Wessel, Johann

WESSEL, vessel, JOHANN (WESSEL HARMENSS GANSFORT or GOESEVOYRDT).

Life (§ 1).
Christology (§ 4).

Penance, Confession, Absolution (¢.7).

Writings (§ 2).
Doctrine of Justification (§ 5).
Indulgences and Purgatory (§ 8).
Basal Religious Principles (§ 3).
Doctrine of the Church (§ 8).

Johann Wessel, or, better, Weasel Harmenss Gansfort or Goesevoyrdt, the pre-Lutheran Re former and one of the Brethren of the Common Life, was born at Groningen, Holland, about 1419, and died there Oct. 4, 1489. While his name is a matter of some doubt, it is most probable that his baptis mal name was `Vessel, that he assumed I. Life. the name of Johannes while living with the Brethren at Zwolle, that the name Harmenss comes from the local custom of carrying the father's name (in this case Barmen) with the addition meaning "son," that he Latinized his name Weasel as Basilius, while Gansfort is the name of a Westphalian Village. Weasel's preparatory studies were carried on at. Zwolle, and he matriculated at Cologne in Oct., 1449. His early days at Zwolle

had an abiding influence upon him, though that influence was not controlling;.. his predilections for the logical and the philosophical were strong, so that while the reverential tendencies of Zwolle affected him, the narrowness of conception there current repelled him. How far Weasel was influenced by the teachers at Cologne is not determinable, though his realism seems to have come through the Thomistic traditions fostered there. He seems to have found his way to Bernard, Augustine, and Plato, and then to have been influenced by Humanism (q.v.). He learned Hebrew and Greek. His interests were very wide, and he journeyed to Heidelberg and Paris to take part in the dispute between nominalism and realism, in the course of which he abjured realism for nominalism, a fact which may be of significance

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for his later life, since nominaliata were the antipapal party. It appears possible that he lived at Paris for sixteen years, without other definite purpose than to teach and learn. His humanistic interests and his acquaintance with Cardinal Bessarion led him to Rome, where he was found about 1470. Thence he returned to Paris, where he influenced such men as Reuchlin and Agricola, and where he won the title of magister contradictionum by his questioning spirit. A more restful place was sought by him in Basel, and he declined an invitation from the bishop of Utrecht to go to that place. By Apr., 1479, he was back in his own home. He lived part of the time at the Clarissa cloister at Groningen, and part of the time with the Brethren at Agnetenberg near Zwolle.

He frequently visited the flourishing abbey of Adewert, and found a friend and protector in Bishop David of Utrecht. He was surrounded by a circle of admiring friends and pupils and enjoyed friendly intercourse with such older men as the abbot of Adewert, Heinrich von Rees, the philologist Rudolf van Langen, and Paulus Pelantius. He taught a religiously deepened and theologically directed Humanism. After a period of gloomy doubting that threatened to rob him of his entire faith, he was able before his death to say, "I know nobody but Jesus crucified." He was buried in the church of the cloister at Groningen, where a memorial stone was laid in 1637, replaced by another between 1730 and 1742.

The extant literary productions of Wessel date from the last decade of his life. They are chiefly short treatises in the form of aphoa. Writings. risms arranged under special theological topics. His intercourse with the "religious" at Groningen and Zwolle led him to compose two books as guides in practical religion, neither of them published, however, before his death. The one dealt with prayer, the other was the Scala naeditationis. After his death Cornelius Hoen (Honius) of The Hague industriously collected Wessel's manuscripts. What he found was sent to Luther and Zwingli, so that a collection of the tractlike treatises appeared with the title Farrago uberrima (Wittenberg, 1522 and 1523). The fact that few of Wessel's productions have come down may be explained by the remark of the book-dealer Adam Petri, that the mendicant monks acted with fiery zeal against Wessel's papers.

Wessel's basic religious principles are essentially those of Augustine, through whom he reached the

Platonic conclusion that God is Abso3. Basal lute Being; he is the necessary exist-

Religiousence, as opposed to the finite and in- Principles. cidental. The end of man is to raise himself to this stage of absolute being by complete self-surrender and self-denial. But such elevation above everything earthly is impossi ble without divine mediation. God has sent down the fulness of his being through the son, the virgin, and the angels, who act as intermediaries. Nature is the ordinary expression of the will of God, while miracle is the will of the same God expressed in what is unusual. As far as his relations to his im mediate physical environments are concerned, man is left to his own counsel, wherein his personality is recognized in its specific value a9 against absolute being. Man is essentially in the image of God, bearing the trinitarian characteristics of mind or memory, intelligence, and will. The original state of man was less perfect than that of the angels, since he was on a lower stage. Hence the image of God required purification and perfection through the angels. The mind is to be purified by wise knowledge of God, intelligence is to be illumined by the sublime glorification of God, and the will is to be perfected through the blessed enjoyment of God. The Father works on the mind, the Word on the intelligence, and the Holy Spirit on the will. Evidently such a foundation, mingling together arbitrarily the metaphysical with the ethical, must have its effect upon the doctrine of sin. Sin is defined as an abiding below the ideal, remaining behind the goal of accomplishment. Distinction is made between sins of commission and omission, and the guilt which results from breach of the law which requires man to be perfect as God is perfect. Before the fall there were venal faults in a failure to attain the perfection required; in the fall there was additional the contempt of divine revelation. Weasel knew of a fall not only in the world of man but in that of angels: the former left an abiding degeneration; the latter had also its effects on man because of the intimate relations which existed between men and angels, the latter being mediaries, as stated above. The fallen angels also worked upon man, awakening self-love, in which original sin essentially consists. While man is not in a position alone to reach perfection, the conditions are always at hand for attainment of this, and Father, Son, and Holy Spirit cooperate to this end.

In Wessel's Christology the idea of completeness is put in the foreground as against the idea of redemption and reconciliation. Since

4. Christology.

the creature from ,the beginning is in need of reconciliation with the absolute God, the incarnation was determined upon and prepared. That apart from the fall the Word would have become flesh is affirmed. Why God became man is answered by the statements that it was in order that the community of the triumphant Church might not be deprived of its head, that the building of the holy temple might have its corner stone, that all creation might have its mediator, and that the whole army and people of God might have its king. The fall from life in God could be remedied and a return effected only through the flesh raised above every creature [through the incarnation]. The human in Christ was only the shell which the divine rulership and completeness was to fill. Wessel, in following out such a train of thought as the foregoing, was not satisfied with merely theoretical consequences. The individual character of the incarnation lay in the fact that in the whole life and particularly in the death of Christ existed the exposition of the content of the eternal Word. Thus the human side was at the fore in Wessel's Christology. The significance of the priesthood of Christ was also emphasized, and in this the self-emptying of the Word had its part in that as the sacrificial lamb the sufferings of Christ and his death were an

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equivalent which wrought satisfaction. There is not possible another victim for sin that is past, for when sin is remitted sin ceases; and when that takes place, righteousness begins. Wessel's doctrine of the saving value of Christ's death should not be, confused with the theories of Anaelin and Luther, although there are similarities of expression. The saving value of Christ's death consists in the absolute devotion of love which makes an immediate impression not only on sinners but upon all the imperfect, awakens love in them, draws them unto itself, and equips them with the Spirit, which in turn becomes a means of the full knowledge of God.

There can be no doubt that Wessel derived the salvation of the individual from a divine and absolute act of grace. As Christ was the

5. Doctrine first predestined one, so were all the of Justifica- members of the congregation of Christ

tion. predestined. Wessel follows the tradi tion of Augustine and of other theo logians before the Reformation. Faith is a gift of God, inclining the mind to accept the truth of the Gospel, and faith directs itself to the crucified Christ. Wessel's conception of justification is the same as Augustine's, viz., an imparting of God's righteous ness. Penitence is essentially contriteness of heart, a readiness to surrender self to the guidance of the divine revelation. It is a step in the process of the establishment of righteousness, and at a higher stage it becomes the right valuation of sin. In so far as penitence is pain, it is sorrow accompanying love because of inability to comprehend divine love in its full extent. The mystic love, which from the beginning operates in faith, can find satisfaction only in an ascetic liberation from the world. Vic tory over the world does not for Wessel mean the moral conquest and transformation of the world and of one's own life, but rather mystic iatlifference to the world as compared with knowledge and con templation of God. In this regard Wessel lacked the true Reformation spirit. His significance for the Reformation of the sixteenth century lies chiefly in his criticism upon ecclesiastical life.

In the medieval view the Church was a kind of sanitarium able with its treasures of grace to provide for men eternal salvation. This

6. Doctrine view Wessel rejected, and regarded the

of the Church as a communio to which all Church, belonged who were united to Christ in one faith, one hope, and one love. He did not stress, as did Augustine and his followers in the Middle Ages, the fact of predestination; he substituted for " the predestined " the phrase " the saints." The external unity of the Church under one pope was not essential but incidental. In expressing this opinion Wessel shook the cornerstone of the medieval ecclesiastical structure. Regarding the external form of the Church as a matter of indifference, Wessel saw no necessity for transforming it and thus his position remained essentially negative. Wessel denied to the Church all authority in matters of faith and all capacity to impart salvation with certainty. Neither the pope nor the Church is infallible. Many popes " committed pestilential errors: ' That Christians should submit blindly to the mandates of ecclesiastics is " irra-

tional " and " full of blasphemy." Councils are not infallible organs of the Spirit, and their findings are subject to the judgment of the laity. Wessel anticipated the Reformation in that he based his position on the authority of Scripture, though he conceded a certain authority to the Church even when it did not fall in with the Spirit as operative in the Word. Alongside of the inner priesthood there is an external, sacramental priesthood. He grants the rights of papal jurisdiction and of legislation relating to the outer peace and safety of the Church; but this has the nature of a contract. A transgression of the common rights by the ecclesiastical authority might as in the case of civil superiors be met with deposition. Wessel refused any especial efficacy to the priesthood. The claim that salvation was dependent upon the sacraments and that the priests imparted the sacraments, was disposed of by discounting the value of the latter. That Wessel did not expressly dispute the seven sacraments was because he saw no particular significance in them. He did not regard baptism as having power to cleanse from sin, or participation in the communion as a means of receiving the Spirit.' In the mass neither the " intention " of the celebrant nor the " judgment " of him for whom the mass was celebrated had any worth; everything depends upon the soul within, on love and internal character and longing, on spiritual hunger and thirst.

Wessel sharply criticized the medieval doctrine of Penance (q.v.). He was not able to see how there could be punishment after forgiveness; 7. Penance, imputation [of sin] comes to expression

Confession, only in punishment, and when impu-

Absolution. tation ceases, there can be no punishment. If God remits eternal punishment, why should he not remit the temporal also? It would be the greatest obstacle to piety if the pious had to carry constantly with them the thought of their own baseness. Corporal "contrition, affliction, chastisement, mortification," involved no more than a contrite body, not a contrite heart. The only real "satisfaction" (in the theological sense) is conversion. No duty can be imposed upon the converted other than that he sin no more, and that he love God with a pure affection. Similarly, confession is the consequence and not the condition of justification; it signifies hatred of sin. Indeed, it is better to praise God than to confess one's sins. Absolution is not within the power of the father confessor; it depends upon the inner disposition, which is unknown to the priest in the confessional. Absolution is an- accompaniment, not the essence, of justification. It comes with the awakening of love. God alone can act upon the inner soul of man. Human efficacy, whether of priest or holy person, is excluded. The reception of the believer into the community of the saints is but the recognition of an already accomplished divine act. The activity of the priest in the sacrament is' therefore merely ministerial. Penitence remains a purely ecclesiastical institution, and as such is not rejected by Wessel, but it is accompanied by abuses that must be opposed.

The most serious abuse associated with the Church's doctrine of penance was that of indul-

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gences. Wessel attacked this error from many sides. The pope had not the power to separate sin from punishment, the person from his acts. 8. Indul- There is to be no such distinction made genres and between temporal and eternal pun Purgatory. ishmenta as was often made the basis of an argument in favor of the indulgence. Indulgences, moreover, introduce con tradiction into the necessary connection of sin and punishment. Besides this, the pope can not step in between man and God, nor has he power over the merits of Christ nor over the efficacy of the saints' intercession. Wessel declined also the cur rent doctrine of purgatorial fire. He believed in the necessity of a continuous development of Christian life after death, and would not hear of rendering satisfaction for sins in purgatory. While the soul may in the future be purified of dross still clinging to it from its earthly existence, such a process must be spiritual and enjoyable rather than one producing misery. Entrance into "purgatory" must accord ingly be one step in a process of betterment, it must lead to a state of being superior to the first state of Adam, since the possibility of temptation is ex cluded. If there be "pain" in purgatory, that pain is sorrow rather than suffering--sorrow caused by the sense of unworthiness. It is the purifying pain of love of Christ. While Wessel has been perhaps too enthusias tically praised by Ullmann (see bibliography) as a "Reformer before the Reformation," it is equally a mistake to consider him an orthodox churchman. That he foreshadowed the German Reformation is evinced by his teachings as set forth above. Yet in many respects Weasel's face was turned backward toward Augustine and Bernard.

(S. D. van Veen.)

Bibliography: The only edition of the Opera was published at Groningen, 1614, reprint. Amsterdam, 1817. The earliest "Life" was by A. Hardenberg (A. Rizaeus) and was prefixed to the Opera, cat sup. Consult further: H. von der Hardt, Memoria Chrysolora, Byzarttini, Hehn atadt, 1718; J. (Vessel, G. H. Goetzi . . . commentationem . . de Joanne Wesselo . . tuebitur, Lübeck, 1719; J.M. Sehroeekh, Christliche Kirchengeschichte, xaxiii. 278 295, 45 vols., Leipsic, 1768-1812; W. Muurling, Commen tatio . . de Wesseli Gansjortii cum vita, Utrecht, 1831; idem, Oratio de Wesseli . . principiis atque virtuEtbus, Groningen, 1840; B. Bahring, Leben Johann Wessels, 2d ed., Bielefeld, 1852; O. Jaeger, J. Wycliffe und seine Bedeutwng für die Reformation, Halle, 1854; J. Friedrich, Johann Wessel, Regensburg, 1862; J. J. Doedes. in T.SK, 1870; P. Hoffstede de Groot, Johan Weasel Ganzeaoort, Groningen, 1871; C. Ullmann, Reformers before the Ref ormation, ii. 26315 (a critical account of the literature, pp. 610-815, which the earnest student should not over look), Edinburgh, 1877, cf. his Johann Weasel, ein Vorgung er Luthers, Hamburg, 1834; S. Kettlewell, Thomas a Kem pis, and the Brothers of Common Life, 2 vols., London, 1882, 2d ed., abridged, chap. xiv., ib. 1885; Bayle, Dic tionary, v. 543-547.