Additionally, the OED lists common phrases and compounds with historical sources. A sample:
"P1. man (woman, etc.) of religion : a person bound by religious vows, as a monk or nun; a member of the clergy. Now hist.
[After Anglo-Norman home de religiun, Anglo-Norman and Old French home de religion (c1227; Middle French, French homme de religion), Anglo-Norman gent de religiun, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French gent de religion (1275 or earlier in Anglo-Norman; French gent de religion) respectively. With woman of religion compare Middle French dame de religion nun (1364 or earlier), and also Anglo-Norman dame de religiun abbess, prioress (1328 or earlier).]
a1225 MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 49 (MED), Ac þis loc [sc. of perfection] ne haueð non to offren bute þese lif holie men of religiun.
c1325 (▸c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) 5735 (MED), King edgar & seint aþelwold..An oþer hous..hii rerde of seinte marie, Of womman of religyon & made a nonnerye.
c1350 Apocalypse St. John: A Version (Harl. 874) (1961) 8 (MED), By his heued ben bitokned gode prelates of holy chirche. By þe heer þe Men of Religioun [Fr. la gent de religiun] þat shullen ben white þorouȝ holynesse.
c1400 (▸?c1380) Cleanness (Nero) (1920) 7 (MED), Renkez of relygioun þat reden and syngen And aprochen to hys presens and prestez arn called..Þay hondel þer [sc. at the altar] his aune body and usen hit boþe.
▸1440 Promp. Parv. (Harl. 221) 360 Nune, womann of relygione, monialis, monacha.
a1475 (▸?a1430) Lydgate tr. G. Deguileville Pilgrimage Life Man (Vitell.) 3192 (MED), The cheff vyker..Haue set..Somme folkys of relygyon Hys offys to excersyce.
a1578 R. Lindsay Hist. & Cron. Scotl. (1899) I. 310 This bischope and the lordis of reliegieoun..gaif sentance against this innocent man.
1670 J. Evelyn tr. Moral Pract. Jesuites 296 The Iesuites..might practise on him the Doctrine of their Father Amy, who allows a man of Religion to kill him who publishes things scandalous of his Order.
a1707 W. Petyt Jus Parliamentarium (1739) i. v. 57 Others which had Offices perpetual, should be as perpetual as People of Religion.
1809 Amer. Law Jrnl. Jan. 57 The whole of this statute is in force, except those parts which relate to Prelates, men of Religion, and writs of attaint.
1878 Ouida Friendship III. xxxi. 46 As women of religion, with the red cross on their breasts, bend over the wide war-wounds of naked men, so she beheld corruption.
1911 G. Hodges Saints & Heroes 239 The principal business of a man of religion,a priest, a monk, or a friar,was to say prayers.
1996 L. M. Bitel Land of Women viii. 168 Their stories of lustfully wayward women of religion."
"P4. orig. U.S. to get religion : to be converted; (in extended use) to take matters seriously, to give proper attention to an issue.
1772 A. Hunter Let. 18 Mar. in P. V. Fithian Jrnl. & Lett. (1900) 22 We have had a considerable stir of religion in college since you went away, Lewis Willson is thought to have got religion.
1802 Methodist New Connexion Mag. Nov. 432 A number, too, are wrought upon in the usual way, and hopefully get religion without any of these extraordinary appearances.
1857 C. W. Elliott New Eng. Hist. I. 460 Capt. Underhill killed his neighbor's wife, and got his religion on a pipe of tobacco.
1908 E. C. Hall Aunt Jane of Kentucky (1909) i. 24 We went home feelin' like we'd been through a big protracted meetin' and got religion over again.
1952 Manch. Guardian Weekly 9 Oct. 7 It is sad news for his publishers that he has got religion.
1993 N.Y. Times 26 Mar. a 28/1 The White House spokesman said the formal plan may not be ready for another few weeks, so it's still possible his boss may get religion.
2001 Time 22 Oct. 73/1 The Bush Administration..has suddenly got religion about tracking down terrorists' assets..and an array of other tools on law enforcement's wish list."
"P5. religion of nature n. (a) = NATURAL RELIGION n.; (b) a religion involving the worship of natural objects and phenomena in place of a more formal system of religious belief.
1622 G. Goodman Creatures praysing God 32 If you consider the Creatures, betweene God and God, in stead of a naturall discourse, here you haue a religion of nature.
1730 M. Tindal (title) Christianity as old as Creation, a republication of the Religion of Nature.
1827 F. A. Walter tr. B. G. Niebuhr Rom. Hist. I. xxii. 265 The early religion of the Latins was a religion of nature [Ger. Naturdienst].
1895 J. Kidd Morality & Relig. v. 191 Vedism..was a religion of nature. The objects of its worship..were the powers of nature.
1902 W. James Varieties Relig. Experience iv. 91 In that theory of evolution which..has within the past twenty-five years swept so rapidly over Europe and America, we see the ground laid for a new sort of religion of Nature, which has entirely displaced Christianity from the thought of a large part of our generation.
1954 R. N. Stromberg Relig. Liberalism 18th-Cent. Eng. iii. 31 Committed to a religion of nature, they [sc. deists] suspected that the whole Christian revelation was no more than a tissue of lies and fables.
1961 D. G. James Matthew Arnold i. 22 The essay itself is given up chiefly to a warm exposition of her religion of nature.
1997 N. Walter Humanism 49 Ernst Haeckel, the German advocate of Darwinism (and inventor of Ecology in 1866), advocated a religion of nature called Monism."
" religion-dresser n. Obs. rare
a1634 J. Day Peregrinatio Scholastica (Sloane 3150) f. 30, This new vicker was made out of an olde ffrier, that had bene twice turnd at a Religion-dressers."
"religion-mender n. now rare
1647 Mercurius Clericus No. 1. sig. A4v, A further account concerning the affaires of our Syon, and the..Religion-makers, Menders, or Marers there.
1737 E. Smith App. Cure of Deism 19 These are some of the Nostrums of our great Religion-Mender.
1822 J. Hook Pen Owen I. i. 16, I never knew any good come of your state-menders or religion-menders. They all make more holes than they stop.
1824 W. E. Andrews Crit. & Hist. Rev. Fox's Bk. Martyrs I. 380 The irreligious and blasphemous pretentions of those religion-menders."
Finally, variant spellings:
"Forms: ME relegeon, ME religeoun, ME religioune, ME religiune, ME relygeoun, ME relygioun, ME relygyoun, ME relygyun, ME15 relegyon, ME15 religiun, ME15 religyone, ME15 relygion, ME15 relygione, ME15 relygyon, ME16 religeon, ME16 religione, ME16 religioun, ME16 religyon, ME17 religon, ME religion, lME riligioun, 15 relegion, 15 relygyone, 1516 relligion; Sc. pre-17 ralegioun, pre-17 relegioun, pre-17 relegioune, pre-17 releidgeon, pre-17 reliegieoun, pre-17 religeoun, pre-17 religeowne, pre-17 religione, pre-17 religioun, pre-17 religioune, pre-17 religyowne, pre-17 relligion, pre-17 relygyon, pre-17 relygyoun, pre-17 relygyoune, pre-17 relygyown, pre-17 relygyowne, pre-17 17 religion, 18 releegion."