WERNSDORF, varns'dorf, ERNST FRIEDRICH:
German theologian, second son of Gottlieb Werns
dorf (q.v.); b. at Wittenberg Dec. 18, 1718; d. there
May 7, 1782. He studied at the University of Leip
sic (M.A., 1742; D.D., 1756); was
appointed pro
fessor of Christian archeology there (1752); and in
1756 he went to Wittenberg as professor of theology.
His writings dealt with matters of Biblical, anti
quarian, and Reformation history. His name has
come into new prominence as once the owner of a
manuscript of Luther's Tisclareden,
the document mentioned so early as 1769 by J. T. Lingke. It
was doubtless through Wernsdorf's widow, who
long survived her husband, that this manuscript
came into the possession of Politz, with whose col
lection of books it subsequently found its way to the
city library of Leipsic.
Georg Müller.
Bibliography:
J. G. Meusel, Lexicon der . . . teutadaen
Schriftsteller xv. 35-37, Leipsic, 1816; M. Hoffmann,
Pf6rtner Stammbuch
161,3-7893, p. 222, Berlin, 1893; E.
Kroker, Lutlaers Tischreden in
der Mathesischen Sammlung, pp. 17 sqq., Leipsic, 1903; ADB, xlii. 96-98.
WERNSDORF, GOTTLIEB: German theologian; b. at Schonewalde (48 m, s. of Berlin) Feb.
25, 1668; d. at Wittenberg July 1, 1729. He studied
at Wittenberg (M.A., 1689; D.D., 1700); lectured
with success on logic, ethics, and history in the
philosophical faculty of that university; was trans
ferred, in 1698, as professor extraordinary in
the
theological faculty, his thesis treating
De auctoritate
librorum symholicorum;
became regular professor in
1706; in 1710 was appointed provost at the residen
tial church, and, shortly thereafter, general superin
tendent at Wittenberg. He became, notably in his
later years, universally revered among his theolog
ical pupils, being affectionately known as "Father
Wernsdorf." While his lectures were not always
distinguished by depth, they were marked by clearness,
excellence of form, and especially by great
earnestness in the admonitory portions.
His
Disputationes academicce
were published by
Christian Heinrich Zeibich (2 vols., 1736). Special
mention may be made of his
De primordiis emendate
per Lutherum religionis
(new ed., 1735), and of his
most extensive production,
Crritndliche Refornaations
historie
(Wittenberg, 1717), which comes down to
the Diet of Augsburg, 1530.
Consistently with his theological position, he be
longed to the advocates of the more lenient ortho
doxy. His anti-Calvinistic arguments appear in the
Demonstratio good juxta CaWni doetrinam Refarmati
nec sint nec jute hsberi possint socii Augustance Coyc
fessionis.
He took part in the contemporary con
troversies with Pietists and Mystics, as with the
leading philosophers of the time. If, on the one
hand, he opposed the one-sided emphasis of emotion
in religion, on the other hand he strongly emphasized
the element of inspiration, which he held to be me
diately operative even in the symbolical books of
Lutheranism.
Georg Müller.
Bibliography:
C. Coler, De Wernadorfii in rem sacrmm et
literariam meriEia, Leipsic,1719; J. A. Gleieh, AnnaZes eccle
siastici, i. 369,
ii.
passim,
Dresden,
1730; A. Tholuek,
Der Geist der lutkerischen
Tlaeologen Wittenberpa, pp. 259
sqq., Hamburg,
1852; ADB, alii. 98-98.
