Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/254

 to any arbitrary limitation of the legal conference to a selected number of preachers. In January 1784 Coke issued the first methodist 'plan of the society for the establishment of missions among the heathen.' On 2 Sept. 1784 Wesley, assisted by Coke and James Creighton [q. v.], in a private room at Bristol, and without the knowledge of his brother Charles, who was in Bristol at the time, ordained Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Vasey as presbyters for America ; and then, in conjunction with the other three, set apart Coke as ' a superintendent ' to discharge episcopal functions in the American methodist societies. For this step, which was entirely Wesley's own idea, Coke was not at first prepared ; he took two months to examine patristic precedents before consenting to receive this new character ; but having made up his mind he urged Wesley (in a letter dated 9 Aug.) to complete his scheme in due form, and he thoroughly entered into the spirit of the office after accepting it. Leaving England on 18 Sept. 1784, he arrived at Baltimore in time to meet the conference on Christmas day, when he ordained Francis Asbury [q. v.] as deacon, next day as elder, and on 27 Dec. as superintendent. Coke, in 1787, got the American conference to alter the title from 'superintendent' to 'bishop,' and to strengthen the powers attached to the office. The change of style was severely rebuked by Wesley, who wrote to Asbury (20 Sept. 1788) : ' Men may call me a knave or a fool, a rascal, a scoundrel, and I am content ; but they shall never, by my consent, call me bishop.' Yet the American conference in 1789 assigned to Wesley ' the episcopal office in the methodist church in Europe.' The confirmation of the episcopal powers of Coke and Asbury by the conference at Baltimore in 1792 led to the secession of James O'Kelly, with a following of about a thousand. The seceders called themselves at first ' Radical Methodists,' but in 1804, on the suggestion of Rice Haggard, adopted the designation of ' the Christian Church ' (the name is usually pronounced Christ-ian). Coke made nine voyages to America, the last being in 1803. Asbury, as being constantly on the spot, had more of the actual work of the churches, but Coke was the more energetic and effective organiser. His name was given to Cokesbury College, founded not far from Baltimore on 5 June 1785. From the first Coke, greatly to the credit of his courage as well as of his humanity, took a firm stand against slave-holding, and met with no little opposition in consequence. He gave great offence in England by signing, on 29 May 1789, an address of congratulation from ' the bishops of the methodist episcopal church' to George Washington, a measure which the next English conference strongly condemned. In the same year the first methodist ' missionary committee ' was formed, with Coke at the head of it, and henceforth he was the recognised director of the wide-spreading operations of methodist enterprise beyond the British isles. On the news of Wesley's death (2 March 1791), which reached him in Virginia, Coke at once made his way homeward. It was supposed, and with some reason, that he aspired to the vacant dictatorship. He first attended the Irish conference, contrary to the advice of his friends ; he was disappointed in his expectation of being again elected president, but bore the rebuff with equanimity. The English conference (1791) in electing its president passed over both Coke and Alexander Mather (ordained by Wesley in 1788 as a 'superintendent' for England) ; but Coke was elected the first secretary of conference, and continued in this office for many years. He was elected president in 1797 and again in 1805. Wesley had bequeathed his manuscripts to Coke, Henry Moore, and John Whitehead, M.D. The three arranged that Whitehead, as a man of leisure, should prepare the biography of Wesley. But there soon arose disagreements, and in 1792 Coke and Moore forestalled Whitehead's labours by publishing a life of Wesley, with the disadvantage of not having access to his papers. Moore did most of the work ; Coke was partly disabled through having scalded his right hand. It seems clear that after Wesley's death Coke would have been glad to repeat his American policy in England. Already in 1788 he had ventured upon the innovation (at once prohibited by Wesley) of directing that methodist services should be held at Dublin during church hours, giving as his reason that he wished to keep the methodists from attending dissenting chapels. He advocated the concessions of the Leeds conference in 1793, permitting the administration of the sacraments in methodist societies ; and in 1794 he got together at Lichfield a meeting of methodist preachers who resolved to urge the conference to appoint an order of bishops. The scheme fell flat, and Coke, changing his policy, endeavoured to place the methodist system in organic connection with the church of England. He addressed Bishop Porteus of London on 29 March 1799 with a proposal that a number of the leading methodist preachers should be admitted to Anglican orders with a travelling commission. He had previously (1792) tried without success to effect a junction between the methodist