Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
CALVINISTIC METHODISTS
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: CAL-CAR
del.icio.us it!
|
CALVINISTIC METHODISTS , a See also:body of Christians forming a See also: The acquaintance then formed lasted to the end of Harris's life—an See also:interval of ten years excepted. Harris had been sent to See also:Oxford in the autumn of 1735 to " cure him of his fanaticism," but he See also:left in the following See also:February. Rowland had never been to a university, but, like Harris, he had been. well grounded in general knowledge. About 1739 another prominent figure appeared. This was Howell Davies of See also:Pembrokeshire, whose ministry was modelled on that of his See also:master, Griffith Jones, but with rather more clatter in his See also:thunder.
In 1736, on returning See also:home, Harris opened a school, Griffith Jones supplying him with books from his charity. He also set up See also:societies, in accordance with the recommendations in See also:Josiah See also:Wedgwood's little See also:book on the subject; and these exercised a See also:great influence on the religious See also:life of the people. By far the most notable of Harris's converts was See also: This is known as the first Methodist Association—held eighteen months before John, See also:Wesley's first See also:conference (See also:June 25th, 1744). Monthly meetings covering smaller districts, were organized to consider See also:local matters, the transactions of which were to be reported to the Quarterly Association, to be confirmed, modified, or rejected. Exhorters were divided into two classes—public, who were allowed to itinerate as preachers and superintend a number of societies; private, who were confined to the See also:charge of one or two societies. The societies were distinctly understood to be part of the established church, as Wedgwood's were, and every See also:attempt at estranging them therefrom was sharply reproved; but persecution made their position anomalous. They did not accept the discipline of the Church of England, so the plea of :onformity was a feeble See also:defence; nor had they taken out licenses, so as to claim the See also:protection of the See also:Toleration See also:Act. Harris's ardent See also:loyalty to the Church of England, after three refusals to ordain him, and his personal contempt for See also:ill-treatment from persecutors, were the only things that prevented separation. A controversy on a doctrinal point—" Did See also:God See also:die on See also:Calvary? "—raged for some See also:time, the See also:principal disputantsbeing Rowland and Harris; and in 1751 it ended in an open rupture, which threw the Connexion first into confusion and then into a See also:state of See also:coma. The societies split up into Harrisites and Rowlandites, and it was only with the revival of 1762 that the See also:breach was fairly repaired. This revival is a landmark in the See also:history of the Connexion. Williams of Pant y Celyn had just published a little See also:volume of See also:hymns, the singing of which inflamed the people. This led the See also:bishop of St David's to suspend Rowland's license, and Rowland had to confine himself to a See also:meeting-house at Llangeitho. Having been turned out of other churches, he had leased a See also:plot of See also:land in 1759, anticipating the final withdrawal of his license, in 1763, and a spacious See also:building was erected to which the people crowded from all parts on See also:Sacrament See also:Sunday. Llangeitho became the See also:Jerusalem of Wales; and Rowland's popularity never waned until his See also:physical See also:powers gave way. A notable event in the history of Welsh See also:Methodism was the publication in 1770, of a 4to annotated Welsh See also:Bible by the Rev. See also:Peter Williams, a forceful preacher, and an indefatigable worker, who had joined the Methodists in 1746, after being driven from several curacies. It gave See also:birth to a new See also:interest in the Scriptures, being the first definite commentary in the See also:language. A powerful revival See also:broke out at Llangeitho in the See also:spring of 178o, and spread to the See also:south, but not to the See also:north of Wales. The See also:ignorance of the people of the north made it very difficult for Methodism to benefit from these manifestations, until the See also:advent of the Rev. See also: Heavy fines made it impossible for preachers in poor circumstances to continue without claiming the protection of the Toleration Act, and the meeting-houses had to be registered as dissenting chapels. In a large number of cases this had only been delayed by so constructing the houses that they were used both as dwellings and as chapels at one and the same time. Until 1811 the Calvinistic Methodists had no ministers ordained by themselves; their enormous growth in See also:numbers and the scarcity of ministers to administer the Sacrament—only three in North Wales, two of whom had joined only at the See also:dawn of the century—made the question of ordination a See also:matter of urgency. The South Wales clergy who regularly itinerated were dying out; the See also:majority of those remaining itinerated but irregularly, and were most of them against the See also:change. The lay See also:element, with the help of Charles and a few other stalwarts, carried the matter through—ordaining nine at Bala in June, and thirteen at See also:Llandilo in See also:August. In 1823, the See also:Confession of Faith was published; it is based on the See also:Westminster Confession as " Calvinistically construed," and contains 44 articles. The Connexion's Constitutional See also:Deed was formally completed in 1826. Thomas Charles had tried to arrange for taking over Trevecca See also:College when the trustees of the Countess of See also:Huntingdon's Connexion removed their See also:seminary to See also:Cheshunt in 1791; but the Bala revival broke out just at the time, and, when things See also:grew quieter, other matters pressed for See also:attention. A college had been mooted in 1816, but the intended See also:tutor died suddenly, and the matter was for the time dropped. Candidates for the Connexional ministry were compelled to shift for themselves until 1837, when See also:Lewis See also:Edwards (1809-1887) and David Charles (1812-1878) opened a school for See also:young men at Bala. North and South alike adopted it as their 'college, the associations contributing a See also:hundred guineas each towards the education of their students. In 1842, the South Wales Association opened a college at Trevecca, leaving Bala to the North; the Rev. David Charles became principal of the former, and the Rev. Lewis Edwards of the latter. After the See also:death of Dr Lewis Edwards, Dr. T. C. Edwards resigned the principalship of the University College at See also:Aberystwyth to become See also:head of Bala (1891), now a purely theological college, the students of which were sent to the university colleges for their classical training. In 1905 Mr David Davies of Llandinam—one of the leading laymen in the Connexion —offered a large building at Aberystwyth as a See also:gift to the denomination for the purpose of uniting North and South in one theological college; but in the event of either association declining the proposal, the other was permitted to take See also:possession, giving the association that should decline the See also:option of joining at a later time. The Association of the South accepted, and that of the North declined, the offer; Trevecca College was turned into a preparatory school on the lines of a similar institution set up at Bala in 1891. The missionary collections of the denomination were given to the See also:London Missionary Society from 1798 to 1840, when a Connexional Society was formed; and no better instances of missionary enterprise are known than those of the Khasia and Jaintia Hills, and the Plains of See also:Sylhet in N. See also:India. There has also been a See also:mission in See also:Brittany since 1842. The constitution of the denomination (called in Welsh, " See also:Hen Gorph," i.e. the Old Body) is a mixture of See also:Presbyterianism and See also:Congregationalism; each church manages its own affairs and reports (1) to the See also:district meeting, (2) to the monthly meeting, the nature of each See also:report determining its destination. The monthly meetings are made up of all the See also:officers of the churches comprised in each, and are split up into districts for the purpose of a more local co-operation of the churches. The monthly meetings appoint delegates to the quarterly Associations, of which all officers are members. The Associations of North and South are distinct institutions, deliberating and determining matters pertaining to them in their See also:separate quarterly gatherings. For the purpose of a See also:fuller co-operation in matters See also:common to both, a general See also:assembly (meeting once a See also:year) was established in 1864. This is a purely deliberative See also:conclave, worked by committees, and all its legislation has to be confirmed by the two Associations before it can have any force or be legal. The See also:annual conference of the See also:English churches of the denomination has no legislative See also:standing, and is meant for social and spiritual intercourse and discussions. In See also:doctrine the church is Calvinistic, but its preachers are far from being rigid in this particular, being warmly evangelical, and, in general, distinctly cultured. The London degree largely figures on the Connexional See also:Diary; and now the Welsh degrees, in arts and divinity, are being increasingly achieved. It is a remarkable fact that every Welsh revival, since 1735, has broken out among the Calvinistic Methodists. Those of 1735, 1762, 178o and 1791 have been mentioned; those of 1817, 1832, 1859 and 1904-1905 were no Iess powerful, and their history is inter-See also:woven with Calvinistic Methodism, the system of which is so admirably adapted for the passing on of the See also:torch. The ministerial system is quite anomalous. It started in pure itineracy; the pastorate came in very gradually, and is not yet in universal See also:acceptance. The authority of the See also:pulpit of any individual church is in the hands of the deacons; they ask the pastor to See also:supply so many Sundays a year—from twelve to See also:forty, as the See also:case may be—and they then fill the See also:remainder with any preacher they choose. The pastor is paid for his See also:pastoral work, and receives his Sunday See also:fee just as a stranger does; his Sundays from home he fills up at the See also:request of deacons of other churches, and it is a breach of connexional See also:etiquette for a See also:minister to apply for engagements, no matter how many unfilled Sundays he may have. Deacons and preachers make engagements seven or eight years in advance. The Connexion provides for English residentswherever required, and the English ministers are oftener in their own pulpits than their Welsh brethren. The Calvinistic Methodists See also:form in some respects the strongest church in Wales, and its forward movement, headed by Dr. John Pugh of See also:Cardiff, has brought thousands into its See also:fold since its See also:establishment in 1891. Its Connexional Book See also:Room, opened in 1891, yields an annual profit of from £1600 to £2000, the profits being devoted to help the colleges and to establish Sunday school See also:libraries, etc. Its chapels in 1907 numbered 1641 (with See also:accommodation for 488,080), manses 229; its churches' numbered 1428, ministers 921, unordained preachers 318, deacons 6179; its Sunday Schools 1731, teachers 27,895, scholars 193,460, communicants 189,164, See also:total collections for religious purposes £300,912. The See also:statistics of the See also:Indian Mission are equally See also:good: communicants 8027, adherents 26,787, missionaries 23, native ministers (ordained) 15, preachers (not ordained) 6o. The Calvinistic Methodists are intensely See also:national in sentiment and aspirations, beyond all suspicion See also:loyalists. They take a great interest in social, See also:political and educational matters, and are prominent on public bodies. They support the See also:Eisteddfod as the See also:promoter and inspirer of arts, letters and See also:music, and are conspicuous among the annual See also:prize winners. They thus form a living, democratic body, flexible and progressive in its movements, yet with a sufficient proportion of conservatism both in See also:religion and See also:theology to keep it sane and safe. (D. E. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] CALVIN, JOHN (1509-1564) |
[next] CALVISIUS, SETHUS (1556-1615) |