Connop Thirlwall

Connop Thirlwall , 1797-1875, English historian. He was bishop of St. David's, Wales, from 1840. His chief work is his History of Greece (8 vol., 1835-44); it was the first truly scholarly survey of Greece in any language. As a historian, Thirlwall was fair and judicious, his scholarship impeccable, and his knowledge of sources unexcelled.

Bibliography: See biography by J. C. Thirlwall, Jr. (1936).

Thirlwall, Connop (1797–1875), Bp. of St Davids from 1840. He learnt Welsh, restored Church life in his diocese, and took part in the ecclesiastical questions of his day in a liberal spirit. He supported the removal of the civil disabilities of the Jews (1848) and urged the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland (1869). He and A. C. Tait were the only bishops in the C of E who refused to issue an interdict against Bp. J. W. Colenso preaching in their dioceses.

Thirlwall, Connop (1797–1875), was ordained priest in 1828. He translated Schleiermacher's Essay on the Gospel of St Luke (1825) and his introduction to this work was remarkable for its acquaintance with German theology. In collaboration with Hare he translated Niebuhr's History of Rome (1828–42), and edited the Philological Museum (1832–3), which contained Thirlwall's important essay ‘The Irony of Sophocles’. His main work was the History of Greece (1835–44, for Lardner's Cyclopaedia, rev. 1847–52). He supported the admission of Jews to Parliament, the disestablishment of the Irish Church, and allowed Bishop Colenso to preach in his diocese. These subjects and the Essays and Reviews controversy are dealt with in his ‘Charges’ (published in Remains, Literary and Theological, 1877–8).