GIFFORD LECTURES: One of the most important lectureships yet created. Its founder was Adam, Lord Gifford of Edinburgh (d. 1887), an able Scotch jurist and judge of the Court of Sessions, noted not only for his knowledge of jurisprudence, but also for his interest in literature and philosophy. By his will, recorded in the year of his death, the sum of £80,000 was bequeathed, to found a lectureship in Natural Theology at each of the Scotch universities, £25,000 going to Edinburgh, £20,000 each to Glasgow and Aberdeen, and £15,000 to St. Andrews. The terms of the foundation are noteworthy in that the lectures " may be of any religion or way of thinking, or (as is sometimes said) they may be of no religion, or they may be so-called skeptics or agnostics, or freethinkers." The sole qualification is ability to deal as specialists in Natural Theology in the widest sense of the term as a "strictly natural science." The freest research is allowed, without regard to tradition or established belief. The first lectures were delivered at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and St. Andrews in 1888, and at Aberdeen in 1889. Some of the most noted scholars of the century have taught on this foundation, among them John and Edward Caird and Andrew Lang of Scotland, F. Max Müller and E. B. Tylor of England, Otto Pfleiderer of Germany, C. P. Tiele of Holland, Emile Boutroux of France, R. A. Lanciani of Italy, and Josiah Royce of the United States. A full list of the lecturers and their subjects up to 1906 is given in L. H. Jordan, Com parative Religion, pp. 570-571, New York, 1905.

GIFFTHEIL, gift'hail. LUDWIG FRIEDRICH: An enthusiast of the seventeenth century; d. at Amsterdam 1661. He was the son of an abbot in Württemberg, and became noted for his fanatical declamations against the established Church. His literary activity belongs to the period of the Thirty

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Years' War. He stood in connection with Friedrich Breckling (q.v.) and other persons of the same description, published letters of warning to the rulers of Saxony and Brandenburg, Denmark and Sweden, England and Holland, Spain and France, and to Cromwell, whom he styled " field-marshal of the devil," while he called himself commander-in chief of the Lord Sabaoth. He published many works in Latin, German, English, and Dutch, which, like his actions, betray a passionate and vehement temperament.

(F. W. Dibelius.)

Bibliography: G. Arnold, Unparteiische Kirchen- and Ketzer-Historie, iii., chap. x.; iv., sect. iii., no. 18, 4 vols.. Frankfort, 1700-15.