Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Turretin/Turretin, Jean Alphonse

3. Jean Alphonse Turretin (1671-1737), son of the preceding, was born at Geneva on 13th August 1671. He was educated at Geneva and in Holland, and after travelling in England and in France was received into the "Vénérable Compagnie des Pasteurs" of Geneva in 1693. In 1697 he became professor of church history. During the next forty years of his life he enjoyed great influence in Geneva as the advocate of a more liberal theology than had prevailed under the preceding generation, and it was largely through his instrumentality that the use of the Formula Consensus Helvetica as a symbol was discontinued in 1725. He also wrote and laboured for the promotion of union between the Reformed and Lutheran Churches, his most important work in this connexion being Nubes Testium pro Moderate et Pacifico de Rebus Theologicis Judicio, et Instituenda inter Protestantes Concordia (Geneva, 1719). Besides this he wrote Cogitationes et Dissertationes Theologicæ, on the principles of natural and revealed religion (Geneva, 1737); and commentaries on Thessalonians and Romans were published posthumously. He died at Geneva on 1st May 1737.