RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Wernsdorf Wesley
(Gottingen, 1757) and by H. von der Hardt about twenty years earlier in Septem coronamenta supra septem columnas academie regie Georgie Auguste, que Goetinge est, pp. 13-23. The central part is contained in the disputation-theses (chaps. 3-10), which belong probably to the year 1475. The second document acknowledged by Wesel has been sought in the Opusculwm de auctoritate, officio et potestate pastorum ecclesiasticorum, which was published without place or date (possibly Zwolle, 1522). But this is in style fundamentally different from the work on indulgences, professes to be by a layman, and cannot be by Wesel. From the period of Wesel’s teaching at Erfurt there has come down in manuscript Questiones de libris physicorum Aristotelis, the manuscript being at Erfurt, and a commentary on the ‘‘ Sentences ” of Peter Lombard, this being at Berlin. From his period at Basel there is ‘a lecture on logic and a commentary on Aristotelis libros de omnia, the manuscripts having been copied in 1462— 1463 and being found in the Munich library. In the library of the University of Wurzburg there is a copy of an exchange of polemical writings between Wesel and John of Lutter, debating the question whether the pope is the vicar of Christ and whether pope or council have authority in case of deadly sin; in both cases Wesel took the negative.
As a source for the teaching of Wesel only the Disputatio adversus indulgentias can be used. His answers during his examination would be pertinent, if only they were clear and consistent. Wesel stood with the general teaching of the Church of the Middle Ages and with Augustine and Thomas Aquinas in his doctrines of sin, grace, forgiveness of sins, and penance. In connection with the sacrament of penance Wesel was a Scotist and nominalist, holding that the priest can not principaliter et effective forgive sin, but only through divine assistance, and the priestly forgiving of sin is only a sacramental ministry to the penitent sinner. The one who alone forgives sin is God, who has called the priest to take part therein; the gift of grace in the sacrament of penance is the remission of guilt and punishment in hell, remission of divine punishment is not an accompaniment. Indulgences are a pious imposture upon the faithful; yet so far as pilgrimages and alms and the like good works are done in love to God, they are in themselves useful and contribute to the obtaining of eternal life. Remission is serviceable only in remitting ecclesiastical penalties. Wesel taught of the Church that it is the aggregate of the faithful joined together in love, known to God alone; it is the bride of Christ, is ruled by the Holy Spirit, and in matters essential to salvation can not err. As to Scripture he held that it alone is to be trusted, and neither Fathers nor general councils. To the test of agreement with Scripture all ecclesiastical dogmas and ceremonies are to be submitted. Contrary to Scripture are the Roman Church’s teachings respecting indulgences, original sin, transubstantiation, the filioque, feasts and fasts, long prayers, ceremonies of the mass, holy oil, consecrated water, and the like. A sentence at the end of the Paradora sums up the man: “I despise pope, Church, and councils; I love Christ. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” (Orro CLEMEN.)
XxII.—20
Bisiiograrny: C. Ullmann, Reformers Before the Reformation, i. 277-374, Edinburgh, 1874, cf. his Johann Wessel, ein Vorgdnger Luthers, Hamburg, 1834 (comprehensive, includes in the treatment the entire environment, and discusses the principal personages with whom Wesel was connected); N. Serrarius, in Moguntiar um rerum scriptores, ed. G. C. Joannis, i. 107 sqq., Frankfort, 1722 (for selection of “heretical ’”’ declarations of Wesel); G. Schadé, Hssai sur Jean de Wesel, Strasburg, 1856; J. C. L. Gieseler, Tezt- Book on Church History, ed. H. B. Smith, iii. 461-465, New York, 1868 (quotes extensively from documents); N. Paulus, in Der Katholik, 1898, i. 44-57; idem, in Zeitschrift fiir katholische Theologie, xxiv (1900), 646-656, xxvii (1903), 601-602; J. Falk, Bibelstudien, Bibelhandschriften und Bibeldrucke zu Mainz, pp. 60 sqq., Mainz, 1901; F. Kropatschek, Das Schriftprinzip der lutherischen Kirche, i. 407 sqq., Leipsic, 1904; O. Clemen, in Historische Vierteljahrschrift, iii. 521-523; Deutsche Zeitschrift fir Geschichtswissenschaft, new series, ii. 143-173 (by O. Clemen), 344-348 (by J. Haussleiter); Schaff, Christian Church, v. 2, pp. 681-682; Harnack, Dogma, vi. 170, 199, 222, 262, 268-269, vii. 16; ADB, xxix. 439-444; KL, vi. 1786-89.
For accounts of the trial consult: C. Du Plessis d’Argentré, Collectio de novis erroribus, vol. i., Paris, 1728 (contains the Paradora—a collection of ‘‘ heretical’’ sentences abstracted from Wesel’s writings, Examen magistrale—an account of the trial, and the author’s survey, by one of the Heidelberg representatives); this is found also in Aineas Sylvius’ Commentariorum de concilio Basilee libri duo, n.p., n.d.; Ortuinus Gratius, Fasciculus rerum expetendarum et fugiendarum, pp. clxiii. sqq., Cologne, 1535.
WESLEY, CHARLES: One of the founders of Methodism; b. at Epworth (23 m. n.w. of Lincoln) Dec. 18, 1708, O. S. (Dec. 29, N. S.); d. in London Mar. 29, 1788. He was the son of Samuel Wesley, Sr., and brother of Charles Wesley (qq.v.). In childhood he declined an offer of adoption by a wealthy namesake in Ireland; and the person taken in his stead became an earl, and grandfather to the duke of Wellington. He was educated at Westminster School, London, under his brother Samuel, 1716; at St. Peter’s College, Westminster, London, 1721; and at Christ Church, Oxford, 1726, where, with his brother John and one or two others, he received the nickname of ‘‘ Methodist” in consequence of the method they employed in prayer and daily life. In 1735 he was ordained, and went with John Wesley to Georgia, returning 1736. May 21, 1738, he ‘experienced the witness of adoption,” and at once joined his brother’s evangelistic work, traveling much, and preaching with great zeal and success. He never held ecclesiastical preferment, and bore his share of the persecutions which beset the early Methodists. Apr. 8, 1749, he married Sarah Gwynne: by her he had eight children, two of whom became eminent musicians. John Wesley’s expression, “ his least praise was his talent for poetry,” is unmeaning: whatever his other gifts and graces, it is because he was “ the poet of Methodism ”’ and one of the most gifted and voluminous of English hymn-writers that his fame and influence live. The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, as reprinted by the Wesleyan Conference (London, 1868-72), fill thirteen volumes, or near 6,000 pages. Of the original publications, the earlier ones bore the names of both brothers, but most were the work of Charles alone. While in the books of joint authorship it is not always possible to distinguish with absolute certainty between the two, it is generally agreed that John wrote only the translations (almost
| wholly from the German, some forty in all) and a
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Wesley