FORSANDER, NILS: Lutheran; b. at Gladsax, Sweden, Sept. 11, 1846. He emigrated to the United States in 1870 and completed his education at Aügustana College and Theological Seminary, Rock Island, 111. (B.A., 1872). He was ordained to the ministry in 1873 and was pastor at Sagetown, Ill., 1873-75, Kingston, Ia., 1875-80, and Bettresda, Ia., 1880-89. Since 1889 he has been professor of theology at Augustana College and Theological Seminary. He was secretary of the Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod 1886-90, and in theology is a strict evangelical member of his denomination. He has been editor of the Augustana Theological Quarterly since 1900, and has written Augsburgiska bekdnnelsen med 1tirklaringar (Rock Island, Ill., 1899) and Var lutherska kyrkas stallning till andre kyrkosamfund (1906).

FORSTER, CHARLES: English clergyman and author; b. 1790; d. at Stisted (35 m. n.e. of London), Essex, Aug. 20, 1871. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and was perpetual curate of Ash, Kent, 1834-38, rector of Stisted, near Braintree, Essex, 1838-71, and also one of the six preachers in Canterbury Cathedral 1835-71. He opposed Biblical criticism and aimed in a number of works, now sought as curiosities, to justify the strictest literal interpretation of Scripture. Among other things he published, Critical Essays on Genesis chap. xx. and on St. Matthew chap. ii. 17, 18, (Dublin, 1826); Mahometanism Unveiled (2 vols., London, 1829); The Life of John Jebb (2 vols., 1836); The Historical Geography of Arabia (1844); The One Primeval Language (3 parts, 1851-54), and Sinai Photographed, or Contemporary Records of Israel in the Wilderness (1862).

FORSTER (FOERSTER, VORSTER, FORSTHEMIUS), JOHANN: 1. Lutheran theologian and Hebrew scholar; b. at Augsburg July 10, 1496 (or 1495); d. at Wittenberg Dec. 8, 1558. In 1515 he entered the University of Ingolstadt where he became the most studious and capable Hebrew scholar of Reuchlin; on account of a pestilence he removed in 1521 to Leipsic, and became a pupil of P. Mosellanus, through whose influence, probably, he received in 1522 a position as teacher of Hebrew at the Greek-Latin school in Zwickau. In 1529 he resigned, and in 1530 became a student at the University of Wittenberg, where he remained as preacher about six years. He assisted Luther in the translation of the Bible, and became one of his most devoted pupils and friends. In 1535 he received a call to Augsburg, where he became involved in controversies with his Zwinglian colleagues. In 1539 he became professor of Hebrew at Tübingen, on the recommendation of Luther and Camerarius. The question whether the Reformation should proceed according to

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Saxon or Swiss principles and doctrines was then a burning one, and Forster lost his position in this struggle because he did not side with the Zwinglians. In 1542 he became provost of St. Lawrence at Nuremberg, and thence extended his reformatory activity, first to Regensburg in 1542 and in the following year to the county of Henneberg. In unselfish devotion to the cause of the Reformation he sacrificed his position at Nuremberg, but as his plans of church discipline were not carried out, he went into voluntary retirement after three years. After some vain efforts of Melanchthon and his friends to find a position for him, Prince George of Anhalt called him as superintendent to the bishopric of Merseburg, and subsequently Duke Augustus provided him with a capitular prebend. After Cruciger's death in 1549, he was called to Wittenberg as professor of Hebrew and preacher at the Castle Church. In 15-14 he took part in the convention of Naumburg on the side of Melanchthon. The last decade of his life may be designated as the Melanchthonian period, since be became more lenient in church discipline and expressed himself in a more conciliatory manner on the doctrine of the Lord's Supper. The principal work of his life is a great Hebrew-Latin dictionary, Dietionarium hebraicum novum, non ex rabbinorum commentis nee ex nostratium doctorum stulta imitatione descriptum sed ex ipsis thesauris S. Bibliorum et eorundem accurata collatione depromptum (Basel, 1557; 2d ed., 1564).

2. Not to be confounded with the above is the younger Johann Forster; b. at Auerbach (15 m. S.W. of Zwickau), Saxony, Dec. 25, 1576; d. at Mansfeld (38 m. s. of Magdeburg) Nov. 17, 1613. He was preacher at Leipsic, 1593, rector in Schneeberg, 1601; chief preacher of Zeitz, professor of theology in Wittenberg 1609 and finally general superintendent at Mansfeld He was the author of various theological and devotional writings.

(W. Germann.)

Bibliography: W. Germann, Johann Forster, der Henneberger Re/ormator, Meiningen, 1894; Forster, in ZHT, 1869, pp. 210 sqq.; L. Geiger, Das Studiumderhebräiechen Sprache in Deutschland, pp. 97 sqq., 136, Breslau, 1870; KL, iv. 1625-26.