MARSDEN, SAMUEL: Church of England; b. at Horsforth (5 m. n.w. of Leeds) July 28, 1764; d. at Windsor (30 m. n.w. of Sydney), New South Wales, May 12, 1838. He was educated at the grammar-school in Hull, and then assisted his father in his shop in Leeds. He was converted and joined at first the Methodist Church, but afterward united himself to the Church of England, and entered St. John's College, Cambridge. He was ordained in 1793, and in 1794 sailed to Australia as chaplain to the penal colony at Paramatta, near Sydney. He established a farm there which eventually became one of the finest in Australia, and endeavored to train the convicts to habits of industry. In 1807 he returned to England to make a report on the condition of the colony, and tried to interest the Church Missionary Society in the Maoris of New Zealand, but in vain. He succeeded, however, in inducing W. Hall and J. King, two laymen, to return to Australia with him, and in 1814, after he bad fitted out a small vessel at his own expense, he and his two assistants sailed to New Zealand. The natives welcomed him gladly and he labored among them at intervals until his death, making in all seven visits to the islands, the last in 1837. He believed that civilization should precede the Gospel, and therefore his chief efforts were in that direction. In New South Wales also he was very influential in the cause of civilization, establishing schools and a seminary.

Bibliography: J. B. Marsden, Memoirs of the Life and Labours of . . . Samuel Marsden, London, 1858; J. L. Nicholas, Narrative of a Voyage to New Zealand . . . in . . . 1814-15, . . . with Rev, S. Marsden, ib. 1817; DNB, xxxvi. 205-206.

MARSEILLES, BISHOPRIC OF: An ancient episcopal see in the south of France, said by tradition to have been founded by the Lazarus who was raised from the dead. He is supposed to have come hither with his sisters Mary and Martha in the year 63, to have been bishop here fifty years, and to have met a martyr's death. The first bishop known to authentic history is Oresius, who signed the decrees of the Synod of Arles in 314. Proculus (381-428) attempted to claim metropolitan rights, which were conceded to him personally but not to his succensors by the Synod of Turin in 401. During his episcopate Semipelagianism made such progress in southern Gaul that its adherents were sometimes known as Massilians. The see continued to be of considerable importance. During a part of the episcopate of Paul de Sade (1404-34), the antipope, Peter de Luna (Benedict XIII.), resided here. The bishopric, which had remained a suffragan see of Arles, was suppressed in 1801, and restored in 1821, but is now under the metropolitan jurisdiction of Aix.

Bibliography: Gams, Series episcoporum, pp. 573-574, supplement, pp. 38, 42 (for list of bishops); Gallia Christiana, i. 631-704, appendix, pp. 106-118, Paris, 1715; F. X. de Belzance de Castelmoron, L'Antiquité de l'église de Marseille et la succession de ses évêques, 3 vols., Marseilles, 1747-51; A. Ricard, Les Évêques de Marseille, Paris, 1872.