At this
first meeting, Coke suggested the founding of an institution for higher
education, to be under the patronage of the Methodist Church.[25] This
was not a new idea to Asbury; for, four years previous to this meeting,
John Dickins had made the same suggestion to him. The earlier idea had
contemplated only a school, on the plan of Wesley's at Knightwood,
England, and for that purpose, a subscription had been opened in North
Carolina in 1781.[26]
Coke's suggestion, to have a college, was favorably received and, at the
famous Christmas Conference at Baltimore in 1784, the Church was
formally organized, with Coke and Asbury as Bishops, and the first
Methodist College was founded. Thus the denomination which has increased
to be the largest in the United States, recognized the paramount
importance of education at its very foundation.[27] To the new
institution, the name of Cokesbury was given, in honor of the two
Bishops, from whose names the title was compounded. For this College,
collections were yearly taken, amounting in 1786 to L800 and implying
great self-denial by the struggling churches ill-supplied with
wealth.[28]
As early as January 3, 1785, only two weeks after the College was
decided on, its managers were able to report that L1,057 had been
subscribed, a sum that put the enterprise on a firm footing.
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