WINFRID (WYNFRITH). See Boniface, Saint.

WINKELER, vin'ke-ler: A designation of the Waldensians (q.v.) and then of the Waldensian itin erant preachers, employed especially in Strasburg and perhaps also in neighboring regions. It is trans mitted through a document discovered about 1840 in old church archives in Strasburg. The document contains the records of a Waldensian trial held about 1400 and bears the superscription Secta hereticorum, beside which has been written by a later hand " Die Winkeler." At first it was thought that they formed a separate sect whose views agreed with those of the Waldenses; but since the discovery of further sources it has been proved that they are identical with the Waldenses. The term may have been a nickname. Thirty-two adherents of the Walden sian preachers in Strasburg were captured and ban ished about 1400 on charges of heresy. But there remained in Strasburg a Waldensian congregation to which at a later time belonged Friedrich Reiser (b.1401 in Deutsch near Donauworth, and because of that named Tunawer or Danuvius), one of the best known Waldensian preachers of those days, whose aim was to unite Hussites and Waldensians. In 1458 Reiser together with many male and female adher ents was burned (among whom was Anna or Barbara Weiler) under the Strasburg inquisitor Johannes Wegrauf.

(Ferdinand Cohrs.)

Bibliography: T. W. Rohrich, in ZHT, x (1840),118 sqq.; idem, Mittheilungen aus der Geschichte der evangelischen Kirche des Alsass, i. 38 sqq., Strasburg, 1855; K. Schmidt, in ZHT, 3, x (1840), 31 sqq.; G. F. Ochsenbein, Aus derv schweizerischen Volksleben des 16. Jahrhunderts, Bern, 1881; H. Haupt, Die religirsen Sekten in Franken vor der Reformation, Würzburg, 1882; idem, Waldensertum and Inquisition im sudiistlichen Deutschland, Freiburg, 1890; idem, in Historisches Taschenbuch for 1888; L. Heller, Die Reformation und die altere Reformparteien, Leipsic, 1885; idem, Johann von Staupitz und die Anfange der Reformation , ib. 1888; K. Afiiller, Die Waldenser und ihre einzel nen Gruppen, Gotha, 1886; W. Bohm, Friedrich Reisers Reformation des Kaisers Sigmund, ib. 1876; and the literature under Waldenses.