Reformed Churchmen

We are Confessional Calvinists and a Prayer Book Church-people. In 2012, we remembered the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; also, we remembered the 450th anniversary of John Jewel's sober, scholarly, and Reformed "An Apology of the Church of England." In 2013, we remembered the publication of the "Heidelberg Catechism" and the influence of Reformed theologians in England, including Heinrich Bullinger's Decades. For 2014: Tyndale's NT translation. For 2015, John Roger, Rowland Taylor and Bishop John Hooper's martyrdom, burned at the stakes. Books of the month. December 2014: Alan Jacob's "Book of Common Prayer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Common-Prayer-Biography-Religious/dp/0691154813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417814005&sr=8-1&keywords=jacobs+book+of+common+prayer. January 2015: A.F. Pollard's "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation: 1489-1556" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-English-Reformation-1489-1556/dp/1592448658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420055574&sr=8-1&keywords=A.F.+Pollard+Cranmer. February 2015: Jaspar Ridley's "Thomas Cranmer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-Jasper-Ridley/dp/0198212879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422892154&sr=8-1&keywords=jasper+ridley+cranmer&pebp=1422892151110&peasin=198212879

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

24 September 1759 A.D. Charles Simeon Born—Confirmed in the Faith in Preps for Holy Communion at King’s College, Cambridge & an Anglican Rector Whose Influence Exceeded Canterbury’s and York’s



24 September 1759 A.D.  Charles Simeon Born—Confirmed in the Faith in Preps for Holy Communion at King’s College, Cambridge & an Anglican Rector Whose Influence Exceeded Canterbury’s and York’s


Charles Simeon (24 September 1759 – 13 November 1836), was an English evangelical clergyman.


Contents 


Biography



He was born at Reading, Berkshire in 1759 and baptised in the parish church on 24 October of that year.[1][2] He was the fourth and youngest son of Richard Simeon (died 1784) and Elizabeth Hutton.[3] His eldest brother, named Richard after their father, died early. His second brother, John, entered the legal profession, became an MP and received a baronetcy. The third brother, Edward Simeon, was a director of the Bank of England.[1]


Simeon was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge.[2] In 1782 he became fellow of King's College, and took orders, receiving the living of Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge, in the following year. He was at first so unpopular that services were frequently interrupted, and he was often insulted in the streets. Having overcome public prejudice, he subsequently gained a remarkable and lasting influence among the undergraduates of the university.


He became a leader among evangelical churchmen, was one of the founders of the Church Missionary Society in 1799, the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews (now known as the Church's Ministry Among Jewish People or CMJ) in 1809, and acted as adviser to the British East India Company in the choice of chaplains for India.


In 1792 he read An Essay on the Composition of a Sermon by the French Reformed minister Jean Claude. Simeon found that their principles were identical and used the essay as the basis for his lectures on sermon composition. Claude’s essay also inspired Simeon to make clear his own theological position, the result being Horae Homileticae, his chief work.


He published hundreds of sermons and outlines of sermons (called "sermon skeletons"), still in print, that to some were an invitation to clerical plagiarism. His chief work is a commentary on the whole Bible, entitled Horae homileticae (London). The Simeon Trust was established by him for the purpose of acquiring church patronage to perpetuate evangelical clergy in Church of England parishes. It continues to operate to this day.


Charles Simeon is often hailed as something of an ancestor of the evangelical movement in the Church of England.[4]


According to the historian Thomas Macaulay, Simeon's "authority and influence… extended from Cambridge to the most remote corners of England, …his real sway in the Church was far greater than that of any primate." [5] He is remembered in the Episcopal Church of the United States with a Lesser Feast and in the Anglican Church of Canada with a Commemoration on 12 November. In the Church of England he is remembered with a Lesser Festival on 13 November. His memorial by the monumental mason Hopper in Holy Trinity Church (Cambridge), was described by architectural critic Nikolaus Pevsner as an "epitaph in Gothic forms."[6]


Notes



1.       ^ Jump up to: a b Simeon 1847, p. 2.


2.       ^ Jump up to: a b "Simeon, Charles (SMN779C)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge. 


3.       Jump up ^ Simeon 1847, pp. 1–2.




5.       Jump up ^ The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, 1980, p. 50


6.       Jump up ^ Nikolaus Pevsner. Cambridgeshire. "The Buildings of England." Second Edition (London: Penguin Books, 1970), p.231.


References





Bibliography
 


  • Memoirs of Charles Simeon, with a selection from his writings and correspondence, edited by the Rev. W. Carus (3rd ed., 1848).
  • W. D. Balda, Spheres of Influence: Simeon's Trust and its implications for evangelical patronage, Cambridge University dissertation (1981).
  • Derek Prime, Charles Simeon: An Ordinary Pastor of Extraordinary Influence (Leominster, DayOne, 2011) (History Today).
  • Andrew Atherstone, Charles Simeon on “The Excellency of the Liturgy” (Norwich, Hymns Ancient and Modern, 2011) (Alcuin/GROW liturgical study, 72).



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