ABSTRACT
One of the southern immigrants became the charismatic leader of the Methodist movement in Wales. This was Thomas Charles, a former Anglican curate, whose personal circumstances led him to settle at Bala in 1784. He is best known for his development of the older idea of Sunday Schools, organised by groups of readers who would visit an area for some months to teach both reading and basic religious knowledge. Methodism was like all the nonconformist sects in being a religion of the word, whether spoken or written, so adherents of the movement attached a high premium to literacy, to the skills of rhetoric, and the capacity to make a public presentation. The rhetoric of political nonconformity drew heavily on ideas of democracy, equality, civil rights and individual choice; but there were in reality several serpents in the puritan Eden.
