Spondanus, Henry

, a younger brother of John de Sponde, was born Jan. 6, 1568, educated at Ortez where the reformed had a college, and where he distinguished himself early by his facility | acquiring the Latin and Greek languages. Then he applied himself to the civil and canon law, and afterwards went to Tours, whither the parliament of Paris was transferred and here, his learning- and eloquence at the bar bringing him under the n Henry IV. then prince of

Beam, tie was made by him master of the requests at Navarre. In the mean time, he read with much eagerness the controversial works of Beiiarmine and Perron; and these made such an impression on him, that, after the example of his brother John, he embraced the popish religion, at Paris in 1505. In 1600, he went to Rome, where he took priest’s orders in 1606, and tiiat year returned to Paris; but some time after went again to Rome, and was employed in an official capacity by pope Paul V. who had a great esteem for him. The general respect indeed which he met with in Italy would have determined him to spend the remainder of his days there; but, in 1626, he was recalled into France, and made bishop of Pamiers by Louis XIII. He hesitated at first about accepting this bishopric; but pope Urban Viu. commanding him, he went and entered upon it in 1626. Soon after his installation, the duke of Rohan, who was commander of the protestants, took Pamiers, when Spondanus escaped by a breach in the walls; and the year after, when the town was retaken by the prince of Conde, received letters of congratulation upon his safety from Urban VIII. He quitted Pamiers in 1642, and went toToulonse; where he died May 16, 1643.

The knowledge he had of Baronius when he was in Italy, and the great friendship that always subsisted between them, suggested to him the design of abridging his “Annales Ecclesiastici.” This he did with Baronius’s consent; and not only abridged, but continued them from 1197, where Baronius left off, to 1640. Both the abridgment and continuation have been often reprinted. Spondanus published also, in folio, “Annaies Sacri a Mundi Creatione ad ejusdem Redemptionem;” and some other things of a small kind. ¹