Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/722

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WIPO


660


WIREKER


tating the churches of Scotland in 1559, Winzet is said by Bishop Leslie to have publicly disputed with Knox at Linlithgow. After the change of religion in 1560 he was, with other ecclesiastics and teachers who refused to conform to Protestantism, ejected from his offices. On Queen Mary's arrival in Edinburgh he went thither, at once threw himself into combat against the new doctrines, and published in 1562 his most famous work, "Certane Tractatis" — the first addressed to the queen, clergy, and nobles, the second to Knox, and the third to the provost and magistrates of Edinburgh. Their ability and erudition made an immediate impression. Winzet, who seems for a time to have been Mary's confessor, was just bringing out his "Last Blast of the Trompet of Godis Worde", when it was stopped by the civil authority, and the author fled from Scotland, reaching Louvain in Sept., 1562. Here he wrote a preface to his "Buke of Four Scoir Thre Questions" (collected from his earlier polemical writings in MS.), which was published at Antwerp in Oct., 1563, with a postscript addressed to Knox; and a Mttle later his translation of the "Commonitorium" of Vincent of Lerins, dedicated to Queen Mary, also appeared at Antwerp. From 1565 to 1570 Winzet resided in Paris, prosecuting his studies at the university and apparently doing tutor- ial work also, as well as acting for a time as proctor for the "natio Anglicana sen Germanica".

In 1571 he was attached by Queen Mary, then a captive in England, to the service of Bishop Leslie, her ambassador in London; but on Leslie's committal to the Tower Winzet returned to France, and stayed for a time at Douai. From 1575 to 1577 he was in Rome, and in June, 1577, Pope Gregory XIII appointed him abbot of St. James's Scots monastery at Ratisbon, dispensing him from the regular year's novitiate. He received the abbatial blessing in Rome from Goldwell, the exiled Bishop of St. Asaph, at once entered on his new duties, and succeeded by his energy and zeal in repairing the shattered fortunes of St . James's, which had suffered greatly in the upheaval of the Reformation. By his wise administration and efforts in the cause of education he won the favour and regard both of the Emperor Rudolph VI and of the Duke of Bavaria. During his fifteen years' tenure of the abbacy he continued his literary labours, publishing his "FlagcUum'Sectariorum" and "Velita- tio in Georgium Buchananum" in 1581, as well as other works, some of them now lost. He died at Ratisbon, and was buried in the sanctuary of St. James's Church, where a monument with a eulogistic Latin epitaph marks his grave.

ZiEGELBAUER, Hist. vei litter. OTdinis S Benedicti (Augs- burg, 1754), 360, 361; Mackenzie, Lives of the most eminent Writers of the Scots Nation, III (Edinburgh, 1708-22), 148; Dempster, Histor. Ecclesiast.Gent. Scotorum, II (Edinburgh, 1S29), 5; Certane Tractatis, Maitland Club reprint (Edinburgh, 1885). biographical introduction bv Gracie; Hewison, Introduction to Certain Tractates, I (Edinburgh, Scottish Text Society, 1888), is-xcviii, with a critical account of Winzet's writings; Belles- HEiM, Hist, of Cath. Church of Scotland, III (Edinburgh, 1887- 90), 35-53.

D. O. Hunter-Blair.

Wipo (Wippo), apparently a native of Burgundy, lived in the first half of the eleventh century. He was chaplain to Emperor Konrad II, whose biography he wrote in chronicle form, "Gesta Chuonradi II imperatoris", and presented to Konrad's son, Henry III, in 1046, not long after the latter was crowned. Wipo fully understands his subject, is fresh and animated, and, though affectionate, not a mere eulogist or a flatterer, for he sees Konrad's fail- ings clearly. But he does not fully grasp the gener.al conditions of the age, especially the emperor's mani- fold relations to the ruling princes and the Church. His style is simple and fiuent, and his language well- chosen. Among his extant writings .-ire I lie ni.'ixinis, "['rovcrhia" (1027 or 1028), and "Telralogus Hein- rici" in rhymed hexameters, presented tu Emperor


Henry in 1041. It is a eulogy of the emperor mixed with earnest exhortations, emphasizing that right and law are the real foundations of the throne. He wrote the beautiful Easter sequence, "Victims pas- chali laudes", and a touching lament in Latin on Konrad's death. The best edition of his works is that of Breslau, "Wiponis Gesta Chuonradi II ceteraque qua; supersunt opera" (Hanover, 1878; German tr. by Pfliiger, Berlin, 1877; by Wattenbach, Leipzig, 1892).

POTTHA8T. Bibl. hist., II (Berlin, 1896), 1118 sq.; Watten- bach, Deutschlanda Geschichtsquellen, II (Berlin, 1894), 10-16.

Patricius Schlageh.

Wireker, Nigel, satirist, lived about 1190. He describes himself as old in the "Speculum Stultorum ", which was \\Titten apparently before 1180. He claims to have known St. Thomas of Canterbury personally, so it was probably before 1170 that he became a monk of Christ Church, Canterbury, where he was, at any rate, from 1 186 to 1 193, and where he is said by Leland (Collect. Ill, 8, and Script. I, 228) to have been precentor. In 1189 he was one of the delegates from the monks to King Richard in their dispute with Archbishop Baldwin. Th.e surname Wireker rests on the authority of Bale, and there is ground for thinking that his contemporaries knew him as "Nigellus de Longo Campo". He was certainly an intimate friend, and may have been a relative, of William Longchamp the Chancellor.

The following are his works, all in Latin: (1) "Speculum Stultorum", in elegiacs, with a prose introduction, both addressed to one "Willehnus", who has been identified with Longchamp. This, one of the most popular of medieval satires, is extant in many MSS. and early printed editions, and is included in Wright's "Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets" (Rolls Series, 1872, I, 3). It narrates the adventures of an ass named Brunellus or Burnellus (whence the poem is cited by Chaucer as "Daun Burnel the asse" in the Nun's Priest's Tale, "Canterbury Tales", hne 15318) in quest of a longer tail. Brunellus, who represents the discontented and ambitious monk, goes first to Salernum for drugs to make his tail grow; losing these on his way home, he studies for a time in Paris, but making no progress he thinks of joining a religious order, and resolves to found a new one, taking the easiest part from each of the existing rules; finally he is recaptured by his old master. Nigel makes full use of the opportunities afforded by this framework for satirizing the manners and customs of his time, especially the vices prevalent among the Paris students and in the several religious orders; (2) "Contra Curiales et Officiales Clericos", a prose treatise, with a prologue in elegiacs, addressed to William Longchamp as Bishop of Ely, Legate, and Chancellor (printed by Wright, I, 146), and evidently written in 1193-94. As its title suggests, it is a reproof (though affectionate in tone) to Longchamp, and to all who like him attempt to combine the minis- tries of Church and State.

Nothing else of Nigel's has been printed (with one doubtful exception mentioned below); but several poems are attributed to him (as Nigellus de Longo Campo) in a thirteenth-century MS. which belonged to Christ Church priory (Brit. Mus., Ve.sp. D. xix). These include (a) verses to Honorius, Prior of Christ Church 1186-88, an elegy on his death (21 Oct., 1188), and another on that of St. Thomas (29 Dec, 1170); (b) "MiraculaS. Mariie Virginis"; (c) "Passio S. Laurentii"; (d) "Vita Pauli Primi Eremits". Among them is also the well-known i)oem on monastic life, beginning "Quid deceat monachum, vel qualis debeat esse", which appears in many editions of St. Anselm's works, and which has also been claimed for Alexander Neckam (Wright, II, 175) and for Roger of Caen (Hist. Litt. de la France, VIII, 421). Another MS. (Brit. Mus., Vitell. A. xi) contains a metrical