Layritz, Paul Eugen

Layritz, Paul Eugen a noted German theologian and Moravian bishop, was born November 13, 1707, at Wunsiedel, in Bavaria; was educated at the university of Leipsic, where, besides theology, he studied philosophy and mathematics. In 1731 he became subrector, and in 1735 rector of the town-school at Neustadt. Through an early acquaintance with the count Zinzendorf, however, he was in 1749 entrusted with the directorship of the Moravian seminary and grammar-school at Marienborn, and henceforth with different commissions on the affairs of the denomination; in 1749 he was sent by them to England; in 1763 to St. Petersburg, to procure permission for the Moravians to settle in the Russian empire; in 1773 to Labrador, to inquire into the progress of their missions there. In 1775, at the Synod of Barby, he was appointed a bishop, and entrusted with the supervision of the Moravian communities throughout Silesia. In 1782 he undertook also the supervision of the communities in upper Lusatia, especially that of Herrnhut. He died August 3, 1788. Besides his practical activity, of great importance to his denomination, and his extended knowledge of the Oriental languages, and of the modern also, his productions as an author received a hearty welcome by his contemporaries, and are by no means useless to us, a few of which are here mentioned: Erste Anfangsgründe der Vernunftlehre (Züllichau, 1743, 8vo; 2d ed., ibid, 1748, 8vo; 3d ed., ibid. 1755, 8vo; 4th ed., ibid. 1764, 8vo; translated into Latin, with the title Elementa Logicae, Stuttgard, 1766, 8vo): — Betrachtungen über eine vollständige und christliche Erziehung der Kinder (Barby, 1776, 8vo). See Döring, Gelehrte Theolog. Deutschlands, volume 2, s.v.