Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
He traveled across England and converted more than 150,000 people. It was not his wish that Methodism was to later break away from the Church of England. This great wave of religious revival in the late 18th century was comparable to that of the Reformation and Puritanism [Furtado: 1001 Days] "Methodism was still a new movement in the early national period, having originated in the eighteenth century within the Church of England under the leadership of an Anglican priest John Wesley. Aided by the magnificent hymns of his brother Charles (most of them celebrations of Christ's expected return), Wesley won many followers in all walks of life, but especially among skilled workers (artisans). His devotional regimen called the Wesleyan 'method,' gave his followers their name." [Howe: What Hath God Wrought, p. 177]