attained surprising skill in the management of the burin. When he commenced working on his own account he soon secured a high reputation, and ultimately was admitted to be without a rival in rendering the more refined figure pieces of the Dutch and Flemish masters, and equally skilful in portraits. In 1761 he was elected a member of the French Academy; he was also an honorary member of most of the academies of the continent. The Emperor Napoleon I. conferred on him the cross of the legion of honour. So great was his celebrity, that his workshop became a school to which pupils of promise were sent from every part of Europe. But Wille, though in his own line unequalled, must not be ranked with the greatest engravers of a higher class of subjects. His unrivalled delicacy and softness of line, and feeling for texture, enabled him to engrave as near to perfection as is conceivable such pictures as Terburg's famous Satin Gown (Wille's masterpiece), Dietricy's Wandering Musicians and Reciprocal Offer, Schalken's Family Concert, and the like; but would have failed in dealing with the grand works of the great Italian painters. Among the more distinguished of his pupils were Bervic, Müller, Schultze, and Schmuzer. Wille died in April, 1808. The "Memoires et Journal de Johann Georg Wille, graveur du Roi," was published from the autograph MS. in the imperial library, 2 vols. 8vo, 1857.—J. T—e.
WILLEHAD, an Anglo-Saxon bishop and missionary, was born in Northumberland in the first quarter of the eighth century, and was educated at York. He was not ordained priest till turned of thirty, when he obtained permission to go as a missionary to the pagans of Friesland and adjacent parts, where St. Boniface had been recently martyred. He met there with much opposition and much success; was more than once driven from the country, on one occasion his companions and disciples being nearly all massacred; was encouraged to persevere by Charlemagne and by Pope Adrian I.; and, finally, was rewarded by the general conversion of both Frieslanders and Saxons, and the quiet foundation of the diocese of Wigmodia. Willehad was consecrated bishop, on 13th July, 787; and he immediately set about building a noble cathedral at what is now Bremen, ordaining priests, &c. He died during a visitation of his diocese, November 8, 789. Bishop Willehad wrote a commentary on the epistles of St. Paul and other works, MSS. of some of which are extant. Willehad ranks as a saint in the Romish calendar, the 8th of November being set apart as his festival.—J. T—e.
* WILLEMS, Florent, a distinguished Belgian painter, was born at Liége about 1812, and studied at Mechlin academy. He formed his style on the Dutch masters, and especially Terburg, whom he follows closely alike in choice of subjects and manner of treatment, with the necessary qualification for differences arising from the fact that each deals with the familiar habits of the higher classes of his own time. But as Terburg's chef d'œuvre was the famous Satin Gown (as the picture entitled Paternal Instruction is almost invariably called), so a white satin gown is the chief feature of several of Willems' most admired pictures, and it is painted with scarce inferior dexterity or finish to the original. Silk and velvet dresses and almost all kinds of costume are, however, painted by him with equal skill, appreciation of texture, and taste. Willems is essentially a costume painter, his figures serving rather to set off his mechanical art than any higher purpose. The subjects are such as "The Coquette at her Glass," "A Conversation," "A Musical Party," "The Toilette of the Bride," "The Message," "The Presentation," &c. Occasionally, as in his "Interior of a Silkmercer's Shop in 1660," he has adopted the period as well as the manner of Terburg. In treatment Willems' pictures are always refined; the persons have an air of birth and style, and the technical qualities are of a very high order. M. Willems settled in Paris in 1839, and has remained there ever since, holding his place as one of the most fashionable painters of the day. He received the cross of the legion of honour in 1853, and a medal of the first class in 1855.—J. T—e.
WILLETT, Andrew, a learned English divine, was born at Ely in 1562, and educated at Cambridge. He obtained among his compeers a great reputation for erudition, and published numerous works, of which the following were the chief— "Synopsis Papismi, or a general view of papistry," which at the period of its appearance was considered the best refutation of popery extant; commentaries on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and the Epistle to the Romans; "Thesaurus Ecclesiæ;" and "Sacra Emblemata."—F.
WILLIAM I. of Nassau, Prince of Orange, surnamed the Silent, was born at the castle of Dillenbourg in Germany in 1533. He was the eldest of the twelve children of William, count of Nassau, surnamed the Rich, by his wife Juliana, a lady of most exemplary character and unaffected piety. The Nassau family, which in both its branches had produced many eminent persons in council and in the field, had long held immense possessions in France and Germany, and in the Netherlands, and William was not only the heir of the family estates, but, at the age of eleven, succeeded besides to the principality of Orange, situated between Provence and Dauphiny, which was bequeathed to him by his cousin, Prince Rènè. The parents of the young prince had embraced the principles of the Reformation; but William, having been sent in his eleventh year to Brussels to become a page in the household of Charles V., was educated in the Roman catholic faith. The emperor, with his usual shrewd insight into character, observed at once the remarkable abilities of the young prince of Orange, and admitted him into the closest intimacy and confidence. Before William was twenty-one he was appointed commander-in-chief of the army on the French frontier It was upon the arm of the prince that Charles leaned for support on the memorable day when, in the assembly at Brussels, he abdicated the throne; and it is said that one of the last advices of the discrowned emperor to his son Philip, was to defer to the counsels of the prince of Orange. For a season the relations between William and his new sovereign were of the most amicable nature. The prince was employed by Philip in various important missions, which he conducted with great sagacity and success. He assisted in negotiating the treaty of Chateau Cambresis between Philip and Henry II. of France, and was one of the hostages selected by the latter for the due performance of the treaty. While residing at the French court in this capacity, he obtained information of the secret convention between the French and Spanish monarchs for the general extirpation of their protestant subjects. Henry, imagining that the prince was a party to the plot, at a hunting party near Paris freely explained to him the whole arrangements for the massacre of the Huguenots in France and the Netherlands. William, though horror-struck at this astounding revelation, received the communication with that command of countenance and reserve which obtained for him the surname of Silent. He gave no intimation by word or look of his own sentiments; but he instantly resolved to put forth his utmost efforts to defeat the infamous conspiracy. A few days after he returned home, and commenced a quiet but firm opposition to the measures of Philip. On the final departure of that monarch from the Netherlands, though dissatisfied with his resistance to his internal policy, so little did he suspect the feelings of Orange that he left him strict instructions to extirpate the heretics, and gave him the names of several "excellent persons suspected of the new religion," and commanded him to have them put to death. But William, though he had as yet no sympathy for the principles of the reformers, could not, as he said, "but feel compassion for so many virtuous men and women devoted to massacre;" and he determined to save them if he could. He felt, indeed, at this period no inclination for a religious life. He carefully attended to his official duties, civil and military; but much of his time was spent in banquets, masquerades, tournaments, and the chase—of which he was ardently fond; and he maintained his household on a scale of more than regal splendour. Gradually, however, the sufferings of his countrymen under the oppression of their Spanish rulers roused his indignation, and excited him to devote all his energies for their deliverance. He supported the demand for the departure of the Spanish troops from the country, with which Philip was at length reluctantly compelled to comply. He resisted the establishment of the new inquisition in the Netherlands, and the projected creation of new bishoprics; he put himself at the head of the confederacy which had been formed to procure the recall of Cardinal Granvelle, the prime minister of the regent, who was especially hated by the people, and by persevering efforts at length succeeded in gaining this end. The dismissal of the obnoxious minister, however, did not restore tranquillity. The duchess of Parma, the regent, still acted according to secret instructions received from Spain, and disregarded the counsels and representations of the patriotic party. The intolerant edicts against the protestants were still put in force. A gangrene had spread through the whole government. The councils of finance
