From the religious revival in England during the eighteenth century arose a new interest in overseas missions. The Church Missionary Society, formed by lay and clerical evangelicals in 1799, grew into an influential body sending missionaries to many parts of the world, including New Zealand. The Wesleyan Missionary Society was formed in 1813 and its activities were directly controlled by the English and, after 1855, the Australasian Methodist Conference. Both societies depended on subscriptions from members of missionary associations for financial support. In France missionary activity began to revive about 1815. The missionaries belonged to various religious orders and were under the ultimate control of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda in Rome, while financial support came largely from the Society for the Propaganda of the Faith, founded at Lyons in 1819.