WALTER
545
WALTON
mature erudition. Despite numerous duties in the
cloister and at the imperial Court, his hours of prayer
were never shortened. He left several works of
real worth on philosophy and theologj', chief among
them: "Commentarium in IV sententiarum Ubros";
"Quffisfioncs theologies;", much in use at that time;
"Sermones ad cleruni et coram rcgo habiti".
Qu^TiF-EcHARD, Script. Ord. Prmri., I (Paris, 1719), 496; HuRTEB, Nomend. lit., II (3rd ed.), 480; Todron, Les Kommes Must., 731; MORTIER, Hist, desmaitrea gineraux, II (Paris, 1905), 432. 455.
Chas. J. Callan. Walter Pierson, Blessed. See Thomas John- son, Blessed.
Waltham Abbey.— The Abbey of Waltham Holy Cross stood in Essex, some ten miles to the north- east of London, on the Middlesex border. In the reign of Kent, one Tofig, a wealthy landowner, built a church at \\'altham for the reception of a miraculous cross, discovered through a vision in Somerset, and ga\'e endowment for two priests. On Tofig's death his Waltham property lapsed to the Crown, and King Edward the Confessor granted the estate to Harold. The latter enlarged the foundation of the church and estabhshed a college of secular canons. In 1060 the church was solemnly dedicated to the Holy Cross by Cynesige, Archbishop of York, and Wlwin became its first dean. It is said that Harold's body w;us brought to Waltham for burial after the battle of Hastings, but the storj' has been disputed. The secular canons were displaced in 1177 by Henry II in favour of August inian Canons, and a prior was appointed. Seven years later Walter de Gant was made the first abbot, and Waltham became the most important Augustinian house in the country. Its abbot was mitred, sat in ParUamcnt, enjoyed peculiar exemption from episcopal visitation, and received at various times special favours from Rome. The abbey also obtained a number of valuable privileges and charters from the Crown. At the dissolution of the monasteries in 1.537, Waltham was assessed at a gross annual value of £1079 2s. Id., and w;is the richest religious house in Essex. It outhisted every other abbey in the coun- try, and was only formally surrendered on 2.3 March, 1540, by its last abbot, Robert Fuller, who retired with a pension of £200 and with several manors and church advowsons. The abbey lands were leased to Sir Anthony Denny, and were subsequently purchased outright by his widow in 1549. The choir and tran- sept were destroyed, but the west end of the abbey church was set apart as a parish church for the new service of the Church of England, nnd remains to this day as a place of worship for AngUcans.
StubB8. The Foundaiion of Waltham Abbey; Benedict of Peterboro in R. .S'.; Matthew Paris in R. S.; Patent Rolls, Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, in R. S.; (Calendar Papal Letters; Fowler, Victoria County History: Essex.
Joseph Clayton. Walther von der Vogelweide, minnesinger and gnomic poet, b. about 1170; d. in 1228. Only one old document mentions the name of the poet and an unimportant event of his life; in the record of the travelling expenses of Wolfger von EUenbrechts- kirchen. Bishop of Pa.ssau, there is an entry under 12 November, 1203, which says that five .solifli for a fur coat were given as a present to the singer Walther von der Vogelweide. The only authorities for any- thing more than a conjectural decision as to his place of birth are his poems, especially two in imperfect rhyme. As he was in other ca.ses very exact a.s to rhyme, this faultiness can only be ex^ilained on the theor\' that they are in the Bavarian-Austrian dialect. Austria, therefore, is probably his birth-place. On one occasion also Walther speaks of Duke Leopold VI as the ruler of his native country, and proclaims the fact that he learned to read and sing in Austria, and that he always feels himself drawn to go to Vienna. The TjTolese, however, claim him as a XV.— 35
countryman, as do also the Bohemians, and both have
erected monuments to his memory. It is not possible
to arrange his songs in chronological order with any
certainty; consequently they cannot be interpreted
with reference to the jioet's hfe. All that is certain
is that Walther developed artistically the knightlj-
Minne poetry, and introduced the real love song into
the artistic court poetry, and this is his particular
merit as a minnesinger.
Walther's didactic poetry, a form of the poetic art that generally belonged to the wandering scholar, stands on the same high level as his love lyrics. Ruler and people listened attentively to his earnest words of ex- hortation. LTnfortunately, in this era of violent strug- gle the volatile poet allowed himself to be carried away by his passions. He was especially severe against the pope, and frequently unjust to his policy. Other- wise, these apothegms give an animated picture of the tumultuous era of the unhappy struggle over the imperial election. In this way Walther's didactic poetry is of value both for the history of his times and for that of civilization. He composed also a number of didactic apothegms that might be styled gnomic poetry, which show many si(l(\s of the poet's character. Dr. A. Schonbach, Walther's latest biog- rapher and the best critic of Midille-High-German literature, devotes a special section of his work to "Walther's rehgion". This is necessary to con- fute the Protestant conception and account of Wal- ther, but for the scholar without prejudice it is need- less becau.se entirely self-evident. The great singer probably did not live to .see the Crusade of Frederick II, for which he had WTitten so devout a song. At least he ceases to sing in the year 1228. \\'here he died and where he was buried are as little known as the place of his birth.
In the latest edition of his Walther von der Vogelweide (Berlin, 1910), Schonbach gives a bibliography of his .subject not only complete, but provided wilh v.-iliiahie (-riticnl notes. The most important works of tlii- l.iMit a-r ijiii\ ;iri : IHland, Walther von der Vogelweide (\S22) . I i. im^i-, , /< - ( ,,,/,(.; Wallhers render roorftceirff (1827),tr. iiii. > \< m - 1 1 :;l,-( ,. 1 1, :,ii bv SiMROCK (1833); HoRNiG, Gtossarium .-1/ '. ■, (/•,.'(,.; \\ .I'l . rs ron der Vogelweide (1844) ; Pfeiffeb and Baktsch, D.utxcl,,- Kliissiker des MittelaUers (1864): BuRDACH, Reinmar der Alle u. Walther von der Vogelweide (Leipzig, 1880) ; Wili.mannb, Leben u. Dichlen WnUhers lion der Vogelweide (Bonn, 18S2): Paul, Altdeutsche Texibibliothek (1882); Schonbach in Zeitschrifl fur deutsches Altertum, XXXVIII, 1 eqq. ; Idem in Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akademie, CXLV (1902).
N. SCHEID.
Walton, Brian, Biblical scholar, editor of Wal- ton's Polyglot Bible, b. at Seymour, or Seamer, near York, in 1600; d. in London,"29 Nov., 1661. He was educated at Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1619-20, and M.A. in 1623. Ordained in the An- ghcan Church, he became a curate and also school- master in Suffolk; in 1628 he was promoted to the rectorship of St. Martin's Orgar, London, to which was added, in 1636, that of Sandon, Essex, and, per- haps, the title of chaplain to the king with a prebend in St. Paul's. He took the degree of D.D. at the University of Cambridge in 1639. Having become involved in the troubles of the times, he was accused of "subtile tricks and popish innovations", deprived of his two rectories, in 1641, and in the next year imprisoned. In no way disheartened, he went, on receiving his freedom, to Oxford, then the capital of Royalist England, and there planned the great Poly- glot (see Polyglot Bibles) which was to render his name familiar to every student of the Scriptures. After the surrender of Oxford in 1646, he betook him- self to London, where, in 16.)2, he issued his pro- spectus of the Polyglot. Subscriptions were put at £10 a set, and in a short time the sum of £9000 wa.s subscribed. Walton's Polyglot was the first book published by subscription in Engkand. To carry out his work successfully, Walton secured the aid of nearly all the contemporary English scholars, particu- larly Edmund Castell, Edward Pococke, Thomafi
