wfn.org | At the Roots of Methodism: Dispelling myths about Wesley

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Dec. 17, 2003	News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
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NOTE: This is a regular feature on Methodist history prepared especially for
distribution by United Methodist News Service. An artist's rendering of John
Wesley is available at http://umns.umc.org/photos/headshots.html.

A UMNS Feature
By John Singleton*

Given the high profile accorded to John Wesley throughout this tercentenary
year of his birth, it is hardly surprising that a number of myths about the
founder of Methodism continue to surface. 

British Methodist historian John Vickers has noted that a few misconceptions
can be traced back to Wesley himself. For instance, it has often been stated
that he was baptized "John Benjamin" in memory of two of his brothers who had
died soon after birth. Wesley himself apparently told one of his preachers
that he was told this by his father, Samuel Wesley. 

Writing in a recent edition of the British Methodist Recorder, Vickers says
that a former editor of the paper in the early 20th century, Nehemiah Curnock
(also a noted Wesley scholar), had confirmed it from the certificate Samuel
Wesley supplied to the bishop of Oxford at the time of John's ordinations in
1725 and 1728. 

"Despite this, the fact is that Samuel Wesley had got it wrong, and he in
turn was misleading others," Vickers says. "We have more accurate and
reliable evidence of the facts than even Samuel's memory."

The Epworth parish registers were destroyed in the rectory fire in 1709, but
some years ago, American Methodist historian Frank Baker was able to
demonstrate that the bishop's transcripts of those records in Lincoln showed
that John was given one name - and that one only - at his baptism. "Curnock
was a leading scholar and editor in his day, but none of us is beyond being
proved wrong by fresh evidence," Vickers says.

A second myth is exemplified by a plaque on the pulpit of the parish church
of South Leigh, near Oxford, which recalls - again in Wesley's own words -
that he "preached his first sermon" there. This "fact" had been repeated
frequently and seemed irrefutable, coming from Wesley's own journal. But
according to Vickers, it was another American Methodist historian's
"trailblazing work" in deciphering Wesley's diaries that revealed a different
story. 

The Rev. Richard Heitzenrater established that on the first Sunday after
Wesley's ordination as deacon, Wesley did not preach at all, but a week later
read prayers and preached (from Job 3:17) not once but twice: at Fleet
Marston and at Upper Winchendon, two villages west of Aylesbury and within
easy reach of Oxford.

"What, then, of Wesley's statement more than 40 years later?" Vickers asks.
"It was perfectly true, but contained a misleading ambiguity: His 'first
sermon' was preached at South Leigh, but not until Feb. 12, 1727, nearly five
months later, by which time he had already preached it eight times in various
other places."

Coming forward to the 20th century, Vickers says a myth was perpetrated in
1926 when American Methodists generously funded the restoration of what were
believed to be the rooms occupied by Wesley as a fellow of Lincoln College,
Oxford - rooms that are still shown to visitors. 

"But more recent research ... has shown that Wesley actually lived on the
west side of the Chapel Quadrangle," he says. "In this case, the error has
been traced to the 19th century politician and writer, John Morley, who
claimed that as a student he occupied the same rooms as Wesley had done."
This was not so.

One of the most curious myths has its origins in 1784 when, as everyone
knows, Wesley dispatched Thomas Coke and two itinerant preachers to
reorganize American Methodism following the war of independence. "In order to
mark the 200th anniversary of this significant event, a picture was painted
with the title 'Offer them Christ'," Vickers says.

"In it, Wesley is depicted bidding farewell to the three as they embarked at
Pill, near Bristol. The artist went to some lengths to ensure detailed
authenticity and claimed to have consulted a number of leading British
Methodists. 

"The resulting painting has much to commend it. But its one failure is
crucial: we can be sure, merely from reading Wesley's published journal, that
the event never actually happened!" Vickers says. Wesley's priorities were
very different from those the artist supposed, and he was busy on a preaching
tour elsewhere at the time. 

None of these "myths" detracts from what has been a remarkable year of
celebration and remembrance. In fact, the myths add to it, for around every
great historical person there develops an aura in which fact and fiction
sometimes become intermingled.

The most important fact is that John Wesley was born 300 years ago and became
the driving force behind the Methodist movement. The fact that this movement
is now worldwide would surely have amazed Wesley, who simply saw himself as a
servant of the Lord.

# # #

*Singleton is a consultant editor with the weekly Methodist Recorder
newspaper in London. He can be contacted by e-mail at john@towerhamlets.org. 
    

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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