RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Articles Asceticism
of Birmingham), Staffordshire, England, Aug. 20, 1745; d. at Spottsylvania, Va., Mar. 31, 1816. He became a local preacher at the age of sixteen, and an itinerant minister in 1767; at his own request he was sent by Wesley as a missionary to America in 1771, landing at Philadelphia with his companion, Richard Wright, Oct. 27; in 1772 he was appointed Wesley's " general assistant in America," with supervisory power over all the Methodist preachers and societies in the country, but the next year was superseded by Thomas Rankin. On the outbreak of the Revolutionary War Rankin returned to England, but Asbury chose to remain. Like most of the Methodist preachers, he was a nonjuror (that is, he had conscientious scruples concerning oaths, and refused to take the oath of allegiance required by the authorities), and he suffered some annoyance from the officials during the war. After the close of the war the Methodists were organized into an independent Church, Thomas Coke (q.v.) and Asbury being chosen joint superintendents at the Christmas Conference at Baltimore, 1784, and Asbury ordained by Coke Dec. 27. The remainder of his life he devoted to the Church with tireless energy and unflagging zeal.1
Asbury was fearless in the discharge of duty, possessed a keen wit and uncommon shrewdness, was far-sighted and a good organizer. He never married; and his salary was sixty-four dollars a year. His early education was defective; but in later life he acquired some knowledge of Greek and Hebrew. In 1785 he laid the foundation of the first Methodist college, and he formed a plan of dividing the country into districts with an academy in each. His journal from the date of sailing for America to 1780 was published before his death, and the remaining years were transcribed and published by F. Hollingworth in 1821; it has been often reprinted (cf. The Heart of Asbury's Journal, ed. E. S. Tipple, New York, 1905).
Bibliography: E. L. Janes, Character and Career of Francis Asbury, New York, 1870 (the standard biography); W C. Larrabee, Asbury and His Coadjutors, 2 vols., Cincinnati, 1853; W. P. Strickland, The Pioneer Bishop; or, the Life and Times of Francis Asbury, ib. 1858; F. W. Briggs, Bishop Asbury: a Biographical Study for Christian Workers, London, 1874; J. F. Hurst, History of the Christian Church, ii, 894, 905, New York, 1900. For Wesley's views on the assumption by Asbury of the title " bishop " consult R. D. Urlin, Churchman's Life of Wesley, pp. 168- 170, London, n.d.
ASCENSION, FEAST OF THE: In Acts i, 3
the fortieth day after the resurrection is designated as that of Christ's ascension. The Epistle of Barna-
'He visited Massachusetts 23 times after 1791 . the state of New York 56 times. New Jersey 62 times, Pennsylvania 78 times, Delaware 33 times, Maryland 80 times, North Carolina 63 times, South Carolina 46 times, Virginia 84 times, Tennessee and Georgia each 20 times, and other states or territories with corresponding frequency. In his unparalleled career he preached about 16,500 sermons, or at least one a day, and travel d about 270,000 miles, or 6,000 a year, presiding in no less than 224 annual conferences, and ordaining more than 4,000 preachers. — Janes, P- 5. When he came to America the Methodists numbered 10 preachers and 600 members; when he died, after fortyfive years of work, they had 695 preachers and 214,235 members.
bas (xv), on the other hand, grounds the observance of Sunday on its having been the day marked by both the resurrection and the ascension. If this is to be reconciled with the Acts, it can only be by the assumption that Luke counts four weeks as four decades, just as later ecclesiastical usage numbers the Sundays before Lent in this loose way as Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima; but the " forty days " of the Acts sounds too definite for this hypothesis to be accepted. The Christian Church has observed this commemoration on the Thursday of the sixth week after Easter since it has been observed at all, which could only be after the festivals of Easter and Pentecost were firmly established. Origen does not know the festival (Contra Celsutn, viii, 23). It is mentioned, however, in the Apostolic Constitutions (v, 19, viii, 13); and Chrysostom has a homily for it, besides referring to it in another place. Socrates (Hist, eccl., vii, 26) mentions, under the year 390, that the people celebrated it as an established custom in a suburb of Constantinople. In the West its observance has been thought to be attested by an obscure canon of the Council of Elvira (306); in any case, Augustine knows it as an old one (Epist. liv. ad Januarium). Its celebration was specially solemn. The paschal candle, lighted at Easter to symbolize the resurrection of the Light of the World, is extinguished after the Gospel in the high mass of that day throughout the Roman Catholic Church, signifying the departure of Christ from earth. The Lutheran Reformation in Germany retained the feast as Scriptural; and it is observed as one of the principal festivals in the Anglican communion.
(Georg Rietschbl.) Perhaps the earliest reference to the feast extant is that of the Peregrinatio Etherice (c.380), which states that a feast of the Ascension was celebrated in Jerusalem toward the close of the fourth century, coinciding with the festival of Pentecost and observed on the same day. The feast marks the close of the paschal season and is a holyday of obligation in the Roman Catholic Church. In the Latin liturgy the term " ascension " is used exclusively of our Lord. J. T. C.
Bibliography: A. Baillet, Les Vies des saints, avec Vhistoire des fetes mobiles, Paris, 1701; F. Probst, Brevier und Breviergebel, § 93, Tubingen, 1868; DC A, i, 145-147; N. Nilles, Kalendarium manuale utriusaue ecclesiw, ii, 364, Innsbruck, 1881.
ASCENSION OF PAUL. See Apocrypha, B, IV