Wycliffe's political doctrine is discussed by Mr R. L. Poole (Illustrations
of the History of Medieval Thought, 1884); and his relation to
Huss is elaborately demonstrated by Dr J. Loserth (Hus und Wiclif,
Prague, 1884; also Eng. trans.).
See also G. M. Trevelyan, England in the Age of Wycliffe (London, 1899); Oman, History of England 1377-1485 (London, 1906), pp. 511 ff. for authorities; W. W. Capes, “History of the English Church in the 14th and 15th Centuries,” in Hist. of the Eng. Church, ed. Stephen and Hunt (London, 1900). Many references to more recent monographs on particular points will be found in J. Loserth's article “Wiclif,” in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie (3rd ed., 1908), xxi. pp. 225-227.
Wycliffe's works are enumerated in a Catalogue by Shirley (Oxford, 1865). Of his Latin works only two had been published previously to 1880, the De officio pastorali, ed. G. V. Lechler (Leipzig, 1863) and the Trialogus, ed. Lechler (Oxford, 1869). The pious hope expressed by the learned editor of the Trialogus in his preface, that English scholars might be moved to publish all Wycliffe's Latin works, began to be realized in 1882 with the foundation at Oxford of the Wyclif Society, under the auspices of which the following have been published:—Polemical Tracts, ed. R. Buddensieg, (2 vols., 1883); De civili dominio, vol. i. ed. R. L. Poole, vols. ii.-iv., ed. J. Loserth (1885-1905); De composicione hominis, ed. R. Beer (1884); De Ecclesia, ed. Loserth (1886); Dialogus sive speculum ecclesiae militantis, ed. A. W. Pollard (1886); Sermones, ed. Loserth, vols. i.-iv. (1887-1890); De officio regis, ed. A. W. Pollard and C. Sayle (1887); De apostasia, ed. M. Dziewicki (1889); De dominio divino, ed. R. L. Poole (1890); Quaestiones. De ente praedicamentali, ed. R. Beer (1891); De eucharistia tractatus major, ed. Loserth (1893); De blasphemia, ed. Dziewicki (1894); Logica (3 vols., ed. Dziewicki, 1895-1899); Opus evangelicum, ed. Loserth (4 vols., 1898), parts iii. and iv. also bear the title De Antichristo; De Simonia, ed. Herzberg-Fränkel and Dziewicki (1898); De veritatae sacrae scripturae, ed. R. Buddensieg (3 vols., 1905); Miscellanea philosophica, ed. Dziewicki (2 vols., 1905) (vol. i. has an introduction on Wycliffe's philosophy); De potestate papae, ed. Loserth (1907).
For Wycliffe's English works see Select English Works, ed. T. Arnold (3 vols., 1869-1871), and English Works hitherto unprinted, ed. F. D. Matthew (1880), chiefly sermons and short tracts, of many of which the authenticity is uncertain. The Wicket (Nuremberg, 1546; reprinted at Oxford, 1828) is not included in either of these collections. (R. L. P.; W. A. P.)
WYCOMBE (officially Chepping Wycombe, also Chipping or High Wycombe), a market town and municipal borough in the Wycombe parliamentary division of Buckinghamshire, England, 34 m. W. by N. of London by the Great Western railway. Pop. (1901) 15,542. The church of All Saints, originally of Norman foundation, was rebuilt in 1273 by the abbess and nuns of Godstow near Oxford, and was largely reconstructed early in the 15th century. For the grammar school, founded c. 1550 by the mayor and burgesses, a new building was erected in 1883. There are remains of a Norman hospital of St John the Baptist, consisting of arches of the chapel. The market-house and guildhall was erected in 1757. The family of Petty, with whom the town has long been connected, occupied the mansion called Wycombe Abbey. Lord Beaconsfield's mansion of Hughenden is 1½ m. N. of the town. Among a number of almshouses are some bearing the name of Queen Elizabeth, endowed in 1562 out of the revenues of a dissolved fraternity of St Mary. The principal industry is chair-making, and there are also flour and paper mills. The borough is under a mayor, 8 aldermen and 24 councillors. Area, 1734 acres. The burgesses of Wycombe have ancient rights of common pasturage on the neighbouring Rye Mead.
There are various British remains in the neighbourhood of Chipping Wycombe (Wicumbe, Wycumbee, Cheping Wycombe, Cheping Wichham), but the traces of a Roman settlement are more important. In Domesday Book the manor only is mentioned, but in 1199 the men of Wycombe paid tallage to the king. In 1225–1226 Alan Basset granted to the burgesses the whole town as a free borough. This grant was confirmed by Henry III., Edward I., Henry IV. and Mary. In 1558, however, a new charter of incorporation was granted in reward for the loyalty shown to Queen Mary. It was confirmed by Elizabeth in 1598 and by James I. in 1609 with certain additions. Cromwell granted another charter, but it was burnt after the Restoration, and the last charter was granted by Charles II. in 1663. The corporation was remodelled under the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835, and now consists of a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Wycombe returned two burgesses to parliament in 1300 and continued to send members until 1885. The franchise was enlarged after 1832, and in 1867 the borough was deprived of one of its members. A market was granted by Basset to the burgesses in 1226, and at the present day it is held every Friday, the day fixed by the charter of Queen Mary. Two statutory fairs were held under the charter of 1558, but in 1792 only one fair was held on the Monday before Michaelmas for hiring, but there is now a pleasure fair on the same day.
See John Parker, History and Antiquities of Wycombe (1878).
WYE, a river of England, famous for its beautiful scenery. It rises in Montgomeryshire on the E. slope of Plinlimmon, close to the source of the Severn, the estuary of which it joins after a widely divergent course. Its length is 130 m.; its drainage area (which is included in the basin of the Severn), 1609 sq. m. Running at first S.E. it crosses the W. of Radnorshire, passing Rhayader, and receiving the Elan, in the basin of which are the Birmingham reservoirs. It then divides Radnorshire from Brecknockshire, receives the Ithon on the left, passes Builth, and presently turns N.E. to Hay, separating Radnorshire from Herefordshire, and thus forming a short stretch of the Welsh boundary. The river, which rose at an elevation exceeding 2000 ft., has now reached a level of 250 ft., 55 m. from its source. As it enters Herefordshire it bends E. by S. to reach the city of Hereford. It soon receives the Lugg, which, augmented by the Arrow and the Frome, joins from the N. The course of the Wye now becomes extremely sinuous; and the valley narrows nearly to Chepstow. For a short distance the Wye divides Herefordshire from Gloucestershire, and for the rest of its course Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire. It passes Monmouth, where it receives the Monnow on the right, and finally Chepstow, 2 m. above its junction with the Severn estuary. The river is navigable for small vessels for 15 m. up from the mouth on high tides, but there is not much traffic above Chepstow. The average spring rise of the tide is 38 ft. at Chepstow, while 50 ft. is sometimes exceeded; the average neap rise is 28½ ft. The scenery is finest between Rhayader and Hay in the upper part, and from Goodrich, below Ross, to Chepstow in the lower, the second being the portion which gives the Wye its fame.
The name of Wye belongs also to two smaller English rivers—(1) a right-bank tributary of the Derbyshire Derwent, rising in the uplands near Buxton, and having part of its early course through one of the caverns characteristic of the district; (2) a left-bank tributary of the Thames, watering the valley of the Chilterns in which lies Wycombe and joining the main river near Bourne End.
WYKES, THOMAS, English chronicler, was a canon regular of Oseney Abbey, near Oxford. He was the author of a chronicle extending from 1066 to 1289, which is printed among the monastic annals edited by H. R. Luard for the “Rolls” Series. He gives an account of the barons' war from a royalist standpoint, and is a severe critic of Montfort's policy. He is of some value for the reign of Edward I. His work is closely connected with the Oseney Annals, which are printed parallel with his work by Luard, but from 1258 to 1278 Wykes is an independent authority.
See H. R. Luard's Annales monastici, vol. iv. (1869); and earlier edition in Gale's Scriptores quinque, pp. 21–128.
WYLIE, ALEXANDER (1815–1887), British missionary, was born in London on the 6th of April 1815, and went to school at Drumhthie, Kincardineshire, and at Chelsea. While apprenticed to a cabinet-maker he picked up a Chinese grammar written in Latin, and after mastering the latter tongue made such good progress with the former, that in 1846 James Legge engaged him to superintend the London Missionary Society's press at Shanghai. In this position he acquired a wide knowledge of Chinese religion and civilization, and especially of their mathematics, so that he was able to show that Sir George Horner's method (1819) of solving equations of all orders had been known to the Chinese mathematicians of the 14th century. He made several journeys into the interior, notably in 1858 with Lord Elgin up the Yang-tsze and in 1868 with Griffith John to the capital of Sze-ch'uen and the source of the Han. From 1863 he was an agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society. He settled in London in 1877, and died on the 10th of February 1887.
In Chinese he published books on arithmetic, geometry, algebra (De Morgan's), mechanics, astronomy (Herschel's), and The Marine Steam Engine (T. J. Main and T. Brown), as well as translations of the first two gospels. In English his chief works were Notes on Chinese Literature (Shanghai, 1867), and scattered articles collected under the title Chinese Researches by Alexander Wylie (Shanghai, 1897).
See H. Cordier. Life and Labours of A. Wylie (1887).
