Briggs, Charles Augustus

Briggs, Charles Augustus

(1841–1913) Protestant clergyman, educator; born in New York City. The son of a prosperous businessman, he served briefly with a New York infantry regiment on the outbreak of the Civil War, then entered Union Theological Seminary. In 1874 he became professor of Hebrew there. Conservative Presbyterians objected to his scholarly work in Old Testament criticism; found guilty in a heresy trial in 1890, he was suspended from the ministry. He later took orders in the Episcopal Church and was restored to his professorship at Union.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.