ABSTRACT
The word ‘Methodist’ itself was not a stranger to the English language in 1730. It signified one who followed specific and orthodox methods, especially in medicine. Dr Johnson’s Dictionary defined it, firstly, as ‘a physician who practices by theory’ and secondly, while referring to its Puritan connotations, as one who professed ‘to live by rules and in constant method’. By that time (1755) the term had changed its meaning quite fundamentally; its medical significance was becoming archaic and its primary (and almost exclusive) meaning referred to a specific form of Protestantism. The extent to which it was, in that sense, an unflattering or frankly abusive expression should not be overlooked. It could be applied to anyone who displayed evangelical characteristics. To say that someone had ‘turned Methodist’ was to castigate the individual concerned as a religious fanatic of unstable mind. When the Norfolk clergyman James Woodforde, noted in his diary that his thatcher, one Harrison, was ‘reputed to be a rank Methodist’, he was not paying a compliment (Woodforde: II, 113).
