THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
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the salvation of many lost souls. From morning till night they beat the walls and the floor of the house, crying out epithets against the devil; the next day the same was done, until the house was weakened, parts of phrtitions fell, and the police interfered. The next day Margareta declared that to complete the victory blood must flow, obtained from her sister a statement of willingness to die, and then smote her sister to death. She told the maid that on the third day she would raise her sister from the dead. The final revelation was to the effect that Margareta must herself die, and she commanded the maid to strike her, which was done with a knife on neck and forehead; Margareta had the blood received in a basin with the words: Now will souls be saved and Satan be overpowered. She then commanded the maid to crucify her, and, when the latter demurred, asked whether she was unwilling to do God’s work in order to prevent souls from remaining unsaved. She threw herself on the bed while the maid drove nails through feet, hands, elbows, and breast, Margareta giving no sign of suffering and promising to rise on the third day. The end came when a knife was driven through her head. Until the following Tuesday all awaited the predicted resurrection, when the father reported the death, and all concerned were taken into custody. The authorities made a thorough investigation, punished the participants with terms of imprisonment ranging from six months to sixteen years, and had the house torn down with the command that the spot remain uninhabited.
This strange occurrence has been widely debated and attributed to various causes, including vainglory, spiritual pride, and the like. But the case is better understood as that of a weak and hysterical girl with an extraordinarily active mind, which the religious excitability of the times aroused to unusual conceptions; the effect of the mingling of her own experiences with the doctrine of Ganz, together with the effect of her preaching and the leadership yielded to her by the circle which heard her sufficiently explain the processes by which Margareta Peter was led to her astounding course. It is to be added that the participants in the events received their sentences and punishment in the sense of a martyrdom.
(CaRL PESTALOzzIT.)
Brsutiocrapuy: J. L. Meyer, Schwiirmerische Grevelscenen . tn Wildenspuch, 2d ed., Zurich, 1824; C. E. Jarcke, in J. EK. Hitzig’s Annalen der . . . Criminalrechtspflege, Berlin, 1830, also in Jarcke’s Vermischte Schriften, vol. ii., Munich, 1839; J. F. von Meyer, in Bliétter fiir hohere Wahrheit, v (1824), 282 sqq., vi (1825), 377 sqq.; Evangelische Kirchenzeitung, viii (1831), nos. 20-23; and J. Scherr’s novel, Die Gekreuzigte . . Gall, 1860.
WILFRID. (WILFRITH), SAINT: Bishop of York; b. 634; d. at Oundle (70 m. n.n.w. of London), Northamptonshire, Oct. 3 (or 12; cf. Plummer’s Bede, i. 328), 709. He was the son of a Northumbrian thane, and was educated at Lindisfarne, where he won esteem by his diligence and manly qualities; after spending a year at Canterbury, he accompanied Benedict Biscop to Rome in 653. He was at Lyons, 655-658, and received the Roman tonsure there from Archbishop Aunemund. Returning to Northumbria about 660, Alchfrid, king
. von Wildisbuch, St.
of Deira (son of Oswy, king of Northumbria), made him head of the monastery at Ripon in 661. He was ordained priest in 663. In 664 he spoke for the Roman party at the Synod of Whitby (q.v) against Colman and the Celtic party, and prevailed. Alchfrid then secured Wilfrtd’s election as bishop, with his see at York, where there had been no bishop since the departure of Paulinus (q.v.) in 663. He went to Gaul to be consecrated late in 664 or early in 665, and when*he returned, in 666, finding that Oswy had installed Ceadda (q.v.) in his place, retired to Ripon. He performed episcopal functions in Mercia and Kent. In 669 Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury (see THroporE or Tarsus), instated him in his bishopric. By upholding Etheldred, queen of Northumbria, in her desire to become a nun, he gained the ill-will of King Egfrid (see ETHELDRED, Saint). In 678 Kgfrid and Theodore undertook to divide his bishopric without consulting him. Wilfrid resisted, and made the first appeal by an Englishman to Rome. On his way thither he spent the winter (678-679) in Frisia, where he preached to the heathen and baptized many. At Rome he attended the synod held in March, 680, against the Monothelite heresy. His appeal was successful; but, when he came back to England, Egfrid put him in prison for nine months, then forced him to flee to Mercia, Wessex, and finally to Sussex (681), the one English kingdom whose people were still heathen. He converted them, after he had relieved their need in a severe famine by teaching them to fish. Later he introduced the Gospel in the Isle of Wight, thus completing the christianization of the English. Meanwhile his rights and claims were wholly ignored in Northumbria. In 686 he was reconciled with Theodore and returned to York. But he quarreled again with the king in 691 and went to Etheldred of Mercia, who made him bishop of Leicester. Again he pleaded his cause at Rome in 704, making the journey thither on foot, notwithstanding his seventy years. He returned to England in 705, and was restored to the bishopric of Hexham and the monastery of Ripon.
Wilfrid’s energy in introducing the civilization of the continent caused opposition among the rude Angles and Saxons, while his appeals to Rome aroused political animosities. He was wealthy and lived magnificently, as befitted his station, and thus he incurred envy. His life was troubled, and he has been called haughty and worldly; but there is abundant evidence that his character was lovable. He is described as a singularly attractive youth, and he made warm friends everywhere in his travels; at home his monks and clergy stood by him devotedly, while his missionary zeal, proven in Frisia and South England, is noteworthy. His services to his country and church were great, and he is justly classed among the foremost of English churchmen. He perceived that what was most needful was to introduce the arts and learning; and to this end he labored at the cost of much personal suffering. He had constantly in his retinue masons, glaziers, and other artizans, whom he employed in building churches and monasteries. He gave his cathedral church at York a new roof covered with lead, put glass in its windows, plastered its walls, and orna-
mented the altar. He built a basilica at Ripon with columns and porches, and a grand church at Hexham. For the former he provided a copy of the Gospels in letters of gold on purple vellum, and placed it in a richly adorned case. He made the church service more seemly and dignified, and reestablished, if he did not introduce, the Benedictine rule in the English monasteries.
Brsiiocrapuy: A series of lives of Wilfrid are collected with comment in The Historians of the Church of York and its Archbishops, vol. i., pp. xxxi.-xliv., 1-509, ed. J. Raine in Rolls Series, no. 73, London, 1879 (these include the life by his friend and disciple, Eddius Stephanus, and the one by Eadmer, q.v., who died 1124, as well as a number of lesser productions); ef. the discussion of Eddius’ work by B. W. Wells, in The English Historical Review, vi (1891), 535-550. Some facts not given in Eddius are to be found in Bede, Hist. eccl., v. 19 (use Plummer’s ed. of Bede, Oxford, 1896, and consult the notes). Consult Fasti Eboracenses, ed. W. H. Dixon and J. Raine, i. 55-83, London, 1863; T. Wright, Biographia Britannica literaria, i. 164— 184, 229, 432-434, London, 1842; F. W. Faber, Lives of the English Saints: Wilfrid, Bishop of York, ib. 1844; H. Soames, Anglo-Saxon Church, pp. 68-88, 3d. ed., ib. 1856; C. F. de T. Montalembert, Les Moines d’occident, iv. 137-390, 5 vols., P ris, 1860-67, Eng. transl., 7 vols., London, 1861-79; W. F. Hook, Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, vol. i., chap. 4, London, 1860; K. Obser, Wilfrid der dltere, Heidelberg, 1884; W. Bright, Early English Church History, passim, Oxford, 1897 (important); G. F. Browne, Theodore and Wilfrith, London, 1897; A. Streeter, St. Wilfrid, Archbishop of Canterbury, ib. 1897; W. Hunt, The English Church . . (697-1066), passim, ib. 1899 (also of importance); DNB, Ixi. 238- 242 (gives a discriminating bibliography); DCB, iv. 1179-85 (valuable); Milman, Latin Christianity, book iv., chaps. 3-4.
WILKINS, GEORGE: Church of Ireland; b. at Dublin July 27, 1858. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin (B.A., 1880; M.A., 1884), and was ordered deacon in 1891 and ordained priest in 1894; he was made a fellow of his college in 1891, junior dean in 1892, and tutor and junior proctor in 1893. Since 1900 he has been professor of Hebrew in the University of Dublin, where he was classical lecturer and examiner in 1892, divinity lecturer in 1893, and university preacher in 1895. He has written The Growth of the Homeric Poems (London, 1885); has contributed the volume on Deuteronomy to The Temple Bible (1902); and has edited part of the book of Genesis (chaps. i.-iv., xii.-xv.) in unpointed Hebrew (1909).
WILKINSON, GEORGE HOWARD: Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, and bishop of St. Andrews, Dunkeld, and Dunblane; b. at Oswald House, Durham, England, May 12, 1833; d. at Edinburgh Dec. 11, 1907. He was educated at Oriel College, Oxford (B.A., 1855), and was ordered deacon in 1857 and ordained priest in 1858. He was curate of Kensington (1857-59), perpetual curate of Seaham Harbour (1859-63), of Auckland, Durham (1863-67), and of St. Peter’s, Great Windmill Street, Westminster (1867-70), and vicar of St. Peter’s, Pimlico (1870-83); honorary canon of St. Petroc in Truro Cathedral (1878-83), select preacher at Oxford (1879-81), and proctor of the diocese of London (1880-83). In 1883 he was consecrated bishop of Truro, whence he was translated, in 1893, to the diocese of St. Andrews, Dunkeld, and Dunblane. In 1904 he was chosen primus of the Episcopal Church in Scotland. Among his publications svecial men-
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