shakespeare’s christianity is not universally accepted. william birch of oxford university was, in 1848, probably the first to suggest that shakespeare could be an atheist, based on his interpretation of sentiments expressed in the works. his theory was not accepted by other scholars, however, and his contemporary h. h. furness dismissed it as a "rare tissue of perverted ingenuity". some evidence used to support this thesis was suggested by a notorious forger of historical documents, john payne collier, who examined the records of st saviour's, southwark, and found that shakespeare, alone among his fellow globe actors, was not shown as a churchgoer. joseph pearce again offers the explanation of recusancy, rather than evidence of atheism. herbert thurston, writing in the 1912 edition of the "catholic encyclopedia", questioned not only shakespeare's catholicism, but pondered "whether shakespeare was not infected with the atheism, which, as we know from the testimony of writers as opposite in spirit as thomas nashe and [robert] persons, was rampant in the more cultured society of the elizabethan age."