(ii) Virulent Opposition
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things on usury"; from the use of '' costly apparel"? ; from "softness and needless self-indulgence'? ; from " laying up treasures upon earth "' and from "' taking up goods without the probability of paying for them."
According to his Christain Positive, all members of the Society were to do good to men's bodies, "' of the ability that God giveth, by giving food to the hungry, by clothing the naked,. by visiting or helping them that are sick or in prison " etc : and to their souls, by instructing, reproving, or exhorting'; by setting an example of "all possible diligence and frugality'?; by '"' denying themselves and taking up their cross daily'? ; even by their readiness for Christ's sake to be mocked, buffeted and despised ''as the filth and offscouring of the world."
Their spiritual life, too, was to be nourished and sustained by "attending all the ordinances of God," including '' public worship," ** the ministry of the Word," "' the Supper of the Lord," '' family and private prayer," "searching the Scriptures," and "fasting or abstinence:'?4
These United Societies, therefore, were inspired by a faith and schooled by a discipline comparable to that of the Early
Christians.
Theirs were the zeal, the humility and the courage that overcome the world: and in the Bible, which they interpreted with infinitely more imagination and sanity than is generally supposed, they found, indeed, the Bread of Life.
(ii) Virulent Opposition This direct, practical nature of the Revival had no sooner dawned upon the mind of the ruling classes in Church and State, than threatening clouds began to darken the sky— portents of the tempest of opposition about to break.
And to this day many intelligent people have been wholly misled by the far-reaching reverberations of that thundering bombardment of prejudice : they have never stopped to investigate the real significance of the Revival, or to examine the fruits of its sowing.
After Wesley's first field sermon at Bristol, he felt certain that his special mission was to the socially and spiritually impoverished masses.
Before long, his voice had been heard by countless thousands of the dispossessed in all parts of the country—by the barbarous Kingswood colliers, by Bristol's stagnant slumdom and Cornwall's lawless smugglers, by London drunkards
For a poignant social elaboration of Wesley's Rules, see H. Carter, e Methodist, (1914).
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and prostitutes, Liverpool sailors'and navvies and by the " wild, staring blasphemers" of Newcastle.
His voice had reached them ; the fervour of his personality had touched their souls ; the fire of his message was burning in their hearts.
Aspirations for a new and holy life possessed their being ; the Kingdom of God was stirring within them.
Half a century before the three magic words of the French Revolution had fanned Europe into a raging and consuming blaze, Wesley already had taught the mighty doctrines of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity: but on a vastly different basis from that of the cynical, sophisticated Voltaire or the demogogical, enigmatic Rousseau.
Had not their witty and spleenish gods been imported from Deistic England?
And had not Wesley revolted against the frigid rationalism and cruel materialism, to which those gods had there given birth?
Classhatred, bloody revolution and revenge, had no place in his system of thought or faith.
He came preaching not his own wisdom but the wisdom of God through Christ.
Hence to him those vigorous, exhilarating doctrines were spiritual to the core.
He taught Liberty from sin, misery and death, through the regenerating power of the living Carpenter of Nazareth, the Saviour of men; he taught the spiritual Equality of collier and king, both being sinners equally in need of grace divine and both being immortal souls equally precious to their Maker : he taught the Fraternity of all mankind, independent of colour, race or clime, as the inevitable corollary of the common Fatherhood of a God of Love.
Such teaching being little in harmony with the deeply rooted caste privileges and chartered stagnation of eighteenth century
England, it was not unnatural that tornadoes of opposition should break upon Wesley, Whitefield and other leaders.
The Revival soon was stormed at from pulpit and press ; and those who knew least about its purpose or meaning, and were too proud and exalted to study its teaching or observe its effects, were loudest in their abuse.
Though both the Wesleys and Whitefield were ordained clergymen of the Establishment, "Church" pulpits on all sides were closed to them, many indeed being regularly used to shower anathemas on their heads.
Charles Wesley, who remained till death a passionate lover and advocate of the order and procedure of the National
Church, says:
'' Every Sunday damnation is pronounced against us, for we are papists, Jesuits, seducers and bringers in of the Pretender."?
Indeed at a time when social rakes were receiving the Holy Communion as a symbol of fitness for State
1 J. H. Overton, Evangelical Revival in the EighteenthyCentury, p. 176f.
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office, these men of God repeatedly were refused it.
Even Epworth Church, where the father of the Wesleys had ministered faithfully nearly all his life, turned John Wesley from the Lord's Table.
'"' Pray tell Mr. Wesley that I shall not give him the Sacrament, for he is not fit;'' were the words of the Epworth rector in the very parish where, says Wesley, '*' according to the strictest sect of our religion, I had so long lived a Pharisee.''4
During the first two or three decades of the Revival the ugly, riotous interference of mobs was more or less continuous.
On innumerable occasions, the meetings of the Wesleys, Whitefield and many itinerant preachers were attacked by drunken, brawling rabbles armed with such formidable means of assault as clubs, whips, clods, bricks, staves, stones, stink-bombs, wildfire and rotten eggs.2
Sometimes they procured a bull and drove him into the midst of an open air congregation ; sometimes they contented themselves by performing with bells, horns, drums, pans and such like, to deaden the preacher's voice.
Frequently, when goaded by a violent leader, they resorted to every available means of attack; and not infrequently they expended their fury in burning or tearing down the houses, and destroying or stealing the furniture and possessions, of the Revival's followers.
Both at the hands of Staffordshire and Cornwall mobs John Wesley was in grave danger of being done to death ; Charles Wesley '"' narrowly escaped with his life at Devizes"? ; while Whitefield,
'"' covered with blood and on the point of falling, was rescued in the nick of time from the brutal fury of an Irish crowd at Dublin.''?
Yet the very people whose duty it was to protect these Godfearing and law-abiding citizens, frequently were those who encouraged or led the mobs in their barbarous assaults. Mr. C. E.
Vulliamy, in his John Wesley, is within the bounds of historical accuracy when he says:
"It was unquestionably the attitude of the clergy and of the landed classes which gave the mob its privilege and excuse, even when it was not led in person by gentlemen or curates.""* Wesley's Journal (April 17th, 1743), runs thus:
'' While I was speaking a gentleman rode up very drunk,; and after many unseemly and bitter words, laboured much to ride over some of the people.
I was surprised to hear that he was a neighbouring clergyman!"
Even Overton, 1J. Wesley's Journal, January 1st, 1743.
2 Southey refers also to the use of egg-shells " filled with blood and stopped with pitch."
3 Vulliamy's John Wesley, p. 231.
4 Op. cit., see chapter xvi. "' The Beasts of the People."
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more than once, points out that Wesley was always pleased when truth permitted him to say a word in a clergyman's praise.
But the Journal shows that the above was by no means an isolated case of attack by an intoxicated clergyman.
Rev. George White, curate of Colne, Lancashire, who subsequently drank himself to death, issued in August, 1748, a proclamation inviting recruits, for '' the defence of the Church of England and the Support of the Manufactory in and about Colne? ; and to ensure a roisterous anti-Methodist mob, this brave parson invited all interested to repair to a specified " pub," where " each man shall receive a Pint of Ale in Advance, and other Proper Encouragements."'
The outrageous violence of the Reverend George White's mob towards Wesley, Grimshaw, Mackford and certain of their helpers, suggests strongly that the "' other proper encouragements "" were somewhat more
" spirited " than the initial " pint," and that many such had been taken "' in advance."?
Wesley, on this occasion, was struck violently in the face and later '"' beat down to the ground" by ruffians, raging "like lions."
Grimshaw they threw down, loading him with " dirt and mire of every kind!"
Mackford they "trampled in the mire," later to drag him about by the hair of his head.
The whole congregation, " without any regard to age or sex," they pelted with '' showers of dirt and stones."
'"' Many they beat with their clubs without mercy."
Some of the victims sustained permanent injury.
Nevertheless, " all this time," the Reverend '© Commander-in-Chief," sat '' well-pleased,"' close to the place, " talking of justice and law," and '' not attempting in the least to hinder them."'* As early as the middle of 1743, Wesley, who always had an amazing mastery of his emotions and never lost his head, was highly perturbed by the prevailing attitude of the clergy.
"I received a full statement," reads his Journal, '' of the terrible riots which had been in Staffordshire.
I was not surprised at all: neither should I have wondered if, after the advices they had so often received from the pulpit, as well as from the episcopal chair, the zealous High Churchmen had rose, and cut all that were Methodists in pieces."*
In 1744, James Dale, a " Methodist," applied to Dr. Borlase, the antiquarian, clergyman and magistrate, for justice against a certain anti-Methodist
1 See especially his John Wesley (1891).
; :
2See Yournal, August 25th and 26th, 1748; also Vulliamy op. cit., Pp. 240-42.
3 Ibid.
4 See entry of June 18th, 1743.
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rioter, who with a mob, had smashed into his house and stolen his goods.
The response of this scholarly parson-magistrate was a prelude to the nasty Cornish riots of the following year.
'"Thou conceited fellow !'' thundered Borlase, '' What! art thou too turned religious?
They may burn thy house if they will ; it is no concern of mine !"'} One must, however, guard against the over abuse of the clergy, as such.
Most of them were the hirelings, if not the puppets, of their parish squires? ; and certainly Wesley himself traced the majority of mob riots to the doors of magistrates, squires and "gentlemen."
His Journal literally teems with shrewd, caustic, witty references to the ungentlemanly conduct of '' so-called gentlemen " and to the gross ignorance, stupidity and indecency of "the great vulgar.'"'
Even indeed among the more pious of the gentry, he commonly found little to admire.
'"In most genteel religious people," he remarks, '' there is so strange a mixture, that I have seldom much confidence in them.'
Parsons therefore were often corrupted and exploited by their pompous patrons, who seldom shrank from using both them and the mobs for their own sinister ends.
A Fournal entry (May 7th, 1743), says:
"The sons of Belial gathered themselves together, headed by one or two wretches called gentlemen ; and continued shouting, cursing, blaspheming and throwing showers of stones almost without intermission."?
In 1765, at North Taunton, a clergyman, '"' with two or three by the courtesy of England called gentlemen," began an uproar :
"they had brought a huntsman with his hounds; but the dogs were wiser than the men, for they could not bring them to make any noise at all.
One of the gentlemen supplied their place.
He assured us he was such, or none would have suspected it; for his language was as base, foul and porterly as was ever heard at Billingsgate."'
For more than thirty years, references to': mob interference form a distinct feature of Wesley's Journal: and fiercest of all
"the beasts of the people"? were the "lions" and " bloodhounds " " called gentlemen."'
Part of the record for September 19th, 1769, is both amusing and revealing:
'"' The beasts of the people were tolerably quiet till I had nearly finished my sermon.
'They then lifted up their voice, especially one, called a gentleman, who had filled his pockets with rotten eggs: but a young man coming unawares, clapped his hands on each side, and mashed them all at once.
In an instant he was 1 See Vulliamy, op. cit., pp.
150 and 236; also Fournal, July 3rd * Throughout most of "the eighteenth century at least twe-thivdsioe ae parish clergy were at the mercy of lay patrons who controlled their livings.
LADY SELINA, COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON (left)
CHARLES WESLEY (right) |
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perfume all over ; though it was not so sweet as balsam.""
On another occasion "' a kind of gentleman .
. hired a company of boys to shout, and made a poor man exceeding drunk, who bawled out much ribaldry and nonsense, while he himself played the French horn."!
Some gentlemen magistrates went the length of advising mobs to "do what you will'' with the Methodists, ''so you break no bones ''?; others issued general warrants for the arrest of itinerant preachers? : while, more than once, strutting, fuming gentlemen contracted with mobs to drive "' all that were called Methodists '' out of their districts.
The Journal record for February 6th, 1744, is peculiarly illuminating.
After months of sporadic terrorism and looting, a mob, '' hired by their betters' and '"' bound by an oath" to "plunder all the Methodists in Wednesbury," set out on Shrove-Tuesday to complete their design.
The attack was calculated, cowardly, wanton and ruthless.
Assaulting " all the homes of those who were called Methodists," they " first broke all their windows, suffering neither glass, lead nor frames to remain therein."
Then "all the tables, chairs, chests of drawers, with whatever was not easily removable, they dashed to pieces, particularly shop-goods, and furniture of every kind," while non-breakables, such as feather-beds, "' they cut in pieces and strewed about the room."
And so the valiant fellows continued.
'"' Wearing apparel, and things that were of value or easily saleable, they carried away; every man loading himself with as much as he could well carry, of whatever he liked best."?
Finally they came to the house of William Sitch, "' whose wife was lying in":
'"' but that was all one; they pulled away her bed, too, and cut it in pieces."
Following this valorous act, ''some of the gentlemen who had set the mob to work, or threatened to turn away collier or miner out of their service, that did not come and do his part, now drew up a paper for those of the society to sign, importing, that they would never invite or receive any Methodist preacher more.
On this condition, they told them they would stop the mob at once; otherwise they must take what followed.'
The said paper "they offered to several; but they declared, one and all, 'We have already lost all our goods; and nothing more
1 Yournal, June 13th, 1763.
2 See Arnold Lunn, John Wesley, p. 205.
3 For an exact copy of such, see Journal, October 20th, 1743.
4 Among the previous victims of this particular mob were Mr. and Mrs.
Joshua Constable and their little children.
On January 23rd they threw Mrs. Constable down and tried to force her.
On January 3oth, they smashed into Constable's house, '" pulled part of it down, broke some of his goods in pieces, and carried the rest away."
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can follow, but the loss of our lives, which we will lose, too, rather than wrong our consciences '."'
So the mad orgy continued ! The '' Methodists " offered no resistance, for they knew well that resistance would only jeopardise the honour of their women folk to this liberty-shouting,
"gentlemen "'-led mob.
Before the chivalrous exploits of Shrove-Tuesday (February 7th,, 1744) were concluded, the houses of "' some hundreds "' of Wesley's disciples in and around
Wednesbury resembled a "' devastated area.'
Not only had their houses been broken up, their furniture cut to pieces, and their portable goods looted; even their live stock had been driven off.
'"' Most of them" indeed were "stripped of all they had in the world."
Our post-War, Dictator-ridden age is familiar with the art of doctoring and doping "' news" for propaganda purposes.
But was ever a war despatch, or political note, more diabolically contorted than the following "' report' of the above riot ?—a report which may still be read in the British Museum Library from the files of the London Evening Post, February 18th, 1744.
"By a private letter from Staffordshire," this '"' news"? item reads:
'' We had advice of an insurrection of the people, called Methodists, who upon some pretended insults from the Church party, have assembled themselves in a riotous manner ; and having committed several outrages, they proceeded at last to burn the house of one of their adversaries."?
'This report is surely worthy of the valiant gentlemen who inspired and managed the Wednesbury rabble's assault!
It is the more understandable, too, when it is remembered that most eighteenthcentury journalists, editors and writers, were as much " in the pockets " of gouty, irascible patrons, as were parish priests.
Wesley's superb courage and coolness, his overawing peace and composure, his humour and affability, succeeded finally in subduing even the crass, stupid bestiality of the eighteenthcentury English mob.
For his Journal note, September 16th, 1743, many parallels might be cited:
''In the evening, as I was preaching at St. Ives, Satan began to fight for his Kingdom.
The mob of the town burst into the room and created much disturbance; roaring and striking those that stood in the way, as though Legion himself possessed them.
I would fain have persuaded our people to stand still; but the zeal of some and the fear of others, had no ears; so that finding 1 See Journal (above date).
For Wesley's comments on this ' report," see the latter part of his long Fournal entry for February 18th, 1744.
Important preceding dates are included therein.
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PDE the uproar increase I went into the midst, and brought the head of the mob up with me to the desk.
(J received but one blow on the side of the head ; after which we reasoned the case, till he grew milder and milder, and at length undertook to quiet his companions."
Wesley, the Evangelist, was a man possessed of amazing grace.
Never did he lose his temper; and always was he prepared to endure a blow, if the dealing of it would relieve the hysteria ofhis assailant.
Repeatedly, when struck by a stone or cudgel, he quietly wiped away the blood and went on preaching without so much as a frown on his face.
He loved his enemies ; and do what they would, they could not make him discourteous or angry.
It is no exaggeration to say that Wesley instilled into the British people, a new and highly Christian conception of bravery and courage.
The swaggering, bullying, animal species of courage, so characteristic of his age, made little appeal to him ; his was entirely a product of the spirit ; and ere his earthly race was run, something of the power and majesty of that same spiritual courage was reflected even in the humblest '' Methodist " Societies all over the land.
In danger, Wesley had taught his followers to think of the Christ before Pilate, of the Son of God before a raging, crucifying mob.
Thus it was, that Wesley's serenity first broke, and later won, the heart of many a mob-leader and ruthless enemy : thus it was, too, that many a one-time brute came to be transformed into a gentle, saintly Class-leader and understanding shepherd of souls.
This miraculous Grace, was the power which finally conquered the eighteenth-century mob.
Mr. Vulliamy, in words of rare insight concerning Wesley and his persecutors, says:
'It was not courage alone that saved Wesley.
He was preserved by a tranquil dignity, by cool, steady and courteous behaviour, by the entire absence of malice and anger ; but, above all, by those peculiar graces and powers which accompany a man of God.''?
The attacks on the Movement by heady, superior society leaders, were more subtle but not less vicious than those of squires, clergymen, magistrates and mobs.
The contemporary literature of the era bristles with demonstrations of this truth, but we need quote only the Duchess of Buckingham, an illegitimate daughter of James II.
Addressing the Countess of Huntingdon, one of the few in " well-bred " society who, at an early stage, supported the Revival, the Duchess wrote :
"TJ thank your Ladyship for the information concerning the Methodist preaching ; these doctrines are most repulsive and 1 Op. cit., p. 244.