GASPAR, a learned German writer of the 17th century, was born at Neumark in the Upper Palatinate on the 27th of May 1576. He studied at the university with so much success, that at the age of 16 he became an author; and published books, says Ferrari, which deserve to be admired by old men. His dispositions did not correspond with his genius. Naturally passionate and malevolent, he assaulted without mercy the characters of eminent men. He abjured the system of the Protestants, and became a Roman catholic about the year 1599; but his character remained the same. He possessed all those qualities which fitted him for making a distinguished figure in the literary world; imagination, memory, profound learning, and invincible impudence. He was familiar with the terms of reproach in most of the languages. He was entirely ignorant of the manners of the world. He neither showed respect to his superiors, nor did he behave with decency to his equals. He was possessed with a frenzy of an uncommon kind; he was indeed a perfect firebrand, fluttering around him, as if for his amusement, the most atrocious calumnies. Joseph Scaliger, above all Scioppius all others, was the object of his satire. That learned man, having drawn up the history of his own family, and deduced its genealogy from princes, was severely attacked by Scioppius, who ridiculed his high pretensions. Scaliger in his turn wrote a book entitled The Life and Parentage of Gaspar Scioppius, in which he informs us, that the father of Scioppius had been successively a grave-digger, a journeyman itinerant, a hawker, a folder, a miller, and a brewer of beer. We are told that his wife was long kept as a mistress, and at length forsaken by a debauched man whom she followed to Hungary, and obliged to return to her husband; that then he treated her harshly, and condemned her to the lowest offices of servitude. His daughter, too, it is said, was as disorderly as her mother: that after the flight of her husband, who was going to be burned for some infamous crimes, she became a common prostitute; and at length grew so scandalous, that she was committed to prison. These severe accusations against the family of Scioppius inflamed him with more eagerness to attack his antagonist anew. He collected all the calumnies that had been thrown out against Scaliger, and formed them into a huge volume, as if he had intended to crush him at once. He treated with great contempt the King of England, James I., in his Ecclesiasticus, &c., and in his Collyrium Regium Britanniae Regi graviter ex oculis laborantis munere nihum; that is, "An Eye salve for his Britannic Majesty." In one of his works he had the audacity to abuse Henry IV. of France in a most scurrilous manner, on which account his book was burned at Paris. He was hung in effigy in a farce which was represented before the king of England, but he gloried in his dishonour. Provoked with his insolence to their sovereign, the servants of the English ambassador insulted him at Madrid, and corrected him severely: but he boasted of the wounds he had received. He published more than thirty defamatory libels against the Jesuits; and, what is very surprising, in the very place where he declaims with most virulence against that society, he subscribes his own name with expressions of piety. I Galpar Scoppius, already on the brink of the grave, and ready to appear before the tribunal of Jesus Christ to give an account of my works. Towards the end of his life he employed himself in studying the Apocalypse, and affirmed that he had found the key to that mysterious book. He sent some of his expositions to Cardinal Mazarine, but the cardinal did not find it convenient to read them.

Ferrari tells us, that during the last fourteen years of his life he shut himself up in a small apartment, where he devoted himself solely to study. The same writer acquaints us, that he could repeat the Scriptures almost entirely by heart; but his good qualities were eclipsed by his vices. For his love of slander, and the furious assaults which he made upon the most eminent men, he was called the Cerberus of literature. He accuses even Cicero of barbarisms and improprieties. He died on the 16th November 1649, at the age of 74, at Padua, the only retreat which remained to him from the multitude of enemies whom he had created. Four hundred books are ascribed to him, which are said to discover great genius and learning. The chief of these are,

1. Verefimilium Libri iv. 1596, in 8vo. 2. Commentarius de arte critica, 1661, in 8vo. 3. De sua ad Gallicos migratione, 1660, in 8vo. 4. Notationes Criticae in Phaedrum, in Praepia, Patavii, 1664, in 8vo. 5. Sylva pellicarum lectionum Libri v. 1664, in 8vo. 6. Clavigerium belli sacri, 1619, in 4to. 7. Collyrium regium, 1611, in 8vo. 8. Grammatica Philosophica, 1644, in 8vo. 9. Relatio ad Reges et Principes de Societatis Jesu, 1643, in 12mo.

This last mentioned was published under the name of Alphonsio de Vargas. He was at first well disposed to the Jesuits; but these fathers on one occasion opposed him. He presented a petition to the diet of Ratibon in 1630, in order to obtain a pension; but the Jesuits, who were the confessors both of the emperor and the electors, had influence to prevent the petition from being granted. From that moment Scioppius turned his whole artillery against the Jesuits.