John Wesley, quack?

John Wesley
(The New Room, Bristol, UK)

John Wesley was considered by a lot of people to be a quack, both spiritually and medically (Madden, Cheap, 12).  Religiously, he was perceived as hotheaded and "enthusiastic," which in our time is a compliment but at that time meant "fanatical."  Differences in religion had recently caused a civil war in England.  Thus, the established Church of England clergy were typically men who depended on the intellect and not the emotions, so they distrusted John's "enthusiasm" as he promoted Methodism as a way to revitalize the Church of England (Watson, David Lowes.  "Wesley and Cranmer" lecture, Wesley Pilgrimage by General Board of Discipleship, United Methodist Church, 8 October 2012).  He never had his own church in England, and would travel to different places to preach as a guest preacher.  Based on their support or opposition to his ideas, the clergy in those churches would either allow him to preach or refuse his request.  At one time he climbed on top of his father's tomb to preach because the current rector would not allow him to preach in the church where John had been baptized and John's father had been clergy for almost 40 years!  One of the reasons he preached in the open air (considered scandalous at the time), was because Church of England pulpits were increasingly closed against him.

You have learned about Joseph Graham, the quack who combined his treatments with his theology.  Quacks prospered during this time because so little was known about how the body worked and how to treat illness.  Although waning, the belief in "wise women, wart charmers and faith healers" continued, especially in the provinces (Rack, Henry. "Doctors, Demons and Early Methodist Healing" in Sheils, WJ, ed. The Church and Healing: Studies in Church History, Papers Read at the Twentieth Summer Meeting and the Twentyfirst Winter Meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society (Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell, 1982) 139).  In comparison to Graham, the Chelsea "doctoress" Bridget Bostock was a healer who used prayer and "fasting spittle" (spit in the mouth when one hasn't eaten in awhile).  She took no money, wore old clothes, and treated persons of all classes, seeing 500-600 patients a day.  It is to her credit that she refused to attempt raise Sir John Price's third wife from the dead, no matter how much money he offered.  He must have really liked his wives, since he embalmed the first two wives and kept their bodies in his bedroom.  The third wife refused to marry him until the bodies were dispatched (Rack, 140-41).

The governing English elite were aghast at the number of new sects with potentially subversive political agendas.  They were appalled and opposed to any religious groups that believed in, or claimed, special powers pf revelation and holiness.  Therefore, polite society molded itself to believe in rational religion and natural philosophy and to reject the intellectual bases of spiritual healing.  They went so far as to discredit "enthusiasm" by presenting it as a form of mental illness (MacDonald, Michael.  "Religion, Social Change, and Psychological Healing in England, 1600-1800"in Sheils, WJ, ed. The Church and Healing: Studies in Church History, Papers Read at the Twentieth Summer Meeting and the Twentyfirst Winter Meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society (Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell, 1982) 119).  Between 1772 and 1795 the entrance books of Bethlem Hospital ("Bedlam") recorded 90 patients admitted who were considered insane because of "religion and Methodism."  In fact, Wesley and George Whitefield, a fellow Methodist clergy, rescued several men and women from mad-doctors and madhouses. The two felt these people were very pious and not insane (MacDonald, 124). 



(Source: Wellcome Library, London)

This representation of "Credulity, Superstition and Fanaticism: A Medley" is by the satirist William Hogarth, published in 1761.  It makes fun of Methodist enthusiasm.  Under "A Medley" Hogarth has added the verse of 1 John 4:1, "Believe not every Spirit, but try the Spirits whether they are of God: because many false Prophets are gone out into the World."

The room is in a chaos of differing intense emotions, as (supposedly) George Whitefield is preaching and in the back John Wesley is pointing up at the "New and Correct Globe of Hell" to a terrified attender.  Mary Tofts is in the bottom left having her rabbit babies, a boy is spitting out nails, the clergyman in the middle with the cherubs is sobbing, and the young lady on the right is in such religious ecstasy that she does not notice the amorous clergyman slipping something down her dress.  For more of an explanation, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credulity,_Superstition,_and_Fanaticism.

More on the "enthusiasm" of the Methodists tomorrow.