Ludwig Lavater

author

Ludwig Lavater

1527–1586

A Swiss Reformed theologian from Zurich, he is best remembered today for writing about ghosts, spirits, and strange nighttime disturbances in a way that mixed religious argument with sharp curiosity. His work offers a vivid glimpse of how the 16th century tried to make sense of fear, superstition, and the unseen.

1 Audiobook

Of Ghostes and Spirites, Walking by Night And of Straunge Noyses, Crackes, and Sundrie Forewarnings, Which Commonly Happen Before the Death of Men: Great Slaughters, and Alterations of Kingdoms

Of Ghostes and Spirites, Walking by Night And of Straunge Noyses, Crackes, and Sundrie Forewarnings, Which Commonly Happen Before the Death of Men: Great Slaughters, and Alterations of Kingdoms

by Ludwig Lavater

About the author

Born at Kyburg Castle in 1527, Ludwig Lavater became an important figure in the Reformed church in Zurich. He studied in Zurich and moved in the circle of Heinrich Bullinger, who later became his father-in-law, and he went on to serve at the Grossmünster before briefly leading the Zurich church near the end of his life.

Lavater wrote on theology, church life, and biblical interpretation, but modern readers often know him best for his treatise on ghosts and spirits. First published in Latin in 1569, the book examined apparitions, omens, and unusual noises from a Protestant point of view, trying to separate fraud and superstition from what he believed should be understood through religion.

He died in Zurich in 1586. Though rooted in the debates of the Reformation, his writing on hauntings and the supernatural has given him an unusual afterlife, connecting serious theology with one of the most enduring subjects in popular imagination.