Gfrörer, AUGUST FRIEDRICH, a German historian, was born at Calw, in the Black Forest, 5th March 1803. He studied theology at Tübingen, next lived at Lausanne, Geneva, and Rome, becoming on his return in 1828 a Repetent at Tübingen, and in 1830 librarian at Stuttgart. He now gave himself with much zeal to historical studies, of which the first fruit was his Philo und die Jüdisch-Alexandrinische Theosophie (1831), followed by Gustav Adolf (1835), a work which aimed at bringing into prominence the political rather than the religious rôle of the great Swedish king. His Geschichte des Urechristenthums (1838) was called forth by the greater work of Strass. In his Allgemeine Kirchengeschichte (1841-46), coming down to 1305, he first spoke out his admiration for the polity of the Roman Church. Soon after he was called to the chair of History at Freiburg, and in 1848 he was sent to the
Frankfurt parliament, where he was one of the most decided adherents of the party called the Grossdeutschen, the fanatical opponents of Prussia. He formally went over to Rome in 1853, and thereafter was distinguished by his large share of the intolerance of the convert, although all the while he was never a dogmatically satisfactory Catholic. He died at Carlsbad, July 6, 1861. His most important other works were Geschichte der Karolinger (1848) and Papst Gregorius VII. (1859-61). All his works are learned, often perversely so; his conclusions are too often more ingenious than sound.