the north of
Wales. The ignorance of the people of the north made it very difficult
for Methodism to benefit from these manifestations, until the advent of
the Rev. Thomas Charles (1755-1814), who, having spent five years in
Somersetshire as curate of several parishes, returned to his native land
to marry Sarah Jones of Bala. Failing to find employment in the
established church, he joined the Methodists in 1784. His circulating
charity schools and then his Sunday schools gradually made the North a
new country. In 1791 a revival began at Bala; and this, strange to say,
a few months after the Bala Association had been ruffled by the
proceedings which led to the expulsion of Peter Williams from the
Connexion, in order to prevent him from selling John Canne's Bible among
the Methodists, because of some Sabellian marginal notes.

In 1790, the Bala Association passed "Rules regarding the proper mode of
conducting the Quarterly Association," drawn up by Charles; in 1801,
Charles and Thomas Jones of Mold, published (for the association) the
"Rules and Objects of the Private Societies among the People called
Methodists." About 1795, persecution led the Methodists to take the
first step towards separation from the Church of England. Heavy fines
made it impossible for preachers in poor circumstances to continue
without claiming the protection of the Toleration Act, and the
meeting-houses had to be registered as dissenting chapels. In a large
number of cases this had only been delayed by so constructing the houses
that they were used both as dwellings and as chapels at one and the same
time. Until 1811 the Calvinistic Methodists had no ministers ordained by
themselves; their enormous growth in numbers and the scarcity of
ministers to administer the Sacrament--only three in North Wales, two of
whom had joined only at the dawn of the century--made the question of
ordination a matter of urgency. The South Wales clergy who regularly
itinerated were dying out; the majority of those remaining itinerated
but irregularly, and were most of them against the change. The lay
element, with the help of Charles and a few other stalwarts, carried the
matter through--ordaining nine at Bala in June, and thirteen at Llandilo
in August. In 1823, the _Confession of Faith_ was published; it is based
on the _Westminster Confession_ as "Calvinistically construed," and
contains 44 articles. The Connexion's _Constitutional Deed_ was formally
completed in 18