Charles Wesley was a committed Christian, husband, and friend. He was also committed to his diet.
What kind of diet did he commit to? Charles Wesley was a vegetarian. He held to this diet with a conviction as strong as his commitment to travel and preach.
Charles saw both the physical and spiritual benefit to himself personally by keeping to his vegetable diet.
Charles’s Vegetable Diet
The reason for Charles’s vegetarian lifestyle seems to be tied mostly to his poor health. There is nothing to suggest that Charles held to this diet for moral reasons. Had this diet been a moral imperative, we would expect to see him persuading others to likewise be vegetarian.
Instead of being a moral imperative, this was a personal choice and conviction.
Charles was constantly in poor health. He believed that his vegetarianism protected him from being even sicker.
While serving as a missionary in America and as secretary to James Oglethorpe, Charles records an instance of sickness affecting many.
Sunday, April 4 [1736]. Many of the people had been ill of the bloody flux. I escaped hitherto by my vegetable diet, but now my fever brought it.
-Charles Wesley, MS Journal entry, bold added.
When Charles saw illness all around him, he attributes his avoiding the sickness to his vegetarian fare. While his diet helped him to avoid the sickness for a time, his general poor health opened the door to him getting sick anyway.
Charles doesn’t speak of his vegetarianism again in his manuscript journal until thirteen years later.
When Charles again raises his vegetable diet it is in a very different context. Charles was planning to be married.
All of the usual preparations accompanied Charles’s intention to marry. He needed to seek approval from the bride’s family. Charles also sought approval from his brother John.
However, the life of a travelling preacher requires extra preparation. Charles needed to know if his bride-to-be would approve of his constant travelling.
Makes sense. This was not your typical proposal. Constant travelling could put a lot of pressure on the happy couple.
But this wasn’t the only pressing matter to Charles. Just as important as approving his continued travelling, Charles needed to know his future wife would also approve of his vegetable diet.
Sunday, February 19 [1749]. Had a conference with my brother and Sally. She promised to let me continue my vegetable diet and travelling.
-Charles Wesley, MS Journal entry, bold added.
This little remark gives great insight into the importance of vegetarianism to Charles. Two things required a promise from his beloved bride.
- Continue the vegetable diet; and
- Continue travelling to preach.
It’s no small detail that he mentions his vegetarian diet first.
Sally promised to allow both. Charles knew that without this promise beforehand there may be pressure to give up his vegetarianism as their marriage continued.
Whether it be entertaining guests or simply in their meal planning for their own family, Charles wanted to be sure they were on the same page. Charles was committed. He needed his wife to be, too.
This commitment didn’t mean that Sally had to become a vegetarian, too. Just that she would allow Charles to continue his practice undisturbed.
Charles Wesley was a vegetarian. And a serious one. But was his commitment only for his physical well being?
Food As Fuel
There is further evidence that Charles kept to his strict diet of vegetarianism to curb some of the excesses he saw in others.
Charles wrote in a letter to his son, Charles Jr., about the folly of gluttonous overindulgence. This letter was dated Sunday morning, September 1, 1782.
You have now had a taste of a churchwarden’s feast. What have you lost by not have been at an hundred such feasts? The world live to eat: we eat to live. The more experience you gain, the more clearly you will be convinced, that the way of the world, in more things, is just the reverse of what is right, and wise, and good.
-Charles Wesley, from Tyson, Charles Wesley: A Reader, 352, bold added.
The rhetorical question to his son expects the response that Charles Jr. has missed out on nothing of value from not participating in more of these silly feasts.
Charles saw the danger in living to eat. The foolishness of serving your belly and appetites.
Charles viewed food as fuel. Don’t live to eat. Instead, eat to live.
This was a physical truth. It was also a spiritual truth.
While the world found joy and happiness in the fulfillment of their fleshly appetites, Charles argued that the reverse was better. Abstaining from gluttonous desires and practicing restraint was right, wise, and good.
Sticking strictly to a vegetarian diet would serve Charles well in his goal to avoid over indulging in food. To the betterment of his body and the enrichment of his soul.
Deviating From His Diet
Charles was a committed vegetarian. But that doesn’t mean he never deviated from his diet.
There is evidence that Charles was even more restrictive at times.
Monday, July 28 [1746]. Began my week’s experiment of leaving off tea, but my flesh protested against it. I was but half awake, and half alive all day: and my headache so increased toward noon, that I could neither speak nor think.
-Charles Wesley, MS Journal.
Caffeine withdrawal headaches can be brutal. So far, the experiment of restricting his diet even further was not going well. It would get worse.
Charles continues that same entry:
So it was for the two following days, with the addition of violent purging, occasioned by my milk-diet. This so weakened me, that I could hardly sit on my horse.
-Charles Wesley, MS Journal.
Charles wasn’t only excluding tea in this experiment. He had also restricted himself to milk only.
With headaches, vomiting, and fatigue setting in, Charles desired to end the experiment and eat something. He finishes the entry for July 28, saying:
However, I made a shift to ride to Gwennap and preach and meet the Society. I would have ate afterwards, being very faint and weary, but could get nothing proper.
-Charles Wesley, MS Journal.
Unfortunately for Charles, proper nourishment could not be found.
Although Charles was willing to be more restrictive to his usual vegetarian diet, he was not willing to loosen those restrictions even when feeling faint and weary.
Related Questions
Were all the Methodists vegetarians? In general, the Oxford Methodists fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays. Had all the Methodists practiced vegetarianism, too, it is unlikely Charles would be unable to find proper food after meeting with one of the Societies on July 28, 1746 (above).
Was John Wesley a vegetarian? Yes, he was. John answered for his own practice as a vegetarian in a letter to the Bishop of London, Dr. Edmund Gibson. John claimed to be following the advice of Dr. Cheyne in order to rid himself of his bodily disorders. John Wesley praised God that it had worked for him.
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