Book excerpt: Selina Hastings, the Countess of Huntingdon, was the chief administrator and main organizer behind the Calvinistic wing of Methodism. She leased chapels, purchased advowsons (the right to nominate a person to hold a church office), and appointed chaplains and lay preachers to staff the far-flung connection of nearly seventy chapels and preaching posts. She also operated an orphanage and established a college to train preachers.