Anton Dereser

Anton Dereser (also known as Thaddaeus a Sancto Adamo, OCD) (3 February 1757, Fahr, Franconia –15 or 16 June 1827, Breslau) was a Discalced Carmelite professor of hermeneutics and Semitic languages.

He had a marked tendency to take independent positions and defy authority—both secular and ecclesiastical—which involved him in numerous controversies and nearly cost him his life during the French Revolution.

During his studies of Philosophy and Theology at Würzburg and Heidelberg, where he graduated, he acquired such renown that contrary to the custom of his religious order he was allowed to accept a professorship in hermeneutics and semitic languages, first at his own alma mater, then at the Academy (University from 1786) of Bonn (1783–1791).

Dereser refused the Constitutional oath, making the clergy subordinate to the French civil authorities - an act which marked him out as a counter-revolutionary priest.

Thence he went to Lucerne where from 1811 to 1814 he was Rector of the Episcopal Seminary, but was expelled on account of his rationalistic teaching, which involved explaining away everything supernatural in Scripture and religion.