Stephan Gerlach (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

: ''Stephanus Gerlachius'') was a German Lutheran theologian. Gerlach was an extremely important figure in the second half of the 16th century. He was tasked with a special mission in

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

, namely to establish an alliance between Orthodoxy and Lutheranism against Catholicism. This mission failed, nevertheless, he signed 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 The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...

Baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knig ...

David Ungnad von Sonnegg. He wrote 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 ''The Kingdom of the Slavs'' ( it, Il Regno de gli Slavi) is a book by Mavro Orbini published in the Italian city of Pesaro in 1601. The book provided a history of the Slavic peoples. The historical context of the work is the Long Turkish War ...

", i.e. after the death of

Selim II Selim II ( Ottoman Turkish: سليم ثانى ''Selīm-i sānī'', tr, II. Selim; 28 May 1524 – 15 December 1574), also known as Selim the Blond ( tr, Sarı Selim) or Selim the Drunk ( tr, Sarhoş Selim), was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire ...

and just before the outbreak of the

Long Turkish War The Long Turkish War or Thirteen Years' War was an indecisive land war between the Habsburg monarchy and the Ottoman Empire, primarily over the Principalities of Wallachia, Transylvania, and Moldavia. It was waged from 1593 to 1606 but in Europ ...

. Upon his return, he became professor of theology (1586) and head of the Protestant district in Tübingen, and he wrote against

Calvinists Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

and

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

. He died in Tübingen in 1612. Gerlach purchased a few Greek manuscripts from the library of Michael Cantacuzenus and sent them to Germany. 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 translated primary documents translated, including 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.Стефан Герлах. Дневник на едно пътуване до Османската порта в Цариград
(Bulgarian language)

Works

References

External links

Tagebuch der vonz Between Glorwurdigsten Romischen Kaysern Maximiliano und Rudolpho ...
(German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gerlach, Stephan 1546 births 1612 deaths 16th-century German male writers German Lutheran theologians 16th-century German Protestant theologians 16th-century German Lutheran clergy University of Tübingen alumni People from Enzkreis 17th-century German Lutheran clergy