Christian History Home > Issue 2 > Fruits of Breaking Wesley's Code
Fruits of Breaking Wesley's Code
posted 1/01/1983 12:00AM
In addition to his popular journals Wesley also kept personal Diaries written in a secret code. Sample entries are shown above. They have largely remained a mystery until recently when they were decoded by Dr. Richard Heitzenrater of Perkins School of Theology who accomplished the monumental task of deciphering the complex web of numbers, letters, and minute marks.
Dr. Heitzenrater told us that Wesley’s personal code “incorporates (a) two systems of shorthand, (b) a changing cipher, (c) innumerable cryptic abbreviations, (d) a series of symbols, and (e) a variety of complex number schemes.”
The diaries form a densely-packed matrix of detailed information about Wesley’s daily life—particularly his formative years at Oxford (1725–35). They give in rapid fire the events and spiritual observances and Wesley’s instantaneous responses to them. For example, minute marks indicate such “degrees of attention” at, say prayer, as dead, cold, indifferent, attentive, fervent, or zealous.
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