James Ussher
Primate of All Ireland | |
---|---|
Church | Church of Ireland |
See | Armagh |
Appointed | 21 March 1625 |
In office | 1625–1656 |
Predecessor | Christopher Hampton |
Successor | John Bramhall (from 1661) |
Other post(s) | Professor, Trinity College Dublin Chancellor, St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Prebend of Finglas. |
Orders | |
Ordination | 1602 |
Consecration | 2 December 1621 by Christopher Hampton |
Personal details | |
Born | 4 January 1581 Dublin, Ireland |
Died | 21 March 1656 Reigate, Surrey, England | (aged 75)
Buried | Chapel of St Erasmus, Westminster Abbey |
Nationality | Irish |
Denomination | Anglican |
Previous post(s) | Bishop of Meath (1621–1625) |
Alma mater | Trinity College Dublin |
Coat of arms |
James Ussher (or Usher; 4 January 1581 – 21 March 1656) was the
Education
Ussher was born in Dublin to a well-to-do family. His maternal grandfather, James Stanihurst, had been speaker of the Irish parliament. Ussher's father, Arland Ussher, was a clerk in chancery who married Stanihurst's daughter, Margaret (by his first wife Anne Fitzsimon), who was reportedly a Roman Catholic.[1]
Ussher's younger and only surviving brother,
Ussher went on to become
Early life and career
In 1619 Ussher travelled to England, where he remained for two years. His only child was Elizabeth (1619–93), who married
Primate of All Ireland
This section needs additional citations for verification. (March 2016) |
After his consecration in 1626, Ussher found himself in turbulent political times. Tension was rising between England and Spain, and to secure Ireland
The religion of the papists is superstitious and idolatrous; their faith and doctrine erroneous and heretical; their church in respect of both, apostatical; to give them, therefore, a toleration, or to consent that they may freely exercise their religion, and profess their faith and doctrine, is a grievous sin.
The Judgement was not published until it was read out at the end of a series of sermons against the Graces given at Dublin in April 1627. Following Thomas Wentworth's attainder in April 1641, King Charles and the Privy Council of England instructed the Irish Lords Justices on 3 May 1641 to publish the required Bills to enact the Graces.[4][5] However, the law reforms were not properly implemented before the rebellion in late 1641.
During a four-year interregnum between Lord Deputies from 1629 on, there was an increase in efforts to impose religious conformity on Ireland. In 1633, Ussher wrote to the new Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, in an effort to gain support for the imposition of recusancy fines on Irish Catholics. Thomas Wentworth, who arrived as the new Lord Deputy in Ireland in 1633, deflected the pressure for conformity by stating that firstly, the Church of Ireland itself would have to be properly resourced, and he set about its re-endowment. He settled the long-running primacy dispute between the sees of Armagh and Dublin in Armagh's favour. The two clashed on the subject of the theatre: Ussher had the usual Puritan antipathy to the stage, whereas Wentworth was a keen theatre-goer, and against Ussher's opposition, oversaw the foundation of Ireland's first theatre, the Werburgh Street Theatre.
Ussher soon found himself at odds with the rise of
In 1633, Ussher had supported the appointment of Archbishop Laud as Chancellor of the University of Dublin. He had hoped that Laud would help to impose order on what was, Ussher accepted, a somewhat mismanaged institution. Laud did that, rewriting the charter and statutes to limit the authority of the fellows, and ensure that the appointment of the provost was under royal control. In 1634, he imposed on the college an Arminian provost, William Chappell, whose theological views, and peremptory style of government, were antithetical to everything for which Ussher stood. By 1635, it was apparent that Ussher had lost de facto control of the church to John Bramhall, Bishop of Derry, in everyday matters and to Laud in matters of policy.
William M. Abbott, Associate Professor of History at Fairfield University, argues that he was an effective and politically important bishop and archbishop.[7] The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography notes that he was reactive and sought conciliation rather than confrontation.[8] The story that he successfully opposed attempts to reintroduce the Irish language for use in church services by William Bedell, the Bishop of Kilmore, has been refuted.[9][10]
Ussher certainly preferred to be a scholar when he could be. He engaged in extensive disputations with Roman Catholic theologians, and even as a student he challenged a
However, Ussher also wrote extensively on theology,[12] patristics and ecclesiastical history, and these subjects gradually displaced his anti-Catholic work. After Convocation in 1634, Ussher left Dublin for his episcopal residence at Drogheda, where he concentrated on his archdiocese and his research. In 1631, he produced a new edition of a work first published in 1622, his "Discourse on the Religion Anciently Professed by the Irish", a ground-breaking study of the early Irish church
In 1639, he published the most substantial history of Christianity in Britain to that date, Britannicarum ecclesiarum antiquitates – the antiquities of the British churches. It was an astonishing achievement in one respect – in gathering together so many previously unpublished manuscript sources. Ussher was very reluctant to arrive at firm judgements as to the sources' authenticity – hence his devotion of a whole chapter to the imaginative but invented stories of
Wars of the Three Kingdoms
In 1640, Ussher left Ireland for England for what turned out to be the last time. In the years before the
Despite their occasional differences, he remained a loyal friend to Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, and when the latter was sentenced to death by Parliament, pleaded with the King not to allow the execution of the verdict: unlike some of his episcopal colleagues, he insisted that the King was absolutely bound in conscience by his promise to Strafford that whatever happened his life would be spared. The King did not take his advice, but clearly afterwards regretted not doing so, as is shown by his reference on the scaffold to Strafford's death as "that unjust sentence which I suffered to take effect".
In early 1641 Ussher developed a mediatory position on church government, which sought to bridge the gap between the Laudians, who believed in an episcopalian church hierarchy (bishops), and the Presbyterians, who wanted to abolish episcopacy entirely. His proposals, not published until 1656, after his death, as The Reduction of Episcopacy, proposed a compromise where bishops operated in a Presbyterian
As the middle ground between King and Parliament vanished in 1641–1642, Ussher was forced, reluctantly, to choose between his Calvinist allies in parliament and his instinctive loyalty to the monarchy. Eventually, in January 1642 (having asked parliament's permission), he moved to Oxford, a royalist stronghold. Though Charles severely tested Ussher's loyalty by negotiating with the Catholic Irish, the Primate remained committed to the royal cause, though as the king's fortunes waned Ussher had to move on to Bristol, Cardiff, and then to St Donat's.
In June 1646, he returned to London under the protection of his friend, Elizabeth, Dowager Countess of Peterborough, in whose houses he stayed from then on. He was deprived of the See of Carlisle by Parliament on 9 October 1646, as the English episcopacy was abolished for the duration of the Commonwealth and the Protectorate.[13][14] He became a preacher at Lincoln's Inn early in 1647, and despite his royalist loyalties was protected by his friends in Parliament. He watched the execution of Charles I from the roof of the Countess of Peterborough's home in London but fainted before the axe fell.
Scholarship on Ignatius
Ussher wrote two treatises on the epistles of
Chronology
Ussher now concentrated on his research and writing and returned to the study of chronology and the
Ussher's work is now used to support
Ussher's chronology represented a considerable feat of scholarship: it demanded great depth of learning in what was then known of ancient history, including the rise of the Persians, Greeks and Romans, as well as expertise in the Bible, biblical languages, astronomy, ancient calendars and chronology. Ussher's account of historical events for which he had multiple sources other than the Bible is usually in close agreement with modern accounts – for example, he placed the death of
Death
In 1655, Ussher published his last book, De Graeca Septuaginta Interpretum Versione, the first serious examination of the Septuagint, discussing its accuracy as compared with the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. In 1656, he went to stay in the Countess of Peterborough's house in Reigate, Surrey. On 19 March, he felt a sharp pain in his side after supper and took to his bed. His symptoms seem to have been those of a severe internal haemorrhage. Two days later he died, aged 75. His last words were reported as: "O Lord, forgive me, especially my sins of omission". His body was embalmed and was to have been buried in Reigate, but at Oliver Cromwell's insistence he was given a state funeral on 17 April and was buried in the chapel of St Erasmus in Westminster Abbey.[18]
Works
- Elrington, Charles Richard, ed. (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., vol. I, Dublin: Hodges and Smith – The Life of James Ussher, D.D.
- Elrington, Charles Richard, ed. (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., vol. II, Dublin: Hodges and Smith – incl. De Christianorum Ecclesiarum Successione et Statu historica Explicatio (1613)
- Elrington, Charles Richard, ed. (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., vol. III, Dublin: Hodges and Smith – An Answer to a Challenge made by a Jesuit in Ireland
- Elrington, Charles Richard, ed. (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., vol. IV, Dublin: Hodges and Smith – incl. Gotteschalci et Praedestinatione Controversiae abeomotae Historia (1631); Veterum Epistolarum Hibernicarum Sylloge (1632)
- Elrington, Charles Richard, ed. (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., vol. V, Dublin: Hodges and Smith – Brittanicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates; caput I–XIII (1639)
- Elrington, Charles Richard, ed. (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., vol. VI, Dublin: Hodges and Smith – Brittanicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates; caput XIV–XVII (1639)
- Elrington, Charles Richard, ed. (1864), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., vol. VII, Dublin: Hodges and Smith – A Geographical and Historical Disquisition, touching the Asia properly so called; The Original of Bishops and Metropolitans briefly laid down; The Judgment of Doctor Rainoldes, touching the Original of Episcopacy, more largely confirmed out of Antiquity; Dissertatio non-de Ignati solum et Polycarpi scriptis, sed etiam de Apostolicis Constitutionibus et Canonibus Clementi Romano attributis (1644); Praefationes in Ignatium (1644); De Romanae Ecclesiae Symbolo vetere aliisque Fidei Formulis tum ab Occidentalibus tum ab Orientalibus in prima Catechesi et Baptismo proponi solitis (1647); De Macedonum et Asianorum Anno Solari Dissertatio (1648); De Graeca Septuaginta Interpretum Versione Syntagma, cum Libri Estherae editione Origenica et vetere Graeca altera; Epistola ad Ludovicum Capellum de variantibus Textus Hebraei Lectionibus; Epistola Gulielmi Eyre ad Usserium
- Elrington, Charles Richard, ed. (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., vol. VIII, Dublin: Hodges and Smith – Annales veteris Testamenti, a Prima Mundi Origine deducti, una cum Rerum Asiaticarum Aegypticarum Chronico, a temporis historici principio usque ad Maccabaicorum initia producto (1650)
- Elrington, Charles Richard, ed. (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., vol. IX, Dublin: Hodges and Smith – Annales veteris Testamenti (contd.)
- Elrington, Charles Richard, ed. (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., vol. X, Dublin: Hodges and Smith – Annales veteris Testamenti (contd.)
- Elrington, Charles Richard, ed. (1847) [(1654], The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., vol. XI, Dublin: Hodges and Smith – Annales veteris Testamenti concludes; Annalium Pars Posterior, in qua, praeter Maccabaicam et novi testamenti historiam, Imperii Romanorum Caesarum sub Caio Julio et Octaviano Ortus, rerumque in Asia et Aegypto Gestarum continetur Chronicon ... (1654)
- Elrington, Charles Richard, ed. (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., vol. XII, Dublin: Hodges and Smith – Chronologia sacra (1660); Historia Dogmatica Controversiae inter Orthodoxos et Pontificios de Scripturis et Sacris Vernaculis; Dissertatio de Pseudo-Dionysii scriptis; Dissertatio de epistola ad Laodicenses
- Elrington, Charles Richard, ed. (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., vol. XIII, Dublin: Hodges and Smith – sermons (in English)
- Elrington, Charles Richard, ed. (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., vol. XIV, Dublin: Hodges and Smith – Tractatus de Controversiis Pontificiis; Praelectiones Theologicae
- Elrington, Charles Richard, ed. (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., vol. XV, Dublin: Hodges and Smith – letters (in English) (incl. first to Richard Stanihurst, his uncle)
- Elrington, Charles Richard, ed. (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., vol. XVI, Dublin: Hodges and Smith – letters (in English and Latin)
- Elrington, Charles Richard, ed. (1864), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., vol. XVII, Dublin: Hodges, Smith, and Co. – indexes
See also
Footnotes
- ^ Lee, Sidney, ed. (1898). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 54. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- ISBN 0767908279.
- ISBN 0767908279.
- ^ Act of Limitation; Act of Relinquishment
- ^ Carte T., Life of Ormonde London 1736 vol. 1, p. 236.
- ISBN 978-0802820570.[page needed]
- ^ Abbott, William M. (1990). "James Ussher and "Ussherian" episcopacy, 1640–1656: the primate and his Reduction manuscript." Albion xxii: 237–259.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(2004)
- ^ O'Sullivan, W. S. (1968). "Review of R. B. Knox, James Ussher Archbishop of Armagh", Irish Historical Studies xvi: 215–219.
- ^ Leerssen, J. (1982–1983). "Archbishop Ussher and Gaelic culture", Studia Hibernica xxii–xxiii: 50–58.
- ^ Hugh Trevor-Roper essay
- ^ e.g., "Immanuel, or the mystery of Incarnation of God."
- ^ Plant, David (2002). "Episcopalians". BCW Project. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
- JSTOR 564164.
- ^ Lightfoot, Joseph Barber (1889). The Apostolic Fathers: Revised Texts with Introductions, Notes, Dissertations and Translations. S. Ignatius, S. Polycarp (Second ed.). Macmillan. pp. 413–414.
- ISBN 9780199928033..
- OCLC 19643211
- ^ James Ussher profile, westminster-abbey.org; accessed 1 January 2016.
Further reading
- Ford, Alan. "Ussher, James (1581–1656)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/28034. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Alan Ford, James Ussher: Theology, History, and Politics in early-modern Ireland and England Oxford University Press (2007)[ISBN missing]
- Richard Snoddy, The Soteriology of James Ussher: The Act and Object of Saving Faith, Oxford University Press (2014)[ISBN missing]
- Knox, R. Buck (1967), James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, University of Wales Press[ISBN missing]
- Gould, Stephen Jay (1996), "Fall in the House of Ussher", Eight Little Piggies, New York: W. W. Norton.[ISBN missing]
- A Compendium of Irish Biography. Dublin: M. H. Gill & son.
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- Gordon, Alexander (1899). Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 58. London: Smith, Elder & Co. . In