nsider local matters, the transactions of
which were to be reported 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 persecution 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
licenses, 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 Calvary?"--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 Rowlandites, 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 license, and Rowland
had to confine himself to a meeting-house at Llangeitho. Having been
turned out of other churches, he had leased a plot of land in 1759,
anticipating the final withdrawal of his license, in 1763, and a
spacious building was erected to which the people crowded from all parts
on Sacrament Sunday. Llangeitho became the Jerusalem of Wales; and
Rowland's popularity never waned until his physical powers gave way. A
notable event in the history of Welsh Methodism was the publication in
1770, of a 4to 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. A powerful revival broke out at Llangeitho
in the spring of 1780, and spread to the south, but not to