J. A. (James Aitken) Wylie

Born in Kirriemuir, Scotland, on August 9, 1808, he was educated at Marischal College in Aberdeen and at St Andrews before training for the ministry in Edinburgh. He went on to serve as a Presbyterian minister and became widely known as a historian of religion and a prolific religious writer.

His best-known work is The History of Protestantism, a large-scale history that helped keep his name in circulation long after his lifetime. He also worked in religious journalism, including as a sub-editor of The Protestant Institute, and wrote extensively on church history and controversy.

He died on May 1, 1890. Readers who come to his books today usually find an energetic nineteenth-century voice: learned, forceful, and deeply committed to the Protestant tradition he spent his career defending and explaining.