Justus Gesenius (b. at (near Elze), in the principality of Calenberg, 6 July 1601 - d. at Hanover 18 September 1673) was a Lutheran theologian of the seventeenth century, known for his catechisms. His father was preacher at Esbeck. Having received his early education at the Adreanum in Hildesheim, he went in his eighteenth year to the University of Helmstedt, where he studied under Georg Calixtus and . In 1628 he took his degree of master of philosophy in Jena and was called as pastor to the church of St. Magnus in Brunswick. After seven years of beneficent activity there, he received a call to Hildesheim, the seat of George, duke of Brunswick and Lunenburg, as court chaplain and preacher in the Collegiate of St. Blaise. After the duke's death (1641), he, as well as the wholeconsistory, r