Thomas Lewis (controversialist)
Thomas Lewis (1689–in or after 1737) was an English cleric, noted as a vitriolic High Church writer of the Bangorian controversy. Early life. The son of Stephen Lewis, vicar of Weobly and rector of Holgate, Shropshire, he was born at Kington, Herefordshire, on 14 March 1689. He was educated at Hereford Free School, under a Mr. Traherne. He was admitted a Bible clerk at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he matriculated 3 July 1704, and graduated B.A. in 1711. He does not appear to have proceeded M.A., but was ordained priest in 1713 at Worcester. High  Church propagandist. In 1717 Lewis established "The Scourge, in vindication of the Church of England", a periodical sheet that appeared every Monday. It abused dissenters, latitudinarians, and Catholics. On 15 July 1717 Lewis denounced Benjamin Hoadly from the text, "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defie the Armes of the Living God?" Six weeks later he launched an attack on Scottish presbyterianism with the words "Every beast loveth his like". The paper was presented by the grand jury of Westminster as the work of a libeller and an embroiler of the nation, and Lewis, who absconded, was ordered  to stand his trial for sedition at the court of king's bench. In the meantime there appeared "The Scourge Scourged, or a short Account of the Life of the Author of the Scourge", vilifying Lewis and his "weekly excrement". From his hiding-place Lewis issued "The Danger of the Church Establishment of England". This epistle, which included a further attack upon Hoadly, passed through two editions, and was answered by "A brief Answer to a long Libel". Lewis had the last word in the controversy with his "Anatomy of the Heretical Synod of Dissenters at Salter's Hall", 1719 . Later life. About 1720 Lewis appears to have been acting as curate at St Clement Danes. In 1735 he been keeping a private boarding-school for several years, in Hampstead. Leaving there in 1737 he settled at Chelsea, and sent an account of his life to Thomas Rawlinson on 12 September 1737. Works. Lewis also wrote: Lewis also edited a translation of Robert Sanderson's "Casus Conscientiæ", as "A Preservation against Schism and Rebellion", 1722.