CHALLONER, RICHARD [1691-1781] – Roman Catholic writer born into a Protestant family. After his father’s death he was educated in a Catholic establishment embracing that faith at 13. He spent time at Donai before joining the London Missionary Society in 1738. After an argument with Conyers Middleton he returned to Donai and was consecrated bishop of Hammersmith in 1741. He produced modernised Donai Old and New Testaments and wrote anti Protestant tracts.
FUX, JOHANN JOSEPH [1660-1741] – Musical composer who was perhaps the greatest Catholic composer of church music in the Germanic cultural sphere of his day. He attempted to keep alive the legacy of Palestrina and the Counter Reformation.
1742
CALVINISTIC METHODISM – The title first given to those who in the 18th century revival adhered to the doctrinal emphases of George Whitefield [see 1737]. More than twenty years before the conversion of either Whitefield or the Wesleys, Griffith Jones [see 1730] of Llandowror had heralded the awakening in Wales with his evangelical preaching. He was soon supported by Howell Harris [see1735], Daniel Rowland [see 1752], Howell Davies, and the hymn writer William Williams [see 1744].
The first Methodist Association of Wales met in 1742 two years before Wesley’s first conference. In 1770 the publication of Peter Williams Bible led to a renewal of interest in the Scriptures and in 1784 the work was continued to North Wales through Thomas Charles of Bala. In 1811 the body was officially recognised as the Calvinist Methodist Connexion and regular ordinations commenced. A ministerial training college was opened in Bala in 1837 and another for the south in 1842 which was transferred to Aberystwyth in 1905. Until 1840 the Calvinistic Methodists supported the London Missionary Society but in that year they started their own work in France and India.
CHAUNCY, CHARLES [1705-1787] – American Congregational leader of the Old Light which opposed the revivals of Great Awakening in 1742. He also opposed the appointment of any Episcopal bishops.
ERNESTI, JOHANN AUGUST [1707-1781] – German Lutheran theologian educated at Wittenberg and Leipzig whose early career was given in the main to the classics. In 1742 he became professor of ancient literature at Leipzig, to which post was added in 1758 the chair of theology, which dual role he sustained until 1770. He tried to reconcile traditional Lutheran beliefs with biblical scholarship.
GRIMSHAW, WILLIAM [1708-1763] – Anglican minister educated at Cambridge who became a curate and was later converted in 1742 after a long spiritual struggle. He was converted through reading Scripture and 17th century books. He was the incumbent at or Haworth in Yorkshire which was afterwards famous for the Bronte’s. Here, his uncouth racy preaching with plenty of humour; his athletic prowess that won him their respect; his affection for sinners and saints and his passionate sense of Christ as Saviour made him a powerful evangelist. Before sermons he would go out and roundup shirkers with a riding crop and his preaching brought many hearers from a distance. He took particular pains with the very poor, the isolated, and the sick. Because neighbouring parishes never heard the gospel he went around preaching. He was a fine example of the evangelical revival in parish life.
HANDEL, GEORGE FRIDERIC [1685-1759] – Musical composer. Unlike Bach, who had been born in the same year, Handel was not from a musical family and his father only grudgingly acknowledged his musical talent and destined him for the law. The greater part of his career was concerned with dramatic music, opera, and oratorio. His only music written for the church consists of his early German passions, the Latin psalms during a stay in Italy, the cantata-like anthems composed for the British duke of Chandos, and occasional festal works for coronations and national celebrations. Two of his oratorios, Messiah and Israel in Egypt, draw entirely upon biblical texts, while others are from different librettos and not always of great poetical merit. The classical masters such as Mozart and Beethoven admired and drew inspiration from the choral style. Messiah, written in 1741 and first performed in 1742, became the most performed major choral work in history, and continues to be so. Handel was also an outstanding composer of chamber music and concertos.
SABATIER, PIERRE [1683-1742] – French biblical scholar who studied at the monastery of St-Germain-des-Pres the great centre of Maurist learning under Thierry Ruinart [see 1674]. After the latter's death he made his life's work the search for the pre Vulgate Latin text of the Bible. Though not completed at his death, his virtually exhaustive collection of manuscripts and materials was published in 1743 at Reims, the first work of its kind and is still of great value today.
SCHMIDT, GEORG [1709-1785] – Missionary to South Africa. Schmidt joined the Moravian Brethren at Herrnhut in 1727. He was imprisoned by Catholic authorities and recanted after six years to obtain his freedom. As a punishment for this weakness he was sent alone to the Cape as first missionary to the Hottentot area some 120 kilometres from Cape Town and arrived in 1737. Here he gathered a small community of interested Hottentots. In 1742 Zinzendorf ordained him by letter and he baptised five converts. This action was resented by the local Dutch Reformed clergy who already doubted Moravian orthodoxy. Schmidt was told to discontinue baptisms pending the decision of the Amsterdam Classis. He appealed against this and lonely and depressed he left for Holland in 1744 hoping to remove obstacles to his work and to return but he was not permitted to do so and it was only in 1792 that Moravian work resumed in South Africa.
1743
ACRELIUS, ISRAEL [1714-1800] – He was a Swedish Lutheran minister and author who was ordained in 1743 having studied at Uppsala. He served for six years as a pastor in Sweden before sailing for missionary service amongst the Swedes in Delaware. Poor health forced him to return home in 1756.
WOOLMAN, JOHN [1720-1772] – American Quaker advocate of the abolition of slavery who spent his youth on a farm and became a minister of the Society of Friends in 1743 and travelled throughout the 13 colonies. He preached against conscription and taxes for military supplies, Negro slavery, and ill-treatment of the Indians. His testimony ended in 1776 with the Quakers stopping the practice of the Philadelphia yearly meeting of owning slaves. His writings greatly influenced 19th century abolitionists. Woolman died of smallpox on a visit to the English Quakers and was buried at York.
1744
WILLIAMS, WILLIAM [1717-1791] – Welsh Methodist leader and hymn writer. Although known to English readers as nothing more than the author of “Guide me O thou Great Jehovah”, Williams, whose works are almost entirely in Welsh, is the most significant literary exponent of the mind and spirit of the evangelical revival. He was educated at a Dissenting Academy and there he experienced evangelical conversion under the Ministry of Howell Harris [see 1735]. Williams joined the Church of England but was refused ordination in 1743. After this unhappy experience he devoted himself to the Methodist Revival as an itinerant preacher. Williams was one of the most prolific of Welsh Methodist authors with some 90 titles being published between 1744 and 1791. His greatest contribution was as a hymn writer and poet with large numbers of hymns being included in all the denominational hymnbooks.
1745
BRAINERD, DAVID [1718‑1747] – American pioneer missionary to the Indians who had a profound conversion experience in 1739 and went to Yale from which he was expelled in 1742. Afterwards he studied divinity privately and was appointed by the Scottish Society for the propagation of Christian Knowledge as a missionary to the Indians in eastern Pennsylvania. Through his ministry he saw many converted during 1745‑1746. Increasing ill health caused his retirement and he died at the New England home of Jonathon Edwards [see 1740]. His journal became a devotional classic and influenced hundreds to become missionaries.
KOHLER, CHRISTIAN & HIERONYMUS [1714‑1753] – Two brothers formed a small sect called the Brugglers, in Brugglen near Berne Switzerland, about 1745, proclaiming themselves as the Holy Trinity with Elizabeth Kissling functioning as the Holy Spirit. Because of this and the prediction of the end of the world at Christmas 1748 they were exiled by the Berne Government in 1749. Hieronymus was executed for heresy in 1753.
MARKOS VIII Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria [1745-1770] see 1727 and 1770. He joined the Monastery of Saint Anthony at a young age, then moved to the Monastery of Saint Paul the Anchorite, where he became a monk and was ordained a priest. He was a contemporary of the Ottoman Sultans Mahmud I, Osman III, and Mustafa III. He ordained a general bishop over Upper Egypt to shepherd its Christians
1746
MATTHEW Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria [1746-1766] see 1737 and 1766
PEMBERTON, EBENEZER [1704-1777] – American pastor who graduated from Harvard in 1721 and was called to be the pastor of the Presbyterian Church in New York in 1727. He formed close ties with J. Dickinson [see 1729], Aaron Burr, and John Pierson, and these four represented a powerful element in the formative stages of the Presbyterian Church. Pemberton became a close friend of George Whitefield [see 1737] and with Dickinson was prominent in founding the College of New Jersey in 1746. In 1754 he left the Presbyterian Church and for twenty years had a ministry in the famous Congregational Old South Church in Boston.
1747
DAVIES, SAMUEL [1723-1761] – Founder of southern Presbyterians. After theological training in Pennsylvania he was ordained as an evangelist in 1747 and sent to Hanover County in Virginia to preach to Presbyterian converts of the Great Awakening. He went to England with Gilbert Tennent in 1753 and raised funds mostly in Scotland for the College of New Jersey which is now Princeton University. His constantly frail health gave way and he died in 1761 after he contracted pneumonia and blood poisoning from being bled.
FRELINGHUYSEN, THEODORE JACOBUS [1691-1747] – Dutch Calvinist and Pietist. He served as pastor in the Netherlands and became aware of the need for trained ministers among the Dutch congregations in America and emigrated to New Jersey in his late 20s. Noted there as a good preacher, he stressed the need for spiritual revival, and found in the Great Awakening that swept the colonies a similar emphasis. He was in active touch with Gilbert Tennent [see 1735] and other revivalist leaders. He is an important figure in the history of the Dutch Reformed in America.
HERRING, THOMAS – Archbishop of Canterbury [1747-1757]. He was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge where he was a contemporary of Matthew Hutton, who succeeded him in turn in each of his dioceses. He was a fellow at Corpus Christi College from 1716 to 1723. Herring became a close friend of Philip Yorke, the solicitor general who would later as Lord Hardwicke serve for many years as lord chancellor, and as such was able to advance quickly. In 1728 he became doctor of divinity and a chaplain to George II. In 1737 he was appointed bishop of Bangor and six years later he became archbishop of York.
On 23 September 1745, during the Jacobite rising, Herring gave a rousing sermon which it is said captured the patriotic imagination as nothing previously had, accusing the rising of the rebellion to be a threat posed by France and Spain to bring back the Catholic faith with its oppression to England. He contrasted this with the benign rule of George II who he claimed had given a situation where they were “now bless'd with the mild Administration of a Just and Protestant King, who is of so strict an Adherence to the Laws of our Country, that not an Instance can be pointed out, during his whole reign, wherein he made the least Attempt upon the Liberty, or Property, or Religion, of a single Person.” In contrast he said that “if the Ambition and Pride of France and Spain, is to dictate to us, we must submit to a Man to govern us under their hated and accursed Influence, who brings his Religion from Rome, and Rules and Maxims of his Government from Paris and Madrid.” When Lord Hardwicke, the lord chancellor, repeated the speech's contents to King George II, the king ordered that the speech be printed in the Gazette.
Herring organised Yorkshire into resistance against the Jacobites by raising volunteers and money. Herring's behaviour during the rebellion had demonstrated that he was "a resolute Whig, a brave Briton, and a commanding prelate". He was also deeply suspicious of France as a Roman Catholic nation and a threat to the British nation. In 1747 he was appointed archbishop of Canterbury. There he generally followed the lead of his friend the lord chancellor, and frequently came into disputes with the duke of Newcastle, the secretary of state. Herring, like his immediate predecessor, had taken a generally Hanoverian side through the Bangorian controversy and stood against the convocation. He succeeded John Potter [see 1737] and was succeeded by Matthew Hutton [see 1757].
1748
BOEHLER, PETER [1712‑1775] – Moravian missionary and bishop of the Moravian Church in England from 1748. Peter was the son of an innkeeper who studied at Frankfurt and Jena where he was influenced by Spagenberg [see 1732] and Zinzendorf [see 1727] who encouraged Peter to become a missionary. The English Society for the Propagation of the Gospel sent him among the slaves of South Carolina and he became a pastor of some Moravians in Savannah. While in England he met and greatly influenced the Wesleys. He was also a pastor in New England for eleven years.
BRIDAINE, JACQUES [1701-1767] – French Roman Catholic preacher who conducted missions to towns and villages across France that led to many conversions. His style of preaching was extemporaneous in a day when it was extremely rare. He edited a book of Spiritual Songs in 1748.
CYRIL V – Patriarch of Constantinople [1748-1757] who succeeded Paisius II [see 1726]. There is no additional information readily available.
1749
VENN, HENRY [1724-1797] – Anglican clergyman who came from a long line of clergyman and was educated at Cambridge becoming a fellow of Queens College in 1749 the same year as his ordination. Ten years later he became vicar of Huddersfield in Yorkshire. He found that Huddersfield when he arrived was “dark, ignorant and immoral” but when he left for health reasons twelve years later it was “shaken in the centre by the lever of the Gospel”. As a preacher he was esteemed highly by many including the Countess of Huntingdon, William Cowper, and Charles Simeon. He was chosen to give the funeral oration at the burial of George Whitefield.
1750
BELLAMY, JOSEPH [1719‑1790] – Congregational pastor, theologian, and educator who was a pupil of Jonathon Edwards [see 1740]. He was ordained in 1740 in Bethlehem. He was a travelling preacher in New England and taught universal atonement, based on the teachings of Hugo Grotius [see 1625] an Arminian, despite his Calvinistic background. In 1750 he published his main work "True Religion Delineated" in 1750.
BYROM, JOHN [1692‑1763] – English poet and hymn writer who was educated at Cambridge and afterwards lived in Manchester. He wrote the famous hymn "Christians Awake" salute the happy morn". He was very aware of the activity of the Holy Spirit which was very unusual in the 18th century.
CRUSIUS, CHRISTIAN AUGUST [1715-1775] – German theologian who became professor of theology at Leipzig in 1750. He attacked a series of important works: the determinism of Leibnitz, the perfectionism of Wolff, and the biblical criticism of his colleague Ernesti, as dangerously anti Christian. His prophetic theology was rediscovered and popularised in the 19th century.
ENGLAND, CHURCH OF [see 1532 and 1919] – Like most Protestant denominations the Anglican Church was affected by Deism in the 18th century but the key movement of this period was the Evangelical Revival with its emphasis on justification by faith, personal conversion, and the Bible. Though the Wesleys and Whitefield increasingly worked out side the Anglican system, a sizeable evangelical party emerged in the church, valuing the Prayer Book and the parish system, gaining its leadership from laymen such as William Wilberforce [see1807] and the members of the Clapham Sect [see 1844]. The early 19th century with its movement for Catholic Emancipation and the removal of Nonconformist disabilities saw the position of the Establishment threatened but spirituality was revived by the Oxford movement although some saw this as a Romanising tendency, a suspicion which seemed to be confirmed by the secession of J.H. Newman [see 1845] and others to Rome in 1845.
EPHRATA SOCIETY – A cloistered, Protestant commune founded at Ephrata, Pennsylvania by a German Pietist mystic J.K. Beissel [see 1720] and his Dunker disciples. By 1750 some 300 brothers and sisters lived in monastic austerity within the cloister, practising celibacy, pacifism, keeping Saturday as the Sabbath, sharing agricultural and trade labour, and holding all property and profit in common. The society printed about 200 books from 1745-1800. The first music printed in America was published at Ephrata. After Beissel’s death in 1768 the society with its monastic features deteriorated, was subsequently incorporated as the German Religious Society of the Seventh-Day Baptists in 1814 and was finally dissolved in 1934.
NEW ENGLAND THEOLOGY [c.1750-1850] – Calvinistic movement began under Jonathan Edwards [see 1740]. Regarded as one of America's greatest thinkers, he set out to re-formulate Puritan Calvinism and to make it more harmonious towards the spiritual experiences the Great Awakening [see 1740]. In order to justify the results of the latter he wrestled with freedom versus sovereignty. Edwards sought a middle ground between the enthusiasts of revival and Charles Chauncey [see 1727] who accused the revival of mindless emotion. Edwards agreed that heat without light was wrong but one could not divorce truth from experience. The New England Theology of Edwards dominated conservative Congregational schools such as Yale from about 1750 to the late 1800s when German critical theology won the day.
SCHWARTZ, CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH [1726-1798] – German missionary and translator. The son of a master baker in Prussia he was educated at Halle University where he encountered Benjamin Schultze a former missionary who had extended the work of Ziegenbalg [see 1706] at Tranquebar and completed the latter's Tamil translation of the Bible. This encounter led to Schwartz's call to India. Having learnt Tamil before sailing he arrived in India in 1750 and spent his first years at the Danish-Halle Mission in Tranquebar. In 1760 he paid a notable visit to Ceylon. Seven years later he was appointed chaplain to the British at Trichinopoly. Schwartz was therefore one of the remarkable succession of Germans who built up "English" missions in South India. He was invited by the Rajah of Tanjore in 1772 to minister in his area and for a period became virtually prime minister of Tanjore. All of these political duties never deflected him from his primary calling as a missionary. At Tinnevelly in the far south he appointed the catechist Sattianaden, and thus had a share in building what became a famous church. Often regarded as the greatest the 18th century German Protestant missionaries in South India Schwartz died at Tanjore.
