THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
eS
bishop of Norwich in 1146, the fact of the child’s martyrdom became an established belief. His body was translated to the monastery cemetery, and finally to the cathedral, where it ultimately had a special altar, forming a center of pilgrimage until the middle of the fifteenth century.
‘The traditions connected with William of Norwich, considerably amplified in course of time, are particularly interesting as being, whatever their true basis may be, the earliest known instance of the blood accusation against the Jews for ritual murder. BrsuiocrRaPHy: The one authority is Thomas of Monmouth,
The Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich, ed. with
transl. by A. Jessopp and M. R. James, Cambridge, 1896
(compiled by a monk of Norwich, 1172-73; it is valuable
otherwise for the light it throws on English religious life
n those times). Consult also J. Jacobs, Jews of Angevin
England, pp. 19-21, 256-258, London, 1893; DNB, 1xi.
354-355; JH, xii. 524.
WILLIAM OF OCCAM. See Occam (OckHam),
WILLIAM OF.
WILLIAM OF SAINT AMOUR: Professor at the Sorbonne, opponent of the mendicant orders; b. possibly at St. Amour (200 m. s.e. of Paris) about the middle of the thirteenth century; d. at Paris about 1272. About 1250 he was teacher of theology at the University of Paris, which he defended against the encroachments of the Dominicans and Franciscans. The university was then at the height of its fame, numbered thousands of students, and was a power in thestate. It was therefore coveted by the monks who were aided by the pope; but the university, the existence of which was threatened, issued an energetic appeal to all bishops. Innocent IV. was convinced that he ought to interfere, and in a bull of 1254 guarded the privileges of the secular clergy and the bishops. He died, however, fourteen days afterward, and the friars avenged themselves by representing this sudden death as a judgment of God. They were protected by Alexander IV., the successor of Innocent, and also by King Louis IX.; but the university was in no way willing to give up the struggle, finding a brilliant protagonist in William of St. Amour. With caustic satire he opened his campaign against the “pappelards,” as he called the monks. His wit and humorous style won him the favor of the public; the bishops, whose privileges were also in danger, secretly took his side. In 1256 William wrote his witty and biting T'ractatus brevis de periculis novissimorum temporum, Opera Const. (Paris, 1632), in which he applied the utterances of Christ against the Pharisees to the monks, the effects of which lasted for 300 years. But he had powerful opponents in the Dominican Thomas Aquinas and the Franciscan Bonaventura (qq.v.). His cause was tried before the pope in Anagni; the mendicant friars gained a complete victory, and William’s writing was burned. The opposition of the university was broken for along time. Only after the death of Alexander IV., in 1263, was William allowed to return to Paris and resume his lectures. Besides the work mentioned above he wrote Liber de Antichristo et ejusdem ministris. (C. Prenpmr). BistiocraPHy: Hist. littéraire de la France, xix. 197 sqq.,
xxi. 468 sqq.; C. E. Du Boulay, Historia universitatis
Parisiensis, vol. iii., Paris, 1666; Le Nain de Tillemont,
Vie de St. Louis, vi. 143 sqq., ib. 1851; Corneille St. Mare Etude sur Guillaume de S. Amour, Lons-le-Saunier, 1865;
H. Denifle, Chartularium universitatis Parisiensis, vol. i.,
Paris, 1889; Neander, Christian Church, iv. 282-288 et
passim; Lichtenberger, ESR, v. 786-788; KL, xii. 1580—-
1586. The reader may also consult the Opusculum contra
impugnantes dei cultum et religionem of Thomas Aquinas,
and Bonaventura’s Libellus apologeticus in eos qui ordint fratrum minorum advertantur, and his De paupertate
Christi. ;
WILLIAM II. OF TYRE: Archbishop of that city; b. in Jerusalem c. 1128; d. at Tyre between Oct. 17 and 21, M86. His earlier education was received in Jerusalem; but when he was thirty years of age or older he studied in France (probably) and very likely in Paris, then the seat of learning in the West (see WinuiAM or St. Amour). After his return to the Holy Land in 1163 he became leading cleric in the cathedral at Tyre, and in 1167 was archdeacon. In 1168 he went on a diplomatic mission for King Amalric to the Emperor Manuel, and the next year was in Rome. On his return he had charge of the education of Amalric’s son and heir, who succeeded his father in 1173, and the next year made William his chancellor, while in 1175 William became archbishop of Tyre, thus being in charge of the weightiest matters in Church and State. In 1179 he attended the Lateran Council and was then engaged in diplomatic matters with the emperor, returning home in 1180. His importance ceased with the accession of Baldwin IV. in 1185.
William himself reports that he wrote an account of the Lateran Council which he attended, also a Historia or Gesta orientalium principum dealing with the times after Mohammed till 1184; both these are lost. His great work is a Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum in twenty-three books (editions published at Basel, 1564, 1583; in Bongar, Gesta Det per Francos, 1. 625-1046, Hanover, 1611; and in Recueil des historiens des croisades, Historiens occidentaux, vol.i., Paris, 1844), but of the last book he finished only the first chapter, coming down to 1184; indeed he had not completed all of the preceding books. The work begins with the conquest of Syria by Omar, but passes in eleven chapters of the first books to the events which brought about the first crusade. The first fifteen books rest upon Latin sources which the author does not name; the other books have considerable value as a source. The work gained great repute, and was widely diffused through an early French translation, of which various continuations were made, partly anonymous and partly under the name of Ernoul, and of others. A part circulated also in Latin translation.
(O. Hotprr-Ea@GeEry}.) Brpuiocrapuy: Hist. littéraire de la France, xiv. 587-596;
J. F. Michaud, Bibliothéque des croisades, ii. 555-582, Paris,
1829; B. Kugler, Geschichte des zweitens Kreuzzuges,
pp. 21 sqq., Stuttgart, 1866; H. Hagenmeyer, Peter der
Hremite, pp. 4-7, 10, et passim, Leipsic, 1879; H. von
Sybel, Geschichte des ersten Kreuzzuges, pp. 108 sqq., Leip-
sic, 1881; H-. Prutz, Kulturgeschichte der Kreuzziige, pp.
458-469, Berlin, 1883; idem, in NA, viii (1883), 91-132;
R. Réhricht, Geschichte des kiénigsreichs Jerusalem, Inns-
bruck, 1898. Cf. the extended bibliography in Potthast, Wegweiser, pp. 560-562.
WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM (WICKWANE, WYCKEHAM): Bishop of Winchester; b. at Wykeham (13 m. s.e. of Winchester), England, in the summer of 1324; d. at South Waltham Sept. 24, 1404. He was educated at Winchester; and in 1356 was
surveyor of King Edward III.’s works at Windsor,
and was rewarded for his merit by the gift of the
rectory of Pulham, Norfolk, 1357, by a prebendary’s stall at Lichfield, 1359, and by the deanery of St.
Martin-le-Grand, 1360. He was ordained acolyte,
1361, and priest, 1862, and held a great number of
prebends 1361-62. Resigning Pulham in 1361, he
exchanged the canonry of Lichfield for that at Southwell. In 1364 he was made keeper of the privy seal; secretary to the king, 1365; bishop of Winchester,
1367; and was chancellor, 1367-71. In 1369 he be-
gan the work which developed into New College at
Oxford, completed, 1386; and in 1378 was engaged
in founding St. Mary College of Winchester, com-
pleted 1394. In 1376 he was accused of malfeasance in office, and deprived of the temporalities of his see. But his rectitude was subsequently established, and Richard II. restored him to his offices and
dignities, 1379, and he was again chancellor, 1389-
1391, but from 1391 kept aloof from politics. He
rebuilt Winchester Cathedral, 1395-1405. He was
the author of W. de Wycumba libri duo de vita R.
Betun episcopt Herefordensis, with Vita by T.
Chaundler, published in H. Wharton’s Anglia
Sacra (London, 1691).
BipitiocrRapHy: Lives have been written by R. Lowth, London, 1758, 3d ed., Oxford, 1777; J. Chandler, ib. 1842; and G. H. Moberly, 2d ed., London, 1893. Consult further: M. E. C. Walcott, William of Wykeham and his Colleges, London, 1852; The Three Chancellors: ... Lives af William of Wykeham... and Sir T. More, London, 1860; S. R. Gardiner, Student’s History of England, pp. 260-262, London, 1895; J. H. Overton, The Church in England, i. 287-292, 315, London, 1897; W. W. Capes, English Church in the 14th and 16th Centuries, pp. 93 saq., ib., 1900; W. A. Spooner, in Typical English Churchmen, ib., 1909; DNB, Ixi. 178-179; W. L. Fox, William of Wykeham, the Complete Life and Pilgrimage, 2 parts, London, 1909.
WILLIAMITES: The name of two orders.
1. Benedictine Hermits of Monte Vergine (a high mountain near Avellino upon which in 1123 Wiliam of Vercelli in Piedmont—d. 1142—erected a convent). The order was confirmed by Pope Alexander III. under the Benedictine rule, spread in numerous monasteries and convents over Italy, and was reformed by Peter Leonardi at the request of Pope Clement VIII. It has now only the parent convent on Monte Vergine.
2. The Followers of Saint William of Maleval (d. Feb. 10, 1157). He was a hermit who in 1153 settled on the island of Lupocavio near Pisa, and in 1155 in the territory of Siena, in the bishopric of Grosseto in a stony valley later called Malavalle. There he found an associate in a certain Albert, who became his biographer. The congregation that formed about him followed his rule and spread over Italy, France, Germany, and Flanders. In 1229 Gregory IX. moderated the severity of the rule, giving the order the rule of Benedict, and Innocent IV. enlarged their privileges. In 1256 Pope Alexander IV. attempted to incorporate the order within the mendicant Augustinians and to prescribe for them the rule of Augustine, but they opposed this measure and preserved their independence. The order was divided into the three provinces of Tuscany, Germany, and Flanders. In 14385 the council of Basel confirmed their privileges. In the course of. time most of the monasteries went over into other orders