Life

Jortin was the son of Renatus Jordain, a French

French people

The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

 Huguenot

Huguenot

The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...

 refugee and government official, and Martha Rogers, daughter of Daniel Rogers

Daniel Rogers (Puritan)

Daniel Rogers was an English nonconforming clergyman and religious writer. He is now best known for his conduct book Matrimoniall Honour.-Life:...

. He was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge

Jesus College, Cambridge

Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The College was founded in 1496 on the site of a Benedictine nunnery by John Alcock, then Bishop of Ely...

, where he became a Fellow in 1721. He was Rede lecturer at Cambridge in 1724, and Boyle lecturer in 1749. A churchman, he held various benefices, becoming in 1764 Archdeacon of London

Archdeacon of London

The Archdeacon of London is an archdiaconal post in the Church of England. It covers one of two archdeaconries within the London and Westminster episcopal area of the Diocese of London - that episcopal area's bishop is the Bishop of London.-List:*William de Beaumais, 12th century *William of...

.

Works

Jortin briefly (1731-2) established a magazine, Miscellaneous Observations upon Authors, Ancient and Modern, in which he wrote on Spenser

Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...

 and Milton

John Milton

John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...

. 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

Edward Gibbon

Edward Gibbon was an English historian and Member of Parliament...

. Jortin mostly avoided controversy, though a dissertation on Virgil

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...

's treatment of the dead, by conflicting with Warburton

William Warburton

William Warburton was an English critic and churchman, Bishop of Gloucester from 1759.-Life:He was born at Newark, where his father, who belonged to an old Cheshire family, was town clerk. William was educated at Oakham and Newark grammar schools, and in 1714 he was articled to Mr Kirke, an...

's treatment, drew attack from Warburton's disciple Richard Hurd

Richard Hurd

Richard Hurd was an English divine and writer, and bishop of Worcester.-Life:He was born at Congreve, in the parish of Penkridge, Staffordshire, where his father was a farmer. He was educated at Brewood Grammar School and at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He took his B.A. degree in 1739, and in 1742...

. A two-volume Life of Erasmus (1758, 1760) drew upon Jean Le Clerc

Jean Leclerc (theologian)

Jean Le Clerc, also Johannes Clericus was a Swiss theologian and biblical scholar. He was famous for promoting exegesis, or critical interpretation of the Bible, and was a radical of his age...

: "Jortin was in many ways a late representative of Christian humanism

Christian humanism

Christian humanism is the position that universal human dignity and individual freedom are essential and principal components of, or are at least compatible with, Christian doctrine and practice. It is a philosophical union of Christian and humanist principles.- Origins :Christian humanism may have...

, as well as an active citizen in the protestant republic of letters

Republic of Letters

Republic of Letters is most commonly used to define intellectual communities in the late 17th and 18th century in Europe and America. It especially brought together the intellectuals of Age of Enlightenment, or "philosophes" as they were called in France...

". 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.

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