guments to refute the skeptical views of those who doubted
the divine authority of the Bible.
In 1586, Sozzini married Elzbieta Morsztyn, who died
within a year. The Inquisition cut off his income from Italy,
and university students tried to kill him as a heretic. In 1589
he moved from Cracow to Luclawice. His colloquies with his
followers in 1601 and 1602 at Raków presented his mature
views. Sozzini died at Luclawice on March 3, 1604.
Sozzini viewed Christ as unique, a man who is divine,
not by nature, but by virtue of his office, for God instructed
Christ, resurrected him, and gave him all power over the
church in heaven and on earth. He opposed the nonadorant-
ism of Dávid and others, insisting on prayer to Christ for
guidance and for aid. He regarded scripture as God’s revela-
tion and denied that God can be known through a natural
theology. He held that humankind is mortal by nature and
that only the righteous will be resurrected. At death, sinners
suffer eternal extinction.
Sozzini’s theological analyses and arguments elicited in-
tense controversies, which resulted in significant changes in
the thought of some Protestant theologians, particularly on
the doctrine of the atonement. The Polish Brethren modified
and continued his biblical, rational theology in their famous
Racovian Catechism.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Works by Sozzini
Alodia Kawecka-Gryczowa has provided detailed information on
the original publications of Sozzini’s works in Arian ́ skie ofi-
cyny wydawnicze Rodeckiego i Sternac-kiego: Dzieje i bibliogra-
fia / Les imprimeurs des antitrinitaires polonais Rodecki et
Sternacki: Histoire et bibliographie (Cracow, 1974),
pp. 177–187, 290–323. The principal comments on each
work are in Polish and in French. Sozzini’s works have been
collected and reprinted as Socini opera, volumes 1 and 2 of
Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum quos Unitarios vocant (Am-
sterdam, 1656). Ludwik Chmaj has added detailed notes to
his Polish translation of Sozzini’s correspondence, Listy, 2
vols. (Warsaw, 1959). Letters discovered since that date have
been published in various scholarly journals.
Works about Sozzini
The Radical Reformation (Philadelphia, 1962), by George H. Wil-
liams, gives an authoritative account of the historical con-
texts and main themes of Sozzini’s work. The most complete
study available, Ludwik Chmaj’s Faust Socyn, 1539–1604
(Warsaw, 1963), is in Polish with one-page summaries in
Russian and English. George H. Williams has illuminated
many issues in Sozzini’s theology in “The Christological Is-
sues between Francis Dávid and Faustus Socinus during the
Disputation on the Invocation of Christ, 1578–1579,” in
Antitrinitarianism in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century,
edited by Róbert Dán and Antal Pirnát (Leiden, 1982),
pp. 287–321.
JOHN C. GODBEY (1987)SPACE, SACRED SEE SACRED SPACE
SPARAGMOS SEE DISMEMBERMENT
SPEAKING IN TONGUES SEE GLOSSOLALIA
SPEECH, SACRED SEE LANGUAGE, ARTICLE
ON SACRED LANGUAGESPEKTOR, YITSH:AQ ELH:ANAN (1817–1896)
was an Orthodox rabbi and foremost traditional Jewish legal
authority during the last half of the nineteenth century. Born
in Rosh, in the Grodno district of Russia, Spektor was raised
in a highly traditional milieu and as a young boy mastered
the study of Talmud under the tutelage of his father, YisraDel
Isser. After his arranged marriage at the age of thirteen, Spek-
tor went to live with his in-laws in Volkovysk, where
Binyamin Diskin instructed him in rabbinics and ordained
him as a rabbi. Spektor occupied his first rabbinical post at
the age of twenty and served as rabbi in several Russian
towns, including Nishvez and Novogrudok, centers of tradi-
tional Talmudic scholarship. In 1864 Spektor became rabbi
of Kovno, where he also headed the kolel (advanced rabbinic
academy) until his death.
Spektor’s piety, his absolute command of traditional
rabbinic sources and methods, and his virtually unparalleled
genius in rendering Jewish legal decisions made him the
communal leader of Orthodox Jewry in Russia during his
day. He participated in a host of charitable and civic affairs
on behalf of Russian and world Jewry, arbitrated Jewish com-
munal disputes throughout the world, and was a staunch
supporter of Jewish colonization in Palestine. In addition,
Spektor attempted to defend traditional Judaism against
many of the onslaughts of modernity. He himself was unable
to speak Russian and was an opponent of the Haskalah (Jew-
ish Enlightenment); he forbade the translation of the Tal-
mud into Russian and opposed the creation of modern rab-
binical seminaries where secular subjects would be taught.
Spektor’s first volume of responsa (Jewish legal deci-
sions), BeDer Yitshaq (1858), was published when he was thir-
ty-one years old, a relatively young age for such a work. Two
other collections of responsa—Nahal Yitshaq (1872, 1884)
and EEin Yitsh:aq (1889, 1895)—further enhanced his stat-
ure. His decisions, marked by an astonishing ability to cite
the whole range of rabbinic literature in arriving at a judg-
ment, display a tendency toward leniency. They remain a
valuable and authoritative source for contemporary Ortho-
dox rabbis in dealing with Jewish legal issues. The largest Or-
thodox rabbinical school in the United States, the Rabbi
Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University
in New York, is named after him.8674 SPACE, SACRED