RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Willigis Wilsteack
deutschen Reichs unter Otto IITI., Berlin, 1840; ©. Euler, Erzbischof Willigis von Mainz, Naumburg, 1860; S. Hirsch, Jahrbiicher des deutschen Reichs unter Heinrich IT., vols. iii, Berlin, 1862-64; F. Gehle, De S. Bernwardi ... vita et rebus gestis, Bonn, 1866; C, Will, in Der Katholik, 18738, ii. 715-734; idem, Regesten zur Geschichte der Mainzer Hrzbischéfe, i. pp. xxxvii.—xliii., 117-144, Innsbruck, 1877; W. Giesebrecht, Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit, vols. i—ii., Brunswick, 1874; Hauck, KD, vol. iii.
WILLIRAM (WILTRAM, WALTRAM): German Benedictine and translator of the Song of Solomon; b. in the region of Worms; d. at Ebersberg (18 m. e.s.e. of Munich) Jan. 5, 1085. After studying for a time at Paris, he was attached to the cathedral at Bamberg, but later retired to Fulda, which he left in 1048 to become abbot of Ebersberg. His efforts to raise the tone of his monastery seem not to have been unopposed, and he frequently lamented the neglect of study.as compared with the zeal for learning at Fulda. Williram is remembered for his Old High German paraphrase of the Song of Solomon, for which he availed himself entirely of patristic exegesis, adding nothing of his own. His method of interpretation was allegoristic, the Song referring to the love of Christ for the Church. His work was in three columns, the first containing a paraphrase of the Vulgate (which occupied the middle column) in Latin leonine hexameters, and the third being devoted to his exegesis in vernacular prose. The popularity of his production is evident from the fact that within a century it was translated into Dutch, while between 1147 and 1196 it was revised for use in another monastery, either by Rilindis and Herrat, abbesses of Hohenburg in Alsace, for nuns, or by some monk for a male order. The first edition of Williram’s work was by Menrad Molther (Hagenau, 1528), and among more recent editions may be mentioned those of H. Hoffmann (on the basis of the Breslau and Leyden manuscripts; Breslau, 1827), J. Haupt (Das Hohe Lied, tibersetzt von Willeram, erklart von Rilindis und Herrat, Aebtissinen zu Hohenburg im Elsass, Vienna, 1864), and J. Seemiiller (Strasburg, 1878).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: H. R. S. Riechau, Williram, Abt zu Ebersberg in Oberbaiern, Magdeburg, 1877; J. Seemiiller, Die Handschriften und Quellen von Willirams deutscher Paraphrase des Hohen Liedes, Strasburg, 1877; F. Junghans, Die Mischprosa Willirams, Berlin, 1893; Hayner, ‘‘ Das St. Trudperter [Hohenburger] Hohe Lied,” in H. Paul and W. Braune, Beitrdge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur, iii (1876), 491 sqq.
WILLSON, DAVID BURT: Reformed Presbyterian; b. in Philadelphia, Pa., Sept. 27, 1842. He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania (A.B., 1860), Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia (graduated, 1863), the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Pittsburg, Pa (1865-69), and the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania (1869-70). From 1862 to 1865 he was in the medical service of the Union Army, and in 1866-68, while pursuing his theological studies, was a teacher at the Newell Institute, Pittsburg, Pa.; was pastor in Pittsburg, Pa. (1870-75), and was appointed professor of Biblical literature in the seminary of his denomination in the same city (1875), which position he still holds. He edited the monthly Reformed Presbyterian and Covenanter (1874-95), and is an associate editor of The Christian Nation (New York).
WILSNACK: A town 67 miles n.w. of Berlin, at present unimportant, but from 1383 to 1552 one of the most noted places of pilgrimage in Germany, in the contest over which the varied tendencies of the theology of the fifteenth century came to light, while ecclesiastical, territorial, and financial interests clashed violently. In a strife between a certain Von Biilow and the bishop of Havelberg the town and church of Wilsnack were reduced to ashes. The story goes that three sacred wafers were rescued from the ruins singed only on the edges, and in the middle of each was what looked like a drop of blood; that when these were taken to the neighboring church of Gross-Liiben a new wonder appeared, the wafers becoming luminous and fiery yet not being destroyed. The wonder drew pilgrims, and Bishop Dietrich II. (1370-85) conducted an investigation; new miracles resolved every doubt, and the pilgrimage grew greater. The bishop began the erection of a new and stately church, for which Pope Urban VI. granted the customary bull, but without mentioning the ‘‘ blood-wonder ”’; in the episcopal permission, however, the archbishop of Magdeburg duly exploited it. Bishop Johann W6pelitz of Havelberg secured for himself the rights of the place, obtained from Boniface IX. in 1395 a bull to incorporate the new church with the obligation to maintain a perpetual vicar there. He took a third of the income from the offerings of pilgrims and the sale of leaden models of the blood-bearing wafers. The pilgrimage became extensive and from all quarters; the place grew into a city. But opposition began to be heard, especially from Prague, and an investigation showed priestly contrivance. A synod at Prague of 1405 forbade pilgrimage to the place, and Huss wrote on the subject his De omni sanguine Christi glorificato. In 1412 a synod at Magdeburg took up the matter, proposed to the bishop of Havelberg a series of questions which elicited a fundamental report charging fraud on the clergy, withholding credence from the discoverer of the miracle, and asserting that there was neither blood nor anything like it. Evasion was attempted at Havelberg by asserting that it was the sacrament and not the blood which was honored, but left the pilgrims to venerate the miracle; a fourth newly consecrated wafer was added to the three. The literary polemic continued, and was carried forward by Heinrich Tocke, professor of theology in Erfurt, a man of reformatory spirit; but his representations had no effect upon the Council of Basel, to which he accompanied the archbishop; but his plea was effective with the bishop of Havelberg so far that the latter forbade his clergy to spread questionable tales of miracles performed. An inspection of the wafers showed that they were practically consumed, only the form being left, with no signs of blood. Yet his zeal for reform broke against the varied interests involved; the archbishop turned the battle against the pilgrimage to the advantage of his diocese; the bishop of Havelberg enlisted in the aid of his financial interest in the affair the political interests of the local lord of the manor, whose ecclesiastical patronage was of value. In 1445 the new archbishop of Magdeburg, Count Friedrich von Beichlingen, took the position of Tocke, while Frederick
Wilsnack Wilson