352 



SPELTERSPENER. 



he settled in London, devoting his leisure to the 

 study of the juridical antiquities of his native coun- 

 try. Having purchased the lands whiih had be- 

 longed to two suppressed monasteries, and meeting 

 with obstacles to the quiet enjoyment of the pro- 

 perty, he began to entertain scruples of conscience 

 relative to the alienation of church lands, and wrote 

 on the subject his work entitled De non temerandis 

 Ecclesiis. On the revival of the society of anti- 

 quaries in 1614, Sir H. Spelman became a member, 

 and produced a Discourse concerning the Original 

 of the four Law-terms of the Year. In his re- 

 searches into legal archaeology, he found it necessary 

 to study the Saxon language ; and this led to the 

 composition of his great work, the Archaeological 

 Glossary. He printed a specimen in 1621, and in 

 1626 appeared the first part, entitled Archasologus 

 in 3fodu?n Glossarii ad Rem Antiquam posteriorem 

 (folio). Before he had completed the glossary, he 

 engaged in preparing a History of English Councils, 

 of which the first part, to the Norman conquest, 

 appeared in 1639; and two additional volumes 

 were subsequently published, partly from the papers 

 of Spelman, by Sir W. Dugdale. In 1639, like- 

 wise, appeared his last work, entitled the History 

 of Tenures by Knights' Service in England. His 

 death took place in 1641, and his body was interred 

 in Westminster abbey. Besides the works already 

 noticed, he was the author of a History of the Civil 

 Affairs of the Kingdom from the conquest to the 

 Grant of the Magna Charta ; a Treatise concerning 

 Tithes ; a History of Sacrilege ; Aspilogia ; &c. 

 His English works were published, collectively in a 

 folio volume, in 1727. 



SPELTER. See Solder. 



SPENCE, JOSEPH, a critic, was born in 1698, 

 and received his education at Oxford, where he 

 obtained a fellowship. In 1727 appeared his Essay 

 on Pope's Translation of the Odyssey, which led 

 to an intimate friendship with the poet. In 1728, 

 he was elected professor of poetry at Oxford ; and 

 he afterwards travelled abroad with the earl of 

 Lincoln. On his return, he obtained a living in 

 Buckinghamshire, and, in 1754, was promoted to a 

 prebendal stall in Durham cathedral. After the 

 death of his friend, Mr Rudge, in 1763, he resided 

 much with the widow of that gentleman, who usu- 

 ally spent the summer months at Weybridge, in 

 Surrey. On the morning of August 20, 1768, Mr 

 Spence was found, by a servant, lying on his face 

 in a shallow piece of water, into which it appeared 

 that he had fallen, and, being unable to extricate 

 himself, he was unfortunately drowned. His prin- 

 cipal work is entitled Polymetis, or an Enquiry into 

 the Agreement between the Works of the Roman 

 Poets and the Remains of ancient Artists (1747, 

 fol.). In 1819 appeared Anecdotes, and Characters of 

 Books and Men, collected from the Conversations of 

 Mr Pope, and of other Persons, from a manuscript of 

 Mr Spence, with his life, &c. by S. W. Singer (8vo.). 



SPE-NCER, GEORGE JOHN, earl, was of the 

 second branch of the Spencer family, the elder pos- 

 sessing the title of duke of Maryborough. His 

 father, in 1761, was created baron Spencer, and, in 

 1764, viscount Althorpe and earl Spencer. George 

 John was born in 1758, and was educated at Har- 

 row, and afterwards had for his tutor the celebrated 

 Sir William Jones. From Harrow he removed to 

 Trinity college, Cambridge. When he had com- 

 pleted his education, he travelled, and on his return 

 was elected member of parliament for the county 

 of Northampton. In 1789, by his father's death, he 



became earl Spencer. In the house of lords, LB 

 voted with the whigs, till the period of the French 

 revolution, whtn, with some others of the party, he 

 joined the administration, and held the place of 

 first lord of the admiralty. In 1801, he retired 

 with Mr Pitt, but afterwards again joined his old 

 friends, and, when they came into place, in 1805, 

 he was appointed secretary of state for the home 

 department. He died at his seat of Althorp, in 

 Northamptonshire, on the 10th November, 1834. 

 Earl Spencer was one of the principal members of 

 the Roxburgh club, and possessed the largest and 

 richest private library in the world: the founda- 

 tion of it was laid in 1789, by the purchase of count 

 Re wiczki's collection, for an annuity of 500 sterling. 

 This he increased, at a great expense, by collecting 

 books in all parts of Europe. The greater part 

 of the library is at Althorp, and consists of 45,000 

 volumes : the rest is at London. A catalogue of 

 the rarest and most costly works of the collection 

 has been prepared by Dibdin Bibliotheca Spen- 

 ceriana, or a descriptive Catalogue of the Books 

 printed in the fifteenth century, and of many valu- 

 able first Editions (4 vols., 1814). It contains 

 engravings, wood cuts and fac similes illustrative 

 of 1004 incunabula Earl Spencer's eldest son, 

 John Charles, known as viscount Altborp, chancel- 

 lor of the exchequer, during the period in which 

 the Reform Bill was enacted, and therefore minis- 

 terial leader in the house of commons, was born 

 in 1782, educated at Cambridge, entered parliament 

 in 1803, was one of the lords of the treasury dur- 

 ing Fox's short administration (1806), and was soon 

 after returned for Northamptonshire, which he con- 

 tinued to represent until, by the death of his 

 father, he became earl Spencer, and was removed 

 to the house of peers. 



SPENER, PHILIP JACOB, a celebrated divine 

 of the Lutheran church in the seventeenth century, 

 was born in 1635, at Rappolsweiler, in Upper 

 Alsace. His piety was early awakened by his 

 patroness, the countess of Rappolstein, and was 

 confirmed by witnessing, at the age of fourteen 

 years, her preparation for death. In 1651, he com- 

 menced his theological studies at Strasburg, be- 

 came, in 1654, tutor of the princess of the Palatinate, 

 and delivered lectures on philosophy and history. 

 From 1659 to 1662, he travelled in Germany, Swit 

 zerland and France, where he became acquainted 

 with the Jesuit Menestrier, celebrated for his know- 

 ledge of heraldry, and, having been thus led to study 

 this science, wrote several works on heraldry, still 

 much esteemed. In 1664, he was made doctor of 

 theology at Strasburg, and, in 1666, he received 

 the first place among the clergy at Frankfort on 

 the Maine. His practical sermons, which deviated 

 entirely from the dogmatico-polemic method then 

 universal, were received with much applause. In 

 1670, he instituted his celebrated collegia pietatis, 

 which, against his will, became the origin of pietism. 

 From this time, Spener's history is wholly con- 

 nected with this remarkable change in the religious 

 state of Protestant, Germany, as it was chiefly ow- 

 ing to his example and the spirit of his writings. 

 The Lutheran church, at that time, was fast sink- 

 ing into a lifeless dogmatism. Doctrines, forms and 

 polemics were confounded with a religious life. 

 Spener, in his Pia Desideria and other treatises, 

 exposed the evils of this state of things, and showed 

 how the important office of the ministry had be- 

 come alienated from its proper purpose that of 

 instructing the people in true religion, correcting 



