(W. P. s.)
Sprat, Thomas, a learned English prelate, was born at Tallaton ( Tallcrton), Devonshire, in 1636, and from a school in his native place became a commoner of Wadhain College, Oxford, in 1651, taking his degree in l().')7. He obtained a fellowship, and after the Kcs- toration took orders, becoming chaplain to the duke of Buckingham, and also to the king. In 166.S he became a preiiendary of Westminster, and had afterwards the (,'hurcli of St. Margaret. He was in 1680 made canon of \Vinds4)r, iu 1683 dean of Westminster, and in 1684 bishop of Rochester. In I6H5, being clerk of the closet to the king, he was made dean of the Chapel lvoyal,an(l the nt-xt year was appoiiitt'd one of tlie commissioners for ecclesiastical alTairs. When the Declaration distin- guislit'd the acknowledged sons of the Church of Eng- land, he stood neutral, and permitted it to l)e read at Wcsttniusier. but pres.sed none to violate his conscience. When .lames 1 1 was frightened away, and a new govern- ment was to be setlU'd, Sprat was on(! of the council to consiilcr wlielln'r the crown was vacant, and manf(diy spoke in favor of his old master. He complied, liow- ever, with the new establishment, and was left unmo- leHUtd; but in 1(;'.)2 an atrocious atlem|it was made by two uiiprincipli'd informers to involve him in trouble by nilixiug his uouutt rfritccl signature to a seditious paper. The lii^liop was arrested May 7, 1692, but succeeded in a lilllc time iu esiablirthing his innocence. He died May 2n, 1713. Tin- works of Sprat, besides a few po- ems, are. .1 True A rrmint and Dirlaralion if the Hor- rid i'lnis/iirary against the late King, l)eing a hislorv of the Kye-hous<! Plot (1685):— yV(c History of the li-iyiil ,'iociely, etc. (1067, and other editions to 1704,
4to) -.— The Life of Cotdey (1668, 1G78, 8vo) -.— The An- swer to Sobiere (1709, 8vo) : — The Relation of his Own Examination (1693, 4to; 1722, 8vo) : — and three vol- umes of Sermons (Lond. 1677, 4to; 1678-1705, 1710, 8vo; republished in 1722, 8vo). See Allibone, Diet, of b'rit. and A me}-. .4 ulhors, s. v. ; Chalmers, Biog. Diet, s. V. ; Hook, Eccles. Biog. s. v.
Spreng, Jacques, a Flemish theologian, was born at Ypres about 1485 of parents in orclinary circum- stances, who early devoted him to a religious life, and he accordingly set out as an Augustin monk on a pil- grimage, which at length led him to Erfurt, and he there embraced Luther's views. He afterwards returned to his native country, and became provost of a convent in Antwerp (hence his surname Pt-wpo.situs'). He was imprisoned for his faith, tirst at Brussels, and afterwards at Bruges (1522); but was rescued by a fellow-Francis- can, and escaped into Germany. On the recommenda- tion of Henry of Zutphen, he was appointed pastor of Notre Dame at Bremen in 1554, and filled that position till his death, Jan. 30, 1562. In 1535 he assisted at a Freemasons' congress held in Cologne. — Hoefer, Aouv. Biog. Ginerale, s. v.
Sprenger, Jacob, a Dominican monk of Cologne, provincial of his order (A.D. 1495), and one of the two inquisitors-general appointed by Innocent VIII (1484) for the destruction of witches, which he declared were overrunning Germany. From confessions extorted on the rack a perfect dogmatic and historical system was framed, in which the various compacts made with the devil, or the improper alliances contracted with him, obtained their due place. On the basis of this new lore Sprenger elaborated a code of criminal procedure against witches, entitled Malleus M alejicarum. See Kurtz, Church Hist. vol. i, § 115, 2.
Sprig (n"iXQ, peordh, Ezek. xvii, 6, a branch, as elsewhere rendered ; ?T3T, zalzdl, a shoot of a vine, Isa. xviii, 5).
Spriggs, Joseph, a minister of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, South, was born in Lancaster County, Va., July 6, 1804, and united with the Church in 1824. He was licensed to preach in Januar}', 1828. and was ad- mitted into the Baltimore Ct>nference in March of tlie same year. He was ordained deacon in 1830, and elder in 1832. When the Methodist Episcopal Church di- vided in 1844, he adhered to the Southern branch, and was admitted into the Virginia Conference. In 1800 he took a supernumerarj' relation; in 1865 he became effective; in 1869 superannuated. He died of typhoid fever, Jan. 17, 1869. See Minutes of Annual Confer- ences of the M. E. Church, South, 1870, p. 402.
Spring. See Fountain; Season.
Spring, Gardner, D.D., a noted Presbyterian minister, son of Dr. Samuel Spring, Sen., was born at Newburyport, jNIass., Feb. 24, 178.5. At the age of twelve he entered the Berwick Academy, and com- menced the study of Latin and Greek under the tutor- ship of Dr. (Jillet, then a young man studying divinity with his father. After tliis he returned to Newbury- port, his paternal home, where he remained prosecuting ids studies mitil he was prepared to enter Yale College, which he did in 1799. He was a severe student, and withal, as he himself expressed it, "amljitious as Ju- lius (,';vsar." Keligiously as he was educated, he was worldly in his piirsints, until, on one occasion, he heard an earnest sermon preached by his father. About the same time he made a short excursion to Maine, and 8top|ied in an out-of-the-way sort of a jilace, where he and his friend walked eight miles one Sabbath to lind a church. After a short vacation he resumed ids stud- ies at Leicester Academy under Dr. Nehemiali Adams; and, as he expressed it in his Antohiography, "in an ambitious, self-righteous s])irit led the devotions in the academy," seeking more the praise of men than thq ap-