Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/274

 cian monastery of Wardon, and drew down on it the wrath of his brother Simon and his former monastery. To avoid the former they sent him to their parent Rievaulx, which was outside Simon's sphere of influence. After a brief moment of temptation to lapse into an easier life during his probation, in which he was assisted by a miraculous intervention, he became noted even among the Cistercians for his austerity and sanctity. When, in 1148, Richard, the first abbot of Melrose, died, the monks elected Waltheof as his successor. As abbot he was noted for his mildness towards others, his severity towards himself, and his humility. He would not allow his high connections to be mentioned, and when he journeyed took but three attendants. Even when scarcely able to walk himself he insisted on visiting the sick. He had frequent visions and miraculous experiences, all of which, says his biographer, were kept concealed by his influence until his death. He influenced his brother to bring about the foundation of the priory of Sawtrey, his half-brother Henry to found Holm Cultram, his step-father David to found Kinloss, and his nephew Malcolm to found Cupar. Just before his death he was elected bishop of Glasgow, but he refused the honour. He died after a tedious and painful illness on 3 Aug. 1159.

Numerous miraculous cures began to be wrought at his tomb very soon after his death. In 1171 Ingelram [q. v.], bishop of Glasgow, transferred his body to a new marble tomb. The chronicle of Melrose relates that on this occasion the body and its vestments were found intact. In 1240 his bones were removed from the entrance to the chapter-house to a spot in the east part of the chapter-house.

[The chief biographer of St. Waltheof is Jordan, a monk of Furness, who wrote of the saint some time between 1207 and 1214. Jordan's biography is printed in the Acta Sanctorum Bollandi, August, vol. i. pp. 248–77. A few additional notices are to be found in the Chron. of Melrose (Maitland Club), ed. Stevenson, pp. 73, 76, 84, 157.] 

WALTON. [See also .]

WALTON, BRIAN or BRYAN (1600?–1661), bishop of Chester and editor of the ‘English Polyglot Bible,’ was born about 1600 in the district of Cleveland in the North Riding of Yorkshire, either at Hilton or the adjoining parish of Seamer or Seymour. He was matriculated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, on 4 July 1614, becoming sizar in 1617, but two years afterwards migrated to Peterhouse, where he also became sizar, graduating B.A. in 1619–20, M.A. in 1623, and D.D. in 1639. After his ordination (1623) he obtained some clerical and educational work in the county of Suffolk, where he made the acquaintance of his first wife Anne Claxton (1597?–1640), whose family name occurs at Chedesdon and Livermere. Shortly after his marriage he went to London, where he became assistant to Richard Stock, rector of All Hallows, Bread Street. At the death of Stock, Walton was on 1 Oct. 1628 presented to the living of St. Martin's Orgar in Cannon Street, which he retained until the troubles of 1641 (, Nov. Rep. Eccl. 1898, p. 131). While in London he made an elaborate study of the history of the tithe as paid to the London clergy, a subject which from 1604 had engaged public attention [cf. art. ]. The clergy complained in particular of the practice whereby the citizens of London, by designating the larger portion of their rent as fine, mulcted the clergy of the greater part of the tithe which was paid on the rent; and Walton calculated that all the aldermen and two hundred common council men ‘payed not as much as six farmers in the country.’ Actions for non-payment of tithe, as the law then stood, could not be brought in the ecclesiastical courts, but had to come before the mayor, with the right of a costly appeal to the court of chancery. After some abortive attempts at legislation, a petition was presented by the London clergy to Charles I in 1634, which was referred to Archbishop Laud, the lord keeper, the earl marshal, the bishop of London, Lord Cottington, and Chief-justice Richardson, who all declared against the practice of the city. It was then arranged that some committees might meet on each side to treat of accommodation, three persons being named by the court of aldermen, and three by the bishop of London; and of the bishop's nominees Walton was one. The proceedings of the committees, however, came to nothing, and the matter being again brought before the lords referees was by them referred to the king in council on 5 Nov. 1634, and on 3 Dec. the king himself was made arbiter. A book drawn up by Walton, containing an account of the true value of all the livings in London, was then, by the advice of the bishop of London, put into the hands of the king, who, however, was prevented from settling the business owing to his attention being distracted by matters of greater urgency; and after an unsuccessful order that meetings of arrangement should be held in each parish, leave was given to the clergy towards the end of 1638 to sue in the ecclesiastical courts.