1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Henke, Heinrich Philipp Konrad

HENKE, HEINRICH PHILIPP KONRAD (1752–1809), German theologian, best known as a writer on church history, was born at Hehlen, Brunswick, on the 3rd of July 1752. He was educated at the gymnasium of Brunswick and the university of Helmstädt, and from 1778 to 1809 he was professor, first of philosophy, then of theology, in that university. In 1803 he was appointed principal of the Carolinum in Brunswick as well. He died on the 2nd of May 1809. Henke belonged to the rationalistic school. His principal work (Allgemeine Geschichte der christl. Kirche, 6 vols., 1788–1804; 2nd ed., 1795–1806) is commended by F. C. Baur for fullness, accuracy and artistic composition. His other works are Lineamenta institutionum fidei Christianae historico-criticarum (1783), Opuscula academica (1802) and two volumes of Predigten. He was also editor of the Magazin für die Religionsphilosophie, Exegese und Kirchengeschichte (1793–1802) and the Archiv für die neueste Kirchengeschichte (1794–1799).

His son, Ernst Ludwig Theodor Henke (1804–1872), after studying at the university of Jena, became professor extraordinarius there in 1833, and professor ordinarius of Marburg in 1839. He is known as the author of monographs upon Georg Calixt u. seine Zeit (1853–1860), Papst Pius VII. (1860), Konrad von Marburg (1861), Kaspar Peucer u. Nik. Krell (1865), Jak. Friedr. Fries (1867), Zur neuern Kirchengeschichte (1867).