Watt, Joachim von

WATSON, THOMAS: Non-conformist divine; d. at Barnaton (28 m. n.e. of London) 1686 (buried there July 28). He was educated at Emanuel College, Cambridge, and in 1646 was appointed to preach at St. Stephen's, Walbrook. He showed strong Presbyterian views during the civil war, with, however, an attachment for the king; because of his share in Love's plot to recall Charles II., he was imprisoned in 1651, but was released and reinstated vicar of St. Stephen's, 1652. He acquired fame as a preacher, but in 1662 was ejected at the Restoration; he continued, however, to exercise

his ministry privately. In 1672 after the declaration of indulgence he obtained a license for Crosby Hall, where he preached for several years, till his retirement to Barnaton upon the failure of his health. Watson was a man of learning, and acquired fame by his quaint devotional and expository writings. Of his many works may be mentioned, Avraprcua, or the Art of Divine Contentment (London, 1653); The Saints' Delight (1657); Jerusalem's Glory (1661); The Divine Cordial (1663); The GodlyMan's Picture (1666); The Holy Eucharist (166$); Heaven Taken by Storm (1669); and A Body of Practical Divinity; . . One Hundred Seventy Six Sermons on the Lesser Catechism (1692).

Bibliography: E. CalamY, NmeonJormist's Memorial, ed. S. Palmer, i. 188-191, London, 1775; Walter Wilson, Hist. and Antiquities of Dissenting Churches in London, i. 33134, London, 1810; A. i Wood, Alhence Oxonienaes, ed. P. Bliss, iii. 982, 1001, 1235, 4 vols., London, 1813-20; W. A. Shaw, English Church . . . under the Commonwealth, 1640--60, ii.104-107, London, 1900; DNB, Ix. 37-38.

WATT, vot (VADIAN), JOACHIM VON: Reformer of St. Gall; b. at St. Gall Dec. 28, 1484; d. there Apr. 6, 1551. As a humanist Watt was known by the name of Vadianus. He studied at the University of Vienna, where he took his degree in 1508, and in 1517 became teacher of rhetoric and poetics there. In 1518 Watt left Vienna, to become city physician of St. Gall. Following the medical profession he was also a member of the legislative council of his native town. Watt's ideas of reform emanated, much like the principles of his friend Zwingli, from Humanism, striving for a simple personal faith, instead of the traditional dogmatism of the church. He was an ardent admirer of Erasmus, whom he first met at Basel in 1522, while Zwingli in Zurich, with whom he had corresponded from 1511, exercised a leading influence over him. In 1520 he opened correspondence with Luther, and distributed his writings among friends. Watt next founded a"Biblical school" at St. Gall. His lectures in this school resulted in the publication of his religious-humanistic work Epitome trium terrce partium Asice, Africte et Europce (Zurich, 1534). Meanwhile the Reformation movement had seized the .city. Overstrained enthusiasm for communistic chiliasm made some reservation advisable, particularly in consequence of the wish of the conservatives to avoid a.rupture with the abbey of St. Gall. , This sentiment controlled the smaller, or executive, council, while at the same time an Anabaptist idea of the kingdom of heaven continued to grow and excite many people, influenced in part by Kessler's Bible lectures. This more conservative party gained the support of the larger or legislative council, where Watt held the leadership, and opposed the radical element. A motion proposed to the joint session, to suspend public explanation of the Bible outside of the churches, made the radicals more determined in their effort for the recognition of their ideal of freedom. Provoked at their ill success and the preferment which Kessler had received at the hands of the council, they became outspoken Anabaptists. They secured the personal aid of Grebel and Blaurock, and, led by Uoliman, gained control of the radical element of the St. Gall populace. Uoliman was called before the council to justify the

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separatistic administration of the sacraments, but it was determined to reach a decision by a final debate, in which the cause of the Anabaptists was defeated, according to the opinion of the dominant element. Watt, to whom Zwingli had sent his treatise, Yom Tauf, Wiedertauf and Kindertauf, in 1524, was the center of this controversy and contributed a comprehensive work against the Anabaptists, which has been lost.

Watt now reorganized the church of St. Gall by measures which included the submission of the clergy to the city council. When Watt finally was elected chief magistrate of the city in 1526, the victory of the St. Gall Reformation seemed assured. The success of the disputation of Bern (1528), in which Watt was moderator, gave occasion for the enforcement of the Reformation in the country region subject to the abbey. Wearied by the disputes growing out of the question of disposal of this abbey, Watt gradually became less prominent in controversial issues. He now devoted his interests to the study of the history of his native city and the abbey to which the city owed its existence. After the battle of Kappel, in which Zwingli fell, 1531, Watt witnessed the restoration of Roman Catholicism in the abbey, and political derangement in the city. He continued his work for the welfare of the church for twenty years. To bring about an agreement concerning the views of the Eucharist, he wrote his Aphorismorum de considerations eucharistiae libri VI (Zurich, 1535). In his writings Pro veritate carnis triumphantis Christi and Epistola ad Zuiccium, together with the Antilogia ad Gasparis Schwenkfeldii argumenta conscripta (1540), directed against Schwenkfeld, he again defended the Swiss Christology. But the study of the historical past was of more interest to him than theological analysis. His Grosse Chronik der Aebte des Klosters St. Gallen (3 vols., St. Gall, 1575-79), a historical justification of the Reformation, may be considered one of the most important controversial works on the history of the Swiss and the German reformation.

(H. Hermelink.)

Bibliography: The German historical writings by Watt were edited by E. G�tzinger, 3 vols., St. Gall, 1875-79; the Ferrago is in M. Goldast, Rerum Alamannicarum scriptores, iii. 1-80, ed. H. C. Senkenberg, Frankfort, 1730. His letters were collected by E. Arbenz, for the Historischer Verein of St. Gall, Mitteilungen, vols. xxiv.-xxv., xxvii.-xxix. Other sources are Johann Kessler's Vita, revised at St. Gall, 1865, and his Sabbata, ed. E. G�tzinger, for the St. Gall Verein, 1866-1868, and in a new ed., St. Gall, 1901. Consult: T. Pressel, Joachim Vadian, Elberfeld, 1861; R. St�helin, in Beitr�ge zur vaterl�ndischen Geschichte, xi. 191-262, Basel, 1882; E. Arbenz, in Neujahrsbl�tter des historischen Vereins, St. Gall, 1886, 1895, 1905; E. Egli, Die St. Gallen T�ufer, Zurich, 1887; K. D�ndliker, Geschichte der Schweiz, ii. 424 sqq., Zurich, 1894; idem, Short Hist. of Switzerland, pp. 137, 154, 156, London, 1899; E. G�tzinger, in Schriften des Vereins f�r Reformationsgeschichte, 1 (1895); W. D. McCrackan, Rise of the Swiss Republic, pp. 93, 264, 2d ed., New York, 1901; S. M. Jackson, Huldreich Zwingli, passim, 2d ed., New York, 1903.

WATTS, ISAAC:

Founder of English hymnody; b. at Southampton, England, July 17, 1674; d. at Stoke Newington (4 m. n.e. of Charing Cross, London) Nov. 25, 1748. He obtained an excellent education at Southampton grammar-school, then, join ing the dissenters, he studied at an academy at Stoke Newington, where he acquired his accuracy of thought and habit of laborious analysis; leaving the academy in 1694, he spent two years at home, beginning his hymn-writing. He was private tutor, 1696-1701; became assistant pastor in the chapel at Mark Lane, 1699, and sole pastor, 1702; because of frequent attacks of illness, Samuel Price had assisted him from 1703 and was chosen copastor 1713; his illness increased with time, but the congregation refused to part with one who had become so famous and beloved. Watts was one of the most popular writers of his time; the Horae Lyricae (London, 1706) won him fame as a poet, but it was his hymns that so distinguished him. His poetry by giving utterance to the spiritual emotions made hymn-singing an earnest devotional power; the success of his hymns was tremendous, the two staple volumes were the Hymns (1707) and the Psalms of David (1719). The various pieces numbered about 600, of which quite a number are still in general use. His best pieces rank among the finest hymns in English. Watts was also the founder of children's hymnology, writing the Divine Songs (1715). For an estimate of his place in hymnody, see Hymnology, IX., � 3. He was opposed in 1719 to the imposition of the doctrine of the Trinity on independent ministers. He held a theory which he hoped might close the breach between Arianism and the faith of the Church; he maintained that the human soul of Christ, created before the world, had been united to the divine principle in the Godhead known as the Sophia or Logos, and that the personality of the Holy Ghost was figurative rather than literal. He held liberal views on education, and his learning and piety attracted a great many. His works, outside his hymns, embrace The Knowledge of the Heavens and the Earth Made Easy (London, 1726); An Essay towards the Encouragement of Charity Schools (I728); Reliquiae Juveniles (1734); Philosophical Essays (3d ed., 2 pts., 1742). His Works appeared ed. D. Jennings and P. Doddridge (6 vols., London, 1753; with Memoirs by G. Burder, 6 vols., 1810-11; 9 vols., Leeds, 1810-11); and Posthumous Works (2 vols., London, 1779).

Bibliography: Lives have been written by T. Gibbons, London, 1780; S. Johnson, London, 1785, 2d ed., 1791; T. Milner, London, 1834; E. Paxton Hood, London, 1875. Consult further: Walter Wilson, Hist. and Antiquities of the Dissenting Churches, 4 vols., London, 1808-1814; R. E. A. Willmott, Lives of the Sacred Poets, London, 1838; F. Saunders, Evenings with the Sacred Poets, London, 1870; S. W. Duffield, English Hymns, pp. 61-64, New York, Chicago, 1901; Julian, Hymnology, pp. 349-350, 920, 1236-1241; DNB, lx, 67-70.