Talk:Herbert Marsh

Dates?
Although most of this article seems to be very accurate, there are a couple of dates that I believe need to be corrected. These are that Marsh became Bishop of Llandaff in 1816 (not 1819) and Bishop of Peterborough in 1819 (not 1822). These facts are of minor importance but they may help interested readers more accurately to correlate Marsh's life with contemporary events. See (for example), Life and Writings of Herbert Marsh (1757-1839) by R.K.Braine Forrest, Cambridge PhD Thesis, 1989 -- —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.65.44.255 (talk • contribs) 09:21, 22 July 2005

It is worth adding to the account give here, that Marsh's opposition to Evangelicals in the Church of England was motivated by (1) the fear that their emphasis on grace without works led to antinomian behaviour--that is giving themselves license to follow their whims because they were under grace, not the Law. Marsh replied that though people could only be justified by grace, they could only inherit salvation at the last if this grace had been turned into the fruit of good works. This outlook is particularly emphasised in his 'Reply to Milner' and the 86 Questions (leading questions) he applied toordination candidates and applicants for curacies in his diocese. (See also Braine's thesis mentioned above; (2) Marsh feared that the Evangelicals were closer in theological kinship to the Dissenting Protestants than to fellow Church of England ministers who believed in the Established Church. The Evangelicals were then a Trojan horse in the Church, a means by which people who were at heart Dissenters could gain positions in the Church of England and promote their disloyalty amongst congregations and fellow clergy.

In practice, though, if Marsh detected that an Evangelical applicant to the Church was genuinely loyal to the Established Church he would give them his personal backing and defend them from critics.(instances in the Braine thesis).

Marsh also sought to reform his diocese by introducing Rural Deans, encouraging repair of churches and making regular triennial visitationsof its parishes. He was also active in promoting Tory politics in his diocese, believing that Toryism best defended the unique alliance of Church and State that made England and Wales a free yet potentially godly society, with carefully balanced and mutually supportive estates of religion and secular society--though this alliance needed to be actively defended through promoting Church of England education of the poor, and loyalty to the Prayer Book. This strategy meant Marsh was associated with authoring combative tracts and pursuing a robust clerical admission policy to his diocese.

He and his German wife, though, were kind and generous in private life, giving much support to the 'peasant poet' John Clare, who London salon society had abandoned after a brief flurry of interest in him in 1820. (Braine thesis, again, for the details.] —Preceding unsigned comment added by TheoKenlake (talk • contribs) 02:07, 8 January 2009 (UTC)