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 Theology,
#3451
Charles W. Lyons
1868 - 1939 (71 years)
Charles William Lyons was an American Catholic priest who became the only Jesuit and likely the only educator in the United States to have served as the president of four colleges. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he attended the local public schools before entering the wool industry. He abandoned his career in industry to enter the Society of Jesus. While a novice in Maryland, he suffered a nervous breakdown and was sent to Georgetown University as prefect. He then resumed his studies at Woodstock College, teaching intermittently at Gonzaga College in Washington, D.C. and Loyola College in Baltimore.
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Louis-Joseph Kerkhofs
1878 - 1962 (84 years)
Louis-Joseph Kerkhofs, was the Roman Catholic Bishop of Liège from 1927 - 1961. Life Following his schooling in Peer, Louis-Joseph Kerkhofs studied at the Seminary in Hasselt and in Rome. On 22 September 1900, Kerkhof was ordained a Catholic Priest in Liège. In 1901 he became a professor at the minor seminary in Sint-Truiden. He took over the teaching of Dogmatics at the Major Seminary in Liège in 1917 and in 1922 was appointed Dean.
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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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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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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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Ruard Acronius
1546 - 1612 (66 years)
Ruard Acronius was a Reformed theologian of the late 16th century. Some sources refer to Ruard Acronius as the brother of Johannes Acronius while others mention that he has been a Catholic priest at first. In 1572 he appears as Reformed preacher in Franeker. In the following, he worked for several years in Alkmaar and Bolsward. In 1599, he became preacher in Schiedam where he died late in 1612.
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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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Andrea Gallandi
1709 - 1779 (70 years)
Andrea Gallandi was an Italian Oratorian and patristic scholar. Life He pursued his theological and historical studies under two Dominicanss, Daniello Concina, a moralist, and Bernardo de Rossi , a noted historical scholar and theologian. With both of these instructors he kept up a friendship after he had joined the Oratory of St. Philip Neri.
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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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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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Benjamin Ursinus von Bär
1646 - 1720 (74 years)
Benjamin Ursinus von Bär was the Court Preacher to the Elector of Brandenburg, and was a bishop of the protestant Reformed Church descendant from a family of clergymen. Early life Ursinus was born into a family of high ranking clergymen at Lissa; his grandfather David Ursinus was Court Preacher to the Carolath Castle in Lower Silesia. Ursinus' father was the first Vice Rector in Lissa before becoming a pastor in 1648. Ursinus was raised in Danzig and was enrolled as a theology student in Heidelberg in 1663. Afterwards, on the suggestion of his teachers, he was ordained as a secret preacher i...
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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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Jodh Singh
1882 - 1981 (99 years)
Bhai Jodh Singh was a Sikh theologian, author, mentor and social activist. He played an important role in the Singh Sabha movement. He was a recipient of the civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan. See also Sikhism
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George B. Bacon
1836 - 1876 (40 years)
George Blagden Bacon was a United States clergyman and author of texts on religious issues. Bacon was a congregational pastor in Orange, New Jersey. The ministry ran in the Bacons' blood: George B. Bacon was the son of Leonard Bacon and the brother of Leonard Woolsey Bacon, both Congregationalist pastors; two other brothers were also preachers, Thomas Rutherford Bacon of New Haven, and Edward Woolsey Bacon of New London, Connecticut.
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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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Thomas Netter
1372 - 1430 (58 years)
Thomas Netter, OCarm was an English Scholastic theologian and controversialist. From his birthplace he is commonly called Thomas of Walden, or Thomas Waldensis. Life Born at Saffron Walden, Essex, as a young adult he entered the Carmelite Order in London, and pursued his studies partly there and partly at Oxford, where he took degrees, and spent a number of years in teaching, as may be gathered from the titles of his writings , which embrace the whole of philosophy, Scripture, canon law, and theology, that is, a complete academical course. He was well read in the classics and the ecclesiasti...
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Gerhard Tersteegen
1697 - 1769 (72 years)
Gerhard Tersteegen , was a German Reformed religious writer and hymnist. Life Tersteegen was born in Moers, at that time the principal city of a county belonging to the House of Orange-Nassau that formed a Protestant enclave in the midst of a Catholic country.
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Edmond Henri Adolphe Schérer
1815 - 1889 (74 years)
Edmond Henri Adolphe Schérer was a French theologian, critic and politician. Biography He was born in Paris. After a course of legal studies, he spent several years in theological study at Strasbourg, where he graduated in theology in 1843, and was ordained. In 1843, he was appointed professor of exegesis in the École Évangélique at Geneva . The development of his opinions in favour of the Liberal movement in Protestant theology led to his resigning the post six years later. He founded the Anti-Jesuite, afterwards the Réformation au XIXe siècle, in which he advocated the separation of the Chu...
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Frederick William Stellhorn
1841 - 1919 (78 years)
Frederick William Stellhorn , an American Lutheran theologian, was born in Brüninghorstedt, a community in Warmsen the Landkreis of Hannover, in Lower Saxony , Germany. Early years Stellhorn was born at Brüninghorstedt in the Kingdom of Hanover, Germany, son of Johann Peter and Katharina Stellhorn. He immigrated to the United States when he was twelve. His father died of cholera in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in September 1854, leaving his mother widowed with two young children. His older brother helped provide for the family. He attended German language Lutheran parochial schools in Fort Wayne. In ...
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Jean Morin
1591 - 1659 (68 years)
Jean Morin was a French theologian and biblical scholar. His linguistic studies of biblical manuscript material, newly available, were taken to polemical lengths. Life He was born in Blois, to Calvinist parents. He learned Latin and Greek at La Rochelle, and continued his studies in Leiden, subsequently moving to Paris. His conversion to the Catholic Church is ascribed to Cardinal du Perron.
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Thomas Rutherford Bacon
1850 - 1913 (63 years)
Thomas Rutherford Bacon was an American Congregational clergyman and leading Mugwump. In the wake of the presidential election of 1884, he relocated to the West Coast, where he became a professor of history at the University of California.
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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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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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Hezekiah Burton
1632 - 1681 (49 years)
Hezekiah Burton was an English theologian. Life He was educated in Sutton-on-Lound and at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he became a Fellow. He was an associate of a number of intellectual figures of the day, in particular Richard Cumberland whose De legibus naturae he edited and to which he contributed an Address to the Reader. He is mentioned in Pepys's Diary. He was chaplain to Orlando Bridgeman, and used the contact to support Cumberland.
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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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Johann Hiltalinger
1315 - 1392 (77 years)
Johann Hiltalinger was a Swiss Augustinian theologian who became Bishop of Lombez. Life Born at Basel, he entered the Augustinian order and received the degree of master of theology at the University of Paris in 1371. From 1371 to 1377 he was provincial in the Rhenish-Swabian province of the order. He again held this post in 1379, being general procurator in the intervening period.
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John Henry Hopkins
1792 - 1868 (76 years)
John Henry Hopkins was the first bishop of Episcopal Diocese of Vermont and the eighth Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. He was also an artist , a lawyer, an ironmonger, a musician and composer, a theologian, and an architect who introduced Gothic architecture into the United States.
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Jakob Middendorp
1537 - 1611 (74 years)
Jakob Middendorp was a Dutch Catholic theologian and churchman, academic and historian. Life Middendorp was born about 1537 in Oldenzaal, or perhaps Ootmarsum, as he called himself Otmersensis on the title page of his work . He studied the humanities at the Fragerherren gymnasium of Zwolle, philosophy and jurisprudence at Cologne University, where he became doctor of philosophy and both branches of law, and also licentiate of theology; he also taught peripatetic philosophy at the Montanum gymnasium there.
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William de Montibus
1140 - 1213 (73 years)
William de Montibus was a theologian and teacher. He travelled to Paris in the 1160s, where he studied under Peter Comestor, eventually opening his own school on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève. He was appointed by Hugh of Lincoln as master of the cathedral school in Lincoln, England in the 1180s, where his lectures drew students from around the country. He was also chancellor of the cathedral by 1194, and remained in both positions until his death in 1213. He was the instructor of Alexander Neckam in Paris, and in Lincoln taught Samuel Presbiter and Richard of Wetheringsett.
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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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Angelo Carletti di Chivasso
1411 - 1495 (84 years)
Angelo Carletti di Chivasso was a noted moral theologian of the Order of Friars Minor; born at Chivasso in Piedmont, in 1411; and died at Coni, in Piedmont, in 1495. His name in Latin is usually given as Angelus de Clavasio . This form is preserved in bibliographic usage.
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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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Alexander Gerard
1728 - 1795 (67 years)
Alexander Gerard FRSE was a Scottish minister, academic and philosophical writer. In 1764 he was the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Life He was born on 22 February 1728, the son of Gilbert Gerard , at the manse in Garioch in Aberdeenshire. He attended Foveran Parish School then Aberdeen Grammar School.
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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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William May
1505 - 1560 (55 years)
William May , also known as William Meye, was Dean of the Order of the British Empire. He was nominated Archbishop of York in 1560, but died before he could take office. William May was the brother of John May, bishop of Carlisle. He was educated at Cambridge, where he was a fellow of Trinity Hall, and in 1537, president of Queens' College. May heartily supported the Reformation, signed the Ten Articles in 1536, and helped in the production of The Institution of a Christian Man. He had close connection with the diocese of Ely, being successively chancellor, vicar-general and prebendary. In 154...
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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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George Wishart
1703 - 1785 (82 years)
George Wishart was a Scottish minister who was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1748. He was also Chaplain-in-Ordinary to the King of England and Dean of the Chapel Royal.
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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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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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James Parkes
1896 - 1981 (85 years)
James William Parkes was an Anglican clergyman, historian, and social activist. With the publication of The Jew and His Neighbour in 1929, he created the foundations of a Christian re-evaluation of Judaism. He also published under the pseudonym John Hadham.
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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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John C. Young
1803 - 1857 (54 years)
John Clarke Young was an American educator and pastor who was the fourth president of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. A graduate of Dickinson College and Princeton Theological Seminary, he entered the ministry in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1828. He accepted the presidency of Centre College in 1830, holding the position until his death in 1857, making him the longest-serving president in the college's history. He is regarded as one of the college's best presidents, as he increased the endowment of the college more than five-fold during his term and increased the graduating class size from t...
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William May Wightman
1808 - 1882 (74 years)
Bishop William May Wightman was an American educator and clergyman. He served as the President of Wofford College from 1853 to 1859. He served as the Chancellor of Southern University in Greensboro, Alabama from 1860 to 1866. He became a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in 1866.
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