The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
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List of the most influential people in Religious Studies,
#3151
Francis Patrick McFarland
1819 - 1874 (55 years)
Francis Patrick McFarland was an American Catholic bishop who served as the third Bishop of Hartford. Biography His parents, John McFarland and Mary McKeever, emigrated from Armagh, and took up farming near Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. Francis was employed as teacher in the village school, but soon entered Mount St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg, Maryland, where he graduated with high honours and was retained as teacher. The following year, 1845, he was ordained, 18 May, at St. Patrick's Old Cathedral in New York by Archbishop Hughes, who immediately detailed the young priest to a professor's chair at St.
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William Adams Brown
1865 - 1943 (78 years)
William Adams Brown was an American minister, professor and philanthropist. Early life Brown was born in New York City on December 29, 1865, and named after his maternal grandfather, the Rev. William Adams. He was the eldest son of John Crosby Brown and Mary Elizabeth Adams Brown. His siblings were Eliza Coe Adams, Mary Magoun Brown, James Crosby Brown, Thatcher Magoun Brown, and Amy Brighthurst Brown .
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Alexander Roberts
1826 - 1901 (75 years)
Alexander Roberts was a 19th-century Scottish biblical scholar. Life Born at Marykirk, Kincardineshire, on 12 May 1826, he was the son of Alexander Roberts, a flax-spinner, and his wife, Helen Stuart. He was educated at the grammar school and King's College, Aberdeen, where he graduated MA in March 1847, being the Simpson Greek prizeman. From 1849 to 1851 he trained as a minister of the Free Church of Scotland at New College, Edinburgh.
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Charles Backus Storrs
1794 - 1833 (39 years)
Rev. Charles Backus Storrs was an American minister, abolitionist, and the first President of Western Reserve College and Preparatory School, now Case Western Reserve University and Western Reserve Academy.
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Zachary Brooke
1716 - 1788 (72 years)
Zachary Brooke was an English clergyman and academic, Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. Life The son of Zachary Brooke, a graduate of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge , and at one time vicar of Hawkston-cum-Newton, near Cambridge, was born in 1716 at Hamerton, Huntingdonshire. He was educated at Stamford school, and was admitted a sizar of St. John's College, Cambridge, 28 June 1734. He was subsequently elected a fellow there, proceeded B.A. in 1737, M.A. in 1741, B.D. in 1748, and D.D. in 1753.
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Pierre Marchant
1585 - 1661 (76 years)
Pierre Marchant or Petrus Marchantius O.F.M.Rec. was a spiritual writer and religious reformer in 17th-century Flanders. Life Marchant was born at Couvin in what is now Belgium in 1585 and entered the recollect community in that town in 1601, aged 16.
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Arthur De Schrevel
1850 - 1934 (84 years)
Arthur Carolus De Schrevel was a Belgian priest and historian, specialising in the 16th and 17th centuries, and in particular Catholic Church history during the Dutch Revolt. He was also a prolific contributor to the Biographie Nationale de Belgique.
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Ambrosius Moibanus
1494 - 1554 (60 years)
Ambrosius Moibanus was a German Lutheran theologian and reformer, and first Lutheran pastor at St Elisabeth's church in Breslau . He was active in Silesia. He was an opponent of the Anabaptists, and pressed for their persecution.
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Andrew Sledd
1870 - 1939 (69 years)
Andrew Warren Sledd was an American theologian, university professor and university president. A native of Virginia, he was the son of a prominent Methodist minister, and was himself ordained as a minister after earning his bachelor's and master's degrees. He later earned a second master's degree and his doctorate.
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John Paul Nazarius
1556 - 1641 (85 years)
John Paul Nazarius or Giovanni Paolo Nazari was an Italian Dominican theologian. Biography He was born at Cremona. He entered the order at an early age in his native town and from the beginning was noted for his spirituality and love of study. It is most probable that he studied philosophy and theology at the University of Bologna. He taught with great success in various schools of his order in Italy.
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Andrew White
1579 - 1656 (77 years)
Andrew White, SJ was an English Jesuit missionary who was involved in the founding of the Maryland colony. He was a chronicler of the early colony, and his writings are a primary source on the land, the Native Americans of the area, and the Jesuit mission in North America. For his efforts in converting and educating the native population, he is frequently referred to as the "Apostle of Maryland." He is considered a forefather of Georgetown University, and is memorialized in the name of its White-Gravenor building, a central location of offices and classrooms on the university's campus.
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Harry Sawyerr
1909 - 1986 (77 years)
Harry Alphonso Ebun Sawyerr MBE was a Sierra Leonean Anglican theologian and writer on African religion. He became principal of Fourah Bay College and Vice Chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone.
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Juan Maldonado
1533 - 1583 (50 years)
Juan Maldonado was a Spanish Jesuit theologian and exegete. Life At the age of fourteen or fifteen he went to the University of Salamanca, where he studied Latin with two blind professors, who, however, were men of great erudition. He also studied Greek with Hernán Núñez , philosophy with Francisco de Toledo , and theology with Padre Domingo Soto. He declared, as late as the year 1574, that he had forgotten nothing he had learned in grammar and philosophy. Having finished his course of three years in the latter of these two studies, Maldonado would have devoted himself to jurisprudence with ...
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Gerard of Bologna
Gerard of Bologna was an Italian Carmelite theologian and scholastic philosopher. A convinced Thomist, he took a doctorate in theology in 1295 at the University of Paris. Subsequently he was elected general of the Carmelite Order, in 1297.
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George Milligan
1860 - 1934 (74 years)
George Milligan DCL DD was a Scottish minister of the Church of Scotland who served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1923. He was professor of divinity and biblical criticism at the University of Glasgow.
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Richard Arnald
1700 - 1756 (56 years)
Richard Arnald was a distinguished English clergyman and biblical scholar. Life He was a native of London, and received his education at Bishop Stortford School, whence he proceeded in 1714 to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. After graduating B.A., he removed to Emmanuel College, where he was elected to a fellowship on 24 June 1720, and took the degree of M.A. While resident at Emmanuel he printed two copies of Sapphics on the death of George I, and a sermon preached at Bishop Stortford school-feast on 3 August 1726. In 1733 he was presented to the living of Thurcaston in Leicestershire, an...
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Thomas Dorman
1534 - 1577 (43 years)
Thomas Dorman was an English Catholic theologian and controversialist. Exiled from England under the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, Dorman became a thought leader among the recusants, and was an early member of the English College at Douai.
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Humphrey Ely
1501 - 1604 (103 years)
Humphrey Ely, LL.D., was an English Catholic divine. Life Ely was the brother of William Ely, president of St John's College, Oxford, and was a native of Herefordshire. After studying at Brasenose College, Oxford, he was elected a scholar of St John's College in 1566. On account of his attachment to the Catholic faith he left the university without a degree. He went to the English college at Douay, where he was made a licentiate in the canon and civil laws. He appears to have been subsequently created LL.D.
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Ernst Ludwig Theodor Henke
1804 - 1872 (68 years)
Ernst Ludwig Theodor Henke , was a German theologian and historian, and the son of the theologian Heinrich Henke . He was the father of anatomist Wilhelm von Henke . From 1820, he studied at the Collegium Carolinum in Braunschweig, then continued his education at the Universities of Göttingen and Jena, where he was influenced by Jakob Friedrich Fries and Ludwig Baumgarten-Crusius . In 1826 he received his doctorate of philosophy, later returning to Braunschweig, where he taught classes at the Collegium Carolinum. In 1833 he was appointed an associate professor of church history and exegesis a...
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Roger Goad
1538 - 1610 (72 years)
Roger Goad was an English academic theologian, Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and three times Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. Life He was born at Horton, Buckinghamshire, and was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge, where he was admitted a scholar 1 September 1555, and a fellow 2 September 1558. He graduated B.A. in 1559, and commenced M.A. in 1563. On 19 January 1566 he was enjoined to study theology, and he proceeded B.D. in 1569. At this period he was master of the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, where one of his pupils was George Abbot.
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Johannes Zwick
1496 - 1542 (46 years)
Johannes Zwick was a German Reformer and hymnwriter. He was born in Konstanz. He briefly hosted the Anabaptist Johannes Bünderlin in 1529. He died of the plague in Bischofszell.
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Étienne Agard de Champs
1613 - 1711 (98 years)
Étienne Agard de Champs was a French Jesuit theologian and author. Life He entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1630 and later became professor of rhetoric, philosophy, and theology in Paris. He was rector at Rennes, three times rector at Paris, head of the professed house, twice provincial of France, and once provincial of Lyon.
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Maximilian Mörlin
1516 - 1584 (68 years)
Maximilian Mörlin was a Lutheran theologian, court preacher, Superintendent in Coburg, and Reformer. Life Maximilian grew up with his older brother, Joachim Mörlin, as the sons of Jodok Mörlin , the Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wittenberg. After a harsh upbringing, when he learned the trade of a tailor, he switched to the profession of a scholar. Like his brother, he studied at Wittenberg in 1533 and came under the influence of Martin Luther and especially Philipp Melanchthon. From 1539, he was the pastor in Pegau and Zeitz and, after 1543, in Schalkau. On the recommendati...
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Giovanni Vincenzo Bolgeni
1733 - 1811 (78 years)
Giovanni Vincenzo Bolgeni was a Jesuit theologian and controversialist. Life He entered the Society of Jesus on 31 October 1747, taught theology and philosophy in Macerata, and was a member of the Society when it was suppressed by Clement XIV. Henceforth he devoted himself to theological argument, and in recognition of his signal services against Jansenism and Josephinism, Pius IV appointed him Theologian-Penitentiary, an office of which he was deprived by Pius VII on account of the Jacobin principles he tolerated and advocated during the occupation of Rome by Napoleon I.
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Jason Lee
1803 - 1845 (42 years)
Jason Lee was a Canadian Methodist Episcopalian missionary and pioneer in the Pacific Northwest. He was born on a farm near Stanstead, Quebec. After a group of Nez Perce and Bitterroot Salish men journeyed to St. Louis requesting the Book of Heaven in 1831 , Lee and his nephew Daniel Lee volunteered to serve as missionaries for them. Both were appointed as missionaries by the church, given orders to open and maintain a mission among the Salish. At the time, the Pacific Northwest was "jointly occupied" by the United Kingdom and the United States as agreed to in the Treaty of 1818. The missiona...
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Cyril Richardson
1909 - 1976 (67 years)
Cyril C. Richardson was an English-born American Christian theologian, humorist and professor at the Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. He attended the University of Saskatchewan, Emmanuel College in Saskatoon and the Union Theological Seminary. He joined the Union Theological Seminary faculty in 1934 and stayed there for 40 years. Richardson was selected to be president of the American Society of Church History in 1948, but resigned from the position due to a tubercular condition. He died in 1976.
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William Emery Barnes
1859 - 1939 (80 years)
William Emery Barnes was an English academic, most notably Hulsean Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge from 1901 until 1934. Early life and education Barnes was born on 26 May 1859 in Islington. He was educated at Islington Proprietary School and Peterhouse, Cambridge.
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Hermann Hamelmann
1526 - 1595 (69 years)
Hermann Hamelmann was a German Lutheran theologian and the reformer of Westphalia. Born in Osnabrück, he became the priest at Kamen in 1552. While a priest, he converted to the Evangelical Lutheran faith and announced it publicly on Trinity Sunday, 1553, and as a result he was forced to leave the town. During a stay at Wittenberg, he discussed the Lord's Supper with Philipp Melanchthon. In August 1553, he became the pastor at Bielefeld, and in 1556 he became the pastor at St. Mary's Church in Lemgo. He became General Superintendent at Bad Gandersheim in 1560, where he introduced the Reformation into Braunschweig.
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James Arthur
1587 - 1670 (83 years)
James Arthur was a Dominican friar and theologian. He was born in Limerick, Ireland, early in the 17th century and died most likely in 1670. Arthur became a member of the Dominican Order in the convent of St. Stephen at Salamanca, Spain, and taught theology in different convents of his order, especially at Salamanca, with great credit to himself and profit to his numerous students.
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Henry Burton
1578 - 1648 (70 years)
Henry Burton , was an English puritan. Along with John Bastwick and William Prynne, Burton's ears were cut off in 1637 for writing pamphlets attacking the views of Archbishop Laud. Early life He was born at Birdsall, a small parish in the former East Riding of Yorkshire, in the latter part of 1578 as may be inferred from his writings. His father, William Burton, was married to Maryanne Homle [Humble] on 24 June 1577. He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. in 1602. His favourite preachers were Laurence Chaderton and William Perkins. On leaving the university h...
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Peter Thyraeus
1546 - 1601 (55 years)
Peter Thyraeus was a German Jesuit theologian. Thyraeus was born in Neuss, the brother of Herman Thyraeus, also a Jesuit theologian. He joined the Jesuits in 1561, and taught at Jesuit colleges in Trier and Mainz from 1574.
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Claude de Sainctes
1525 - 1591 (66 years)
Claude de Sainctes was a French Catholic controversialist. Biography At the age of fifteen he joined the Canons Regular of Saint-Cheron, and was sent to the College of Navarre in Paris, where he received the degree of Doctor of Theology . On account of the erudition of his early works and the aptitude which he showed for controversy, he was called to the Conference of Poissy, held in 1561 between the Catholics and the Huguenots, at which Theodore of Beza and Diego Lainez, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, were present.
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Motokichiro Osaka
1880 - 1945 (65 years)
was a Japanese pastor, theologian, and newspaper columnist. He is notable for his public criticism of efforts by the Japanese government to regulate religious bodies and strengthen a national form of Shinto, which culminated in a government-backed attack that left Osaka close to death. During his recovery, a personal awakening transformed his conceptualization of Christianity from an earthly, altruistic social practice to an ascetic practice rooted in Catholic orthodoxy.
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Richard Simpson
1550 - 1588 (38 years)
Richard Simpson was an English priest, martyred in the reign of Elizabeth I. He was born in Well, in Yorkshire. Little is known of his early life, but according to Challoner's Memoirs of Missionary Priests, he became an Anglican priest, but later converted to Catholicism. He was imprisoned in York as a Catholic recusant; on being released, he went to Douai College, where he was admitted on 19 May 1577. The date of his ordination is unknown; the college, at this time, was preparing for its move to Rheims, and record keeping was affected. But it is known that the ordination took place in Bruss...
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Johannes Fleischer
1539 - 1593 (54 years)
Johannes Fleischer was a Silesian humanist, Lutheran clergyman, and natural philosopher whose only published work was an examination of the formation of rainbows published in 1571 and was among the first to identify that both reflection and refraction were involved, although it drew on the earlier works of Vitello.
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Charles Martin
1817 - 1888 (71 years)
Charles Martin was twice an acting President of Hampden–Sydney College from 1848 to 1849 and again from 1856 to 1857. Biography Charles Martin attended Jefferson College where he was a member of the Gamma chapter of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. Martin graduated from Jefferson College in 1842 and spent the majority of his career as an educator. From 1847 until 1871 he was a professor of Languages — interrupted for two years by service in the Confederate States Army as adjutant, lieutenant and captain.
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Mulla Morad ibn Ali Khan Tafreshi
1549 - 1641 (92 years)
Mulla Morad ibn Ali Khan Tafreshi was a Persian theologian and jurist during the Safavid period. Tafreshi was a contemporary of Mulla Sadra Shirazi. He received religious instruction from Amoli, and Mirza Abraham Hamadani. Ardabili also mentioned the name of Tafreshi I in the book of Summa Narrations. Tafreshi left many books on theology and jurisprudence. Some of his writings about philosophy and theology include:Arrazyyah al-mahdavyyahArrazyyah al-HusaynyyahAmoozaj al-mousaviTreaties on discussion
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Richard of Wetheringsett
Richard of Wetheringsett is the earliest known chancellor of the University of Cambridge, where he served sometime between 1215 and 1232. Most of what is known of Richard comes from his , which he wrote around 1220. This shows that he was a student of William de Montibus at Lincoln Cathedral. Manuscripts of this work variously refer to him as Richard of Leicester, Richard of Wetheringsett, or Richard de Montibus, and some as the chancellor of Lincoln Cathedral. He is sometimes confused with Richard Leicester, who served as chancellor of the University of Cambridge in 1349–50. It has been spec...
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William Allen Whitworth
1840 - 1905 (65 years)
William Allen Whitworth was an English mathematician and a priest in the Church of England. Education and mathematical career Whitworth was born in Runcorn; his father, William Whitworth, was a school headmaster, and he was the oldest of six siblings. He was schooled at the Sandicroft School in Northwich and then at St John's College, Cambridge, earning a B.A. in 1862 as 16th Wrangler. He taught mathematics at the Portarlington School and the Rossall School, and was a professor of mathematics at Queen's College in Liverpool from 1862 to 1864. He returned to Cambridge to earn a master's degree...
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Johann Heinrich Acker
1647 - 1719 (72 years)
Johann Heinrich Acker was a German writer. He sometimes wrote under the name of Melissander. He was taught in his native city of Naumburg and at the regional school of Pforta . Beginning in 1669, he studied in Jena where he became magister and adjunct of the philosophical faculty. In 1673 he became adjunct and pastor in near Gotha, and in 1689 he became superintendent and court chaplain in Blankenhain. He resigned in 1717 due to an illness and moved to Gotha, where he died in 1719.
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Gregório Nunes Coronel
1548 - 1620 (72 years)
Gregório Nunes Coronel was a Portuguese Augustinian theologian, writer, and preacher. Life At an early age he entered the Order of St. Augustine. Soon after his ordination to the priesthood he became famous as a theologian and master of sacred eloquence.
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John Morris
1826 - 1893 (67 years)
John Morris, SJ , was an English Jesuit priest and scholar of Church history. Life Early life Morris was born in Ootacamund, Tamil Nadu, then under the British Raj. He was a son of John Carnac Morris, FRS, an official of the East India Company who was also a noted scholar of Telugu, and of his wife, Rosanna Curtis. He was educated partly in India, partly at Harrow School, partly in reading for Cambridge with Dean Alford, the New Testament scholar. Under him a great change passed over Morris's ideas. Giving up the thought of taking the law as his profession, he became enthusiastic for ecclesia...
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Johann Cloppenburg
1592 - 1652 (60 years)
Johann Cloppenburg was a Dutch Calvinist theologian. He is known as a controversialist, and as a contributor to federal theology. He also made some detailed comments on the moral status of financial and banking transactions.
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Dawson Dawson-Walker
1868 - 1934 (66 years)
Dawson Dawson-Walker was a British Church of England clergyman, classicist, theologian and academic. From 1911 to 1919, he was Principal of St John's College, Durham. From 1919 to his death in 1934, he was Van Mildert Professor of Divinity at Durham University and a Canon Residentiary of Durham Cathedral.
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Louis Bancel
1628 - 1685 (57 years)
Louis Bancel was a French Dominican theologian. Life When very young he entered the Dominican Order at Avignon. Even before his ordination to the priesthood he was appointed lector of philosophy. He afterwards taught theology at Avignon.
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Raffaele Venusti
Raffaele Venusti was an Italian Catholic apologist. Biography He was born at Tirano, Valtellina, northern Italy, about the end of the fifteenth century. He joined the Canons Regular of SS. Salvatore, devoting himself to theological and canonical studies, and winning fame as a powerful Catholic controversialist against the Lutherans and Calvinists.
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Nicolaus van Esch
1507 - 1578 (71 years)
Nicolaus van Esch was a Dutch Roman Catholic theologian and mystical writer. Life After finishing his classical studies in the school of the Hieronymites, he studied philosophy, theology, and canon law at the Catholic University of Leuven, but refused to take his doctor's degree. In 1530 he was ordained priest, and then settled in Cologne in order to devote himself to higher studies and the practice of Christian perfection.
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William Erbery
1604 - 1654 (50 years)
William Erbery or Erbury was a Welsh clergyman and radical Independent theologian. He was the father of the militant Quaker Dorcas Erbery. Life Erbery was born in Roath, Cardiff. He graduated from Brasenose College, Oxford, England in 1623.
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Andrija Balović
1721 - 1784 (63 years)
Andrija Balović was a Roman Catholic priest, historian, writer, translator and theologian, native of Montenegro. Biography Born in Perast to a well-known patrician household Balovići, a family with six children. Andrija was the son of Marko Balović, and brother of Josip Balović, also the nephew of Julije Balović.
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Johannes Heinrich Ursinus
1608 - 1667 (59 years)
Johannes Heinrich Ursinus was a learned German author, scholar, Lutheran theologian, humanist and dean of Regensburg. Ursinus studied the Oriental roots of western philosophy and was the author of a scholastic encyclopaedia. He was a Rector in Mainz, preached in Weingarten, Speier and Regensburg, and had been a student in Straßburg. His Arboretum Biblicum, which appeared in 1663, was the first attempt of note to create a concordance of botanical references in the Bible, and predated the Hierozoicon, a zoological compendium of biblical animals, of Samuel Bochart. In all Ursinus published 13...
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