JOHN EVELYN : An Anglican Diarist. Notes By Uncle Monty.

JOHN EVELYN: An Anglican Diarist.

Notes By Uncle Monty.

~~~

John Evelyn (1620-1706) was an English lay

Anglican from the top of his 17th century

head to the bottom of prolific diarist's feet.

~~~

Now, more than 300 years after his

death, John Evelyn has become the

focus of interest again among modern-

day academic scholars and some imbued

European and American theologians.

~~~

An Albion Royalist by deep disposition

and a sound diarist by almost any standard,

Evelyn is noted to have been "a represent-

ative of much that was best in 17th century

lay Anglicanism," states the late Lady Mar-

garet Professor of Divinity Dr. F. L. Cross.

~~~
Professor Cross adds, "Among his (Evelyn's)

best known works include Fumifugium (1661),

Sculptura (1662), and Sylva (1664). Of more

specifically religious interest are his Mystery

of Jesuitism (1664), The Pernicious Conse-

quences of the New Heresie of the Jesuites

Against the King and the State (anon. 1666)

and his translation of The Golden Book of St.

John Chrysostom concerning the Education

of Children (1659); and two posthumous

publications, The Life of Mrs. (Margaret)

Godolphin (ed. by Sidney Wilberforce, 1847)

and The History of Religion (ed. by R. M.

Evanson, 2 vols., 1850."

~~~

The latest biogaphy of John Evelyn appeared

earlier this year at The Yale University Press:

"Gillian Darley provides a rounded portrait of

Evelyn’s eighty-five years--his family life, his exile in

Paris, his interests, and his preoccupations. Evelyn

lived through some of England’s most tumultuous

history, through five reigns, the Civil War, the

Restoration, and the Revolution of 1688. He was

author or translator of countless publications, tackling

an enormous variety of contemporary issues. Both a

religious man and a key figure in the Royal Society,

he viewed Christianity and the new science as wholly

compatible. Evelyn remained endlessly curious and

engaged into very old age, and this absorbing bio-

graphy demonstrates the liveliness of his hugely

busy mind," states the online book review at Yale's

website. The only fault with the review is no mention

is made there of John Evelyn's staunch Anglicanism

and his prominent part in lay church affairs,

"especially in the rebuilding of St. Paul's Cathedral,"

notes Professor Cross in his written Evelyn synopsis

found in The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian

Church, p. 479, 1961.

~~~

At age 27, John Evelyn married Mary the daughter

of Sir Richard Browne (1605-83) at Paris. She was

only 12 year old at her marriage to him. They also

both lived at the same time as the most noted

English diarist of the day called Samuel

Pepys (1633-1703).

~~~

At London's Deptford at where Evelyn settled

at Sayes Court in 1652, there is to this very

day a local British pub that bears his name.

And for today's worldwide Anglicans, John

Evelyn should be honoured almost as a lay

saint by those who respect and cherish the

extraordinary history of the English Church

and her rootednes in Historic Anglicanism.

~~~

Faithfully, Uncle Monty.

+Edmund, King-Martyr of East Angles,

2oo8.

~~~

Episcopal Church dissidents aim for new church.

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Thu Nov 20, 2008 3:24pm EST

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