A History of the Moravian ChurchHutton, J. E. (Joseph Edmund)
Religion
A History of the Moravian Church
Hutton, J. E. (Joseph Edmund)
Moravian Church -- History
The quick-witted Irish jumped with joy at the phrase. From that moment
Cennick was known as "Swaddling John";[120] and his name was introduced
into comic songs at the music-halls. As he walked through the streets
he had now to be guarded by an escort of friendly soldiers; and the
mob, ten or fifteen thousand in number, pelted him with dirt, stones and
bricks. At one service, says the local diary, "near 2,000 stones were
thrown against Brothers Cennick and La Trobe, of which, however, not one
did hit them." Father Duggan denounced him in a pamphlet entitled "The
Lady's Letter to Mr. Cennick"; Father Lyons assured his flock that
Cennick was the devil in human form; and others passed from hand to
hand a pamphlet, written by Gilbert Tennent, denouncing the Moravians as
dangerous and immoral teachers.
At this interesting point, when Cennick's name was on every lip, John
Wesley paid his first visit to Dublin {August, 1747.}. For Cennick
Wesley entertained a thorough contempt. He called him in his Journal
"that weak man, John Cennick"; he accused him of having ruined the
society at Kingswood; he was disgusted when he heard that he had become
a Moravian; and now he turned him out of Skinner's Alley by the simple
process of negotiating privately with the owner of the property, and
buying the building over Cennick's head. At one stroke the cause in
Skinner's Alley passed over into Methodist hands; and the pulpit in
which Cennick had preached to thousands was now occupied by John Wesley
and his assistants. From that blow the Brethren's cause in Dublin
never fully recovered. For a long time they were unable to find another
building, and had to content themselves with meetings in private houses;
but at last they hired a smaller building in Big Booter Lane,[121] near
St. Patrick's Cathedral; two German Brethren, John Toeltschig and
Bryzelius, came over to organize the work; Peter Boehler, two years
later, "settled" the congregation; and thus was established, in a modest
way, that small community of Moravians whose descendants worship there
to the present day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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