Edward Sparke (c. 1610/11 – 1692) was an orthodox Anglican English clergyman and devotional writer in prose and poetry, who despite being ejected from his living during the English Rebellion survived to see his work and teaching gain a wide currency during the Restoration period.C.L. Leachman, 'Sparke, Edward (died 1693), Church of England clergyman', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OUP 2004). He is most remembered as the author of Scintilla Altaris, first published in 1652. It was a major influence in re-establishing the Anglican liturgical calendar.
Life A native of Kent, he was educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1630, a master's in 1633, and a doctorate in 1640. He was incorporated at Oxford on 12 July 1653 and later obtained the doctorate in divinity.
He was presented to the rectory of St Martin, Ironmonger Lane (St Martin Pomeroy), London, 28 September 1639.T. Rymer (ed. R. Sanderson), Foedera, conventiones, literae et cujuscunque generis acta publica, Vol. XX (J. Tonson, London 1735), p. 393 (Google).R. Newcourt, Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense, 2 vols (London 1708, 1710), I, pp. 410-13, especially p. 412 at note "v" (Google). At about this time he took a wife Sarah, for on 16 September 1641 their daughter Sarah was baptized at St Martin Pomeroy. The mother died in childbirth: the baptism and the burial took place on the same day. Daughter Sarah survived and bore her father's only known posterity.
Sparke was at the same time an assistant governor, under James Marsh as president, of Sion College on London Wall, when John Sedgwick of St Alphage London Wall sought to have them removed as Royalists and replaced with men of parliamentarian sympathy. This was achieved by an assembly of deans, assistants and fellows which met on 21 October 1643 to elect their replacements.E.H. Pearce, Sion College and Library (Cambridge University Press, 1913), pp. 108-10 (Internet Archive). He was soon ejected from St Martin's, and his church sequestered, about 1645, making way for the appointment there of John Arrowmith (1602–1659), a puritan sympathist, of the Sixth London Presbyterian Classis.
His association as preacher or minister with St James's, Clerkenwell, appears to have begun by 1654, when he was approached to officiate while an election was arranged in the following year. The parishioners soon afterwards purchased the church. Sparke maintained this connection with Clerkenwell in 1660, as an Independent, sharing, or in rivalry, with the elected minister Dr Siddon.T. Cromwell, History and Description of the Parish of Clerkenwell (Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, London 1828), pp. 82-84 (Google). At the English Restoration of 1660 he regained his rectory of St Martin's, but resigned it before 5 June 1661.
In September 1661 he obtained a mortgage for £400 to Peter Calfe of Tottenham in respect of Calfe's mansion house (that built by Sir Richard Martin on the south side of Sir Julius Caesar's property) which Calfe had acquired in 1654.London Metropolitan Archives, Sperling family deeds, refs ACC/0564/018 and ACC/0564/019 (Discovery Catalogue). Indentures of Fine were prepared between them in 1662, and in March 1664 a year's lease, and release, were made by them jointly with Sir Theodore Devaux of Covent Garden.London Metropolitan Archives, Sperling family deeds, refs ACC/0564/020-021 and ACC/0564/022-023 (Discovery Catalogue). A bill and answer were exchanged between the parties in Chancery in 1667.The National Archives (UK), Chancery, Devaux v Sparke (1667), ref. C 6/28/21 (Discovery Catalogue). Sparke was also involved in a land transaction at Rolvenden in Kent in 1664.The National Archives (UK), Chancery, Sparke v Goldston (1664), ref. C 5/631/112 (Discovery Catalogue). During the same period he was vicar of Walthamstow, December 1662 to May 1666,R. Newcourt, Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense, 2 vols (London 1708, 1710), II, at p. 637 (Google). and became chaplain to King Charles II. He resigned from Clerkenwell in 1666, and on 23 January 1665/66 was instituted to the vicarage of Tottenham at All Hallows, Tottenham High Cross,R. Newcourt, Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense, 2 vols (London 1708, 1710), I, pp. 753-55 (Google). which he held until his death.
Works In January 1637/38, Sparke published a sermon of 44 pages for the funeral of Henry Chitting, Chester Herald, entitled The Christian's Map of the World.E. Sparke, The Christians Map of the World drawne at the solmne funerals of M. Henry Chitting Esquire, Chester-Herauld at Armes, interred Ianuary 11, Anno Domini 1637, (I. Norton for Richard Thrale), full text at umich/eebo. At this time he was preacher of St Mary, Islington.
In 1649 he published his own edition, in nineteen sermons, from the manuscripts of Josias Shute (died 1643), of Sarah and Hagar, or, Genesis the sixteenth chapter opened in XIX sermons. The portrait of Josias Shute which is prefixed to the edition was engraved by William Marshall, and the verses (both Latin and English) which are inscribed beneath it are subscribed "Ed. Sparke".The British Museum, Print, Museum Number P,3.44 (British Museum Collections Online). He wrote the epistle dedicatory from his study in London on 11 November 1648, dedicating it to John Lord Viscount Brackley and to Thomas Vyner, then one of the sheriffs of London, signing himself "the least Spark on God's Altar."(E. Sparke, ed.), Sarah and Hagar, or, Genesis the sixteenth chapter opened in XIX sermons, being the first legitimate essay of Josias Shute; published according to his own original manuscripts, circumspectly examined, and faithfully transcribed by Edward Sparke (J.L. and Humphrey Moseley, London 1649), full text at umich/eebo. The title-page describes him as Rector of St Martin's, Ironmonger Lane. A further edition appeared in 1669 (Peter Parker, London).
Scintilla Altaris His very lasting work, which had its first edition in 1652, was Scintillula Altaris, or a Pious Reflection on Primitive Devotion: as to the Feasts and Fasts of the Christian Church orthodoxally Revived (T. Maxey for Richard Marriot, London). ("Scintilla" in Latin means "spark".) This consisted of a series of disquisitions or meditations on the principal feasts, together with original religious poetry in each section, and extensive prayers for each feast. It also featured a series of engraved illustrations derived (at some removes) from, or reinvented after, engravings by Collaert after Marten de Vos.
This fourfold method of exposition addressed a metaphysical principle in his teaching, as when, in his second disquisition (upon Advent Sunday), he described the four Sundays of Advent, as "may in some sense (like the Four Evangelists) be called our Saviour's four-wheel'd Chariot (Quadriga Domini), carrying the glad and sad tydings of his approach throughout the Church, as those do his Mercy and Justice throughout the world."E. Sparke, Thysiasterion, vel Scintilla Altaris. Primitive Devotion, in the Feasts and Fasts of the Church of England, Third edition (R. Wood for H. Brome, London 1663), p. 17 (Google). The four Sundays (he writes) correspond to the four ways in which Christ comes to us, that is, the Corporeal, Ministerial, Spiritual and Judicial ways. A brief extract from his poem on this feast illustrates his richly figurative style:"His Ministerial-Advent next attend,And in his Word, each Grief shall finde a Friend.The Motions of his Spirit, are the Gales,That, while we steer towards Heav'n, will fill our Sails;His blessed Sacraments, the Churches Wings,Whereby each Lark of Heaven mounts, and sings:A pair of cleansing Streams, broach'd from the sideOf our dear Lord, when for us crucifi'd,Our Brace of Spies, that from blest Can'an bringsNews of her chearing Vines, and fruitfull Springs."Scintilla Altaris, 3rd edition, p. 29 (Google).
Although the words "Primitive Devotion" suggested the paring away of ceremonial, Sparke expound anew the Anglican Calendar of observances which had been thrown out the preceding decade.R. Wilcher, 'Henry Vaughan, Jeremy Taylor, Edward Sparke, and the Preservation of the Anglican Communion', Scintilla (The Vaughan Association), 12 (2008), pp. 141-159. ISSN 1368-5023. As an appeal to the former orthodoxy it was therefore a daring publication for 1652. His friend Isaac Walton wrote commendatory verses upon seeing the first leaf printed from the Marriots's press (John Donne's publisher at that time), expressing strong approval that the poems, prayers and expositions so long-awaited were now being made available in print, as if in payment of a debt.J. Eckhardt, Religion around John Donne (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2019), pt. 137 (Google).R.H. Shepherd (ed.), Waltoniana: Inedited Remains in Prose and Verse of Izaak Walton (Pickering and Co., London 1878), pp. 70-72 (HathiTrust). Walton's verse appeared only in the first edition.
The second edition, published in 1660, was entitled Θυσιαστήριον, vel Scintilla Altaris ("Thysiasterion, or, the Spark of the Altar"), and with a new dedication to King Charles II, and a collection of poems by notable persons approving the author's steadfastness to the old order in the face of the intervening chaos, was at once esteemed both for its orthodoxy and for the sinewy strength, depth and clarity of its expositions. Six further editions appeared between 1663 and 1700.See, e.g., E. Sparke, Thysiasterion, vel Scintilla Altaris. Primitive Devotion, in the Feasts and Fasts of the Church of England, Second edition (W.G. and R.W., London 1660), (with cycle of engraved illustrations or religious emblems); Third edition (R. Wood for H. Brome, London 1663), (page views) at Google; Fourth edition (J. Flesher for Henry Brome, London 1666), Google; Fifth edition (Robert Clavel, London 1673), (page views) at Google; Sixth edition (T. Hodgkin for T. Basset and H. Brome, London 1678); Seventh, revised edition (J. Redmayne junr. for T. Basset and J. Brome, London 1682), Google; Eighth edition (William Battersby and Charles Brome, London 1700). Thomas Fuller and Alexander Brome were among the authors of the prefatory verses.
In 1666 Sparke added a supplementary work providing materials for the three "Grand Solemnities" of 5 November (the deliverance of King James I and the three estates by the failure of the Gunpowder Plot, 1605), 30 January (The martyrdom of King Charles I, 1649), and 29 May (the restitution of the king and royal family after the Great Rebellion, 1660). This was usually incorporated into later editions of the Scintilla.
Family Sparke's will, written on 2 May 1693, gives various details of his family. He had a brother Thomas Sparke who married and had an only daughter Martha Sparke, but Thomas died before Edward. He also had a niece named Elizabeth Blyth.
It appears that he first married Sarah, by whom he had his daughter, at the same time losing his wife who died at the time of the birth: