Archbishop James Ussher

“ Bernard published the 'Life and Death of Archbishop Ussher in a Sermon preached at his Funeral at Westminster, 1656,' and in the following year 'The Judgment of the late Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland, of the Extent of Christ's Death and Satisfaction, of the Sabbath and Observation of the Lord's Day and of Ordination in other Reformed Churches, with a Vindication of him from a pretended Change of Opinion in the First, some Advertisements upon the Latter, and in Prevention of further Injuries, a Declaration of his Judgment on several other Subjects,' 1657. ”

“ Elrington's Life of Archbishop Ussher, 244.
[317] "The poor orthodox clergy have passed one Sunday in silence. The Bishop of Armagh hath been with Cromwell about them, it is feared to little purpose, yet some Court holy water was bestowed on the old man, besides a dinner and confirmation of Church leases to him in Ireland."—State Papers Dom., 1655-56, 10th-20th January. ”

“ Finally, there were added a few wholesome admonitions on other subjects, which mark the turning of the tide from Catholic orthodoxy. The clergy were interdicted from indulging any longer in the polemics of theology. "To keep unity and quietness in the realm it" was "ordained that no preachers" should "contend openly in the pulpit one against another, nor uncharitably deprave one another in open audience. If any of them" were "grieved one with another," they were to "complain to the King's Highness or the archbishop or bishop of the diocese." ”

“ There is no diocese but it has a bishop appointed and consecrated by the Pope, nor province that wants an archbishop, nor parish without a priest, all actually serving their time and the Pope's direction and plenteously maintained by the people, so that the few ministers that are, and bishops that profess to do any good, profit no more than Lot did in Sodom. ”

“ Very good men have made sad mistakes in this matter. Archbishop Ussher was a man whose deep piety equalled his prodigious learning, yet he maintained that the civil sword ought to be used to repress false doctrine; the divines of the Westminster Assembly have left their opinion on record, that it is the duty of the magistrate to use the sword on behalf of Christ's kingdom; Richard Baxter taught that the toleration of doctrines which he considered false was sinful ”

“ In 1622 James Ussher, then bishop of Meath, having preached a sermon before the lord deputy to which exceptions were taken by the recusants, Hampton at once addressed him in a letter of great mildness, but indicating a sense that the sermon had been in some respects indiscreet (Parr, Collection of Letters, p. 84) . ”

“ Leighton, living very much out of the world, and being somewhat deficient in what may be called the political sense, was too open to the persuasions used to induce him to enter a sphere for which he instinctively felt he was ill qualified. The Episcopacy which he contemplated was that modified form which had been suggested by Archbishop Ussher, and to which Baxter and many of the best of the English Nonconformists would have readily given their adherence. ”

“ His signature is appended to a suggestion for an amendment of Archbishop Ussher's scheme ‘for the reduction of episcopacy into the synodical form of government’ (Sylvester, Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, pt. i. p. 240) . But he soon saw that this scheme was impracticable, and when he grasped the meaning of the issue he became a fervent royalist. ”

“ At last they yielded to Archbishop Ussher's desire ‘to write against each other no more,’ but the controversy was continued by Obadiah Howe, pastor of Horncastle, Lincolnshire, who in his ‘Pagan Preacher Silenced, or an Answer to a Treatise of Mr. ”

“ In 1656 he was endeavouring to promote an agreement between presbyterians and episcopalians on the basis of Archbishop Ussher's model (Thurloe, v. 598) . In 1659 he published a folio entitled ‘Ἱερὰ Δάκρυα. ”

“ Owing mainly to his own stubbornness and the cowardly and wavering attitude of the bishops, it was agreed by the Diet that till a General Council could be convoked full toleration should be given to the Lutheran preachers, that in the meantime no civil disabilities should be inflicted on supporters of the new religion, that those of the clergy who wished to marry should be allowed to do so, that the archbishop should apply no longer to Rome for his pallium, and finally that the confirmation of the appointment of bishops should be transferred from the Pope to the king. ”

“ In 1571 he induced the Archbishop of Upsala to publish a number of regulations known as the /Agenda/, which both in ritual and doctrine indicated a return to Rome, and he employed some Jesuit missionaries to explain the misrepresentations of Catholic doctrine indulged in by the Lutheran and Calvinist leaders. His greatest difficulty in bringing about a reunion was the presence of Lutheran bishops, but fortunately for him many of them were old men whose places were soon vacant by death, to whose Sees he appointed those upon whom he could rely for support. ”

“ The usefulness and necessity of studying the ancient fathers have been defended by many persons eminent for their learning and piety. Archbishop Usher was one who beyond all men then living knew the vast importance of these studies, and had derived the greatest benefits from them. ”

“ Ussher's ‘certificate’ of the state of the diocese (28 May 1622) is a most minute and interesting document (Elrington, app. v.) . There was no cathedral and no chapter; the clergy met in synod, but the great majority of the parish churches were ruinous; yet Elrington considers the diocese ‘at that time the best arranged and most civilised part of Ireland.’ Ussher made endeavours to win the Roman catholics by his sermons, preaching in the session-house when he could not induce them to enter the church. ”

“ That the poet joined the Lennox faction at court, and during the next ten years was first a "familiar servitour" and afterward a pensioner of the King, is established by evidence drawn both from his writings and from documents of the period. On March 5, 1579-1580, d'Aubigny was made Earl of Lennox, and soon after acquired the large revenues of the Bishopric of Glasgow. Robert Montgomerie, a kinsman of the poet, [8] was appointed "tulchan" archbishop, as the means by which the money might reach Lennox. ”

“ A man of large views and an all-round lover of such freedom as American citizenship carries, the Archbishop stands in the United States for all the causes and ideals that elevate a nation. His Grace has always taken a firm stand as an advocate of total abstinence. ”

“ Indeed, from such evidence as we can gather the joke on Archbishop Adamson, [18] the boisterous tone of the Flyting and similar pieces, his final surrender to the god of wine [19] one pictures "beloved Sanders" as a jovial, not altogether reputable character such as Scott would have enjoyed painting, gifted with intelligence and some genius, yet quite capable of the role of court jester or abbot of unreason when occasion permitted. ”

“ But if it then still prove contagious enough to triumph over persecution, it becomes itself an orthodoxy; and when a religion has become an orthodoxy, its day of inwardness is over: the spring is dry; the faithful live at second hand exclusively and stone the prophets in their turn. The new church, in spite of whatever human goodness it may foster, can be henceforth counted on as a staunch ally in every attempt to stifle the spontaneous religious spirit, and to stop all later bubblings of the fountain from which in purer days it drew its own supply of inspiration. ”

“ The clergyman, as soon as he is appointed, comes into possession of it in his own right; and he is not appointed by the people, but by some nobleman or high officer of state, who has inherited the right to appoint the clergyman of that particular parish. There are bishops, also, who have very large revenues, likewise independent; and over these bishops is one great dignitary, who presides in lofty state over the whole system. This officer is called the Archbishop of Canterbury. There is one other archbishop, called the Archbishop of York; but his realm is much more limited and less important. ”

“ And as having no dread of the malice of tyrants, by trusting stedfastly in the help of the LORD, with full purpose for to [ac] knowledge the Soothfastness, and to stand thereby after my cunning and power, I said to the Archbishop, "Sir, if the truth of GOD's Word might now be accepted as it should be, I doubt not to prove by likely evidence, that they that are famed to be out of the faith of Holy Church in Shrewsbury and in other places also, are in the true faith of Holy Church. For as their words sound and their works shew to man's judgement, dreading and loving faithfully GOD ”

“ Our age is not peculiarly ecclesiastical, yet we have not done with the church and its teachers. Many a time of late we have had cause to think [213] with regret of the persuasive eloquence of the Archbishop of Cambray, of the sacred Art that could make truth lovely to wayward youth, and religion beautiful to hard and skeptical manhood. ”

“ It is an emotion, a mere spasm, whereas cheerfulness is a habit of mind, a whole philosophy of life. But the one quality does not necessarily exclude the other, and an occasional burst of sheer irresponsible merriment is good for anybody—even for an Archbishop—especially for an Archbishop. The trouble with an Archbishop is that his office tends to make him take himself too seriously. He forgets that he is one of us, and that is bad for him. He needs to give himself a violent reminder occasionally that his virtue is not an alien thing; but is rooted in very ordinary humanity. ”

“ These things are of the simplest facility to any man whose heart is in the right place; and if, instead of locking himself up with two or three dreary effigies of man, in the shape of chaplains, and freezing all the soul within him by a rigid and repulsive routine, he shall “do as he would be done unto” if he had remained a country curate, an Archbishop of Canterbury might be the most beloved, popular, and for all the best purposes, the most influential man in the kingdom. ”

“ Urquhart has said above respecting the way and the reason why these religious undertakings are puffed up, and "plausible grounds" given for expecting that the consummation of "gospel" triumph is at hand.
There is, perhaps, no Christian population in the world more united as a body, more attached to their clergy, more faithful in their holding to the See of Peter, or more orthodox in every particle of their faith, than the Maronites of Mount Lebanon. ”

“ The main body of the clergy are good, holy men. The Archbishop is a man who would be an honor to any church in any country. He is a man of eminent learning and great sanctity. He is one of the kindest and most charitable men I ever met. ”

“ For if God exerts his power over the world to guide and control it according to his own sovereign will it is nothing less than high handed presumption if not rebellious usurpation on the part of the clergy to attempt to take the management out of his hands. ”

“ The archbishop must be a man without any latent flame, without ambition, desirous of no noise, who shall be content to have been an archbishop without leaving behind him a peculiar name among his brethren. ”

“ The Church has always had mighty men willing to venture their lives, when religion and liberty were attacked; but at no time has there gone forth a more illustrious band whose heart God touched, than in the last years of the Sixteenth century. The tide of defection was then rolling in upon the Church with desolating violence. The truth of Christ's supremacy was being submerged beneath the waves of Episcopacy. The right of Christ to rule His Church was disputed by King James, and claimed as his own prerogative. ”

“ This grievous error, which has the necessary effect of repelling and ultimately offending and alienating the whole body of the inferior clergy, a body who constitute the active strength of the Establishment, we must hope to see henceforth totally changed. In the higher view of the case, an Archbishop of Canterbury possesses every advantage for giving an honourable and meritorious popularity to the Church. ”

“ If, like the present reviewer, you are ready to hold the simple faith that the outer order corresponds to the inner—that a vicar is a good man, a canon a better man, and an archbishop the best man of all—you will find the study of the Archbishop’s life one of extreme fascination. He has turned aside from poetry and philosophy and law, and specialised in virtue. ”

“ Man will reach salvation only when our own Jerusalem is the universally recognised holy city."
Now it is useless to reduce the many to the one merely by wiping out the many. It is useless to make some new sect whose creed shall be that there are to be no sects. The unity of the visible church, under any one creed, or with any one settled system of religious practices, is an unattainable and undesirable ideal. The varieties of religious experience in James's sense of that term are endless. The diversity of gifts is as great as is the diversity of strong and loyal personalities. ”

“ The anointing is entirely of Romish invention. Neither is there any mention of auricular confession in the New Testament. St. James exhorts the faithful to confess their sins to one another, that is, to ask forgiveness of each other for mutual wrongs. Of extreme unction not a word is said in the whole of the Bible. Ordination is nothing more than a simple rite, a ceremony consisting in the imposition of hands, praying God to give to his people good and faithful ministers. And matrimony is merely a contract between the parties, and the priest is enjoined to implore the Lord to bless the union. ”