Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/531

Rh W E S W E S the author of the Imitatio C/iristi. At Deventer, where the best traditions of the 14th-century mysticism were still cultivated, Wessel imbibed that earnest devotional mysticism which was the basis of his theology and which drew him irresistibly, after a busy life, to spend his last days among the Friends of God in the Low Countries. From Deventer he went to Cologne to be taught the Thomist theology, which was fondly cherished in that famous Dominican school ; and there he learnt realism, which, although he afterwards became a nominalist in metaphysics, always coloured his theology. At Cologne too he came in contact with humanism. He learnt Greek and Hebrew from monks who, it is said, had been driven out of Greece. The Thomist theology sent him to study Augustine, and his Greek reading led him to Plato, and from both of these great thinkers he learnt much that went to enrich his own theological system. The echoes of the din raised in Paris by the disputes between the realists and the nominalists reached Wessel in Cologne, and a desire to mingle in the fray, or perhaps to learn on which side truth was, induced him to go to Paris, where he remained sixteen years, scholar and teacher. There he eventually took the nominalist side, prompted as much by his mystical anti-ecclesiastical tendencies as from any metaphysical insight ; for the nominalists were then the anti-papal party. A desire to know more about humanism sent him to Home, where we find him in 1470 the intimate friend of Italian scholars and under the protection of Cardinals Bcssarion and Delia Rovere (afterwards Pope Sixtus IV.). It is said that Sixtus would have gladly made Wessel a bishop, but that he had no desire for any ecclesiastical preferment. From Rome he returned to Paris, and speedily became a famous teacher, gathering round him a band of enthusiastic young students, among whom was Reuchlin. As old age approached he came to have a growing dislike to the wordy theological strife which surrounded him, and turned away from that uni versity discipline, &quot; non studia sacrarum literarum sed studiorum commixta) corruptiones.&quot; After thirty years of academic life he went back to his native Groningen, and spent the rest of his life partly as director in a nuns cloister there and partly in the convent of St Agnes at Zwolle. He was welcomed as the most renowned scholar of his time, and it was fabled that he had travelled through all lands, Egypt as well as Greece, gathering everywhere the fruits of all sciences &quot;a man of rare erudition,&quot; says the title page of the first edition of his collected works, &quot; who in the shadow of papal darkness was called the light of the world.&quot; His remaining years were spent amid a circle of warm admirers, friends, and disciples, to whom he imparted the mystical theology, the devotion to higher learning, and the deep devotional spirit which characterized his own life. He died on October 4, 1489, with the confession on his lips, &quot; I know only Jesus the crucified.&quot; He is buried in the middle of the choir of the church of the &quot; Geestlichen Maegden,&quot; whose director he had been. Wessel has been called one of the &quot;reformers before the Refor mation,&quot; and the title is a true one if by it is meant a man of deeply spiritual life, who protested against the growing paganizing of the papacy, the superstitious and magical uses of the sacraments^ the authority of ecclesiastical tradition, and that tendency in later scholastic theology to lay greater stress in a doctrine of justifica tion upon the instrumentality of the human will than on the objective work of Christ for man s salvation. His own theology was, however, essentially medircval in type, and he never grasped that experimental thought of justification on which Reformation theology rests. Sec Vita WesseH Groninyensis, by Albert ITnrdenberff, published in an incom plete form in the preface to Wessel s collected works, Amsterdam, 1014 (this preface also contains extracts from the works of several writers who have given facts about the life of Wesscl) ; Muurlins, Com. Hist. The.ol. de Wessc/i Gans- forlii Vita, etc., 1831; Ullmann, Reformers before Vie Reformation (the second volume of the German edition is a second and enlarged edition of a previous work, entitled Johann ll cs.se/, ein Vorgtinger Luther s, 1834) ; Friedrich, Joharrn Wessel, ein BUd aits der Kirchengeschichte de.s 15t?n Jahrhunderts, 1802 ; Kitsch), History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation (Ertin., 1872). Weasel s two most important writings are his Treatise on Prayer (De Oratione) and his Scala Meditationis. WESSEX. See ENGLAND, vol. viii. pp. 270, 282 57., and Plate II. of same volume. WEST, BENJAMIN (1738-1820), history and portrait painter, was born in 1738, at Springfield, in Pennsylvania, coming of an old Quaker family who had emigrated from Buckinghamshire. When a boy of seven he began to show his inclinations to art. According to the well- known story, he was sitting by the cradle of his sister s child, watching its sleep, when the infant happened to smile in its dreams, and, struck with its beauty, young Benjamin got some paper, and drew its portrait. The career thus begun was prosecuted amid many difficulties; but his perseverance overcame every obstacle, and at the age of eighteen he settled in Philadelphia as a portrait- painter. After a short time he removed to New York, where he practised his profession with considerable success. In 1760, through the assistance of some friends, he was enabled to complete his artistic education by a visit to Italy, where he remained nearly three years. Here he acquired reputation, and was elected a member of the principal academies of Italy. On the expiry of his Italian visit he settled in London as an historical painter. His success was not long doubtful. George III. took him under his special patronage ; and commissions flowed in upon him from all quarters. In 1768 he was one of the four artists who submitted to the king the plan for a royal academy, of which he was one of the earliest members ; and in 1772 he was appointed His Majesty s historical painter. He devoted his attention mainly to the painting of large pictures on historical and religious subjects, con ceived, as he believed, in the style of the old masters, and executed with great care and much taste. So high did he stand in public favour that on the death of Sir Joshua Reynolds, in 1792, he was elected his successor as presi dent of the Royal Academy, an office which he held for twenty-eight years. In 1802 he took advantage of the opportunity afforded by the peace of Amiens to visit Paris, and inspect the magnificent collection of the masterpieces of art, pillaged from the gallery of almost every capital in Europe, which then adorned the Louvre. On his return to London he devoted himself anew to the labours of his profession, which were, however, somewhat broken in upon by quarrels with some of the members of the Royal Academy. In 1804 lie resigned his office, but an all but unanimous request that he should return to the chair induced him to recall his resignation. Time did not at all weaken the energy with which he laboured at his easel. When sixty-five he painted one of his largest works, Christ Healing the Sick. This was originally designed to be pre sented to the Quakers in Philadelphia, to assist in erecting a hospital. On its completion it was exhibited in London to immense crowds, and was purchased by the British Institution for 3000 guineas, West sending a replica to Philadelphia. His subsequent works were nearly all on the same grand scale with the picture which had been so successful, but for obvious reasons they did not meet with very ready sale. He died in 1 820, in his eighty-second year, and was buried in St Paul s. Since his death West s reputation has seriously declined. His works, which fond criticism ranked during his life with the great productions of the old masters, arc now considered as in general formal, tame, wanting that freedom of nature and that life which genius alone can breathe into the canvas. His Death of Wolfe is interesting as introducing modern costume instead of the classical draperies which had been previously universal in similar subjects by English artists ; and his Battle of La Hogue is en titled to an honourable place atnong British historical paintings. An account of West s life was published by Gait (The Progress of XXIV. -- 64