Gottfried Arnold

ARNOLD, Gottfried. b. Annaberg, Saxony, 5 Sept 1666; d. Perleberg, Brandenburg, 30 May 1714. He was educated at the Gymnasium at Gera followed by the University of Wittenberg (1685-89). He became a private tutor to a family at Dresden, where he was much influenced by the sermons of Philipp Jakob Spener*, then Senior Court Preacher (until 1690). On Spener’s recommendation Arnold obtained another tutor’s post at Quedlinburg (1693-97); while at Quedlinburg he published Die erste Liebe, das ist, wahre Abbildung der ersten Christen (‘The first love, that is, a true picture of the first Christians’, Frankfurt-am-Main, 1696). This was well received, and led to his appointment by Landgraf Ernst...