THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
New York Dec. 21, 1861. He was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, 1807; settled as pastor at Chestertown, Md., 1812; became professor of historic theology in the General Theological Seminary, New York, 1818, and from 1821 till his death was professor of Biblical learning. He was a sound and able commentator. He translated, with Bishop Whittingham, Jahn’s Introduction to the Old Testament (New York, 1827), and Planck’s Introduction to Sacred Philology and Interpretation (1834); wrote commentaries upon the Greek text of Hebrews (1852), Romans (1853), Ephesians (1856), Galatians (1856); prepared Companion to the Book of Genesis (1841); Biographical Notices of some of the most Distinguished Jewish Rabbies, and Translations of Portions of their Commentaries and Other Works (1847); Thoughts on the Origin, Character, and Interpretation of Scripture Prophecy (1852) ; Teachings of the Master (1858); Spiritual Things compared with Spiritual, or Gospels and Acts wlustrated by Parallel References (1859); The Gospels according to the Ammonian Sections and the Tables of Eusebius (1861).
BisitiocrapHy: Autobiography of Samuel H. Turner, New
York, 1863.
TURNOW, tur’nev, PETER: Waldensian with Taboritic tendencies; b. at Tolkemit (50 m. s.w. of KG6nigsberg), probably about 1390; executed at Speyer probably in Apr., 1426. Of his early life nothing is known, but about 1415 he was in Prague. Henceforth his fortunes were closely connected with those of Johannes Drandorf (q.v.), and somewhat later he apparently visited Greece. A few years before his death he was rector of a school in Speyer, where, together with Drindorf, he began a series of attacks on the clergy of the city. He sought in vain to keep his friend from his own negotiations with Weinsberg, Heilbronn, and Wimpfen, and the pair were involved in common ruin. Besides his attacks on the secular power of the clergy, Turnow is said to have held that general councils could err, that the Eucharist must be administered under both kinds, the priest teaching or acting to the contrary being doomed to eternal punishment at the last day. (FERDINAND CoHRs.)
Brpiiocrapuy: M. Flacius, Catalogus testium veritatis, Frankfort, 1666; C. D. d’Argentre, Collectio judiciorum de novis erroribus, vol. ii., Paris, 1728; J. E. Kapp, Nachlese Einiger -.. zur Erléuterung der Reformations-Geschichte ' niitzlicher Urkunden, part iii., Leipsic, 1730; H. Haupt, Die religiésen Sekten in Franken vor der Reformation, Wiirzburg, 1882; idem, in Historisches Taschenbuch, VI., vii. 233 saqq.; idem, Waldensertum und Inquisition im siidéstlichen Deutschland, Freiburg, 1890; L. Keller, Die Reformation und die dlteren Reformparteien, Leipsic, 1885.
TURRECREMATA, JOHANNES DE. See Tor- QUEMADA, JUAN DE.
TURRETTINI, tur’ré-ti’nt (TURRETIN): <A family of Geneva theologians, whose founder, Francesco Turrettini, left his native Lucca in 1574 and settled in Geneva in 1592.
1. Benedict: Son of Francesco; b. in Zurich 1588; d. at Geneva Mar. 4, 1631. He became pastor and professor of theology at Geneva in 1612. In 1620 he was a delegate to the national synod of Alais, which introduced the results of the Synod of Dort into France. In the following year he was
43 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
sent on a successful mission to ask the Dutch States General and the Hanseatic cities for aid to put Geneva into a state of defense. Among his numerous writings the most important was his Défense de la fidelité des traductions de la S. Bible faites a Genéve (3 vols., Geneva, 1618-20), written in answer to the Geneve plagiaire of the Jesuit Pierre Cotton (Paris, 1618).
2. Frangois: Son of the preceding; b. at Geneva Oct. 17, 1623; d. there Sept. 28, 1687. He was educated at Geneva, Leyden, Utrecht, Paris, Saumur, Montauban, and Nimes. Returning to his native city, he was made pastor of the Italian church there in 1648, and professor of theology in 1653. He is especially known as a zealous opponent of the theology of Saumur (see AMyrautT, Moise), as an earnest defender of the orthodoxy represented by the Synod of Dort, and as one of the authors of the Helvetic Consensus (q.v.). Among his writings, which are chiefly dogmatic in character, special mention should be made of his Institutio theologie elenctice (3 parts, Geneva, 1679-85). A complete new edition of his works with his life by B. Pictet was issued at Edinburgh (4 vols., 1847-48).
8. Jean Alphonse: Son of the preceding, and the most important member of the family; b. at Geneva Aug. 24, 1671; d. there May 1, 1737. He was educated at Geneva and at Leyden. Destined to depart from his father’s defense of rigid Calvinism, and to seek to reunite all Protestants on the basis of a few fundamental doctrines, freeing the church of Geneva from the domination of the Synod of Dort, he began his activity as an author with his Pyrrhonismus pontificius sive theses theologico-historice de vartationibus pontificiorum circa ecclesie infallibilitatem (Leyden, 1692) which was practically a refutation of Bossuet’s Variations des églises protestantes (2 vols., Paris, 1688). From Leyden he went to England and France, and on his return to his native city in 1693 was made a member of the Vénérable compagnie des pasteurs. In 1697 he was appointed professor of church history, and from 1701 to 1711 was rector of the academy of Geneva, his rectorial addresses being later collected under the title of Orationes academice (Geneva, 1737).
Turrettini was especially important for his part in the abolition in 1725 of the Helvetic Consensus, of which his father had been one of the chief authors, but which was felt to be a burden in Geneva, as well as in other parts of Switzerland. The struggle over this commenced in 1706, over the promise of a young clergyman named Vial to refrain from teaching contrary to the Consensus, a promise not agreeable to the strict minority which had the council of state cancel Vial’s inclusion in the Compagnie. The matter was further considered by the latter and recommendations made to the council of state, the general result of which was that the Compagnie, in its session of June 15, resolved to drop the formula of 1706, and to retain only the requirements of belief in the teaching of the prophets and apostles as contained in the Old and New Testaments and as summarized in the catechism.- Thus not only the Helvetic Consensus, but the canons of Dort and even the Second Helvetic Confession were
Turner — Turrettini
deprived of their binding force upon the clergy, while a sort of symbolic authority was accorded only to Calvin’s catechism. The government was evidently in sympathy with the results, though, in accord with eighteenth-century usage, it desired the affair to be kept as quiet as possible. Turrettini, however, was not content with the abolition of the Consensus in Geneva, but desired that it be abrogated throughout Switzerland. To this end he communicated with Archbishop Wake of Canterbury, whereupon the primate, later followed by the king of England, wrote the Swiss cantons urging them to dispense with the Helvetic Consensus.
The abolition of this Consensus was closely connected with another interest which assumed an important place in Turettini’s life—the union between the Lutherans and the Reformed. In 1707 he learned, through a Prussian deputy at Neuchatel, that Frederick I., who was deeply interested in the union, desired to know the opinion of the church and academy of Geneva on the matter. On Apr. 22, 1707, the Compagnie gave the king the desired information in a letter prepared by Turrettini, in which the utmost readiness for interdenominational comity was expressed. Frederick showed his deep pleasure in a reply read by the Compagnie on July 1, in which he urged the Genevan Church to enter into negotiations with his clergy and theologians in the cause of union. Turrettini himself was rewarded with a gold medal from the king and appointment to membership in the royal academy of Berlin.
The chief source for a knowledge of the theological tendency of Turrettini is his Nubes testium pro moderato et pacifico de rebus theologicis judicio et instituenda inter Protestantes concordia (Geneva, 1719; Eng. transl., A Discourse concerning Fundamental Articles in Religion, London, 1720), a work inspired by the letter of Archbishop Wake already mentioned. From the preface it appears that Turrettini had corresponded with Leibnitz concerning Protestant union as early as 1707. The work includes a treatise on the fundamental articles of faith, prepared at the request of two Lutheran nobles and first printed before the appearance of the Nubes. Here the author maintains that only those are fundamental articles ‘‘ whose knowledge and faith are necessary for obtaining the grace and salvation of God.’’ Of these there are but few, only those which have been believed by all Christians at all times. He even asserts that the sole doctrines in question are obedience to the commands of God and faith in the promises of the Gospel; though he admits that the Apostles’ Creed is the “ criterion and standard of fundamentals.’ His final conclusion is that God alone knows what beliefs are necessary to salvation, and he closes by declaring that union is impossible where there is lack of agreement concerning the basal truths of the Gospel, as between Protestants and Roman Catholies, but that such union should be effected where the divergencies concern mere accessories, as between Lutherans and Reformed.
Another work of importance for Turrettini’s theology was his Cogitationes et dissertationes theologice
Turrettin1 Tychsen