Some historians, namely E.P. Thompson, have suggested that John Wesley's Methodist revival acted as a conservative force within the English working class of the 18th-19th centuries, preventing anything resembling the French Revolution from emerging in England. From what I understand, Thompson considered Methodists' piety and focus on tending to the poor to have weakened any drive to fundamentally address the miseries of the Industrial Revolution.

At the same time, Methodism was reviled by many in the aristocracy partially because of its egalitarianism, and Wesley himself was a fairly strident voice for abolition and economic justice.

To what degree is Thompson's argument true? Were there Methodist radicals who undercut his claims?