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,
#3901
John Eugenikos
1380 - 1453 (73 years)
John Eugenikos was a late Byzantine cleric and writer. He was the brother of Mark Eugenikos, and like him an ardent opponent of the Union of the Churches. Originally a notary and nomophylax at the Patriarchate of Constantinople, his opposition to the Union saw him exiled to the Despotate of the Morea, where he died. John participated briefly in the Council of Florence that ratified the Union, and also travelled to Trebizond and Mesembria.
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Karl Zimmermann
1803 - 1877 (74 years)
Justus Joseph Georg Friedrich Karl Zimmermann was a German Protestant theologian. His older brother, Ernst Zimmermann , was also a theologian. Born in the Hessian city of Darmstadt, He studied philology and theology at the universities of Giessen and Heidelberg, and for several years worked as a teacher in various schools. In 1835 he was named second court chaplain in Darmstadt, then obtained the title of first court chaplain in 1842. From 1847 onward, he served as a member of the consistory, a prelate and ecclesiastical superintendent at the Schlosskirche in Darmstadt.
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Joseph Emerson
1821 - 1900 (79 years)
Joseph Emerson was an American minister and theologian. Emerson, son of Professor Ralph Emerson, D.D. and Eliza Emerson, was born on May 28, 1821, at Norfolk, Connecticut, where his father was at the time pastor of the Congregational church. In 1829 his father became Professor of Ecclesiastical History in Andover Theological Seminary, in Andover, Massachusetts, and he was prepared for college at Phillips Academy in that place. During his senior year at Yale College he was one of the editors of the Yale Literary Magazine. He graduated from Yale in 1841.
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Friedrich Myconius
1490 - 1546 (56 years)
Friedrich Myconius was a German Lutheran theologian and Protestant reformer. He was a colleague of Martin Luther. Myconius was born in Lichtenfels, Bavaria, and he was educated there and at Annaberg, where he had an encounter with Johann Tetzel, a Dominican, in a disagreement over indulgences. His teacher, named Staffelstein, persuaded him in 1510 to enter the Franciscan order. That same night a dream turned his thoughts towards the religious standpoint which he subsequently reached as a Lutheran. From Annaberg he passed to Franciscan communities at Leipzig and Weimar, where he was ordained priest in 1516.
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Victorinus Strigel
1524 - 1569 (45 years)
Viktorin Strigel was a Philippist Lutheran theologian and Protestant reformer. Life Victorinus Strigel was born 1524 in Kaufbeuren, the son of the physician Ivo Strigel. He attended the University of Freiburg in October 1542 and went to the University of Wittenberg to study philosophy and theology. There he became a follower of Philipp Melanchthon in 1544, earned a Master of Arts, and gave his own lectures. Due to the Schmalkaldic War, he fled with Melanchthon at first to Magdeburg and went to the University of Erfurt, where he also taught. From Erfurt, he was recommended to Jena, where he ...
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Agrippa Castor
Agrippa Castor has been identified as "the earliest recorded writer against heresy, and apparently the only one who composed a book solely devoted to the refutation of Basilides". Little is known of him besides second-hand passing in ancient historical references.
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Ludwig von Gerdtell
1872 - 1954 (82 years)
Friedrich Siegfried Heinrich Ludwig von Gerdtell was a German theologian associated with the Disciples of Christ movement. Ludwig von Gerdtell was born into an aristocratic Prussian family, his father and grandfather were officers in the Potsdam Guards Regiment. He did not follow this tradition and studied law, then theology with an emphasis on New Testament Studies. From 1902 to 1908 he worked as a traveling secretary for the German Student Christian Association. In 1908/09 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Erlangen with his work on Rudolf Eucken's position on early Christianity. He came to the conclusion that the statements of the New Testament church and the state disagreed.
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Francisco Foreiro
1523 - 1581 (58 years)
Francisco Foreiro was a Portuguese Dominican theologian and biblist. Biography Born in 1523 in Lisbon, he studied arts and theology and entered among the Dominicans in February 1539. King John III sent him to study theology in the university of Paris and, on his return to Lisbon, he appointed Foreiro his preacher. Prince Louis at the same time entrusted to him the education of his son, António.
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Nicholas Abram
1589 - 1655 (66 years)
Nicholas Abram was a Jesuit theologian and classicist. Biography Abram was born in Xaronval, in Lorraine, in the year 1589. He entered the Jesuit order in 1606, and took his final vows in 1623. Abram taught rhetoric at Pont-à-Mousson, then engaged in missionary work, and finally taught theology at Pont-à-Mousson from 1636 until 1653. He taught briefly at Dijon before returning once again to Pont-à-Mousson, where he died in 1655.
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Antoine Massoulié
1632 - 1706 (74 years)
Antoine Massoulié was a French Dominican theologian. He was uncompromising against Quietism, and Molinism. Life At an early age he entered the order of St. Dominic, in which he held many important offices; but above all these, he prized study, teaching, and writing. He refused a bishopric and asked to be relieved of distracting duties. It was said that he knew by heart the Summa of Thomas Aquinas.
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Leonardo Marini
1509 - 1573 (64 years)
Leonardo Marini was an Italian theologian and archbishop of the Dominican Order of the Catholic Church. Biography Marini was born on the island of Chios, in the Aegean Sea, to a noble Genoese family. He entered the Dominican Order and studied theology.
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Martin of Arles
1501 - 1521 (20 years)
Martinus de Arles y Andosilla was doctor of theology and canon in Pamplona and archdeacon of Aibar, author of a tractatus de superstitionibus, contra maleficia seu sortilegia quae hodie vigent in orbe terrarum , a work on demonology in the context of the Early Modern witch-hunts. Martin believed witches to be particularly numerous among the population of Navarra, and the Basques of the Pyrenees in general. He recommends stern measures of an inquisition against this. His depiction of witchcraft is, however, based on sources predating the Malleus maleficarum, arguing against its simplistic depiction of witchcraft .
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Tomaso Malvenda
1566 - 1628 (62 years)
Tomaso Malvenda was a Spanish Dominican exegete and historical critic. Life Malvenda was born in Xàtiva, Valencia. He entered the Dominicans in his youth; at the age of thirty-five he seems to have already taught philosophy and theology. His criticisms on the Annales Ecclesiastici of Baronius, embodied in a letter to the letter to the author , showed ability, and Baronius used his influence to have Malvenda summoned to Rome. Here he was an adviser to the cardinal, while also employed in revising the Dominican Breviary, annotating Brasichelli's Index Expurgatorius, and writing some annals of the order .
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John Downame
1571 - 1652 (81 years)
John Downame was an English Puritan clergyman and theologian in London, who came to prominence in the 1640s, when he worked closely with the Westminster Assembly. He is now remembered for his writings.
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William Cowper
1810 - 1902 (92 years)
William Macquarie Cowper was an Australian Anglican archdeacon and Dean of Sydney. Cowper was born in Sydney, the son of the Revd William Cowper, assistant colonial chaplain, and his second wife, Ann . Educated by his father and at the University of Oxford, he graduated BA from Magdalen Hall in 1833 and MA in 1835. Following admission to deacon´s order, he was appointed curate of St Petrox, Dartmouth, and ordained priest at Exeter in 1834. He returned to Australia in 1836 and was made chaplain at Port Stephens, New South Wales where he remained for 20 years. He then became Acting Principal o...
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William Turner
1761 - 1859 (98 years)
William Turner was a Unitarian minister and educator who advanced the anti-slavery movement in Northern England, contributed to the development of intellectual institutions in Newcastle upon Tyne, and published sermons on a variety of topics.
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William Matthews
1770 - 1854 (84 years)
William Matthews , occasionally spelled Mathews, was an American who became the fifth Roman Catholic priest ordained in the United States and the first such person born in British America. Born in the colonial Province of Maryland, he was briefly a novice in the Society of Jesus. After being ordained, he became influential in establishing Catholic parochial and educational institutions in Washington, D.C. He was the second pastor of St. Patrick's Church, serving for most of his life. He served as the sixth president of Georgetown College, later known as Georgetown University. Matthews acted as...
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Samuel Petto
1624 - 1711 (87 years)
Samuel Petto was an English Calvinist, a Cambridge graduate, and an Independent Puritan clergyman who primarily ministered in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was a prolific theologian who made a notable contribution to the development of British covenant theology by describing the link between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace and also demonstrating the relationship between justification and covenant theology. Additionally, he wrote two catechisms and a book advocating lay preaching. He also had close ties with a radical political movement.
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Thomas J. Campbell
1848 - 1925 (77 years)
Thomas J. Campbell was the twelfth and fourteenth president of St. John's College . Early life Campbell was born in New York City on April 29, 1848. He initially attended public schools in New York city, but later enrolled at St. Francis Xavier College. He received his Master of Arts in 1867, and entered the Jesuit novitiate in Sault-au-Recollet, Canada. In 1870 he was sent to St. John's College, where he taught classical literature for three years. Campbell continued his philosophical and scientific studies in Woodstock, Maryland. After completing his studies, he returned to St. Francis Xavier College to teach rhetoric in 1876.
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Thomas Jones of Denbigh
1756 - 1820 (64 years)
Thomas Jones , called "Thomas Jones of Denbigh" to differentiate him from namesakes, was a Welsh Methodist clergyman, writer, editor and poet, active in North Wales. Life history Thomas Jones was born in 1756 at Aberchwiler in Denbighshire, but was educated at Caerwys and Holywell in Flintshire.
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Alexandros Lykourgos
1827 - 1875 (48 years)
Alexandros Lykourgos was a Greek theologian, Greek Orthodox cleric and university professor. Born in Samos Island in 1827, after extended studies in Germany and a pilgrimage to Palestine he returned to Greece in 1858. He was appointed professor of theology at the University of Athens, and elected Greek Orthodox bishop of Syros and Tenos, islands of the Cyclades with significant Roman Catholic populations with whom according to French consular reports he was in conflictual relations circa 1864. He is particularly known for his visit to England to consecrate the Greek Orthodox church of St. Nicholas in Liverpool.
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Pietro Colonna Galatino
1460 - 1540 (80 years)
Pietro Colonna Galatino , also known as Petrus Galatinus, was an Italian Friar Minor, philosopher, theologian and Orientalist. Biography Galatino was born at Galatina, in Apulia. He received the habit as early as 1480, studied Oriental languages in Rome and was appointed lector at the convent of Ara Coeli; he also held the office of provincial in the province of Bari, and that of penitentiary under Leo X.
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Berend Kordes
1762 - 1823 (61 years)
Berend Kordes or Berenne Kordes was a German writer on exegetical theology. He was born at Lubeck on 27 October 1762, and studied at the universities of Kiel, Leipzig, and Jena. In 1793 he became librarian of the university at Kiel. and died there Feb. 5,1823. His exegetical works are, Observationumn in Jonce Oracula Specimina :-Ruth ex versione Septuaginta intepraetum .-Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 28:84.
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Franz Lorinser
1821 - 1893 (72 years)
Carl Maria Franz Lorinser was a German Catholic theologian, translator from Sanskrit and Spanish, and a writer on natural history. Lorinser was born in Berlin where his father was Karl Ignatius, a physician. The family had moved to Oppeln, Upper Silesia where Franz went to school. He then went to Breslau and Munich to study theology. In 1842 he went to Rome to study in the seminary there. He was ordained by Cardinal Patrizi on December 23, 1843. Returning to Germany in 1844 he spent time in Munich and then worked as chaplain, later pastor in Breslau. He died at Breslau.
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Christianus Carolus Henricus van der Aa
1718 - 1793 (75 years)
Christianus Carolus Henricus van der Aa was a Lutheran pastor in Haarlem and secretary of the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities. Life Christianus Carolus Henricus was born in Zwolle, where his father Balduinus also worked as a pastor.
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Jacob Heerbrand
1521 - 1600 (79 years)
Jacob Heerbrand was a German Protestant theologian, reformer and controversialist. Life He was born at Giengen in Swabia on 12 August 1521. He was educated at the school at Ulm, and at the universities of Wittenberg and Tübingen . He was for five years the pupil of Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon.
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Conrad Henry Moehlman
1879 - 1961 (82 years)
Conrad Henry Moehlman was an American professor of church history at Colgate Rochester Divinity School, where he was emeritus professor. A Baptist and known as theologically liberal, he was a strong proponent of the separation of church and state and wrote a number of books on religion and education, church history, and Christianity.
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Charles Bridges
1794 - 1869 (75 years)
Charles Bridges was a preacher and theologian in the Church of England, and a leader of that denomination's Evangelical Party. As a preacher he was well regarded by his contemporaries, but is remembered today for his literary contributions.
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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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