Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/622

Rh 586 W I L W I L bishop of Winchester, who after some hesitation accepted the charge. His second chancellorship lasted for two years, and was marked by efforts on his part to reform the government and place it on a more constitutional basis. After he had held office for a year he and his colleagues in the ministry resigned their appointments, and challenged a public inquiry into their conduct. This being pro nounced satisfactory, they resumed their offices. The chancellor drew up rules for the conduct of business in the council; and from this time minutes of the proceedings were regularly kept. In 1391 he resigned the great seal, and thenceforward retired from public life. It is, however, as the founder of two great colleges that William is principally known to fame. Immediately after his promotion to the bishopric of Winchester he appears to have begun to carry out his educational schemes. Between 1369 and 1379 he bought the land enclosed in the north-eastern corner of the city walls at Oxford on which New College now stands (see OXFORD, vol. xviii. p. 97). Meanwhile he was taking steps to establish the sister foundation at Winchester. In 1378 he obtained a licence from the pope to found a college there, which was con firmed by the king four years later. The ground on which Winchester College stands belonged partly to the bishop and partly to other proprietors, from whom he bought it. In 1387 he began to build, and the buildings were occupied by his scholars in 1393, though they do not appear to have been finished till 1395. When his two colleges were established and endowed, he provided them with statutes, which after several revisions took their final form in 1400. Nor does he appear to have neglected his duties as a bishop. He visited and reformed the hospital of St Cross near Winchester ; he corrected the abuses which had crept into the priory of St Swithin ; and he rebuilt or transformed the nave of Winchester cathedral. He kept a strict watch on the clergy under his charge, endeavouring to ensure their efficiency by frequently moving them from one living to another, and he promoted the material prosperity of his diocese by repairs of bridges and roads. In the relations between England and the papacy William of Wykeham strongly supported the nationalist policy of Edward III. The Statutes of Provisors and Praemunire met with his full approval. So far he was in accord with Wycliffe, but he showed no sympathy with the doctrinal opinions of the reformer. Bishop Courtenay, who headed the attack on Wycliffe, was a life long friend of the bishop of Winchester, who published in 1382 the interdict condemning Wycliffe s heresies, and in 1392 sat on an episcopal commission to try his follower Henry Crumpe. William of Wykeham died at Waltham on 27th September 1404, and was buried in the cathedral of Winchester. Authorities. The episcopal register of William of Wykeham (pre served at Winchester) ; &quot;Walsingham, Historia Anglicana ; Lowth, Life of William of Wykeham, London, 1758 ; Walcott, William f Wykeham and his Colleges, 1852 ; Moberly, Life of William of Wykeham, Winchester, 1887. (G. W. P.) WILLIAMS, JOHN (1796-1839), English missionary, was born at Tottenham near London, on 29th June 1796. He was trained as an ironmonger, and acquired while young considerable experience in mechanical work. Having offered himself to the London Missionary Society, he was sent, after some training, in 1816 to the South Sea Islands as a missionary. He was first stationed at Eimeo, in the Society Islands, where he rapidly acquired a knowledge of the native language. After staying there for a short time, he finally settled at Raiatea, which became his permanent headquarters. His success as a missionary here and elsewhere was remarkable. The people rapidly became Christianized and adopted many of the habits of civiliza tion. Williams was fairly liberal for his age, and the results of his labours among the Pacific Islands were essentially beneficial. He travelled unceasingly among the various island groups, planting stations and settling native mis sionaries whom he himself had trained. From the Society Islands he visited the Hervey group, where he discovered, and stayed for a considerable time on, the island of Raro- tonga. Most of the inhabitants of the group were con verted in a remarkably short time, and Williams s influence over them, as over the people of other groups, was very great. Besides establishing Christianity and civilization among them, he also, at their own request, helped them to draw up a code of laws for civil administration upon the basis of the new religion. While at Rarotonga he, with the help of the natives, built himself a ship, within about four months ; with this he returned to Raiatea, and made voyages among other island groups, including Samoa and the neighbouring islands. Williams returned to England in 1834 (having previously visited New South Wales in 1821) ; and during his four years stay at home he had the New Testaimnt, which he had translated into Rarotongan, printed. Returning in 1838 to the Pacific, he visited the stations already established by him, as well as several fresh groups. He went as far west as the New Hebrides, and, while visiting Erromango, one of the group, for the first time, was murdered by the natives, 20th November 1839. Williams was probably on the whole one of the most successful of Christian missionaries, both as regards the extent and the per manence of the work he accomplished. His Narrative of Mis sionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands was published in 1837, and formed an important contribution to our knowledge of the islands with which Williams was acquainted. See Memoir of John Williams, by Rev. Ebenezer Front, London, 1843. WILLIAMS, ROGER (c. 1600-e. 1684), one of the founders of the colony of Rhode Island, North America, was born either of Welsh or Cornish parents, but this as well as the date of his birth has been the subject of dis pute. In early life he went to London, where his skill as a reporter commended him to the notice of Sir Edward Coke, who sent him to Sutton s Hospital (Charterhouse school). From Charterhouse he went to one of the uni versities, but whether to Oxford or Cambridge there is no direct evidence to show. The register of Jesus College, Oxford, has the following entry under date 30th April 1624: &quot; Rodericus Williams, films Gulielmi Williams, do Conwelgaio Pleb., an. Nat. 18.&quot; If this entry refers to the founder of Rhode Island he was of Welsh parentage and born about 1606. As Coke was a Cambridge student, the probability is, however, that Williams was sent there ; and a Roger Williams matriculated at Pembroke College of that university on 1st July 1625, and took his B.A. degree in January 1627. This Roger Williams was the second son of William Williams, and was baptized at Gwinsea, Cornwall, on 24th July 1600, a date which cor responds with a statement regarding his age made by Williams himself. After leaving the university he entered on the study of law ; but, soon forsaking it for theology, he was admitted into holy orders and is said to have had a parochial charge. On account of his Puritan beliefs he left England for Massachusetts Bay, where he arrived in the beginning of 1631. He accepted an invitation to become pastor of a church at Salem, on 12th April 1631, the same day that the magistrates were assembled at Boston to express disapproval of the scheme. To escape persecution he went to Plymouth, beyond the jurisdiction of Massachusetts Bay, and became assistant pastor there ; but in the autumn of 1633 he returned to Salem as assist ant pastor, succeeding in the following year as sole pastor. Chiefly on account of his pronounced opinions regarding the restricted sphere of the civil magistrate in religious matters, he came into conflict with the court of Massa chusetts, and, being banished from the colony, left with a