request having been acceded to, Spener removed to Ber- lin in April, 1691, and was made consistorial-councillor and provost of St. Nicolai Church.
The house of Brandenburg was at this time commit- ted to the policy of toleration in religious matters, and none of its members were directly interested in Spener's work. The (jueen, indeed, became directly hostile to him, and the king did not grant him audience. The intolerant orthodox party was, however, restrained equal- ly with the " rietist," and certain friends in high posi- tion at the court were able to render effective aid in the promotion of a vital piety in the Church. Spener at once inaugurated a thorough course of catechetical in- struction, as he had previously done at F"'raidd"ort and Dresden. He preached twice a week and gathered a circle of candidates about him with whom he entered on a thorough study of the Scriptures. His influence was even more effective indirectly, as appears from the apiiointment of a large number of persons of like mind with himself to responsible positions in the Church. It was through such appointments to the faculty that Halle became the nursery of the pietist theology, being manned by such firofessors as Breithaupt, Francke, An- ton, and their adjuncts Joachim Lange and Freyling- hausen.
A new trouble for Spener was occasioned in Berlin by his loved colleague Schade, who was unable to refrain from a public denunciation of the practice of private confession as it existed in the Lutheran Church. He issued a tractate in 1697 in advocacy of his views, and supported them, moreover, in a sermon preached from his own pidpit; and when the next occasion for the ad- ministration of the sacrament of the Lord's supjier had arrived he broke through the limitations of the rubric, and after public prayer and confession pronounced a general absolution over the assembled congregation. The excitement caused by the^e bold measures was im- mense, but Schade was linally permitted by his superi- ors to exercise his ministry without being reipiired to administer private confession ; and a similar exemjition was granted by edict in 1698 to all who had conscien- tious scruples against that practice. Francke and Frey- linghausen were lighting a similar battle at Halle, and in other cities irresponsible visionaries appeared who were guilty of real excesses. The responsibility for every trouble of this kind in the Church was at once charged upon Spener by his opponents. AVittenberg and Leipsic rivalled each other in abusing him, employ- ing personalities and cakminiations rather than argu- ments and solid proofs to support their asseverations; and as the temper of the times required of him who would not be regarded a confessed and convicted male- factor a reply to every charge raised by an opponent, Spener was compelled to find time for such polemical labors. Among the numerous writings from his pen w'hich originated under such circinnstauces a response to the fulminations of the Wittenberg faculty of 1695, entitled ^4 iijrichtiye Uehereinstinimuiifi mit der Wf/sbin-ff. Confession, and a rei)ly to the pam|)hlet Jiesc/n-dbmiff des Unfugs, written by Carjizov and others, deserve spe- cial attention — the latter because it contains Spener's version of the entire jjrogress of the I'ietistic controver- sies. The polemical abilities of Spener were at about this time employed upon another controversy, not con- nected with his own direct work. The Calixtine party had, under the guidance of Leibnitz (q. v.), drawn near to the h'omish Church, and their influence was making itself felt among the tutors of the university. riVifcr, [)rofessor extraordinary of theology, had openly com- mended Itonian Catholicism, and was deprived of his ofhce in 1691. The families of certain officials regular- ly attended mass. ICrnest Grabe, another professor ex- traordinary, had |)laced in the hands of the consistory a work in which he alleged that the Evangelical Churcli had, by renoimcing the apostolical succession, removed itself from a Christian basis. The elector committed the work of answering the various treatises written in
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support of this movement to three theologians, among whom was Spener. He produced in 1G95 the work Der evant/. Kirche Rettung vor falschen Btschuldi(jun(/en, which restrained Grabe from going over to Romanism as Ffeifcr liad done, though he removed to England and joined the Anglican establishment. Soon afterwards the elector Frederic Augustus of Saxon}-, a former pu- pil of Spener, apostatized to Homanisin. A doctrinal Work on the eternal Godhead of Christ brought Spener's literary labors to a close. He died Feb. 5, 1705. A few years later, on the accession of queen Sophia Louisa (1708), the tendency represented b}' him began to pre- vail. The court-preacher, Porst, inaugurated prayer- meetings at the court, which even the king attended from time to time ; and associations for religious im- provement were multiplied among the clergy and laity of Berlin.
Spener's family consisted of his wife and eleven chil- dren, eight of whom survived his departure. One son, John J., occupied the chair of physics and mathematics at Halle, and died in 1(!92. Another, William Louis, began the studv of theology. Jacob Charles was first theologian, then jurist, and eventually became the vic- tim of melancholy, which unfitted him for public life. The youngest, Ernest Godfrey, also studied theology, but fell into vicious habits. After being reclaimed, he abandoned theology and entered on the law, in which profession he succeeded; so that when he died, in his twenty-sixth year, he held the position of chief-auditor.