[Wicliffe, John], or Wyclif, the "Morning Star of the Reformation," born at Hipswell, near Richmond, Yorkshire; studied at Oxford, and became Master of Balliol in 1361, professor of Divinity in 1372, and rector of Lutterworth in 1375; here he laboured and preached with such faithfulness that the Church grew alarmed, and persecution set in, which happily, however, proved scatheless, and only the more emboldened him in the work of reform which he had taken up; and of that work the greatest was his translation of the Bible from the Vulgate into the mother-tongue, at which, with assistance from his disciples, he laboured for some 10 or 15 years, and which was finished in 1380; he may be said to have died in harness, for he was struck with paralysis while standing before the altar at Lutterworth on 29th December 1384, and died the last day of the year; his remains were exhumed and burned afterwards, and the ashes thrown into the river Swift close by the town, "and thence borne," says Andrew Fuller, "into the main ocean, the emblem of his doctrine, which now is dispersed all the world over" (1325-1384).
[Widdin] (14), a town on the right bank of the Danube, Bulgaria; is a centre of industry and trade; was a strong place, but by decree of the Berlin Congress in 1879 the fortress was demolished.
[Wieland, Christoph Martin], eminent German littérateur, born near Biberach, a small village in Swabia, son of a pastor of the pietist school; studied at Tübingen; became professor of Philosophy at Erfurt, and settled in Weimar in 1772 as tutor to the two sons of the Duchess Amalia, where he by-and-by formed a friendship with Goethe and the other members of the literary coterie who afterwards settled there; he wrote in an easy and graceful style, and his best work is a heroic poem entitled "Oberon" (1733-1813).
[Wieliczka] (6), a town in Austrian Galicia, near Cracow, famous for its salt mines, which have been wrought continuously since 1250, the galleries of which extend to more than 50 m. in length, and the annual output of which is over 50,000 tons.
[Wier, Johann], physician, born in North Brabant; was distinguished as the first to attack the belief in witchcraft, and the barbarous treatment to which suspects were subjected; the attack was treated as profane, and provoked the hostility of the clergy, and it would have cost him his life if he had not been protected by Wilhelm IV., Duke of Jülich and Clèves, whose physician he was (1516-1566).
[Wiertz, Antoine], a Belgian painter, born at Dinant, did a great variety of pictures on a variety of subjects, some of them on a large scale, and all in evidence of a high ideal of his profession, and an original genius for art (1806-1865).
[Wiesbaden] (65), capital of Hesse-Nassau, a famous German watering-place, abounding in hot springs, 5 m. NW. of Mainz; has a number of fine buildings and fine parade grounds, picture-gallery, museum, and large library; is one of the best-frequented spas in Europe, and is annually visited by 60,000 tourists or invalids; it was famed for its springs among the old Romans.
[Wife of Bath], one of the pilgrims in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales."
[Wigan] (55), a town in Lancashire, 18 m. NW. of Manchester, in the centre of a large coal-field; cottons are the staple manufactures; is a place of ancient date, and has some fine buildings.
[Wight, Isle of], an island in the S. of England, included in Hampshire, from which it is separated by the channel of the [Solent] (q. v.); it is of triangular shape, is 23 m. of utmost length, and about 14 m. of utmost breadth; it is traversed by a range of chalk downs from E. to W.; the soil is fertile, especially in the E.; the scenery rich and varied, and the climate charming; Newport is the capital in the centre; near Cowes is Osborne House, the summer residence of Queen Victoria.