CALVINISTIC METHODISTS, a body of Christians forming a church of the Presbyterian order and claiming to be the only denomination in Wales which is of purely Welsh origin. Its beginnings may be traced to the labours of the Rev. Griffith Jones (1684-1761), of Llanddowror, Carmarthenshire, whose sympathy for the poor led him to set on foot a system of circu lating charity schools for the education of poor children. Griffith Jones's zeal appealed to the public imagination, and his powerful preaching exercised a widespread influence. An impressive an nouncement of the Easter Communion Service, made by the Rev. Pryce Davies, vicar of Talgarth, March 30, 1735, was the means of awakening Howell Harris (1714-1773) of Trevecca, who became a fiery itinerant preacher. Jones, preaching at Llanddewi Brefi, Cardiganshire—the place at which the Welsh Patron Saint, David, first became famous—roused Daniel Rowland (1713 1790), curate of Llangeitho, who became an ardent apostle of the new movement. Naturally a fine orator, his new-born zeal gave an edge to his eloquence, and his fame spread abroad. About another prominent figure appeared : this was Howell Davies of Pembrokeshire, whose ministry was modelled on that of his master, Griffith Jones.
In 1736 Harris opened a school, Griffith Jones supplying him with books from his charity. He also set up societies, in accord ance with the recommendations in Josiah Wedgwood's little book on the subject; and these exercised a great influence on the re ligious life of the people. By far the most notable of Harris's converts was William Williams (1717-1791), of Pant y Celyn, the great hymn-writer of Wales. He had been ordained deacon in the Church of England, I740, but Whitefield recommended him to leave his curacies and go into the highways and hedges. In Jan. '743, the friends of aggressive Christianity in Wales met at Wad ford, near Caerphilly, Glam., in order to organize their societies. The meeting is known as the first Methodist Association—held eighteen months before John Wesley's first conference (June 25, . Monthly meetings covering smaller districts were organized to consider local matters, the transactions of which were to be re ported to the Quarterly Association, to be confirmed, modified, or rejected. Exhorters were divided into two classes—public, who were allowed to itinerate as preachers and superintend a number of societies; private, who were confined to the charge of one or two societies. The societies were distinctly understood to be part of the established church, as Wedgwood's were, and every attempt at estranging them therefrom was sharply reproved; but persecu tion made their position anomalous. They did not accept the discipline of the Church of England, so the plea of conformity was a feeble defence; nor had they taken out licences, so as to claim the protection of the Toleration Act. Harris's ardent loyalty to the Church of England, after three refusals to ordain him, and his personal contempt for ill-treatment from persecutors, were the only things that prevented separation.
A controversy on a doctrinal point—"Did God die on Cal vary?"—raged for some time, the principal disputants being Rowland and Harris; and in 1751 it ended in an open rupture, which threw the Connexion first into confusion and then into a state of coma. The societies split up into Harrisites and Rowland ites, and it was only with the revival of 1762 that the breach was fairly repaired. This revival is a landmark in the history of the Connexion. Williams of Pant y Celyn had just published a little volume of hymns, the singing of which inflamed the people. This led the bishop of St. David's to suspend Rowland's licence, and Rowland had to confine himself to a meeting-house at Llangeitho. This place became the Jerusalem of Wales. A remarkable event in the history of Welsh Methodism was the publication in 1770 of an annotated Welsh Bible by the Rev. Peter Williams, a forceful preacher, and an indefatigable worker, who had joined the Methodists in 1746, after being driven from several curacies. It gave birth to a new interest in the Scriptures, being the first definite commentary in the language. The ignorance of the people of the north made it very difficult for Methodism to spread there, until the advent of the Rev. Thomas Charles who, having spent five years in Somersetshire as curate of several parishes, returned to Bala and joined the Methodists in 1784. His circulating charity schools and then his Sunday schools gradu ally made the north a new country. In 1791 the Bala Association was disturbed by the proceedings which led to the expulsion of Peter Williams from the Connexion, in order to prevent him from selling among the Methodists Bibles with Sabellian marginal notes.
The question of ministerial training then arose. Candidates for the Connexional ministry were compelled to shift for themselves until 1837, when Lewis Edwards (1809-1887) and David Charles (1812-1878) opened a school for young men at Bala. North and south alike adopted it as their college, the associations contributing a hundred guineas each towards the education of their students. In 1842, the south Wales association opened a college at Trevecca, laving Bala to the north. The latter was now a purely theological college, the students of which were sent to the university colleges for their classical training. In 1905 Mr. David Davies of Llandi nam—one of the leading laymen in the Connexion—offered a large building at Aberystwyth as a gift to the denomination for the purpose of uniting north and south in one theological college; but in the event of either association declining the proposal, the other was permitted to take possession, giving the association that should decline the option of joining at a later time. The association of the south accepted, and that of the north declined, the offer; Trevecca College was turned into a preparatory school on the lines of a similar institution set up at Bala in 1891.
Constitution and Doctrine.—The constitution of the denomi nation is a mixture of Presbyterianism and Congregationalism; each church manages its own affairs and reports to monthly meet ings which are made up of all the officers of the churches com prised in each, and are split up into districts for the purpose of a more local co-operation of the churches. The monthly meetings appoint delegates to the quarterly associations, of which all officers are members. The associations of north and south are distinct insti tutions, deliberating and determining matters pertaining to them in their separate quarterly gatherings. For the purpose of a fuller co-operation in matters common to both, a general assembly (meeting once a year) was established in 1864. This is a purely deliberative conclave, worked by committees, and all its legisla tion has to be confirmed by the two associations before it can have any force or be legal.
In doctrine the church is Calvinistic, but its preachers are far from being rigid in this particular, being warmly evangelical, and, in general, distinctly cultured. It is a remarkable fact that every Welsh revival, since 1735, has broken out among the Calvinistic Methodists. The ministerial system is quite anomalous. It started in pure itineracy ; the pastorate came in very gradually, and is not yet in universal acceptance. The authority of the pulpit of any individual church is in the hands of the deacons ; they ask the pastor to supply so many Sundays, filling the remainder with any preacher they choose. The pastor is paid for his pastoral work, and receives his Sunday fee just as a stranger does; his Sundays from home he fills up at the request of deacons of other churches. Deacons and preachers make engagements seven or eight years in advance.
The Calvinistic Methodist Church of Wales is in federation with the United Free Church of Scotland, and the Presbyterian Church of England and of Ireland. It is also a constituent of the Pan Presbyterian Council or Alliance. In 1925 the body numbered: churches, 1,487; chapels and schools, 1,771; ministers and preach ers, 1,156; on probation, 1,630; Sunday school teachers and officers, 24,064; communicants, 189,325. Contributions for various religious purposes (including the ministry), amounted to There are foreign missions in Assam (India), and in Brittany. The English branch of the Church has 375 chapels and preaching stations, with 35,669 communicants. All the rest are Welsh. One of the features of the Welsh Churches is the Sunday school, which is attended by adults as well as children.