Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/669

 WETTINGEN-MEHRERAU

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WHARTON

Tliis tract of land was inherited by Thomas, ]-ord Fairfax, and became known as the "Fairfax Land Grant ". Surveyors were employed to determine the boundaries, and during this work, on 17 October, 174tj, wtis erected the famous "Fairfax .Stone", the first monument marking boundary of real estate in West ^'irginia. George W;ishington, at a later period, was employed on this survey. West Virginia was organized and became a state during the early j'ears of the Civil War, and was composed of the western and northern rounties of the State of Vir- ginia. John Letcher, Governor of Virginia, convened the General .\.ssembly in extra session on 7 Januarj', 1861, at which session an act providing for a conven- tion of the people of \'irginia was passed. At this gathering, held in the Olii State House at Richmond, the Ordinance of Secession was passed on 13 Aj)ril, 1861. The people of the eastern counties of the state favoured its ratification, while those of the western and northern counties, separated by a range of mountains from the fertile plains of the Old Do- minion and holding but few slaves, had little in com- mon with the wealthy planters and slave owners of the eastern and southern sections, and were opposed to secession. Moreover, many of the latter were of northern descent, especially tho.se residing along the Ohio River, and, when war broke out, they took sides with the L'nion. Representatives from the counties opposed to secession assembled in Wheeling, and on 19 June, 1861, the convention unanimously adopted ".\n Ordinance for the Reorg.anization of the State Government". This convention reiissembled on 6 .\ugust, and an ordinance providing for the creation of a new state out of a portion of the territorj- of \'irgmia was adopted. By its provisions this ordi- nance was to be submitted to the people of the thirty- nine counties, and as many other coimties a.s wished to vote on it, at an election to be held on 24 October, 1861. The vote resulted 18,489 for and 781 against the new state. The proposed constitution was adopted by the people on 11 April, 1863. Its motto is "Montani semper liberi" (Mountaineers are always free). TheConstitutionf>fl863was superseded bythe present one, adopted in 1S72. The first capital of the state was situated at Wheeling, but was afterwards removed to Charleston in 1885.

Dodge, West Virginia (Philadelphia. 1865); Summers. The Mountain State (Charleston. 1893); Lewis, Hist, of West Virginia (new ed.. New York, 1904); Fast and Maxwell. Hist, and Goty ernment of West Virginia (new ed.. Morgantown, 1908); Reports of the Stale Board of Agriculture: Reports of the Slate Superin- tendent of Free Schools; Reports of the State Department of Mines; Reports of the State Tax Commissioner; Reports of the Bureau of iMbor; The Code of West Virginia. 1906, .ids of the Legislature, 1907; Callahan, Evolution of the Constitution of West Virginia (Morgantown, 1909).

Frank A. McMahon.

Wettingen-Mehrerau, Abbacy ndllius of, a Cistercian :ibbey near Bregenz, Vorarlberg, Austria. The Cistercian mona.stery of Wettingen was founded by Henry of Happerswyl in the present Canton of .\argau, Switzerland, in 1227. It was first recruited with Cistercian monks from Salem (Salmannsweiler) in Baden, and continued without interruption till its suppression by the Government of the Canton of Aargau, 13 January, 1841. Hereupon its abbot, Leo- pold Hochle, made several futile attempts to found a new home for himself and his scattered monks. After thirteen years of searching for a suitable place he finally obtained the permission of Emperor Franz Joseph to buy the partly dilapidated Benedic- tine monaster\' of Mehrerau, which had been sup- pres.sed in IKOti. On 18 October. 18.54, this new home of the Cistercians of Wettingen was .solemnly opened mider the name of Wettingen-Mehrerau. The abbot bears the title of Abbot of Wettingen and prior of Mehrerau, and ha.s all the privileges of the former abbots of Wettingen. He exercises episcopal juris-

diction over the German convents of Ci.stercian nuns in Switzerland. Wettingen-Mehrerau is the only consistorial abbey of the Cistercians, that is, its abbot is the only Cistercian abbot who is preconized in a public consistory (see Mehrerau).

WiLu, Wettingen-Mehrerau in Brhnner, Ein Cistercienserhuch (Wuriburg, 1881), 453, 497; Idem, Zur Gesch. des Kloslers Wett- uigen- Mehrerau, serially in Cislrreienser Chronik XIV (Bregenz, 1902) ; MCELLEB, Z)er Koncenl Wettingen Tom IS Januar 18il bis sum 18 Oktober, ISS4. .serially in Cister, Chron.. XVI (1904); Lehman.v, Das ehemabge Cislercienserkloster Maris Stella bei Wettingen u. seine Glasgemalde (Aarau, 1909).

Michael Ott.

Wetzer, Heinrich Joseph, learned Orientalist, b. at .Vnzefahr in Hesse-Cassel, 19 March, 1801 ; d. at Freiburg in Baden, .5 November, 1853. He studied theologv and Oriental languages at the universities of Marburg (1820-3), Tiibingen (1823), and Freiburg (1824), and was gr.aduated as doctor of theologv and philosophy at Freiburg in 1824. He continued the study of Arabic, Persian, and Syriac for eighteen months at the University of Paris, under the cele- brated Orientahsts De Sacy and Quatremere. At the royal library of Paris he discovered an Arabian manu- script containing the history of the Coptic Christians in Eg>-pt from their origin to the fourteenth century, which he afterwards edited in Arabic and Latin: "Taki-eddini Makrizii historia Coptorum Chris- tianorum in ^g\'pto" (Sulzbach, 1828). In 1828 he became professor-extraordinary, and in 1830 pro- fessor-ordinary, of Oriental philolog>' at the L'niver- sity of Freiburg. His interest in preserving the Cath- olic character of the University of Freiburg, which had been founded and endowed as a Catholic uni- versity, incurred for him the odium of the Protestant professors, who, being in the majority since 1.846, excluded him from all academic positions. He was nevertheless appointed chief hbrarian of the uni- versity libr.ary in 18.50. With a view to maintaining the Cathohc character of the university, he composed anonymously the little work, "Die Universitat Frei- burg nach ihrem Ursprunge "(Freiburg, 1844).

He had also begun a history of the controversy between Arianism .and the Catholic Church in the fourth century, but only a small part of it was com- pleted and published as "Restitutio verff chronologic rerum ex controversiis Arianis, inde ab anno 32,5 usque ad annum 3.50 exortarum, . ." (Frankfort, 1827). His greatest achievement is the part he took in the production of the first edition of the "Kirchenlexikon" for which he drew up the "nomenclator" and which he edited conjointly with Benedict Welte.

Michael Ott.

Wharton, Christopher, Venerable, b.at Middle- ton, Yorkshire, before 1.536; martyred at York, 28 March, 1600. He was the second son of Henry Wharton of Wharton and Agnes Warcop, and younger brother of Thomas, first Lord Wharton. He was educated at Trinity College, Oxford, where he graduated M.A., 3 Feb., 1.564, and afterwards became a fellow. In 1.583 lie entered the English College at Reims to study for the priesthood (2S July). He was ordained priest in the following year (31 March), but continued his studies after ordination till 1.586, when on 21 May he left Reims in company with Ven. Edward Burden. No details of his missionary labours have been preserved; but at his trial Baron Savile, the judge, incidentally remarked that he had known him at Oxford some years after 1,596. He w.as finally arrested in 1.599 at the house of Eleanor Hunt, "a widow, who was arrested with him and confined in York ca.stlc. There, with other Catholic prisoners, he was forcibly taken to hear Protestant sermons. He was brought to trial together with Mrs. Hunt at the lycnt Assizes 1(500, and both were condemned, the