Spondanus (or De Sponde), Henry

Spondanus (Or De Sponde), Henry a French prelate, was born at Mauleon, Jan. 6, 1568, and was educated at the College of the Reformers in Orthez. He studied civil and canon law, and afterwards went to Tours, whither the Parliament of Paris was transferred. Here his learning and eloquence brought him to the notice of Henry IV, then prince of Bearn, by whom he was made master of requests at Navarre. Reading the controversial works of Bellarmine and Perron, he was led to embrace the popish religion at Paris in 1595. He went to Rome in 1600, and in 1606 took priest's orders and returned to Paris, but some time after went again to Rome and entered the service of the pope. In 1626 he was recalled to France and became bishop of Pamiers. When Pamiers was taken by the Protestants, Sponde escaped, but returned when the town was retaken by Condé. He quitted Pamiers in 1642 and went to Toulouse, where he died, May 16, 1643. He published, Les Cimetieres Sacres (Bordeaux, 1596, 12mo): — Annales Ecclesiastici Baronii in Epitomen Redacti (Par. 1612, fol.): — Annales Sacri, a Mundi Creatione usque ad ejusdem Redemptionem (ibid. 1637, fol.), and other lesser works. See Chalmers, Biog. Dict. s.v.; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Générale, s.v.