MOLL, WILLEM: Dutch Protestant; b. at Dort Feb. 28, 1812; d. at Amsterdam Aug. 16, 1879. After completing his theological education at the University of Leyden in 1836, he was pastor at De Vuursche, Utrecht, from 1830 to 1839, when illness forced him to retire. A few months later, however, he was able to go to Heidelberg, where he studied until the autumn, when he returned to De Vuursche and resumed his charge. Here he wrote his Geschiedenis van het kerkelijke leven der Chris tenen gedurende de zes eerste eeuwen (2 vols., Amster dam, 1844--46); but his intention to continue the work to modern times was never carried out. After a brief pastorate at Arnheim in 1845-46, Moll was appointed professor of theology at the Athenaeum Illustre at Amsterdam, where he remained until his death, declining a call to Leyden in 1860. Although lecturing for many years on exegesis. and dogmat ics, his favorite subject was church history, and as an author he devoted himself almost exclusively to the pre-Reformation period in Holland. Here belong his Johannes Brugman en het godadienstig leven onzer vaderen in de vijftiende eeuw (2 parts, Amsterdam, 1854). and his Kerkgeaehiedenis van Nederland voor de Herforrning (6 vols., Arnheim, 1864-71), both of which consider not merely the external course of events, but also take into account the development of spiritual life, motives, and other phases of internal history. Deserving mention are two essays in the publications of the Amsterdam Academy of Sciences, of which Moll was a member and vice-president twenty-four years, Gozeloijn Comhaer, een Nederlander aan het hoofd der kerk van Ysland (1877) and Geert Groote's didaehe vertalingen (1880). Moll was also the author of De musica sacra in ecclesia Protestantium ad exemplum veterum Christianorum ernendanda (Leyden, 1834) and Angelus Merula, de hervormer en martelaar des geloofs (Amsterdam, 1851). To gether with some of his pupils, he founded, in 1853, a society for the study of the church history of the Netherlands, which lasted until 1868, and pub lished, under his guidance, Kalender voor de Protes tanten in Nederland (8 vols., Amsterdam, 1856-63) and Kerkhistorische jaarboekje (2 vols., Schoonhoven, 1864-65).

(J. G. R. Acquoy+.)

Bibliography: J. G. R. Aequoy, in the Jaarboek van de koninklijke Akademie van wetenechappen for 1879, pp. 66137; F. Nippold, Die römisch-kafholische Kirche im Königreich der Nederlanden, pp. 486-489, Leipsic, 1877; Rogge, in Mannen van beteekenis in ones dagen, Haarlem, 1879.