RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Wagner Waleus
ing, of the decisions in canon law made by the orthodox sects and also of ijma (see MonammeEp, Monam- MEDANISM, V., § 1) except as embodied in the agreements of the ‘‘ companions ”’ (of the prophet). The result is that upon each Mohammedan devolves the duty and privilege of constructing his own doctrine from the Koran and from tradition in its strictest form. As exegetes the Wahabees are extreme literalists. The theological influence of the sect is widely extended, and even in India has been felt as a political complication. But that influence is on the whole in the direction of purity and makes for the betterment of Mohammedanism and against its scholasticism. Gro. W. GILMORE.
BrsuiograpHy: D. B. Macdonald, Development of Muslim Theology, Jurisprudence, and Constitutional Theory, pp. 60-62, 283-285, New York, 1903; idem, Aspects of Islam, pp. 47, 285, ib. 1911; and the literature under ARABIA; and MonamMEep, MoHAMMEDANISM.
WAKE, WILLIAM: Archbishop of Canterbury; b. at Blandford (16 m. n.e. of Dorchester), Dorset, Jan. 26, 1656-67; d. at Lambeth Palace, London, Jan. 24, 1736-87. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford (B.A., 1676), and after being ordained, went to Paris in 1682 as chaplain to Viscount Preston. Here Wake came into close touch with Gallicanism, for it was in that year that the famous Declaratio cleri Gallicani (see GALLICANISM, § 2) was formulated, and it was thus that he gained his lasting interest in the French church, and came to indulge in hopes of its ultimate union with the Anglican church (see UNiTy oF THE CuHuRcHES, A, l, §5). In 1865 he returned to England with Viscount Preston, and was later preacher at Gray’s Inn (1688— 1696), canon of Christ Church, Oxford (1689-1705), deputy clerk of the closet and chaplain in ordinary to William and Mary (1689), rector of St. James’s, Winchester (1693-1706), and canon residentiary and dean of Exeter (1703-05). On Oct. 21, 1705, he was consecrated bishop of Lincoln, and in Jan., 1716, on the death of Thomas Tenison (q.v.), he was elevated to the archdiocese of Canterbury.
In an age of marked latitudinarianism Wake was a defender of the true principles of the Anglican church in her noblest attitude toward those without her fold. Toward Protestants, on the one hand, he was courteous and willing even to make certain modifications in the Prayer Book to remove some of their honest scruples; and though he opposed Quaker relief and the repeal of certain clauses in the Corporation and Test Acts (qq.v.), his motive was not opposition to those things themselves, but alarm at a very suspicious alliance with Bolingbroke and other deists. In like spirit, he was eager for union with the Gallican church, to form, with the Anglican, independent national churches; but submission to Rome he would not dream of. It was with union in mind that he carried on a long correspondence with Louis Ellies Du Pin (q.v.); it was on the requirement of submission, set forth by Piers de Girardin, that the negotiations finally met with wreck. It is worth noting that from this long correspondence sprang the defense of Anglican orders by Pierre Francois Le Courayer (q.v.). Wake himself was a vigorous champion of the historic position of the Anglican Church, and in a period which cared little
for such things he ardently advocated the value of patristic studies. As the more important of his writings the following may be noted: Hxposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England (London, 1686), Defense of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England (1686), A Second Defense of the Exposition (2 parts, 1687-88; all these forming Wake’s defense of Anglicanism against Jacques Bénigne Bossuet [q.v.]), Genuine Epistles of the Apostolical Fathers, S. Barnabas, S. Clement, S. Ignatius, S. Polycarp, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Martyrdom of St. Ignatius and St. Polycarp (2 parts, 1693; 5th ed., 1817; reprinted in Lord Avebury’s Hundred Best Books, 1893), The Authority of Christian Princes over their Ecclesiastical Synods Asserted (1697), Principles of the Christian Religion Explained in a brief Commentary upon the Church Catechism (1699; 13th ed., 1812), State of the Church and Clergy of England in their Councils, Synods, Convocations, Conventions, and other their Assemblies, historically deduced from the Conversion of the Saxons to the present Times (1703; a work that is still of value). A number of his polemics against the Roman Catholic Church are accessible in EK. Gibson’s Preservative against Popery (3 vols., London, 1738; new ed., by J. Cumming, 18 vols., 1848-49), Nature of Idolatry (ed. Cumming, vi. 148 sqq.), Real Presence and Adoration of the Host (x. 1 sqq.), Discourse of Purgatory and of Prayers for the Dead (x1. 1 sqq., 82 sqq.), and the Exposition and its defenses (xii. 47 sqq.). His correspondence with Du Pin was edited by “ F. G.” under the title D’wn Projet d’union entre les églises gallicane et anglicane (Oxford, 1864).
BrpuiograpHy: DNB, lviii. 445-446 (with further literature); J. H. Overton, in Lincoln Diocesan Magazine, 1891; J. H. Lupton, Archbishop Wake and the Project of Union (1717-20) between the Gallican and Anglican Churches (London, 1896); J. H. Overton and F. Relton, English Church from the Accession of George I. to the End of the Eighteenth Century, London, 1906, pp. 21-29.
WALA: Abbot of Corbie. WALA.
WALEUS, wa-lé’us, ANTONIUS (ANTOINE DE WAELE): Dutch Reformed; b. at Ghent Oct. 3, 1573; d. at Leyden July 9, 1639. He was educated at the University of Leyden (1596-99); preached and lectured for a time at Geneva, and toward the close of 1601 returned to Leyden, where he was made one of the city preachers; he accepted a call to Koudekerke near Middelburg in 1602; was made chaplain to Prince Maurice, 1604; went as preacher to Middelburg, 1605, where in 1609 he was also appointed professor of dogmatics; he attended the Synod of Dort (1618-19) as representative of the States General of Zeeland, where he became a person of importance, being selected as one of the framers of the Canons of Dort; in 1619 he was appointed professor of theology at Leyden; in 1625 he collaborated in issuing the Synopsis purioris theologie, and was active in the new translation of the Bible made under the auspices of the States General.
Walzus was a Contra-Remonstrant and an opponent of Arminianism, but was more irenic in temperament than many of his contemporaries. His dogmatic position is shown by his Synopsis, Enchiridion Religionis Reformate, and his unfinished Loci