Regius Professor

See also: regius professor and Regius professor

English

Noun

Regius Professor (plural Regius Professors or Regii Professores)

1. Alternative form of regius professor.
   • 1835, a Clergyman, The Textuary and Ritualist; or, Biblical and Liturgical Repertory: Intended as a Help to Students of the Bible, and a Guide to Members of the Church, volume I, London: […] J. Souter, […]; L. B. Seeley, […]; Hatchard and Son, […]; and J. Nesbit, […], page 246:

     As our wish and our object is not so much to blame as to praise, we regret, that we gave reason (p. 216) to expect any notice of this pamphlet, whose Author, besides railing at the present arrangements of our prelacy, tythes, &c., would, by a fixed perpetual rent-charge, do that for the clergy, which, by a similar error, was badly done for our Regii Professores, i.e. provide for the clergy an unalterable annual maintenance! which, according to the present value of money, might, possibly, compensate the Clergy; but which, as the value of money changes, must, ere long, leave them paupers indeed!

   • 1870, Twenty-Second Report from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England, with an Appendix. Report, and Part I. of Appendix., London: […] George E[dward] Eyre and William Spottiswoode, […] [f]or Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, page 757:

     “The sum of two hundred and fifty pounds nineteen shillings and tenpence, standing in the names of the Reverend James Ameraux Jeremie, D.D., John Thomas Abdy, Esquire, LL.D., and Henry John Hayles Bond, Esquire, M.D. (three of the Regii Professores in the University of Cambridge), being the produce of two hundred and forty pounds, the purchase-money for property in Cambridge taken under the powers and provisions of the Cambridge Improvement Act, 28 George III. / “The sum of six hundred and eight pounds nine shillings and eight pence, also standing in the names of the Reverend James Ameraux Jeremie, D.D., John Thomas Abdy, Esquire, LL.D., and Henry John Hayles Bond, Esquire, M.D., the three Regii Professores in the University of Cambridge, being the produce of five hundred and sixty-two pounds seventeen shillings and sixpence, the purchase-money for property in Cambridge taken by Saint John’s College.

   • 1905, A Letter to the Regius Professor of Modern History on the Teaching of History at Oxford:

     ...some of us wish to avail ourselves of the opportunity to discuss them, and, as we think most proper, to make our Regius Professor a party to the discussion; and we do so because our ultimate and chief object is to co-operate with the Head of our Faculty in the duties of his chair as he has officially defined them.

   • 1928, Matthew Wilson Black, Richard Brathwait: An Account of His Life and Works, Philadelphia, Pa., page 76; quoted in Allen H. Lanner, editor, A Critical Edition of Richard Brathwait’s Whimzies, New York, N.Y., London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1991, page 340:

     New Troy. London was supposed to have been founded by Aeneas, descendant of Brutus, after his defeat by the Greeks. Accordingly it was also called Troynovant, as Brathwait humorously referred to it in Mercurius Britanicus: "In Troynovant . . . thou shalt see Coblers and Hucksters, that arise out of old Shoes and Panniers, beating the Pulpit and broaching new doctrines, as if they were Regii Professores, and held by the Rabble to be most profound Divinity. . . ." Quoted in Black, Richard Brathwait, An Account of His Life and Works  (Philadelphia, 1928), p.76.

   • 1955, D.A. Winstanley, Early Victorian Cambridge, page 289:

     The forty-first chapter of a draft of new statutes for the college, drawn up in the reign of Queen Mary, is exclusively concerned with the three Regius Professors; and though these draft statutes were never formally approved by the Crown, and therefore never became operative, the code which Queen Elizabeth gave to the college was almost identical with them, except for such modifications as the religious changes required.

   • 2006, John Henry Newman, Francis J. McGrath, Charles Stephen Dessain, The letters and diaries of John Henry Newman, →ISBN:

     And this Statute, so far as the letter is concerned at any rate, does not give the powers, now claimed, to the Regius Professor — for one plain reason — that it does not once mention his name throughout.

2. Part of the title of a regius professor.
   • 1846 June, The Ecclesiastical Gazette; or, Monthly Register of the Affairs of the Church of England, and of Its Religious Societies and Institutions, volume VIII, London: […] Charles Cox, […], page 287:

     A VACANCY having occurred in the HEAD MASTERSHIP of this Institution, Candidates for the Office are requested to send in their Names and Testimonials on or before the 1st of July next, to the Rev. the Regii Professores of Divinity, Hebrew, and Greek, in the University of Cambridge, under cover to the Rev. Professor Lee, D.D., College-green, Bristol, from whom information as to the duties and emoluments of the Office may be obtained.

   • 1847, W[illiam] B[almbro’] Flower, A Letter to The Right Hon. Lord John Russell, Her Majesty’s First Lord of the Treasury, in Reply to His Lordship’s Answer to the Remonstrant Bishops. With a Postscript on Dr. Hampden’s Letter., London: Joseph Masters, […], page 5:

     Acquainted, however, as you would have us believe you are, with the internal economy of the Church, you cannot be ignorant of the fact, that the Bishops have been in the habit of requiring from all candidates for holy orders certificates of having attended the Lectures of the Divinity Regii Professores of Oxford and Cambridge, whoever these might be.

   • 1877, Christopher Wordsworth, Scholae Academicae: Some Account of the Studies at the English Universities in the Eighteenth Century, Cambridge: At the University Press. London: Cambridge Warehouse, […]. Cambridge: Deighton, Bell, and Co., page 172:

     There were but three Regii Professores of Physic at Cambridge in the last century (Chr. Green, Cai. 1700: Russell Plumptre, Qu. 1741: Sir Isaac Pennington 1793—1817), which speaks well for their professional treatment of themselves, but I do not know that they ever lectured.

   • 1914, Edmund Campoon, Ten Reasons Proposed to His Adversaries for Disputation in the Name of the Faith and Presented to the Illustrious Members of Our Universities, London: The Manresa Press, […]. B. Herder, […], page 25:

     Finally they appointed the Regius Professors of Divinity both at Oxford and at Cambridge to provide for the occasion, and it took both of these a long series of months to propound their answers to Campion’s tract, which is only as long as a magazine article.

   • 2000, Nicholas Lee, Irish identity and literary periodicals, 1832-1842 - Volume 4, page 115:

     The Divinity School consists of the Regius Professor of Divinity, and Archbishop King's Lecturer, each of whom has his assistants.

   • 2002, Michael Bliss, William Osler: A Life in Medicine, →ISBN, page 310:

     In 1895 Sanderson succeeded Acland as Regius Professor of Medicine. Other medical sciences, including anatomy and pathology, were strengthened, the curriculum and orginazation of Oxford medicine was reformed, and by the 1890s it was possible to get a decent training in the preclinical medical sciences at Oxford, walk the wards for a year or two in London, and, upon examination by a regius professor who still had very few other duties, get an Oxford medical degree.

   • 2004, Lawrence D. Longo, Our Lords, the Sick, →ISBN:

     Sir Farquhar Buzzard on being appointed Regius Professor of Medicine in 1929 did not wish to occupy the house, and it was let by Christ Church successively to two tenants, first Miss H. L. Hurlston and later a Miss Fairburn.

Usage notes

When used as part of a title, this term is always given in all uppercase. When used generically to refer to one who holds this type of professorship, the term is most often given in lower case, but some authors use all uppercase in both situations. Note, for example, the 2002 quotation under the Proper noun definition, which uses the upper case form for the title and the lower case form to describe the holders of the title.