See FRANCE: A. D. 1789.
METEMNEH, Battle of(1885).
See EGYPT: A. D. 1884-1885.
METHODISTS:
Origin of the Religious Denomination.
"The term Methodist was a college nickname bestowed upon a
small society of students at Oxford who met together between
1729 and 1735 for the purpose of mutual improvement. They were
accustomed to communicate every week, to fast regularly on
Wednesdays and Fridays, and on most days during Lent; to read
and discuss the Bible in common, to abstain from most forms of
amusement and luxury, and to visit sick persons and prisoners
in the gaol. John Wesley, the master-spirit of this society,
and the future leader of the religious revival of the
eighteenth century, was born in 1703, and was the second
surviving son of Samuel Wesley, the Rector of Epworth, in
Lincolnshire. … The society hardly numbered more than
fifteen members, and was the object of much ridicule at the
university; but it included some men who afterwards played
considerable parts in the world.
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Among them was Charles, the younger brother of John Wesley,
whose hymns became the favourite poetry of the sect, and whose
gentler, more submissive, and more amiable character, though
less fitted than that of his brother for the great conflicts
of public life, was very useful in moderating the movement,
and in drawing converts to it by personal influence. Charles
Wesley appears to have been the first to originate the society
at Oxford; he brought Whitefield into its pale, and besides
being the most popular poet he was one of the most persuasive
preachers of the movement. There, too, was James Hervey, who
became one of the earliest links connecting Methodism with
general literature."
_W. E. H. Lecky,
History of England in the 18th Century,
chapter 9 (volume 2)._
METHUEN, Rout of.
The first Scotch army assembled by Robert Bruce after he had
been crowned king of Scotland, was surprised and routed by
Aymer de Valence, June 26, 1306.
_C. H. Pearson,
History of England during the Early and Middle Ages,
volume 2, chapter 14._
METHUEN TREATY, The.
See PORTUGAL: A. D. 1703;
and SPAIN: A. D. 1703-1704.
METÖACS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.