Claim: Andrew Brice published a poem defending the conduct of players who were being persecuted, and attacking the Methodists  --- a group of denominations of Protestant Christianity, deriving from the life and teachings ot John Wesley.
Evidence: In 1745, when the players were being persecuted at Exeter, he published a poem defending their conduct and attacking the Methodists, to which he gave the name of The Play-house Church, or New Actors of Devotion. Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity which derive their doctrine of practice and belief from the life and teachings of John Wesley.