course for the schoolmen, that he might persequi fontes Papismi' and drive them home to their own cabin." On the 3rd of January, 162, died Primate Hampton, and in the March following James appointed the Bishop of Meath his successor. This was almost the last act of James' reign, for he died within a few days. His successor, however, did not shew himself less attentive to the new Primate, for not long after his accession he signified by a letter under his privy signet to the Lord Deputy and the Treasurer of Ireland, that "Whereas the present Archbishop of Armagh had for many years together, on several occasions, performed many painful and acceptable services to his dear Father deceased, and upon his special directions, that therefore he was pleased, as a gracious acceptation thereof, and in consideration of his said services done or to be done hereafter, to bestow upon the said Primate out of his princely bounty 400 pound English, out of the revenues of that kingdom." Since his arrival in England he had been in the habit of preaching constantly, and had been induced by some ministers in Essex to preach on the week days, as they could not hear him on Sundays; but this exertion was too much for his strength, and immediately upon his appointment to the Primacy he was seized with a quartan ague, from which he did not recover for many months. Soon after his recovery an incident occurred, which produced important consequences to the Primate in his after life. The only note of it in his handwriting is as follows: "That in November, 1625, he was invited by Lord Mordant and his lady to my Lord's house at Drayton in Northamptonshire, to confer ¡Dr. Parr, and of course the succeeding biographers, here relate his election by the Dean and Chapter, which never could have taken place, see page 52. Dr. Parr then proceeds to relate a circumstance which I do not very well understand, and shall give in his own words: "The next testimony that he received of His Majesty's favour was his letter to a person of quality in Ireland, who had newly obtained the custodium of the temporalities of that see, forbidding him to meddle with, or receive any of the rents or profits of the same, but immediately to deliver what he had already received unto the receivers of the present Archbishop, since he was here employed on His Majesty's special service." with a priest he then kept, by the name of Beaumont, upon the points in dispute between the Church of Rome and ours: and particularly that the religion maintained by publick authority in the Church of England was no new religion, but the same that was taught by our Saviour and his Apostles, and ever continued in the primitive Church during the purest times." Lord Mordant, afterwards Earl of Peterborough, was a zealous Roman Catholic, and his lady, the daughter and heiress of Howard Lord Effingham, a Protestant: Lord Mordant was very anxious for the conversion of his lady, and consented that each should choose a divine to hold a disputation on the controverted points between the Churches. Lady Mordant made choice of Archbishop Ussher, and prevailed upon him, though not yet quite recovered, to undertake the journey. His antagonist was a priest called Beaumont, but his real name was Rookwood, a brother of Ambrose Rookwood, who had been executed for the Gunpowder Plot. The points proposed were, Transubstantiation, Invocation of Saints, Images, Visibility of the Church. Three days were spent in disputation, three hours in the forenoon of each day, and two hours in the afternoon, and during this time the Primate was opponent. On the fourth day the Jesuit was to take the place of opponent, while the Primate was the respondent; but when the appointed hour arrived he did not appear, but sent, as an excuse, a message to the Earl," that all the arguments he had framed within his own head, and thought he had them as perfect as his Paternoster, he had forgotten: that he believed it was the just judgment of God upon him thus to desert him in the defence of his cause, for the undertaking of himself to dispute with a man of that eminence and learning without the license of his superiors." The Earl was displeased with this shuffling excuse, and entered into further discussion with the Archbishop, the result of which was that he became a sincere convert, and continued a member of the Church of England till his death, and the Archbishop obtained in the Countess a faithful friend, whose attachment soothed and comforted the closing hours of his life. Dr. Bernard gives this narrative from an eye-witness, and it is confirmed by a reproach thrown upon Beaumont by Chaloner, a secular priest, who admonishes him "to beware of Drayton House, lest he should there chance to light upon another Ussher and be again put to flight, to the great disgrace both of himself and his profession." The Primate did not return to Ireland, after his appointment to the Primacy, till August 1626. It appears that his arrival there had been anxiously looked for, and he had received most flattering letters of congratulation from Lord Falkland, the Lord Deputy, from the Lord Chancellor Loftus, the Archbishop of Dublin, and many other distinguished persons. The only one of these given in Dr. Parr's collection, is from the Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh, Thomas Moygne; this letter is not only complimentary to the Primate, but gives a lamentable picture of the Irish Church. "I do congratulate with unspeakable joy and comfort your preferment, and that both out of the true and unfeigned love I have ever borne you (for many years continued) as also out of an assured and most firm persuasion that God hath ordained you a special instrument for the good of the Irish Church, the growth whereof (notwithstanding all His Majesty's endowments and directions) receives every day more impediments and oppositions than ever, and that not only in Ulster, but begins to spread itself into other places, so that the inheritance of the Church is made arbitrary at the Council table: impropriators in all places may hold all ancient customs, only they upon whom the cure of souls is laid are debarred: St. Patricks ridges which you know j Among the duties reserved in ancient leases, that denominated Ridges occurs frequently; it appears probable that a certain number of days in harvest to which the lord was entitled became commuted, and the duty ascertained by the measure of the pace in preference to that of time: hence a ridge of work in sowing or reaping became by mutual consent a substitute for the service of one or more days. It appears from the Rolls, 4 Edw. VI., that on the 10th of May, 1550, the Warden and Procurators of the parish church of St. Patrick leased the ridges of corn called St. Patrick's ridges, throughout the dioceses of Ferns, Ossory, Leighlin, and Kildare, and the deaneries of Omurthy, Rathmore, and Salmon-Leap, for three years, at six marks Irish per annum. Ussher, in his Proctor's book for 1606, has in his receipts for that year inserted as follows: belonged to the fabrick of that church are taken away: within the diocess of Ardagh the whole clergy, being all poor vicars and curates, by a declaration of one of the judges this last circuit (by what direction I know not) without speedy remedy will be brought to much decay; the which I rather mention because it is within your province. The more is taken away from the King's clergy, the more accrews to the Pope's; and the servitors and undertakers, who should be instruments for settling a Church, do hereby advance their rents and make the Church poor. In a word, in all consultations which concern the Church not the advice of sages but of young counsellors is followed." Before the Primate left England he was engaged in a very disagreeable contest with Dr. Ryves about the patent which he took out for the office of Judge of the Prerogative Court. It would seem from the letters of Archbishop Ussher, that Dr. Ryvesk claimed by his patent "to exercise the office of the Prerogative and Faculties" independently of the Primate, and that he had contrived to get the support of the Lord Keeper Williams. The Archbishop wrote to the Lord Keeper and the Lord Treasurer a letter, commenting upon the conduct of Dr. Ryves with a severity quite unusual to him: he says: " Your Lordships had need to watch this mans fingers, whenever you trust N. B. St. Patricks ridges from henceforth set to Mr. Robinson and Item Mr. Robinson to pay an organist during his life 107. Irish per From the letter of the Bishop of Kilmore it appears that these ridges had been only lately taken away from the church in 1625. * Dr. Ryves had been a Fellow of New College, Oxford, and afterwards an eminent advocate in Doctors' Commons and the Court of Admiralty. In the year 1618 he was made a Master in Chancery, and Judge of the Faculties and Prerogative in Ireland. He wrote there, "The Poor Vicar's Plea," and an able answer to that mischievous work called "Analecta sacra." On the Rebellion of 1641 he left Ireland and supported the cause of his Royal master, fighting in his service at an advanced age. He was one of the assistants to the King at the treaty of peace in the Isle of Wight, and was held in great esteem by His Majesty. him with drawing up of any orders or letters that do concern his own particular; for otherwise you may chance to find him as nimble in putting tricks upon yourselves for his own advantage, as now he is in putting them upon me;" and again he says: "By his incensing of my lord of Canterbury against me (of whose Grace I never yet deserved evil), by his abusing of me in his reports unto your Lordships, and by his disgraceful traducing of me in all companies, he hath made himself utterly unworthy of the favor which I intended to shew unto him." The Archbishop most fairly states: "Did ever any reasonable man hold it to be a thing unreasonable, that a substitute should be ordered by him that hath appointed him to be a substitute?" He then mentions the peculiar difficulties in Ireland, "that the power of granting dispensations is not by law restrained to any competent distance of place, to any certain number of benefices, or to any qualification of persons, and therefore that it was in no ways fit the substitute should have authority to grant faculties as he listed ;" and he concludes with the fair proposal, "that the same power should be reserved to him and his successors that the Archbishop of Canterbury retains unto himself in the office of Prerogative and Faculties." The termination of this dispute is not recorded; but it is more than probable that Dr. Ryves, supported by the Lord Keeper, triumphed, and this opinion is confirmed by the favor subsequently shewn to him: he was knighted by Charles, and appointed his Advocate. The Primate was scarcely settled in his new dignity, when a political measure, fraught with consequences of great moment to Ireland, called him forward. The Roman Catholic party had at this time assumed a very hostile position. A bull had been issued by Pope Urban VIII., exhorting his Irish flock to give up their lives rather than take the oath of supremacy, by which the sceptre of the Catholic Church was wrested from the hand of the Vicar of God; and this unchristian exhortation to rebellion had already begun to produce its effect in the manifest contempt of Lord Falkland's government. In this state of affairs Charles determined to increase his forces in Ireland. The |