THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
the Reformed Church (Christliches wnd_ richtiges Glaubensbekenntnis, Cassel, 1607). Immediately after the synod Maurice proceeded to enforce its enactments, but was met with repeated opposition in the refractory districts, specially at Schmalkald, where it lasted ten years, and the images could only be removed by the military. To secure the fruits of the Reformation Maurice in the following years gave much attention to education; and his representation at the Synod of Dort (1618) led to the introduction of the Heidelberg Catechism. Political and military struggles went hand in hand with this religious strife, and led in many parts, especially in Upper Hesse, to a Lutheran reaction. Louis of Darmstadt, the co- Reaction. heir of Upper Hesse, laid claim to the entire principality on the ground that Maurice had violated the religious provisions of the will of Philip. He allied himself more closely to the Lutheran estates and the emperor and fought on their side in the Thirty-Years’ War. He invited the professors expelled from Marburg to Darmstadt, and, to offset Marburg, he founded, in 1605, a gymnasium at Giessen, and in 1607 a Lutheran university, while in 1607 he also required all the clergy to be bound by the unaltered Augsburg Confession and the Schmalkald Articles. In 1623 the inherited domain of Maurice was declared by imperial judgment to be forfeit, and the electors of Cologne and Saxony, aided by the troops of Tilly, carried the sentence into effect. The Reformed professors and pastors were deposed, and two years later the Lutheran university was transferred from Giessen to Marburg. In 1627, Maurice, broken by his reverses, abdicated in favor of his son, William V., and the latter, in the same year, was forced to cede to Louis George II., the successor of Louis V., Upper Hesse, Schmalkald, and Katzenelnbogen, where the Reformed preachers were suppressed and Lutheranism was introduced. After the defeat following the death of Gustavus Adolphus, Lower Hesse was placed under the administration of George II., while William died a fugitive. The widow regent, however, Amelia Elizabeth, defeated George in several battles, and by the treaty of Apr. 14, 1646, confirmed by the peace of Osnabriick, Hesse-Cassel resumed possession of the Marburg half of Upper Hesse, Schmalkald, and Katzenelnbogen. This peace guaranteed the status quo in religious matters, the districts named remaining Lutheran. A Lutheran university was established at Giessen in 1650, and a similar Reformed institution at Marburg in 1653. On Dee. 27, 1657, Landgrave William VI. issued for entire Hesse-Cassel a church order which was essentially Reformed, though with all possible consideration for his Lutheran subjects; but in Upper Hesse this order enjoyed less general usage than the Darmstadt church order of 1562. (Cart Mirsr.)
BipiuioGRAPHY: CG. von Rommel, Geschichte von Hessen, vols. vi.—vil., Cassel, 1837-39; H. Heppe, Die Hinfiihrung der Verbesserungspunkte in Hessen, ib. 1849; idem, Kirchengeschichte beider Hessen, 2 vols., Marburg, 1876; A. F. C. Vilmar, Geschichte des Confessionsstandes der evangelischen Kirche in Hessen, pp. 164 sqq., 2d ed., Frankfort, 1868; EH. Hofsommer, Die kirchlichen Verbesserungspunkte des Landgrafen Moritz . . . von Hessen, Marburg, 1910.
VERCELLONE, var’’chel-l6’né, CARLO: Italian Biblical scholar; b. at Biella (55 m. w. of Milan) Jan. 10, 1814; d. in Rome Jan. 19, 1869. He entered the order of the Barnabites at Genoa in 1829; studied philosophy at Turin and theology at Rome; taught at Alexandria, Turin, Perugia, and Parma; became president of the College of the Barnabites at Rome in 1847, and held that position till his death. He devoted Himself to the textual criticism of the Vulgate, and his fame rests upon his Varie lectiones Vulgate Latine editionis Bibliorum (2 vols., Rome, 1860-64), epoch-making in the study of the Vulgate, the prolegomena being especially valuable; his edition (the best) of the simple Clementine Vulgate, 1861, and, with Cozza, his edition of the Codex Vaticanus (5 vols., 1868-81).
BrstiograrHy: A sketch of the life and works, by G. M.
Sergio, appeared Rome, 1869; another is in the facsimile
edition of the Codex Vaticanus, vi., pp. xiv.-xv.; cf. KL, xii. 678-680.
VERDEN, BISHOPRIC OF: An ancient Saxon diocese, doubtless established in the eighth century. It would seem that the region about Verden was given to the monastery of Amorbach as a mission field, and that Charlemagne conferred the rank of bishop on the abbot of the monastery (i.e., ‘‘ St. Patto,” probably the same as Bishop Pacificus; d. June 2, 788) as the head of the mission. The original see city of the diocese is as uncertain as the date of the creation of the bishopric. Saxon sources later than the thirteenth century describe the diocese as founded at Bardowiek and transferred to Verden in 814, but these documents are too late to be authoritative. The same holds true of the assertion of the Saxon chronicle that the original see city was Kuhfeld in Salzwedel. It seems most probable, therefore, that the diocese was established at Verden from the very first.
To the diocese of Verden belonged the districts of Mosidi, Bardengau, Drevani, and Osterwalde. They were inhabited partly by Wends, among whom paganism survived up to the thirteenth century, while among the Germanic population it apparently vanished in the course of the ninth.
(A. Haucx.) BrsiioaRapHy: G. G. Leibniz, Script. rer. Brunsvicensium,
li. 211 sqq., 3 vols., Hanover, 1707-11; C. G. Pfannkuche,
Aeltere Geschichte des vormaligen Bisthums Verden, 2 vols.,
Hamburg, 1830; F. Wichmann, Untersuchungen zur Gl-
teren Geschichte des Bistums Verden, Gottingen, 1904;
Hauck, KD, ii. 390-391. Lists of the bishops are in
MGH, Script., xiii (1881), 343; Gams, Series episcoporum,
pp. 320-321; Hauck-Herzog, RE, xx. 499-500.
VERGERIO, var-jar-i’6, PIETRO PAOLO: Reformer; b. at Capodistria (8 m. s. of Trieste), Austria, in 1498; d. at Tibingen Oct. 4, 1565. He studied jurisprudence in Padua, where he delivered lectures in 1522; he also practised law in Verona, Padua, and Venice. In 1526 he married Diana Contarini, whose early death was at least a partial cause of his entering upon an ecclesiastical career. Here his advancement was so rapid that as early as 1533 he was papal nuncio to King Ferdinand in Germany; and he was there again in 1535 on business connected with the council. The nuncio’s eagerness in the cause of the council brought him into a personal encounter with Luther at Wittenberg, which he himself reports (cf. H. Lammer,