srEE
918
SPEC EL
Mnniincr spectres arc callcil '^"I'^'^eS in the Targiim (Psa. <-xxi. C)^ Amoii}; the iiijilit spectres (coinp. JIatt. xiv, iCi; similar was the (ireck l-^mpiiga [see the Sclio- liast on Arisi..|.li. l{ati.-29b\ VoKken, Dittir. p. 132; Bern- liarilvi-ii Di.Miys. /'<(•(.//. p. 721 J) was the l.iUth.n beaii- lifiil w.imaii wild especially waylaid cliiklren and killed tliem (^like the Liimiti.< [com]), the Vulg. at Isa. xxxiv, 14 J and Slrii/es of the Romans [Hochart, H'wroz. iii,831 ; Meineke on Slenander, p. 145; comp. I'hilostr. .4/W/. iv, 25], and l\w iihmih of the modern Arabians); male in- fants to the eii;hth, and female to the twentieth, day after their birth (see Eisennienger, Kiitikrki. Jiukiith. ii. 413 «(.. 4.'>2: Scl.len, De l>iis Si/r. p. 249 sq.)- An- other spirit inimical to chihlrcn, i)articiilarly to such as do not keep clean hands (^Mishna, Joiiui, Ixxvii, 2; Tu- iiiiitli, XX, 2), was called xritl"^" (but it does not appear that the Jews used to threaten their children with sprites, as the Romans did with their Inri-fe [Spanheim on Callim. />i(iii. r)9], like modern vulgar biif/aboox). See Van Dale. Idvl. p. 94 sq. ; Donghtiei Aiuilecl. i, 246. — Winer, i, 422. See SLt'EKSTinoN.
Spee, Fkiediucii von, a (ierman Jesuit and com- poser of religions poems, was born at Kaiserwerth in 1591 of the noble family Spee von Langenberg, entered the Order of Jesuits at the age of nineteen (IfilO), and was employed in the school at Cologne as teacher of grammar, philosophy, and morals. He was afterwards removed (about l(i27) to Wiirzburg and Hamberg, and transferred to the pastorate, a measure which is sup- posed to indicate dissatisfaction with his teaching on the part of his superiors, lie had acquired both repu- tation and popidarity with his auditors; but later events reveal a tlegree of liberality in his views such as Jesuit- ism does not often tolerate. While acting as a pastor .Spee was often obliged to minister to the unfortunates who were accused of witchcraft, and, after having been compelled by torture to make the most improbable con- fessions, were condemned to death by fire. More than two hundred of these miserable victims came under his care in the course of a few years. It is related that he was asked by John Philip of Schonborn, subsequently the elector of Jlayence, why his head was gray at the early age of thirty; and that he gave as a reason the fact that he had been oldiged to accompany so many witches to the stake, though every one of them was in- nocent. He gave a more emphatic expression to his sentiments upon this matter by the (anonymous) publi- cation of a Ciiiilin CriiiiiiKiliK, r. (le J'rocfK.vi contra Sa- ijiig l.ihn-, in which he stripped off the false gloss from the princifiies and the indefensible judicial methods b\' which such prosecutions were controlled. He would seem to have been suspected of the authorship by his superiors, as he was soon afterwards sent to Lower Sax- ony to attemjit the conversion of Protestants to Roman Catholicism. He actually succeeded in gaining over a Protestant community; but, according to .lesuiiical au- ihoritii's, came near to suflering a martyr's death in con- Hoquence. lie was attacked by an assassin, sai<l to have iK-en employed by the Protestants of llildesheim, who bent him unmerrifully ; and having lost his enthusiasm for missionary work, as the result, he went to Treves. This place afforded him a wide (icld of pastoral useful- ness, csjiecially during the siege and slorm of lt;3.') by Imperialists an<l Spaniards. He was indefatigable in liis lalnirs for the sick, wounded, and dying, an(l also for the im[K)verisIied and the prisoners. While engaged in such work he was taken with fever, and died Aug. 7, 103.'(. Spec's reputation rests on his religious poems, which are contained in two colh-elions, the Triilz-Snrh- tiijiill nnri tlu: (iiildiiiin I'lifitiulhitrli. The former was first issued at Cologne in 1049, and ap))eared afterwards in several editions; but was then lost from observation until Mrentano republisheii it in a somewhat modernized form in |H17. '|i,e latter, whicli received high com- memlaiion fmm Iz-ibnit/, {Theodii-fip, (j 90), likewise ap- jK-ared for the fir.-i time after the author's death, in 10 13,
perhaps not earlier even than 1G49, As a poet Spee stands alone, holding no relation to any of the schools of his century. He possessed a fine sense of prosody and euphonic forms, and felt profoundly the spirit of his compositions. He was, moreover, entirely rational, a lover of nature ; and, consequently, in no danger of a mystical absorption in God or of a theoso])hic panthe- ism. His poems are not, however, hymns; they were composed without the slightest reference to use by a Christian congregation. Their subject is always either some observation of nature or an expression of the au- thor's intense and glowing love for Christ, Occasional stanzas are worthy of comjiarison with the productions of the most eminent lyric poets of his country ; but the adoption oi the juistoriil as a medium for ex]iressing the poet's admiration of (iod will serve to show how utterly unsuited are his works for a place in the worship of the congregation. Spec's writings were pid>lished by Smets {Fiomme LieJer /Speeds [Bonn, 1849]); and earlier bv Fiirster, in Midler's Bihliuth. dexifscher Dichter des Mien Jdhrhundeiis (Leips. 1831, vol. xii), the latter preserving the original form more faithfully than the other. The (liildenes Tiif/endbuch. somewhat changed, was repub- lished at Coblentz in 1850 as a Roman Catholic manual of devotion. See Hauber, Biblioth. Magico, vol. iii; (iiirres, Christ/. Mi/stik-, vol. iv. — Herzog, Reid-Euaj- khp. s. v,