Marsh, Herbert

Marsh, Herbert an English theologian and prelate, "one of the acutest and most truly learned divines of his day," was born in London in 1757, and was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge; graduated with great distinction; was made fellow, and became M.A. in 1782. He then went to the Continent, and studied at the University of Gottingen, and later at Leipsic. He returned to England in 1800, and in 1807 became professor of divinity at Cambridge. In 1816 he was appointed bishop of Llandaff, and bishop of Peterborough in 1819. He died May 1, 1839. He published several religious and controversial treatises, and furnished an excellent English translation of Michaelis's Introduction to the New Testament, with notes. "A dissertation on the genuineness of 1Jo 5:7, included in Michaelis's work, drew from Mr. Travis, archdeacon of Chester, 'Letters to Edward Gibbon, Esq.,' in defense of the genuineness of the passage, which bishop Marsh answered, in vindication of Michaelis and himself, in his celebrated 'Letters to Archdeacon Travis' — an able and critical production, but which did not, as some eminent scholars have supposed, settle the question. He has also published several parts of a Course of Divinity Lectures, with a historical view of the progress of theological learning, and notices of authors. This work, entitled Lectures on Divinity, with an Account of the principal Authors who have excelled in Theological Learning (7 parts, Cambr. 1809-23; Lond. 1838), includes

'Lectures on Sacred Criticism and Interpretation,' which have been published separately, and are, as is well known to Biblical scholars, of the highest value" (Horne, in Bibl. Bib. 1839, p. 160 sq.). His other works are Essay on the Usefulless and Necessity of Theological Learning to those designed for Holy Orders (1792): — Comparative View of the Churches of England and Ronme (Lond. 1841, 8vo). See Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Auth. 2:1225; Blackwood's Magazine, 29:69 sq.