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EVANSON, EDWARD (1731–1805)

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 3 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EVANSON, See also:EDWARD (1731–1805) , See also:English divine, was See also:born on the 21st of See also:April 1731 at See also:Warrington, See also:Lancashire. After graduating at See also:Cambridge (See also:Emmanuel See also:College) and taking See also:holy orders, he officiated for several years as See also:curate at See also:Mitcham. In 1768 he became See also:vicar of See also:South Mimms near See also:Barnet; and in See also:November 1769 he was presented to the rectory of See also:Tewkesbury, with which he held also the vicarage of Longdon in See also:Worcester-See also:shire. In the course of his studies he discovered what he thought important variance between the teaching of the See also:Church of See also:England and that of the See also:Bible, and he did not conceal his convictions. In See also:reading the service he altered or omitted phrases which seemed to him untrue, and in reading the Scriptures pointed out errors in the See also:translation. A-crisis was brought on by his See also:sermon on the resurrection, preached at See also:Easter 1771; and in November 1773 a See also:prosecution was instituted against him in the See also:consistory See also:court of See also:Gloucester. He was charged with " depraving the public See also:worship of See also:God contained in the See also:liturgy of the Church of England, asserting the same to be superstitious and unchristian, See also:preaching, See also:writing and conversing against the See also:creeds and the divinity of our Saviour, and assuming to himself the See also:power of making arbitrary alterations in his performance of the public worship." A protest was at once signed and published by a large number of his parishioners against. the prosecution. The See also:case was dismissed on technical grounds, but appeals were made to the court of See also:arches and the court of delegates. Meanwhile Evanson had made his views generally known by several publications. In 1772 appeared anonymously his Doctrines of a Trinity and the Incarnation of God, examined upon the Principles of See also:Reason and See also:Common Sense. This was followed in 1777 by A See also:Letter to Dr See also:Hurd, See also:Bishop of Worcester, wherein the Importance of the Prophecies of the New Testament and the Nature of the See also:Grand See also:Apostasy predicted in them are particularly and impartially considered. He also wrote some papers on the See also:Sabbath, which brought him into controversy with See also:Joseph See also:Priestley, who published the whole discussion (1792).

In the same See also:

year appeared Evanson's See also:work entitled The Dissonance of the four generally received Evangelists, to which replies were published by Priestley and See also:David See also:Simpson (1793). Evanson rejected most of the books of the New Testament as forgeries, and of the four gospels he accepted only that of St. See also:Luke. In his later years he ministered to a Unitarian See also:congregation at Lympston, See also:Devonshire. In 1802 he published Reflections upon the See also:State of See also:Religion in Christendom, in which he attempted to explain and illustrate the mysterious foreshadowings of the See also:Apocalypse. This he considered the most important of his writings. Shortly before his See also:death at Colford, near See also:Crediton, Devonshire, on the 25th of See also:September 18o5, he completed his Second Thoughts on the Trinity, in reply to a work of the bishop of Gloucester. His sermons (prefaced by a See also:Life by G. See also:Rogers) were published in two volumes in 1807, and were the occasion of T. See also:Falconer's See also:Bampton Lectures in 1811. A narrative of the circumstances which led to the prosecution of Evanson was published by N. Havard, the See also:town-clerk of Tewkesbury, in 1778.

End of Article: EVANSON, EDWARD (1731–1805)

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