Sohn, Georg

Sohn, Georg, a theologian of Hesse, was born in Rossbach, Dec. 31, 1551. In 1571 he obtained the degree of master of liberal arts at Wittenberg, and in the following year began to teach at Marburg. In 1574 he entered the faculty, and was intrusted with the exposition of Melancthon's Loci Communes, and soon afterwards with the professorship of Hebrew. In 1578 he was made doctor of theology. A constant attendance on the synods of 1578 and 1582 involved Sohn in the controversies of the time. Egidius Hunnius was the strenuous advocate of strict Lutheranism in the Marburg faculty, while Sohn ranked as the leading supporter of the Melancthonian doctrine in the Hessian Church, and this led to his final removal from Marburg: The landgrave William of Hesse-Cassel vented his anger on Hunnius as the disturber of the Church, and the landgrave Louis, at Marburg, retaliated by holding Sohn responsible for the existing troubles. The latter was accordingly prepared to seek a new field, when he was called in 1584 to the University of Herborn, in Nassau, and to that of Heidelberg. He accepted the latter call, and delivered his inaugural address as professor of theology on July 18 of that year. Four years later he became a regular member of the Church Council. He died April 23, 1589. The works of Sohn are chiefly doctrinal, and of the Melancthonian type. A complete list is given in Strider, Grundlage einer hess. Gelehrtengesch. 15, 109-112. The more important works were published in 4 vols. at Herborn in 1591, and in a third edition in 1609. See Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s.v.