WHITE, WILLIAM: Protestant Episcopal bishop; b. in Philadelphia, Pa., Apr. 4, 1748; d. there July 17, 1836. He was educated in the schools and College of Philadelphia, graduating in 1765; soon began his theological studies, completed in 1770, when he sailed for England to receive orders; was ordered deacon in the Chapel Royal, Westminster, 1770, and ordained priest 1772; became assistant minister of Christ Church and St. Peter's, Philadelphia, 1772, and soon after rector of the united parishes of Christ, St. Peter's, and St. James'. Upon the outbreak of the Revolution he sided with the colonies, and was chaplain to the Continental Congress, 1787-1801. He was active during the war in trying to sustain the life of the church, and later in obtaining the episcopate essential to reorganize= tion. In 1785 he was chosen president of the general convention in Philadelphia, and in 1786 its first bishop, being consecrated in the chapel of Lambeth Palace, England, 1787. He exercised the episcopal office until his death, being in orders more than sixtyfive years, standing at the head of the American Church nearly half a century, and consecrating about twenty-six bishops. He was a man of large and comprehensive views, and of wisdom in his administration. His works embrace Comparative View of the Controversy between the Calvinists and the Arminians (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1817); and Memoirs of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (1820; 2d ed., with continuation, New York, 1835).

Bibliography: w. B. Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, v. 280-292, New York, 1859; w. S. Perry, Hist. of the American Episcopal Church, 2 vols., Boston, 1885; idem, Episcopate in America, pp. xxii: sqq., 5-7, New York, 1895; C. C. 1~$'any, in American Church History Series, vii. 217, 289 et passim, 564 sqq., New York, 1895; S. D. McConnell, Hist. of the American Episcopal Church, 7th ed., New York, 1897; and in general the literature under Protestant Episcopalians dealing with the early history of that church.

WHITEFIELD, GEORGE: Calvinistic Methodist; b. in Gloucester, England, Dec. 27, 1714; d. in Newburyport, Mass., Sept. 30, 1770. He was the son of an innkeeper. At the age of twelve he was placed in the school of St. Mary de Crypt at Gloucester, and in 1732, after a year's intermission of his studies so that he might be drawer of liquor in the inn (kept by his mother since his father's death in 1716), he entered Pembroke College, Oxford. The religious impressions which he had felt on different occasions had been deepened while he was at school the second time, and at Oxford he fell in with the Wesleys, joined the "Holy Club," and observed its rules rigorously, being the first of the Oxford "Methodists" to profess conversion (1735). His health being impaired, he left Oxford for a year, returning in Mar., 1736, and was ordained deacon in the following June, taking his B.A. in the same year. He now spent much time among the prisoners in Oxford, preached in London and elsewhere, and speedily rose to great prominence as a pulpit orator.

Whitefield had been requested by the Wealeya to come to them in Georgia, and he finally resolved to go, though he did not sail until the beginning of I 1738. He spent several months in Georgia, preaching with great acceptance, but in the same year returned to England to be ordained priest. Here he found many London churches closed to him because he was considered erratic and fanatical, but he preached in such as would receive him, and also visited and worked among the Moravians and other religious societies in London. Early in 1739 he held a conference with the Wesleys and other Oxford Methodists, and in February went to Bristol. Being excluded from the churches, he preached is the open air, and induced Wesley to take a similar step, thus establishing an innovation which gave opportunity to the Methodist movement. At Kingawood, near Bristol, he laid the foundations of the Kingawood School, which became so important to Methodism.

Whitefield now began his career as an itinerant evangelist. He visited Wales, and gave an impulse to the revival movement already begun by Howel Harris (q.v.); and he next traveled through Scotland, and then went through England, attracting extraordinary attention everywhere. But his arraignment of the clergy as "blind guides" roused many to oppose him, and this hostile feeling preceded him to America, where some of the Anglican churches refused him their pulpits, though other churches were open to him. He preached in Philadelphia and New York, and on his way to Georgia; while during a visit to New England the revival which had begun in Northampton in 1736 was renewed. (See Revivals, III., 1.) Whitefield paid seven visits to America, the results of his evangelistic tours being shared by Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and Baptists from Massachusetts to Georgia; and when he was not in America he was addressing immense audiences in England, Scotland, and Wales.

He early became Calvinistic in his views, and his association with Calvinistic divines in America deepened them. He complained to Wesley because he attacked the doctrine of election, and there was a sharp controversy between them which led to a temporary alienation, though the unwillingness of either to offend the other soon brought about a reconciliation, and the two were henceforth firm friends despite the fact that their paths were different. Whitefield was nominally the head of the Calvinistic Methodists, but he left to others the work of organization. His time was divided between Great Britain and America, and he preached among all denominations. He continued in active service until the end, preaching for two hours at Exeter, Mass., the day before his death, while it was his regular custom to preach every day in the week, often three and four times daily.

[The Works of Whitefield were edited in seven volumes by J. Gillies (London, 1771-72), but this edition contains only selected sermons, letters, and tracts, with a few pieces which had not yet been published. It does not, indeed, include some of the writings of moat interest in connection with Whitefield's life, such as his Journal of a Voyage from London to Savannah in Georgia (London, 1738; six other Journals of kindred content were published between 1738 and 1741; it is interesting to note that several of the Journals, as well as some of the following books, were reprinted, not only in Boston, but also

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by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia); A Short Account of God's Dealings with . . . G. W. . . . from his Infancy to the Time of his Entering into Holy Orders (1740); The Full Account, etc. (1747) and A Further Account, etc. (1747); The Christian History; or, A General Account of the Progress of the Gospel in England, Wales, Scotland, and America, so far as Mr. W., his Fellow-Labourers, and Assistants are Concerned (1747); and The Two First Parts of his Life, with his Journals, Revised, Corrected, and Abridged (1756). The Journals, Short Account, and Further Account were reissued at London, 1905. Whitefield also compiled a Collection of Hymns for Social Worship, which by 1790 had run through thirty-three editions (revised by M. Wilks, London, 1798, and again by J. Campbell, London, 1837), but i;, is doubtful whether any of the hymns ascribed to him are really original, while his alterations of the hymns of the Wesleys were such as to cause John Wesley to speak of them in somewhat biting terms. He preached his sermons over and over again. Much of his success depended upon his dramatic delivery, for the sermons which have come down seem somewhat tame and not to rise above the commonplace.]

H. K. Carroll.

Bibliography: The principal sources are his own Journals, Short Account, Full Account, Further Account, etc. The fullest and most nearly exhaustive life is that by L. Tyerman, 2 vols., London, 1876-77; a good one for general use is J. P. Gladstone's Life and Travels of George Whitefield, ib. 1871; cf. his George Whitefield, . . Field Preacher, ib. 1901; excellent in its original form is J. Gillies, Memoirs of . . . G. Whitefield, ib. 1772, often reedited and republished. Consult further: R. Philip, Life and Times of . . . G. Whitefield, London, 1832; D. Newell, Life of Rev. G. Whitefield, New York, 1846; J. Stoughton, The Pen, the Palm, and the Pulpit, London, 1858; D. A. Harsha, Life of Rev. G. Whitefield, Albany, 1866; J. C. Ryle, Christian Leaders of the Last Century, London, 1868; J. B. Wakeley, Anecdotes of Rev. G. Whitefield, ib. 1879, new ed., 1900; J. Macaulay, Whitefield Anecdotes, ib. 1886; Cambridge Modern History, vi. 82 sqq., New York, 1909; DNB, lxi. 85-92; and the literature under Methodists dealing with the history of that movement. See also under Revivals, and the literature on the Wesleys.