Johann Gerhard

1582-1637. Lutheran theologian. Born at Quedlinburg, he studied at the universities of Wittenberg, Jena, and Marburg, entered the service of Duke Casimir of Coburg whose churches he was commissioned to reorder, but was released in 1616 to become a professor at Jena. Here he joined with Johann Major and Johann Himmel; the three distinguished teachers became known as the “Trias Johannea.” Though afterwards employed on numerous ecclesiastical, political, and diplomatic matters by a number of German princes, he devoted most of his time to scholarship. His Confessio Catholica (1634-37) was a strong defense of the evangelical faith, and his Loci Theologici (1610-22) are regarded as the climax of the Lutheran dogmatic theology. His fifty-one devotional Meditations written in 1606 were deservedly popular and were translated into English in 1627, a selection of fourteen of the same being reprinted in English as late as 1846.