LAVATER
280
LAYER
uensis. On the last evening of the old year, while ly- inij; ill bed, and his friends were obliged to stand very near to understaud liim, he dictated some lines (Gernnan hexameters) to be read the following day to his congre- gation. He died the '2d of January, 1801.
Lavater was one of the most remarkable men of his time. He had an original mind, and was a true philos- opher. He wrote with acceptance on a great variety of subjects, and on none more effectively than on ques- tions of theology. Among those who knew liim best, he was distinguished more by his moral traits than by his intellectual gifts; by his purity of heart, his deep humility, his fervent piety, his Christian charity and zeal for mankind. A more thoroughly good man and devoted Christian the annals of literature do not exhib- it. Goethe at one time said of him, " He is the best, greatest, wisest, sincerest of all mortal and immortal men that I know." He always firmly clung to his pe- culiar religious views, " which were a mixture of new interpretations with ancient orthodoxy, and mystical even to superstition. One leading article of his faith was a belief in the sensible manifestation of supernatural powers. His disposition to give credence to the mirac- idous led him to believe the strange pretensions of many individuals, such as the power to exorcise devils, to per- form cures by animal magnetism, etc. Some even sus- pected him of lioman Catholicism. Thus, while his mystical tendency rendered him an object of ridicule to the party called the enlightened (Aufgeklarte), the fa- vor he showed to many new institutions offended the religionists of the old school" {Enr/l. Cyclop, s. v.). Yet withal, many of the religious world, even of those not immediately belonging to his congregation, regarded Lavater with great veneration, and those who were entertained by a correspondence with him found his letters the great source of their spiritual consolation. His biography by his son-in-law Gessner {Lehensbe- schreibung Lavaters), by far the most complete, appeared in 1802 (3 vols. 8vo), and an excellent selection from his works by Orelli (Zurich, 1841-44, 8 vols. 8vo). See Ap- pleton's New A rnericuu Cyclopcedui, s. v, ; Hedge, Pi'ose Writers of Germany (Phdadel. 1848), p. 187-189; Anna Lavater, or Picture of Swiss Pastoral Life in the JMSt Century (Cincinnati, 1870); Hagenbach, //is/or^ of the Church in the \Hth and IQth Centuries (New York, 1869) ; Bodemann, Lavater (1856) ; Nitzsch, Lavater u. Gellert (1857) ; Utber Lavater's, Herder's, und Schleiermacher's Kirchcnyeschichtliche Bedeutun{j, in the A llyem. Kirchen- zeit. 1856, No. 91 sq.; and the excellent article by Schen- kel, in Herzog, Real-EncyUop. viii, 233 sq.
Lavater, Louis, a Swiss Protestant theologian, was born at Kybourg March 1, 1527. He went to Stras- burg in 1545, and there became intimately acquainted with the theologians liucer and Sturm. He afterwards removed to Paris, and studied theology with Turnebus, Kamiis, and Lambin. After visiting Italy he returned to Zurich, where he became archdeacon and canon in 1550, and finall\' head pastor in 1585. He died July 15, 1586. His principal works are, De Ritibus et Instl- tutis ecclesicE Tigui-ino! (Zurich, 1559, 8vo) : — Historia de oriyine et j)rogressu Co?ttroversice Saci-anientaruB de Ccena Domini (Zurich, 1563 and 1572, 8vo) -.-De Spec- iris, Lemuribus et magnis atque insolitis fragoribus ft prcEsagiiionibus guce obitum hominum, eludes, mutatio- nesque inipcriorum prvecediint (Zlir. 1570, 12mo; trans- lated into most European languages) : — Fwji Lr-Jpn ?/. Tod Ihiurich linUingers (Ziirich, 1576); and a number of exegctical and devotional works. See Adam, Vila' Theolog. German ; Verhegden, Elogia ; Hottinger, Bibl. Tiguriua.—HocfcT, Xour. Biog. Generale, xxix, 994.
Lavatory (Lat. laraioriiun), a cistern or trough to wash ill. There was usually a lavatory in the cloisters of monastic establishments, at whicli-tlie inmates washed their hands and faces, also the surplices ami other vest- ments ; some are still extant. This name is also given to the pucina (q. v.). In the south of Germany the
Lavatory at Selby, Yorkshire, lavatory is an important feature resembling a baptis- tery; it is a separate chamber, square or octagonal, standing on one side of the cloister-court, with a reser- voir of water or a fountain in the middle, and water- troughs around the sides for washing at. — Parker, Glos- sary, s. V.
Laver ("li^S and "i^S, kiyor', prop, a basin for boil- ing in, and so signifying a " pan" for cooking, 1 Sam. ii, 14; or a fire-pan, ''hearth," Zech. xii, 6; also a pulpit or " scaffold" of similar form for a rostrum, 2 Chron. vi, 13 ; elsewhere spoken of the sacred wash-bowl of the tabernacle and Temple, Exod. xxx, 18, 28; xxxi, 9; XXXV, 16; xxxviii, 8; xxxix, 39; xl, 7, 11, 30; Lev. viii, 11 ; 2 Kings xvi, 17; plur. fem. 1 Kings vii, 30, 38, 40, 43; plural masc. 2 Chron. iv, 6, 14; Sept. Xovrijp, Vulg. labruni), a basin to contain the water used by the priests in their ablutions during their sacred ministra- tions. This was of two sorts in different periods.
1. The original one was fabricated at the divine com- mand (Exod. xxx, 18) of brass {copper, P'llJnp, see Biihr, Symbolik; i, 484, 485 ; Michaelis, Soc. Gott. com- ment, iv ; Umbreit, in the Studien und Kritiken, 1843, p. 157), out of the metal mirrors which the women brought from Egypt (Exod. xxxviii, 8). The notion held by some Jewish writers, and reproduced by Franzius, Biihr (Symb. i, 484), and others, founded on the omission of the word " women," that the brazen vessel, being pol- ished, served as a mirror to the Levites, is untenable. (See the parallel passage, 1 Sam. ii, 22, where C^OSj yvi'atKM', is inserted; Gesenius on the prep. 2, p. 172; Keil, Bibl. Arch, pt, i, c. 1, § 19; Glassms, Phil. Sacr. i, 580, ed. Dathe; Lightfoot, Descr. Tempi, c. 37, 1 ; Jen- nings, Jew. A ntiq. p. 302 ; Knobel, Kurtzg. Exeg. Ilandb, Exod. xxxviii; Philo, Vit.Mos. iii, 15; ii, 156, ed. Man- gey.) Its size and shape are not given, but it is thought to have been circular. It contained water wherewith the priests were to wash their hands and their feet whenever they entered the tabernacle, or came near to the altar to minister (Exod. xl, 32). It stood in the court between the altar and the door of the tabernacle, and, according to Jewish tradition, a little to the south (Exod. xxx, 19, 21; Keland, Ant. Ilebr. pt. i, ch. iv, 9; Clemens, De Labro ^Eneo, iii, 9; ap. LTgolini Thes. xix). It rested on a basis ("3, ken, Sept. /3ocrtf)i i- e. a foot, though by some ex|)lained to be a cover (Clemens, ibid. c. iii, 5), of copper or brass, which was likewise made from the same mirrors of the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle court (Exod. xxxviii, 8). Tliis ''foot" seems, from the distinct mention constantly made of if, to liave been something more than a mere stand or support. Probably it formetl a lower basin to catch the water which flowed, through taps or other- wise, from the laver. The priests could not have washed in the laver itself, as all the water would have been