In 1613 Dr. Ussher went to London for the purpose of publishing his first work, the title of which was, "Gravissimæ Quæstionis de Christianarum Ecclesiarum in Occidentis præsertim partibus ab Apostolicis temporibus ad nostram usque ætatem, continua successione et statu, Historica Explicatio." The work was dedicated to James I., and gratified greatly that monarch, who considered himself preeminently qualified to understand its apocalyptic discussions. The great object of this work was to answer the question of the Romanists, where was the religion of the Protestants before Luther? and to prove that Christ had always a Visible Church of true Christians, who had not been tainted with the errors and corruptions of the Church of Rome. Ussher himself states in his preface, that his work may be considered as a continuation of Bishop Jewell's Apology for the Church of England, in which he had proved that her doctrines were the same as those professed by the Church in the first six centuries. The design of Ussher was to bring down the argument to the Reformation. The first part extended to the accession of Gregory VII. in the eleventh century. The second part was to have extended to the year 1370, and the third part to the year 1513. The third part never was published, nor the last hundred years of the second part. Ussher, in a letter to Lydiat, says: "you have rightly observed that in my discourse, De Christianarum Ecclesiarum successione et statu, there is wanting for the accomplishment of the second part an hundred years' story: which defect in the continuation of the work is by me supplied. I purpose to publish the whole work much augmented: but I do first expect the publication of my uncle Stanihurst's answer to the former, which I hear since his death is sent to Paris to be there printed. I am advertised also that even now there is come out at Antwerp a treatise of my countryman Christopher de Sacro Bosco, De veræ Ecclesiæ investigatione, wherein he hath some dealing with me. Both these I would willingly see, before I set out my book anew that if they have justly found fault with any thing, I may amend it; if unjustly, I may defend it." Stanihurst had published at

Douay a letter to his nephew with this title," Richardi Stanihursti Hiberni Dubliniensis brevis præmonitio pro futura concertatione cum Jacobo Usserio Hiberno Dubliniensi : Qui in sua historica explicatione conatur probare Romanum pontificem (legitimum in terris Christi Vicarium) verum et germanum esse Antichristum." There is very little argument in the book. He calls his nephew "Historiarum helluonem," and admits him "plurimorum scriptorum ætates et tempora haudquaquam sane indiligenter fuisse persecutum." The letter consists of thirty-eight pages, and one-half only is devoted to a refutation of the argument, if indeed any part can be so called, for the principal subject is an invective upon the character and writings of Luther. The last half of the letter is employed in enumerating some of the cruelties said to be inflicted on Irishmen for their profession of the Roman Catholic religion, principally detailing the death of the two Romish bishops', Richard Creaghe titular Archbishop of Armagh, and Dermot Hurley of Cashel.

He avails himself of an unfortunate expression in the dedication to King James, as an excuse for leaving his subject and wandering into abusive declamation. Ussher says in the dedication, "Unum adhuc superest, quod votis omnibus a Majestate tua expetunt omnes boni, ut populo nostro pereunti propere succurrere et peste Pontificia misere laboranti facere velis medicinam." This Stanihurst interprets as an exhortation to the King to have recourse to the infliction of punishment, in order to crush the Roman Ca

y The death of these two martyrs put forward by Stanihurst, and embellished by the author of the Analecta, has formed a fruitful source of declamation for Roman Catholic writers from that period to the time of Dr. Milner. That Bishop Hurley was guilty of treason, and was hanged for that crime, and not for his religion, can admit of no doubt. That he was tortured previous to his execution, in direct violation of the law, must require stronger evidence than the testimony of two witnesses who contradict each other, as to the mode in which the torture was inflicted, in such a manner as would invalidate their testimony in any court of justice. The account of the poisoning Bishop Creaghe, and of the mode of its discovery, was too ridiculous for Stanihurst to insert, and it seems extraordinary that any writer could venture to publish such a monstrous absurdity. I must refer the curious reader to the Analecta, as it would be impossible to give the detail here.

tholic religion in Ireland. He says, " Quod si regia Majestas te consiliario, in hac ancipiti deliberatione, uteretur, quid quæso remedii post maturam disquisitionem proponendum suaderes ? Anne bonorum direptionibus Catholicos castigandos? At hoc esset actum agere. Nec enim obscurum est non paucos melioris notæ Hibernos, priusquam Rex Jacobus ad patriæ nostræ gubernacula sederet, gravem rei familiaris jacturam fecisse, quod vestris orgiis interesse, atque in mulierarium (quem obstupescent posteri) in rebus ecclesiasticis principatum jurare renuerint. Forte in carceres condi censebis. Atque istis miseriis callum jamdudum obduxerunt. Si gravioras exigas, quam quæ ante actis annis latæ fuerunt, eo sententiæ tuæ summa collineare videtur, ut Catholicos Hibernos, quos Calvinianus magistratus jam olim cecidit flagellis, noster Rex Jacobus cedat te suasore, scorpionibus." This idle declamation was not the mode of answering the arguments of his nephew, whom he addresses as "Jacobe nepos."

The work of Ussher is a prodigious mass of quotations from different writers, the author professing that he never used his own words, when he could find those of another. He makes the binding of Satan in the Apocalypse commence with the rise of the Gospel, which may be dated either from the incarnation or passion of Christ, or from the termination of the Jewish polity by the destruction of Jerusalem. The coming of Antichrist he places at the end of the first six centuries, and the loosing of Satan at the end of ten centuries. The 1000 years from the incarnation go down to the pontificate of Sylvester II., from the passion to that of Benedict IX., and from the destruction of Jerusalem to that of Gregory VII., the celebrated Hildebrand. He next proceeds to describe the state of the Church under the tyranny of Antichrist, more particularly in the reign of Innocent III., and concludes the work with a defence of the Albigenses and Waldenses, and an account of the various misstatements made by the different Roman Catholic writers confounding them with heretics of the worst description. Dr. Smith states that the publisher of the edition of 1678 was guilty of fraud in putting on the title-page

"Operis integri ab autore aucti et recogniti," as no additions had been made to the first edition. Now in this statement Dr. Smith is undoubtedly mistaken. No person could look at the edition of 1678 without perceiving that very considerable additions had been made to the original work. I cannot discover how the editor got those additions; it must have been from some copy of the old edition prepared for publication by the author himself. In the library of Trinity College is an imperfect interleaved copy of the first edition of the work, with several additions written in Ussher's handwriting; these are all accurately printed in the edition of 1678, but with considerable additions, which I have inserted in the edition of the Archbishop's works, as their agreement with those, of whose authenticity there could be no doubt, was strong evidence in their favor, and on verifying the quotations I found them correct.

While Ussher remained in London he appears to have had frequent conferences with Archbishop Abbot, in which a principal subject of discussion was the plan for giving a new charter and statutes to Trinity College, Dublin. By the first charter the Provost and Fellows had the power of making statutes for themselves. In a letter written to Dr. Chaloner, which most probably never reached him, as it is dated only a few days before his death, Ussher states to him the various objections of the Archbishop, and among them two, which could not be expected from such a quarter: "Hew observed that there was no order taken that the Scholars should come into the chappel clericaliter vestiti, and took great exception against the statute for the ordering of commonplacing which he affirmed to be flat puritanical." The Archbishop also complained of what has been ever the great injury to Trinity College, the small number of Fellows, "counting it a great inconvenience that the Fellows resident should be so taken up with lectures that they can have no time for themselves to grow up in further learning." Up to the present day there has never been a greater number of Fellows than of tutors, and to

See Works, vol. xv. p. 72. This, no doubt, produced the letter to the Chancellor of Ireland, from which an extract was given, pag. 32, note.

any one acquainted with the embarrassing routine of lectures during every term, it is only wonderful that there ever has been found a Fellow, who was able to distinguish himself in the paths of science or of literature. The proceedings as to any change in the College were suspended by a refusal on the part of the Provost and Fellows to surrender their charter, a refusal the wisdom of which appeared very clearly from the earnestness with which the measure was pressed upon them.

While Ussher was absent in London, his uncle Henry Archbishop of Armagh died on the 2nd of April, and on the 27th of the same month died also Dr. Chaloner. It is probable that these events hastened the return of Ussher, for we find him soon after in Dublin. Dr. Chaloner left but one daughter, to whom he bequeathed a very considerable fortune, enjoining her not to marry any person but Dr. Ussher, if he should propose himself. Dr. Ussher did offer himself, and he and Phoebe Chaloner were married about the beginning of the year 1614. A relationship had existed between them, for Dr. Chaloner married Rose the daughter of Elinor Ussher, the wife of Walter Ball, Mayor of Dublin. Dr. Ussher had but one child, a daughter, Elizabeth, who was married to Sir Timothy Tyrrell of Shotover House near Oxford, to whom Dr. Barlow dedicated his edition of the Chronology, and whose son James Tyrrell dedicated the work on the Prince to Charles II., and was himself a learned and industrious writer.

In the year 1615 a Convocation of the Irish clergy, formed after the model of the English convocation, assembled in Dublin. This seems to have been the first convocation ever held in Ireland. Dr. Parr and Dr. Smith indeed assert the contrary; Dr. Parr says, "There was now a

* Shotover House is not now in the possession of the family of Tyrrell: the last of the family who possessed it was the great-grandson of Dr. Ussher, Lieutenant-General James Tyrrell, who died in 1742, and left his estate from the Tyrrell family to his kinsman Augustus Schutz, Esq. In the Library was preserved the volume of letters from which Dr. Parr cut out those he published. The volume, with a few remaining letters, has been presented to the Library of Trinity College by the present possessor, George V. Drury, Esq. Some of these will be found in the sixteenth volume of the Archbishop's works.