Jakob Benzelius

Who was Jakob Benzelius?

Jakob Benzelius was Archbishop of Uppsala in the Church of Sweden from 1744 to his death.

Jakob Benzelius studied at Uppsala University, graduated as filosofie magister in 1703 and, after a few years teaching in Uppsala, spent several years traveling and visiting foreign universities. He was professor of theology at Lund University 1718–1731, Bishop of Gothenburg 1731–1744 and succeeded his brother Erik Benzelius the Younger as archbishop in 1744. He was a learned man who wrote several influential books on theology that were used at the universities in Sweden for about a century.