WILLIAM
629
WILLIAM
should be ponsporatod, if he eould rlcar liimself fnim
the accusation of bribery, and if the chapter could
show that there had been no undue royal pressure.
liN'illiaiii proved his innocence so conclusively that
the legate conspprated him archbishop at Winchester
26 September, 1143. He set himself at once to carry
out reforms in his diocese, and his gentleness and
charity soon won him popularity; but he negleeted
to obtain from Cardinal Hinpmar the paUium which
Lucius II sent him in 1146, and the pope died before
William had been invested. The new pope, Blessed
Eugenius III, was himself a Cistercian, and the
English Cistercians soon renewed their complaints
against William, which St. Bernard supported.
Meanwhile Hincmar carried the pallium back to
Rome, so that, in 1147, Wilham had to travel there
to obtain it, raising the exjjenses of his journey by
sale of trea.sures and privileges belonging to York.
This afforded fresh matter of complaint and finally
the pope suspended him from his functions on the
ground that he had enthroned the Bishop of Durham
without exacting the pledges required by the former
pope.
William took refuge with his friend, the King of Sicily, but his partisans in England took an unwi.se revenge by destroying Fountains Abbey, of which Murdac was now prior. This further inflamed St. William's enemies, who again approached the pope, with the result that in 1147 he deposed the arch- bishop from his seat; and on the failure of the chapter to elect a successor, he consecrated Murdac in his stead. St. William devoted himself to prayer and mortification at Winchester till 1153, when the pope and St. Bernard were both dead. He then appealed to the new pope, Anasta-sius IV, for restoration to his see, a request which the death of Murdac in October made it easier to obtain. St. Wilham having received the palUum, returned to York, where he showed the greatest kindness to the Cistercians who had opposed him, and promised full restitution to Fountains Abbey. But his death, .so sudden as to cause suspicion of poison, took place within a few weeks. Miracles took place at his tomb, and in 1227 he was canonized by Pope Honorius III. In 12S3 his relics were translated to a shrine behind the high altar of York Minster, where they remained till the Reformation. His festival is observed in England on 8 June.
John of Hexham, Continuation of Stmeon of Dttrham in R. S. (London, 1882-5) ; William of Newburoh, Historifs rerum angli- caxirum in R. S. (London, 1884-89); Acta SS.. II June; St. Bernard, EpiMts in P. L., CLXXXII-CLXXXV; Caporave, Nova Legenda Antjlia (Oxford, 1901): Challoner. Britannia Sancta (London, 1745): Raine, Historians of the Church of York in It. S. (London, 1879-94) ; Idem, Fasti Eboracenses
Edwin Burton.
William, S.\int, Bishop of St-Brieuc, b. in the parish of St. ,\lban, Brittany, between 117S and 1184; d. 12.34 (according to some 1137); fea.st 29 July. Acta SS. (VII, July, 131) narrate only his virtues and miracles, and give no details of his life. From other sources quoted in the "Acta" we learn that his father's name was Oliver Pinchon and his mother's, Jane Fortin. He wa.s elected hi.shop in 1220 (122.5), and considered himself the father of the poor and afflicted of his diocese. He was a defender of the rights of the clerg\-, and incurred the displeasure of the powerful, .so that he was banished. He lived for some time in the Diocese of Poitiers, assisted the sick bishop in his duties, and returned in 1230. He began the building of a cathedral, but died before its com- pletion He w.is canonized, I.t .Vpril, 1247, by Inno- cent IV. During the French Revolution his rehcs were biimed.
Stapler. Heiliofnlexicon: Lobiveau, Le» vies des saints de Bretagnt. II (Paris, 1836), 426.
Francis Mersrman.
William, Blessed, Abbot of Hirschau, monastic
reformer, b. in liavaria; d. at Hirschau, 5 July, 1091.
He was educated and took the Benedictine habit at
St. Emmeram, Ratisbon. In 1069 he was called to
Hirschau to succeed the deposed Abbot Frederick.
He at once assumed the management of the monas-
tery, but would not accept the abbatial benediction
till after the death of his unjustly deposed prede-
cessor in 1071. Under William's abbacy, Hirschau
reached the zenith of its glory and, despite the unusu-
ally strict monastic discipline which he introduced
from Cluny, the number of priest-monks increased
rom 15 to 150. He was the first to introduce lay
brothers (fratres laid, also called conversi, barbati, or
exleriores) into the German Benedictine monasteries.
Before his time there were, indeed, men-servants en-
gaged at the monasteries, but they hved outside the
monastery, wore no religious garb, and took no vows.
In 1075 \\'illiam went to Rome to obtain the papal
confirmation for the exemption of Hirschau. On this
occasion he became acquainted with Gregory VII,
with whose reformatory labours he was in deep sym-
pathy and whom he afterwards strongly .supported in
the great conflict with Henry IV. William had re-
ceived an excellent education at St. Emmeram, and in
the knowledge of the quadrivials he was unsurpassed
in his time. He constructed various astronomical in-
struments, made a sun-dial which showed the varia-
tions of the heavenly bodies, the solstices, equinoxes,
and other sidereal phenomena (" Bernoldi chronicon "
in P. L., CXLVIII, 14()4). He was also a skilled
musician and made various improvements on the
flute (Aribo Scholasticus, "De musica", in P. L.,
CL, 1334). Besides composing the "Constitutiones
Hirsaugienses" (P. L., CL, 923-1146), he is the
author of a treatise "De astronomia", of which only
the prologue is printed (P. L., loc. cit., 16.39), and "De
musica" (P. L., loc. cit., 1147-78), of whichanew crit-
io:il edition with a German translation was prepared
by Hans Mtiller, "Die Musik Wilhelms von Hirsau"
(Frankfort, 1SS3). William also had a standard edi-
tion of the Vulgate made for all the monasteries of the
Hirschau reform. He is commemorated in various
martyrologies on 4 or 5 July.
Kerker. Wilhelm der Selige, Abt von Hirschau (Tubingen, 1863): Helmsdorfer, Forschungen zur Geschichte dcs Abtes Wilhelm (Gottingen. 1874): Witten. Der selige Wilhelm, Abt von Hirschau (Bonn, 1890): Giseke, Die Ausbreitung der Hirschauer Kegel (Halle, 1877): Albers, Hirsau und seine GrGndungen in Festschrift zum 1 1 00-jdhrigen Jubilaum des dailschen Campo Sa7ito in Rom (Freiburg, 1897), 115-129; S088MANN, Forschungen zur Geschichte des Klosters Hirsau (Halle, 1904). The earliest life of William waf? written shortly after his death b.v his contemporary Hatmo of Hirschau. Subsequently various legendary additions came to it (P. L..CL, 889-924. a more critical edition by Watten- BACH in A/on. Germ. Hist.: Script.. XII. 209-225).
Michael Ott.
William, Abbot of Marmoutiers, b. in Brittany; d. at Marmoutiers, 23 May, 1124. For a time he was Archdeacon of Nantes, but renounced this dignity and became a monk at the Benedictine monastery of Marmoutiers. In 1105 he was elected succes.sor to the decea.sed Abbot Hilgotus. Archbishop Ru- dolph II of Tours, who on various occasions had vio- lated the i)rivileges of Marmoutiers, refused to acknowledge William as abbot or to give him the abbatial benediction unless he would not only swear allegiance to him but also confirm his oath by placing his right hand in that of the .archbishop. William was willing to do the former but would not yield to the latter. St. Ivo, Bishop of Chartres, in a letter to Paschal II (P. L., CLXII. 126-7), sided with the abbot. William went to Rome and received abbatial benediction from Paschal himself. It seems that, through the intervention of St. Ivo and a few other bi.shops, the abbot and the Archbishop of Tours were reconciled about 1115 (see Ivo's epistle to William, in P. L., CLXII, 2.36-7, and to Rudolph, 237-8). In 110() Wilham took part in the synod of
