Wesley, John

Wesley, John (1703-91), preacher, b. Epworth, Lincolnshire, England.

John Wesley was the fifteenth of nineteen children.

His father was a Church of England rector and John also became a clergyman.

In 1735-38, he visited Georgia in the United States and met members of a religious group from Europe. He became interested in their religion. It had no bishops and allowed ordinary people to preach. It was different in these ways and others from the Church of England.

In 1739, at the age of thirty-five, Wesley set out to teach people about religion of this kind. He wanted people to live according to what he said was 'the method as laid down in the New Testament' by Jesus Christ. For this reason, he and his followers became known as Methodists.

After a time, he was barred from Church of England churches and forced to preach in the open air. Traveling on horse-back, he covered 248,000 miles (400,000 km) and preached 40,000 sermons in fifty years.

In 1784, the Methodists broke away from the Church of England. Seven years later, Wesley died but Methodism went on.

Today, one-twelfth of all the Protestants in the world are Methodists.