Archibald Bower

Archibald Bower (1686–1766) was a Scottish historian whose life was as controversial as his work. Educated at the Scots College in Rome, he joined the Jesuits and taught in Italian colleges, then fled to England in 1726, became a Protestant and earned his living as a writer, contributing to the Universal History. His History of the Popes, published in seven volumes from 1748, attacked the papacy and made him well known. Critics accused him of secretly returning to the Jesuits and of inventing parts of his own story, and his reputation never fully recovered.