Sir Thomas Browne (1605) It was on this date, October 19, 1605, that British writer Sir Thomas Browne was born in London, the son of a prosperous silk merchant who died when Thomas was eight. Browne nevertheless studied at Pembroke College, Oxford, where he took his B.A. in 1626 and his M.A. three years later. […]

Wrote biographer John Forster, who knew Dickens, "He had rejected the Church of England and detested the influence of its bishops in English politics."

Landor was a theist with a strong disdain of Christianity. “Every sect is a moral check on its neighbour.” He said, “Competition is as wholesome in religion as in commerce.”