length, after much painful contention, he was allowed to instruct the Remonstrant students in philosophy and Hebrew on certain somewhat humiliating conditions. For the rest of his life he continued professor in the Remonstrant college, declining in 1745 the Greek chair at Basel. In 1746 he once more visited England, and collated Syriac MSS. for his great work. At last this appeared in 1751–1752, in two folio volumes, under the title Novum Testamentum Graecum editionis receptae cum lectionibus varianlibus codicum MSS., &c. He did not venture to put new readings in the body of his page, but consigned those of them which he recommended to a place between the textus receptus and the full list of various readings. Beneath the latter he gave a commentary, consisting principally of a mass of valuable illustrations and parallels drawn from classical and rabbinical literature, which has formed a storehouse for all later commentators. In his Prolegomena he gave an admirable methodical account of the MSS., the versions and the readings of the fathers, as well as the troubled story of the difficulties with which he had had to contend in the prosecution of the work of his life. He was the first to designate uncial manuscripts by Roman capitals, and cursive manuscripts by Arabic figures. He did not long survive the completion of this work. He died at Amsterdam on the 23rd of March 1754.
Wetstein’s New Testament has never been republished entire. The London printer, William Bowyer, published, in 1763, a text in which he introduced the readings recommended by Wetstein; J. G. Semler republished the Prolegomena and appendix (1764); A. Lotze commenced a new edition of the work, but the Prolegomena only appeared (Rotterdam, 1831), and this "castigated." It is generally allowed that Wetstein rendered invaluable service to textual criticism by his collection of various readings and his methodical account of the MSS. and other sources, and that his work was rendered less valuable through his prejudice against the Latin version and the principle of grouping MSS. in families which had been recommended by Richard Bentley and J. A. Bengel.
See Wetstein’s account of his labours and trials in his Nov. Test. i.; articles in C. F, Illgen's Ztschr, für histor Theol. by C R. Hagenbach (1839), by L. J. Van Rhyn in 1843 and again by Heinrich Bottger in 1870; S. P. Tregelles, Account of the Printed Text of the New Testament; F. H. A. Scrivener's Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament; W. Gass, Protestantische Dogmatik, vol. iii.; the art. in Herzog's Realencyklopädie and in the Allgemeine deutsche Biographie.
WETTIN, the name of a family from which several of the
royal houses of Europe have sprung, derived from a castle which
stood near the small town of that name on the Saale. Attempts
to trace the descent to the Saxon chief Widukind or Wittekind,
who died about 807, or to Burchard, margrave of Thuringia
(d. 908), have failed, and the earliest known ancestor is one
Dietrich, who was count of Hassegau or Hosgau, a district on
the left bank of the Saale. Dietrich was killed in 982 fighting
the Hungarians, and his sons Dedo I. (d. 1009) and Frederick
(d. 1017) received lands taken from the Wends, including the
county or Gau of Wettin on the right bank of the Saale. Dedo's
son Dietrich II. inherited these lands, distinguished himself
in warfare against the Poles, and married Matilda, daughter of
Ekkard I., margrave of Meissen. Their son Dedo 11. obtained
the Saxon east mark and lower Lusatia on the death of his
uncle Ekkard II.,
margrave of Meissen, in 1046, but in 1069
he quarrelled with the emperor Henry IV. and was compelled
to surrender his possessions. He died in 1075, and his lands were
granted to his son Henry I., who in 1089 was invested with the
mark of Meissen. In 1103 Henry was succeeded by his cousin
Thimo (d. 1104), who built a castle at Wettin, and was called
by this name. Henry II.,
son of Henry I., followed, but died
childless in 1123; his cousin, Conrad I., son of Thimo, claimed
Meissen, of which he secured possession in 1130, and in 1135
the emperor Lothair II. added lower Lusatia to his possessions.
Abdicating in 1156, Conrad's lands were divided between his
five sons, when the county of Wettin fell to his fourth son Henry,
whose family died out in 1217.
Wettin then passed to the
descendants of Conrad's youngest son Frederick, and in 1288
the county, town and castle of Wettin were sold to the archbishop
of Magdeburg. They were retained by the archbishop
until the peace of Westphalia in 1648, when they passed to the
elector of Brandenburg, and afterwards became incorporated
in the kingdom of Prussia.
Conrad I. and his successors had added largely to their possessions, until under Henry I., the Illustrious, margrave of Meissen, the lands of the Wettins stretched from the Oder to the Werra, and from the Erzgebirge to the Harz mountains. The subsequent history of the family is merged in that of Meissen, Saxony and the four Saxon dukedoms. In June 1889 the 800th anniversary of the rule of the Wettins in Meissen and Saxony was celebrated with great splendour at Dresden.
See G. E. Hofmeister, Das Haus Wettin (Leipzig, 1889); C. W. Bottiger, Geschichte des Kurstaates mid Konigreichs Sachsen (Gotha, 1867–1873), O . Posse, Die Markgrafen von Meissen und das Haus Wettin (Leipzig, 1881), K . Wenck, Die Wettiner im 14ten Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1877); Kammel, Festschrift zur 800 jahrigen Jubelfeier des Houses Wettin (Leipzig, 1889), and H. B. Meyer, Hof- und Zentralverwaltung der Wettiner (Leipzig, 1902).
WETZLAR, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine
province, pleasantly situated at the confluence of the Dill and Lahn, 64 m. N.E. of Coblenz by the railway to Giessen Pop. (1905) 12,276. The most conspicuous building is the cathedral,
datinginpart from the 11th, in part from the 14th-16th centuries.
The municipal archives contain interesting documents of the
whilom imperial chamber (see infra). The town preserves
associations of Goethe, who wrote Die Leiden des jungen Werthers
after living here in 1772 as a legal official, and of Charlotte Buff,
the Lotte of Werther. Overlooking the town are the ruins of the
medieval castle of Kalsmunt. There are iron mines and foundries
and optical instrument factories. Wetzlar was originally a
royal demesne, and in the 12th century became a free imperial
town. It had grown in importance when, in 1693, the imperial
chamber (Reichskammergericht) was removed hither from Spires.
The town lost its independence in 1803, and passed to the prince primate
Dalberg. Three years later (1806), on the dissolution
of the empire, the imperial chamber ceased to exist. The French
were defeated here by the Austrians and Saxons under the
archduke Charles, 15th June 1796.
WEXFORD, a county of Ireland in the province of Leinster,
bounded N. by Wicklow, E. and S. by St George’s Channel, and W. by Waterford, Kilkenny and Carlow,
The area is 576,757 acres or about 902 sq. m. The coast-line does not
present any striking features, and owing to the number of
sandbanks navigation is dangerous near the shore. The only
inlet of importance on the east coast and the only safe harbour
is Wexford Harbour, which, owing to a bar, is not accessible to
large vessels at ebb-tide. The artificial harbour of Rosslare,
outside Wexford Harbour to the south, was therefore opened in
1906. On the south coast the great inlet of Waterford Harbour
separates the county from Waterford and Kilkenny, and among
several inlets Bannow Bay is the largest. Several islets adjoin
the coast. South from Crossfamogue Point are the Saltee
Islands, and Coningmore and Coningbeg, beyond the latter
of which is the Saltee lightship. South-east from Greenore
Point is the Tuskar Rock.
The surface of the county is chiefly a series of verdant low hills, except towards the northern and western boundaries. An elevated ridge on the north-western boimdary forms the termination of the granitic range in Wicklow, and in Croghan Kinshela, on the borders of Wicklow, rises to a height of 1985 ft. On the western border, another range, situated chiefly in Carlow, extends from the valley of the Slaney at Newtownbarry to the confluence of the Barrow with the Nore at New Ross, and reaches 2409 ft. in Blackstairs Mountain, and 2610 ft. in Mount Leinster on the border of Co. Carlow. In the southern district, a hilly region, reaching in Forth Moimtain a height of 725 ft., forms with Wexford Harbour the northern boundaries of the baronies of Forth and Bargy, a peninsula of flat and fertile land. The river Slaney enters the county at its north-western extremity, and flows south-east to Wexford Harbour. Its chief tributary is the Bann, which flows south-westwards from the borders of Wicklow The Barrow forms the western boundary of the county from the Blackstairs range of mountains till its confluence with the Suir at Waterford Harbour.
