WILLIAMS, WILLIAM R: Baptist; b. in New York Oct. 14, 1804; d. there Apr. 1, 1885. He was graduated from Columbia College, New York, 1822; studied law for three years in the office of Peter A. Jay, whose partner he became; but because of religious convictions he abandoned law and turned to theology. He was ordained and installed as pastor of the Amity Baptist Church in 1832, where he remained till his death. He was a man of great learning and famous for his eloquence. He was the author of Miscellanies (New York, 1850); Religious Progress: Discourses on the Development of Christian Character (Boston, 1850); Discourses and Essays (New York, 1850); Lectures on the Lord's Prayer (Boston, 1851); God's Rescues; or, the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Son (New York, 1871); Lectures on Baptist History (Philadelphia, 1877); and Eras and Characters of History (New York, 1882).

WILLIBALD: First bishop of Eichstadt; b. in England 700; d. at Eichstadt probably July 7, 787. He came of a noble Anglo-Saxon family, to which Boniface was related. Later accounts call his father Richard and erroneously give him the title of king. In consequence of a sickness when Willibald was three years old, his parents vowed that if he recovered he should enter a monastery. In accordance with this vow, he was sent in his sixth year to the Abbot Egwald of Waltham for his education. There he renounced not only worldly position but also his native land in' his desire to carry out fully his idea of complete monastic devotion. In this he persuaded his father, after considerable pleading, and a brother Wunebald (Winebald), who was a year younger, to accompany him; and the three, with a considerable retinue, left England in 720 and traveled through France, visiting the tombs of the saints, and went to Italy, where the father died and was buried at Lucca. The brothers went on to Rome, where they stayed two years, keeping monastic discipline, although suffering from fever much of the time. After Easter of 722 the brothers separated, and Willibald undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land by way of Naples, Reggio, Syracuse, Cos, Samos, Ephesus, Asia Minor, and Damascus to Jerusalem, he and two companions arriving there in 724. From 727 to 729 he was in Constantinople, whence he went by way of Sicily to Monte Cassino,

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where he stayed till Easter of 739. Meanwhile Wunebald stayed in Rome till 727, when he returned home and persuaded another brother to go with him to Rome, where they lived as monks till 739, when Boniface persuaded Wunebald to go to Germany, receive priestly orders, and take up work in Thuringia. When Willibald returned to Rome in 739, Greg ory III. persuaded him to follow his brother to Ger many, whither he went in 740, first to Count Odilo of Bavaria and then to Suitgar of Nordgau, who had recently made over to Boniface the region about Eichstadt, where in 740 Willibald was raised to the priesthood, and the next year was made bishop, beginning his episcopal activities by the erection of a monastery. He is known to have taken part in synods in 742 and 762. Of Willibald's work as a bishop his biography says little. Wunebald's biog raphy tells of Willibald's part in founding the monastery at Heidenheim. The former labored in Thuringia at least till 741, and after that as a wan dering preacher in Bavaria, and then assisted his brother at Heidenheim. He died on a journey to Monte Cassino Dec. 19, 761, having been abbot at Heidenheim more than ten years, over the nuns of which his surviving sister Walpurgis presided. Willibald outlived all the pupils and associates of Boniface, and the reports which place his death in 777 or 781 are to be rejected in favor of that given above.

(A. Hauck.)

Bibliography: For information about sources cf. T. H. Hardy, Descriptive Catalogue of Materials, i. 2, p. 490, nos. 1049, 1050, in Rolls Series, no. 26, London, 1862. The earliest lives with commentary are in ASB, July, ii. 483-519, and excerpts are in MGH, Script., xv: 1 (1887), 86-106, cf. T. bleyrick, Life of St. Walburge with the Itin erary of St. Willibald, pp. 39-76, London, 1873. Consult further: T. Wright, Biographia Britannica, i. 335-345, London, 1842; The Family of St. Richard, the Saxon St. Richard, King; St. Willibald, Bishop, Londerit 1844; H. Hahn, Die Reiss des heiligen Willibald, Berlin, 1856; W. A. Neumann, in TQ, 1874, pp. 524-526; Rettberg, KD, ii. 348; Hauck, KD, i. 534; DNB, lxii. 12-13; KL, au. 1669.