, one of the most learned men of the fifteenth century, was born in
, one of the most learned
men of the fifteenth century, was born in 1442, in the village of Bafflon, or Bafteln, near Groningen, in Friseland.
Melchior Adam says, his parents were of one of the most
considerable families in Friseland; but Ubo Emmius, in his
history of that country, represents him as of mean extraction; and Bayle, who appears to have examined the matter
with his usual precision, inclines to the latter opinion. He
was, however, sent to school, where he made an uncommon
progress, and had scarcely taken his degree of M. A. at
Louvain, when he was offered a professorship, which he
did not accept, as it would have prevented his travelling
for farther improvement, a course usually taken by the
learned men of those times. He went from Louvain to
Paris, and from thence to Italy, residing two years at Ferrara, where he learned Greek and taught Latin, and disputed in prose and verse with Guarinus and the Strozzas,
and where the duke honoured him with particular attention. He read lectures likewise on philosophy in this city,
and his auditors were so well pleased as to wish he had
been an Italian. At his return to his own country, he had
the offer of many considerable employments; and at last
accepted of a post at Groningen, and attended the court
of Maximilian I. for six months, upon the affairs of that city.
After this, which the gratitude of his masters did not render
a very profitable employment, he resumed his travels for
many years, in the course of which he refused the presidentship of a college at Antwerp, and fixed at length in the
Palatinate, influenced by the persuasions of the bishop of
Worms, whom he had instructed in the Greek language.
He came to reside here in 1482, and passed the rest of his
life, sometimes at Heidelberg, and sometimes at Worms.
The Elector Palatine was pleased to hear him discourse
concerning antiquity, and desired him to compose an
“Abridgement of Ancient History,
” which he performed
with great accuracy. He also read public lectures at
Worms; but his auditors being more accustomed to the
subleties of logic than to polite literature, he was not so
popular as he deserved. About the fortieth year of his age,
he began to study divinity; and having no hope to succeed
in it without a knowledge of Hebrew, he applied himself
to that language, in which he had made considerable pro-gress, when he was seized with an illness, which put an
end. to his life and labours, on the 28th of October, 1485.
He died in a very devout manner, and was buried in the
church of the minor friars at Heidelberg. He is thought
to have inclined a little to the principles of the reformers.
He was accomplished in music and poetry, although he
used these talents only for his amusement. There are but
two works of his extant: “De Inventione Dialectica,
”
printed at Louvain, Abridgement of Ancient History,
” under the
title “R. Agricolffi lucubrationes,
” 2 vols. 4to. Erasmus
gives a very exalted character of his learning and abilities;
and by some of his admirers he was compared to Virgil in
verse, and to Politian in prose.
, one of the most learned men of the fifteenth century, was born at
, one of the most learned men
of the fifteenth century, was born at Groningen about
1419, and having lost his friends in his infancy, was sent
by a benevolent lady, along with her only son, to be educated at a college at Swoll, which at that time happened to
be in greater estimation than that of Groningen. This college was superintended by a community of monks, and
Wesselus had at one time an inclination to have embraced
the order, but was disgusted by some superstitious practices. After having studied here with great diligence, he
removed to Cologne, where he was much admired for his
proficiency, but already betrayed a dislike to the sentiments of the schoolmen. Being invited to teach theology
at Heidelberg, it was objected that he had not received his
doctor’s degree; and when he offered to be examined for
that degree, he was told that the canons did not permit
that it should be bestowed on a layman. Having therefore
a repugnance to take orders, he confined his services to the
reading of some lectures in philosophy; after which he returned to Cologne; and afterwards visited Louvain and Paris.
The philosophical disputes being carried on then with great
warmth between the realists, the formalists, and the nominalists, he endeavoured to bring over the principal champions of the formalists to the sect of the realists, but at lasthimself sided with the nominalists. He appears, however,
to have set little value on any of the sects into which philosophy was at that time divided; and to a young man who
consulted him concerning the best method of prosecuting
his studies, he said, “You, young man, will live to see the
day when the doctrines of Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure,
and other modern disputants of the same stamp, will be
exploded by all true Christian ditines, and when the irrefragable doctors themselves will be little regarded.
” A
prediction, says Brucker, which discovers so much good
sense and liberality, that Wessel ought to be immortalized
under the appellation of the Wise Doctor. Brucker admits
him in his History of Philosophy, from the penetration
which, in the midst of the scholastic phrenzy of his age,
enabled him to discover the futility of the controversies
which agitated the followers of Thomas, Scotus, and Occam.
Some say that Wesseltis travelled into Greece, to acquire
a more perfect acquaintance with the Greek and Hebrew
languages than was then to be found in Europe. It is certain that he gained the esteem and patronage of Francis
della Rovera, afterwards pope Sixtus IV. who, in an interview at Rome, offered him preferment. Wesselus desired
only a copy of the Bible in Hebrew and Greek; and when
the pope asked why he did not solicit for a bishopric, our
philosopher replied, “Because I do not want one,
” On
his return he taught philosophy and philology at Groningen with great approbation, and died here Oct. 4, 1489.
On his death-bed he was perplexed with doubts, which
were soon relieved. His biographer says, that, “Being
visited, in the sickness which brought him to his end, by a
friend, who inquired after his health, he replied, that ‘he
was pretty well, considering his advanced age, and the nature of his indisposition but that one thing made him
very uneasy, viz. that being greatly perplexed with various
thoughts and arguments, he began to entertain some little
doubts with respect to the truth of the Christian religion.’
His friend was much surprised, and immediately exhorted
him to direct all his thoughts to Christ the only Saviour;
but, finding that such an admonition was displeasing, he
went away deeply afflicted. But an hour or two after,
Wesselus seeing his friend come back to him, he said, with
an air of as much satisfaction and joy as one in his weak
condition cpuld discover, < God be praised all those vain
doubts are fled and now, all I know is Jesus Christ, and
Rim crucified' after which confession he resigned his
soul to God.
” It appears that his religious sentiments
were in many respects contrary to those of the Romish
church, and some even called him the forerunner of Luther. Many of his Mss. were burnrd after his death by
the contrivance of the monks, but what his friends saved
were published at Groningen in 1614, consisting of “Tractatus de Oratione -r- de cohibendis cogitationibus de
causis incarnationis de sacramento euchanstiae Farrago
rerum Theologicarum epistolsp,
” &c. Foppens, however, mentions an edition prior to this, published by Luther
in 1525, and another at Marpurg in 1617, 4to.