Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/599

 WALKENRIED

537

WALL

Established Church is similarly represented. As a general rule, the Welsh Press deals with Catholicism only in a hostile manner; but in quite recent years a more moderate tone has been adopted in a few of the less Puritanical newspapers and magazines. The largest denomination in \\'ales is that of the Calvin- istic Methodists (now often styled the Presbyt,erian Church of Wales). The Baptists, Congregationah'sts, Wesleyan Methodists and Unitarians are also strong in the principahty — the latter particularly in Cardi- ganshire. Mormonism has made large numbers of recruits in the chief centres of population. Puritan- ism is slowly but steadily ceding ground to Agnosti- cism and Anglicanism.

The Catholic Church is strong only in the large towns of Wales, the Catholics of the rural districts having participated in the exodus consequent on the decay of the old country life. The hierarchy consists of two bishops, deriving their titles from Menevia (Saint David's) and Newi)ort. The former see com- prises the greater part of Wales; the latter includes Glamorgan, Monmouthshire, and Herefordshire. The present cathedral of the Menevian diocese is at Wrexham in North Wales, that of Newport (a Bene- dictine see) is the priory church of Belmont, near Hereford. The Church's progress among the Welsh people is incredibly difficult, and very slow; but it is perceptible. Advance would be easier and more rapid if greater use could be made of the Welsh lan- guage in the prop.aganda.

The Bishop of Newport is the Right Rev. John Cuthbert Hedley, O.S.B., the dean of the Enghsh and ^^'elsh hierarchy, who resides at Llanishen, near Car- diff. The Bishop of Menevia is the Right Rev. Francis MostjTi, whose residence is at Wrexham. Out of a total population, which may be estimated approxi- mately at 2,000,000, the CathoHcs number about 54,400, whereof 4.5,000 belong to the Diocese of New- port, and 9400 to Menevia. Newport has 91 priests and 75 missions; Menevia, 85 priests and 43 missions. Of religious, there are Benedictines at Hereford, Cardiff, MerthjT Tydfil, Swansea, and Cardigan; Jesuits at St. Asaph, Rhyl, and HoljTvell; Capuchin Franciscans at Panta,saph and Penmaenmawr; Pa.ssionists at Carmarthen; Oblates of Mary Immacu- late at Llanrwst, Pwllheli, Holyhead, and Colwyn Bay; Fathers of the Institute of Charity at Cardiff and Newport; and 35 convents of nuns of various congregations, whereof 9 communities are Daughters of the Holy Ghost (Sceurs Blanches), exiled from Brittanv.

Rnis, 'Celtic Britain (London, 1882); The Book of LlandAt, otl. Evans and Rnfa (Oxford, 1893); Ruts, Lectures on Wehh Philology (London, 1879) ; McCave, Continuity or Collapse? (Ix)ndon. 1891); Myvyrian Archa:ology, ed. Williams (Den- bigh, 1860); The lolo Manuscripts, ed. Idem (Liverpool, 1888); Lire.* of the Cambro-British Saints, ed. Hees (Llandovery, 1853); RoMlLLY Allen. The Monumental Hist, of the Early British Church (Ijondon, 1889).

John Holson Matthews.

Walkenried, formerly one of the most celebrated Cistercian abbeys of (iermany, situated in the Duchy of Bnmswick between Lauterberg and Nordhau.sen. Founded in 1127 by Countess Adelheid of Kletten- berg, it was confirmed in 1137 by Innocent II. The first monks came from the monastery of Altfeld or Camp in the Archdiocese of Cologne. In the time of the first abbot, Henry I (1127-78), two branch monasteries were founded: Pforta (in 1132) and Sichem, or Sittichenbach rin 1141) in the Countship of Mansfeld. Walkenried grew rich and owned lands a-s far as the Rhine and Pomerania. The monks g.ave much attention to mining, smelting, and fishing. In the fifteenth century the abbey began to decay, and the Pca.«ants' War brought it to the verge of de- struction. About Ea.ster, 1525, a mob of 800 peasants of the soiithern Harz region marclied against Walken- ried. Abbot Paulus (1520-30) and the monks fled,

carrying off the archives. The abbey was plundered and the tower of the church torn down. The next abbot, John VIII (1536-59), was very worldly and extravagant; in 1546 he and his monks became Lutherans. Thereupon Count Ernst of Honstein, as patron of the abbey, laid a complaint before Charles V. In 1548 the emperor ordered that everjrthing in the abbey should be restored to the former condition, but his command was unheeded. After the count's death the entire Countship of Honstein became Lutheran, and in 1557 a Protestant school was opened at Walkenried. Up to 1578 four Protestant abbots had directed the abbey. The Count of Honstein now made his son administrator, and after the son's death Walkenried fell to the Duchy of Brunswick. During the Thirty Years War the abbey for a short time (1029-31) was restored to the Cistercians. The Peace of Westphaha put an end to the shadowy exis- tence of the Protestant monastery and the abbey was secularized. In 1668 the school was closed. Since then Walkenried has been state property of Bruns- wick. The Gothic church, built during the years 1210-1290, was greatly damaged by the destruction of the tower by the peasants in 1525; to-day only a few picturesque remains are still in existence. 'The monastery was somewhat later in date than the church; its cloister is well preserved. The chapter hall has served since 1570 as a Lutheran church. The hbrary was destroyed by the peasants, but the archives are preserved at Wolfenbiittel.

Die Urkunden des Klosters Walkenried, I, II (Hanover. 1852- 55); Lexickfeld, Antiq. Walckcnredenses (Leipzig, 1706); Girsch- ner. Die vormalige Reichsahtei Walkenried (Nordhauaen, 1870); Lemcke, Gesch. von Walkenried (2Dded., Leipzig, 1909).

Klemens Loffleb.

Wall, John, venerable martyr, b. in Lancashire, 1620; suffered near Worcester, 22 Aug., 1679; known at Douay and Rome as John Marsh, and when on the Mission under the aliases of Francis Johnson, Webb, and Dormore. The son of wealthy and staunch Lancashire Cathohcs, he was sent when very young to Douai College. He entered the Roman College, 5 Nov., 1641, was made priest, 3 Dec, 1645, and sent to the Mission, 12 M.ay, 1648. On 1 Jan., 1651, he received the habit of St. Francis at St. Bon- aventure's Friary, Douai, and a year later was pro- fessed, taking the name of Joachim of St. Anne. He filled the offices of vicar and novice master at Douai until 1656, when he returned to the Mission, and for twenty years laboured zealously in Worcestershire. He was apprehended, Dec, 1678, at Rushock Court near Bromsgrove, where the sheriff's man came to seek a debtor; his priestly character transpiring, he was tendered the Oath of Supremacy, and was com- mitted to Worcester Gaol for refusing it. He was brought to trial at the assizes, 25 April, on the charges of receiving and exercising his priesthood, and of refusing the oaths. A man whose vices he had re- proved bore testimony to his priesthood, and he received sentence. He wa-s then sent to London, and four times examined by Oates, Bedloe, and others in the hope of imphcating him in the pretended plot; but was declared innocent of all plotting and offered his life if he would abjure his religion. Brought back to Worcester, he was executed at Redhill. On the day previous, WiUiam Levison was enabled to confess and communicate him, and at the moment of execu- tion the same priest gave him the hust absolution. His quartered body was given to his friends, and was buried in St. Oswald's churchyard. Mr. Levison, however, secured the martyT's head, and it w-as treasured by the friars at Douai until the dissolution of that house in the French Revolution. The Franciscan nuns at Taunton possess a tooth and a bone of the martyr. The long siieech which he com- posed for his execution was circulated among the Catholics after his death; and the authorities issued