disregard of the proceedings in England, which must have been fresh in the recollection of the compilers. The effect of them upon Ireland was most injurious to the progress of true religion. "Several of them gave great offence to the Roman Catholics and hindered their conversion; and others of them gave as much encouragement to the Puritans brought out of Scotland into Ulster; and both made their advantage of them to the prejudice of the Church of Ireland."

It is a matter of no small difficulty to account for the consent of James to these Articles. The Article on the observance of the Lord's day must at that time have been considered at direct variance with the Book of Sports, and this opposition might justly be considered as sufficient to rouse his notions of prerogative into open hostility against such doctrines. Wood probably gives a solution for many of the anomalies connected with these Articles: he says that Dr. James Montague, Dean of the Royal Chapel and succes

I cannot find authority for it. The condemnation seems to be confined to the Popish doctrine of absolution, and the words of the prayer in the Morning and Evening Service are copied exactly. Again he says, Lent is disclaimed as a religious fast, I cannot find the word in the Articles. Still further he maintains, that no authority is claimed for enforcing ecclesiastical canons or decreeing rites and ceremonies. This is certainly a very bold assertion, for the seventy-seventh Article gives the power as fully as it is claimed by the English Church. He is correct in stating that no allusion is made to the mode of consecrating the higher orders of the ministry, but he should have added that the ordination of presbyters and deacons was equally omitted, and while the Liturgy remained in force neither was necessary. It is certainly true that the Pope is unhesitatingly called Antichrist, an assertion carefully kept out of the English Articles though firmly believed by many, if not all, the compilers, because they thought it might lead to divisions upon a point, which was not of vital importance. Many a true member of the Church of England and determined opponent of the See of Rome does not believe, that the Pope is Antichrist. Amid this applause of the ultra-Protestant party it is curious to find an eminent Roman Catholic writer maintaining that Ussher in these Articles supported the doctrine of the real presence, yet such is the statement of Dr. O'Conor. Hib. MS. Stow. vol. ii. p. 57. A real presence in Dr. O'Conor's sense of the word is certainly not maintained in the Article, which most clearly states: " 'Being no otherwise present with the visible elements than things signified and sealed are present with the signs and seals, that is to say, symbolically and relatively."

* Carte's Life of Ormond, vol. i. p. 78.

sively Bishop of Bath and Wells, and of Winchester, "being a great stickler in the quarrels at Cambridge, and a great master in the art of insinuation, had cunningly fashioned King James unto certain Calvinian opinions, to which the King's education in the Kirk of Scotland had before inclined him. So that it was no very hard matter for him (having an Archbishop also of his own persuasion) to make use of the King's authority for recommending the Nine Articles to the Church of Ireland, which he found would not be admitted in the Church of England." Another powerful assistant to Archbishop Abbot and Bishop Montague was no doubt to be found in the Lord Deputy Chichester, who had been a pupil of the notorious Puritan Cartwright. It might also have been part of the crooked policyTM, for which James was remarkable. Aware that the greater part of the Irish people were addicted to Popery, he might have been anxious to drive them into the other extreme as a means of their discovering the errors of their ways and choosing the true doctrine which lay between the opposite errors. Another reason may be found in the state of the North of Ireland. There was no part of his policy towards Ireland upon which James prided himself more than upon the settlement of Ulster. This was carried on most vigorously by settlers from Scotland, who poured into the country tempted by the superior richness of the soil. Upon these adventurers James relied principally for the maintenance of his power against the Roman Catholic natives, and they were so considerable in number as to extort almost any concession they thought fit to demand. It requires not much inquiry to ascertain what their views were: "They brought with them hither such a stock of Puritanism, such a contempt of bishops, such a neglect of the public Liturgy and other divine offices of the Church, that there was nothing less to be found among them than

I Wood's Athenæ, vol. ii. pag. 854.

m His policy will not however appear in this instance to have been at all different from that which he pursued almost immediately after in sending deputies to the Synod of Dort.

" Heylin, Hist. of Presbyterians, p. 393.

the government and forms of worship established in the Church of England."

To the question as to the authority of the Articles Dr. Bernard answers: "Now" whereas some have doubted whether they were fully established as the Articles of Ireland, I can testify that I have heard him say, that in the forenamed year 1615 he saw them signed by Archbishop Jones then Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and Speaker of the House of the Bishops in Convocation, signed by the Prolocutor of the House of the Clergy in their names, and also signed by the then Lord Deputy Chichester by order from King James in his name." But this evidence will not prove that the Articles were fully sanctioned, for it does not appear that they ever were submitted to Parliament. Without that sanction they could not be legally enforced. Queen Elizabeth was greatly blamed for stopping in the House of Lords the bill, which had passed the Commons, for enforcing the Thirty-nine Articles, as if it were an invasion of her prerogative, and she did not submit till the year 1571, yet the same persons who censured her conduct will maintain the complete establishment of the Irish Articles, and that it required an Act of Parliament to alter or remove them.

In the year 1614 Ussher was chosen Vice-Chancellor of the University of Dublin. The entry in the Registry is as follows: "Mar. 2, 1614, Doctor Ussher was chosen ViceChancellor by the Provost and Fellows, and the next day he was confirmed and approved touching this choice by the whole Senate of the University. July 3, 1817. Dr. Ussher was again chosen Vice-Chancellor by the Provost and Fellows"."

From a letter of Dr. Ward it appears that Ussher was

"Bernard's Life of Ussher, p. 50.

• There is a curious entry with respect to him in 1616.

May 13, 1616. Mr. Dr. Ussher was chosen to supply the place of Vice-Provost during the Provost's absence.

"It was agreed that Mr. Dr. Ussher should have the fee of his Professorship of Theological Controversies under the College Seal."

It does not appear whence the necessity of this new appointment under the College Seal, nor how he could be elected Vice-Provost when not a Fellow.

VOL. I.

E

in London in April, 1615, but except the expression of regret in the letter at not meeting him, there are no other traces of his visit. Sir Oliver St. John soon after his appointment as Lord Deputy, was entertained at Trinity College with a public disputation. It is stated in the College Registry: "July 23, 1617. Lord Deputy, Lord Chancellor, and Earl of Arundel were entertained at the College with a theological lecture and disputation. The performance of the former was by Dr. Ussher, of the latter by Mr. Martin respondent, Mr. Egerton and Mr. Donnellan opponents. The questions were, "Spiritus Sanctus in Scriptura loquens est solus infallibilis judex controversarium," and "Jejunium pontificium neque Scripturæ neque rationi est consentaneum."

In the Autumn of the year 1619 Dr. Ussher determined to visit England again. But he found that however James might have been influenced to give his assent to the Irish Articles, he had not extended his favour to their compiler. Unfavourable reports of him had been industriously circulated in London, and it was very evident that he was an ob⚫ject of suspicion to the jealous monarch. Dr. Bernard says: "And now he wanted not enemies in scandalizing him to King James under the title of a Puritan', so odious to him in those days." Under these circumstances he succeeded in procuring a very extraordinary document, a letter of recommendation from the Lord Deputy and Council in Ireland to the Privy Council in England. The letter is as follows:

P Dr. Parr has given the following letter addressed to Dr. Ussher in order to prove, that the nickname of Puritan was given to many who did not deserve it.

"REV. SIR,—I hope you are not ignorant of the hurt that is come to the Church by this name, Puritan, and how his Majesties good intent and meaning therein is much abused and wronged; and especially in this poor country, where the Pope and Popery is so much affected. I being lately in the country had conference with a worthy painful preacher, who hath been an instrument of drawing many of the meer Irish there from the blindness of Popery to embrace the Gospel, with much comfort to themselves and heart breaking to the Priests, who perceiving they cannot now prevail with their juggling tricks, have forged a new devise: They have now stirred up some crafty Papists, who very boldly rail both at ministers and people, saying, They seek to sow this damnable heresie

:

"May it please your Lordships, "The extraordinary merit of the bearer Mr. Doctor Ussher prevaileth with us to offer him that favour (which we deny to many that move us) to be recommended to your Lordships and we do it the rather, because we are desirous to set him right in his Majesties opinion, who it seemeth has been informed, that he is somewhat transported with singularities, and unaptness to be conformable to the rules and orders of the Church. We are so far from suspecting him in that kind, that we may boldly recommend him to your Lordships, as a man orthodox and worthy to govern in the Church, when occasion shall be presented, and his Majesty may be pleased to advance him; he being one that hath preached before the State here for eighteen years, and has been his Majesties Professor of Divinity in the University for thirteen years. And a man who has given himself over to his profession: an excellent and painful preacher, a modest man, abounding in goodness, and his life and doctrine so agreeable, as those who agree not with him, are yet constrained to love and admire him. And for such a one we beseech your Lordships to understand him, and accordingly to speak to his Majesty and thus with the remembrance of our humble duties we take leave.

:

of Puritanism among them; which word, though not understood, but only known to be most odious to his Majesty, makes many afraid of joining themselves to the Gospel, though in conference their consciences are convicted herein: so to prevent a greater mischief that may follow, it were good to petition his Majesty to define a Puritan, whereby the mouths of these scoffing enemies would be stopt: and if his Majesty be not at leisure, that he would appoint some good men to do it for him; for the effecting thereof you know better than I can direct, and therefore I commit you and your affairs to the blessing of the Almighty, praying for your good success there and safe return hither, resting "Your assured Friend, to his power "EMANUEL DOWNING.

"Dublin, 24th Oct. 1620."