St. Kosmus and Damian on the Blean, two parishes near Canterbury

Canterbury

Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....

, in 1679. James II nominated him on 12 November 1688 as Dean of Rochester, in succession to John Castilion. He was instituted by Bishop Thomas Sprat

Thomas Sprat

Thomas Sprat , English divine, was born at Beaminster, Dorset, and educated at Wadham College, Oxford, where he held a fellowship from 1657 to 1670.Having taken orders he became a prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral in 1660...

, but his installation was put off when it was discovered that he had taken no higher degree than M.A., and the statutes required that he should be at least B.D. Although he took the degree of D.D, 18 January 1689, he was not installed, and William III shortly afterwards appointed Henry Ullock in his place.

Lowth declined the oath of allegiance to William, and was in consequence suspended from his functions in August 1689, and in the following February deprived of both his livings; he made a fraudulent agreement with his successor in the vicarage. He probably lived the rest of his life in London, and died there 3 July 1720, aged nearly 90, He was buried in the new cemetery, St. George's parish, Queen's Square.

Works

Lowth's works are in defence of an episcopal succession against any right of deposition by a civil magistrate, and in favour of the nonjuring schism. Their titles are:

• 'Of the Subject of Church Power, in whom it resides, its Force, Extent, and Execution,' London, 1685, containing letters addressed to Edward Stillingfleet
  Edward Stillingfleet
  Edward Stillingfleet was a British theologian and scholar. Considered an outstanding preacher as well as a strong polemical writer defending Anglicanism, Stillingfleet was known as "the beauty of holiness" for his good looks in the pulpit, and was called by John Hough "the ablest man of his...
  
   and John Tillotson
  John Tillotson
  John Tillotson was an Archbishop of Canterbury .-Curate and rector:Tillotson was the son of a Puritan clothier at Haughend, Sowerby, Yorkshire. He entered as a pensioner of Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1647, graduated in 1650 and was made fellow of his college in 1651...
  
  , charging them with Erastianism. Tillotson took no notice. Stillingfleet's reply drew the next in response.
• 'A Letter to E, Stillingfleet, in answer to the Epistle Dedicatorie before his Sermon preached at a Public Ordination in the Church of St. Peter, Cornhill, on March 1684-5, together with some Reflexions upon certain Letters which Dr. Burnet wrote on the same occasion,' London, 1687, 4to. In the latter part Lowth charged Gilbert Burnet
  Gilbert Burnet
  Gilbert Burnet was a Scottish theologian and historian, and Bishop of Salisbury. He was fluent in Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Burnet was respected as a cleric, a preacher, and an academic, as well as a writer and historian...
  
   with falsifications in his 'History of the Reformation.' Burnet replied in a 'Letter,' in answer to which Lowth wrote another work.
• 'A Letter to Dr. Burnet' (no date); to this Burnet published two replies.
• 'A Letter to a Friend, in answer to a Letter written against Mr. S. Lowth in defence of Dr. Stillingfleet,' London, 1688.
• 'Five Letters concerning the Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures,' 1690.
• 'Historical Collections concerning Church Affairs, in which it is shewed , . . that the right to dispose of Bishops was believed to be subjected in the clergy alone,' &c., London, 1696.
• 'Ἐκλογαί, or Excerpts from the Ecclesiastical History, in which some Account is given of the Donatists . . . Novatians . . . and Arians,' London, 1704.

Family

His father is identified in the Dictionary of National Biography

Dictionary of National Biography

The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...

as probably Simon Lowth (d. 1679), a royalist clergyman with whom he has sometimes been confused.