Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/619

 WARTENBERG

557

WASHING

historiume (Warsaw, 1902); Lubomibski, Polonia, uUimi casi di Varaana (Turin, 1861).

A. Palmieri.

Wartenberg, Franz Wilheiai, Count von, Bishop of Osnabriick and cardinal, eldest son of Duke Ferdinand of Bavaria and his morganatic wife Maria Pettenbeckin, b. at Munich, 1 March, 1593; d. at Ratisbon, 1 Dec, 1661. He was educated by the Jesuits, at Ingolstadt (1601-S), and at the Ger- manicum in Rome (1608-14). In 1621 he became manager of the governmental affairs of the Elector Ferdinand of Cologne, who appointed him president of his councO and brought him to the Diet of Ratisbon in 1622. On 26 Oct., 1625, he was elected Bishop of Osnabriick, receiving papal approbation 25 AprU, 1626. The Catholic Faith in Osnabriick was then in a deplorable condition. The three preceding bishops had been Protestants and had replaced most of the CathoUc priests by Protestant preachers. Cardinal Eitel Fricdrich, who succeeded them, endeavoured to restore the Catholic religion but soon died. With the help of Tilly Wartenberg took possession of his see (12 March, 1628), which had been occupied by Dan- ish soldiers. He began the work of Counter-Reforma- tion with great zeal; drove the Protestant preachers from the city and restored the churches to the Catho- Ucs. He eliminated the anti-Catholic element from the city council; took the system of education into his own hands; turned the former Augustinian con- vent over to the Jesuits whom he engaged as teachers at the Gymnasium Carolinum; restored various religious communities and established new ones; held STOods and visitations, enforced the Tridentine decrees where possible and, in 1631, founded a university which, however, was destroyed by the Swedes in 1633.

AVartenberg was commissioned with the execution of the Edict of Restitution (1629) in Lower Saxony, and was elected later to the provostry of the collegiate church of Bonn. He was chosen Bishop of Verden (16.30), Minden (1631), and appointed Vicar Apos- tohc of Bremen by Innocent X (1645). In 1633 Osnabriick capitulated to the Swedes and Warten- berg had to yield his see to Gustavus of Wasaburg, an illegitimate son of Gu.stavus Adolphus. During his forced exile, Wartenberg, who had not yet received any of the major orders, was ordained priest and consecrated bishop at Ratisbon in 1636. In 1641 he went to Rome and upon his return was elected Coad- jutor Bishop of Ratisbon cum jure successionis, succeeding on 9 April, 1650. In the negotiations of the Peace of Westphalia (1645-8) he represented the Catholic electors. Though preventing the intended secularization of his see by the Swedes, he had to yield to the stipulation that after his death the See of Osnabriick should be alternately administered by a Protestant and by a Catholic bishop. Wartenberg was to keep the See of Osnabriick, but the Sees of Verden, Minden, and Bremen fell into the hands of Protestants, Wartenberg, however, retaining spiritual jurisdiction over them. On IS Dec, 16.50, he took pos,session of the See of Osnabriick and laboured to restore the Catholic religion. On 5 April, 1661, he was created cardinal-priest by Alexander VII.

GoLDscHMlDT. Lehenngesch. des Kard. Priestfrit Fram Wilhelm (Osnabruck, 1866); Meurer, Fram Wilhelm in Miuheilunum dea hisl. Verrins zxi OsnahrUck, X, XI, XXI: FoMT, Politischf Kor- T€spondem des Grafen P. W. ton Wartenberg aus den Jahren 1621— 31 in Puhlikationen aus den k. preussischen Staatsarchiven, LXVIH (Leipzig, 1897).

Michael Ott.

Washing of Feet and Hands. — Owing to the general use of sandals in Eastern countries the wa.shing of the feet w'a,s almost everywhere recognized from the earhest times as a duty of courtesy to be shown to guests (Gen., xviii, 4, xix, 2; Luke, vii, 44, etc.). The action of Christ after the Last Supper (John, xiii, 1-15) must also have invested it with a deep religious

significance, and in fact down to the time of St. Bernard we find ecclesiastical wTiters, at least occa- sionally, applying to this ceremony the term Sacra- menlum in its wider sense, by which they no doubt meant tliat it possessed the virtue of what we now call a sacramental. Christ's command to wash one another's feet must have been understood from the beginning in a htcral sense, for St. Paul (I Tim., v, 10) implies that a widow to be honoured and conse- crated in the Chm-eh should be one "having testimony for her good works, if she have received to harbour, if she have washed the saints' feet". This tradition, we maj' believe, has never been interrupted, though the evidence in the early centuries is scattered and fitful. For example the Council of Elvira (a. d. 300) in canon xlviii directs that the feet of those about to be baptized are not to be washed by priests but presumably by clerics or at least lay persons. This practice of washing the feet at baptism was long maintained in Gaul, Milan, and Ireland, but it was not apparently known in Rome or in the East. In Africa the nexus between this ceremony and baptism became so close that there seemed danger of its being mistaken for an integral part of the rite of baptism itself (Augus- tine, Ep. LV, "Ad Jan.", n. 33). Hence the washing of the feet was in many places assigned to another day than that on which the baptism took place. In the rehgious orders the ceremony found favour as a practice of charity and humility. The Rule of St. Benedict directs that it should be performed every Saturday for all the community by him who exercised the office of cook for the week; while it was also enjoined that the abbot and the brethren were to wash the feet of those who were received as guests. The act was a religious one and was to be accompanied by prayers and psalmody, "for in our guests Christ HimselJf is honoured and received". The hturgical washing of feet (if we can trust the negative evidence of our early records) seems only to have estabhshed itself in East and West at a comparatively late date. In 694 the Seventeenth Synod of Toledo commanded all bishops and priests in a position of superiority under pain of excommunication to wash the feet of those subject to them. The matter is also discussed by Amalarius and other liturgists of the ninth century. Whether the cu.stom of holding this "maundy" (from "Mandatum novum do vobis", the first words of the initial Antiphon) on Maundy Thursday, developed out of the baptismal practice originally attached to that day does not seem quite clear, but it soon became an universal custom in cathedral and colle- giate chiu-ches. In the latter half of the twelfth cen- tury the pope washed the feet of twelve sub-deacons after his Mass and of thirteen poor men after his dinner. The " Cieremoniale episcoporum" directs that the bishop is to wash the feet either of thirteen poor men or of thirteen of his canons. The prelate and his assistants are vested and the Gospel "Ante diem festum pascha"" is ceremonially sung with incense and fights at the beginning of the function. Most of the sovereigns of Europe used also formerly to perform the maundy. The custom is still retained at the Austrian and Spanish courts.

The liturgical washing of hands has already been treated in the article Lavabo. It may be noted that, pos,sibly in consequence of the words of St. Paul (I Tim., ii, 8) : "I will therefore that men pray in every place, lifting up pure hands", the early Christians made it a rule to wash their hands even before private prayer, as many passages of the Fathers attest (e. g. TertuU., "Apolog.", xxxix; "De Orat.", xiii). The multiplied washings in a pontifical Mass probably bear witness to the practice of an earlier age. Let us notice also that the "C^remoniale episcoporum" enjoins the use of the credenza or tasting as a precau- tion against poison even for the water used in the washing of hands.