Labor Day weekend, 1997, saw the world pause from its games and picnics to follow in dismay the horrific spectacle of the death of "The People's Princess." Diana Spencer, the Princess of Wales, Princess Di had been killed in a Paris tunnel following a high speed race through the city. The popular outpouring of grief and anguish has surprised even the most devoted Royal Voyeurs throughout the world.
Hundreds and thousands of mourners que up, waiting up to eleven hours just to sign "The Book of Condolences." Plans are made to extend the miles traveled by the funeral processional just to accommodate the people who want to be present to show their respect for this former member of the Royal family.
Loyal devotion to the monarchy is not a new phenomenon for Methodists. John Wesley was a High Churchman and the son of a High Churchman. He was also a staunch supporter of the Crown. (It was not unusual for a person to hold fast to both positions in eighteenth century England when the Church and the State were closely allied.) Wesley was a citizen of two worlds, prepared to travel to great length and at great peril to participate in affairs of state, but exhorting his followers to set their affections on a heavenly realm.
It is clear that John and Charles Wesley were totally loyal to their church, the Anglican Church; and their government represented by the King. They strongly opposed the rebellion of the American colonists against one they considered to be the Lord's anointed. In his poems on the American war and Patriotism, we see Charles, not as a genteel, thoughtful Tory, but as an angry and uncritical supporter of the Crown. Wesley's political conservatism and uncritical attitude toward the law caused him to initially remain silent even about slavery in order to avoid speaking out against the position of political leaders. On the other hand, his language became very intemperate and abusive as he presents George III as almost saintly, and those who question him as "demonic and witting pawns of Satan." (It should be noted that John Wesley later described slavery as "the vilest that ever saw the sun.")
As a high-church Anglican, Wesley favored the political views of the Tories. He strongly supported the King, his ministers and Parliament. He wrote in favor of the institution of the constitutional monarchy, opposed democracy, attacked the American Revolution, and even offered to help raise an army to support the king. He went so far as to contend that religion actually compels us to be obedient to kings, because kingly power comes directly from God. In Certain Sermons or Homilies he says that "loyalty to the prince is the sum of all virtues and disloyalty the sum of all evil." He prohibited his preachers from addressing political topics except to defend the king and government. God has given them the power and responsibility of governing the nation and he supported them in that assignment.
Were John Wesley alive today he would surely face a frustrating paradox. His loyalty to the monarchy would make it very difficult to oppose the decision of the Royal family in not giving Princess Diana the pageantry of a full state funeral. On the other hand, his close identification with the common person would make it very difficult for him to avoid raising his voice in support of the desires of the people to give the Princess a funeral fully befitting Royalty.
Craven E. Williams
President
Greensboro College