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 Theology,
#2001
Samuel Presbiter
1200 - 1300 (100 years)
Samuel Presbiter was a theologian, a student of William de Montibus at the cathedral school in Lincoln, England. He is the creator of several works he designates 'Collecta', preserved in two manuscripts from Bury St Edmunds Abbey, now Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 860 and Cambridge, Pembroke College, MS 115. The common origin of these manuscripts suggests that he was also a monk at the abbey. His works typically consist of poems summarizing his learning, created for mnemonic purposes, together with prose extracts. Four of his works have been published in full or in part: his versificati...
Go to Profile#2002
Valère Regnault
1543 - 1623 (80 years)
Valère Regnault or Regnauld was a French Jesuit theologian. Life He was born in the diocese of Besançon. He studied under Juan Maldonado at the Collège de Clermont, where he was one of the first pupils. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1573. He taught philosophy at the Collège de Bordeaux, then moral theology in several colleges.
Go to Profile#2003
Petrus Johannes Meindaerts
1684 - 1767 (83 years)
Petrus Johannes Meindaerts served as the tenth Archbishop of Utrecht from 1739 to 1767. After the death of his consecrator, Bishop Dominique Marie Varlet, Meindaerts consecrated other bishops, such that all later Old Catholic bishops derive their apostolic succession from him.
Go to Profile#2004
Anthony of Sienna
Anthony of Sienna was a Portuguese Dominican theologian, so called because of his great veneration for Saint Catherine of Siena. He was born near Braga in Portugal. He studied at Lisbon, Coimbra, and Louvain, eventually coming to teach philosophy at Louvain. There he was made Doctor of Theology in 1571, and in 1574 was put in charge of the Dominican college there.
Go to Profile#2005
Charles Backus Storrs
1794 - 1833 (39 years)
Rev. Charles Backus Storrs was an American minister, abolitionist, and the first President of Western Reserve College and Preparatory School, now Case Western Reserve University and Western Reserve Academy.
Go to Profile#2006
Zachary Brooke
1716 - 1788 (72 years)
Zachary Brooke was an English clergyman and academic, Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. Life The son of Zachary Brooke, a graduate of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge , and at one time vicar of Hawkston-cum-Newton, near Cambridge, was born in 1716 at Hamerton, Huntingdonshire. He was educated at Stamford school, and was admitted a sizar of St. John's College, Cambridge, 28 June 1734. He was subsequently elected a fellow there, proceeded B.A. in 1737, M.A. in 1741, B.D. in 1748, and D.D. in 1753.
Go to Profile#2007
Nicholas Fitzherbert
1550 - 1612 (62 years)
Nicholas Fitzherbert was an English recusant gentleman who served as secretary to Cardinal William Allen and was found guilty of treason due to his Catholicism. He was the second son of John Fitzherbert of Padley, Derbyshire. Fitzherbert was the grandson of the judge Sir Anthony Fitzherbert , and first cousin to the Jesuit Thomas Fitzherbert. Whilst he was abroad, two priests were arrested at his father's house; they are now saints after becoming martyrs to their faith. Fitzherbert's lands were forfeit, and he was obliged to spend his life abroad. He was buried in Florence.
Go to Profile#2008
Abdallah ibn Yasin
Abdallah ibn Yasin was a theologian and spiritual leader of the Almoravid movement. Early life, education and career Abdallah ibn Yasin was from the tribe of the Jazulah , a Sanhaja sub-tribe from the Sous. His mother is Tin Izamarren of the Jazula tribe that lived in the village of Tamanart. A Maliki theologian, he was a disciple of Waggag ibn Zallu al-Lamti, a relative of his, and studied in his Ribat, "Dar al-Murabitin" which was located in the village of Aglu, near present-day Tiznit. In 1046 the Gudala chief Yahya Ibn Ibrahim, came to the Ribat asking for someone to promulgate Islamic re...
Go to Profile#2009
Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener
1813 - 1891 (78 years)
Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener was a New Testament textual critic and a member of the English New Testament Revision Committee which produced the Revised Version of the Bible. He was prebendary of Exeter, and vicar of Hendon.
Go to Profile#2010
Valpy French
1825 - 1891 (66 years)
Thomas Valpy French was an English Christian Missionary in India and Persia, who became the first Bishop of Lahore, in 1877, and also founded the St. John's College, Agra, in 1853. After Henry Martyn, French is considered the second most important Christian missionary to the Middle East.
Go to Profile#2011
Gerson ben Solomon Catalan
1288 - 1344 (56 years)
Gerson ben Solomon Catalan, also known as Gerson ben Solomon of Arles, was a French Jewish author of the thirteenth century. He compiled an encyclopedia entitled Sha'ar ha-Shamayim in Hebrew, which was widely read later in the Middle Ages and the early modern period. He lived in southern France , possibly at Arles. He died, possibly at Perpignan, toward the end of the thirteenth century.
Go to Profile#2012
Saint Gall
550 - 645 (95 years)
Gall according to hagiographic tradition was a disciple and one of the traditional twelve companions of Columbanus on his mission from Ireland to the continent. However, he may have originally come from the border region between Lorraine and Alemannia and only met Columbanus at the monastery of Luxeuil in the Vosges. Gall is known as a representative of the Irish monastic tradition. The Abbey of Saint Gall in the city of Saint Gallen, Switzerland was built upon his original hermitage. Deicolus was the elder brother of Gall.
Go to Profile#2013
Henry Aldrich
1647 - 1710 (63 years)
Henry Aldrich was an English theologian, philosopher, architect, and composer. Life Aldrich was educated at Westminster School under Dr Richard Busby. In 1662, he entered Christ Church, Oxford, and in 1689 was made Dean in succession to the Roman Catholic John Massey, who had fled to the Continent. In 1692, he became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford until 1695. In 1702, he was appointed Rector of Wem in Shropshire, but continued to reside at Oxford, where he died on 14 December 1710. He was buried in Christ Church Cathedral without any memorial, at his own request. However, a medal...
Go to Profile#2014
Bernardine a Piconio
1633 - 1709 (76 years)
Bernardine a Piconio was a French Capuchin theologian and exegete. Biography Bernardine a Piconio was born and educated at Picquigny, Picardy, and joined the Capuchins in 1649. As professor of theology he shed great lustre upon his order; his best-known work is his Triplex expositio epistolarum sancti Pauli , popular among Scriptural scholars. Piconio also wrote Triplex expositio in sacrosancta D. N. Jesu Christi Evangelia , and a book of moral instructions. A complete edition of his works, Opera omnia Bernardini a Piconio, was published at Paris . He died in Paris.
Go to Profile#2015
Giovanni Lorenzo Berti
1696 - 1766 (70 years)
Giovanni Lorenzo Berti , also known by his Latinized name Johannes Laurentius Berti, was an Italian Augustinian theologian. The General of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, Schiaffinati, instructed him to write a book, to be used by all the students of the Order, expounding the whole of Augustine of Hippo's thought and particularly his doctrine of grace and free will. His huge Opus de Theologicis Disciplinis expounded not the private views of a theologian, but those of the Augustinian Order and therefore had a semi-official status in the Roman Catholic Church.
Go to Profile#2016
Mikołaj Łęczycki
1574 - 1653 (79 years)
Mikołaj Łęczycki , in Latin Nicolaus Lancicius was a Polish Jesuit, Catholic theologian, writer and mystic. Life Łęczycki was born near Nesvizh, the son of a printer Daniel of Łęczyca and Katarzyna Gotart. At the age of 18, Łęczycki converted from Calvinism to Catholicism, and persuaded his father to do it as well. On February 17, 1592, he entered the Society of Jesus. He spent several years in Rome, where he was studying and working with Niccolò Orlandini in the congregation's central archive to compile the history of Jesuits. During the stay, he received the holy orders on April 14, 1601. Ł...
Go to Profile#2017
Henry Burton
1578 - 1648 (70 years)
Henry Burton , was an English puritan. Along with John Bastwick and William Prynne, Burton's ears were cut off in 1637 for writing pamphlets attacking the views of Archbishop Laud. Early life He was born at Birdsall, a small parish in the former East Riding of Yorkshire, in the latter part of 1578 as may be inferred from his writings. His father, William Burton, was married to Maryanne Homle [Humble] on 24 June 1577. He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. in 1602. His favourite preachers were Laurence Chaderton and William Perkins. On leaving the university h...
Go to Profile#2018
Marcus Jacob Monrad
1816 - 1897 (81 years)
Marcus Jacob Monrad was a Norwegian philosopher, a university professor for more than 40 years. Biography Monrad was born in Nøtterøy to parish priest Peder Monrad and Severine Elisabeth Ambroe, and grew up in Mo in Telemark. He graduated as cand.theol. in 1840, and was appointed professor at the Royal Frederick University in 1851. Around 1850 he published three textbooks for the examen philosophicum, which were used for these courses during the rest of the 19th century. Monrad took part in contemporary debates and had significant influence, but was also controversial. He is portrayed in Arne...
Go to Profile#2019
William Augustus Larned
1806 - 1862 (56 years)
William Augustus Larned was an American minister and professor at Yale College. He was son of George Larned and grandson of Gen. Daniel Larned, of Thompson, Connecticut, and was born in that town on June 23, 1806. He graduated from Yale College in 1826. Two years after graduating he spent in teaching at Salisbury, North Carolina. Then from 1828 to 1831 he was a tutor in Yale College. At the close of this period a change in his religious convictions led him to abandon the course of law studies on which he had entered, and devote himself to theology under the guidance of Rev. Dr. Taylor, in the...
Go to Profile#2020
Anthony of the Mother of God
1583 - 1637 (54 years)
Anthony of the Mother of God , O.C.D. , was a Spanish Discalced Carmelite friar, who was notable as a professor of philosophy and theology, who initiated the compilation. Career and works Born Antonio Oliva y Ordás, as a young man, he entered the Order of Discalced Carmelites around 1600. After completing his studies at their seminary, then part of the University of Salamanca, in 1609 he was ordained a Catholic priest. Anthony then taught Aristotle's dialectics and natural philosophy at another seminary of his Order, part of the Universidad Complutense, at that time located in Alcalá de Henare...
Go to Profile#2021
Juan Martínez de Ripalda
1594 - 1648 (54 years)
Juan Martínez de Ripalda was a Spanish Jesuit theologian. Life He entered the Society of Jesus at Pamplona in 1609. In the triennial reports of 1642 he says of himself that he was not physically strong, that he had studied religion, arts, and theology, that he had taught grammar one year, arts four, theology nineteen, and had been professed. According to Southwell, he taught philosophy at Monforte, theology at Salamanca, and was called from there to the Imperial College of Madrid, where, by royal decree, he taught moral theology.
Go to Profile#2022
Ludwig Weber
1846 - 1922 (76 years)
Friedrich Wilhelm Karl Ludwig Weber was a German Protestant pastor and social reformer. He was a pastor in Mönchengladbach. He was one of the founders of the Evangelical Social Congress and was chairman of the Association of Protestant workers' associations in Germany.
Go to Profile#2023
Raymond Martini
1215 - 1285 (70 years)
Raymond Martini, also called Ramon Martí in Catalan, was a 13th-century Dominican friar and theologian. He is remembered for his polemic work Pugio Fidei . In 1250 he was one of eight friars appointed to make a study of oriental languages with the purpose of carrying on a mission to Jews and Moors. He worked in Spain as a missionary, and also for a short time in Tunis. A document bearing his signature and dated July 1284 shows that he was at that time still living.
Go to Profile#2024
Joseph Biner
1697 - 1766 (69 years)
Joseph Biner was a Roman Catholic canonist, historian, and theologian. His fame rests principally on his erudition abilities. Biography Biner entered the Society of Jesus in 1715 and received the usual training of its members. He was later professor of canon law in the universities of Ingolstadt, Dillingen and Innsbruck. He entered zealously into all the controversies with the sectaries of his time, especially with the Swiss Protestants. As a consequence, all his works have a polemical tinge.
Go to Profile#2025
Georg Mancelius
1593 - 1654 (61 years)
Georg Mancelius was a Baltic German Lutheran theologian in what is now Latvia. He wrote the first dictionary of the Latvian language. From 1635 to 1636 he was Vice Rector of the University of Tartu and from 1636 Rector.
Go to Profile#2026
John Burton
1696 - 1771 (75 years)
John Burton, D.D. was an English clergyman and academic, a theological and classical scholar. Life Burton was born at Wembworthy, Devon, where his father Samuel Burton was rector. He was educated partly at Okehampton and Blundell's School, Tiverton in his native county, and partly at Ely, where he was placed on his father's death by the Rev. Samuel Bentham, the first cousin of his mother. In 1713 he was elected as a scholar of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and took his degree of B. A. on 27 June 1717, shortly after which he became the college tutor. He proceeded M.A. 24 March 1720-1, was el...
Go to Profile#2027
Joseph Anthony Murphy
1857 - 1939 (82 years)
Joseph Anthony Murphy was born in Ireland but raised in Chicago. He became a Jesuit priest and served, inter alia, as dean of the liberal arts college at Marquette University for eleven years and as Vicar Apostolic for the Catholic mission in British Honduras , Central America, being ordained bishop on March 19, 1924.
Go to Profile#2028
Hugh Binning
1627 - 1653 (26 years)
Hugh Binning was a Scottish philosopher and theologian. He was born in Scotland during the reign of Charles I and was ordained in the Church of Scotland. He died in 1653, during the time of Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth of England.
Go to Profile#2029
Martin Janus
1620 - 1682 (62 years)
Martin Janus was a German Protestant minister, church musician, hymnwriter, teacher and editor. He wrote the lyrics of the hymn "Jesu, meiner Seelen Wonne", which became popular in the arrangement of a Bach chorale as Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring.
Go to Profile#2030
John Hoppus
1789 - 1875 (86 years)
John Hoppus FRS , was an English Congregational minister, author, Fellow of the Royal Society, abolitionist and educational reformer. He was appointed the first Chair of Logic and Philosophy of Mind at the newly formed London University , a position he secured and held against his formidable opponents from 1829 to 1866.
Go to Profile#2031
Arthur Whipple Jenks
1863 - 1922 (59 years)
Arthur Whipple Jenks was an American Episcopal theologian. He was born at Concord, New Hampshire, and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1884 and from the General Theological Seminary in 1896. He received the degree of D.D. from Dartmouth in 1911. He published Notes for Meditation on the Beatitudes of the Psalter . Arthur Whipple Jenks was a clergyman, ecclesiastical writer and historian. Mr. Jenks was born to George Edwin Jenks, member of the N.H. State House of Representatives in 1873 and 1874. Mr. Jenks was a descendant of one of the oldest and most distinguished families of Rhode Island .
Go to Profile#2032
Jacques Bernard
1658 - 1718 (60 years)
Jacques Bernard , French theologian and publicist, who lived his entire academic career in the Dutch Republic. Life He was born at Nyons in Dauphiné. Having studied at Geneva, he returned to France in 1679, and was chosen minister of Venterol in Dauphiné. He moved to the church of Vinsobres. As he continued to preach the reformed doctrines he was obliged to leave the country and retired to Holland, where he was appointed one of the pensionary ministers of Gouda. In July 1686 he began publishing the Histoire abregée de l'Europe which he continued, monthly, till December 1688.
Go to Profile#2033
Robert Falconer
1867 - 1943 (76 years)
Sir Robert Alexander Falconer was a Canadian academic and bible scholar. Life He was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, the eldest child of a Presbyterian minister and his wife. He attended high school in Port of Spain, Trinidad while his father was posted there and won a scholarship to the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He graduated MA in 1889 and then spent three years at the divinity school of the Free Church of Scotland.
Go to Profile#2034
John James Blunt
1794 - 1855 (61 years)
John James Blunt was an English Anglican priest. His writings included studies of the early Church. Life Blunt was born at Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, where he took his degree as fifteenth wrangler in 1816 and obtained a fellowship. He was appointed a Worts travelling bachelor 1818, and spent some time in Italy and Sicily, afterwards publishing an account of his journey. He proceeded MA in 1819, BD 1826, and was Hulsean Lecturer in 1831-1832 while holding a curacy in Shropshire.
Go to Profile#2035
Inácio de São Caetano
1718 - 1788 (70 years)
Inácio de São Caetano, OCD , was a Portuguese scholar, theologian, and church leader. He was appointed the first bishop of Penafiel when the diocese was erected by Pope Clement XIV in 1770; when the diocese was suppressed eight years later, he was promoted to Titular Archbishop of Thessalonica.
Go to Profile#2036
Louis-Joseph Delebecque
1798 - 1864 (66 years)
Louis-Joseph Delebecque was the 21st bishop of Ghent, in Belgium, from November 1838 until his death. Life Delebecque was born in Ypres on 7 December 1796. In 1831 he was appointed professor of dogmatics at the Major Seminary of Ghent, leaving in 1833 to take up a position as secretary to Mgr Franciscus Renatus Boussen, administrator apostolic of West Flanders . In September 1833 he was appointed president of the Major Seminary, Bruges. Appointed as bishop of Ghent on 13 September 1838, he was consecrated on 4 November. On 21 December 1838, he prohibited the clergy of his diocese from any involvement with periodicals disseminating the democratic ideas of Lamennais.
Go to Profile#2037
Helenius de Cock
1824 - 1894 (70 years)
Helenius de Cock was an instructor at the Theological School in Kampen, Overijssel, the Netherlands. He was the son of Hendrik de Cock and Frouwe Venema.
Go to Profile#2038
Bernard of Trilia
1240 - 1292 (52 years)
Bernard of Trilia was a French Dominican theologian and scholastic philosopher. He was an early supporter of the teaching of Thomas Aquinas. He lectured at Montpellier. Notes External links Works listed
Go to Profile#2039
David Cranston
1480 - 1512 (32 years)
David Cranston or Cranstoun was a Scottish scholastic philosopher and theologian among the circle of John Mair. Biography Cranston was certainly born in Scotland, possibly in the diocese of Glasgow, ; nothing else is known of his early life. The first record of him comes when he matriculated from the University of Paris in 1495, attending the Collège de Montaigu. He had access to a healthy supply of money during his time at the university, though he indicates in his will he was a "poor student". At the college, Cranston was a student of Scottish philosopher John Mair.
Go to Profile#2040
John Sprint
John Sprint was an English clergyman and theologian, as well as a writer in favor of conformity, despite earlier Puritan views that had led him into conflict with the authorities. Life His grandfather John Sprint was an apothecary in Gloucestershire; his father, also John Sprint , was appointed dean of Bristol in 1571, archdeacon of Wiltshire 1578, and treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral in 1584.
Go to Profile#2041
Jacques Leclercq
1891 - 1971 (80 years)
Jacques Leclercq was a Belgian Roman Catholic theologian and priest. Life He received a degree in law from the Université libre de Bruxelles and one in philosophy from the University of Louvain , and was ordained a priest in 1917. He was a theologian and a professor at Saint-Louis University, Brussels, Belgium and the UCLouvain. In 1926 he founded the revue La Cité chrétienne.
Go to Profile#2042
David Dickson
1583 - 1662 (79 years)
David Dickson was a Church of Scotland minister and theologian. Life David Dickson of Busby was born in Glasgow in 1583. He was the son of John Dickson, a wealthy local merchant with premises on the Trongate. He was at first intended for the mercantile profession, but instead studied for the Church. After studying at Glasgow University he gained an M.A. around 1601. He was then appointed Regent of Philosophy in the University. On 31 March 1618. he was ordained as minister of Irvine. He declared against the Perth Articles, and was summoned before the Court of High Commission. Declining its authority, he was deprived of office.
Go to Profile#2043
Alexander Black
1789 - 1864 (75 years)
Alexander Black DD professor of Exegetical Theology in New College, Edinburgh. Black was a native of Aberdeen, where he received his education, first at the Grammar School, and afterwards at Marischal College. After passing through the Divinity Hall, he was appointed assistant to Dr Ross, East Church, Aberdeen, and he was subsequently presented to the Parish Church of Tarves, as successor to Duncan Mearns. Upon the death of David Brown, Black in 1831 became his successor in the Professorship of Divinity in Marischal College. His knowledge of Hebrew and the cognate tongues procured him, in 1839, a place in a deputation sent by the General Assembly to Palestine.
Go to Profile#2044
Edmund Bunny
1540 - 1619 (79 years)
Edmund Bunny was an Anglican churchman of Calvinist views. Life He was born in 1540 at the Vache, the seat of Edward Restwold, his mother's father, near Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire. He was the eldest son of Richard Bunny of Newton or Bunny Hall in Wakefield parish, who was treasurer of Berwick, and otherwise employed in public services in the north, under Henry VIII and Edward VI; he suffered as a Protestant under Mary, and obtained some compensation from Elizabeth .
Go to Profile#2045
Odo of Châteauroux
1190 - 1273 (83 years)
Odo or Eudes of Châteauroux , also known as and by many other names, was a French theologian and scholastic philosopher, papal legate and cardinal. He was “an experienced preacher and promoter of crusades”. Over 1000 of his sermons survive.
Go to Profile#2046
Mark Frank
1613 - 1664 (51 years)
Mark Frank or Franck was an English churchman and academic, Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge. Life He was baptised at Little Brickhill, Buckinghamshire, and was admitted pensioner of Pembroke College, Cambridge, 4 July 1627. He was elected to a scholarship in 1630, and to a fellowship 8 October 1634, having become M.A. the same year. In 1641 he became B.D., and was chosen junior treasurer of his college, and senior treasurer in 1642.
Go to Profile#2047
Hermann Hamelmann
1526 - 1595 (69 years)
Hermann Hamelmann was a German Lutheran theologian and the reformer of Westphalia. Born in Osnabrück, he became the priest at Kamen in 1552. While a priest, he converted to the Evangelical Lutheran faith and announced it publicly on Trinity Sunday, 1553, and as a result he was forced to leave the town. During a stay at Wittenberg, he discussed the Lord's Supper with Philipp Melanchthon. In August 1553, he became the pastor at Bielefeld, and in 1556 he became the pastor at St. Mary's Church in Lemgo. He became General Superintendent at Bad Gandersheim in 1560, where he introduced the Reformation into Braunschweig.
Go to Profile#2048
Edmund Chishull
1670 - 1733 (63 years)
Edmund Chishull was an English clergyman and antiquary. Life He was son of Paul Chishull, and was born at Eyworth, Bedfordshire, 22 March 1670–1. He was a scholar of Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 1687, where he graduated B.A. in 1690, M.A. in 1693, and became a Fellow in 1696.
Go to Profile#2049
Beda Dudík
1815 - 1890 (75 years)
Beda František Dudík was a historian and Benedictine monk in the Rajhrad Monastery. Life After studying at the philosophical school at Brno he attended the University of Olomouc. In 1836 he entered the Benedictine Order and in 1840 was ordained priest at Rajhrad. Then until 1854 he taught first the classical languages and then history at the gymnasium of Brünn.
Go to Profile#2050
Christopher Elderfield
1607 - 1652 (45 years)
Christopher Elderfield was an English clergyman and theologian. Life The son of William Elderfield, he was born at Harwell, Berkshire, where he was baptised 11 April 1607. He studied at a local school kept by Hugh Lloyd, M.A., the vicar, and in 1621 he entered St. Mary Hall, Oxford, as a batler. In due course he took the two degrees in arts and entered into holy orders.
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