WALTER, JOHANNES WILHELM VON: German Protestant; b. at St. Petersburg, Russia, Oct. 26, 1876. He was educated at the universities of Dorpat (1894-99), Leipsic (1899-1900), and Göttingen (1900-01); became privat-docent for historical theology at Göttingen (1901); and extraordinary professor of church history at Breslau, 1909. In theology he belongs to the modern positive school, and has written pas Lebert Roberts von Arbr£ssel (Göttingen, 1901); Die ersten Wanderprediger Frankreichs (2 vols., Leipsic, 1903-06); Das Wesen der Religion each Erasmus and Luther (1906); Die Absolutheit des Christertturns und die Mission (1906); Franz von Assisi und die Nachahmung Christi (1910); and Frauenlos and Frauertarbeit in der Geschichte des Christums (1911); and edited Erasmus de libero arbitrio dtarptg~ ~ (1910). He is also editor of Die Theologie der Gegenwart (1907 sqq.)

WALTERS, CHARLES ENSOR: English Methodist; b. at Milborne Port (10 m. s.e. of Ilchester), Somersetahire, Dec. 18, 1872. He was educated at

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Wesleyan Theological College, Richmond, Surrey (graduated, 1895); became assistant to H. P. Hughes in the West London Mission, of which he was chosen superintendent on the death of Hughes in 1902. In 1890 he was elected a member of the St. Pancras Borough Council, and from that year until 1892 was chairman of the Public Health Committee, while in 1898 he was made a member of the St. Pancras Ves try and local manager of the London School Board. He is editor of The Advance.

WALTHER, viil'ter, CARL FERDINAND WILHELM: German-American Lutheran, founder of the Synod of Missouri (see Lutherans, III., 5, § 1); b. at Langenchursdorf (near Waldenburg, 37 m. s.e. of Leipsic) Oct. 25, 1811; d. at St. Louis, Mo., May 7, 1887. He was educated at the University of Leip sic (1829-33); was private tutor at Cahla, Altenburg (1834-36); and pastor at Braunsdorf for a year (1837-38). His firm orthodoxy and resistance to the rationalism prevailing about him, combined with the hopelessness of his endeavors to reform the moral and spiritual life of his congregation, led him to join the company of emigrants led by a pastor named Stephan. Early in 1839 he reached New Orleans, and by February the party, which num bered about 800, reached Missouri, some settling in St. Louis and the remainder in Perry Co., Mo. But before many months it was found that Stephan was unworthy of confidence, and it was mainly through the efforts of Walther that his wavering comrades regained their courage. In Feb., 1841, he was cho sen pastor of the Lutheran congregation at St. Louis, and in Sept., 1844, began to edit the semimonthly Der Lutheraner. The next step was the foundation of the Synod of Missouri, and after a preliminary session at Fort Wayne, in 1846, the first convention of the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Mis souri, Ohio, and Other States was held at Chicago in Apr., 1847. The synod took charge of the educa tional institution which had been founded at Alten burg, and in 1849 transferred it to St. Louis, Wal ther becoming the directing professor of the theological seminary, though his old congregation insisted that he should preach thrice annually and exercise a general supervision over it. Walther now became involved in a controversy with Lohe (q.v.), who was not in sympathy with the democratic organization favored by the head of the Missouri Synod, and in 1851 this body determined to send Walther and Wyneken as delegates to Ger many to seek to avoid any possible schism. Lohe was in favor of the plan, and the delegates proceeded to visit all the prominent Lutherans of the mother country, though Walther himself remained chiefly in Erlangen, gathering material for his attack on the High Church principles advocated by Grabau and the Buffalo Synod (see Lutherans, III, 5, § 2), the result being Die Stimme unserer Kirche in der Frsrge von Kirche and Amt (Erlangen, 1852). In Oct., 1851, Walther and Lohe met in personal con ference, and the former, while recognizing the diffi culty of reconciling their views on ordination, was able to express lively hopes of reunion, though this was not destined to be realized. In 1853, to give the Lutherans a trustworthy text of Luther's ver-

sion of the Bible, Walther founded the St. Louis Bible Society, of which he remained president until his death; and in 1855 he established the periodical Lehre and Wehre. He was also the leader of the Missourians at the conferences with the Buffalo Synod in 1866 and the Iowa Synod in 1867. In 1868-69 he conducted the conferences with the synods of Ohio, Wisconsin, and Illinois, which led to corporate union between these bodies and the Synod of Missouri, and in 1872 he was chosen president

i of the synodal conference of all western Lutherans in sympathy with the Missouri position. In addition to his other activities, Walther was a voluminous writer, his chief productions being as fol lows: Die rechte Gestalt einer vom Staate unabhcingigen evangelisch-lutherischen .Orlsgemeinde (St. Louis, 1863); Amerikanisch-lutherische Pastoral-Theologie vom Jahr 1872 (1872); a new edition of J. G. Baier's Compendium theologise posilivce (1879); and the homiletic collections: Amerikanisch-lutlaerischeEvangelien-Postille (1871); Lutherische Brosamen (1876); Amerikanisch-lutherische Epistel-Postille (1882); and the posthumous Ansprachen and Gebete (1888) and Kasual-Predigten and Reden (1889.)

(Adolph Spaeth†.)

Bibliography: . Gunther, C. W. F. Walther_ Lebensbild,

St. Louis, 1890; C. Hochstetter, Die Geschichte der Missouri-Synode, Dresden, 1885; C. AV. Ernst, in The Watchman, Boston, June 7, 1881; H. E. Jacobs, in American Church History Series, vol. iv. passim, New Fork, 1893; G. I. Fritschel, Geschichte der lutherisrlzen liirche in Amerika, ii. 184 sqq., Gütersloh, 1897; J. Deinzer, Wilhelm Lbhe's Leben, vol. iii., 3d ed., Gütersloh, 1901.