■Waizganthos, in Slavonic mythology, is the god of fruitfuhiess and land-tillage, worshipped mainly by the Lithuanians.
Walie (Anglo-Saxon, wafcan, " to watch"), a holy-
day festival once universally held in England. In early times the day was considered as beginning and ending at sunset : anil on the eve of the holyday wor- shippers repaired to the churches for worship, while the following day was spent in amusement, i^ach church, when consecrated, was dedicated to a saint, and on the anniversary of that day the parish wake was kept. In many ])laces there was a second wake on the i)irihday of the saint, sometimes called Patron or Saint's Ihiij. On these occasions the floor was strewed with rushes and flowers, and the altar and pulpit were decked with boughs and leaves. Crowds resorted to the wakes from neighboring parishes; hawkers or merchants were at- tracted by the crowds; and ultimately the wakes be- came mere fairs or markets little under the influence of the Church, and disgraced by scenes of indulgence and riot. The scandal of these scenes became so great that in 1285 Edward I passed a statute forbidding fairs and markets to be held in country churchyards. In 1448 Henry VI ordained that all showing of goods and merchandise except necessary victuals should be dis- continued on the great festivals of the Church. In 1536, Henry VIII, by an act of convocation, ordered the festival of the Saint's Day to be discontinued, and that of the dedication of the church in all parishes to be the first Sunday in October. This gradually fell into desuetude, the Saint's Day being the more popu- lar festival, and it still subsists in the form of a village wake.
A lyke-wake is a watching all night of a dead body by the friends and neighbors of the deceased. In Ireland, upon the death of one in humble circumstances, the body, laid out and covered with a sheet except the face, and surrounded with lighted tapers, is icaked by the friends and neighbors. After vociferous lamentations, food and whiskey are indulged in, commonly leading to noisy and even riotous demonstrations. The custom, no doubt, originated in superstitious fear either of passing the niglit alone with a dead body or of its being interfered with by evil spirits.
Wake, William, D.D., a distinguished English prelate, was born at Blandford,in Dorsetshire, in 1657. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he received the degree of master of arts in 1679, when he decided to take orders in the Church, although his fa- ther designed him for a commercial life. In 1682 he went to Paris as chaplain with viscount Preston, envoy- extraordinary to the court of France. On his return to England, in 1685, he was elected preacher to Gray's Inn. Immediately after the Revolution he was ap- pointed deputy-clerk of the closet to king William, and in June, 1689, "was made canon of Christ Church, Oxford. In 1693 he obtained the rectory of St. James's, West- minster. In 1701 he was made dean of Exeter, and in 1705 bishop of London. In the earlier years of his episcopacy he adhered to the Low-Church party, but afterwards became alienated from it. though not becom- ing a High -Churchman. In January, 1716, he was made archbishop of Canterbury, which office he held until his death, which occurred at Lambeth, Jan. 24, 1737. Among his most important works are the fol- lowing: Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of Km/land (lt)86) :— .4 Defence of the Doctrine of the Church of England (eod".) :— -4 Seco7id Defence of the Doctrine' of the Church of England (1688):— /I w English Version of the Genuine Epistles of the Apostolic Fathers, with a Preliminary Discourse concerning the Use of those Fathers (1693):— r^e Authority of Christian Pi-inces over their Ecclesiastical Synods Asserted (1697): —and other tracts to the same effect. A collection of his Sermons and Charges was published after his death. See English Cyclop, s. v.
Wakefield, Gilbert, first a minister of the Church of England, then a Unitarian, was born at Xoltingham, England, Feb. 22, 1756. He was edu- cated at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he graduated
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in 1776, and was elected to a fellowship the same year. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1778, and appointed curate of Stockport, in Cheshire. In August of the same year he left Stockport and became curate of St. Peter's at Liverpool, and in 1779 was cliosen classical tutor of the Dissenting Academy at Warrington, in Lancashire, where he remained until 1783. In the latter year he removed to Bramcote, near Nottingham, and in 1790 went to Hackney as tutor in a Dissenting academy, where he remained one year. The remainder of his life was spent in literary pursuits. He died Sept. 9, 1801. Among his most important works are. An Tiiqiiiri/ into the Opinions of the Christian Writers oj'the. Three First Centuries concerning the Per- son of Christ: — Four Aftvks of Antichrist, etc. (1778): — Internal Marks of the Evidence of the Chi'istian Re- ligion (1779): — Translation of the New Testament, with Notes (1791) : — The Spirit of Christianiiy Compared with the Spirit of the Times in Great Bi-itain (1796) : — and An Answer to the Age of Reason, by Thomas Paine (eod.).
Wakefield, Robert, a learned English divine in the reign of Ilenry VIII, was born in the north of Eng- land. He was educated at the univrrsity and on the Continent; taught Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac in France and Germany; in 1519 left his Hebrew pro- fessorsliip at Louvain, returned to England, and became chaplain to Dr. Pace; opened a public lecture in (ireek at Cambridge in 1524, being made B.D. by Henry VIII, whom he favored after opposing in the affair of his di- vorce from Catherine; was professor of Hebrew at Ox- ford in 1530; canon of Wolsey's College in 1532; saved Hebrew and Greek MSS. at the dissolution of the lesser monasteries in 1536; and died in London, Oct. 8, 1537. He left some learned works in language and controversy. See Chalmers, Biog. Diet. s. v.