Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/706

 WILLUM

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WILLIBALD

■with an accident on horseback, which terminated fatally 9 Sept., 1087. He had an edifying end and died commending his soul to Our Lady, "that by her holy prayers she may reconcile me to her Son, my Lord Jesus Christ". The Saxon chronicler summed up William's character well when he wrote: "He was mild to good men who loved God, and stark be- yond all bounds to those who withsaid his will."

(For further details see England. — Before the Reformation.)

William has found a panegyrist in Freeman, Hist&ry of the Norman Conquest, III, IV, V (Oxford, 1S70-76); see also LlN- OARD, History ofEnglarul, I (London, 1849) ; Davis, Englandunder the Normans and Angevins (London, 1905) ; Adams in Political History of England, II (London, 1905) ; Hunt in Dictionary of Nat, Biography, s. v.; Bohmer, Kirche und Staat in England und in der Normandie (Leipzig, 1S99): Stenton, William the Con- queror (London, 1908); Dupont, Etudes Anglo-Francises (Saint- Servan, 1908). The principal original sources are the Gesia Willelmi of William of Poitiers, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Historia Ecclesiastica of Ordericus Vitalis, the Gesta Regum of Wiluam of Malmesbury and the Historia Normannorum of William of Jumieges. On Domesday Book and the literature it has evoked, see Domesday Book.

Herbert Thurston.

William the Walloon, date of birth unknown; d. (probably) 22 Dec, 1089. He became Abbot of St- Arnoul at Metz in 1050. He continued the good traditions of his predecessor, Abbot Warin, in the government of his monastery, and devoted his leisure to study, especially of the works of St. Jerome and St. Augustine. On 30 June, 1073, Gregory VII WTOte to Archbishop Manasses of Reims, rebuking him for his ill treatment of the monks of St-Remi, and ordering him to procure the election of a suitable abbot. Wil- liam of St-Arnoul was elected, but quickly found his position untenable. In spite of promises made to William in person (see his fourth letter), Manasses continued his persecution, and towards the end of 1073 the abbot journeyed to Rome to secure the accep- tance of his resignation. In a letter to Manas,ses, probably sent by William, the pope says that the abbot is very pleasing to him and that he would desire him to retain both abbacies, but that, if he persists in resigning St-Remi, the archbishop is to accept his resignation and seek his advice in the election of a successor. In another letter, to Bishop Herimann of Metz, he informs him that William wishes to return to St-Arnoul, and recommends him to the bishop's charity, "that he may feel that his coming to us has profited him". In the event, Manasses roughly demanded the return of the abbatial crosier and appointed Henry, Abbot of Hombliere, in William's place, apparently without consulting him. William returned to Metz, but some twelve years later, though on friendly terras with Bishop Herimann, weakly allowed himself to be consecrated and intruded into the See of Metz when the Emperor Henry IV drove out the rightful bishop, in lOS.'j. The following year, however, he sought out Herimann, publicly resigned the dignity he had usurped, and retired to the Abbey of Gorze. Shortly afterwards Herimann restored him to his abbey of St-Arnoul.

Of his writings we have seven letters and a prayer of preparation for Mass in honour of St. Augustine. His style is good for the period and shows a consider- able knowledge of literature. The first letter is the well-known address of congratulation to Gregory VII on his election to the papacy, reprinted by the Bol- landists at the beginning of their commentary on the life of that i)oi)e. These remains were discovered by Mabillon at St-Arnoul and first printed by him in his "Analecta Vetera", I (Paris, 11)75), 247-286.

P. L., CL. 87.-!-90: Hisl. litl. de la France, VIII, 305; Jaffi5 (ed.), Man. Cregoriana (BerHn. 18(i.'>).

Raymund Webster.

Williamites. There were two minor religious orders or congregations of this name: (1) a Benedic- tine congregation, more often known by the name

of its chief house, Monte V^ergine (2) the foundations named after St. William of Maleval.

(1) Besides Monte Vergine, St. Wilham of Vorcelli founded a considerable number of monasteries, especially in the Kingdom of Naples, including a double monastery for men and women at Gugliefo (near Nusco). Celestine III confirmed the congre- gation by a Bull (4 Nov., 1197). In IGll there were twenty-six larger and nineteen smaller WiUiamite houses. Benedict XIV confirmed new constitutions in 1741 to be added to the declarations on the Rule of St. Benedict prescribed by Clement VIII. The mother-house, the only surviving member of the con- gregation, was affiliated to the Cassinese Congregation of the Primitive Observance in 1879. The commu- nity at Monte V'ergine retains the white colour of the habit, which is in other respects like that of the black Benedictines. There are said to hav'e been some fifty WiUiamite nunneries, of which only two survived at the beginning of the eighteenth centurj-. The habit was white with a black veil, and their rule very severe in the matter of fasting and abstinence.

Heimbucher, Orden u. Kongregaiionen, I (Paderborn, 1907), 264, Regxila SS. P. N. Benedicti cum antiquis. . . Declarationi- bus Cong. Montis Virginis a Clemente VIII prtsscriptis. NotcE Constitutiones. . . a SS. D.N. Benedicto XIV confirmatce (Komet 1741).

(2) This second congregation was founded by Albert, companion and biographer of St. WiUiam of Maleval, and Renaldus, a physician who had settled at Maleval shortly before the saint's death, and was called the Hermits of St. William. It followed the practice of that saint, and quickly spread over Italy, Germany, France, Flanders, and Hungary. The great austerity of the rule was mitigated by Gregory IX in 1229; at the same time many of the monasteries adopted the Benedictine Rule and others that of St. Augustine. When, in 12.56, Alexander IV founded the Hermits of St. Augustine many of the Wilhamites refused to enter the union and were permitted to exist as a separate body under the Benedictine Rule. In 1435 the order, which about this time numbered fifty-four monasteries in three provinces of Tuscany, Germany, and France, received from the Council of Basle the confirmation of its privileges. The Italian monasteries suffered during the wars in Italy. The last two French houses at Cambrai and Ypres were suppressed by the Congregation of Regulars, while in Germany the greater number came to an end at the Revolution. The chief house at Grevenbroich (founded in 1281) was united to the Cistercians in 1628; the last German house ceased to exist in 1785. The habit was similar ta that of the Cistercians.

Heimbucher, Orden u. Kongregationm, II (Paderborn. 1907), 180; HtLYOT, Ordres religieux, VI (Paris, 1792), 142; Henbchen, De ordine eremitarum S. Guglielmi in Acta SS., Feb., II, 472-S4; See also William of Maleval; Hermits of St. Augustine. Raymund Webster.

Willibald and Winnebald (Wunibald, Wynne- bald), Saints, of the Order of St. Benedict, brothers, natives pro! ably of We.s.sex in England, the former, first Bishop of Eichstiitt, b. on 21 Oct., 700 (701); d. on 7 July, 781 (787) ; the latter, Abbot of Heidenheim, b. in 702; d. on 18 (19) Dec, 761. They were the children of St. Richard, conmionly called the King; their mother was a relat ive of St. Boniface. Willibald entered the Abbey of ^\'altham in Hampshire at the age of five and was edui'ated by Egwald. He made a pilgrimage to Riimo in 722 with his father and brother. St. Richard died at Lucca and was buried in the Church of St. Frigiilian. After an attack of malaria Willibald started from Rome in 724 with two companions on a trip to the Holy Land, pa.ssed the winter at Patara. and arrived at Jerusalem on 1 1 Nov., 725. He then went to Tyre, to Constantinople, and in 7.30 arrived at the .•\bbcy of Monte Ca.ssino, .after having visited the grave of St. Severin of Noriciim near Naples. In 740 he was again at Rome, wheuce