Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/502

* WENCESLAS. 426 WENLOCK. son and successor of the Emperor Charles IV. At first he tried to restore order in Germany and to check the growth of the power of the nobles, but, proving unsuccessful, gave himself up to the pleasures of the chase and of wine. In 1393 he caused the priest John Nepomuk (see Joh.n of Nepomukj to be tortured to death for refusing to betray the secrets of the confessional. In 1394 the Bohemian nobles organized a conspiracy, arrested him, and confined him at Prague; but he was re- leased by the inlluence of the German princes. In 13i).T Weneeslas sold to Gian Galeazzo Visconti the title of Duke of Milan for 100,000 gold florins. He joined with France in the attempt to put an end to the great Schism by demanding the resigna- tion of the rival popes, Boniface IX. and Benedict XIIT. This resulted in arousing the enmity of the powerful Archbishop of ^lainz, through whose influence Weneeslas in 1400 was deposed as Em- peror by a majority of the Imperial electors, Rupert of the Palatinate being chosen to succeed him. In Bohemia, meanwhile, fresh strife had arisen, and in 1402 his brother Sigismund ar- rested Weneeslas and imprisoned him for fifteen months in Vienna. Weneeslas favored Huss and his party, and his decree of .January 18, 1409. brought about the secession of the Germans from the University of Prague, and thus greatly weakened the German ascendency in Bohemia. Not long after this he resigned the reins of government in Bohemia to Sigismund. Consult : Lindner, (leschichte des deiitschen Reiclies unter Koniff Wenzel (Brunswick, 1875-80) ; Palacky, Gcschirhte von Biihmcn, vol. iii. (Prague, 1844). WEN-CHOW, wun'chou'. A departmental city of Che-Kiang, China, opened as a treaty port in 1877. It stands on the right bank of the Ow River about 20 miles from the sea (Map: China, F 6). Its walls are 35 feet high, have a circuit of 6 miles, and are pierced with 7 gates, the east and west walls passing over low hills which they partly inclose. It stands in a well- watered plain and is intersected by numerous tidal canals. The streets are unusually clean, and the shops good. In the middle of the river is a small island covered with the buildings of a Buddhist monastery, flanked by two pagodas, dating from the ninth and tenth centuries re- spectively. The town has no direct foreign trade. Population, about 85,000. WEN'DELL, B.KRETT (1855—). An Ameri- can author and educator, bom in Boston, Mass. He graduated from Harvard College in 1877, and then studied at the Harvard Law School. From 1878 to 1880, he practiced law, first in New York City, then in Boston. He was then made instructor in English at Harvard, became assistant professor in 1888, and professor in 1898. His published worlcs include novels, biography, critical essays, and treatises on Eng- lish composition and literary history. Among them are The Duchess Emilia (1885) and Ran- IhWh Remains (188C), both novels; Enalish CnmposiUon (1891); Cotton ilather (1891); f>trtHrieri, and Other Essays Covcernina America (1893) ; William Hhakspere (1894),; Raleigh in Guiana (1894); and A Literary History of America (1900), a work of great .suggestiveness. much criticised on account of its unsympathet'C attitude toward many popular writers, but in many ways the ablest study yet produced in its field. WENDISH HANGXIAGE. A Slavic tongue now spoken by about 115,000 persons within the German Empire. ( See Wends. ) Wendish was in ancient chronicles the generic name for Slavic. Little by little German began to oust Wendish, and by the fifteenth century the process was completed in 'the north, while in the south the struggle is still going on. The last religious service in Wendish in the north was performed at Liineburg in 1751, and in 1820 old men were still living who could speak Wendish ; but at present there is not a single person to be found in the region who knows the language. The South Wendish, at present called simply Wend- ish, Lusatian, Lusatian-Serbian. Sorbian or Sora- bian, had a diff'erent fate. Hemmed in by the Germans, it survived in Lusatia. As a literary language its domain was extremely restricted until about the middle of the nineteenth century, since which time a considerable national Wend- ish literature has been developed. Wends, a Slavic tribe of the western group, whose migrations early in the Middle Ages car- ried them from their primitive seats into the heart of modern Germany. At the time of the rise of the German kingdom we find them occupy- ing the country between the Elbe and Saale on the west and the Bolier on the east and between the parallel of Berlin on the north and the Erzgebirge on the south. The early kings of Germany waged bloody wars against them and they were gradually forced eastward and finally subdued. A fragment of the Wends has sur- vived to the present day in Lusatia (part of the Prussian provinces of Brandenburg and Silesia and the eastern part of the Kingdom of Saxony). They call themselves Serbs (Serbjo), w'hence "the German name Sorben (Sorbs), which is applied by historians to the medi;eval Wends. In early times the German tribes called their Slavic neighbors by the general designation of Wends. The Wends or Sorbs number about 115.000. They are a peasant people, mostly Protestants. See Wendish Language. WENER, va'ner. Lake. See Veneb. WEN'LEY, Robert Makk (ISGI— ). A Scotch-American teacher and philosophical writ- er, born in Edinburgh. Scotland. He graduated at the University of Glasgow in 1884, and stud- ied in Italy, France, and Germany. From 1886 to 1894 he was assistant professor of logic at Glasgow: from 1888 to 1895 was head of the philosophical department in Queen Margaret Col- lege. Glasgow University; and in 1890 became hend of the department of pliilosophy in the University of Jlichigan. He was associate edi- tor of the Dictiovitry of Philosophy, and pub- lished: f^oerates and Christ (1889) : Anjiects of Pessimism (1894); Contemporary Theolo/jt/ and Theism (1897); Introduction tri Kant (1897); and Preparation for Christianitt/ in the Ancient TTorUI (18!18). WEN'LOCK. A numicipal borough in Shrop- shire. England. 12 miles southeast of Shrews- bury (Map: England. T) 4). The principal buildings are the church, bearing traces of Saxon and NnruKin arcliiteeture: the town hall, an in- teiesting structure, decorated internally with elaborate onk carvings of the time of Charles