WELSH CALVINISTIC METHODISTS. PRESBYTERIANS, IV., VIII, 8.
WELTZ, velts, JUSTINIAN, FREIHERR VON: Austrian pioneer advocate of Protestant missions to the heathen and missionary; b. at Chemnitz (38 m. s.w. of Dresden) 1621; d. in Surinam (Dutch Guiana) in 1688. Little is known of his life. He wrote at the age of twenty the tractate De tyrannorum ingenio et arcanis artibus, discussing the duties of rulers and subjects. In 1663 appeared, Vom Hinsiedlerleben, wie es nach Gottes Wort und der alten heiligen Hinsiedlerleben anzustellen sei, a work inspired with lofty religious and moral earnestness; and his Kurzer Bericht, wie ein neue Gesellschaft unter den rechtgléubigen Christen Augsburgischer Konfession aufgerichted werden kinne (1663). His three principal works are: Hine christliche und treuherzige Vermahnung an alle rechtgliubigen
See
Christen der Augsburgischen Konfession, etc.; Einladungstrieb zum herannahenden grossen Abendmahl und Vorschlag zu einer christlichen Jesus Gesellschaft; and Wiederholte treuherzige und ernthafte Vermahnung, die Bekehrung ungliubiger V élker vorzunehmen, etc.*(all 1864).
These three works were written to prove the necessity of missions, to dispose of the objections of opponents, and to give practical suggestions for the realization of his ideas. He presented the first and second of these works to the Corpus Evangelicorum at Regensburg, but failed to secure any results. He wrote his third work and went to Holland. At Zwolle he had himself solemnly ordained apostle to the heathens by the Lutheran preacher, Breckling, and went out into the field, where he found a lonely grave. His ideas found no appreciative reception until Spener took them up. (G. WARNECET.)
BripriocraPpuy: W. Grossel, Der Missionsweckruf des Baron J. von Weltz in . . . Wiedergabe des Originaldrucks vom Jahre 1664, Leipsic, 1890; idem, Justinian von Weltz, der Vorkimpfer der lutherischen Mission, ib. 1891; G. Warneck, Abriss einer Geschichte der protestantischen Missionen, pp. 30 sqq., 41 sqq., 8th ed., Berlin, 1905.
WENCESLAUS, ven’ces-laus, SAINT: Sponsor for Christianity among the Czechs; d. Sept. 28, 935 (or 929). The Czechs compose the branch of the Slavic family which penetrated farthest west. At the beginning of the Middle Ages, however, they were separated from central Germany by a more advanced Slavic line of Wends. The Bohemians came in contact with Christian territory only in the south, at the Bavarian frontier. This circumstance accounts for the fact that the Czechs came relatively late into contact with Christianity. According to the oldest narrative, fourteen Bohemian lords received baptism on Jan. 13, 845, from Louis the Fat. But the Frankish power was shattered in the East in the second half of the ninth century and the Czechs entered into relation with their eastern neighbors. The religious consequence was that Methodius (see Cyrtz and MeEruHoptus) or his pupils extended their activity into Bohemia. In 895 Spitignew I. once more recognized the suzerainty of Germany, and Bohemia became part of the bishopric of Regensburg. But the people remained heathen, while the nobles were divided between heathenism and Christianity. Upon the death of Spitignew and Wratislaw, Dragomir, wife of Wratislaw, assumed control of the government and opposed German Christianizing influence. The power was wrested from her and given to her eldest son Wenceslaus. The legends portray him as a devout Christian, who invited priests into the country, built churches, and cared for all ecclesiastical concerns. But he was not able to convert the Czechs or to suppress the opposition which was headed by his younger and abler brother Boleslaw, by whom he was murdered (Sept. 28, 935?) at the entrance to the church at Bunzlau, whither he had gone as his brother’s guest. Boleslaw was chosen count and the Czechs lapsed from Christianity, nothing resulting from an interference by Henry I. In 950 Boleslaw again recognized the suzerainty of the empire, and later Wenzel’s body was transferred to the Veitskirche which he had built in Prague.
RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Wells Wends
Since then his fame increased not only because of his services but because of his misfortunes, so that among the Czechs he is to-day, next to St. Nepomuk (see JoHN OF NEPomuk), the best beloved of the saints. (A. Hauck.)
BisiiocRapHy: Sources in the shape of the early Vita by
Bishop Gumpoldus Mantuanus (967), Passio, and other
Vite are collected in MGH, Script., iv (1841), 211-223,
xv. 1 (1887), 572; MPL, exxxv. 923-42; in Fontes re-
rum Bohemicarum, ed. F. J. Zoubek, i. 125-190, Prague,
1873; and with commentary in ASB, Sept., vii. 770-844.
Further sources are: F. Miklosich and I. Fiedler, Slavi-
sche Bibliothek, ii. 270-281, Vienna, 1857; Abhandlungen
der philosophisch-historischen Gessellschaft in Breslau, i
(1858), 203-240. Consult: Dobrowsky, Wenzel und
Boleslaw, Prague, 1819; F. Palacky, Geschichte von Béih-
men, i. 195-210, Prague, 1836; E. H. Gillett, Life and
Times of John Huss, passim (consult Index under ‘‘ Wen-
zel’’), Philadelphia, 1861; A. Frind, Kirchengeschichte
Bihmens, i. 16-19, 40-41, Prague, 1862; H. Friedjung,
Kaiser Karl IV. und sein Antheil am geistigen Leben seiner
Zeit, pp. 150-161, Vienna, 1876; W. Vondrak, Zur W iir-
digung der altslovenischen Wenzelslegende, ib. 1892; J.
Lippert, Sozialgeschichte Béhmens in vorhussitischer Zeit,
2 vols., Prague, 1896-98; H. G. Voigt, Adalbert von Prague,
pp. 8 sqq., Berlin, 1898; idem, Die von . . . Christian
verfasste Biographie des heiligen Wenzel, Prague, 1907;
A. Bachmann, Geschichte Béhmens, i. 121 saq., Gotha,
1899; H. B. Workman, Dawn of the Reformation, vol. ii.
passim (consult Index under ‘‘ Wenzel ’’), London, 1902;
J. Pekar, Die Wenzels- und Ludmilla-Legenden, Prague,
1905; Hauck, KD, iii. 184 sqq.; Bretholz, in NA, xxix.
480 sqq.
WENDELIN, ven’de-lin, MARKUS FRIED- RICH: German Reformed theologian; b. at Sandhausen near Heidelberg in 1584; d. at Zerbst (66 m. s.w. of Berlin) Aug. 7, 1652. He received his education at Heidelberg, following Ramus in his philosophy and Pareus in his theology; in 1609 he served as private tutor in Geneva, and, after being in Dessau in 1610, was called in 1612 as rector of the Gymnasium illustre at Zerbst, a position which he retained till his death. The period of the Thirty Years’ War was not one in which such an institution could be expected to flourish, but it was maintained at a high level by the new rector, who produced a number of works pedagogical in character. Theological.in content were his De predestinatione (Frankfort, 1621); Christiane theologie libri wi (Hanover, 1634), later translated into Dutch and Hungarian; Compendium Christiane theologie (1634); Systema majus (1656), a kind of model Reformed dogmatics which called forth replies from Christoph Franck and Johann Gerhard; though this was preceded by his Exercitationes theologice vindices (1652). There was also a posthumous Collatio doctrine Christiane Reformatorum et Lutheranorum (1660). Wendelin’s significance rests in the fact that he was the first to set forth in systematic form on German soil the Reformed system of teaching, on the basis of Scripture and in an objective-synthetic method. This involved the setting forth of a communio apotelesmatum as opposed to the Communicatio idiomatum (q.v.). (E. F. Kart MUuier.) Brstiocrarny: J. C. Beckmann, Hist. des Pirstenthums
Anhalt, vii. 366 sqq., Wittenberg, 1710; F. Kindscher,
Geschichte des . . . Gesamtgymnasiums zu Zerbst, 2 parts,
Zerbst, 1871; W. Gass, Geschichte der protestantischen
Dogmatik, i. 416 saq., Berlin, 1854.
WENDS, CONVERSION OF THE: The history of Christian missionary work among the Wends ‘is closely bound up with German political history, and
has to do with the period from the close of the eighth to the beginning of the thirteenth century. The power of resistance of these tribes to the influence of the Germans is an essential element in the history. The southern Wends on the Thuringian borders of the German empire offered but little resistance to the advance of the Germans, but the northern Wends of Brandenburg and Mecklenburg carried on their struggle for liberty for centuries until the surviving remnants were subdued. The progress of Christian missions in the south and north was correspondingly different; in the one case there was a gradual but steady advance, in the other notable achievements followed by complete reverses, until the survivors were compelled to submit to Christianization. Three regions in which the movement was carried out show striking diversities in the course of events: Mecklenburg-Brandenburg, the Sorb district, and Pomerania-Poland. The _history in the first is by far the most dramatic.
Charlemagne did not concern himself with the conversion of the Wends. But under Ansgar (q.v.), Wendish children were redeemed from slave-dealers in order to educate them as missionaries to their people. Despite the baptism of an Obotrite prince, Sclaomir (821), no further results were obtained, and the Wends withdrew from their alliance with the empire. Under Otto I. an attempt was made to advance from Hamburg on the west and Magdeburg on the east, under which had been placed the bishoprics of Havelberg and Brandenburg, founded in 938. For the western Wends a separate bishopric was founded at Aldenburg (Oldenburg in Holstein) in 968. Conditions were more favorable in Oldenburg, the land of the Obotrites, because the district was under a unified government. Havelberg and Brandenburg had to do with the fierce Leutizi. The defeat of Otto II. at Crotone undid all the work. The weakness of the empire being shown, the Wends in 983 destroyed all traces of Christianity from Brandenburg to Oldenburg, and the three bishoprics were practically destroyed. Matters did not improve under the first Saxon king, Heinrich II. The series of bishops in Oldenburg remained nominally unbroken, and the Obotrite princes Uto and Ratibor consented to be baptized, but the people were unaffected. A hermit named Gunther tried in 1017 to work among the Leutizi, but soon returned to Bohemia.
This unproductive period was followed by the remarkableepisodein which Gottschalk (q.v., 2) figured. He was the son of Uto, and undertook the systematic Christianization of the people, with the help of the Saxon counts and especially of Archbishop Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen (q.v.). , His success was only superficial. Upon the archbishop’s losing the imperial favor and entering into the dissensions of the Saxons, the Wends arose, caused a massacre of Christians at Lenz in which Gottschalk fell (1066), and destroyed all traces of Christianity. Of the three bishoprics, Oldenburg, Mecklenburg, and Ratzeburg, the names alone remained. A contributing cause of this calamity was largely the prince’s own tactlessness in supporting missionaries who were foreigners and refused to learn the language of the people, so that the prince himself had to be their
Wends Werenfels