ALSTED, Johann Heinrich, a German Protestant divine, and one of the most voluminous writers of the 17th century, was born in 1588. He was some time professor of philosophy and divinity at Herborn, in the county of Nassau, and afterwards at Weissenburg in Transylvania, where he continued till his death in 1638. His Encyclopaedia, the most considerable of the earlier works of that class, was long held in very high estimation. It was published in 1630, in two large folio volumes, the whole having been composed by himself. His Thesaurus Chronologies has gone through several editions. He published in 1627 a treatise, De Mille Annis, in which he asserted that the reign of the saints on earth was to begin in 1694.