WILLIAM
633
WILLIAM
abbot of that house. In spite of difficulties arising
from poverty and opposition on the part of the com-
munity he reformed the monastery and in 1178 trans-
ferred it to Ebelholt, or the Paraclete, in Zeeland. He
was entrusted with important business by Absalom,
now Archbishop of Lund, and intervened in the case
of Philip Augustus of France who was attempting to
repudiate his wife Ingelborg, sister of Cnut of Den-
mark. The genealogy of the Danish kings which he
drew up on this occasion to disprove the alleged imped-
iment of consanguinity and two books of his letters,
some of which deal with this affair, have come down
to us, and together with an account of probable
authenticity of the invention of the rehcs of Ste-
Genevieve in 1161 and a few charters relating to his
monastery may be found in P. L., CCIX. An account
of his miracles is given in the "Vita" written by one
of his younger disciples. He was canonized by
Honorius III in 1224. His feast is commemorated
on 18 June.
For the Vita and other sources of William's Life see Lanoebek, SrrCpl. rer. dan. (9 vols.. Copenhagen, 1772-1878), reprinted in P. L., CCIX: Papebroch, Vita, with commentary, in Acta SS., I .April, 625 sqc4.; Lager. Ep. XL in P. L., CLXXXVL
Raymund Webster.
WUliam of Gellone, Saint, b. 755; d. 28 May, c. 812; was the second Count of Toulouse, having attained that dignity in 790. He is by some writers also given the title of Duke of Aquitaine. This saint is the hero of the ninth-century "Roman de Guil- laume au court nez", but the story of his life is told in a more reliable form by the anonymous author of the biography which was written soon after the saint's death, or before the eleventh century according to Mabillon, or during the eleventh century according to the Bollandi.st Henschen. His father's name was The- oderic, his mother's .\ldana, and he was in some way connected with the family of Charles the Great, at whose court he was present as a youth. The great emperor employed him against the Saracen invaders from Spain, whom he defeated at Orange. In 804 he foimded a Benedictine monastery, since called S. Guilhem le Desert, in the valley of Gellone, near Lodcve in the Diocese of Maguelonne, and subjected it to the famous St. Benedict of Aniane, whose monas- tery was close at hand. Two years later (806) he himself became a monk at Gellone, where he remained until his death. His testament, granting certain property to Gellone, and another subjecting that monastery to the Abbot of .\niane, are given by Mabil- lon. His feast is on 28 May, the day of his death.
Mabillon-, Acta SS. O.S.B. sa:c. IV, I (Venice, 1735), 67-86; Acta SS.. VI May. 154-72.
Raymund Webster.
William of Jumieges (surnaraed Calculus), Benedictine historian of the eleventh century. Prac- tically nothing seems to he known of his life except that he was apparently a Norman by birth and be- came a monk at the royal abbey of Jumi6ges, in Nor- mandy, where he died about 1090. His only claim to fame consists in his "Historia Normannorum", in eight books, which is the chief authority for the historj' of the Norman people from 851 to 11.37. One of the earhest manuscripts of this work still extant was prescr\ed at Rouen up to the Revolution and is now in the Bibliothcque Nationtile at Paris. The first four books of the "Historia" were taken from an earlier work on the ."iame subject, wTitten by Dudon of St. Qucntin, whose labours .are praised by William. The verdict of more recent times, however, with regard to Dudon, is that he was given to roman- cing and that his work was not part icularly reliable. Many of his exaggerations h.ave been modified and corrected by William, who made full use of all that w.as tru.stworthy in his predecessor's account. Only seven out of the eight books of the "Historia" are from William's own band, comprising events down to
the year 1087. The eighth book, continuing the
history as far as the death of Boson, Abbot of Bee,
which occurred in 1137, was added by an anonymous
author, although his continuation is usually printed
as an integral part of the complete work. Ordericus
Vitalis drew largely from William's history for the
portions of his work that deal with the Normanp, as
did also Thomas WaLsingham in his " Ypodigma neus-
trife". The "Historia Normannorum" was first
edited and printed at Frankfort in 160.3 and is also
included in Camden's collection of English and Nor-
man historians. The style is considered passable for
the age in which the writer lived, though it does not
come up to the requirements of modern criticism.
Duchesne. Hist. Normannorum scriptores (Paris, 1619); Bouquet, Recueit des historicns de France (Paris. 1752-81); Ceillier, Hist. g6n. des auteura sacris (Paris, 1757); P. L.. CXLIX.
G. Cyprian Al.ston.
William of Maleval (or the Great), Saint, d. 10 Feb., 1157; beatified in 1202. His life, written by his disciple Albert, who lived with him during his Last year at Maleval, has been lost. The life by Theodo- bald, or Thibault , given by the BoUandists is unreliable, having been interpolated with the lives of at least two other Williams. After a number of chapters in which he is confused with .St. William of Gellone, Duke of Aquitaine, we are told that he went to Rome, where he had an interview with Eugene III, who ordered him to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in penance for his sins. Though Theodobald's account of his interview with the pope does not carry conviction, thefactof this visit and his subsequent pilgrimage to Jerusalem is supported by excerpts from the older life, which are preserved by responsories and antiphons in his Office. He seems to have remained at Jerusalem for one or two years, not nine as Theodobald relates. About 1153 he returned to Italy and led a hermit's life in a wood near Pisa, then on Monte Pruno, and finally in 1155 in the desert valley of Stabulum Rodis, later known as Maleval, in the territory of Siena and Bish- opric of Grosseto, where he was joined by Albert.
Acta SS., II Feb., 435-91.
Raymund Webster.
William of Malmesbury, b. 30 Nov., about 1090; d. about 1143. He was educated at Malnicsliury, where he became a monk. From his youth he showed a special bent towards history, "Thence it came that not being satisfied with the writings of old I began to write my.self". By 1125 he had completed his two works, "Gesta Regum" and "Gcsta Pontificum". After this he spent ten years in forming a collection of historical and legal materials, now in the Bodleian Library, and writing a history of Glastonbury and its saints, in which he speaks as though he were, for the time at least, an inmate of that abbey. He records that he might more than once have become Abbot of Malmesbury, but he contented himself with the office of librarian. About 1140 he made revisions of the two works "Gesta Regum" and "Gesta Pontifi- cum", and began a new work "Historia novella", a sequel to the former, dealing with the period 112.5-42, but in such a desultory way as to show that we have rather the first draft of a book than a com- pleted work. William's authority as a historian is inv.aluable for the contemporary reign of Stephen, and his records of the earlier Norman kings, being ba.sed either on per.sonal knowledge or direct hearsay, are of importance. The "Gesta Pontificum", which owes much to Bede, is the source from which all later writers of early ecclesiastical history of England have chiefly drawn. His method, also derived from Bede, was to recount events so as to show their cause and effect, and in returning to this sound principle he made a great advance on the works of his prede- cessors. The anecdotes, occasionally irrelevant, which he weaves into his narrative, helped much to
