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 WOLSTAN

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WOMAN


 * st him on a charge of high treason. Slowly

II 1 as an invaUd he travelled towards London, knowing well what to expect. "Master Kingston, I see the matter against me how it is framed; but if I had served God as dihgently as I have done the king He would not have given me over in my gray hairs." The end came at Leicester Abbey where on arrival he told the abbot, "I am come to leave my bones among you".

He died unregretted by any save his immediate attendants, yet he had given his life unselfishly to the interests of his country, and no Englishman has ever surpassed him in the genius with which he directed both the foreign and domestic relations of England, so as to make each undertaking help his great design of making her the centre of European pohtics. His foreign pohcy, though planned on great and heroic hnes, was severely practical. Its object was to help Enghsh trade and to maintain peace, to secure union with Scotland, and to effect judicious ecclesiastical reforms. He looked for a European settlement of the difficuhies that beset the Church and desired England to take the leading part therein. His failure was owing to the selfishness of Henrj'. The question of the divorce not only led to the fall of Wolse3', but withdrew England for generations from European politics and made her, not the leader that Wolsey had dreamed of, but a nation apart.

Of the contemporar>' accounts of Wolsey, Poltdore Vergil (who had been imprisoned by the cardinal) in his Anglica Historia and H.\LL in his Chronicle are equally prejudiced and hostile. So too are the rhymes of Skelton. Opposed to these is Caven- dish, Life of Wolsey, which gives a vivid and touching personal account abounding in intimate touches (latest reprint, London, 1887). .\11 the volumes of Stale Papers from 1509 to 1530 are of importance and their publication in recent years has superseded all the earlier lives of Wolsey. The results of the careful study of these documents mav be obtained in Brewer, Reign of Henry VIII {London. 1884) and, in briefer form, in Creiqhton, Cardinal WoUey (London. 1888). A Catholic view is represented hv Taitnton. Thomas Wolsey, Legale and Reformer (London, 1901). See al.so Gairdn'ER in Diet, Nat. Biog,, s. v.

Edwin Burton.

Wolstan, Saint, Benedictine, and Bishop of Wor- cester, b. at Long Itchington, Warwickshire, Eng- land, about 1008; d. at Worcester, 19 Jan., 1095. Educated at the great monastic schools of Evesham and Peterborough, he resolutely combated and over- came the temptations of his youth, and entered the serv-ice of Brithege, Bishop of Worcester, who ordained him priest about 103S. Refusing all ecclesiastical preferment, he became a novice in the great priory of Worcester, and after holding various offices in the monaster>' became cathedral prior there. He held this position, edifying all by his charity, holiness of life, and strict observance of rule, until 1062, when the See of Worcester fell vacant by the translation of Bishop Aldred to the Archbishopric of York. Two Roman cardinals, who had been Wolstan's guests at Worcester during Lent, recommended the holy prior to King Edward for the vacant see, to which he was con.secrated on S September, 1002. Not a man of special learning or commanding intellect, he devoted his whole life to the care of his diocese, visiting, preaching, and confirming without intermission, rebuilding his cathedral in the simple Saxon style, planting new churches everyn'here, and retaining the ascetic personal habits which he had acfjuired in the cloister. His life, notwithstanding his assiduous labours, was one of continuous prayer and recollec- tion ; the Psalms were always on his lijis, and he recited the Divine Othce aloud with his attend.ants as he rode through the country- in discharge of his episcopal du- ties. Wolstan was the last English bishop appointed under a Saxon king, the last episcopal represent- ative of the Church of Bede and of Cuthbert, and the link between it and the Church of Lanfranc and Anselm. After the Conquest, when nearly all the Saxon nobles and clergy were deprived of their offices and honoiirs in favour of the Normans, Wolstan

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retained his see, and gradually won the esteem and confidence both of Lanfranc and of the Conqueror himself. Aelred of Rievaulx tells the legend of his being called upon to resign his bishopric, and of his laying his crozier on the tomb of Edward the Con- fessor at \\'est minster. The crozier remained immove- able — a sign from heaven, as was believed, that the holy bishop was to retain his see. He survived both William the Conqueror and Lanfranc, and was one of the eonsecrators of St. An.selm.

WiLUAM OF MAL.ME8BrRy, De (

Hamilton in 7?. iS. (London, 187n; Saints (London. 1844), s. v. St. H aels. 1863), 602-13, incorporatine ' Life and another bv Florence <>' Britannia Sancta (London, 1745), .' Ordinis S. Benedieti, IX (Venice. 8. ology of England and Wales (London

D. O. Hunter-Blair. Wolter, Mauros. See Benedictine Order, The.

Woman. — Of late years the position of woman in human society has given rise to a discussion which, as part of social unrest, is known under the name of the "woman question", and for which asolution is sought in the movement for the emancipation of women. In theory as in practice the answer to the question varies with the view one takes of hfe. Christianity with its unchangeable principles, and without mis- judging the justifiable demands of the age, undertakes to guide the woman movement also into the right path. The life-task of woman is a double one. As an individual woman has the high destiny obligatory upon every human being of acquiring moral perfection. As a member of the human race woman is called in union with man to represent humanity and to develop it on all sides. Both tasks are indis.solubly united, so that the one cannot be fully accomplished without the other. The freedom of the woman consists in the possibility of fulfilling unimpeded this double task with its rights and iirivilegesboth in pubhc and private hfe. The limitation of this freedom, whether actual or merely imaginary, necessarily calls forth the effort to do away with the obstructing barriers. In order to judge rightly the,«e efforts known as the "woman movement" the rights and duties of woman in the life of humanity must be correctly stated. For this purpose, however, the first thing necessary is the proper conception of the feminine personality. The sources from which this definition is to be drawn are nature and history.

Nature. — The same essenti.ally identical human nature appears in the male and female sex in two-fold personal form; there are, consequently, male and female per.sons. On the other hand, there is no neu- tral human person without distinction of sex. Hence follows in the first place, woman's claim to the pos.ses- sion of full and complete human nature, and thus, to complete equality in moral value and position as compared wnth man before the Creator. It is, there- fore, not permi.ssible to take one sex as the one abso- lutely perfect and as the standard of value for the other. Aristotle's designation of woman as an incom- plete or mutilated man ("De animal, gennerat.", II, 3d ed. Berol., 773a) must, therefore, be rejected. The untenable medieval definition, "Femina est mas occasionatus", also arose under Aristotelian influence. The same view is to be found in the "last Scholastic", Dionvsius Rvckel ("Opera minora", ed. Tournay, 1907,11, Ifila).

The female sex is in some respects inferior to the male sex, both as regards body and soul. On the other hand, woman has (jualities which man lacks. With truth does the WTiter on education, Lorenz Kellner, say: " I call the female sex neither the beau- tiful nor the weak sex (in the absolute sense). The one designation is the invention equally of sensuality and of flattery; the other owes its currency to mascu- line arrogance. In its way the female sex is as strong