Daniel Gerdes ( la, Gerdesius) (19 April 1698,

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

– 11 February 1765) was a German Calvinist theologian and historian. He became professor at the

University of Duisburg The old University of Duisburg was a university in Duisburg, Germany. History Its origins date back to the 1555 decision to create a university for the unified duchies at the Lower Rhine that were later to be merged into Prussia. After the foundati ...

in 1726, and at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen in ...

in 1736.

While broadly supporting Protestant

freedom of conscience Freedom of thought (also called freedom of conscience) is the freedom of an individual to hold or consider a fact, viewpoint, or thought, independent of others' viewpoints. Overview Every person attempts to have a cognitive proficiency by ...

, Gerdes drew a line in his attacks on the

Mennonite Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...

minister Johannes Stinstra. In that case Gerdes used the views of

Samuel Werenfels Samuel Werenfels (; 1 March 1657 – 1 June 1740) was a Swiss theologian. He was a major figure in the move towards a "reasonable orthodoxy" in Swiss Reformed theology. Life Werenfels was born at Basel in the Old Swiss Confederacy, the son of a ...

, tolerant and well thought of by

Benjamin Hoadley Benjamin Hoadly (14 November 1676 – 17 April 1761) was an English clergyman, who was successively Bishop of Bangor, of Hereford, of Salisbury, and finally of Winchester. He is best known as the initiator of the Bangorian Controversy. Li ...

, to condemn Stinstra.

Works

*''Historia Reformatis'' (4 vols., 1744–52) *''Scrinium Antiquarium'' (4 vols., 1749–65) *''Specimen Italiae Reformatae'' (1765)

Notes

External links

WorldCat pageCERL page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gerdes, Daniel 1698 births 1765 deaths German Calvinist and Reformed theologians 18th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians Academic staff of the University of Groningen 18th-century German Protestant theologians German male non-fiction writers Writers from Bremen 18th-century German male writers