272 SPINOLA SPINOLA, Ambrosio de, marquis, a Spanish sol- dier, born in Genoa in 1569, died near Casale, Piedmont, Sept. 25, 1630. He was a son of the marquis Filippo Spinola, a party leader at Genoa and a rich Levant merchant, and his mother was a princess of Salerno. After fill- ing local offices, he joined his brother Federi- go, who had become admiral in the Spanish navy, in the war against the Dutch and Eng- lish. In 1602 he arrived in the Netherlands with a corps of 9,000 veterans which he had raised and equipped at his own expense, and with which he came to the rescue of the Span- iards under Archduke Albert against Maurice of Nassau. His brother fell in a naval battle, May 26, 1603, and he was desired to succeed him as admiral, but preferred to become chief commander of the Spanish army in the Neth- erlands. He covered himself with glory in September, 1604, by compelling the surren- der of Ostend, which had been besieged since July, 1601. After other operations against Maurice, who regarded him as next in genius to himself, he was in 1609 among the first to favor the truce for 12 years concluded at the Hague. During the truce he commanded Spanish troops in Germany. In 1622 he took Julich; in the same year he was repulsed at Bergen-op-Zoom, but made a skilful retreat ; and in 1625 he captured Breda after a siege of ten months. He afterward reluctantly be- came commander of the Spanish army in Italy, and died during the siege of Casale, SPINOZA (also written SPINOSA), Barncb, or Benedict, a Dutch philosopher, born of Jewish parents in Amsterdam, Nov. 24, 1632, died at the Hague, Feb. 21, 1677. He translated his Hebrew name Baruch into Latin as Benedic- tus. His father, a Portuguese merchant, had fled from persecution to Holland. The son was educated for the rabbinical profession, and gained the admiration not only of the masters of the Hebrew school in Amsterdam, but also of the chief rabbi Morteira, who be- came his instructor in the Talmud and the Cabala. But he was suspected even before his 15th year of verging toward heresy, and was accused of contemning the law of Moses and denying the immortality of the soul and the reality of angelic communications. Summoned before a rabbinical tribunal, he anticipated ex- communication by withdrawing himself from the synagogue. He neglected the repeated sum- mons of the synagogue to trial, and at length in 1656 the anathema maranatha, or greater excommunication, was uttered against him. He was already familiar with the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, German, and Flemish lan- guages, and was studying Latin under the phy- sician Van Ende. This language introduced him not only to Christian learning, but also to the literature and philosophy of classical an- tiquity, thru studied with special enthusiasm, and opened to him the writings of Descartes. The Talmud makes it the duty of scholars to learn some mechanical art. Spinoza had there- SPINOZA fore, while in the synagogue, learned the art of polishing lenses, by which he gained his subsis- tence during the remainder of his life. Exiled from Amsterdam by the magistrates on applica- tion of the rabbis, he lived for a short time with a friend in the vicinity, went thence to Rhyns- burg, near Leyden, whence in 1664 he removed to Voorburg, near the Hague, and finally yield- ed to the request of his friends to reside en- tirely at the Hague, all the leisure time saved from labor being given to philosophy. After the death of his parents his sisters attempted to deprive him of his portion of the inheri- tance. Having established his rights by law, he contented himself with taking only a bed. In 1673 the professorship of philosophy in the uni- versity of Heidelberg was offered to him, the condition being that he should teach nothing opposed to the established religion ; but he de- clined it. When it was proposed to obtain a pension for him from Louis XIV., he replied that he had nothing to dedicate to that monarch. Meanwhile he endured the toil and wants of poverty, and was wont to protract his labors into the night. His first work, Renati Des Cartes Principiorum Philosophies Pars I. et II., More Geometrico Demonstrate (Amster- dam, 1663), which contains in an appendix the germ of his Eihica, immediately gave him the reputation of a great philosopher. His sec- ond work, Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, pub- lished anonymously in 1670, treats the relation between church and state, and is entirely dis- tinct from his philosophical writings. Religion, he maintained, is neither doctrine nor cidtus, but is essentially the love of God, the expres- sion of which is piety and obedience, and its worship is virtue. Doctrines belong to the domain of philosophy, actions to that of the state, feelings to that of religion. Absolute freedom should prevail in the first and the last, while the second should be regulated by the state in the interest of order and tranquillity. He therefore advocated a state religion, which should ordain ceremonials, but leave liberty of thought inviolate. Ho referred for support of his opinions to the Bible, in which he dis- tinguished between the facts narrated and the coloring received from the minds of the writers, and thus laid the foundation of the rationalis- tic school of interpretation in Germany. Nu- merous refutations of his work appeared, es- pecially from Cartesian theologians ; yet it was read throughout Europe, being published and translated with divers devotional, historical, antiquarian, and even medical titles employed to disguise it. Averse to controversy, Spinoza withheld his other and more important works, which were first published after his death by his friend Ludwig Meyer, a physician of Am- sterdam. His health, never vigorous, suffered from unremitted confinement and devotion to study. He sometimes passed entire months without leaving his chamber, occupied only with meditation, conversation with his friends, and answering letters on philosophical sub-
