Charles, Thomas

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Charles, Thomas (1755–1814). Welsh revivalist. Born in Carmarthenshire and educated at Jesus College, Oxford, Charles took holy orders in 1778. His sympathies were with the Calvinistic methodists and from a chapel in Bala he began building up an evangelical circle. In 1803 he established a press at Bala which produced catechisms and religious magazines in Welsh and he prepared for the British and Foreign Bible Society an edition of the Bible in Welsh. Charles fought off accusations of Jacobinism and democratical tendencies in The Welsh Methodists Vindicated (1802). In 1811 the ordaining of lay preachers led to a breach with the church which Charles, with reluctance, accepted.

J. A. Cannon

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Thomas Charles

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