He was born at Reading and educated at Eton College and Cambridge. In 1782 he became fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and took orders, receiving the living of Holy Trinity, 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, The Church's Ministry Among Jewish People, and acted as adviser to the British East India Company in the choice of chaplains for India. 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.
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." He is remembered in the Church of England with a Lesser Festival on 13 November.
References
See Memoirs of Charles Simeon, with a selection from his writings and correspondence, edited by the Rev. W Carus (3rd ed., 1848).
See Spheres of Influence: Simeon's Trust and its implications for evangelical patronage. by W. D. Balda, Cambridge University dissertation (1981).
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