Spondanus, Henri

Henri Spondanus

(DE SPONDE)

A convert from Calvinism, Bishop of Pamiers, and one of the continuators of Baronius, born at Mauléon, in the French Department of Basses-Pyrénées, 6 January, 1568; died at Toulouse, 18 May, 1643. After studying humanities at the Calvinist college of Orthez, he accompanied the royal ambassador to Scotland and, upon his return, took up the study of jurisprudence. In 1589 he was jurist at the Parliament of Tours. Convinced of the truth of the Catholic religion by the writings of Bellarmine and the instructions of Duperron, he became a Catholic, 21 Sept., 1595. In 1600 he accompanied Cardinal de Sourdis to Rome, where he was ordained priest on 7 March, 1606; Pope Paul V then appointed him reviser of the briefs of the Pœnitentiaria. In 1625 he was created Bishop of Pamiers, in which capacity he laboured with great zeal for the preservation of Catholicism and converted numerous Protestants. Owing to ill-health he resigned his diocese in 1639 and retired to Toulouse. His writings are: "Les cimetières sacrés" (Bordeaux, 1596); "Annales ecclesiastici Cæsaris Baronii in Epitomen redacti" (Paris, 1612); "Annales sacri a mundi creatione ad ejusdem redemptionem" (Paris, 1637), an epitome of the "Annals" of Tornielle; "Annalium Baronii continuatio ab a. 1197 quo is desinit ad a. 1622" (Paris, 1639).

FRIZON, Vita Spondani in later editions of the last-named work; RAESS, Die Convertiten seit der Reformation, III (Freiburg, 1866), 285-95.

MICHAEL OTT.