not in a priest's gown or canonical coat, but such, that Turkey merchants wear,' but 'spoke not one word.' The king, however, 'gave him his most gracious countenance,' and effected such, a complete change in his views that Sparke 'did not only for the time following yield himself in his practice to universal conformity, but privately by word or writing, and publickly by his brotherly persuasion.'
Sparke died at Bletchley on 8 Oct. 1616. He was buried in the chancel of the parish church, where a monument with an epitaph (printed in Willis, Survey, iii. 249-50) was erected to him by his eldest son. There are also a figure of his wife and inscriptions relating to his sons. Sparke's portrait, according to Wood, was painted after his death 'on the wall in the school gallery' at Oxford, among the English divines of note there, between those of Dr. John Spenser (1559–1614) [q. v.] of Corpus and Dr. Richard Edes [q. v.] of Christ Church.
Wood calls him a solid divine, well read in the fathers.' He published, besides the works mentioned:
- 'A comfortable Treatise for a Troubled Conscience,' and 'A Brief Catechism, with a Form of Prayer for Householders,' 1580, 8vo (London), 1588, 4to (Oxford).
- 'Treatise to prove that Ministers and Householders are bound to catechise their Parishioners and Families,' 1588, 8vo.
- 'The Highway to Heaven by the clear Light of the Gospel cleansed of a number of most dangerous Stumbling Stones thereinto thrown by Bellarmine and others,' &c., 1597, 8vo.
- 'A Brotherly Persuasion to Unity and Uniformity in Judgment and Practice, touching the received and present Ecclesiastical Government, and the authorised Ceremonies of the Church of England, newly corrected and enlarged,' 1607.
Two anonymous answers appeared in 1608, and in 1615 'An Antidote against the Pestiferous Writings of all English Sectaries … in particular against Dr. Sparke,' was published by N. S. Doct. Div.
Sparke married Rose, youngest daughter of John Inkforbye, merchant, of Ipswich. Of their ten children, only five survived her death on 7 Aug. 1615.
Of the sons, William Sparke (1587-1641), born at Bletchley, entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1603, was elected demy of Magdalen College on 5 June 1606, and was afterwards fellow till 1617. He graduated B.A. in January 1607, M.A. in November 1609, and B.D. on 30 July 1629. He became chaplain to the Duke of Buckingham, and succeeded his father as incumbent of Bletchley, but fell into debt and was forced to quit. He was instituted rector of Chenies on 20 May 1641, but died in the following October. He published 'Vis Naturae et Virtus Vitae, explicates et comparatae ad universum Doctrinae ordinem constituendum,'1612, 8vo; and 'The Mystery of Godliness: a Generall Discourse of the Reason that is in the Christian Religion,' 1629, 4to.
[Works in Brit. Mus. Libr.; Wood's Athenae Oxon. i. 189, ii. 495, Fasti, i. 195; Bloxam's Magdalen Register, iv. 110, 166-70, v. 21, 152-3; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500-1714; Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, i. 343-5; Lipscomb's Hist. of Buckinghamshire, iv. 20, 27.]
SPARROW, ANTHONY (1612–1685), theologian, born in 1612 at Depden, near Bury St. Edmunds, was the son of Samuel Sparrow, a man of wealth. He matriculated from Queens' College, Cambridge, and was scholar there from 1629 to 1632. His name appears as a junior fellow on 13 Feb. 1633. He was Hebrew prælector, 1638–9, with a stipend of 5l. per annum; Greek prælector, 1640–1; Hebrew prælector again in 1642–3; bursar 1640–1 and 1641–2; censor theologicus and examinator, 1641–2; and censor philosophicus, 1642–3. In 1637 he published ‘A Sermon concerning Confession of Sinnes and the Power of Absolvtion,’ which was reprinted in 1704. It claimed for the priesthood the power of remitting sins, and he was called before the vice-chancellor for an explanation, but was upheld by Bishop Juxon. On 8 April 1644 he was, as a royalist, ejected from his fellowship by the orders of Edward Montagu, second earl of Manchester [q. v.], for ‘non-residence and for not returning to college’ though summoned.
The rectory of Hawkedon in Suffolk was conferred upon Sparrow about 1648, but, after holding it for five weeks, he was ejected for reading the Book of Common Prayer. In 1660 he was reinstated, and was also elected to a preachership at Bury St. Edmunds. On 31 Aug. 1660 Sparrow, with Thomas Fuller (1608–1661) [q. v.] and other eminent loyalists, graduated D.D. per literas regias (Bailey, Thomas Fuller, pp. 672–673). He was appointed to the archdeaconry of Sudbury on 7 Aug. 1660, and to the second prebendal stall at Ely on 15 April 1661. At the election for the post of president of his college (5 May 1662) the majority of the fellows voted for Simon Patrick [q. v.], afterwards bishop of Chichester and Ely, though the king had sent a mandamus for the election of Sparrow. The question came before the law courts. The judges were equally divided, but Sparrow obtained the presidency. He thereupon resigned his benefice and preacher-
