The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
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List of the most influential people in Religious Studies,
#2951
Antonio de Ferraris
1444 - 1517 (73 years)
Antonio de Ferraris , also known by his epithet Galateo , was an Italian scholar, academic, doctor and humanist, of Greek descent. Life Antonius De Ferraris was born in 1444 in Galatone, located in Salento, in the province of Lecce to a family of Greek descent. Both his great-grandfather and grandfather were priests in the Eastern Orthodox Church and were fluent in both Greek and Latin literature. His father was also fluent in both Greek and Latin. His family was part of the historical Greek community of Southern Italy. He later wrote of his pride to be descended from Greek ancestors and prie...
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John Whitehead
1301 - 1401 (100 years)
John Whitehead was an Irish theologian. A native of Ireland, Whitehead studied at Oxford where in 1408 he is referred to as a Doctor of Theology. Up to 1415 he was rector of Stabannan, County Louth. Like Henry Crumpe and Richard FitzRalph he was involved in sermonical attacks upon the Franciscan friars. He attended the 1409 Council of Pisa as proctor of the Archbishop Fleming of Armagh.
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John Bate
John Bate was an English or Welsh theologian and philosopher. Life Bate was, according to Leland's account, born west of the River Severn , but seems to have been brought up in the Carmelite monastery at York, where his progress in learning was so great that he was dispatched to complete his studies at Oxford. Philosophy and theology seem to have divided his attention, and on asking his master's degree in both these subjects he proceeded to add to his reputation by authorship. He was acknowledged to be an authority in his own university and the news of his acquirements soon spread abroad. His...
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George of Slavonia
1360 - 1416 (56 years)
George of Slavonia was a medieval theological writer and professor at the University of Sorbonne in Paris. He was also a priest in the city of Tours. He is notable for his writings on Glagolitic alphabet and the Croatian lands.
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Clement Clarke Moore
1779 - 1863 (84 years)
Clement Clarke Moore was an American writer, scholar and real estate developer. He is best known as author of the Christmas poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas." Moore was Professor of Oriental and Greek Literature, as well as Divinity and Biblical Learning, at the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in New York City. The seminary was developed on land donated by Moore and it continues on this site at Ninth Avenue between 20th and 21st streets, in an area known as Chelsea Square. Moore gained considerable wealth by subdividing and developing other parts of his large inherited estate in what became known as the residential neighborhood of Chelsea.
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Jean Benedicti
Jean Benedicti was a French Franciscan theologian of the sixteenth century. He belonged to the Observantine Province of Tours and Poitiers. He became in time secretary of the order and in this capacity accompanied the minister-general, Christopher a Capite Fontium, throughout the whole of Europe in the latter's canonical visitation of Franciscan houses.
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Thomas Lushington
1590 - 1661 (71 years)
Thomas Lushington was a British author and theologian, born in 1590 Sandwich, Kent and baptised in Hawkinge, near Folkestone on 2 September 1590. He was the son of Ingram and Agnes Lushington, and was one of four children. He is best known for being the tutor to Sir Thomas Browne, author of Religio Medici. However, he is also known for being a controversial preacher, having been later accused of heresy.
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John Martin Creed
1889 - 1940 (51 years)
John Martin Creed, FBA was an English theologian and clergyman. The son of a vicar, he was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School in Leicester and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge . He was ordained a priest and elected a fellow at Gonville and Caius in 1914, where he was chaplain from 1915 to 1917. After being a Chaplain to the Forces , he was a fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, from 1919 until he died. He was also Ely Professor of Divinity from 1926 until his death. He gave the Hulsean Lectures in 1936, and in 1939 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy.
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John O'Grady
1886 - 1966 (80 years)
John O'Grady was a sociologist, economist, social reformer. O’Grady served as executive secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Charities from 1920 to 1961. Life John O'Grady, the son of Francis O'Grady and Margaret O'Grady, was born on March 31, 1886, in Annagh Feakle, County Clare, Ireland. He was educated in Ireland and attended seminary at the All Hallows College in Dublin, where he was ordained on June 24, 1909. After ordination, O'Grady was assigned to serve in the diocese of Omaha, Nebraska.
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Francis Garden
1810 - 1884 (74 years)
Francis Garden was a Scottish theologian and religious author. When in England he generally served in the Anglican church, but in Scotland he served in the Episcopalian church. Early life He was born on 10 December 1810, the son of Alexander Garden , a Glasgow merchant, and Rebecca, daughter of Robert Menteith, esq., of Carstairs. They stayed at 110 Argyll Street. After home-tutoring he attended Glasgow University from whence he passed to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his degree of B.A. in 1833 and M.A. in 1836. In 1833 he obtained the Hulsean prize for an essay on the ‘Advantag...
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Bartholomäus Bernhardi of Feldkirchen
1487 - 1551 (64 years)
Bartholomäus Bernardi was the rector and a professor of physics and philosophy at the University of Wittenberg during the time of Martin Luther. He became a Protestant reformer. He was also pastor of the congregation in Kemberg, Saxony—15.2 kilometers south of Wittenberg— and the third Lutheran priest to marry.
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Charles H. Parrish
1841 - 1931 (90 years)
Charles Henry Parrish was a minister and educator in Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky. He was the pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Louisville from 1886 until his death in 1931. He was a professor and officer at Simmons College, and then served as the president of the Eckstein Institute from 1890 to 1912 and then of Simmons College from 1918 to 1931. His wife, Mary Virginia Cook Parrish and son, Charles H. Parrish Jr., were also noted educators.
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Fernand Cabrol
1855 - 1937 (82 years)
Fernand Cabrol was a French theologian, Benedictine monk and respected expert on the history of Christian worship. Life Cabrol was born in Marseille. He studied at the College of Marseilles, and entered the Benedictine order in 1878. He was ordained in 1882. He was a professor of ecclesiastical history at Solesmes Abbey, where he became prior in 1890. From 1890 to 1895 he was a professor of archaeology and ecclesiastical history at the University of Angers.
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Lancelot Ridley
Lancelot Ridley , was an English clergyman, known as a theological writer, and rector of St James' Church, Stretham, Cambridgeshire. Life He was educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge, and proceeded BA 1523–4, and commenced MA 1527, BD 1537, and DD 1540 or 1541. On the reorganisation of Canterbury Cathedral under the King's charter on 8 April 1541 he was constituted, on Thomas Cranmer's recommendation, one of the Six Preachers of the cathedral. With John Scory and Michael Drum, he made up the trio of representatives of the 'New Learning' among the original six. This was intentional on Cranmer's part, and Ridley found himself immediately confronted by conservative resistance to his views.
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John Hamilton
1512 - 1571 (59 years)
John Hamilton , Scottish prelate and politician, was an illegitimate son of The 1st Earl of Arran . Brother of the Regent At a very early age Hamilton became a monk and Abbot of Paisley. After studying in Paris he returned to Scotland, where he soon rose to a position of power and influence under his half-brother, The 2nd Earl of Arran, who was serving as Regent. He was made Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland in 1543 and bishop of Dunkeld two years later; in 1546 he followed Cardinal Beaton as Archbishop of St Andrews, and about the same time he became treasurer of the kingdom.
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Raymond J. Bishop
1906 - 1978 (72 years)
Raymond J. Bishop was a Catholic priest who was one of the several involved in the case of exorcising a boy in Maryland, who allegedly was possessed after using a ouija board. The case inspired author William Peter Blatty to write his 1971 novel The Exorcist.
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Jean Taffin
1529 - 1602 (73 years)
Jean Taffin , was a Dutch Walloon minister and theologian. Biography He was born in Tournai to a noble family and travelled to Italy where he studied in Padua before returning north. From 1554 to 1557 he was librarian to Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle in Atrecht . He left Granvelle to study in Geneva under Calvin and Beza and in 1558 he became a reformer in Antwerp. He became a French-speaking pastor there in 1566. He had to flee the contra-reformers and travelled to Aken and on to Worms, and after receiving his doctorate in Geneva became a pastor in Metz and in 1562 he got his own church there.
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Peter Cantor
1101 - 1197 (96 years)
Peter Cantor , also known as Peter the Chanter or by his Latin name Petrus Cantor, was a French Roman Catholic theologian. He received his education at Rheims, and later moved on to Paris, where, in 1183, he became Chanter at Notre Dame. Charters show Petrus Cantor as a man active in hearing cases, witnessing documents and participating in the business of the chapter of Notre Dame. Petrus was elected dean at Reims in 1196, but died in the following year in the Longpont Abbey, some time after 29 January 1197. He commented on Old Testament and New Testament books. His work on the sacrament of penance is especially noteworthy.
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Francesco Negri
1500 - 1563 (63 years)
Francesco Negri was an Italian Protestant reformer and exile in Switzerland, then Poland. He was first a Benedictine at the Monastery of Santa Giustina in Padua then in 1525 left for Germany. He was then Calvinist, finally an Antitrinitarian. His main work is the drama The Free Will 1546.
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Şihabetdin Märcani
1818 - 1889 (71 years)
Şihabetdin Märcani was a Tatar Hanafi Maturidi theologian and historian. He studied in madrassas of Tashkichu , Bukhara and Samarkand. Beginning in 1850 he served as the imam of the First Cathedral Mosque. Later, in 1867, he became a muhtasib of Kazan. At the same time, in 1876-1884 he lectured on religion in the Tatar Teachers' School. Märcani became the first Muslim member of The Society for Archaeology, History and Ethnography at Kazan State University. In his papers he illustrated his ideas about the renovation and the perfection of the Tatar educational system. As a historian, he was the...
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Erasmus Sarcerius
1501 - 1559 (58 years)
Erasmus Sarcerius was a German Protestant Gnesio-Lutheran theologian and reformer. He was the father of Lutheran philosopher Wilhelm Sarcerius. Life Sarcerius was the son of a burgher who became wealthy through metal trading in the Annaberg town mines. He is said to have gone to school in Freiberg with Friedrich Myconius and attended the University of Leipzig. After the death of his humanist teacher, Petrus Mosellanus, he moved to Wittenberg in 1524 and worked with fellow Lutheran reformers Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon. Later in his life, he worked at Protestant theology schools in Austria and Rostock.
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Edward Pearson
1756 - 1811 (55 years)
Edward Pearson was an English academic and theologian, Master of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge from 1808. Life He was born at St. George's Tombland in Norwich on 25 October 1756, eldest son of Edward Pearson a wool-stapler there, who shortly moved to Tattingstone, Suffolk and was governor of the local poorhouse. He was educated at home, and entered Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge as sizar, on 7 May 1778. The Rev. John Hey, the college tutor, who held the rectory of Passenham, Northamptonshire, appointed him his curate .
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Andrew of Rhodes
1350 - 1440 (90 years)
Andrew Chrysoberges, also called Andrew of Rhodes or Andrew of Colossus , was a Greek Dominican prelate and theologian. He was Greek by birth, and born to Eastern Orthodox parents. In early youth he had no opportunities for education, but afterwards devoted himself to Latin and Greek, and to theology, especially the questions in dispute between the Latin and Greek Churches. The study of the early Fathers, both Greek and Latin, convinced him that in the disputed points, truth was on the side of the Latin Church. He therefore converted from Orthodoxy to Catholicism, made a profession of faith, and entered the Dominican Order about the time of the Western Schism.
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Emmanuel Maignan
1601 - 1676 (75 years)
Emmanuel Maignan was a French physicist and Catholic Minimite theologian. His writings were particularly influential in Spain, where they were resisted by his fellow Minim Francisco Palanco. Life His father was dean of the Chancery of Toulouse, and his mother's father was professor of medicine at the University of Toulouse. He studied the humanities at the Jesuit college. At the age of eighteen he joined the Order of Minims. His instructor in philosophy was a follower of Aristotle, but Maignan soon began to dispute and oppose all that seemed to him false in Aristotle's teachings, especially of physics.
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Thomas Hayne
1582 - 1645 (63 years)
Thomas Hayne was an English schoolmaster and theologian. Life The son of Robert Hayne of Thrussington, Leicestershire, he matriculated from Lincoln College, Oxford, on 12 October 1599. He was admitted B.A. on 23 January 1605, was appointed second under-master of Merchant Taylors' School, London, in the same year, became usher at Christ's Hospital in 1608, and commenced M.A. in 1612. He died on 27 July 1645, and was buried in Christ Church, London, where a monument, destroyed in the Great Fire of London, was erected to his memory. Anthony Wood describes him as a scholar particularly respected ...
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Henry James
1864 - 1949 (85 years)
Henry Lewis James was Dean of Bangor from 1934 to 1940 and an author of theological works in Welsh. Life James was born on 18 March 1864 and educated at Ystrad Meurig School, Christ College, Brecon and Jesus College, Oxford where he obtained a second-class degree in Literae Humaniores. He was ordained in 1887 and served as a curate in Llandudno, later becoming warden of Bangor Church Hostel and, in 1901, rector of Llangefni. He was rector of Tredington, Worcestershire before becoming rector of Aberffraw and, between 1926 and 1930, rector of Dolgellau. Having been made an honorary canon of...
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Adalberon
947 - 1030 (83 years)
Adalberon, or Ascelin , was a French bishop and poet. He was a son of Reginar of Bastogne, and a nephew of Adalberon, Archbishop of Reims. He studied at Reims and was in the chapter of Metz Cathedral. He became bishop of Laon in 977.
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Hassan al-Jabarti
1698 - 1774 (76 years)
Hassan al-Jabarti was a Somali mathematician, theologian, astronomer and philosopher who lived in Cairo, Egypt during the 18th century. Biography Al-Jabarti was the father of the historian Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti, and originated from the Somali city of Zeila. Hassan is considered one of the great scholars of the 18th century. He frequently conducted experiments in his own house, which was visited and observed by Western students.
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Manuel Kalekas
1360 - 1410 (50 years)
Manuel Kalekas was a monk and theologian of the Byzantine Empire. Kalekas was a disciple of Demetrios Kydones. He lived in Italy, Crete and Lesbos where he translated the works of Boethius and Anselm of Canterbury into Greek, and several Latin liturgical Texts such as the Missa Ambrosiana in Nativitate Domini. Kalekas translated the Comma Johanneum into Greek from the Vulgate.
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Lars Tammelin
1669 - 1733 (64 years)
Lars Tammelin also known as Laurentius Gabrielis Tammelinus was a Finnish mathematician and prelate who was the Bishop of Turku from 1728 to 1733. Biography Tammelin was born on 2 May 1669 in Turku in the Swedish Empire, the son of Gabriel Larsson Tammelinus and Anna Eriksdotter Pihl. He began his studies in Turku and was enrolled at the academy in Turku in 1683. In 1698 he became a professor of mathematics at the Royal Academy of Turku. In August of the following year, he undertook a study trip through Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands where he enrolled at Leiden University on 27 November 1698.
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Lambert Daneau
1535 - 1595 (60 years)
Lambert Daneau was a French jurist and Calvinist theologian. Life He was born at Beaugency-sur-Loire, and educated at Orléans. He studied Greek under Adrianus Turnebus, and then law in Orléans from 1553. He moved to Bourges in 1559; he was particularly influenced by François Hotman, and by Anne du Bourg, who was executed in that year for heresy.
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William H. Bennett
1910 - 1980 (70 years)
William Hunter Bennett was a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1970 until his death. Bennett was born in Taber, Alberta, Canada. He attended the School of Agriculture in Raymond, Alberta, and earned bachelor's and master's degrees in agriculture from Utah State University in the US, followed by a Ph.D. in agriculture from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He joined the faculty of USU as a professor of agronomy.
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Manilal C. Parekh
1885 - 1967 (82 years)
Manilal Chhotalal Parekh , a Gujarati convert to Anglican church, was an Indian Christian theologian, and the founder of Hindu Church of Christ—free from Western influence - opposing Western and institutional nature of Christianity in India.
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John Wickham Legg
1843 - 1921 (78 years)
John Wickham Legg was an English physician and published on medical subjects, and later almost exclusively on liturgy and ecclesiology. Life and career He was the third son of the printer and bookseller George Legg, and was born at Alverstoke near Portsmouth in Hampshire, England, on 28 December 1843. He was educated at Winchester College and from there he went to New College, Oxford and subsequently opted to read Medicine at University College, London, where he studied under Sir William Jenner. Having qualified as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, he was recommended by Jenner for th...
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Antonio degli Agli
1400 - 1477 (77 years)
Antonio degli Agli was a Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Volterra , Bishop of Fiesole , and Bishop of Dubrovnik . Biography On 24 December 1465, Antonio degli Agli was appointed during the papacy of Pope Paul II as Bishop of Dubrovnik. On 4 May 1467, he was appointed during the papacy of Pope Paul II as Bishop of Fiesole. On 30 April 1470, he was appointed during the papacy of Pope Paul II as Bishop of Volterra. He served as Archbishop of Volterra until his death in 1477.
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Johannes Hoffmann von Schweidnitz
1375 - 1451 (76 years)
Johannes Hoffmann von Schweidnitz was a Roman Catholic theologian, Professor of Theology and Rector at both Prague and Leipzig Universities, and served as Bishop of Meissen from 1427 until his death.
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Sylvester Kosiv
1607 - 1657 (50 years)
Sylvester Kossów, Kosiv or Kosov was the Metropolitan of Kiev, Galicia and all Rus' in the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in the Eastern Orthodox Church from 1647 to 1657. He reigned during the Khmelnytsky uprising.
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Henry Watkins
1844 - 1922 (78 years)
Henry William Watkins was an Anglican priest, academic and author. Born in Abergavenny on 19 January 1844, he was educated at King's College London and Balliol College, Oxford. Ordained in 1870 his first post was as a curate at St Nicholas, Pluckley after which he was Vicar of Holy Trinity, Much Wenlock. He was a censor, tutor and lecturer in Greek Testament at King's College London from 1875 and Professor of Logic and Moral Philosophy from 1877. He became Warden of St Augustine's College, Canterbury in 1879; then held the three archdeaconries of the Diocese of Durham in quick succession: A...
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Simon of Tournai
1130 - 1201 (71 years)
Simon of Tournai was a professor at the University of Paris in the late twelfth century. His date of birth is uncertain, but he was teaching before 1184, as he signed a document at the same time as Gerard de Pucelle, the Bishop of Coventry, who died that year.
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Diogo de Paiva de Andrade
1528 - 1575 (47 years)
Diogo de Payva de Andrada was a celebrated Portuguese theologian of the sixteenth century. Biography He was born at Coimbra, the son of the grand treasurer of João III. His original bent was towards foreign mission. After finishing his course at the University of Coimbra, he was ordained to the priesthood, and remained as professor of theology.
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Richard Brinkley
1330 - 1379 (49 years)
Richard Brinkley was an English Franciscan scholastic philosopher and theologian. He was at the University of Oxford in the mid-fourteenth century; he produced a Summa Logicae in a nominalist vein in the 1360s or early 1370s, and other works.
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Gerard Zerbolt of Zutphen
1367 - 1398 (31 years)
Gerard Zerbolt of Zutphen was a Dutch mystical writer and one of the first of the Brothers of the Common Life. His name has many variations, including "Gerardus de Zutphania", "Gerardus Zutphaniensis", "Zerbold van Zutphen", "Gerhard Zerbolt von Zutfen", "Gerardus Zerboltus", etc.
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Peter Mews
1619 - 1706 (87 years)
Peter Mews was an English Royalist theologian and bishop. He was a captain captured at Naseby and he later had discussions in Scotland for the Royalist cause. Later made a bishop he would report on non-conformist families.
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Abu Ishaq al-Saffar al-Bukhari
1067 - 1139 (72 years)
Abu Ishaq al-Saffar al-Bukhari , was an important representative of the Sunni theological school of Abu Mansur al-Maturidi and the author of Talkhis al-Adilla li-Qawa'id al-Tawhid which is a voluminous kalam work.
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Christian Reineccius
1668 - 1752 (84 years)
Christian Reineccius was an 18th-century Saxon theologian. He was born in Großmühlingen in the Principality of Anhalt-Zerbst. As rector of the gymnasium of Weissenfels, his writings served the study of Hebrew. He translated the Old and the New Testament into four languages .
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Edward Michael Wigglesworth
1693 - 1765 (72 years)
Edward Michael Wigglesworth was a clergyman, teacher and theologian in Colonial America. His father was clergyman and author Michael Wigglesworth . Life Edward Wigglesworth was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He graduated Harvard College in 1710, and in 1722 he was appointed to the newly created Hollis Chair, thereby becoming the first divinity professor commissioned in the American colonies. He was made a Doctor of Divinity in 1730; he died in Cambridge on January 16, 1765, at age 73 after holding the chair for more than 42 years. From 1733 to 1756, Wigglesworth was recorded as owning a sl...
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Cornelis Reineri
1525 - 1609 (84 years)
Cornelis Reineri or Reyneri, Latinized Cornelius Goudanus was a Dutch Catholic theologian who spent his entire adult life at the University of Leuven. Life Reineri was born in Gouda in 1525. He matriculated at Pig College, Leuven, and graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1549, the first of the 163 students in his year. From 1550 to 1554 he was professor of philosophy. On 1 June 1568 he graduated Doctor of Sacred Theology, and was appointed to a professorship in theology and a canonry in St. Peter's Church, Leuven. Together with Joannes Molanus and Augustinus Hunnaeus he was a member of the committee of theologians who oversaw Franciscus Lucas Brugensis's revision of the Leuven Vulgate .
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John Murton
1585 - 1626 (41 years)
John Murton , also known as John Morton, was a co-founder of the Baptist faith in Great Britain. John Murton had been a furrier by trade in Gainsborough-on-Trent and was a member of the 1607 Gainsborough Congregation that relocated to Amsterdam. Murton had been a close disciple of John Smyth while in Holland and eventually Murton returned to London with Thomas Helwys and his church.
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Thomas Blake
1596 - 1657 (61 years)
Thomas Blake was an English Puritan clergyman and controversialist of moderate Presbyterian sympathies. He worked in Tamworth, Staffordshire and in Shrewsbury, from which he was ejected over the Engagement controversy. He disputed in print with Richard Baxter over admission to baptism and the Lords Supper.
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Edward James
1557 - 1588 (31 years)
Edward James was an English Catholic priest and martyr. Education James was born at Barton, Breaston, near Long Eaton, Derbyshire. He was educated at Derby School, St John's College, Oxford, the English college at Rheims and the Venerable English College at Rome. In early October 1579, he and William Filby sailed from Dover for Calais. Arriving in Rheims, he took up rooms with Edward Stransham. The following August, James and ten others travelled to the English College, Rome. In October 1583, James was ordained as a priest in Rome by Bishop Thomas Goldwell, the last survivor of the English bi...
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