John Jortin (23 October 1698 – 5 September 1770) was an English churchhistorian.
Jortin was the son ofRenatus Jordain, aBretonHuguenot refugee[1] and government official, and Martha Rogers, daughter ofDaniel Rogers.[2][3] He was educated atCharterhouse School, and in 1715 became a pensioner ofJesus College, Cambridge,[1] where he became a Fellow in 1721. He wasRede lecturer at Cambridge in 1724,[4] andBoyle lecturer in 1749.[5] A churchman, he held various benefices, becoming in 1764Archdeacon of London.[5]
Jortin briefly (1731–2) established a magazine,Miscellaneous Observations upon Authors, Ancient and Modern, in which he wrote onSpenser andMilton.[2] In 1722, he published a small volume of Latin verse entitledLusus poetici.[1]Discourses Concerning the Truth of the Christian Religion (1746) was a work of Christian apologetics. HisRemarks 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 byGibbon.[2]
Jortin mostly avoided controversy, though a dissertation onVirgil's treatment of the dead, by conflicting withWarburton's treatment, drew attack from Warburton's discipleRichard Hurd.[2] A two-volumeLife ofErasmus (1758, 1760) drew uponJean Le Clerc: "Jortin was in many ways a late representative ofChristian humanism, as well as an active citizen in the protestantrepublic 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 atInternet Archive:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Cousin, John William (1910).A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons – viaWikisource.
