ASBURY, FRANCIS. - Founder of American Methodism, b. in 1745 at Handsworth, near Birmingham, in England, d. in 1816 at Spotsylvania, near Richmond. From his youth he was a follower of John Wesley, who in 1767 admitted him among the "itinerant ministers," that is, among those who, according to his institution, were to travel preaching in all the places of a determined region (circuit). In 1771 Wesley himself sent him to the English colonies of America. When he arrived, he found 600 Methodists; at his death, he left 211,000. In 1772, by letter, he was appointed by Wesley as his general assistant for all the Methodists of the English colony.
During his governance the American Methodists made themselves independent of those of England, and without recognizing any higher ecclesiastical rank, but only greater jurisdiction, they changed the name of "superintendents" to that of "bishops." The American Methodists were called from then on Episcopal Methodists, while the name of Wesleyan Methodists remained with the English ones. A. traveled preaching through all the regions that at that time constituted the United States; he covered 270,000 miles on horseback and ordained 4,000 ministers. To him is due the spirit of missionary activity that still pervades American Methodism, and that, with the passage of time, drove it to found the Italian mission, markedly anti-Catholic.
Bibliography3 worksW. J. Townsend, H. B. Workman, G. Eysys, A New History of Methodism, 2 vols., London 1909; A. Stevens, A Compendious History of American Met
BIBL.: W. J. Townsend, H. B. Workman, G. Eysys, A New History of Methodism, 2 vols., London 1909; A. Stevens, A Compendious History of American Methodism, New York n.d.; H. Asbury, A Methodist Saint. The Life of Bishop A., ibid. 1927.
Crivelli, Camillo. “Asbury, francis.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. II, coll. 80–81. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1949. https://azioneromana.com/article/asbury-francis.
MLA
Crivelli, Camillo. “Asbury, francis.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. II, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1949, coll. 80–81. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/asbury-francis.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec2_asbury_francis,
author = {Crivelli, Camillo},
title = {Asbury, francis},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {II},
pages = {80--81},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1949},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/asbury-francis}
}
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