WILLIRAM (WILTRAM, WALTRAM): German Benedictine and translator of the Song of Solomon; b. in the region of Worms; d. at Ebersberg (18 m. e.s.e. of Munich) Jan. 5, 1085. After studying for a time at Paris, he was attached to the cathedral at Bamberg, but later retired to Fulda,~mwhich he left in 1048 to become abbot of Ebersberg. His efforts to raise the tone of his monas£ery seem not to have been unopposed, and he frequently lamented the neglect of study as compared with the zeal for learning at Fulda. Williram is remembered for his Old High German paraphrase of the Song of Solomon, for which he availed himself entirely of patristic exegesis, adding nothing of his own. His method of interpretation was allegoristic, the Song referring to the love of Christ for the Church. His work was in three columns, the first containing a paraphrase of the Vulgate (which occupied the middle column) in Latin leonine hexameters, and the third being devoted to his exegesis in vernacular prose. The popularity of his production is evident from the fact that within a century it was translated into Dutch, while between 1147 and 1196 it was revised for use in another monastery, either by Rilindis and Herrat, abbesses of Hohenburg in Alsace, for nuns, or by some monk for a male order. The first edition of Williram's work was by Menrad Molther (Hagenau, 1528), and among more recent editions may be mentioned those of H. Hoffmann (on the basis of the Breslau and Leyden manuscripts; Breslau, 1827), J. Haupt (Dal Hohe Lied, übersetzt von Willeram, erklart von Rilindis and Herrat, Aebtissinen zu Hohenburg im Elsass, Vienna, 1864), and J. Seemuller (Strasburg, 1878).

Bibliography: H. R. S. Riechau, Williram, Abt zu Ebersberg in Oberbaiern, Magdeburg, 1877; J. Seemiiller, Die Handschriften and Quellen von Willirams deutscher Paraphrase des Hohen Liedes, Strasburg, 1877; F. Junghans, Die Mischprosa Willirams, Berlin, 1893; Hayner, " Das St. Trudperter [Hohenburger] Hohe Lied," in H. Paul and W. Braune, Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache and Literatur, iii (1876), 491 sqq.

WILLSON, DAVID BURT: Reformed Presbyterian; b. in Philadelphia, Pa., Sept. 27, 1842. He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania (A.B., 1860), Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia (graduated, 1863), the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Pittsburg, Pa (1865-69), and the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania (1869-70). From 1862 to 1865 he was in the medical service of the Union Army, and in 1866-68, while pursuing his theological studies, was a teacher at the Newell Institute, Pittsburg, Pa.; was pastor in Pittsburg, Pa. (1870-75), and was appointed professor of Biblical literature in the seminary of his denomination in the same city (1875), which position he still holds. He edited the monthly Reformed Presbyterian and Covenanter (1874-95), and is an alsociate editor of The Christian Nation (New York).