Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/790

 WYNTOUN

724

WYOMING

A large number of Wyclif 's Latin works have been edited and printed by the Wyclif Society. His English works have been edited by T. Arnold (Oxford, 1869-71) and by F. D. Matthew (London, 18S0) for the Early EngUsh Texts Society. Many of the Eng- lish tracts, however, are certainly by his followers. Besides these works Wyclif was reputed, even by con- temporaries, to have translated the whole of the Bible, and two "Wyclifite" versions are in existence. Abbot Gasquet has disputed the genuineness of this author- ship ("The Old Enghsh Bible", London, 1897), and F. D. Matthew has defended the traditional view (Eng. Hist. Rev., 1895). This much, at any rate, is certain: that the Bible was familiar even to laymen in the fourteenth century and that tlie whole of the New Testament at least could be read in translations. It is also clear that portions of the Scriptures were called Wyclifite in the fifteenth century, and sometimes con- demned as such, because a WycUfite preface had been added to a perfectly orthodox translation.

For list of contemporary authorities, which are very numerous, see RvsHDALL in Diet. Nat. Biog., a. v. Wydiffe; the most impor- tant, besides Wyclif's own works, is the Chronicon Anglicp, ed. (1874) by Maundb Thompson, and the Fasciculi Zizaniorum, ed. by Shirley in R. S. See also Lechler, Johann von Wiclif (Leipzig. 1873; tr. London, 1878); Shirley, Preface to Fasciculi Zizaniorum: Matthew, Preface to English Works (the last two are valuable) ; Poole, Wyclif e and Movements for Reform (London, 1889), still useful as it connects Wyclif with the continental move- ments of the time; The Cambridge History of Eng. Lit., II, which contains an excellent chapter on the subject by Whitney. Of Catholic works the most considerable is Stevenson, The Truth about John Wyclif. A more moderate treatment of Wyclif is given by Bellesheim, Wetzer, and Welte in Kirchenleiikon, B. V. Wiclif; see also, especially for the subsequent development of the movement, Gairdner, Lollardy and the Reformation, I-II (London, 1906).

F. Urquh.irt.

Wyntoun, Andrew of, Scottish chronicler, b. (as we know from the internal evidence of his writings) in the reign of David II, about the middle of the fourteenth century. He is conjectured to have been related to Alan of Wyntoun, who married the heiress of Seton, and is now represented by the Earl of Eglinton and Winton. He became a canon- regular of the priory of St. Andrews, and before 1395 was appointed prior of the ancient monastery of Lochleven, in Kinrosa-shire, which was a subject house of St. Andrews for upwards of four hundred years (see Lochleven). Innes, in his "Critical Essay" (1729), pointed out that the register of the priory of St. Andrews contained several acts or public instruments of Wyntoun, as prior of Lochleven, from 1395 to 1413; but there is no evidence as to how long he continued in office after the latter year, or as to the date of his death. It was at the request of Sir John de Wemyss (ancestor of the Earls of Wemyss), whom he mentions as one of his intimate friends, that Wyntoun undertook to write his "Orygynale Crony- kil of Scotland", so entitled, as he himself exjilains, not because it was iiis own composition, but because it begins at the beginning of things, namely with the creation of angels. How long the compilation of the work took is uncertain, but the fact that Robert, Duke of Albany, is mentioned in it as dead proves that it was finished some time after September, 1420. The author, while eng.agcd in the latter part of it, reckoned himself already an old man, as appears from his prologue to the ninth book, so that it is not prob- able that he lived long after its completion. The variations in the MSS. show that it was frequently revised and corrected, in all probability by Wyn- toun's own hand.

No printed edition of the Chronicle appeared until 1795, when it was edited from the Royal MS. in the British Museum, with a valuable critical introduction, by David .Macphcrson. Nearly one-third of the origi- nal was, however, oiiillted, and this was restored by Laing in his edition published in 1872, in the "His- torians of Scotland" series. Laing describes the

eleven MSS. of the Chronicle known to exist, and the Scottish Text Society has since printed a new edition from the Cottonian and Wemyss MSS., with the variants of the other texts. A considerable portion of the Chronicle, it must be noted, is the work of an unknown author, who sent it to Wyntoun, and it was incorporated by him into his own narrative. Both are written in the same eas3'-flowing, octosyllabic rhyming verse, and the work has therefore value from a poetical as well as from an historical standpoint. Andrew Lang credits Wyntoun with "a trace of the critical spirit, displayed in his wresthngs with feigned genealogies"; but ^Eneas Mackay does him more justice in pointing out that he understands the importance of chronology, and is, for the age in which he wrote, wonderfully accurate as to dates. His work has thus real value as the first attempt at scien- tific history WTiting in Scotland, and philologically it is not less important as having been WTitten in the Scots vernacular, and not (hke nearly all the works of contemporary men of learning) in a dead language. Regarded as a poet, WjTitoun can hardly take high rank, certainly not equal rank to his predecessor Barbour, the father of Scottish poetry. His narra- tive, in truth, though written in rhyme is mostly prosaic in style; but some of his descriptions are vivid, and touched with the true spirit of poetry.

Wyntoun' s Oryginale Cronykil of Scotland, with notes, glossary, etc., ed, Macpherson (London, 1795); the same, ed. Lainq for The Historians of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1S72) ; the same, ed. Amours for the Scottish Text Society (Edinburgh, 1902- 1913); Lano, Hist, of Scotland, I (Edinburgh, 1900), 296; Innes. Critical Essay on the Ancient Inhabitants of Scotland, II (London, 1729). 622-627; Mackay in Diet. Nat. Biog., s. v.; Anderson. The Scottish Nation, III (Edinburgh, 186S), 674, 75.

D. O. HrNTER-BLAlR.

Wyoming, the forty-fourth state admitted to the American Union, derives its name from the Delaware Indian word " Maughw.Tuu;inia", signifying moun- tains with large plains between. .♦J'^

Itliesbetween41° -•^-iSi

and 45° N. lat. and 27° and 34" long, west of Washington; it is bounded by Mon- tana, South Da- kota, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho. Its length from east to west is 355 miles and width from north to south, 276 miles. It includes an

area of 97,883 square miles, a territory equal to that of the two States of New York and Pennsylvania, or greater than all of the New England states com- bined.

I. Physical Characteristics. — In general ap- pearance the tipography is mountainous with valleys, rolling plains, and broad plateaux. The mountains have a general direction from north-west to south-east, but arc not continuous across the state, presenting more often the appearance of broken or detached spurs. The main range of the Rocky Mountains entering from the south termi- nates in the Wind River Range and is snow-capjied throughout the year, the elevation being from tiOOO to 14,000 feet. Other ranges are the Big Horn, Owl, Rattle Snake, Medicine Bow, Sierre Madre, Teton, Yellowstone, and the Black Hills extending into the state from South Dakota on the eastern liorder. The highest peak is Fremont's Peak in the Wind River Range, 13,790 feet. Other high points are Teton Peak, 13,690 feet, and Clouds Peak, 13,691