GERHARD, Johann (1582–1637), one of the ablest and most learned exponents of Lutheran orthodoxy, was born of a good middle-class family in Qucdlinburg, 17th October 1582. In his fifteenth year, during a dangerous illness, he came under the personal influence of Johann _-\rndt, author of [Ms W a/u‘e ('ln'z'stenl/umz, and resolved to study for the church. Soon after entering the university of Wittenberg, however, in 1599, he began to waver in this determination, and ultimately gave himself for two years to the study of medicine, but in 1603 resumed his theologi- cal reading at Jena, and in the following year received a new impulse from \Vinkclmann and Mentzer at Marburg. llaving graduated and begun to give lectures at Jena in 1605, he in 1606 received and accepted the duke of Coburg’s invitation to the superintendeney of lleldburg and mastership of the gymnasium ; soon afterwards he became general superintemlcnt of the duchy, in which capacity he was much and usefully engaged in the practical work of ecclesiastical organization until 1616, when he found a more congenial sphere in the senior theological chair at Jena, where the remainder of his life was spent. Though still comparatively young, Gerhard had already come to be re- garded as the greatest living theologian of Protestant lei-many ; in the numerous “ disputations ” which charac— terized that period he was always protagonist, while 011 all public and domestic questions touching on religion or morals his advice was eagerly sought on all hands and by cvery class. It is recorded that during the course of his lifetime he had received repeated calls to almost every university in Germany, as well as to Upsala in Sweden. He died on the 20th August 1637. Personally he is said to have exhibited a. rare combination of all the best elements of the Christian character; the only failing imputed to him by any one decidedly leans to virtue's side—an excessive love of peace.
lIis writings are very numerous, alike in cxegctical, polemical, dogmitic, and practical theology. To the first category belong the ("ommmzhtrius in Iun'monimn Iu'storiw crangcliccc dc pass-ionc ('lu‘isti (1617), the Comment. super primrm J). I’der Epistolam (1611), and also his connnentarics on Genesis (1637) and on l)-ut-!rono:ny (1658). Of a controversial character are the Con- f Bio (ill/Ln’L‘m (16:34—68), an extensive work which seeks to prove the evangelical and catholic character of the doctrine of the Augs- burg Confession from the writings of approved Roman Catholic authors; and the loci t/u‘ologici (1629),~ his principal contribution to science, in which Lutheranism is expounded "ncrvose, solidc, rt copiose,” in fact with a fulness of learning, a force of logic, and a minuteness of detail that had never before been approached. The Jlrrlitutiwu's sucrm (1621), a work expressly devoted to the Its-‘5‘ of Christian edilication, has been frequentlyreprinted in Latin and has been translated into most of the European languages, in-luding Greek. The English translation by R. \l'intcrton (1631) has passed through at least nineteen editions. There is also an edition by \V. Papillon in English blank verse (1801). A Vita Jolt. Gar/midi was published by 1'}. It. Fisehcr in 1723.
GERHARDT, Charles Frederic, was born at Stras- burg, August 21, 1816, and died there August 19, 1856. After his school years spent at home and in Carlsruhc, where his taste for chemistry was awakened, he was sent to Leipsic to learn business, but he attended Erdmann’s lectures on chemistry as well. Returning home he very soon founl that a commercial life was not to his taste, so, after a sharp dispute with a disappointed father, he enlisted in a cavalry regiment. In a few months a military career also became intolerable, and, being bought off by a friend, he went to Giessen to study under Licbig. There he remained eighteen months, displayng such entire devotion to chemistry that he found himself unable to obtain the customary degree. He again thought of enter- ing trade, but Licbig persuaded him to go to Paris, where he arrived in 1838. His good appearance and address recommendel him to Dumas and other chemists, and in a short time along with Cahours, who became his intimate friend, he published an important memoir on essential oils, distinguish-3.1 especially by the new views it contained. 110 soon after left Paris and went to Montpellier, where he was professor in the faculty of science till 1848. He then returned to Paris and opened a school for chemistry, which, however, was not commercially a success. From 1848 to 1855 he residcd at Paris, and it was during this time that he published the memoirs and carried on the controversies which have been of such importance in the development of SClClltlflC chemistry. In 1855 he was appointed pro- fessor at Strasburg, his native place; but he had held the office for but a short time when he died, after two days’ illness. Gerhardt’s contributions to chemistry are less discoveries of new facts, than of new ideas which organ- ized and vitalized an inert accumulation of facts. He developed the notion of types of structure and reaction; be discovered the order of organic compounds, which led him to the doctrine of homologous and other series ; and on theoretical grounds he remodelled the whole character of the combining weights upon the two-volume molecular-basis. The bare statement, however, of his results gives no idea of the lucidity, the wealth of thought, the grasp of the entire subject which his memoirs and his longer works dis- play. It was by his writings especially that Gerhardt’s influence was felt. Although a thorough enthusiast in his subject, clearin his exposition, earnest in his work, weighty in his delivery, he seems to have wanted the qualities of a successful teacher. Nothing is heard of his lectures, or of his influence as a professor,—such influence as drew students round Liebig and other great masters. None the less, however, did he stir the thoughts of other chemists to the very dcpths ,' and although the unitary system has had its day, yet, in substance at least, if no longer in name, chemistry is still Gerhardt’s, and it is not impossible that chemists may return to some of his views which at present are not acceptable.
GERHARDT, Paul (c. 1606–1676), the greatest hymn-writer of Germany, if not indeed of Europe, was born of a good middle-class family at Grafenhainichen, a small town on the railway between Halle and Wittenberg, in 1606 or 1607,—some authorities, indeed, give the date March 12, 1607, but neither the year nor the day is accurately known. Ilis cducation appears to have been retarded by the troubles of the period, the Thirty Years’ War having begun about the time he reached his twelfth year. After completing his studies for the church he is known to have lived for some years at Berlin as tutor in the family of an advocate named Berthold, whose daughter he subsequently married, on receiving his first ecclesiastical appointment at Mittelwald (a small town in the neighbourhood of Berlin) in 1651. In 1657 he accepted an invitation as “diaconns” to the N icolaikirche of Berlin ; but, in consequcnce of his uncom- promising Lutheranism in refusing to accept the elector Frederick William’s “ syncretistic ” edict of 1664, he was deprived in 1666. Though absolved from submission and restored to office early in the following year, on the petition of the citizens, his conscience did not allow him to retain a. post which, as it appeared to him, could only be held on condition of at least a tacit repudiation of the Formula Concordize, and for upwards of a year he lived in Berlin without fixed employment. In 1668 he was appointed archdeacon of Liibben in the duchy of Saxe-Merscburg, where, after a somewhat sombre ministry of eight years, he died on the 7th of June 1676. Many of his best known hymns were originally published in various church hymn- books, as for example in that for Brandenburg which appeared in 1658; others first saw the light in Johann Criigcr's (i'cz'.~‘llic/ze [fire/zenmelodic); (1649) and Prams Pictutz's .llclz'ca (1656). The first complete set of them is the Gez'stlic/ze Amide/(ten, published in 1666—67 by Ebeling, music director in Berlin. No hymn by Gerhardt of a later date than 1667 is known to exist.
