tipapal writings and was outlawed. At the same diet, the
estates agreed to the establishment of a government coun-
cil (Reichsregiment) to function in the absence of the em-
peror, and Charles made over the government of Austria
to his brother FERDINAND(I).
Wotton, Edward (1492–1555) English physician and
naturalist
Wotton was educated at his native Oxford and at Padua.
On his return to England he practiced medicine in Lon-
don and held office, including the presidency (1541–43),
in the College of Physicians. He was also the author of De
differentiis animalium (1551) which, though published in
Paris, was the first serious work on natural history written
by an Englishman. The work itself is derivative and con-
tains little that cannot be found in GESNER.
Wright, Edward (1558–1615) English mathematician
Wright was born in Garveston, Norfolk, and educated at
Cambridge. He became aware of the inadequacies of cur-
rent navigational practice during a voyage in 1589 to the
Azores. The conventional plane chart with its parallel
lines of latitude and longitude prevented mariners from
setting an accurate course directly on the chart; nor were
the mathematically sophisticated innovations of MERCA-
TORmuch help to the average seaman. Wright worked on
the problem, publishing tables in his Certaine Errors in
Navigation (1599) which allowed mariners to make the
necessary adjustments on their charts; for the first time
nautical triangles could be plotted, showing the correct re-
lation between direction and distance. After 1614 he lec-
tured on mathematics for the East India Company.
Wright’s translation into English of John NAPIER’s work on
logarithms was published in 1616.
Württemberg Confession (1552) The Protestant con-
fession of faith drawn up by the Württemberg reformer Jo-
hann Brenz (1499–1570) with the specific aim of
presenting the Protestant viewpoint at the Council of
TRENT. Comprising 35 articles, it is based on the Confes-
sion of AUGSBURG, and so is generally Lutheran in its
stance, though with some Calvinist elements. Consulted
by Archbishop PARKER, the confession played a role in the
evolution of the THIRTY-NINE ARTICLESof the Church of
England.
Wyatt, Sir Thomas (c. 1503–1542) English poet and
diplomat
Educated at Cambridge, he found favor at HENRY VIII’s
court, where he excelled at tournaments, music, and lan-
guages. He was reputed to have been a lover of Anne BO-
LEYNbefore she was courted by the king. Wyatt served as
high marshal of Calais (1529–30), but in 1536 he was de-
tained in the Tower, probably to give evidence against
Anne. In 1537 he was knighted and sent abroad on diplo-
matic missions. Wyatt’s enemies accused him of involve-
ment in Thomas CROMWELL’s treachery; in the Tower
again, he confessed to some faults and was pardoned by
Henry VIII in 1541. He died suddenly of a fever.
Wyatt’s fame rests mainly on his poetry. He was the
first to introduce the Petrarchan sonnet form to England.
His poems and songs, which convey a strong personal
quality, were printed in Certayne Psalmes...drawen into En-
glyshe meter (1549) and Tottel’s Miscellany (1557). His son,
Sir Thomas Wyatt the younger (c. 1521–54), was ex-
ecuted for instigating Wyatt’s Rebellion (1554), an
abortive protest against Mary I’s proposal to marry Philip
II of Spain.
Further reading: Elizabeth Heale, Wyatt, Surrey, and
Early Tudor Poetry (Harlow, U.K.: Pearson Longman,
1998); Raymond Southall, The Courtly Maker: An Essay on
the Poetry of Wyatt and his Contemporaries (Oxford, U.K.:
Blackwell, 1964).Wyclif, John (John Wycliffe, John Wicliff) (c. 1330–
1384) English philosopher and religious reformer
A Yorkshireman, Wyclif studied at Oxford and lectured on
philosophy there from the mid-1350s. His chief philo-
sophical work, the Summa de ente (c. 1365–72), rejects the
nominalism then current at Oxford, arguing that univer-
sals have a real, substantial existence as ideas in the mind
of God. Wyclif first emerged as the scourge of ecclesiasti-
cal abuses with two huge treatises on divine and civil au-
thority, De dominio civi and De dominio divino (1374–76);
here he distinguished between the eternal, invisible
Church and its visible institutions, arguing that the latter
could claim no authority when they departed from God’s
grace. He also challenged the Church to relinquish its en-
dowments and return to a state of poverty. Although these
views attracted fierce censure, Wyclif found a powerful pa-
tron in John of Gaunt, King Richard II’s uncle, who had
his own quarrel with the Church. Under Gaunt’s protec-
tion, Wyclif’s writings of the late 1370s became even more
provocative, insisting that the Bible was the sole founda-
tion for Christian belief and that the Scriptures provided
little support for papal authority and none for monasti-
cism.
However, in 1381 Wyclif alienated Gaunt and many
other supporters by switching his attack from the
Church’s institutions to its sacraments. In De eucharista he
argued against TRANSUBSTANTIATIONon technical, philo-
sophical grounds and inveighed against what he consid-
ered the superstitious abuse of the sacrament. Such ideas
were held especially dangerous after the Peasants’ Revolt
(1381), which was widely, if erroneously, thought to have
been inflamed by Wyclif’s earlier teaching. In 1382, 24
theses taken from Wyclif’s writings were condemned by a
special council at Blackfriars, London, and he and his fol-
lowers banned from preaching and lecturing. Now in poor
health, Wyclif retreated to his country parish of Lutter-WWyycclliiff,, JJoohhnn 5 50077