ARNDT, JOHANN German Lutheran the ologian, was born at Ballenstadt, in Anhalt, and • studied in several universities. He was at Helmstadt in 1576; at Wittenberg in 1577. At Wittenberg the crypto-Calvinist controversy was then at its height, and he took the side of Melanchthon and the crypto-Cal vinists. He became pastor of Badeborn in 1583, but in 1590 he was deposed for refusing to remove the pictures from his church and discontinue the use of exorcism in baptism. He found an asylum in Quedlinburg (1590), and afterwards was transferred to St. Martin's church at Brunswick Arndt's fame rests on his writings. These were mainly of a mystical and devotional kind, and were inspired by St. Bernard, J. Tauler, and Thomas a Kempis. His principal work, Wahres Chris tentum (1606-09), which has been translated into most European languages, has served as the foundation of many books of devotion, both Roman Catholic and Protestant. After Wahres Christentum, his best known work is Paradiesgartlein aller christlichen Tugen den, which was published in 1612. Arndt has always been held in very high repute by the German Pietists.
A collected edition of his works was published in Leipzig and Gorlitz in 1734. A valuable account of Arndt is to be found in C. Aschmann's Essai sur la vie, etc., de J. Arndt. See further, Herzog Hauck, Realencyklopadie.