Johann Kaspar Lavater

LAVATER, Johann Kaspar. b. Zürich, Switzerland, 15 November 1741; d. Zürich, 2 January 1801. The son of a doctor, he was educated in his native city in the Academic Gymnasium and the Theological Faculty of the University (as a young man he was a close friend of Heinrich Füssli, who came to England and became famous as the painter Henry Fuseli). Lavater was ordained in 1762, taking up a position as diaconus of the Orphanage Church in 1769 and becoming pastor in 1775. In 1778 he became diaconus of St Peter’s Church, Zürich, and in 1786 pastor. In 1799, during the French campaign in Switzerland, Lavater was arrested for protesting against the invasion; he was shot by a French grenadier during...