Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/220

Marsh ages, enforced residence, discountenanced pluralities, and revived the office of rural dean. His charges show an accurate knowledge of his clergy, and his resolute determination to secure the adequate performance of their duties, and to enforce his own standard of orthodoxy. The clergy of the evangelical school he regarded with suspicion, and he sought to keep his dioceses free from them by proposing to all curates seeking to be licensed by him the notorious 'eighty-seven questions,' popularly known as 'a trap to catch Calvinists.' He moreover refused to license some already in full orders, who had been duly nominated but had declined to answer the questions, or had returned vague and evasive replies. A violent opposition was roused in the diocese and sedulously fomented by the bishop's enemies. A war of pamphlets ensued, alternately setting forth 'the wrongs of the clergy' and vindicating the bishop's action. Twice (14 June 1821 and 7 June 1822) petitions were presented to the House of Lords by those who had declined to answer Marsh's questions. On the first occasion Lord King, supported by Lords Lansdowne, Grey, Harrowby, and others, and on the second occasion Lord Dacre, moved that the petitions should be referred to a committee of the house, but in both cases the motion was rejected after powerful speeches from Marsh, both of which were published. The bishop was ably denounced by Sydney Smith, in an article as remarkable for wisdom as wit in the 'Edinburgh Review' (November 1822). The Duke of Sussex, writing to Dr. Parr in 1823, described Marsh as wishing 'to rule them [his clergy] with a rod of iron, which might be proper for schoolboys, but not for discriminating beings' (, Works, vii. 5). Similarly, Marsh steadily set his face against the introduction of hymns in the public services unless authorised by the sovereign as the head of the church. 'The provision for uniformity of doctrine in the prayers was vain if clergymen might inculcate what doctrine they pleased by means of hymns' (Charge, July 1823). His opposition to Roman catholic emancipation and to the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts was unvarying.

The latter part of his episcopate was free from disputes, and he ceased his endeavours to coerce his clergy into his own opinions. Towards the close of his life he gradually sank into a state bordering on imbecility, 'almost equally insensible of censure and of praise' (, Northern Tour, i. 32). He died at Peterborough 1 May 1839, and was buried in the eastern chapel of his cathedral. His eldest son, Herbert Charles Marsh, was appointed by his father to the lucrative rectory of Barnack in 1832, and to a prebendal stall in his cathedral in 1833, when only in his twenty-fifth year. He was declared of unsound mind in 1850, and died 4 Sept. 1851. He had a second son, George Henry Marsh.

Marsh was in his time the foremost man of letters and divine in Cambridge and the foremost bishop on the bench (, St. John's College, ed. Mayor, p. 735). He was prompt and exact in the despatch of business, and in spite of his pugnacity was in private life benevolent, amiable, and genial. He was a good chess-player. His erudition was profound, and his critical works still repay perusal. He conferred a signal benefit on English biblical scholarship by introducing German methods of research. He was a keen dialectician, writing a vigorous style, which enlivened the dullest critical details. He delighted in the exercise of his power as 'the best pamphleteer of the day.' Professor Mayor says of his controversial tracts that they display a singular freshness and humour, 'but it is often apparent that success is his principal aim' (ib. p. 741). A happy result of these controversies was the formation both of the National Society for Education—which was greatly due to his energy after the 'Bell and Lancaster dispute,' and really had its origin in a sermon preached by him at St. Paul's 13 June 1811—and of the Prayer Book and Homily Society, to which his opponents were driven in 1812 by his strong representations of the danger of circulating the Bible without the prayerbook as a guide. The undaunted front with which he met the long-continued attacks of his adversaries often compelled admiration in his assailants. He was small of stature, with a remarkable but not handsome countenance. A portrait of him, a bequest of his friend and chaplain, Canon James, is in the hall of St. John's College.

Besides the works already noticed, Marsh wrote: 1. 'Letters to Archdeacon Travis in Vindication of one of the Translator's Notes to Michaelis's "Introduction," and in Confirmation of an Opinion that a Greek MS. preserved in the Public Library at Cambridge is one of the seven quoted by R. Stephens,' 8vo, 1795. 2. 'An Extract from Mr. Pappebaum's "Treatise on the Berlin MS.," and an Essay on the Origin and Object of the Velesian Readings,' 8vo, 1795. 3. 'An Examination into the Conduct of the British Ministry relating to the late Proposal of Buonaparte,' 8vo, 1800. 4. 'Memoir of the late Rev. Thomas Jones, 8vo, 1808. 5. 'A Letter to the Conductor of the "Critical Review'