Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Archives

Protestantism and Non-Christian Religions

Fr. Hardon Responds to Msgr. Bray -
Methodist Beginnings in America: A Reply

by Msgr. James B. Bray - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

EDITOR:

Father John A. Hardon’s fine book, The Protestant Churches of America, [1] was reviewed in the March issue of this REVIEW. I should like respectfully to draw your attention to Chapter Eight. This chapter deals with the Methodist Church. Such source books as the Minutes of the Methodist Conferences Annually Held in America (New York, 1813), The Works of Rev. John Wesley (New York, 1831), Peter Force’s Tracts (Washington, 1836) unfortunately are not to be found among the references given at the end of this eighth chapter. I wish Father Hardon had consulted them; they are invaluable sources of reference.

I fear that the historical context will not lend its full support to three of Father Hardon’s statements: 1) Wesley’s visit to Georgia; 2) his appointment of Asbury as bishop of the Methodist Church in America; 3) that if the Methodist Church was “weakened to the point of disintegration,” how could it “grow in numbers during the Revolutionary War,” in particular in the face of Wesley’s attitude and that of his ministers in America.

Our quotations from Father Hardon’s work are evaluated seriatim, and within the framework of the sources enumerated.

From Father Hardon:
Wesley came to Georgia in 1735, but returned to England after an unfortunate court trial involving the excommunication of a woman in his parish. He had hoped to marry the lady but could not reach a decision.

It was a Grand Jury and the young lady that made this decision, not Wesley. Wesley left England ostensibly to convert the Indian. While sailing over the Atlantic the delightful ozone of the ocean breezes evidently transformed him into what Mr. Dooley called an “amorous swan.”

The tract treating of Wesley’s visit to Georgia was issued at Savannah, December 9, 1738, and is found in the first volume of Peter Force’s Reprints. It is an interesting, indeed an amusing description of the famous founder of Methodism during his stay in the Colony.

And now to make our subjection more complete, a new kind of Tyranny was this summer begun to be imposed upon us; for Mr. John Wesly who had come over and was received by us as a clergyman of the Church of England, soon discovered that his aim was to enslave our minds, as a necessary Preparative for enslaving our bodies…. At last all persons of any consideration came to look upon him as a Roman Catholic…. All Jesuitical Arts were made use of to bring the well concerted scheme to Perfection; Families were divided into parties, spies were engaged in many homes, and the servants of others brib’d and decoy’d to let him into all the secrets of the Families they belonged to; nay, those who had given themselves up to his Spiritual Guidance (more especially women) were obliged to discover to him their most secret Actions, nay even their thoughts and the subject of their dreams; … nor could we imagine what all this would end in; complain we might; but to no purpose.

But the merciful Providence of God disappoints frequently those Designs that are laid deepest in Human Prudence.

Mr. Wesly at the Time repulsed Mrs. Sophia Williamson … from the Sacrament. This young lady was by her friends put under the Ghostly Care of Mr. Wesly, who was pleased to make Proposals of marriage to her; these she always repulsed; and in some little time married Mr. William Williamson…. He took the ‘fore-said means, by repelling her from the Holy Communion, of showing his resentment…. Mr. Wesly was indicted before a Grand Jury of Forty-four Freeholders and Thirteen Indictments were found against him…. However, this put an end to any further Prosecution of Mr. Wesly’s schemes; for soon after this, he departed the Colony privately by night and went to Charles Town, and from there to England.

From Father Hardon:
Wesley on his own authority first ordained Thomas Coke, Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Vesey, and then consecrated Coke to the episcopacy.

Paragraph No. 4 of the Minutes of the Methodist Conferences (New York, 1813), page 50, does not confirm this statement:

Three conferences were held in 1785, 1786 and 1787. The first question printed in the Minutes of each Conference is:

	Quest. 1.		Who are the superintendents of our church?
	Ans.		Thomas Coke, Francis Asbury.

The title “bishop” was introduced, for the first time, in the 1788 conference:

	Quest. 1.		Who are the Bishops of our church for the United States?
	Ans.		Thomas Coke, Francis Asbury.

When Wesley learned that the title “Bishop” was being used, he wrote the following caustic letter to Asbury:

Evidence that Asbury was not appointed a bishop, but only superintendent, is also found in the Life of Asbury by Strickland (New York, 1858):

Hence, the title “bishop” in the Methodist Episcopal Church originated in the vanity of Coke and Asbury.

From Father Hardon:

The Methodist Church in America grew in numbers during the Revolutionary War, but also weakened to the point of disintegration for lack of Anglican-ordained clergy to care for its needs.

The attitude of Wesley in England and his ministers in America toward the Revolutionary cause must reflect the standing of the Methodists, while the patriots were sacrificing their lives to gain independence. Wesley was smarting from the jilting by the young lady and the jolting by the Grand Jury.

Wesley wrote: Probably that subtle spirit (Satan) hoped, by adding to all other vices, the spirit of independency, to have overturned the whole work of God, as well as the British Government in North America…. The spirit of independency which our poet so justly terms “The glorious fault of angels and of gods,” that is, in plain terms, of devils the same which so many call liberty. Reason is lost in rage…. Wisdom is fallen in the streets. And where is the place of understanding? It is hardly to be found in these provinces… There is no liberty of the press…. There is no religious liberty…. There is no civil liberty. Do you not observe, wherever these bawlers after liberty govern, there is the vilest slavery? Thus is real liberty, in all its branches, given up for that poor shadow, Independency! A phantom which does not, in fact, exist in any civilized nation under heaven…. Independency, that chimera is not found in the wilds of Africa or America.

As to Washington's Army: General Howe will regard any number of them as much as he would so many sparrows. Will these dead-doing men, do you think, be in haste to cut off the old weather-beaten Englishmen!

Gloating over their defeats, he wrote: Since we have help from God, there has been manifest blast on them. Meantime, are they humbled? No, they roar like a wild beast in a net.

That the Methodist preachers in America shared Wesley’s opinions is evident from the fact that, when the war broke out, they all asked for passes, excepting Asbury. He went into hiding. General Swartwood granted the passes with the observation: “Now you have done all the hurt you can, you want to go home.”

The observation of Cobb, in his Rise of Religious Liberty, sums up the Methodist attitude toward the Revolution:

The Methodists are not to be classed among the strugglers for religious liberty. They procured no small odium in the Revolution as Tories in politics and opponents to full freedom of worship.

May I express the hope that my addendum to Father Hardon’s eighth chapter will be useful to those who are fortunate enough to have purchased a copy of this very valuable book.

JAMES B. BRAY
Buffalo, N.Y.

Fr. Hardon Responds to Msgr. Bray

Methodist Beginnings in America: A Reply

EDITOR:

Monsignor Bray’s observations (in the May issue of your REVIEW) on the Methodists in The Protestant Churches of America were gratefully appreciated as showing a scholarly familiarity with the early religious history of our country. With due respect to the sources he quotes, I believe that documentary evidence confirms the three statements in my book which he felt were not fully supported by the historical context.

The first statement has to do with John Wesley’s visit to Georgia in 1735. In the book, the Methodist founder is described as returning to England after an unfortunate trial involving a woman of his parish whom Wesley waited too long about deciding to marry. Monsignor Bray objects that a Grand Jury and the young lady made this decision, not Wesley. But the facts in the case, even those cited by the Monsignor, still still bear out the original statement. Wesley’s indecision about marrying Sophie Hopkey arose from his unsettled conflict as to whether he should remain celibate along with the fear that the girl might repulse him. When she married a man named Williamson, Wesley went through the most serious crisis of his life. “To see her no more,” he wrote in his Journal, “that thought was as the piercing of a sword… I was weary of the world, of light, of life” (Stand. Ed., I, 334). Unfortunately he continued to see the lady, whom he never forgave for having deceived him. When her religious fervor cooled, Wesley deprived her of the Lord’s Supper. At this point the worsted suitor was hailed before the court of Savannah on several charges, especially that he had attempted to seduce Sophie. After attending six sessions of the court, the accused left Georgia clandestinely, since, in his own words, “I knew by experience every day would give fresh opportunity to procure evidence of words I never said and actions I never did” (Ibid., p. 400). The extent of Wesley’s guilt has not been fully determined.

Another statement with which Monsignor Bray takes issue is that John Wesley (though a simple parson) presumed to consecrate one of his followers, Thomas Coke, to the episcopacy. According to the Monsignor, Wesley merely appointed Coke (and Francis Asbury) superintendents, but they assumed the title “bishop” on their own authority. The weight of historical evidence shows that the Methodist founder was hiding behind a verbal distinction in which most probably he and certainly his followers did not believe. In desperation at the refusal of Anglican prelates to ordain presbyters for the Methodist ministry, Wesley ordained twenty-seven men for the work of preaching and administering the Lord’s Supper. But this alone would not guarantee succession after his death. “Here (in England),” he argued, “there are bishops… In America there are none” (Methodist Magazine, 1785, p. 602). So he imposed hands on the presbyter, Thomas Coke, and declared he was making him a superintendent. Coke understood himself to be a bishop. Within a year he exercised what he believed were episcopal powers by imposing hands in Asbury. In two years the latter realistically changed the name “superintendent” to “bishop” for himself, Coke and Wesley-with the approval of the majority at the General Conference in 1787. If anyone should have known Wesley’s intentions, it was his brother and confidant, Charles, who summed up his views in this bitter quatrain:

How easy now are Bishops made At man or woman’s whim!
Wesley his hands on Coke hath laid, But who laid hands on him?

To this day, the official Discipline defines a “bishop (as) a general superintendent of The Methodist Church,” thus retaining Wesley’s ambiguous terminology to describe what he actually intended, namely, the Episcopal dignity.

The last critique questions the accuracy of the statement that the “Methodist Church grew in numbers during the Revolutionary War,” if it had “weakened to the point of near disintegration for lack of Anglican-ordained clergy to care for its needs.” The apparent contradiction is resolved by noting that the growth in membership was due to revivalist conversions brought about by itinerant preachers; but this very increase in numbers nearly destroyed the Methodist body for want of an indigenous clergy, which was finally supplied from outside the Anglican ranks by Wesley’s assumption of Episcopal powers.

I thank Monsignor Bray for his valuable addenda on the beginnings of the Methodist Church. My hope is it will stimulate further efforts to unearth the wealth of religious data still buried in the sources of American history. The Catholic Church would benefit from the excavation.

FR. JOHN A. HARDON, S.J.

West Baden College
West Baden Springs, Indiana.

Homiletic and Pastoral Review
Vol. 57-#8, May 1957, pp. 686, 688, 690, 692 & 694
Vol. 57-#9, June 1957, pp. 786, 788 & 790

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