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
Contents
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2 Notes
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
2.
^ Jump up to: a b "Simeon, Charles (SMN779C)". A Cambridge
Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
6.
Jump up ^ Nikolaus Pevsner. Cambridgeshire.
"The Buildings of England." Second Edition (London: Penguin Books,
1970), p.231.
References
·
Simeon, Charles (1847). Carus, Rev. William, ed. Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. Charles Simeon. London: Hatchard
and Son. Retrieved 31 May 2013.
|
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).
·
This
article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed.
(1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.).
Cambridge University Press.
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