ARCHBISHOP USSHER: CHAPTERS IN IRISH CHURCH HISTORY IN THE 17TH CENTURY.

BY THE REV. J. A. CARR, LL.D.

PART I.

IN 1581 Queen Elizabeth was busily engaged in making her seat more secure on the throne of England; the Jesuits were as busy endeavouring to sow sedition. Campian and Parsons, formerly Fellows of Oxford Colleges, were acting in England as the heads of a new Jesuit Mission, and were actually preaching in Smithfield. Francis Drake had just returned from his wonderful voyage round the world and had fêted his sovereign on board the little craft in which he had accomplished so daring an exploit. Abroad, Spain was contemplating the proud design of the Armada and hoping to overthrow the Protestant empire of England. The Pope, Gregory XIII., who had a short time previously struck a medal to commemorate the massacre of the Huguenots, was giving her his moral support.

In Ireland things were in a very troubled condition. The country, never thoroughly conquered, was chafing under English rule and premeditating another rising. Not far from the town of Fermoy, Spenser, "alwaies idle among the cooly shades of the green alders by the Mulla's shore," as it seemed to his friend Sir Walter Raleigh, was completing the first three books of the "Faerie Queen."

In the January of this year there was born, in the City of Dublin, a child who was to bear the honoured name of James Ussher, prove himself in after years the greatest theologian the Church of Ireland can boast of, and eventually sit on the throne of St. Patrick as Archbishop of Armagh.

The City of Dublin in the year 1581 presented an aspect very different to its present appearance. Around the Castle, at once the symbol and the centre of English authority, huddled blocks of ill-built and irregular houses, which stretched themselves down the hill to the Liberties and Cathedral of St.

Patrick. On the other side of the Castle, the river Liffey, then unconfined by granite walls, extended its yellow waters almost to the foot of the sister Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, the survival of the Danish conquest, beneath whose walls the small vessels which did service between the two countries deposited their freightage. About the centre of the City, as it then stood, in the parish of St. Nicholas, James Ussher was born, on the 4th day of January, 1581. This was at that time. the literary part of the City, if we are to judge from the number of booksellers who did business in St. Nicholas Street. Here was printed the first volume of which we have any record in Irish history, being a copy of the "Articles of Religion," issued in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The book bears the following title: "A brefe Declaration of certein principull articles of Religion; set out by order and authoritie as well of the Right Honorable Sir Henry Sidney, Knight of the most noble order, Lord President of the Council in the Principallitie of Wales, and Marches of the same; and General Deputie of this realme of Ireland, as by Tharchebyshops and Byshopes and other her Majesties Hygh Commissioners for Clauses Ecclesiasticall in the same realme. Imprynted at Dublin by Humfrey Powell, the 20th of January, 1566.”

The founder of the Irish family of Ussher originally bore the name of Neville, but coming over to Ireland with King John in the capacity of an usher in the Royal Household, he changed his name for that of his office. James Ussher's father was one of the six clerks in Chancery, and his mother having been the daughter of James Stanihurst, Recorder of the City of Dublin, one of the Masters in Chancery, and Speaker of the House of Commons in three successive Parliaments, their son came into the world with all the prestige that belongs to a high social position.

In later years Archbishop Ussher, who was interested in all matters of antiquity, drew up a genealogical table of his family, enlarged of late years, and continued by Sir William Betham, Ulster King of Arms, so as to show the descent of those distinguished personages, the Earl of Mornington, Lord Cowley, and the Dukes of Leinster and Wellington, from the Ussher family.

James Ussher's early education seems to have been entirely, in the hands of two blind aunts, who nevertheless taught him to read and had him well grounded in the knowledge of Holy

Scripture. The leanings of his mother towards the Church of Rome, to which she conformed after her husband's death, was probably the reason why the task of his early training was committed to these two ladies. When eight years of age Ussher was put to school in an establishment carried on in the City by two Scotchmen-James Fullerton, afterwards a Fellow of the then recently created "College of the Holy Trinity, near Dublin," and James Hamilton, afterwards ennobled by King James I. as Viscount Claudeboy, and the founder of the family now represented by Lord Dufferin. These two men appear to have been sent over to Ireland by James, when King of Scotland, with a view to making things easy for him in that country in the event of his succeeding to the throne of England. To conceal the nature of their mission the more effectually, they had opened a school in Dublin. James Ussher, as his chaplain and biographer, Dr. Parr, tells us, always looked back to this as one of the providences of God towards him that he had "the opportunity and advantage of his education from those men who came hither by chance, and yet proved so happily useful to himself and others." From this academy of learning, when thirteen years of age, James Ussher proceeded to the newly created University of Dublin.

A few words will not be out of place here on the efforts that were made from time to time to found a national University in Ireland.

In the early days of her Christian history, Ireland was well known for her schools of learning: her religious Colleges were to be found in every part of the land. The University of Armagh, said to have been established by St. Patrick, was certainly a foundation of great antiquity. Theological seminaries also existed at Clonard, Ross, Lismore, Clonfert, Bangor, and other places. The invasion of the Ostmen, who had no love nor respect for learning, scattered these institutions to the winds, and for some centuries afterwards the country appears to have relapsed into a state of barbarism. We owe the first attempt to establish anything like a national University for Ireland to the intention of its promoters to bind the country thereby more closely to the Anglo-Papal dominion. In 1311 the then Archbishop of Dublin, John De Leeke, obtained a bull from Pope Clement V. for the foundation of a "University of Scholars" in Dublin. The Pope in his bull states: "Desirous that out of the said land men skilful in learning and fruitful

success.

in the sciences may proceed, who may be able by wholesome doctrines to sprinkle the said land like a watered garden, to the exaltation of the Catholic faith, the honour of Mother Church, and the profit of the faithful, do, by our apostolic authority, ordain that in the said City of Dublin an University of Scholars be established." The project fell through at the time, to be renewed, however, a few years later in 1320, when a school of the kind was opened under a patent granted by Edward III., and some Dominican Friars proceeded to the degree of Doctor in Divinity. This school was closed some time afterwards for lack of funds. Attempts continued to be made, from time to time, to restore the University which had been launched by the bull of Pope Clement V., in connection with the Cathedral of St. Patrick. But it was not until 1563 that anything was done of such a definite nature as to promise In that year Queen Elizabeth deputed certain officers to go over to Ireland and see if the University could not be reestablished. A Parliament was called for the purpose in Dublin, and the question discussed in the presence of the Lord Deputy, Sir H. Sidney. It remained, however, for the grandfather of James Ussher, Speaker Stanihurst, to put the top stone to this undertaking. On the 12th of December, 1570, he issued a paper pointing out the great importance of setting up Grammar Schools throughout Ireland, where "Babes from their craddles should be inured under learned schoolmasters, with a pure English tongue, habite, fashion, discipline," and goes on to speak of the device of founding "a University here at home." In pursuance of this document, a petition was forwarded to theQueen in which the Lord Deputy and Council say: "We make most humble and earnest peticon that it may please the same [the Queen] to devise, order, and direct it, and to further it with her most bounteous liberalty and good and gratious countenance." The plan here put forward of founding an Irish University in close connection with St. Patrick's Cathedral was not realized; but that the idea survived of such a union. between the ancient ecclesiastical establishment and a national University is evidenced by the fact that the solemn Commencements of Trinity College were held within the precincts of the Cathedral as late as the year 1732, and were only put a stop to by the Lords Chief Justices, when they feared a riot between townsmen and gownsmen.

Attention was now directed to the revenues of some of the

monasteries suppressed by Henry VIII. as likely to contribute the necessary funds for the establishment of the new University, and Archbishop Loftus eventually prevailed on the Mayor and Citizens of Dublin, some of whom were Roman Catholics to grant "the scite, ambit, and precinct" of the dissolved Augustinian Monastery of All Hallows, Hoggin Green (now College Green) for the purpose. Henry Ussher, Archdeacon of Dublin, was instructed to petition the Queen for a Charter and mortmain licence, and the royal warrant was issued Dec. 29th, 1591, with permission to enjoy lands to the yearly value of £400. Thus was established "the College of the Sacred and Undivided Trinity, near Dublin," as its title runs to the present day, although the institution may now be said to lie in the heart. of the City-the one great national institution which has flourished and grown with the years, in a country where all besides has worn the aspect of change and uncertainty. The original foundation consisted of one Provost and of three Fellows and three Scholars in the name of more, respectively. The first Provost was the celebrated Adam Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin and Chancellor of Ireland; one of the original Fellows was Henry Ussher, and one of the first students enrolled was his nephew, James Ussher, who was admitted January 9th, 1594, in the thirteenth year of his age. As the name of Ussher, both uncle and nephew, is intimately connected with the foundation and early history of Trinity College, we may note the following circumstances before we close this chapter. The first public Commencements took place in February, 1601, and a few years later, in the month of August, a great Commencement was celebrated, when the Acts were performed in the choir of Saint Patrick's Cathedral, because the "College rooms were very small." Five Doctors in Divinity were made on this occasion, James Ussher being one of them. A procession was made. through the City in very stately order, those who were to proceed to the above degree being attired every one in his scarlet robes and Doctor's hood, the Masters and Bachelors likewise being properly habited—“ a beautiful appearance in the sight of all men." We read, in a quaint account of the proceedings, that the Lord President delivered an oration in Latin to the Doctors elect," in which he administered four academical consequences as here do follow in order:

"1. He set them in his chair. 2. He gave them square Caps. 3. He delivered to them the Bible. 4. He put rings on their fingers. After which he