“ Though still comparatively young, Gerhard had already come to be regarded as the greatest living theologian of Protestant Germany; in the numerous “disputations” of the period he was always protagonist, while on all public and domestic questions touching on religion or morals his advice was widely sought. It is recorded that during the course of his lifetime he had received repeated calls to almost every university in Germany (e.g. Giessen, Altdorf, Helmstädt, Jena, Wittenberg) , as well as to Upsala in Sweden. He died in Jena on the 20th of August 1637. ”

“ Of a controversial character are the Confessio Catholica (1633–1637) , an extensive work which seeks to prove the evangelical and catholic character of the doctrine of the Augsburg Confession from the writings of approved Roman Catholic authors; and the Loci communes theologici (1610–1622) , his principal contribution to science, in which Lutheranism is expounded “nervose, solide, et copiose,” in fact with a fulness of learning, a force of logic and a minuteness of detail that had never before been approached. ”

“ He entered the university of Wittenberg in 1599, and first studied philosophy. He also attended lectures in theology, but, a relative having persuaded him to change his subject, he studied medicine for two years. In 1603, however, he resumed his theological reading at Jena, and in the following year received a new impulse from J. W. Winckelmann (1551–1626) and Balthasar Mentzer (1565–1627) at Marburg. Having graduated and begun to give lectures at Jena in 1605, he in 1606 accepted the invitation of John Casimir, duke of Coburg, to the superintendency of Heldburg and mastership of the gymnasium ”