Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/346

Rh 322 W A L W A L inhabitants to the north of the Eder are of Saxon stock, to the south of Franconian, a difference which is distinctly marked in dialect, costumes, and manners. Nearly all are Protestants. In 1880, when the population was 56,522, there were 53,995 Protestants, 1576 Roman Catholics, 854 Jews, and 97 others. Waldeck-Pyrmont has one vote in the federal council and one in the imperial diet. The constitution, dating from 1852, is a reactionary modification of one carried in 1849, which in its turn had been a considerable advance upon one granted in 1816. The single chamber consists of fifteen members (three of whom represent Pyrmont), elected indirectly for three years. In the event of the male line of the present ruling family becoming extinct the female line succeeds in Waldeck, but Pyrmont falls to Prussia. In terms of a treaty concluded in 1868 for ten years and renewed in 1878 for a similar period, the finances and entire government of Waldeck-Pyrmont are managed by Prussia, the little country having found itself unable to support unassisted the military and other burdens involved by its share in the North-German Confederation. The government is conducted in the name of the prince by a Prussian &quot; landes-director,&quot; while the state-officials are &quot;Prussian subjects,&quot; and take the oath of allegiance to the king of Prussia. The prince of Waldeck reserves his whole rights as head of the church, and also the right of granting pardons, and in certain circumstances may exercise a veto on proposals to alter or enact laws. Educa tion, the administration of justice, and similar matters are thus all conducted on the Prussian model; a previous con vention had already handed over military affairs to Prussia. The budget for 1886 showed a revenue of 52,530 and an expenditure of 48,680. The public debt was 117,550, paying interest at 4 per cent. The prince is supported by the income derived from crown-lands. The princes of Waldeck-Pyrmont are descendants of the counts of Schwalenberg, the earliest of whom known to history was Wittekind, who died in 1137. His grandson seems to have been the first count of Waldeck. For many centuries the original pos sessions of the Schwalenbergs were divided among several collateral lines of counts (Waldeck, Landau, Wildungen, Eisenberg); and about 1428 Hesse obtained a right of superiority over Waldeck, in return for its protection during those troublous times. This right gave rise to important claims on the part of Hesse, which were not finally set aside until 1847, when the German diet decided that the right had come to an end with the extinction of the empire. In 1685 a pactum primogenitures was made between the two surviv ing lines, which took effect in 1692, when the Eisenberg branch be came extinct with the death of George Frederick, who had served with distinction as an imperial field-marshal, and had received the title of prince. Pyrmont had also originally belonged to a branch of the Schwalenberg family ; but it had successively been held by the counts of Lippe (from 1557) and Gleichen (from 1584), before it finally fell back to Waldeck in 1625. From 1692 the lands have remained undivided under the Wildungen line, with the ex ception of a brief period (1805-1812) when Waldeck and Pyrmont were held by two brothers. Frederick Anthony Ulrich, who suc ceeded in 1706, was made prince by the emperor Charles VI. In 1807 Waldeck was a member of the Confederation of the Rhine ; and in 1814 it entered the German Confederation. Its first consti tution was granted in 1816 by Prince George Henry (1813-1845). George Victor, the present prince (1888), succeeded in 1845 at the age of 14, and assumed the government in 1852. The most im portant incident in the recent history of the principality is the conclusion of the above-mentioned treaty with Prussia, with whom it sided in the war against Austria. WALDENBURG, an active industrial town in Prussian Silesia, is situated on the Polsnitz, 39 miles south-west of Breslau. It contains a handsome modern town-house and two churches. Among the chief industrial establishments are a large porcelain and stoneware factory, extensive fire clay works, glass-works, and a china-painting establish ment ; and there are numerous flax-spinneries and linen- factories in the neighbourhood. Adjoining the town on the south is the village of Oberwaldenburg, with a chateau. Waldenburg lies in the centre of the extensive and pro ductive coal-district of the Waldenburger Gebirge, a branch of the Sudetic chain. The town, which received municipal rights in the 16th century, had a population of 12,999 in 1885; in 1816 the population was 1768. There are villages of the same name in Saxony and Wtirtemberg. WALDENSES, THE, a name given to the members of an heretical sect which arose in the south of France about 1170. The history of the sects of the Middle Ages is obscure, because the earliest accounts of them come from those who were concerned in their suppression, and were therefore eager to lay upon each of them the worst enormities which could be attributed to any. In later times the apologists of each sect reversed the process, and cleared that in which they were interested at the expense of others. In early times these sectaries produced little literature of their own ; when they produced a literature at the beginning of the 15th century they attempted to claim for it a much earlier origin. Hence there is confusion on every side ; it is difficult to distinguish between various sects and to determine their exact opinions or the circum stances under which they came into being. The polemical conception which has done much to perpetuate this con fusion is that of the historical continuity of Protestantism from the earliest times. According to this view the church was pure and uncorrupt till the time of Constantine, when Pope Sylvester gained the first temporal possession for the papacy, and so began the system of a rich, powerful, and worldly church, with Rome for its capital. Against this secularized church a body of witnesses silently protested ; they were alwaj s persecuted but always survived, till in the 13th century a desperate attempt was made by Innocent III. to root them out from their stronghold in southern France. Persecution gave new vitality to their doctrines, which passed on to Wycliffe and Huss, and through these leaders produced the Reformation in Germany and England. This view rests upon a series of suppositions, and is entirely unhistorical. So far as can be discovered the heretical sects of the Middle Ages rested upon a system of Mamchseism which was imported into Europe from the East (see MANICH^EISM). The Manichsean system of dualism, with its severe asceticism, and its individualism, which early passed into antinomianism, was attractive to many minds in the awakening of the llth century. Its presence in Europe can first be traced in Bulgaria soon after its conversion in 862, 1 where the struggle between the Eastern and Western churches for the new converts opened a way for the more hardy speculations of a system which had never entirely disappeared, and found a home amongst the Paulicians in Armenia. The name of Cathari, taken by the adherents of this new teaching, sufficiently shows the Oriental origin of their opinions, which spread from Bulgaria amongst the Slavs, and followed the routes of commerce into central Europe. The earliest record of their presence there is the condemnation of ten canons of Orleans as Manichees in 1022, and soon after this we find complaints of the prevalence of heresy in northern Italy and in Germany. The strongholds of these heretical opinions were the great towns, the centres of civilization, because there the growing sentiment of municipal inde pendence, and the rise of a burgher class through commerce, created a spirit of criticism which was dissatisfied with the worldly lives of the clergy and their undue influence in affairs. The system of Catharism recognized two classes of adherents, credentes and perfecti. The perfecti only were admitted to its esoteric doctrines and to its superstitious practices. To the ordinary men it seemed to be a reform ing agency, insisting on a high moral standard, and up holding the words of Scripture against the traditions of an 1 Schmidt, Histoire des Cathares, i. 7.