Adam de Marisco

Adam Marsh (Adam de Marisco) (c. 1200 – 18 November 1259) was an English Franciscan, scholar and theologian.

He was born about 1200 in the diocese of Bath, and educated at Oxford (Greyfriars) under the famous Robert Grosseteste. Before 1226 Marsh received the benefice of Wearmouth from his uncle, Richard Marsh, Bishop of Durham; but between that year and 1230 he entered the Franciscan order. About 1238 he became the lecturer of the Franciscan house at Oxford, and within a few years was regarded by the English province of that order as an intellectual and spiritual leader. Roger Bacon, his pupil, speaks highly of his attainments in theology and mathematics.

His fame, however, rests upon the influence which he exercised over the statesmen of his day. Consulted as a friend by Robert Grosseteste, as a spiritual director by Simon de Montfort, the countess of Leicester and the queen, as an expert lawyer and theologian by the primate, Boniface of Savoy, he did much to guide the policy both of the opposition and of the court party in all matters affecting the interests of the Church. He shrank from office, and never became provincial minister of the English Franciscans, though constantly charged with responsible commissions. Henry III and Archbishop Boniface unsuccessfully endeavoured to secure for him the see of Ely in 1256. In 1257 Marsh's health was failing, and he appears to have died two years later.

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