John Jortin

John Jortin (23 October 1698 – 5 September 1770) was an English church historian.

Life

Jortin was the son of Renatus Jordain, a Breton Huguenot refugee^[1] and government official, and Martha Rogers, daughter of Daniel Rogers.^[2][3] He was educated at Charterhouse School, and in 1715 became a pensioner of Jesus College, Cambridge,^[1] where he became a Fellow in 1721. He was Rede lecturer at Cambridge in 1724,^[4] and Boyle lecturer in 1749.^[5] A churchman, he held various benefices, becoming in 1764 Archdeacon of London.^[5]

Works

Jortin briefly (1731–2) established a magazine, Miscellaneous Observations upon Authors, Ancient and Modern, in which he wrote on Spenser and Milton.^[2] In 1722 he published a small volume of Latin verse entitled Lusus poetici.^[1] Discourses Concerning the Truth of the Christian Religion (1746) was a work of Christian apologetics. His Remarks on Ecclesiastical History (5 vols, 1751‑73), has been labelled "the most significant Anglican ecclesiastical history of the eighteenth century"; written "from a markedly latitudinarian perspective", it was respected by Gibbon.^[2]

Jortin mostly avoided controversy, though a dissertation on Virgil's treatment of the dead, by conflicting with Warburton's treatment, drew attack from Warburton's disciple Richard Hurd.^[2] A two-volume Life of Erasmus (1758, 1760) drew upon Jean Le Clerc: "Jortin was in many ways a late representative of Christian humanism, as well as an active citizen in the protestant republic of letters".^[2] Jortin published other miscellaneous pamphlets and tracts, and seven volumes of sermons appeared after his death. All his works showed learning, and were written in a lively style.

A collection of three volumes of his works was printed in 1805 and can be found at 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

References

1. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Jortin, John" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 513.
2. Young, B. W. (2004). "Jortin, John (1698–1770)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/15126. Retrieved 24 October 2008. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
3. s:Rogers, Daniel (1573-1652) (DNB00)
4. Sir Robert Rede's Lecturers (and Mathematical Lecturers) Archived 2008-10-28 at the Wayback Machine
5. "Jortin, John (JRTN715J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons – via Wikisource.