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)
The Regius Professor of Divinity at Trinity College Dublin was established in 1607 as the "Professor of Theological Controversies". [19] [20] The endowment was increased in 1674 by letters patent of Charles II. [20] The title "Regius Professor" was specified in 1761 by letters patent of George III. [20] [21] The School of Divinity was founded in the late 18th century with the Regius Professor as its head. [22] 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. [23] The debate became dormant after 1911 letters patent altered the School's governance. [23] [24] It reignited in the 1960s, after which vacancies in the School of Divinity went unfilled, [23] [24] including the Regius Professorship in 1982. [25] 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. [24] [25] [26]
Professors were: [20]
Richard Bancroft was an English churchman, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1604 to 1610 and "chief overseer" of the King James Bible.
Lawrence Humphrey DD was an English theologian, who was President of Magdalen College, Oxford, and Dean successively of Gloucester and Winchester.
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 Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral is the senior cleric of the Protestant St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, elected by the chapter of the cathedral. The office was created in 1219 or 1220, by one of several charters granted to the cathedral by Archbishop Henry de Loundres between 1218 and 1220.
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.
The Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin is dean and head of the chapter of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, commonly called Christ Church Cathedral, which is the cathedral church of the United Diocese of Dublin and Glendalough in the Church of Ireland. The dean is appointed by the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin. Aspects of the cathedral administration are overseen by the Cathedral Board, which the Dean chairs with both a regular and a casting vote.
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.
Charles Lloyd, Regius Professor of Divinity and Bishop of Oxford from 1827 to 1829, was born in West Wycombe, Buckinghamshire on 26 September 1784, the second son of Thomas Lloyd and grandson of Nathaniel Ryder, 1st Baron Harrowby. Thomas, a 'clergyman and schoolmaster', was Rector of Aston-sub-Edge in Gloucestershire and ran a school at Great Missenden. Charles went to Eton, his education being paid for by scholarships. He was evidently a considerable scholar, achieving a first at Christ Church, Oxford in 1806, a BD in 1818 and a DD in 1821. Eventually, he had to leave and took a job as a tutor to Lord Elgin's children at Dunfermline. This didn't last long as he was asked to return to Oxford to teach mathematics. One of his first jobs was to prepare Robert Peel for his exams. Peel later became prime minister, and remained a lifelong friend of Lloyd. Charles Lloyd soon gained a reputation as an effective teacher.
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.
Anthony Watson was an English bishop.
Richard Walker (1679–1764) was a professor of moral philosophy at the University of Cambridge, noted as a supporter of Richard Bentley in his long legal battle with the fellowship of Trinity College.
Charles Richard Elrington (1787–1850) was a Church of Ireland cleric and academic, regius professor of divinity in the Trinity College Dublin.
John Gwynn was an Irish Syriacist. He was Regius Professor of Divinity at Trinity College Dublin from 1888 to 1907.
This prize was founded in 1935 by a gift from N. J. D. White, Regius Professor of Divinity 1930–35