Thomas Carlyle (English: Thomas Carlyle, M. 4 December 1795 - 5 February 1881) is a Scottish writer, satirist, and historian. His works had a great influence in the Victorian era, and he was from a strict Calvinist family who hoped to become a preacher, but he lost his faith in Christianity while studying at the University of Edinburgh, and yet Calvinist values continued to haunt him throughout his life. The affinity of a religious undertaking with a loss of faith in traditional Christianity made Carlyle's works seem attractive to many Victorians who were opposed to the political and scientific changes that threatened them in the social order of life.