either ilirectly or by means of c isel nnd inHuence.
In liiernture his aiientioii was fixe.l print ipallv on his- torical studies, pjirliiiilarly on the hislorv of (iernianv; and he v.t«U; rhri^lli,!,, IMi;;iom-lla,i,i,l,ur /{./lf/ioi,x. uirhm, beginning in 1518 Csiihse.pienlly i.ublished by Cyprian under the title ItrformnliimH-Auunltti), besides undenakiug the c«i||ectir.n"of materials for the history of the |H.p<.|.. ..m[)er<irs, and dukes, nnd electors of Sa.x- «ny, (Ml that he l^came known ns the " Saxon historiog- rafiher." <»u the death of the elector Kr.derick, in 1526. .SpnI.itin was appointed by John the Constant Uj
the post of evangelical superintendent of Altenbnrg in connection with the diocese of Altenbnrg. He now married Catharine Heidenreich, and established a home at Altenl>urg, In 152G he attended the Diet at Spires, in the suite of the elector. During 1527 to 1529 he par- ticipated in a visitation of the churches and schools. In I,5;i0 he was present at the Diet of Augsburg, and in 1531 at Cologne, where a protest against the election of Fenlinand as king of Rome was premeditated. At the Convention of Schweinfurt in 1532 he contributed materially towards the securing of the Keforniation in that vicinity. .Such incessant labors, added to a con- stant literary activity and the unceasing demand on bis strength made by his prince and the churches, impaired his health and necessitated his release from a portion of his multifarious duties. He was, however, sent to Weimar in 1.533. when the papal legate Kangoni visited that ()lace in order to initiate measures for the calling of a council. In 15:34 we Hud him journeying with the elector through Northern (Germany, and in the follow- ing year through Bohemia and Moravia to Vienna, where the elector John wished to make his peace with Ferdinand. He was present at the renewal of the Smal- kald League, and then went to Venice to make pur- chases for the library of A\'ittenberg; and, on his re- turn, participated in the settling of the WiUeuhery Con- cord. In 1537 he signed the Articles of Smalkald, and inidertook the visitation of the Church at Freiberg. He then attended the Convention of Zerbst, and defend- ed the claims of his prince to the county of Magdeburg. He was finally selected to attend the proposed conven- tion at Nuremberg in 1539, which was to complete the Concord initiated at Wittenberg, and to share in the visitation of the churches of ducal Saxony, now under the rule of duke Henry. From this time he was con- fined to the vicinity of his home; but continued abun- dant in labors, literary and ofticial, until he died, Jan. 16, 1545. His widow followed him Dec. 5, 1551. The ]\IS. remains of Spalatin are preserved at Weimar and Gotha; and portions of his works have been published in differ- ent, but always faulty and incomplete, editions. A new edition, under the title Georg iSp(i!<itiii\'< llistorischer Nachlass iittd Briffe, was undertaken by Neudecker and Prcller, and the tirst volume appeared in 1851. The style of .Spalatin as a writer was siinple, but wanting in attractive qualities. His works are, however, rich in documentary records. In a<ldition to those alrea<ly in- dicated, they include a number of poetic productions, in which considerable ability is displayed. See Schlegel, Histnr. Vitce G. Spiddt. Theolo<ji, Polilici Primique Hi- storici Sdx. (Jena, 1(593) ; \\'agner, G. Spalatin ii. d. Re- /in-m. d. Kirchen n. Sc/inlen zu A Itenburg (Alteiib. 1830). — Ilerzog, lieal-F.ncijklopi. s. v.
Spalding, Johanu Joachim, a rationalizing theoldgi.in of (iermany, was born Nov. 1, 1714. at Trib- sees, in Swedish I'onierania, and was educated at Slral- sund and L'osfock (1731) at the time when the Woltian philosophy and pietism were tlie subjects of controversy. He studied the current philosophy in the writings of Wolf, Billinger, and Canz, and defended its principles until association with the professors at Greifswald, which he enjoyed in consetpience of his having accept- ed the position of |)rivate tutor in that town, caused him to doul)t their correctness. In 1745 he went to Halle, and came under the influence of ,1. ,S. Baumgarten (cj. v.). He afterwards became the friend of Sack (q. v.) at IJer- lin, and of the poets Gleim and Kleist. In 1748 he pub- lished his first work, on the destination of man {Gedan- ki-n iibi-r d. /U'xliinm, dcs Menschiv), which was charac- terizeil by great simplicity of thought and diction, and secured an immcdijile )»opularily. His aim was the popularizing of philosophy after the exani|)le of ICnglish works then a|)pearing; and he succeeded in bringing the moral truths to whii'h alone that age was j'et acces- sible, after its l)reach with orthodox religion, within the reach of the common apprehension. In 1749 he became pastor at Lassan. His ministry was at tirst hindered
SPALDING
905
SPANGENBERG
by his renunciation of the ordinary pulpit phraseology and his adoption of a direct, clear, and simple style ; but he received, none the less, many encouraging proofs of a growing appreciation of his labors and of dawning success. He continued his literary labors also, devoting himself largely to the study of the Deistic andanti-De- istic literature of England, and translated some of the current works on either side into German, among them Butler's Analogy of Natural and Revealed Relif/ion. From Lassan Spalding was transferred in 1757 to Barth (in I'omerania) as provost and chief pastor. The pi- etistic tendency, emanating principally from jNIecklen- burg, induced him to commit to writing his Thoughts on the Value of the Feelinf/s in Christianity {Gedanken liber den Werth der GefUhle im Christenthum [17(51 and often]). The purpose of this work was to distinguish true religious feeling from that which is false and arti- ficial; but the execution of that purpose is marred by the inability of the author to clearly apprehend the pro- found nature of his subject. His conception of religion continued to be the one-sided apprehension by which morality takes its place. At this time he was visited by Lavater, Fussli, and Felix Hess, and entered into friendly relations with the former, which continued un- broken despite the difference of views and temperament existing between them. In 176-1: Spalding was once more transferred to a new post. He became provost and chief preacher at the Church of St. Nicolai in Ber- lin, and at the same time high-consistorial councillor. His sermons proved very acceptable to cultured minds, a feature wliich he declared to be "a doubtful evidence of their utility." He now published (1772) an anonj'- raous work on the utility of the pastoral office, etc. (Ueher die Nutzbarkeit des Predigtanites u. deren Bef or- der nng), which reappeared, bearing his name, in 1773, and was sharply criticised by Herder (^An Prediger : fiinfzehn Provinzialbldlter). Spalding had stripped the pastoral office of every ideal (piality, while Herder took his position with the Scriptures, and asserted a priestly and prophetical character for the ministry. Tlie inception of the work was occasioned by the desire, then generally prevalent, to bring Christianity into harmony with the culture of the age, and to protect it against the attacks of a frivolous infidelity. The inten- tion was to give up all unessential matters and preserve only what is really essential. This spirit led Spalding to compose a further work, Vertraute Briefe die Religion betreffend (^Familiar Letters pertaining to Religion'), anonymously published in 1784 and 1785, and with the author's name in 1788. The accession of Frederick William H, in 1786, was signalized by the publication of a rigid decree in favor of orthodoxy, and Spalding was thereby induced to resign his position. He preach- ed his last sermon Sept. 25, 1788, after he had in vain sought to obtain some modification of the obnoxious edict. His last work was published by his son, Georg Ludwig, in Berlin, 1804. It is entitled Religion, eine A ngelegenheit des Menschen {Religion, a Concern of Man). He died May 26, 180-4, leaving behind a reputation for sincere piety, according to the standards of his time, and modified by a constant endeavor to secure for it the clearest possible expression. If a rationalist, he was certainly one of the noblest and most pious re|)resent- atives of that tendenc}% His pure theism, moreover, affords an attractive contrast to all pantheistic con- ceptions of the idea of God. — Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s. V.