Roell, Herman Alexander

Roell, Herman Alexander, a celebrated Protestant divine, was born in 1653 at Doelberg, Westphalia. He studied first at Unna and then at Utrecht, but upon the breaking out of the war he was obliged to go to Göttingen. This place becoming unsafe,he returned to Germany, studied at Marburg, and afterwards at Heidelberg. He then went to Basel and Zurich, and in 1676 he again visited the United Provinces, spending two years at the universities of Utrecht and Leyden. He became chaplain to Elizabeth, abbess of Hervorden, and held that position until her death in 1680, when he was appointed preacher to Albertine, princess of Orange. In 1686 he was elected professor of divinity at the University of Franeker, and in June 1704, was appointed to the divinity chair of Utrecht, which he retained with great reputation until his death, July 12, 1718. Among his publications are, Commentarius in Principium Epistoloe Pauli ad Ephesos (Utrecht, 1715, 4to): — a Continuation, with An Exegesis on Colossians (ibid. 1731, 4to): — Explicatio Catecheseos Heidelbergensis (ibid. 1728): — Exegesis in Psalmum lxxxix (Duisburg, 1728, 8vo): — Gulichii Analysis et Compendium Librorum Propheticorum, etc. (Amherst, 1683,4to): — Oratio Inauguralis de Religione Rationali. See Chalmers, Biog. Dict. s.v.; Hook, Eccles. Biog. s.v.