Nets. See Hawk.
Wetter, Thojias op Waldex (generally known as Thomas Waldensis'), an eminent English Roman Cath- olic Church historian of the early part of the 15th cen- tur>', was born at Walden, Essex. He joined the Car- melites, and rose in course of time to prominence in his order in England. He was placed first in Lon- don, and afterwards at Oxford, where he became a pro- fessor, tirst of philosophy and then of divinity. He zealously contested the opinions of Wickliffe both in the schools and in the pulpit; was elected provincial of his order ; and by command of King Henr}' IV at- tended the Council of Pisa in 1409. By Henry V he was appointed privy counsellor and confessor, and sent to the Council of Constance, where he distinguished himself by his speeches against the Wickliffites and Hussites. He likewise possessed the favor of Henry VI, and went to France with the intention of being present at his coronation at Paris, but he died on his journey at Rouen in 1430. He wrote a number of works; the Bodleian Library at Oxford possesses numerous MSS. of his, for instance, a list of aU the heresies, under the title of Catalogus Zizaniorum. But his only published work is his Doctrinale antiquitatum Jidei Ecclesim Catho- licce (Paris, 1521, 1523, 1532; 2d ed. Salamanca, 1556; 3d ed. Venice, 1571, with notes by a Carmelite monk named Rubeo; 4th ed. Venice, 1757, with notes by Blanciotti). Tlie work is divided into six books: i, of God and Christ; ii, of the body of Christ, the Church, and its
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members; iii, of monachism ; iv, of the begging monks and monastic property; v, of the sacraments: vi, of other parts of divine worship. The book is simply a criticism of the Lollards and of WickliflFe's whole sys- tem. It is still held in great esteem by Roman Cath- olics. Among his other writings we notice commen- taries on (ienesis, Kxodus, Leviticus, the Acts of the Apostles, the Kpistle of Paul to the Romans, and the first Epistle of I'eter, and a multitude of dissertations, disputations, sermons, letters, etc., which are enumerated in Frchori Theatrum Vii: Erud. Clar. Moreri. See Lechler, Widif ti. d. LoUarden (1874,1875): Niedner's ZtifM-hiiftf. fiistor. Theolof/ie, 1853, p. 559-572; Hook, IJcrlt'S. Jnorj. vii, 401 ; Hardwick, C'L Hist. Mid. Ayes, p. 393, n. G ; p. 394, n. 3. (J. N. P.)
Nettle is the rendering in the Auth. Ver. of two Hebrew words. See also TiiORX.
1. Charul', blin (so called from lia pricking or burn- ing; Sept. (ppvyava dypia; Vulg. sentes, urtica, and spina), occurs in three places in Scripture. Thus in Prov. xxiv, 30, 31, "I went by the field of the slothful, etc., and, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and net- tles (charullim, D^2"in) had covered the face thereof." So in Job XXX, 7 it is stated that he was insulted by tlie children of those whom he would formerly have ilisilaiiicd to employ, and who were so abject and desti- tute iliat "among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together;" and in Ze])h. ii, i1, " Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as (lomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, and tsalt-pits, and a perpetual desolation." Considerable dilUcuUy has been experienced in determining the plant which is alluded to in the above passages, which, as (Celsius says, " has been sparingly mentioned, and not minutely described by the sacred writers." The ma- jority of translators and commentators have thought that some thorny or prickly plant is intended by the charul, on account of the other plants which are men- tioned along with it. Hence brambles, the wild plum, thistles, etc., have been severally selected; but net- tles have had the greatest number of supporters. Cel- sius, however, prefers the Zizi/phus Paliurus, or the plant called Christs thorn, as best suited to the con- texts. The cactus, or prickly pear, would be a very .suit.ililr niiifsfntative, in many respects, as it is largely usi 4 ill I'al. -tine for a hedge or fence, and grows to the litiuiii III ( i-hi or ten feet. But there is this great ob- jection to many of the plants proposed, that they are of too slow growth to suit the passage in Proverbs, which implies a rapid and general intrusion of the plant in question. All these determinations, however, amount to nothing more than conjectures, because, as Kosen- niUller says, the cognate languages have not this word, and also because " the Greek translators of Alexandria in the first and last of the three places in which the Hebrew word occurs entirely deviate from our present Hebrew text; but in Job they translate charul by icild shrubs." It docs not apjiear that a thorny plant is necessarily meant by the term. All that is implied is that neglected fields will become covered with weeds, and that these will be of a kind such as idlers may take shelter un<ler. This passage, indeed, seems to preclude any thorny plant or nettle, as no one would voluntarily resort to such a situation; and Har-Hahlul, as (pioted by Celsius (ii, 1G8), considers pease, or rather vetches, to be intended. iNIoreover, it is worthy of remark that there is an Arabic word not unlike charul which is ap- plied to jdants apparently suitable to all the above pas- sages. The word Uiardiil applies to different species of }nujita7-d, and also to plants which are employed for the same purjjoses as mustard. Some of the wild kinds of mustard spring u]i in corn-fields, and become very troublesome. One of these, indeed, sinapis arrensis, is abundant in corn-fields, where it is a pernicious weed, and also in waste ground when newly disturbed. Khar- *lul is that indigenous in Asia. Some of the species arc