He regards an indulgence as a merely external release from canonical punishments and censures in his opinion, purgatory serves not to punish temporally sins remitted in this world, but only to purify souls from inordinate desires, and from venial sins. He rejects satisfaction as a part of the sacrament, holding that with the remission of sins the temporal punishment is also remitted. In the Sacrament of Penance he acknowledges the priestly absolution, but denies its judicial character. He emphasizes too strongly the subjective activity of the faithful in sharing the fruits of Communion and of the Sacrifice of the Mass (opus operantis), so that the objective working of the sacrament (opus operatum) seems to be impaired. He disputes the right of ecclesiastical superiors to give commands that bind under sin. He denies the infallible office of teaching of the Church, and the infallibility of the pope and the ecumenical councils. True his theology contains dogmatic errors, some of which were taught later by Luther. This judgment, maintained in modern times by Ullmann, is one-sided and exaggerates Wessel’s deviations from the teaching of the Church. The first publication of the “Farrago rerum theologicarum” was the work of Protestants, who presented in it a collection of extracts which seemed to favor Protestantism. Protestants usually regard Wessel as a precursor of Luther. A complete edition of his works appeared at Groningen in 1614, with a biographical sketch by the Protestant preacher Albert Hardenberg. Shortly after 1521 Wessel published at Zwolle: “De Sacramento Eucharistiae et audienda missa” “De oratione et modo orandi” “De causis incarnationis”. The Basle edition included several letters to and from Wessel. A selection from his writings, “Farrago rerum theologicarum”, was issued at Zwolle, probably in 1521 (reprint at Wittenberg, 1522, and Basle, 1522, this latter containing a commendatory preface by Luther). Though he remained a layman, he was interested mainly in theological questions.
He spent the greater part of his last years alternately in several monasteries. He then spent some time in 1474 at Venice, and apparently at Basle, after which he returned home and devoted himself in quiet to learning.
His stay at Paris lasted probably until 1473 he left very likely because of the edict issued in that year by Louis XI against Nominalism. He himself, however, was converted to Formalism, and then adopted Nominalism, to which he afterwards adhered. About the beginning of 1458 he went to Paris, intending to induce two celebrated teachers from the Netherlands, then lecturing at Paris, to change from Formalism to Realism, which he advocated zealously. In 1456-7 he was temporary professor of arts at the University of Heidelberg. From 1449 he studied at the University of Cologne, and graduated master of arts there. He was educated at Zwolle and lived in the seminary of the Brothers of the Common Life. Wessel Goesport (GANSFORT), JOHN, a fifteenth-century Dutch theologian, b.
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