John Jortin facts for kids
John Jortin was an English historian who lived a long time ago, from 1698 to 1770. He was especially interested in the history of the church.
John Jortin's Life
John Jortin was born in 1698. His father, Renatus Jordain, was a Huguenot refugee from Brittany, France. Huguenots were French Protestants who had to leave their country because of religious persecution. His mother was Martha Rogers.
John went to Charterhouse School to study. Later, in 1715, he went to Jesus College, Cambridge University. He became a Fellow there in 1721, which means he was a senior member of the college.
He also gave special lectures at Cambridge, like the Rede lecture in 1724 and the Boyle lecture in 1749. As a churchman, he held different church positions. In 1764, he became the Archdeacon of London, an important role in the church.
What John Jortin Wrote
John Jortin wrote many interesting things. For a short time, from 1731 to 1732, he ran a magazine called Miscellaneous Observations upon Authors, Ancient and Modern. In this magazine, he wrote about famous writers like Spenser and Milton.
In 1722, he published a small book of Latin poems called Lusus poetici. He also wrote Discourses Concerning the Truth of the Christian Religion in 1746. This book was about explaining and defending the Christian faith.
One of his most important works was Remarks on Ecclesiastical History. This was a big set of five books published between 1751 and 1773. It's considered a very important history of the Anglican church from his time. The famous historian Gibbon respected this work.
Jortin usually tried to avoid arguments. However, he wrote about how the Roman poet Virgil described the dead. This disagreed with another writer, Warburton, and led to some debate.
He also wrote a two-book biography of Erasmus, a famous scholar, in 1758 and 1760. Jortin was seen as someone who continued the ideas of Christian humanism. This means he valued both religious faith and human thought and learning. He was also active in the "republic of letters," which was a network of scholars who shared ideas across Europe.
After he passed away, seven volumes of his sermons were published. All his writings showed how much he had learned and were written in a lively, interesting way.
John Jortin's Works Online
You can find some of John Jortin's works online at the Internet Archive:
- Discourses Concerning the Truth of the Christian Religion and Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, Volume 1
- Discourses Concerning the Truth of the Christian Religion and Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, Volume 2
- Discourses Concerning the Truth of the Christian Religion and Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, Volume 3
