| 释义 |
methodist|ˈmɛθədɪst|
With capital initial in specific uses.
[ad. mod.L. methodista: see method n. and -ist. Cf. F. méthodiste.]
1. Hist. A physician of the ‘methodic’ school. (See methodic a. 1.) In the 17th c. sometimes applied to the regular or orthodox medical practitioners of the day, in contradistinction to those who favoured the use of new remedies.
According to Celsus, the members of this school (called in Latin methodici, in Gr. µεθοδικοί) differed from the Dogmatic school in basing their treatment not on principles deduced from a classification of diseases according to their origin, but on the theory that morbid conditions consisted either in ‘looseness’, ‘tightness’, or a mixture between the two (fluens, strictum, mixtum), each of the three states having its appropriate set of remedies. The founder of the school was Themison, about a.d. 100.
1598Marston Sco. Villanie i. i, As many more, As methodist Musus kild with Hellebore. 1607T. Walkington Opt. Glass 44 The inexpert phisician, I meane Empyricall, as also the methodist or dogmatist. 1733Cheyne Eng. Malady ii. (1734) 227 The true Foundation of the Distinction between..the strait and loose of the ancient Methodists. 1845F. Adams tr. ægineta ii. xxxix. Comm. I. 293 Soranus, the great master of the Methodists.
fig.1615Jackson Creed iv. iii. v. §2 All of us have some or other tender part of our souls which we cannot endure should be ungently touched; Every man must be his own methodist to find them out.
2. One who is skilled in, or attaches importance to, method; one who follows a (specified) method. Now rare.
1593G. Harvey Pierces Super. 110 The finest Methodists, according to Aristotles golden rule of artificiall Boundes, condemne Geometricall preceptes in Arithmetique, or Arithmeticall preceptes in Geometrie, as irregular, and abusiue. 1621Bp. R. Montagu Diatribæ 79 Aristotle..was too good a Methodist, and Logician to confound the limits and boundaries of Arts. 1647A. Farindon Serm. xx. (1672) I. 394 He teacheth us how we shall fear rectâ methodo, to be perfect Methodists in Fear, and that we misplace not our fear. 1658J. Spencer Things New & Old 161 Our..plain pack-staffe Methodists, who esteem of all flowers of Rhetorick in Sermons, no better then stinking weeds. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Methodist, one that treats of a Method, or affects to be methodical. 1802Beddoes Hygëia i. 87 What are these methodists in meat and drink, whom we are all so justly averse to the idea of resembling? 1824J. Johnson Typogr. II. lxv. 95 But some, who are still better methodists..divide each side of the paper into two columns. 1886Cycl. Tour. Club Gaz. IV. 121 They..despise the cut-and-dried programme of the methodist..and prefer to wander of their own free will.
b. Nat. Hist. One who classifies or arranges according to a particular method or scheme. Also, in Kirby's use, an advocate of an artificial in preference to a natural method of classification.
1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., Methodists,..persons who have..bestowed their labours upon the disposition and arrangement of plants. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1824) I. xxxvi. 291 The methodists in natural history. 1826Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. 356 Under this view system-makers would be divided into two classes—the Methodists and Systematists. 1893Newton Dict. Birds 276 Several systematists referring it [the genus Henicurus] to the Motacillidæ,..while other methodists..placed it next to Cinclus.
c. Theatr. (See method n. 2 e.) rare.
3. Eccl.
†a. One who advocates a particular ‘method’ or system of theological belief; applied esp. to the Amyraldists or Semi-Arminians. Obs.
1692R. Traill Sel. Writ. (1845) 167 The new methodists about the grace of God had too great an increase in the French churches. [1702I. Mather in C. Mather Magn. Chr. (1702) IV. 132 Parum aut nihil asserunt Amyraldistæ, quos Novatores & Methodistas vocant.]
b. The name given in the 17th c. to a class of Roman Catholic apologists.
1686Wake Def. Exposition 85, I was willing to hope, that..such a peaceable Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England might.. have been received with the same civility by them, as that of the Church of Rome was by us; and that our new Methodists had not so wholly studied the palliating part of their Master, as not [etc.]. 1765A. Maclaine tr. Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. xvii. ii. i. xv, This new species of polemic doctors were called Methodists, and the most eminent of them arose in France. 1882–3Schaff's Encycl. Relig. Knowl. III. 1863 The Jesuits were the first to give systematic representations of the method of polemics; hence they were called ‘Methodists’.
4. a. Originally, a term applied to the members of a religious society (nicknamed ‘the Holy Club’), established at Oxford in 1729 by John and Charles Wesley and other members of the University, having for its object the promotion of piety and morality; subsequently applied to those who took part in or sympathized with the evangelistic movement led by the Wesleys and George Whitefield. b. In later use, a member or adherent of any one of a number of religious bodies or denominations which originated directly or indirectly from the labours of the Wesleys and Whitefield, and which came together in 1932 to form the Methodist Church of Gt. Britain and Ireland.
In England, during the nineteenth century, the designation belonged especially to the members and adherents of the Wesleyan-Methodist Society founded by John Wesley, and of the various other bodies that proceeded from it or from each other by succession, as the New Connexion Methodists, the Primitive Methodists, the United Methodist Free Church, and others. All these bodies accepted in the main the Arminian theology of Wesley, and in nearly all of them the ministers (called ‘travelling preachers’) changed their place of abode after a certain period (usually three years). In the U.S. the most influential body of Methodists is the Methodist Episcopal Church, which is in full communion with the Methodist Church in Great Britain. There are also several other bodies in the U.S. that adopt the name as a part of their official designation. In Wales the name ‘Methodists’ was formerly used to denote the body more fully known as ‘Calvinistic Methodists’, which was founded by Welshmen influenced by the teaching of Whitefield.
The origin of the name, as applied to the associates of the Wesleys at Oxford, is somewhat obscure. Cf., however, sense 3 a, and the 17th c. use in examples like quots. 1647, 1658, in sense 2.
1733(title) The Oxford Methodists, some account of a Society of Young Gentlemen in that City. 1741–3Wesley Extract of Jrnl. (1749) 68, I know no principles of the Methodists (so called) which are contrary to the word of God. 1770Junius Lett. xxxvi. To Dk. Grafton 14 Feb., You gave us nothing but the..whining piety of a Methodist. 1771Smollett Humph. Cl. 10 Aug., Nobody reads sermons but Methodists and Dissenters. 1846McCulloch Acc. Brit. Empire (1854) II. 279 The principal classes of dissenters are denominated methodists, independents, baptists, presbyterians,..&c. 1858T. McCombie Hist. Victoria xxii. 317 It is but justice to the Wesleyan Methodists to say, that their church seems well adapted for propagating Christianity in new countries. 1864Chambers's Encycl. VI. 427/1 The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists..are not a secession from the followers of Wesley, but originated partly in the preaching of..Whitefield, and partly in that of Howel Harris, a Welsh clergyman of the Church of England. 1887W. S. Gilbert Ruddigore i. Plays, Ser. iii. (1895) 222 He combines the manners of a Marquis with the morals of a Methodist.
c. transf. Applied contemptuously to a person of strict religious views.
1758Mrs. Delany in Life & Corr. 523 We met with an archdeacon Golden..in his appearance a jolly, open, cheerful countenance,..he thinks it his duty to uphold any orthodox point; and that, I suppose, has gained him the title of methodist. c1813Mrs. Sherwood Stories Ch. Catech. xxxiii. 353 The women of the regiment soon gave her the name of a methodist. [Footnote] This term, as used in India,..is a name of reproach given to those..who are more serious than their neighbours. 1834Tait's Mag. I. 387/2 For this hardship his remedy was, that the Methodists, his general term for all dissenters, should be made to contribute double, to relieve churchmen of such burdens.
5. attrib. (sense 4), passing into adj. with the sense: Pertaining to Methodists or Methodism. Also comb. Methodist-like, Methodist-mad adjs.
1751G. Lavington Enthus. Meth. & Papists iii. 317 How horrible the Process was in these Methodist-like Initiations will appear [etc.]. 1766Wesley Jrnl. 5 Sept., A Methodist Preacher. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) I. 493 Had I run opera-mad..or methodist-mad..I might have found companions enow. 1771Smollett Humph. Cl. 18 July, He attended Mrs. Tabby to the methodist meeting. 1850Lyell 2nd Visit U.S. II. 18 Four neat and substantial wooden churches,..the Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, and Episcopalian. 1840B. E. Hill Pinch—of Snuff 102 A good woman..was driven Methodist-mad. 1859[see connexion 8]. 1874Green Short Hist. x. (1880) 720 But the Methodists themselves were the least result of the Methodist revival. 1903Courthope Hist. Eng. Poetry xi, heading, The Methodist movement in poetry. |