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Wernsdorf, Ernst Friedrich

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a Lutheran theologian of Germany, was born December 18, 1718, at Wittenberg. He studied theology and philosophy at Leipsic, was made magister in 1742, and after presenting his dissertation De Septimia Zenobia, Palmyarenorum Augusta, was allowed to lecture at the university. In 1746 he was made professor extraordinary of philosophy, and opened his lectures with an oration De Nexu Historiarum Cognitionis cum Omni Philosophiae Ambitu. In 1752 he was appointed to the chair of Christian antiquities, and presented on this occasion a dissertation, De Quinquagesima Paschali. Four years later, in 1756, he was called to Wittenberg as professor of theology, where he died, May 7, 1782. Wernsdorf was a very learned man and quite at home in patristic literature, from which, especially from the writings of Ignatius, Eusebius, Tertullian, he explained the Christian antiquities and older ecclesiastical usages which, in the course of time, had either entirely disappeared or received another form. This subject he treated in dissertations like De Quinquagesima Paschali (1752): — De Paschate Annotino (1760): — De Sacerdote Latina Lingua ad Altare Cantillante (1761): — De Veteris Ecclesiae Diebus Festis Anniversariis (1767), etc. See Doring, Die gelehrten Theologen Deutschlands, 4:698 sq.; Winer, Handbuch der theol. Lit. 1:557, 617, 618, 619, 631, 638; Furst, Bibl. Jud. 3:505; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v. (B.P.)