The English theologian, philosopher, and historian Hastings Rashdall was born in London, the son of an evangelical clergyman. He was educated at Harrow and at New College, Oxford, where he read Classical Moderations and "Greats." He remained at Oxford two years after graduation, reading philosophy and theology and working on an essay on the history of medieval universities, for which he won the chancellor's prize in 1883. Much of his next twelve years was taken up with expanding this essay for publication in 1895 as a work in three volumes.

In 1883 he left Oxford to become a lecturer at St. David's College, a college for the education of the clergy in Lampeter, Wales, and in December of that year he was appointed a tutor in theology at University College, Durham. In 1889 he returned to Oxford as a fellow of Hertford College and in 1894 was appointed for...