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[German Version] 1. August Friedrich Wilhelm (Feb 4, 1703, Harzgerode – Apr 23, 1786, Berlin), Reformed theologian. In 1722 he began to study theology in Frankfurt an der Oder; in 1724 he served as a domestic tutor in Stettin (Szczecin) and Holland, where he was influenced by Jean Barbeyrac (1674–1744), a critic of confessional tests, and Arminianism (Arminians: I). In 1728 he was appointed tutor to the heir to the throne of Hesse-Homburg. In 1731 he was appointed third preacher of German Reformed chu…

[German Version] 1. Théodore (Apr 17, 1582 [1587?], Geneva – Nov 19, 1657, Geneva). After studies in Geneva and a tour of Europe (during which he visited F. Gomarus in Leiden), in 1606 he was appointed professor of Hebrew in Geneva. From 1610 to 1615 he served as rector of the Geneva Académie, where he was appointed professor of theology in 1615. At the Synod of Dort, Tronchin and G. Diodati led the champions of strict Calvinistic orthodoxy (II, 2.b.β). Along with Diodati, he became the leader of the church in Geneva. His Harmonia confessionum was never printed. Uta Wiggermann Bibliography E. W…

[German Version] a society championing natural religion in revolutionary France. Among the founders of the society were Jean-Baptiste Chemin-Dupontès, who published a Manuel des Théoanthropophiles in 1796, and Valentin Haüy. The Theophilanthropists, who combined elements from the French, German, and English Enlightenment, believed in the existence of God and the immortality of the soul. They provided a ritualized religious framework for daily routine. Besides observing their own festivals, including spring, summer, fal…

[German Version] The Wöllner Edict was the most significant edict on church affairs of the late 18th century in Prussia. Johann Christoph Woellner (not Wöllner; May 19, 1732, Döberitz – Sep 10, 1800, Groß-Rietz, near Beeskow) studied theology at Halle; in 1755 he became pastor in Groß-Behnitz, where he soon began to work the Itzenplitz estate, the management of wich he assumed in 1762. In 1766 he married the Itzenplitz daughter Amalie, a marriage disapproved of by Frederick the Great. Wöllner, a s…