WESLEY, CHARLES

A founder of Methodism and a hymn writer; b. Epworth, Lincolnshire, Dec. 18, 1707; d. London, March 29, 1788. He was the 18th of the 19 children of Susanna and Reverend Samuel Wesley. In April 1716 he entered Westminster School and in June 1726, Christ Church, Oxford, from which he received his B.A. (1730). A pious student, he formed a Holy Club (1729), which was converted into a society by his older brother John wesley. Charles was an excellent scholar and Latinist and took his M.A. in 1733. After being ordained an Anglican priest in 1735, he accompanied James Edward Oglethorpe (1696–1785) to Georgia, but partly because of ill health he returned to England (July 26, 1736). He met Nikolaus von zinzendorf, the celebrated Moravian evangelist in January 1737. After his "conversion" on May 21, 1738, he resumed preaching in London churches, ministered to felons, and, imitating George whitefield, preached in the fields. He and his brother John formed a partnership for itinerant missions and for ministering to the Methodist societies in Bristol and London. For 18 years he preached in many parts of England, visiting Ireland twice, and enduring persecution. But he was completely overshadowed by his more famous brother. As Charles saw it, the Methodist societies were wholly within the Anglican church. John's ordination of two ministers for America angered Charles, who regarded it as defiance of the church. Personal and religious differences tended to draw the devoted brothers apart in later years. But like John, Charles was Arminian in his theological views, and hostile to the doctrine of salvation of the Calvinistic Methodists. In 1749 he married Sarah (Sally) Gwynne (1726–1822), who bore him eight children. In 1771 Wesley removed his family to London, where he continued his labors on behalf of the Methodists to the end of his life. Although he was a great preacher, his fame today rests on his hymns. He published 4,430 hymns and left 2,840 in manuscript. The most famous collection was the joint work of John and Charles, Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists (1779). The hymns deeply influenced the English and helped diffuse the teachings of the Bible, which was the inspiration of the hymns.

Bibliography: t. jackson, Life of the Rev. Charles Wesley, 2 v. (London 1841). m. l. edwards, Sons to Samuel (London 1961). f. baker, Charles Wesley as Revealed by His Letters (London 1948). j. e. rattenbury, The Evangelical Doctrines of Charles Wesley's Hymns (London 1941). c. w. flint, Charles Wesley (Washington 1957). r. a. knox, Enthusiasm (New York 1961). a. gordon, The Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900, 63 v. (London 1885–1900) 20:1209–13. m. schmidt, Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 7 v. (3d ed. Tübingen 1957–65) 6:1655–56. f. l. cross, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (London 1957) 1445–46.

[g. l. vincitorio]