Religion and belief

Abbot, George (1562–1633), archbishop of Canterbury, was born on 29 October 1562 in the parish of St Nicholas, Guildford, Surrey, the fourth of six sons of Maurice Abbot (1519/20–1606), shearman (clothworker), and Alice, née Marsh or March (1525/6–1606). His parents were committed protestants who, according to ...

Abbot, Robert (1559/60–1618), bishop of Salisbury, was born at Guildford, Surrey, 'in a house now an ale-house bearing the sign of the three mariners, by the river side, near to the bridge, on the north side of the street, in St Nicholas's parish...

Abbott, Eric Symes (1906–1983), dean of Westminster, was born on 26 May 1906 at Nottingham, the younger son and second of three children of William Henry Abbott, schoolteacher, and his wife, Mary Symes, also a teacher. A Dame Agnes Mellor scholar at Nottingham high school...

Abernethy, John (1680–1740), Presbyterian minister, was born on 19 October 1680, the son of John Abernethy (d. 1703), minister at Brigh, co. Tyrone, and his wife, a member of the family of Walkinshaw, of Walkinshaw, Renfrewshire. His father, who had settled in ...

Abraham, Charles John (1814–1903), bishop of Wellington, New Zealand, born on 17 June 1814 at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, was the second son of Captain Thomas Abraham of the 16th regiment, who was on the staff there, and Louisa Susannah, daughter of ...

Abrahams, Israel (1858–1925), Jewish scholar and historian, was born on 26 November 1858 at 10 Finsbury Square, London, the second son in the family of four sons and two daughters of Barnett Abrahams (1831–1863) and his wife, Jane, née Brandon (1834–1895). His father was principal of ...

Achilli, (Giovanni) Giacinto (b. c. 1803), Dominican priest, anti-Catholic polemicist, and seducer, was born in the village of Celleno, 18 miles from Viterbo, then in the Papal States. He joined the Dominican order in 1819, studied at the convent of the Minerva in ...

Acton, John Emerich Edward Dalberg, first Baron Acton (1834–1902), historian and moralist, was born at Naples on 10 January 1834, the only child of Sir Ferdinand Richard Edward Acton, seventh baronet (1801–1837), and Marie Louise Pelline de Dalberg (1812–1860), the French-bred heir of ...

Adams, James Williams (1839–1903), army chaplain, born on 24 November 1839 in Cork, was the only son of James O'Brien Adams, magistrate of Cork (d. 1854), and his wife, Elizabeth Williams. Educated at Hamlin and Porter's School, on the South Mall, Cork...

Adamson [Constantine], Patrick (1537–1592), archbishop of St Andrews, was born, probably in Perth, in March 1537. He was said to have been the son of a baker, but his grandfather Dionysius Adamson or Constantine was town clerk of Perth in the late fifteenth century, while his father, ...

Adderley, James Granville (1861–1942), Church of England clergyman and Christian socialist, was born on 1 July 1861 at Hams Hall, Warwickshire, the fifth and youngest son of Charles Bowyer Adderley, first Baron Norton (1814–1905), and his wife, Julia Anne Eliza (d. 1887)...

Adler, Hermann (1839–1911), chief rabbi, was born in Hanover on 30 May 1839, the second son of two sons and three daughters of Nathan Marcus Adler (1803–1890), then chief rabbi of Hanover, and his first wife, Henrietta Worms (d. 1854). In June 1845 the family moved to ...

Adler, Nathan Marcus (1803–1890), chief rabbi, was born on 15 January 1803 in Hanover, the third son of Mordecai Baer Adler, the unofficial chief rabbi in Hanover. His mother's name remains unknown. Adler's education, a synthesis of strict Orthodox Judaism and the world of secular scholarship, typified the modern outlook of ‘Torah-true’ Judaism fashioned in the wake of the Enlightenment. ...

Æthelberht [St Æthelberht, Ethelbert] (779/80–794), king of the East Angles, was the son of King Æthelred of the East Angles and was executed in 794 by order of King Offa of Mercia, as a result of which he came to be regarded as a royal martyr. His cult, which probably started life as a focus for resistance to ...

Aga Khan [Mohammed Shah] III (1877–1957), leader of the Ismailis, was born in Karachi on 2 November 1877, a member of the ruling Qajar dynasty in Persia, the son of Aga Ali Shah, Aga Khan II (d. 1885), and Shams al-Muluk, known as ...

Aigueblanche, Peter d' [Peter de Aqua Blanca] (d. 1268), bishop of Hereford and royal councillor, was descended from the family of Briançon, holders of the lordship of Aigueblanche (Savoie) in the Tarentaise or valley of the upper Isère, dependants of the counts of Savoy...

Aikenhead, Mary Frances (1787–1858), Roman Catholic nun, was born on 19 January 1787, in the house adjoining the Aikenhead and Dupont apothecary premises on the corner of Grand Parade and Castle Street in Cork. She was the eldest of four children of Dr David Aikenhead...

Ainger, Alfred [pseud. Doubleday] (1837–1904), writer and Church of England clergyman, born at 10 Doughty Street, London, on 9 February 1837, was the youngest of the four children of Alfred Ainger (1797–1859) and his first wife, Marianne Jagger (d. 1839) of ...

Alabaster, William (1568–1640), Church of England clergyman and writer, was born in Hadleigh, Suffolk, on 27 February 1568, the son of Roger Alabaster (d. after 1606), a merchant; his mother was Bridget Winthrop (1543–1614), whose father had been master of the Clothworkers...

Alcuin [Albinus, Flaccus] (c. 740–804), abbot of St Martin's, Tours, and royal adviser, was a major figure in the revival of learning and letters under the Frankish king and emperor, Charlemagne (r. 768–814).