Johann Lorentz Von Mosheim

1694-1755. Lutheran church historian. Born in Lubeck of a Roman Catholic father and a Lutheran mother, he became a Lutheran, was educated in Lubeck and at the University of Kiel, where he became a faculty member. Later he moved to Helmstadt (1723), thence to Göttingen (1747) where he became chancellor. Theologically mediating between the Pietists and the Deists, he opposed both groups. Although he contributed to most fields of theology, his principal works were in church history, which he endeavored to make more scientific and objective. His interests extended even to Chinese church history. His most important work was Institutiones historiae ecclesiasticae antiquae et recentioris (1755), of which a number of English translations were published in the nineteenth century.