The Regius Professorships of Divinity are amongst the oldest professorships at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. A third chair existed for a period at Trinity College Dublin.
The Oxford and Cambridge chairs were founded by Henry VIII. The chair at Cambridge originally had a stipend of £40 per year (which is still paid to the incumbent by Trinity College), later increased by James I with the rectory of Somersham, Cambridgeshire.[ citation needed ]
(Sources: Oxford Historical Register 1200-1900 and supplements; and the Oxford University Calendar)
According to a grant of 1590, the office of Regius Professor of "Devinity" at Cambridge has a coat of arms with the following blazon: [21]
The Regius Professor of Divinity at Trinity College Dublin was established in 1607 as the "Professor of Theological Controversies". [22] [23] The endowment was increased in 1674 by letters patent of Charles II. [23] The title "Regius Professor" was specified in 1761 by letters patent of George III. [23] [24] The School of Divinity was founded in the late 18th century with the Regius Professor as its head. [25] The School's link to the Church of Ireland was controversial after the Irish Church Act 1869 disestablished the church and the University of Dublin Tests Act 1873 allowed non-Anglican fellows. [26] The debate became dormant after 1911 letters patent altered the School's governance. [26] [27] It reignited in the 1960s, after which vacancies in the School of Divinity went unfilled, [26] [27] including the Regius Professorship in 1982. [28] The School of Divinity was replaced in 1978–81 by a non-denominational School of Hebrew, Biblical and Theological Studies (renamed the Department of Religions and Theology in 2004) although the statutes mandating a School and Regius Professor of Divinity remain unrepealed. [27] [28] [29]
Professors were: [23]
The Ascension Parish Burial Ground, formerly known as the burial ground for the parish of St Giles and St Peter's, is a cemetery off Huntingdon Road in Cambridge, England. Many notable University of Cambridge academics are buried there, including three Nobel Prize winners.
The White's Chair of Moral Philosophy was endowed in 1621 by Thomas White, Canon of Christ Church as the oldest professorial post in philosophy at the University of Oxford.
John Overall (1559–1619) was the 38th bishop of the see of Norwich from 1618 until his death one year later. He had previously served as Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, as Dean of St Paul's Cathedral from 1601, as Master of Catharine Hall from 1598, and as Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University from 1596. He also served on the Court of High Commission and as a Translator of the King James Version of the Bible.
Richard Graves (1763–1829) was a Church of Ireland cleric, theological scholar and author of Graves on the Pentateuch. He was a Doctor of Divinity, one of the seven Senior Fellows of Trinity College, Dublin; a member of the Royal Irish Academy; Regius Professor of Greek (Dublin); and Dean of Ardagh. He was the younger brother of Thomas Ryder Graves, Dean of Ardfert and Connor.
William Chaderton was an English academic and bishop. He also served as Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity.
Encyclopaedia Biblica: A Critical Dictionary of the Literary, Political and Religion History, the Archeology, Geography and Natural History of the Bible (1899), edited by Thomas Kelly Cheyne and J. Sutherland Black, is a critical encyclopedia of the Bible. In theology and biblical studies, it is often referenced as Enc. Bib., or as Cheyne and Black.
Leonard Hodgson was an Anglican priest, philosopher, theologian, historian of the early Church and Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford from 1944 to 1958.
William Ince (1825–1910) was a British theologian. He was Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, from 1878.
Arthur William Thomson Perowne was an Anglican bishop in Britain. He was the first Bishop of Bradford and, from 1931, was the Bishop of Worcester.
John Allen Fitzgerald Gregg CH (1873–1961) was a Church of Ireland clergyman, from 1915 Bishop of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin, in 1920 translated to become Archbishop of Dublin, and finally from 1939 until 1959 Archbishop of Armagh. He was also a theologian and historian.
John Perrin was an English churchman and academic, Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford and one of the translators of the Authorised King James Version of the Bible.
John Young (1514–1580) was an English Catholic clergyman and academic. He was Master of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, and was later imprisoned by Elizabeth I. He is not John Young (1534?–1605), Master of Pembroke Hall later in the century, and afterwards Bishop of Rochester.
Thomas Lindsay, D.D., B.D., M.A (1656–1724) was an Anglican clergyman who served in the Church of Ireland as the Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, Bishop of Killaloe, Bishop of Raphoe and finally Archbishop of Armagh.
Edward Wetenhall (1636–1713) was an English bishop of the Church of Ireland. His name is also spelled Wettenhall, Whetenhall, Whitnall, Withnoll, and Wythnall.
Charles Richard Elrington (1787–1850) was a Church of Ireland cleric and academic, regius professor of divinity in the Trinity College Dublin.
Thomas Rutherforth (1712–1771) was an English churchman and academic, Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge from 1745, and Archdeacon of Essex from 1752.
Henry James was an English clergyman and academic at the University of Cambridge, who served as President of Queens' College, Cambridge 1675–1717 and Regius Professor of Divinity 1699–1717.
This prize was founded in 1935 by a gift from N. J. D. White, Regius Professor of Divinity 1930–35