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,
#3551
Adolf Wuttke
1819 - 1870 (51 years)
Karl Friedrich Adolf Wuttke was a German Protestant theologian. Biography He was born in Breslau . He studied theology at Breslau, Berlin and Halle, where he eventually became professor ordinarius. Works He is known as the author of a treatise on Christian ethics and works on heathen religion and superstition .
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Matthieu Ory
1492 - 1557 (65 years)
Matthieu Ory was a French Dominican theologian and Inquisitor. Life Entering the Dominican Order at the age of eighteen, he studied in the convent of St-Jacques, Paris, and at the Sorbonne, obtaining the licentiate in theology, 6 February 1527. His reputation for learning and eloquence led to his appointment as grand inquisitor for France , an office which he held until his death.
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Hermann Mandel
1882 - 1946 (64 years)
Hermann Mandel , born Johann Hermann Mandel, was a German theologian who served as Professor of Theology at the University of Kiel Biography Hermann Mandel was born in Holzwickede, Germany on 13 December 1882. His father, Heinrich Mandel, was a teacher and later the head of an orphanage. Mandel gained his abitur from in 1901, and subsequently studied theology at the universities of Halle, Königsberg, Bonn and Greifswald. At Greifswald his teacher was Carl Stange. Mandel received his Ph.D. and completed his habilitation at Greifswald, and in 1911 he was appointed a professor there.
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Jens Matthias Pram Kaurin
1804 - 1863 (59 years)
Jens Matthias Pram Kaurin was a Norwegian professor of theology, biblical translator, and Lutheran priest. He served as the Bishop of the Diocese of Bjørgvin from 1858 until 1861. Life and family Jens Kaurin was born in Laurdal in Telemark county, Norway. He studied theology at Christiania University and graduated with a Cand.theol. degree in 1826. On 22 December 1827, he married Petronelle Louise Hanna Thomasine Magelssen, and together, they had six children: Eiler Rosenvinge, Anne Marie, Christian, Wilhelm Andreas, Edvard, and Susanna Kristence Pram.
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Edward Michelis
1813 - 1855 (42 years)
Edward Michelis was a German Roman Catholic theologian. Life After his ordination, in 1836, he was appointed private secretary to Clemens August von Droste-Vischering, Archbishop of Cologne, whose imprisonment he shared, first in the fortress of Minden , and later at Magdeburg and Erfurt. On his release in 1841 he returned to St. Mauritz, where, the following year, he established the Sisters of Divine Providence, whom he placed in charge of an orphanage he had also founded.
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Johan Joseph Faict
1813 - 1894 (81 years)
Jean-Joseph Faict was the 20th Bishop of Bruges. Life Early years Faict was born in the coastal village of Leffinge at the time when the whole of West Flanders was part of the French empire. His father was a brewer . He studied at the Minor Seminary, Roeselare and then at the Major Seminary, Bruges , before progressing to the Catholic University of Leuven.
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Caspar Aquila
1488 - 1560 (72 years)
Caspar Aquila , born Johann Kaspar Adler, was a German Lutheran theologian and reformer. Biography He was born at Augsburg, and educated there, at Ulm , in Italy , at Bern , and studied theology in Leipzig and Wittenberg . According to his son, he entered the ministry in August 1514, while at Bern. He was for some time a military chaplain.
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George Mountain
1789 - 1863 (74 years)
George Jehoshaphat Mountain was a British-Canadian Anglican bishop , the first Principal of McGill College from 1824 to 1835, and one of the founders of Bishop's University and Bishop's College School.
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William Cunningham
1805 - 1861 (56 years)
William Cunningham was a Scottish theologian and co-founder of the Free Church of Scotland. He was Moderator of the Free Church in 1859. Life Cunningham was born in Hamilton, Lanarkshire the eldest son of Charles Cunningham a merchant and his wife Helen Cunningham. The family moved to Cheeklaw in the Scottish Borders and from there he attended Duns Academy.
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Wilbur Fisk Tillett
1854 - 1936 (82 years)
Wilbur Fisk Tillett was an American Methodist clergyman and educator. Early life Wilbur Fisk Tillett was born August 25, 1854, in Henderson, North Carolina, which at that time was in Granville County . He was named for the early 19th-century Methodist theologian Willbur Fisk. His father was an itinerant Methodist minister in North Carolina, John Tillett .
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Robert Sandeman
1718 - 1771 (53 years)
Robert Sandeman was a Scottish nonconformist theologian. He was closely associated with the Glasite church which he helped to promote. His importance was such that Glasite churches outside Scotland were known as Sandemanian.
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Raymond of Sabunde
1385 - 1436 (51 years)
Raymond of Sabunde was a Catalan scholar, teacher of medicine and philosophy and finally regius professor of theology at Toulouse. He was born in Barcelona , and died in Toulouse. His Theologia Naturalis sive Liber naturae creaturarum, etc., written 1434–1436 but published in 1484, marks an important stage in the history of natural theology. It was first written in Latin . His followers composed a more classical Latin version of the work. It was translated into French by Michel de Montaigne and edited in Latin at various times .
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Bartholomäus Ringwaldt
Bartholomäus Ringwaldt was a German didactic poet and Lutheran pastor. He is most recognized as a hymnwriter. Biography Bartholomäus Ringwaldt was born in Frankfort-on-the-Oder, Germany. From 1543, he studied theology. After graduating, he first started his career as a teacher. He was ordained into the Lutheran Ministry during 1557 and served as pastor of two parishes. In 1566, he became the pastor of Langenfeld, Neumark. Starting during the 1570s, he wrote songs and poems which focused on his religious and theological beliefs. Ringwaldt was a prolific hymnist, and may have composed tunes as...
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Humphrey Hody
1659 - 1707 (48 years)
Humphrey Hody was an English scholar and theologian. Life He was born at Odcombe in Somerset in 1659. In 1676 he entered Wadham College, Oxford, of which he became a fellow in 1685. In 1692 he became chaplain to Edward Stillingfleet, bishop of Worcester, and for his support of the ruling party in a controversy with Henry Dodwell regarding the non-juring bishops he was appointed chaplain to Archbishop John Tillotson, an office which he continued to hold under Thomas Tenison.
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Musa Bigiev
1874 - 1949 (75 years)
Musa Bigiev was a Tatar Hanafi Maturidi scholar, theologian philosopher, publicist and one of the leaders of the Jadid movement. After receiving his education in Kazan, Bukhara, Istanbul and Cairo, he became a political activist for the Ittifaq, the political organisation of the Muslims of Russia. He also taught in Orenburg, wrote journalistic texts and translated classic works into Tatar. After emigrating from the Soviet Union, he travelled Europe and the Middle and Far East while writing and publishing.
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William Nicholls
1664 - 1712 (48 years)
William Nicholls was an English clergyman and theologian, known as an author on the Book of Common Prayer. Life He was the son of John Nicholls of Donington, now Dunton, Buckinghamshire. He was educated at St Paul's School under Thomas Gale, and went up with an exhibition to Magdalen Hall, Oxford, where he matriculated as a commoner on 26 March 1680. He later migrated to Wadham College, and graduated B.A. on 27 November 1683. On 6 October 1684 he was chosen a probationary fellow of Merton College, and proceeded M.A. 19 June 1688, B.D. 2 July 1692, and D.D. 29 November 1695.
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Pope Nicholas II
990 - 1061 (71 years)
Pope Nicholas II , otherwise known as Gerard of Burgundy, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 24 January 1059 until his death in 27 July 1061. At the time of his election, he was bishop of Florence. During his Papacy, Nicholas II successfully expanded the influence of the papacy in Milan and southern Italy. He was also responsible for passing papal election reforms.
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Joseph Ruggles Wilson
1822 - 1903 (81 years)
Joseph Ruggles Wilson Sr. was a prominent Presbyterian theologian and father of President Woodrow Wilson, Nashville Banner editor Joseph Ruggles Wilson Jr., and Anne E. Wilson Howe. In 1861, as pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Augusta, Georgia, he organized the General Assembly of the newly formed Presbyterian Church in the United States, known as the Southern Presbyterian Church, and served as its clerk for thirty-seven years.
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Harold C. Case
1902 - 1972 (70 years)
Harold Claude Case was an American academic administrator and Methodist preacher. He served as president of Boston University from 1951 to 1967 and was later named acting president of Whittier College.
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Étienne Dumont
1759 - 1829 (70 years)
Pierre Étienne Louis Dumont , sometimes anglicised as Stephen Dumont, was a Swiss French political writer. He is chiefly remembered as the French editor of the writings of the English philosopher and social reformer Jeremy Bentham.
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Gustaaf Adolf van den Bergh van Eysinga
1874 - 1957 (83 years)
Gustaaf Adolf van den Bergh van Eysinga was a Dutch theologian. From 1936 to 1944 he was professor in New Testament exegesis at the University of Amsterdam. He belonged to the Dutch school of Radical Criticism. Bergh van Eysinga was an advocate of the Christ myth theory.
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Peder Madsen
1843 - 1911 (68 years)
Peder Madsen was a Danish theologian and Bishop of the Diocese of Zealand from 1909 until his death in 1911. Prior to being ordained as a bishop, he had been a professor and the rector of the University of Copenhagen.
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Walter A. Maier
1893 - 1950 (57 years)
Walter Arthur Maier was a noted radio personality, public speaker, prolific author, university professor, scholar of ancient Semitic languages and culture, Lutheran theologian and editor. He is best known as the speaker for The Lutheran Hour radio broadcast from 1930 to 1950.
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Fulcran Vigouroux
1837 - 1915 (78 years)
Fulcran Grégoire Vigouroux , was a French Catholic priest and scholar, biblical theologian, apologist, and the first secretary of the Pontificial Commission . Vigouroux defended the historicity of the Bible.
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Pedro Abarca
1619 - 1697 (78 years)
Pedro Abarca was a Jesuit theologian. Life Born in Aragon, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1641, and passed almost all his religious life as professor of scholastic, moral, and controversial theology, chiefly in the University of Salamanca. He died at Palencia.
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John Gordon Davies
1919 - 1990 (71 years)
John Gordon Davies was Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology at the University of Birmingham. He was educated at King's School , Christ Church and Westcott House . He worked in the dockland parish of Rotherhithe before joining the University of Birmingham, and he was also Director of the Institute for the Study of Worship and Religious Architecture in the University.
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J. H. Oldham
1874 - 1969 (95 years)
Joseph Houldsworth Oldham CBE , known as J. H. or Joe, was a Scottish missionary in India, who became a significant figure in Christian ecumenism, though never ordained in the United Free Church as he had wished.
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Florentine Bechtel
1857 - 1933 (76 years)
The Reverend Florentine Stanislaus Bechtel, S.J., was a French-born American Biblical scholar. Biography Florentine Stanislaus Bechtel was born in Haguenau, Alsace on February 4, 1857. He was educated at the College of Providence in Amiens. He entered the Jesuits in 1874 in his native France and was sent to serve the Jesuit missions in the Midwestern United States and studied theology at the former Jesuit St. Stanislaus Seminary in Florissant, Missouri. He taught Hebrew and Sacred Scripture at St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri, and was a contributor to the Catholic Encyclopedia articl...
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Johann Jakob Hottinger
1652 - 1735 (83 years)
Johann Jakob Hottinger was a Swiss theologian. Biography He was born in Zürich, the son of the Swiss philologist and theologian Johann Heinrich Hottinger. He studied theology at the Carolinum in Zürich, and also in Basel and Geneva. In 1676 he received his ordination, then in 1680 became a pastor in Stallikon. In 1686 he was named deacon at the Grossmünster in Zürich, where in 1698 he succeeded Johann Heinrich Heidegger as professor of theology. He died in Zürich, aged 83.
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Thomas Burnet
1635 - 1715 (80 years)
Thomas Burnet was an English theologian and writer on cosmogony. Life He was born at Croft near Darlington in 1635. After studying at Northallerton Grammar School under Thomas Smelt, he went to Clare College, Cambridge in 1651. There he was a pupil of John Tillotson. Ralph Cudworth, the Master of Clare, moved to Christ's College, Cambridge in 1654, and Burnet followed him. He became fellow of Christ's in 1657, M.A. in 1658, and was proctor in 1667.
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Robert Lawrence Ottley
1856 - 1933 (77 years)
Robert Lawrence Ottley was an English theologian. Life He was the son of Lawrence Ottley, Canon of Ripon. He was born in Richmond, Yorkshire, and was educated by his sister Alice Ottley and at King's School, Canterbury. The rest of his academic career up to 1933 was spent at Oxford. His undergraduate studies took place at Pembroke College, of which he became an Honorary Fellow in 1905. He was tutor at Christ Church in 1881, and Principal of Cuddesdon Theological College from 1886. In 1890 he became Divinity Dean at Magdalen College. Then, in 1893 he became Principal of Pusey House. During 1...
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John Macleod Campbell Crum
1872 - 1958 (86 years)
The Rev. Canon John Macleod Campbell Crum was an Anglican priest, author and hymnwriter. Family and education Crum was born at Mere Old Hall near Knutsford, Cheshire, to William Graham Crum, a calico printer, and Jean Campbell, who were both of Scottish origin. The family later lived at Broxton Old Hall, also in Cheshire. His grandfathers were the chemist Walter Crum and the theologian John McLeod Campbell.
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Bartholomaeus Arnoldi
1465 - 1532 (67 years)
Bartholomaeus Arnoldi was an Augustinian friar and doctor of divinity who taught Martin Luther and later turned into his earliest and one of his personally closest opponents. Life Usually called Usingen, after his birthplace, Arnoldi received his master's degree in 1491 and was promoted to the doctorate of divinity in 1514. For thirty years he filled the chairs of philosophy and theology at Erfurt University, and, with Jodocus Trutfetter, was its leading teacher. He enjoyed the favour of the younger humanists.
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William Gurnall
1617 - 1679 (62 years)
William Gurnall was an English author and Anglican clergyman born at King's Lynn, Norfolk, where he was baptised on 17 November 1616. He was educated at the free grammar school of his native town, and in 1631 was nominated to the Lynn scholarship in Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1635 and MA in 1639. He was made rector of St Peter and St Paul's Church, Lavenham in Suffolk in 1644; and before he received that appointment he seems to have officiated, perhaps as curate, at Sudbury.
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Thomas Cartwright
1535 - 1603 (68 years)
Thomas Cartwright was an English Puritan preacher and theologian. Background and education Cartwright was probably born in Royston, Hertfordshire, and studied divinity at St John's College, Cambridge. On the accession of Queen Mary I of England in 1553, he was forced to leave the university, and found occupation as clerk to a counsellor-at-law. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth I, five years later, he resumed his theological studies, and was soon afterwards elected a fellow of St John's and later of Trinity College, Cambridge.
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Johann Michael Reu
1869 - 1943 (74 years)
Johann Michael Reu was a German - American Lutheran theologian, author and educator. Johann Michael Reu was born at Diebach, in Bavaria, Germany. He was the youngest of ten children. His father died when Reu was only two years old. Reu studied from 1887 to 1889 at the nearby Neuendettelsau Mission Institute which had been founded by Wilhelm Loehe in 1841.
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Arsenie Boca
1910 - 1989 (79 years)
Arsenie Boca was a Romanian priest, theologian, mystic, and artist. He was persecuted by the Romanian Communist Party. Born in Vața de Sus, Hunedoara County, he died at Sinaia Monastery and was buried at in Silvașu de Sus village. In a poll of the Romanian public conducted by Romanian Television in 2006, Boca was voted 79th among 100 Greatest Romanians.
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Guillaume-André-Réné Baston
1741 - 1825 (84 years)
Guillaume-André-René Baston was a French theologian. Life He studied theology at St. Sulpice in Paris and finished his studies at Angers. He was then appointed professor of theology at Rouen. During the French Revolution he wrote against the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Having refused to take the oath, he was obliged to go into exile , first to London, then to Holland, and finally to Coesfeld in Westphalia. In 1803 he returned to Rouen, where he was appointed vicar-general and dean of the chapter by Archbishop Cambacérès. As a Gallican, he won the favor of Napoleon, who appointed him Bishop of Séez , and the chapter of the cathedral accepted him as capitular vicar.
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Caelestius
380 - 500 (120 years)
Caelestius was the major follower of the Christian teacher Pelagius and the Christian doctrine of Pelagianism, which was opposed to Augustine of Hippo and his doctrine in original sin, and was later declared to be heresy.
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Charles de Condren
1588 - 1641 (53 years)
Charles de Condren, Cong. Orat., a Doctor of the Sorbonne , was a French mystic of the 17th century, and is considered a leading member of the French School of Spirituality. Early life Condren was born on 15 December 1588 in Vauxbuin, near Soissons. His father, governor of the royal castle of Piles near Meaux, had converted from Protestantism to Catholicism. He sought to instill in his son an attraction for military life, and had the boy outfitted with a military uniform when still very young. Charles was tutored by M. le Masson, a canon of Soissons, and displayed a remarkable memory even at a...
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Robert Lightfoot
1883 - 1953 (70 years)
Robert Henry Lightfoot was an Anglican priest and theologian, who was Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford from 1934 to 1949. Life Lightfoot was the youngest son of Prideaux Lightfoot, Archdeacon of Oakham, and grandson of a former Rector of Exeter College, Oxford. He was born on 30 September 1883 and was educated at Uppingham School and Eton College before studying classics and then theology at Worcester College, Oxford. He was advised that he was not good enough to obtain an academic job, so became curate of a parish in Haslemere in 1909. ...
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Johannes Alberti
1698 - 1762 (64 years)
Johannes Alberti was a Dutch theologian. Early life Alberti was the son of a flour miller. He did not regularly attend school due to the distance between his parents' house and the local school. However, the miller's apprentice, Jan Mulder, taught the boy to read. He made good progress, and soon the teacher took his student with him to the church. To his amazement, he noticed that the boy kept his attention on the pulpit. When Alberti returned home, his mother asked him if he remembered anything that had been said. He stood upon a wooden crate in the living room, recited the text of the sermon, and declaimed parts of it with such simplicity that his mother had tears in her eyes.
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Hans Lietzmann
1875 - 1942 (67 years)
Hans Lietzmann was a German Protestant theologian and church historian who was a native of Düsseldorf. He initially studied in Jena, then continued his education in Bonn, where he was a student of Hermann Usener. In 1905 he was appointed professor of church history at the University of Jena, and in 1923 was a successor to Adolf von Harnack at the University of Berlin. During his career he obtained an honorary doctorate from the University of Athens, and in 1927 became a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. He died in Locarno, Switzerland on 25 June 1942.
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Robert Baron
1596 - 1639 (43 years)
Robert Baron was a Scottish theologian and one of the so-called Aberdeen doctors. He is commemorated in the Calendar of saints of the Scottish Episcopal Church on 28 March. Life Born in 1596 at Kinnaird, Gowrie, he was the younger son of John Baron of Kinnaird. After graduating from the University of St Andrews in 1613, he became a teacher of Philosophy there until, in 1619, he entered the ministry and took charge of parish of Keith. In the latter charge his predecessor had been the famous Patrick Forbes.
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Marie Huber
1695 - 1753 (58 years)
Marie Huber was a Genevan writer on theology and related subjects, as well as a translator and editor, at a time when it was rare for a female writer to write about theology. Huber was a proponent of universalism, and was considered by some a deist. Her Letters Concerning the Religion Essential to Man are known to have been read, in translation, by Robert Burns.
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Thomas Treadwell Stone
1801 - 1895 (94 years)
Thomas Treadwell Stone was an American Unitarian pastor, abolitionist, and Transcendentalist. Life and work Thomas Treadwell Stone was born on February 9, 1801, in Waterford, Maine to Solomon Stone and Hepzibah Treadwell Stone. His maternal grandfather, Thomas Treadwell, served with the Minutemen and was at the battle of Bunker Hill with Colonel William Prescott's regiment. At that time Waterford was an area of new and sparsely populated farmland, and Solomon Stone made his living as a farmer. Thomas attended Bridgton Academy and graduated from Bowdoin College in 1820.
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Louis Tronchin
1629 - 1705 (76 years)
Louis Tronchin was a Genevan Calvinist theologian and the son of Théodore Tronchin. Life He studied at the Protestant Academy of Saumur under Moses Amyraut, whose "hypothetical universalism" had been vehemently contested by Tronchin the elder; he became pastor of the congregation of Lyons in 1656; and professor of theology at the Genevan Academy in 1661, in which position he represented the liberal trend and advocated tolerance. In 1669 he demanded the abolition of the oath that was imposed on all candidates [in theology], not to attempt any innovations in the Calvinist doctrine.
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Gábor Szeremlei
1807 - 1867 (60 years)
Gábor Szeremlei was a Hungarian Protestant theologian, professor and doctor of philosophy. Life Szeremlei was born in 1807 in Disznóshorvát , Borsod county. His mother was the Czech-born Anna Hofman, His father was Sámuel Szeremlei Császár . The exact date of his birth is unknown, because his birth wasn't registered in the baptismal birth register. The birth year is sure, because he was born after his father arrived to Disznóshorvát, and in 1808 a younger brother's name was registered in Disznóshorvát.
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Jacques Almain
1480 - 1515 (35 years)
Jacques Almain was a French professor of theology at the University of Paris who died at an early age. Born in the diocese of Sens, he studied Arts at the Collège de Montaigu of the University of Paris. He served as Rector of the University from December 1507 to March 1508.
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George Harris
1844 - 1922 (78 years)
George Harris Jr. was an American minister, academic, and college president. Early life and education He was born at East Machias, Maine to George Harris Sr. and Mary Ann Palmer. He attended Washington Academy and graduated from Amherst College in 1866 and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1869. He received the D.D. degree from Harvard, Yale and Amherst, and the LL.D. degree from Dartmouth and Williams.
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