n 1728. After assisting his _f._ for a short time as curate, he
returned to Oxf., where he found that his brother Charles, along with G.
Whitefield (_q.v._) and others, had begun that association for religious
improvement from which sprang the great religious movement known as
Methodism. About the same time the two brothers came under the influence
of William Law (_q.v._), author of the _Serious Call_, and in 1735 John
went on a mission to Georgia to preach to the Indians and colonists, and
became closely associated with the Moravian Brethren. Difficulties of a
personal character, however, led to his return in 1738 to London, where
he continued to associate with the Moravians. It was at this time that,
hearing Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans read at a meeting,
he found his religious and ecclesiastical views revolutionised. Hitherto
holding strong High Church views in some directions, he now assumed a
position which ultimately led to his abandoning the doctrine of
Apostolical succession, and ordaining pastors and bishops, and finally
creating a separate ecclesiastical organisation. Consequences soon
followed; the pulpits of the Church were closed against him, and he began
his marvellous career of itinerant and out-of-door preaching, which was
continued to the close of his long life. He soon became a mighty power in
the land; vast crowds waited on his ministrations, which were
instrumental in producing a great revival of religious interest, and
improved morality among the people. At the same time violent opposition
was aroused, and W. was often in danger of his life from mobs. In the
end, however, he lived down this state of things to a large extent, and
in his old age was the object of extraordinary general veneration, while
in his own communion he exercised a kind of pontifical sway. During the
50 years of his apostolic journeyings he is said to have travelled
250,000 miles in Britain, Ireland, and the Continent; but notwithstanding
this phenomenal activity he was able, by extreme economy of time, to
write copiously, his works including educational treatises, translations
from the classics, histories of Rome and England, a history of the
Church, biblical commentaries, manifold controversial treatises and ed.
of religious classics. Most of them had an enormous circulation and
brought him in L30,000, all of which he expended on philanthropic and
religious objects. The work, however, on which his literary fame c