Frederik Rutgers

Frederik Lodewijk Rutgers (26 November 1836 – 19 March 1917) was a Dutch theologian and church historian.^[1] He served as rector magnificus of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam five times.

Rutgers was born in Breede and received his doctorate from Leiden University in 1860.^[2] He served as professor of church history and church law at the VU from 1879 to 1910. According to Arie van Deursen, he was "indispensable and priceless" to Abraham Kuyper:^[3]

When Kuyper had laid out the main lines, he could leave the routine work to Rutgers. He dotted all the i's and found the right place for every comma.

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