Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/639

 WEBLEY

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WEEK

he Catholic past and its tendency towards a return o the centre of unity, appealed aU the more to him n account of his own family traditions. His famil- irity with and love of folk-song, and the fiery iberatiou poetry of the day, aU tended to increase in him that intense national spirit to wliioh his own tem- perament enabled him in turn to give such remarkable expression. He be- came, through his musical interpreta- tions of the war and emancipation songs, his operas, and works for tlie pianoforte, not only the founder of the romantic school of music, but also a power- ful factor in the movement f f)r throwing-ofT the foreign yoke in matters political and artistic. The

Cabl Maria von Weber Painting by Bardua

ame of his works spread over Europe. Their dra- matic truth, vividness, and the glowing colours of is instrumentation made Weber the hon of every apital. In Veh., 1826, he went to London for the lurpose of producing his opera "Oberon", which he ad been invited to compose for Covent Garden !'heatre. Weber had suffered from phthisis for a lumber of years, and the strain involved in the Lon- lon engagement caused him to succumb. He was luried in Moorfields Chapel. Seventeen years later, hrough the instrumentahty of Wagner, his remains rere removed to Dresden. Besides "Der Frei- chutz", the operas "Oberon", "Eurianthe", "Sil- ana", "Peter Schmoll", "Turandot", "Rubezahl",

Beherscher der Geister", "Abu Ha,ssan" are the lest known. Weber also created a large number of nstrumental works, chiefly for the pianoforte. As oyal director of music he had charge of the music in he Dresden coiu-t church. Two masses and a lumber of smaller works to liturgical texts, probably iTitten in haste for special occasions, are below the tandard of his secular works, and lack liturgical haracter.

Benedict, Cnrl Mnrin von Weber (London, 1896); Boubne, Mrl Maria von Weber in Grenl Composers (London, 1904); 'rowest. Cart Maria ton Weber (I^ndon, 1891) : Reissmann, 'or( Maria ron Weber. Sein Leben unti seine Werke (Berlin, 1886); Veber. Carl Maria ton Weber, tr. Simpson (London, 1865). Joseph Otten.

Webley, Henry, Venerable. See Morton, Robert, Vener.\ble.

Webley, Thom.\s, Venerable. See Thomas ILFIELD, Venerable.

Webster, Acgustin, Blessed. See John louGHTON, Blessed.

Weedall, Henry, b. in London, fi Sept., 17SS; d. at ).«cott, 7 Nov., IS.'jO, Both his parents died during his arlv childhood ; his father wa,s a doctor. He was edu- ated at Sedgley Park (1794-180-4), and at Oscott 1804-14), and was ordainefi priest at Wolverhamp- on, 6 April, 1814. He had boen acting as a junior naster at 0.scott,and after his ordinal ion he continued o teach classics, assisting also in the care of the Oscott nission. In the beginning of 181 he became prefect if studies; and when Thomas Walsh (afterwardsbishop if the district) became president (.\ugust, ISIS), Wee- lall undertook the vice-presidency, taught Divinity,

and had the spiritual care of lay-students and the familia. From the summer of 1821 he had been in ef- fect the president of Oscott, and when Bishop Walsh left Oscott, on succeeding to the vicariate (April, 1826), Weedall was made president in name also. Bishop Walsh named him his vicar-general (14 June, 1S28), and obtained for him the degree of Doctor of Divinity (27 January, 1829). He had been elected a member of the Old Chapter, S May, 1827. Under his rule Oscott made noteworthy progi'ess, and the present college edifice, two miles from the old, was erected (183t)-38). On the division of the vicariates in 1840, Weedall was appointed Vicar Apostolic of the Nor- thern District, with the titular See of Abydos; Wise- man being at the same time made coadjutor to Bishop Walsh and president of Oscott. Weedall went to Rome and obtained leave to decUne the vicariate. He was then "in the desert" (head of the preparatory school at Old Oscott, 1841-3, rector at Leamington, 1843-8), until Bishop Ullathorne came to the Central District (August, 1848). Weedall was at once ap- pointed vicar-general, dean of the cathedral church, and temporal administrator of the district and the two colleges; in 18.52 he became the first provost of the newly erected Birmingham Chapter. On 2 July, 1853, he returned to Oscott in its hour of difficulty, sent "to renew that pecuUar spirit of ecclesiastical piety and disciphne within its walls with which his character imbued it from the first", and, in spite of almost continuous ill health, he was entirely successful. He died at Oscott, and is buried beneath the college chapel. In 1854 he had been made a domestic prelate to Pius IX. Dr. Weedall had considerable reputation as a preacher, and was an occasional contributor to the reviews. The Weedall Chantry perpetuates his memory at Oscott.

HrsENBETH. Life of Mar. Weedall (London, 1860); Bradt, Episcopal Succession (Rome, 1876-77) ; Amherst, Hist, of Oscott College in the Oscotiun (1882 sq.); Newman, The Tree Beside the Waters (Funeral Discourse).

J. L. Whitfield.

Week, I^iturgical. — The week as a measure of time is a sufliciently obvious division of the lunar month, and the discussion carried on ■n'ith much learn- ing as to whether this seven days' period is ultimately of Babylonian origin has no great importance. In any case the week was regarded as a sacred institution among the Jews owing to the law of the Sabbath rest and its association with the first chapter of Genesis. The earUest Christian converts were no doubt tena- cious of the usages (so far as they were com])atible with the law of the Gospel) in which they had been brought up. The Sunday, "the first day of the week" (Acts, xx, 7; I Cor., xvi, 2; cf. Apoc, i, 10), soon replaced the Sabbath as the great day of rehgious observance, but the week itself remained as before. Indeed there is much to recommend the idea that in the first and second centuries the only commemora- tions of the great Christian mysteries then in use formed a weekly, not an annual, cycle. Sunday, according to the Epistle of Barnabas (xv), was "the beginning of another world", and thewTiter further says: "Wherefore also we keep the eighth day for rejoicing, in the which also Jesus rose from the dead and having been m.anifested .ascended into the heavens". Again the Didache (viii) ordains; "Let not your fiusts be with the liypocrites: for they fast on the second and fifth days of the week, but do ye fast on the fourth and on tlie Friday ".while in c. xiv we are told "And on the Lord's day of the Lord come together and break bread and givi> thanks". Altogether it becomes clear from the language of Tertullian, the Apostohc Constitution, and other early ^Titers that the Sund.ay in each week was regarded as commemo- rating the Resurrection, and the Wednesday and Fri- day the betrayal and Pa.ssion of Cliri.st. Although this simple primitive conception gave place in tinie.