‘Certane Tractatis [three in number] for Reformatioun of Doctryne and Maneris set furth at the desyre and in the name of the afflictit Catholikis of inferiour ordour of Clergie and layit men in Scotland.’ In July appeared his pamphlet ‘The Last Blast of the Trompet of Godis VVorde aganis the vsurpit auctorite of Johne Knox.’ He seems to have been acting as the queen's chaplain at this time. In September he was exiled and proceeded to Antwerp, where in 1563 he published a translation of the ‘Commonitorium’ of Vincent of Lerins. From Louvain and Antwerp he issued in the Scots vernacular, in 1563, ‘The Buke of Four Scoir Thre Questions,’ as a challenge to the Scots reformers, and from Antwerp also issued translations of patristic writers now lost. In Paris, from 1565 to 1570, he studied, became a preceptor in arts in the university, and published a translation of Benoist's ‘Certus Modus.’ In 1571 he visited England and entered Queen Mary's service, thereafter proceeding to Douay to study theology.
Pope Gregory in 1577 instituted Winzet abbot of the Benedictine monastery of St. James at Ratisbon, the duties of which he began on 9 Aug. He revived this ancient decayed seminary of learning, and by introducing the old Scots method of instruction soon restored its celebrity. There he published in 1581 ‘In D. Paulum Commentaria;’ in 1582 ‘Flagellum Sectariorum’ and ‘Velitatio in Georgium Buchananum,’ the latter being a reply to Buchanan's ‘De Jure Regni apud Scotos;’ and probably at the same time a translation of the Catechism of Canisius.
Winzet died on 21 Sept. 1592, and was buried in the monastery, where in the church (Kirche des Schotten-Klosters zu S. Jakob) his effigy and epitaph are preserved. His more important works are mentioned above; a fuller list is given in the Scottish Text Society's reprint of the ‘Certain Tractates,’ vol. i. pref. p. lxxv.
[Ziegelbauer's Historia, ut supra; Mackenzie's Lives and Characters, ut supra; Certane Tractatis, &c., by Niniane Winzet (Maitland Club reprint, 1835), with Life by John Black Gracie; Irving's Lives of Scotish Writers, 1839; Bellesheim's Geschichte der katholischen Kirche in Schottland, 1833, vol. ii. (translated by D. O. H. Blair, 1887); Certain Tractates, &c., by Ninian Winzet, edited for Scottish Text Society, with Life, by J. King Hewison, 1888, 1890, 2 vols. and authorities there cited.]
WIREKER, NIGEL (fl. 1190), satirist. [See Nigel.]
WIRLEY, WILLIAM (d. 1618), herald. [See Wyrley.]
WISDOM, ROBERT (d. 1568), archdeacon of Ely, probably belonged to the family of that name settled at Burford, Oxford, where one Simon Wisdom was a great benefactor and reputed founder of the free grammar school. Another Simon Wisdom (d. 1623) of Burford, an alumnus of Gloucester Hall, Oxford, was author of various religious tracts, and of ‘An Abridgement of the Holy History of the Old Testament,’ London, 1594, 8vo (Wood, Athenæ, ed. Bliss, ii. 337). A Gregory Wisdom was sent to the Tower on 21 May 1553 for spreading reports about Edward VI's health (Acts P. C. ed. Dasent, 1552–4, p. 275).
Robert, who is claimed as one of the four eminent writers produced by St. Martin's, Oxford, is said (Cooper) to have been educated at Cambridge, though no details of his academical career are forthcoming, except that he was B.D. of some university, and he would more naturally be assumed to have been at Oxford, where he was one of the earliest preachers of the Reformation and was on that account compelled to leave the city. Tanner says that he became rector of Stisted in Essex; but his name does not appear in the list of rectors, and probably he was only curate. About 1538 his religious opinions brought him into collision with Stokesley, bishop of London, and in 1540 he was accused of heresy before Stokesley's successor, Bonner; he was committed by the council to the Lollards' Tower, whence he wrote an answer to the thirteen articles laid to his charge (extant in Harl. MS. 425, art. 3, and printed in Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials, i,. ii. 570–1). Foxe makes him parish priest of St. Margaret's, Lothbury, and Strype of St. Catherine's (sic), Lothbury, in 1541, when he is said to have been forced to recant at St. Paul's Cross; the date is apparently an error for 1543, on 14 July of which year his recantation took place (Wriothesley, Chron. i. 142; Foxe, ed. Townsend, v. 496, and app. No. xii.). He was then curate to Edward Crome [q. v.] at St. Mary's Aldermary, and there is no record of his having held any benefice in London (cf. Hennessy, Nov. Rep. Eccl. 1898).
Wisdom's companion in misfortune was Thomas Becon [q. v.], and with Becon he retired into Staffordshire, where they were hospitably received by John Old [q. v.] (Becon, Works, vol. i. pref. pp. viii–ix, vol. ii. pp. 422–3; Strype, Cranmer, i. 397–8). He continued to preach Reformation doc-
