Johann Lorenz von Mosheim

Johann Lorenz von Mosheim (born Oct. 9, 1694, Lübeck—died Sept. 9, 1755, Göttingen, Hanover) was a German Lutheran theologian who founded the pragmatic school of church historians, which insisted on objective, critical treatment of original sources. In 1723, Mosheim became a professor at Helmstedt and in 1747 was made professor of divinity and chancellor of the university at Göttingen.

Departing from the established method of writing history as a simple narration of unquestioned events, Mosheim called for fresh attention to wide historical movements and pervasive themes. Among his 85 works written in Latin and German on church history is Institutiones Historiae Ecclesiasticae Antiquae et Recentioris (1755; Institutes of Ecclesiastical History).