Stephan Gerlach
Stephan Gerlach (latin: Stephanus Gerlachius) is a German Lutheran theologian.
Stephan Gerlach | |
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| Born | 26 December 1546 |
| Died | 30 January 1612 (aged 65) |
| Education | University of Tübingen |
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An extremely important figure in the second half of the 16th century.
He was tasked with a special mission in Constantinople, namely to establish an alliance between Orthodoxy and Lutheranism against Catholicism. It fails in its mission. Nevertheless, he signs the Brest Union.
From 1573 to 1578 he was in Constantinople as the first assistant and clergyman of the ambassador of the Holy Roman Empire - Baron David Ungnad von Sonnegg. Writes a diary, one of the most cited sources in the historical literature about the situation in Constantinople in recent years of the "Kingdom of the Slavs", ie. after the death of Selim II and just before the outbreak of the Long Turkish War.
Upon his return, he became professor of theology (1586) and head of the Protestant district in Tübingen and wrote against Calvinists and Jesuits. He died in Tübingen in 1612.
Stefan Gerlach's diary was published in full in German only in 1674, thanks to his grandson Samuel Gerlach, who collected, arranged and translated into German his "Turkish diary" of his grandfather, inserting a number of primary documents translated, i. letters and more.
Today, the diary is a bibliographical rarity that has not been republished in German and has never been translated into English. Parts of the diary have been published in other languages. [1]
References
- Стефан Герлах. Дневник на едно пътуване до Османската порта в Цариград (Bulgarian language)