David Prashker's Book Of Days: The Reverend Writers

All names in this Index are by birth-certificate, which may not be the name by which you know them.

At the top left-hand corner of every screen there is a flat rectangular box with an icon of a magnifying-glass: your search bar. You may well find it easier to find the person you are seeking there.

The Reverend Writers (and scientists/artists/composers, if there are any)

Theologians, gospellers, translators of the scriptures, or commentators thereon... this is what you would expect to find on this list. And they will appear here, if they have been included in the blog. But many of the names on this list were not really Reverends intellectually; it was simply that, in their time, there was no other route to follow, because all that was available, indeed permitted to be studied in the schools and universities back then, was Classics and Theology, less-than-minimal science, absolutely nothing else, so if you wanted an intellectual life you did Divinity, and became a cleric, and did your scientific and philosophical thinking from there... and it may well have included writing, so to speak, from the inside of the dog-collar, not necessarily convinced, but wanting to understand it better. In this list I am not making any distinction.

There are also several here who others might describe as “decidedly irreverend” – heretics, blasphemers, non-conformers, dissenters: but still wearing the cloth, even if they changed its pattern and its colour. One or two are in GER read because I happen to share that opinions. Nonetheless, they were Reverend Writers, so they are included.

And of course not all of the great secular-clerical writers were Christians. Many in the Jewish and Moslem worlds have found ways to inhabit both the religious and the scientific simultaneously - the argument is generally that the deity is simply a metaphorical way of expressing what we would now call E=MC2, and therefore the study of science is actually a branch of theology, or maybe theology is just a primitive form of science: either way, you will understand Elohim or al-Allah better by understanding microbes and planetary systems and carbon degradation better...

So, those who appear in this blog, in alphabetic order...

Pierre Abélard: Peter Abelard in English, Petrus Abaelardus or Abailardus in Latin (born circa 1079, died April 21 1142): theologian and philosopher; former tutor and lover of Héloïse d'Argenteuil on May 15 – ironic that he comes first on this list, because it isn’t for his theology or his philosophosing or his tutoring that he is remembered in history, or on this blog – though clearly it should be: click here for the bio; here for the Scholastic Method, here for Nominalism, here for his music; here for the poetry...and who can believe they already had the Internet and wesbites in the 12th century! click here anyway for his

Jacob Abendana (born 1630; died September 12 1685): with a dozen of his scions also detailed, amongst the first and most significant of Cromwell’s Jews, on Sept 30 – click here

Alcuin (or sometimes spelled Alchoin, sometimes written as Ealhwine or Alhwin): (born circa 735 CE; died on May 19 804): the mathematician here, the advisor to Charlemagne here; the theologian and educator here; the poet here

Mirza Husayn-‘Alí (born November 12 1817; died May 29 1892): known as “Bahá’u’lláh”, “the glory of al-Lah”, though he in fact became the prophet of the Baha’i faith (click here); bio and theology here; writings here; official website here

Tomás Aquino (born circa 1225; died March 7 1274): listed on May 4 and July 22; central to my novel "The Persian Fire" (click here), as he was to James Joyce’s "Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man"; but also here

Moses, who should be listed by his patronym as Moshe ben Amram (though “Moses, son of a great people” is a most unlikely name!), and that Hebrew patronym should be enough to alert us to his true identity; as an Egyptian, Mousa [adopted?] [grand?]son of ibn Ra-Mousa, or in English Rameses: all this, and he gets no more than a passing mention on Jan 3. However, there are also April 1st 1375 BCE, the date on which Moses left Egypt for Mount Sinai, though this is on the June 22 page and even more questionable than his Hebrew name; he can also be found conducting a census on April 29 and crossing the Nefud desert on Aug 15. Much more about him at TheBibleNet

Héloïse d'Argenteuil, or sometimes Héloïse du Paraclet, as above; born circa 1100, died May 16 1163: French nun, philosopher, writer, scholar, abbess, and rather more famously the student-lover of Pierre Abélard on May 15 – here for the Abelard website’s version of her; here for the "Héloïse Complex£ (rather like Freud’s "Oedipus Complex", but female, and the father is a father-figure not the actual dad; why it’s named for Héloïse d'Argenteuil is quite beyond me, because that was not in the slightest the nature of their relationship); a massive archive of various materials here; portrait of the couple here; her letters and books about her here

Honorius Augustodunensis (born 1080; died 1151): compiled the "Imago mundi" on March 8 and usually remembered as mere Honorius of Autun, with Augustodunensis regarded as an error; more on that here and here. But then you look him up, and wonder if I didn’t model Fra Angelus in "The Persian Fire" on him (I didn't; I hadn't even heard of him when I wrote that book)!

Fra Roger Bacon (birth and death dates unknown, but not earlier than 1214 and not later than 1292): Hebdoed on Jan 14; revised the calendar on April 23; protegé of John de Balliol on May 4; “empirically verifiable” on Sept 13; among the suppressed on Oct 13; mentioned on March 6 and July 22 – Doctor Mirabilis’s own website here, with its bio-page here; my account of his extraordinariness is in “The Persian Fire”

Leo Baeck (born May 23 1873; died November 2 1956): at Treblinka on April 1, smichah for Regina Jonas on Dec 27; bio here; his Rabbinical college in London here; the Institute here; his school in Toronto here

Bede, or probably Baeda, and definitely ”The Venerable” (birthdate unknown; died May 26 735): “Modraniht” on Dec 25; mentioned on May 19 and July 22; bio here; the complete works in Latin here; the “Ecclesiastical History of England” in English here; his tomb in Durham Cathedral here; the school bearing his name here

Beatrijs of Nazareth, also known as Beatrice of Tienen (born 1200; died August 29 1268): one of the Beguines in Woman-Blindness; suggesting seven manners of love on Feb 24; read about them here; bio here

Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel (born circa 1520 – or 5285 in the Jewish calendar: click here; died September 17 1609), the “Maharal” of Prague: doing battle with Friar Thaddeus on March 11 (try here); his page at the Prague Jewish Museum here

as to Thaddeus, is this a folk-legend from a later period, recalling Saint Jude Thaddaeus, whose statue can be found on the Charles Bridge (click here to see it)?

Yakob ben Chaim Sasson: analogising water for Rabbi Loew on March 11

Isaac ben Simon: the son-in-law of the Maharal on March 11

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: (born February 4 1906; died April 9 1945): with Hans von Dohnányi on July 27; bio here; at least three Blue Plaques in London: Goulston Street by the Aldgate here; his home in Lewisham here; the third in Sydenham, here, plus a chapel, in Dacres Road, here and here, and its own website here; he is also on the responses to bullying and coercion page

Rudolf Karl Bultmann (born August 20 1884; died July 30 -1976): Bible text critic, named and footnoted on Oct 10; here for his bio; “demythologising” scripture here; Form Criticism here

John Bunnion (in the parish records for his baptism; John Bunyan on his book) (born 1628; died August 31 1688): among the Pseudonyms on Feb 8; buried in Bunhill Fields alongside Daniel Foe and George Fox on Nov 28; Bunyan in jail is on Sept 28, but the book written there was published on Feb 18 - the Bunyan Meeting-house in Bedford here; his own website here

Robert Burton, Melancholy Anatomist, born Feb 8 1577, died January 25 1640: book here, with a detailed literary review of it here, and a scientific review of it here; remembered by his Oxford college here

Chaim Vital Calabrese (Hayyim ben Joseph Vital in Hebrew) (born 5303; died 5380 - again, that's Hebrew): a disciple of Isaac Luria on Aug 5; full list of his Luria texts here; more on the man, and his son, here

Giovanni Domenico Campanella when he was baptised, not clear why he became Tommaso, but maybe it was because he had doubts about becoming a friar at all, and took that name for that reason when he finally oblated: start finding out here; imagined a rather more habitable “City of the Sun” than did Le Corbusier on Oct 6

Lope Félix de Vega y Carpio (born Nov 25 1562; died August 27 1635): his museum’s website here

Isaac Casaubon: (born February 18 1559; died July 1 1614): George Eliot’s equonyms on Feb 8, Oct 2 and Nov 28; the full bio here; his monument in Westminster Abbey here; his letters here; his portrait here; and a scholarly assessment here – all of which tells me that Mary Ann must have known all about him, and chose his name entirely deliberately

Méric Causaubon can be found among the serious scribes

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (born May 1 1881; died April 10 1955): mentioned on May 9; the opening sentence of this link is surely self-contradictory, an impossible paradox? Or else it sums him up to perfection and leaves only one question: how come he wants denounced as a heretic and excommunicated, rather than merely “rejected”? his “Network” here

Thomas Cranmer: (born July 2 1489; died March 21 1556): one of the “three blind mice” on March 15, burnt at the stake on March 21; the school named for him here

Anan ben David (born circa 715; died circa 795): at war, if only intellectually, with Sa’adiah Ga’on, on May 16; for him, click here; for more about his Kara’ite movement, here

John Dee: (born July 13 1527; probably died in December 1608, though it may have been 1609): spying for Elizabeth Tudor on March 11, June 24 and Nov 11 – the original 007 here

Martin Franz Dibelius (born 14 September 1883; died 11 November 1947): revolutionising Bible text criticism on Oct 10 - here for his bio; here for his books

John Donne: (born circa 1571/2 according to most sources, though others insist it was precisely January 22 1572: why the disparity?; died March 31 1631 and no disagreement there): Dean of the fleas at St Paul’s on July 3, and among the Dissenters on Nov 28 – bio here; poems here (Vol 1) and here (Vol 2); portrait here; formal appraisal here

Johann Gottfried Eichhorn (born October 16 1752; died June 25 1827): green traffic-lighted on Oct 10 – bio here; the theory of “Local Texts” here

Marie d’Ennetières: daring to be a female theologian on April 27 (on the Ancien Régime page of Woman Blindness)

Ezra (Azar-Yahu ben Sera-Yahu, and Ezra 7:1-6 will give you his entire family tree): referenced on March 5; fully historicised, translated and commentaried in “The Book of the Return from Exile” section of The BibleNet

George Fox (birthdate unknown; died January 13 1691, and another of those buried in Bunhill Fields, the Dissenters’ cemetery, for which see P’s London): founded the Quaker Society of Friends on Nov 28; writings here; his uni website here, the Quakers here and here

Matityahu Bar Galil (Matthew the Apostle): Not his correct name, but probably as near as we are likely to get, if he even existed: his name-day is on Sept 21; his book is either here or, much more likely, here and here

Rabban Gamliel II: his prayer quoted on Feb 1, and rather than explain its horribleness, page 204 of “A Myrtle Among Reeds” gives the entire story. His bio here. To complete the family tree (they are not on the blog; only here) Gamliel 1, the grandson of Rabban Hillel, here; Gamliel III, his grandson, here; Gamliel IV here; Gamliel V here; Gamliel VI here; and that makes the first four hundred years of Talmudic Judaism, established at Yavneh, still thriving to this day

Geoffrey of Monmouth (circa 1090-1155): though he liked to render his over-inflated ego as Galfridus Monemutensis or sometimes Galfridus Arturus, the latter just, presumably, to pretend that he was a biological descendant of what he had now turned into an authentic human; coming from Monmouth as he did, he also liked the Cymry version, though he would have called it Welsh: Galfridus Artur Gruffudd ap Arthur Sieffre o Fynwy. Creating pseudo-history on Jan 13

John Harvard: born on Nov 26 1607 (died 1638), and mentioned on Nov 28, but it is the college that gets the listings: Feb 9, April 9 and 18, Nov 17, and its key date Oct 28; for his rather brief life, click here; for the university here; for the Queen’s Head in Southwark here

Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim (Mohammed to you and me, author of the Qu'ran): mentioned on May 29; referenced on June 19; made Hijrah on Sept 24; his bio here; his book here, though he claimed that he didn’t actually write it, only recited it, and other people wrote it down, and that the true author was the angel Jibril

Johann Heinrich Heidegger (born July 1 1633; died July 18 1698): bio here; books here [not to be confused with Martin Heidegger, who is on the page of the philosophers]

Hillel the Elder (born somewhere around Babylon in the 1st century BCE; died somewhere in Israel not later than the very early 1st century CE): mentioned on May 16 and Sept 21; mine without nuts please on Nov 3. The key figure in the transition of Judaism from Sadducaic David-worship in the Temple of Sacrifices to Pharisaic Torah-worship in the Temple of self-judgement (and I leave you to make your own verbal witticisms connecting Hillel to Hitpalel and Tephilah; for the explanation of the terms go to TheBibleNet); mainstream bio here; Chabad view here (slightly earlier dates, some important differences, such as Chabad has him going to Israel to take his studies further, where the mainstream historical view has him invited to Israel to give them access to his wisdom).

Mordechai ben Hillel ha-Kohen (born 1240; died in the Rintfleisch massacres on August 1 1298): a student of the Maharam and author of "Sepher Mordechai", one of the main sources of the Shulchan Aruch, on March 30 – bio here

Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis (the earlier of the two Saints Augustine): quoted by Pelagius on Jan 11; confessed on March 15; anti-Semitic on March 30 and July 14; contrasted with Roger Bacon on Sept 13; born on Nov 13 (354 CE); his deathdate of Aug 28 (430 CE) differentiates him from St Augustine of Canterbury (also born on November 13, but in 534) the one who fired up all those canons and gave his name to the Mini Minor; he can be found, Canter-buried, on died May 26 604. Saint Augustine is named as a town on Sept 8, though it is by no means obvious if Americans, even those who live there, know which of the two is intended (according to the Smithsonian magazine: “Legend says that Menendez first spotted land along today's Florida coast on August 28, 1565. August 28 is also the feast day for the Catholic patron saint of brewers, St. Augustine of Hippo. Upon reaching land several days later, Menendez celebrated Mass and named the site after the saint”

Hippo’s bio here; Canterbury’s bio here

Gerard Manley Hopkins: (born July 28 1844; died June 8 1889): his website here (mostly its about the annual festival in his name); poems here; his stone in Westminster Abbey here; Victorian Web here

Louis Jacobs (born 17 July 1920; died 1 July 2006): reforming orthodoxy on Feb 21 ; converted to Masorti on Oct 10; his website (the one set up in his name by his followers) here ; the book that caused all the trouble here

Sa’adiah ben Joseph, the Ga’on of Sura: (born somewhere between 882 and 892, in Egypt; died May 16 942): bio here and here

Charles Kingsley (born June 12 1819; died January 23 1875): elder brother of traveller-authoress Mary Kingsley on June 3; bio here, and somewhat odd to find him on this website, and here

Isaac Luria (Isaac ben Solomon Ashkenazi, ha-Ari): (born 1534 in Jerusalem; died Aug 5 1572 in Zefat): bio and works here; Zefat and the Zohar here

Martin Luther: born on November 10 1483; excommunicated on Jan 3 1521; died on February 18 1546; his website here; its page for the 95 Articles here

Albertus Magnus – not that Magnus was his surname, but no one knows what that was, so this will have to suffice; no one knows when he was born either, only where, which was in Lauingen in Germany; he died in Cologne on November 15 1280: he belongs with his student Tomás Aquino, and can be found doing so on July 10 (and see "The Persian Fire"). The college named for him can be found here; and a splendid bio with all his major works here

Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides, the Rambam): (born March 30 1135; died December 13 1204): blog-entries on Feb 21, Oct 10 and 12 and Nov 14; March 30 has mentions of Freud and Jung and the Behviouralists, and a link to the Bloom’s Taxonomy essay on Sept 13. Also mentioned in connection with him are Dostoievski, Camus and Rashi,as well as Virgil and Dante alongside Mordechai ben Hillel ha-Kohen. The Rambam’s work on Medical Ethics remains unbettered in the millennium since he wrote them: click here for that, here and here for his work in general, here for his bio, here for ibn Rushd his chief mentor

Mani: Pierre Bayle trying everything on Nov 18; a full essay in ”The ghetto of the Christians” at TheBibleNet

Marie de l'Incarnation (born October 28 1599; died April 30 1672): educating the French settlers in Canada on April 30 on the Ancien Régime page of Woman-Blindness]

Meir of Rothenburg: known as “the Maharam”: born circa 1220; died as a hostage in the prison at Ensisheim in 1293 – click here for the full tale; listed among the ga’onim on Feb 19; teaching Mordechai ben Hillel ha-Kohen on March 30 – bio and writings here

Gregor Mendel (born July 20 1822; died January 6 1884): baptised on July 22, an irresistible placement on the blog: the man who first discovered the laws of biological heredity, but I have placed him on the date of his dedication to the tree of God rather than that of Life; the basic laws here; his bio here; and a Catholic version here

Moses ben Menachem (Moses Mendelssohn) born September 6 1729; died Jan 4 1786): a key figure in the development of Haskalah, without which there would never have been Reform Judaism; bio here; writings here and here

Hildegard Merxheim-Nahet (Hildegard von Bingen): born September 16 1098; died September 17 1179; reduced to sainthood on May 10; her abbey rededicated on Sept 17 1904; bio here; she can also be found among the musical maestros, but on this page for her poetry and songs (here), for her significance in the development of women’s education (here), and for her general poetika (here); my account of a visit to Bingen can be found in “Travels In Familiar Lands”, and her full story on the Mediaeval page of Woman-Blindness

Thomas More: born February 7 1478; imprisoned on April 17 1535; beheaded on July 6 1535; mentioned on Jan 3 and May 4 - Catholic bio here; National Archives bio here; his own archives here

Rabbi Nachman of Breslau (Wroclaw) (born April 4 1772, but in Medzhybozh in the Ukraine; he only moved to Breslov (yet another spelling down the ages) later on, and died in Uman, back in the Ukraine, on October 16 1810): great-grandson of the Ba’al Shem Tov, processing life through allegories on July 3; his followers’ website here

Nehemiah (Nechem-Yah ben Chachal-Yah) (such dates as are knowable here): quoted on Jan 7, mentioned on March 5, fully historicised, translated and commentaried in “The Book of the Return from Exile” section of The BibleNet

David Nieto (born 1654 in Venice; died January 10 1728): amongst the first and most significant of Cromwell’s Jews, on Sept 30; bio and writings here

William of Ockham (born sometime in 1287, though Ockham back then was spelled Occam - it’s in Surrey, click here; died April 10 1347 in Munich): influencing John Wycliffe on May 4 – his thoughts here

Ephraim Oshry: (born 1914; died September 28 2003): “The Annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry” recorded by Leon Wieseltier on Oct 28; bio and work here from a Jewish perspective, here from a non-Jewish

John Owtred, or possibly Uhtred or even Utred (1315?–1396): opposing John Wycliffe on May 4 - but my version conflicts with the one here

Blaise Pascal (born June 19 1623; died August 19 1662): bio and scientific-mathematical works here; "Pensées" here; a pro-Feminist Protestant view here (honestly!)

William Penn: born Oct 14 1644 (wikipedia says October 24; Quakers say 14, so does the Chilterns wesbite: which is the more likely to have done their research thoroughly?): Quaker website here; Chilterns website for his birthplace here; died July 30 1718 in the US state named after him - see March 1; his writings here

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch): (born July 20 1304; died July 19 1374): "discovered" the Cicero letters on Jan 3 (click here to read more about them; and here for his own “Letters to Classical Authors” which were the consequence of that discovery; the Dante connection here; and much more in my novel “The Persian Fire”); first saw Laura de Neves on April 6; sadly for him she got married to Hugo de Sade on Jan 16 - and here among the reverend writers, though technically... he entered the clergy, was never formally ordained a priest, but neverthesless earned his living from his church position rather more than from his writings

Laura de Neves, or maybe Laura de Noves, Laura de Novalis, Laura de Noyes, and definitely Madame de Sade (born circa 1310; died April 6 1348): unknowingly playing both Siren and Muse to Petrarch on Jan 16, and again on April 6

Hugo de Sade, who was presumably an ancestor of the more infamous Marquis, married Laura de Neves on Jan 16

Giuseppe Piazzi (born July 16 1746; died July 22 1826): an Italian priest of the Theatine (Teatino) order, for whom click here; but more significant as the astronomer who discovered and named Ceres, the first asteroid or minor planet, on Jan 1 1801; more on that and him here and here, and especially here (because I just love the notion that the Vatican now has an observatory, and can sit watching God have supper or Mary Magdalene sunbathing, any time the clerics want to: I wonder if they have any plan to name it after some founder of the science: the Galileo Observatory would sound good, don’t you think?)

Denis Piramus, or possibly Pyramus (circa 1150-circa 1200): with Dame Marie as his non-Thisbe on Jan 13. Bio and works here [it might be interesting to do a piece on his book “Parthénopéus de Blois”, which is rooted in the story of Cupid and Psyche. Why interesting? Because this is the 12th century, and Freud and Jung were still the best part of a millennium away. The heart versus the brain, done mediaevally. I haven’t read it, but I am presuming that this is what it must be. And if not, why not: to which the answer might be Occam’s Razor. Or my reason for Ari’s tumour being where it was (in my novel "A Little Oil & Root"): “In the debate between objectivity and subjectivity, between heart and brain, never forget which part of the body is referred to as the temple”.]

Elijah Robert Poole (Elijah Muhammad) (born October 7 1897; died February 25 1975): suspended Malcolm X on Dec 4 – bio here, books here

François Rabelais (born somewhere between 1483 and 94 - yes, the historians are that vague, because the archives are that vague; died 1553, though which day...): not François Villon on Jan 5; bio here; “Gargantua and Pantagruel” and other writings here; Francis Bacon discussing him with Roderigo Lopes here

Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (born Oct 27 1466; died July 12 1536): mentioned May 4; his university website here (which gives his birthdate as Oct 28)

Jonathan Henry Sacks: (born March 8 1948; died November 7 2020): his usual self on Aug 30; but here because, when a group of very senior but secular Jews got together and started working to get him made the next Chief Rabbi, he was a very brilliant Cambridge academic from a not-terribly-religious background who had recently discovered orthodoxy but still lived in the realities of the secular world. Perhaps, under his leadership, things might move forward in the orthodox world as well. Within weeks of taking up the post he had, inter alia but this is the best example, established a commission to investigate thoroughly the deplorable status of "agunah" women... but when the dayanim heard what was likely to come out of it, the screws tightened, the review was shelved, and the rest is the same history it has always been. Some of the Cambridge-years books are nevertheless worth reading. His website here

Gershom Scholem (born December 5 1897 in Berlin; died February 21 1982 in Jerusalem, where he was, and this was his official title, Professor of Jewish Mysticism at the Hebrew University): a personal view here, the bio here; the critical appraisal here; his mention is on Aug 5

Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (born Jan 14 1875 - and a cartoon for a birthday present – died September 4 1965): his wesbite here; his Nobel Prize bio here

Miguel Servet (aka Miguel Serveto, Michel Servet, Michael Servetus, Miguel de Villanueva, and Michel de Villeneuve): born September 29 1509; condemned to death for blasphemy on Oct 26, and the verdict itself executed on October 27 1553; bio at his Institute’s wesbite, here; the reasons for his religious murder here (though the author insists the execution was on October 23)

Shammai (full name unknown, precise dates unknown; 1^st century BCE): arguing with Hillel on May 16; what little is known here

Sayyid ʿAlí Muḥammad Shírází (The Báb) (born 1 Muharram 1235 AH, which would be October 20 1819 in the Gregorian; died 28 Shaʻban 1266 AH, which is July 9 1850, and is buried, not in Iran where it happened, but at the magnificent Baha’i shrine in Haifa, Israel, the movement’s headquarters, for which click here): announced himself on May 23 (click here for his bio; here for his writings); and just to save you from confusion, given that Bahá’u’lláh has already been listed at the very start of this page, The Báb was John the Baptist, the Herald, the preparer of the way for Bahá’u’lláh, who was the Jesus of the Baháʼí faith. The archives sugges that, though they exchanged letters, they never actually met in person, but it was the martyrdom The Báb which was the specific for the proclamation of the new faith

Manoel Dias Soeiro (Menasseh ben Israel): (born 1604; died November 20 1657): the return of the Jews to England under Cromwell is on Sept 30, but also see my essay on “The Hidden Jews of Cartagena” in “Travels In Familiar Lands”; Menasseh’s bio here; his relationship with Rembrandt here, and the pictures here

Eusebius Hieronymus Sophronius (Saint Jerome) (born circa 347 in Stridon, Dalmatia; died circa 419 in Bethlehem; his feast day is September 30): his translation of the Bible provided Wycliffe with a dreadfully inaccurate starting-point on May 4 (read it here); his wesbite here (and no, I have no idea if they do Facebook in Heaven)

Joseph Smith: born December 23 1805; founded the Mormons on April 6 - his wesbite here; tickets for his musical here (sorry, sold out, as was he, by a mob in Carthage Illinois on June 27 1844)

Emanuel Swedberg (changed to Swedenborg when he met God in 1741): born Jan 29 1688; died March 29 1772: his Foundation here; his Society here

Jonathan Swift: (born Nov 30 1667; died Oct 19 1745): Gulliver alluded to on Jan 16, April 11, Sept 2 and Sept 20; among the Dissenters on Nov 28; in The Scriblerus Club here; bio and poems here; “A Modest Proposal” here; “Gullivers Travels” here

Laurence Sterne: (born Nov 24 1713; died March 18 1768): mentioned on Nov 28: his website here; “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy” here

Ronald Stuart Thomas (born March 29 1913; died September 25 2000): bilingual (that’s “dwyieithog” in Cymry) on Feb 9; bio here, poems in English here; poems in Cymry... nowhere to be found, but click here anyway

Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo (born Sept 29 1882; died December 31 1936): bio here; his memorial in Bilbao here; my essay on Guernica and the Basque people here

Lope de Vega y Carpio (born Nov 25 1562; died August 27 1635): for the plays and poetry as well as the novels, click here; for his victories in the French 2000 Guineas and the Derby click here

William Wadeford (14th century, exact dates unknown): Head of Merton College, Master Orator and Defender of the Faith; in disagreement with John Wycliffe on May 4; the full tale here and here

Julius Wellhausen (born May 17 1844; died January 7 1918): Bible text critic who came up with the Documentary Hypothesis; goes with Graf et al on Oct 10; brief bio here, but including his work in Arabic; fuller bio here, though this is mostly the Jewish and Christian; the “Prolegomena To The History Of Israel” here

Roger de Wendover (birthdate unknown; died May 6 1236): his “Flores Historiarum” can be found on March 12 (the Matthew Paris translation can be found here (and gives me a great excuse to write a piece about Matthew Paris, who is a serious absence on this blog); about the "Flores" here; modern versions of Volume I here and Volume II here

John Wesley: English clergyman and founder of Methodism (born June 17 1703; died March 2 1791): at the entrance to Bone Hill Fields on Nov 28; click here for his complete writings (though I am not clear how “Pilgrim’s Progress” got included); his wesbite here

Roger Williams (born circa 1603; died March 1683): banned and plaqued on Oct 13; mentioned on Dec 23; founding Rhode Island here; his university here; overview here

John Wycliffe (born circa 1320; died December 31 1384): declared a heretic on May 4; his website here; his 1382 Bible here, and here

William Wynham of St Albans (dates unknown): starting the attack on Wycliffe on May 4; gets a mention here, but there is also more on Wycliffe on the site

Adam de Houghton (birthdate unknown; died 13 February 1389): Lord Chancellor of England when the Pope sent his heresy charges against John Wycliffe on May 4

Jan Hus: preaching Wycliffe on May 4: the Rector of Prague University, he was burned at the stake on the orders of the Council of Constance on July 6 1415... click here for more

Archbishop Simon Islip: appointed John Wycliffe as Head of Canterbury Hall on May 4 [reverend writers]; there is a street bearing his name on Thorney Island (see P’s London) click here [but on reflection I think that’s wrong: the street is named for John Islip not Simon: need to follow that up]

Eleazar ben Yehudah (born circa 1176; fed to the Wurms on some unknown date in 1238): one of the great Kalonymos family - in this blog on Feb 19, and more here

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki (“Rashi” is an acronym, which is why I have included his title) (born February 22 1040; died July 13 1105): recorded words of Beruriah on Jan 12; destruction of Wurms on Feb 19; mentioned with Maimon on March 30 and Oct 10; bio and works overview here; the actual works here

David ben Zakkai of Pumbedita (917-940): engaged in a silly squabble with Sa’adia ben Joseph, the Ga’on of Sura on May 16 - click here; more on Sa’adiah here (and two references, higher up this page)

Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman (Elijah ben Solomon in English) (born April 1720; died Oct 10 1797): aka “the Vilna Ga'on”: bio here; works here; graven images of him tut-tut here

Shabtai Zvi, the original Hasidic Rebbe, though later known as Aziz Mehmed Effendi (born Av 9 5386/August 1 1626; died at some date in 1676 CE, of which September 17 is posited but without any validation): convinced he was the reborn Mashi’ach on Sept 30; bio here; what he did that was so terrible here

Huldrych Zwingli (some prefer Ulrich) born Jan 1 1482; killed on Oct 11 (1531); mentioned on May 4 and Dec 16; life and thought here