He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, and successively held the livings of Islington (1662), of All-Hallows the Great, Thames Street, London (1679),(1679), and of Isleworth in Middlesex (1690).
The parish church of All Hallows adjoined the abbey church on the west, but was taken down after the Dissolution, when the abbey church was sold to the parish.
Among other ancient churches within the City, that of All Hallows Barking, near the Tower of London, is principally Perpendicular and contains some fine brasses.
Loftus, however, favoured the project of founding a university in Dublin, though on lines different from Perrot's proposal, and it was largely through his influence that the corporation of Dublin granted the lands of the priory of All Hallows as a beginning of the endowment of Trinity College, of which he was named first provost in the charter creating the foundation in 1591.
Eventually, All Hallows Eve evolved into the word "Halloween".
