Ludwig Lavater

**Ludwig Lavater** (b. 4 March 1527; Kyburg (castle) – d. 5 July 1586 in Zurich) was a Swiss Reformed theologian working in the circle of his father-in-law, Heinrich Bullinger. He served as Archdeacon at the Grossmünster in Zurich and briefly Antistes of the Zurich church as the successor of Rudolf Gwalther. Lavater was a prolific author, composing homilies, commentaries, a survey of the liturgical practices of the Zurich church, a history of the Lord's Supper controversy, as well as biographies of Bullinger and Konrad Pellikan. His work on ghosts (*De spectris* ...) was one of the most frequently printed demonological works of the early modern period, going into at least nineteen early modern editions in German, Latin, French, English and Italian.