The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
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List of the most influential people in Religious Studies,
#5701
Sylvester Maurus
1619 - 1687 (68 years)
Sylvester Maurus was an Italian Jesuit theologian. Life Sylvester Maurus was born in Spoleto, Italy, on 31 December 1619 to a noble family. He entered the Society of Jesus, 21 April 1636. After his novitiate, he spent three years studying philosophy at the Roman College, where his principal teacher was Sforza Pallavicino. Following a period in which he taught grammar, Maurus studied theology from 1644 to 1648, again at the Roman College. Having completed his theological program, he taught philosophy at the Jesuit college in Macerata from 1649 to 1652. Recalled to Rome, he served a year as regent of studies for Jesuit seminarians.
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Hermann Herlitz
1834 - 1920 (86 years)
Hermann Herlitz was pastor of the Lutheran Trinity Church in East Melbourne, Australia, for 46 years from 22 March 1868 to 14 June 1914. He was president of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Victoria and of the Evangelical Lutheran General Synod. Born to Jewish parents, he converted to Christianity in 1857.
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Joseph Lookstein
1902 - 1979 (77 years)
Joseph Hyman Lookstein was a Russian-born American rabbi who served as spiritual leader of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and was a leader in Orthodox Judaism, including his service as president of the Rabbinical Council of America and of the cross-denominational Synagogue Council of America and New York Board of Rabbis. He was President of Bar-Ilan University from 1957 to 1967.
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Juan Pardo de Tavera
1472 - 1545 (73 years)
Juan Pardo de Tavera was a cardinal and was Archbishop of Toledo and Primate of Spain , Grand Inquisitor of Spain , Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela , Bishop of Osma , Bishop of Ciudad Rodrigo and President of the Royal Council .
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Fronton du Duc
1558 - 1624 (66 years)
Fronton du Duc was a French Jesuit theologian. Life Fronton du Duc was born at Bordeaux in France. At first he taught in various colleges of the Society of Jesus, and wrote for the dramatic representations encouraged by the Jesuits the "Histoire tragique de la pucelle de Domrémy, autrement D'Orléans" . It was acted at Pont-à-Mousson before Charles III, Duke of Lorraine. At a later date he took part in the theological discussions of the age and is the author of "Inventaires des faultes, contradictions, faulses allégations du Sieur Plessis, remarquées en son livre de la Sante Eucharistie, par les théologiens de Bordeaux" .
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Fortunatus Hueber
1639 - 1706 (67 years)
Fortunatus Hueber was a West German Franciscan historian and theologian. Life He entered the Bavarian province of the Franciscan Reformati on 5 November 1654. He was general lector in theology; cathedral preacher in Freising from 1670 to 1676; then in 1677 Provincial of Bavaria.
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Bardo
980 - 1051 (71 years)
Bardo was the Archbishop of Mainz from 1031 until 1051, the Abbot of Werden from 1030 until 1031, and the Abbot of Hersfeld in 1031. Bardo was born in Oppershofen in the Wetterau. He was educated and trained at the Abbey of Fulda, where he was selected to be the deacon and provost of Neuenberg in 1018. Towards the end of March in 1029 the Emperor Conrad visited Fulda, who appointed him in the following year the Abbot of Werden. He was said to have taken special attention to the obedience of the monks and quality of their service, and he established a hospitality and care service for those injured in war.
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John Mainwaring
1724 - 1807 (83 years)
John Mainwaring was an English theologian and the first biographer of the composer Georg Friedrich Händel in any language. He was a Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and parish priest, and later a professor of Divinity at Cambridge.
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Jacob Ziegler
1470 - 1549 (79 years)
The humanist and theologian Jacob Ziegler of Landau in Bavaria, was an itinerant scholar of geography and cartographer, who lived a wandering life in Europe. He studied at the University of Ingolstadt, then spent some time at the court of Pope Leo X before he converted to Protestantism; subsequently his geographical works were placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.
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Bernardo de Rossi
1687 - 1775 (88 years)
Bernardo de Rossi was an Italian Dominican theologian and historian. Biography Rossi was born at Cividale del Friuli. He made his religious profession with the Dominicans at Conegliano, 1704, after which he studied at Florence and Venice. He taught at Venice for fifteen years, and was twice general vicar of his province. In 1722 he was theologian to a Venetian embassy to Louis XV and remained in Paris five months. He resigned his chair in 1730 and devoted the remainder of his life to literary activity. He died in Venice.
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Joseph Heinrich Gügler
1782 - 1827 (45 years)
Joseph Heinrich Aloysius Gügler was a Swiss priest, professor, and theologian. Biography Gügler was born on August 25, 1782, at the village of Udligerschwyl near Lucerne, Switzerland. He was the only son of simple country couple, and was recorded to be a delicate child.
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Hendrik Herp
1400 - 1478 (78 years)
Hendrik Herp , known in Latin as Henricus Harphius, was a Dutch or Flemish Franciscan of the Strict Observance, and a writer on mysticism. Life Herp was born around 1400 either at Erp near Veghel or Erps-Kwerps near Leuven. He is possibly the same person as Heinricus Erppe, clericus Cameracensis dioceses, who in 1426, as one of the first students, was registered at the University of Leuven. "Clericus Cameracensis dioceses" means that this student had held a clerical position in the diocese of Kamerijk, leading some to propose that he was not born in Erp, which is widely believed to be his birt...
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William of Hirsau
1030 - 1091 (61 years)
William of Hirsau was a Benedictine abbot and monastic reformer. He was abbot of Hirsau Abbey, for whom he created the Constitutiones Hirsaugienses, based on the uses of Cluny, and was the father of the Hirsau Reforms, which influenced many Benedictine monasteries in Germany. He supported the papacy in the Investiture Controversy. In the Roman Catholic Church, he is a Blessed, the second of three steps toward recognition as a saint.
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Jón Helgason
1866 - 1942 (76 years)
Jón Helgason was an Icelandic theologian who served as Bishop of Iceland from 1917 till 1939. Biography Helgason was born in Álftanes, on June 21, 1866, the son of the Reverend Helgi Hálfdanarson, later the rector of the Prestaskólinn , and his wife Þórhildur Tómasdóttir. He came from a well-known family, including his grandfather Tómas Sæmundsson, a professor at Breiðabólstaður. Jón studied at the Reykjavik School between 1880 and 1886, then completed his degree and sailed the same summer in Copenhagen, where he completed various university degrees, including in Theology in 1892. He was taug...
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Johann Jakob Kneucker
1840 - 1909 (69 years)
Johann Jakob Kneucker was a German theologian born in the village of Wenkheim, today part of Werbach, Baden-Württemberg. In 1873 he received his habilitation at the University of Heidelberg, where in 1877 he became an associate professor to the theological faculty. He specialized in the fields of Old Testament exegesis and Semitic languages.
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Johann Nikolaus Weislinger
1691 - 1755 (64 years)
Johann Nikolauss Weislinger was a polemical writer. Life He was born at Püttlingen in German Lorraine. After attending the Jesuit high-school at Strasbourg, he became a private tutor in 1711. From 1713 he studied philosophy at the University of Heidelberg, then took up theology and prepared for ordination as priest under the direction of the Jesuits at Strasburg. Soon after ordination he was appointed parish priest at Waldulm , and in 1730 at Kappelrodeck, but in 1750, on account of severe illness, he was obliged to resign his position. He died at Kappelrodeck in Baden.
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Anthim the Iberian
1650 - 1716 (66 years)
Anthim the Iberian was a Georgian theologian, scholar, calligrapher, philosopher and one of the greatest ecclesiastic figures of Wallachia, led the printing press of the prince of Wallachia, and was Metropolitan of Bucharest in 1708–1715.
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William Morice
1602 - 1676 (74 years)
Sir William Morice of Werrington in Devon, was an English statesman and theologian. He served as Secretary of State for the Northern Department and a Lord of the Treasury from June 1660 to September 1668.
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Johann Gerhard Meuschen
1680 - 1743 (63 years)
Johann Gerhard Meuschen was a German Lutheran theologian born in Osnabrück. He was the father of conchologist Friedrich Christian Meuschen. He studied theology and Oriental languages at the University of Jena, and in 1703 became an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Kiel. Afterwards he served as a minister in Osnabrück , the Hague and Hanau . In 1723 he moved to Coburg, where he was appointed community Kirchenrath, and in the meantime taught classes in theology at the gymnasium. He worked in Coburg for the remainder of his life.
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James Hardy Ropes
1866 - 1933 (67 years)
James Hardy Ropes was an American theologian. He graduated from Harvard College in 1889 and was an instructor there from 1895 to 1898 and an assistant professor until 1903. Ropes was then appointed the Bussey Professor of New Testament criticism. He occupied the Hollis Chair at Harvard Divinity School starting in 1910. He was also the Chairman of Commission on Extension Courses and Dean of the University Extension.
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Andreas Acoluthus
1654 - 1704 (50 years)
Andreas Acoluthus was a German scholar of orientalism and professor of theology at Breslau . A native of Bernstadt , Lower Silesia, he was the son of Johannes Acoluthus, pastor of St. Elisabeth and superintendent of the churches and schools of Breslau.
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Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti
1774 - 1849 (75 years)
Giuseppe Gasparo Mezzofanti was an Italian cardinal and famed hyperpolyglot. Life Born to humble parents in Bologna, he showed exceptional mnemonic skills as well as a flair for music and foreign language learning from a very young age. He studied with the Piarists where he had the chance to meet several missionaries from various countries. By speaking with them he began learning several new languages including Swedish, German, Spanish and South American native languages as well as studying Latin and ancient Greek in school. He completed his theological studies before he had reached the minimum age for ordination as a priest.
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Basil Jones
1822 - 1897 (75 years)
William Basil Jones was a Welsh bishop and scholar who became the Bishop of St David's in 1874, holding the post until his death in 1897. Personal history Jones was born on 1 January 1822 in Cheltenham to William Tilsey Jones of Gwynfryn and his wife Jane. He was educated at Shrewsbury School, under the tutelage of Samuel Hall and Benjamin Hall Kennedy from 1834 to 1841, becoming head boy in his final year. In 1842 he matriculated to Trinity College, Oxford. He was placed in the second class in his final school of literae humaniores and in 1845 he graduated BA, receiving his MA in 1847. In 18...
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Francis Partridge
1846 - 1906 (60 years)
Francis Partridge was an Anglican priest in Canada during the last decades of the Nineteenth century and the first of the 20th. Educated at Katharine Lady Berkeley's School and St Augustine's College, Canterbury he emigrated to Canada in 1868 and became Headmaster of the Grammar School at St. Andrews, New Brunswick, a post he held until 1872. He was Rector of Rothesay, New Brunswick from then until 1879 when he was appointed a Canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Fredericton. He was Rector of St George's, Halifax, Nova Scotia from 1881 until 1895, also holding the position of Lecturer in Apologetics at the University of King's College beginning in 1886.
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Isaac J. Lansing
1846 - 1920 (74 years)
Isaac J. Lansing was the president of Clark Atlanta University from 1874 to 1876, and the pastor at Park Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts from 1893 to 1897. Isaac Lansing was born in 1846 in Watervliet, New York. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1872 as valedictorian and was a graduate student there from 1872 to 1873. He received a master's degree from the university in 1875. He served as a Methodist Episcopal minister in the New York East, Georgia, and Savannah Conferences from 1873 to 1886. During this period, Lansing was appointed President of Clark Atlanta University in 1874 and served until 1876.
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Nils Hesslén
1728 - 1811 (83 years)
Nils Hesslén was a Swedish bishop, university professor, and a founder of the Royal Physiographic Society in Lund. He served as the bishop of the Diocese of Lund from 1805 to 1811. Biography Hesslén was born in Visseltofta, Scania, Sweden, to Måns Sunesson, a farmer and district judge and Sara Månsdotter. Hesslén's father hired a Norwegian student in the area to teach his son privately. His studies continued in Lund in 1745, where he received his magister degree in 1751. In 1755 he became docent in theology and in 1760 an adjunct professor. Hesslén was ordained in 1767. Awarded a doctorate in theology in 1769, he returned to Lund University in 1775 as the fourth professor of theology.
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Patritius Sporer
Patritius Sporer was a German Franciscan moral theologian. Sporer was born and died at Passau, in the Electorate of Bavaria. In 1637 he entered the Order of Friars Minor in the convent of his native town, which then belonged to the religious Province of Strasburg. He taught theology for many years, obtained the title of Lector jubilatus, and was also the theologian of the Bishop of Passau.
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Pierre Coste
1668 - 1747 (79 years)
Pierre Coste was a French theologian, translator and writer. Born in Uzès, France to Protestant parents, he moved to England, via Switzerland and Holland, after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. There he translated John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, and the second English edition of Newton's Opticks, and acted as tutor to the sons of several families. He moved back to Paris c.1735 to be married, but returned to England after the death of his wife.
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Václav Vilém Václavíček
1798 - 1862 (64 years)
Canon Václav Vilém Václavíček was a Czech Roman Catholic priest and theological writer, who a short time served as a Metropolitan Archbishop-elect of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lviv and Primate of Galicia and Lodomeria from 17 December 1847 until his resignation on 29 May 1848. Also he held a position of the Rector of Charles University in Prague .
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Albert Hardenberg
1510 - 1574 (64 years)
Albert Hardenberg or Albertus Risaeus was a Reformed theologian and Protestant reformer, who was also active as a reformer in Cologne, Bremen and Emden. Life From the age of seven, he was put in the school of the "Fratres vitae communis" in Groninghe. He decided at the age of 17 to become a priest and became a monk in the abbey of Aduard. In 1540, he was sent by his community as a student at the University of Louvain to take theology courses so that he could one day be able to become abbot of a monastery. There he obtained his degree of license, but he was quickly drawn into the movement of a...
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Philip the Chancellor
1165 - 1236 (71 years)
Philip the Chancellor, also known as "Philippus Cancellarius Parisiensis" was a French theologian, Latin lyric poet, and possibly a composer as well. He was Chancellor of Notre-Dame de Paris starting in 1217 until his death, and was also Archdeacon of Noyon. Philip is portrayed as an enemy to the Mendicant orders becoming prevalent at the time, but this has been greatly exaggerated. He may have even joined the Franciscan order soon before his death.
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Peter of Capua the Elder
1150 - 1214 (64 years)
Peter of Capua was an Italian scholastic theologian and prelate. He served as cardinal-deacon of Santa Maria in Via Lata from 1193 until 1201 and cardinal-priest of San Marcello al Corso from 1201 until his death. He often worked as a papal legate. He wrote several theological works and was a patron of his hometown of Amalfi.
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William of Auxerre
1145 - 1231 (86 years)
William of Auxerre was a French scholastic theologian and official in the Roman Catholic Church. The teacher by whom William was most influenced was Praepositinus, or Prevostin, of Cremona, Chancellor of the University of Paris from 1206 to 1209. The names of teacher and pupil are mentioned in the same sentence by Thomas Aquinas.
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Bernard of Bologna
1701 - 1770 (69 years)
Bernard of Bologna , also known as Bernardine, was a Friar Minor Capuchin and Scotist theologian and author. Biography In 1717 he entered the Capuchin Order and some years later filled successively the office of professor of moral and dogmatic theology. Several times he held positions of responsibility.
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Roger Marston
1201 - 1303 (102 years)
Roger Marston was an English Franciscan scholastic philosopher and theologian. He studied under John Pecham in Paris, in the years around 1270, and probably also at Oxford a few years later, during the time he was a pupil of John Pecham he was a fellow student with Matthew of Aquasparta. He generally followed Pecham's views on the Eucharist. He regarded time as absolute.
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George Gillespie
1613 - 1648 (35 years)
George Gillespie was a Scottish theologian. His father was John Gillespie, minister of Kirkcaldy. He studied at St Andrews University, and is said to have graduated M.A. 1629, though the date is probably that on which he entered the University. He became bursar of the Presbytery of Kirkcaldy. He became chaplain to John Viscount Kenmure; to John, Earl of Cassilis, and tutor to his son, James, Lord Kennedy. He was ordained to Wemyss on 26 April 1638. He had calls to Aberdeen and St Andrews. He was translated to Greyfriars, Edinburgh, 23 September 1642.
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Patrick Murray
1811 - 1882 (71 years)
Patrick Aloysius Murray DD STP was an Irish Roman Catholic theologian. Life Murray was born in Clones, County Monaghan, Ireland. He was educated at Maynooth College, he was elected a Dunboyne, or senior student, 1835. He received a curacy in Dublin, was appointed professor of English and French in Maynooth, 1838, and became professor of theology there, 1841. The remainder of his life he devoted mainly to theological science. In 1879, he was made prefect of the Dunboyne Establishment, a position he held until his death.
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Jean Cabassut
1604 - 1685 (81 years)
Jean Cabassut was a French Oratorian theologian. Life He was born at Aix and entered the Oratory at the age of twenty-one. Though devoted to his labour he was always ready to interrupt even his most favourite study to assist the needy. He had taught canon law at Avignon for some time, when Cardinal Grimaldi, Archbishop of Aix, took him as a companion to Rome, where Father Cabassut remained about eighteen months.
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Pier Paolo Vergerio
1498 - 1565 (67 years)
Pier Paolo Vergerio , the Younger, was an Italian papal nuncio and later Protestant reformer. Life He was born at Capodistria , Istria, then part of the Venetian Republic and studied jurisprudence in Padua, where he delivered lectures in 1522. He also practiced law in Verona, Padua, and Venice. In 1526, he married Diana Contarini, whose early death was at least a partial cause of his entering upon an ecclesiastical career.
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Jacques Du Frische
1640 - 1693 (53 years)
Jacques Du Frische was a French Benedictine theologian.
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John Watts Ditchfield
1861 - 1923 (62 years)
John Edwin Watts-Ditchfield was an eminent 20th century Anglican priest and distinguished author. Educated at the Victoria University of Manchester and ordained in 1891, he began his career with a curacy at St Peter Highgate after which he was Vicar of St James-the-Less, Bethnal Green. Here, he made a name for himself, particularly with the development of the Church of England's Men's Society. He believed that the contemporary view of the Church of England was that it was for women and children, and he succeeded in attracting vast numbers of men to his church whose families followed. A gift...
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James Luce Kingsley
1778 - 1852 (74 years)
James Luce Kingsley was an American classical and biblical scholar. Biography Born in Windham, Connecticut, Kingsley was educated at Williams and Yale, where he was graduated in 1799. He afterward taught for two years, first in Wethersfield, Connecticut and then in Windham, and in 1801 became a tutor at Yale. In 1805 he was appointed to the newly established professorship of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin in there. Kingsley was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1825. He was relieved of a part of his duties in 1831, when a separate professorship of Greek was establishe...
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Thomas Halliwell
1900 - 1982 (82 years)
Thomas Halliwell was the Principal of Trinity College Carmarthen in the middle part of the 20th Century. Early life and education Thomas Halliwell was born in Wigan in 1900, the only child of John Halliwell, a noted Lancashire cricketer, and his wife Annie whose father was company secretary to Pearson and Knowles. Educated at Wigan Wesleyan Methodist School and Wigan Grammar School, Halliwell left school at age 15 to work in the Midland Bank.
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Louis Legrand
1711 - 1780 (69 years)
Louis Legrand, S.S. was a French Sulpician priest and theologian, and a Doctor of the Sorbonne. Life After studying philosophy and theology at the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, Legrand taught philosophy at Clermont, 1733–1736, and then resumed his studies in Paris, where he entered the Society of Saint-Sulpice in 1739 and obtained the licentiate in 1740. He taught theology at Cambrai, 1740–1743, was superior of the seminary in Autun, 1743–1745, and, having been recalled to Paris, received the degree of Doctor of Theology from the Sorbonne in 1746. Henceforth he remained at the Seminary of...
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Albert Réville
1826 - 1906 (80 years)
Albert Réville was a distinguished French Protestant theologian, known for his 'extremist' liberal views. He is also known for being one of the first intellectuals to join the Dreyfusard cause when the Dreyfus Affair erupted in the 1890s.
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Antoine Thomas
1644 - 1709 (65 years)
Antoine Thomas was a Jesuit priest from the Spanish Netherlands, and missionary and astronomer in Qing China. His Chinese name was 安多. Early life Born in Namur, Belgium in 1644, Thomas joined the Society of Jesus in 1660 and first taught in the schools of Armentières, Huy and Tournai. Equipped with a thorough training in Mathematics and Astronomy he was sent, at his own request, as a missionary to China . After a long and difficult sea journey - passing through Goa, Siam , and Malacca - he reached Macau in 1682 just in time to observe an eclipse of the Sun .
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Josse van Clichtove
1472 - 1543 (71 years)
Josse van Clichtove or Judocus Clichtoveus Neoportuensis , was a Flemish theologian, priest and humanist. Life He received his education at Leuven and at Paris under Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples. He became librarian of the Sorbonne and tutor to the nephews of Jacques d'Amboise, bishop of Clermont and abbot of Cluny. He is best known as a distinguished antagonist of Martin Luther, against whom he wrote extensively.
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Celestyn Myślenta
1588 - 1653 (65 years)
Celestyn Myślenta was a Polish Lutheran theologian and rector of the University of Königsberg. Celestyn was the son of Mateusz Myślenta and Eufroza née Wiercinska. His father was once employed by Duke Radziwill and belonged to the Polish nobility. As a stipendiary of the duke of Prussia he studied at University Königsberg, then became Lutheran pastor in Kuty from 1581-1599.
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Sebald Heyden
1499 - 1561 (62 years)
Sebald Heyden was a German musicologist, cantor, theologian, hymn-writer and religious poet. He is perhaps best known for his De arte canendi which is considered to have had a major impact on scholarship and the teaching of singing to young boys. He wrote hymns such as "O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß". It has been speculated that Heyden was the world's first true musicologist.
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Jordan of Pisa
1260 - 1310 (50 years)
Jordan of Pisa , also called Jordan of Rivalto , was a Dominican theologian and the first preacher whose vernacular Italian sermons are preserved. His cultus was confirmed on 23 August 1833 by Pope Gregory XVI and he was beatified in 1838; his day is either March 6 or August 19. His relics are in the church of Santa Caterina in Pisa.
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