Chapter 6 - USSHER'S FIRST ESSAYS IN LITERATURE

Page 092

AN illustration of the extraordinary interest taken about this time (1602) in literary matters may here be noted. The army that had come over to suppress Tyrone's rebellion, and which for the time being had effectually crushed out the spirit of opposition by a victory over the Spanish contingent at Kinsale, was now on its way back to English shores. Before returning the soldiers determined to show their interest in the advancement of learning in Ireland, and more particularly their interest in the young University of Dublin, by subscribing between themselves out of their arrears of pay, what was then the handsome sum of £1800, for the purchase of books for the use of the College library. [1]

[1] Cox's History of Ireland, i. P. 446. The Lives of Ussher, including that by Elrington, give the above sum, but the MSS. Book of Benefactions, preserved in the Library of Trinity College, set down the sum as "about £700." In 1600 there seems to have been only forty-books in the Library, ten of which were manuscripts. As the fruit of Ussher's and Challoner's labours they had reached 4000 in 1610. - See Abbott's Article on the Library in The Book of Trinity College, p. I48; and for prices, Ussher's Works, xv. p. 74.

Page 093

Towards the close of 1603, Dr. Challoner and James Ussher were selected to go to England with this sum and invest it to the best advantage. It is a remarkable coincidence that they met in London the famous Sir Thomas Bodley, founder of the Bodleian Library at Oxford, who was then in the City on a similar business for his own University.

Probably there never occurred before or since a like instance, where an army of conquest and occupation exhibited a concern of this kind in the peaceful pursuits of literature. It shows how thoroughly the spirit of Shakespeare, Spenser, Ben Jonson, Hooker, Raleigh, and the other great writers who were then immortalising the English language by their works, had pervaded the entire nation.

On several subsequent occasions, Ussher visited England for the purpose of purchasing books for the University, and a list with prices annexed in his handwriting is preserved among the most cherished MSS. of Trinity College, Dublin. [2]

[2] Class D. 3-20. On the occasion of Ussher's first visit to England he halted at Chester to visit Christopher Goodman, a sturdy Nonconformist, mistakingly reputed by some, on account of his book against Mary, Queen of Scots, to have been the author of "The Monstrous Regimen of Women," and who was then on his death-bed. In his time he had refused to subscribe to the Prayer-book and Articles. For his recusancy Archbishop Parker had him "beaten with three rods," and forbade him to preach. His Calvinism did not interfere with his cheerfulness, for in later days Ussher was in the habit of retailing many of his stories and wise sayings. - See Brook's Lives of the Puritans, ii. pp.125-6; Wood's Ath. Oxon. (Bliss's Edition), i. pp. 722-3; Fuller's Church History, bk. ix. p. 77; and Ormerod's Cheshire. In 1566, Sir H. Sidney had recommended Goodman, who was then his chaplain in Ireland, for the archbishopric of Dublin, and he was afterwards recommended by Loftus for that of Armagh. - See Shirley's Letters, pp. 284-5, and Wood's Ath. Oxon., as above, p. 721.

Page 094

In the course of a visit in 1609, he preached before the London Court for the first time. On these occasions it was Ussher's practice to spend one month in Oxford, a second in Cambridge, and a third in London. [3] These visits brought him into communication with the most learned men of the day - Camden, Cotton, Selden, Ward, &c.

[3] Parr's Life, p. II. These frequent comings and goings of Ussher were remarkable considering the difficulties and delays of the passage across the Channel in those days, and speak much for his courage and perseverance. Thus we read in Lord Cork's Diary, an entry which shows how some members of his family along "with the onlie child of the good Lord Prymate embarqued at the Kingsend, neer Dublin, for England. They returned to Dublin that night, the wynde being east." We find Laud writing to Shafford many years later (July 30th, 1631): "What do you mean to do for your journey into Ireland? Will you stay till August be past and put yourself upon the flaws of September in that broken sea? You may find more danger in a ship to Ireland than over the Thames in a skuller." It was considered an occasion for a man making his will. Thus we find Ussher's brother-in-law, the Dean of Cashel, writing in 1609 to him, "I wish you a prosperous journey to England. Set all things in order and make your will." - Rawlinson MS., p. 369 B. The Irish Channel has always maintained its evil reputation of “sixty miles of stormy water." Nor was this the only danger and inconvenience; there was also the unpleasantness of being captured by pirates. In this way, in one of his passages Strafford lost his baggage. - Gardiner's Hist. of Eng.; viii. pp. 38-9. Up to 1649 only one Government vessel carried the mails between Chester and Dublin. As the Irish mail subsidy question is now troubling the public, it may be interesting to know that in 1660 the grant was £500 a year - a sum approximating to £50,000 of our present currency. The delays were great. In 1605 the Government were three months without hearing from London.

Page 095

At the same time that Ussher was thus enriching the library of his University, he was also accumulating a large collection of books and rare coins on his own behalf. All these he bequeathed to his daughter before he died. In 1656 this property was notified for public sale, when, as we shall see, some of the English army then in Ireland came forward once more and purchased the books and coins for the Dublin University.

On his return from his second visit to London, in 1606, Ussher had been presented by Archbishop Loftus to the Chancellorship of St. Patrick's Cathedral, which carried with it the Vicarage of Finglas. Here he preached with great assiduity every Sunday, and entertained his friends with much hospitality. In the same year we find him Proctor of the College, and his accounts for the year 1606-7 are preserved in his own handwriting in the Library. [4] Before he vacated the benefice for the see of Meath, he endowed it with a glebe and tithes.

[4] Class D. 3. 18.

Page 096

A year later in 1607, Ussher proceeded to the Degree of Bachelor of Divinity, and was immediately afterwards appointed to the Professorship of Divinity in Trinity, College, then endowed with £8 a year, a position which he filled for the next fourteen years, lecturing chiefly on the Roman Controversy. These lectures are lost, with the exception of one volume. [5] His lectures seem to have been of benefit to the students, if we may judge from a letter to Dr. Challoner in September 1612, when he writes from London: "There goeth here current a very good opinion of the religious education of scholars in our College. God grant that we may answer that which is conceived of us." [6] Later on he is busy on a work on “The Original and First Institution of Corbes, Herenachs, and Termon lands," which was presented in MS. to James I. by Archbishop Bancroft. [7] The Corbes were held by him to be Rural Deans, or Chorepiscopi; the Herenachs a class of inferior archdeacons, and the Termon lands property set aside for the endowment of churches.

[5] Ussher's collected Works, xiv. 

[6] Ditto, xvi. p. 316.

[7] The treatise appears in vol. xi.of his Works. It was originally published by Vallancey from Ussher's MS. in T.C.D. Library.

Page 097

Ussher acknowledges the subject to be an obscure one. [8] At the same time he was engaged on the Canons of the Ancient Church.

In 1613 Ussher went to London to publish his first book, which was a historical exposition of the succession and character of the Churches of the West from the days of the Apostles, and was intended to be an answer to the oft-repeated gibe of the Romanists: Where was the religion of Protestants before Luther? [9] Ussher looked upon his work as a continuation of Jewel's "Apology" - ille nunquam satis laudatus episcopus, as he writes, and it was his design to bring the argument down to the time of the Council of Trent, but the third part was never published.

[8] The reader should consu1t King's Early History of the Primacy, pp. 54-9, where Ussher's essay is examined; and Shirley's Papers, 1631-39, pp. 27-8.

[9] The full title of the book is Gravissimae Questionis de Christianarum Ecclesiarum in Occidentis presertim partibus ad Apostolicis temporibus ad nostram usque atatem continua successione et statu Historica Explicatio. It bears beneath the following sentence from St. Ambrose: Ecclesia videtur sicut luna deficere, sed non deficit, obumbrari potest, deficere non potest. The work fixes the close of the millennium, the loosing of Satan, and the revelation of the Antichrist at the Pontificate of Gregory VII, A.D. 1073. Selden and Lightfoot took the same view.

Page 098

His purpose in this treatise, which was composed in Latin, was to prove that all along the line of Church history there were bodies of Christians who did not hold the errors and corruptions of the Roman Church. The abrupt reference to the "Roman beast;" in the opening of the dedication, gives the keynote to the entire essay. An attempted answer on the part of the Papal controversialists fell to the ground, and Ussher remained master of the field. The work was dedicated with a flattering preface to the King. In his dedication, Ussher acknowledges the good work that James I. had done in endowing churches and schools in Ireland, and also granting a subsidy to Trinity College, which the King had lately endowed with £600 a year, raising the entire annual income of the College to about £1800. In presenting a copy to the King, Archbishop Abbot spoke of the work as "the eminent firstfruits of the University of Dublin." [10] The treatise at once established Ussher's reputation as one of the most learned theologians of his day, and was favourably received by the continental Reformers, on whose behalf it did good service. Towards the close of the volume he takes up the case of the Albigenses and Waldenses, whom he shelters from the indiscriminate charges of immorality and heresy brought against them by Roman Catholic writers.

[10] See Ware's Bishops, i. p. 102, where a brief resume of the work is given. While Ussher was in London bringing out this book, we learn from one of his correspondents that he lodged in the Strand "right over against Salisbury House."

Page 099

In 1618 Ussher writes to Camden, informing him that, "the Company of Stationers in London are now erecting a factory of books and a press among us here; [11] Mr. Felix Kingston and some others are sent over for that purpose. They begin with the printing of the statutes of the realm. Afterwards they purpose to fall in hand with my collections, De Christianarum Succesione Continua et Statu," and asks him to revise the edition for him. [12] Elrington informs us that there is in his library of Trinity College an imperfect interleaved copy of the first edition of this work, with MS. notes in Ussher's own handwriting. [13] In all his studies Ussher seems to have proceeded with the utmost diligence, on the principle of "verify your quotations." He tells us he "would trust no man’s eyes but his own.” [14] The foot-notes throughout the work exhibit evidence of his enormous industry and wide reading.

[11] Booksellers, were then called "Stationers” (Stacyoneres), probably from the open stalls at which they did business, and of which our open-air cheap bookstalls are the survival. Dryden speaks of Tryphon the stationer when he means bookseller.

[12] Ussher's Works, xv. pp. 77, 135.

[13] Elrington's Life of Ussher p. 37, Class; in the Library, D. 3. 14. The treatise is to be found in vol. ii. of Ussher's collected Works. The Jesuit Christopher Holywood ("Sacro Bosco") attempted a reply.

[14] Works, xv. p. 78.

Page 100

Ussher had already qualified for the higher degree of Doctor of Divinity, which he took at the commencement of 1612, as already mentioned, selecting as the subject of his two Latin theses "The Seventy Weeks of Daniel," and "The Reign of the Saints with Christ for a thousand years," subjects which afford a clear indication of the current of theological thought in that day. [15] His friend and cousin, allied with him through intermarriage with the Ball family of Dublin, Dr. Luke Challoner, died at this time, leaving one daughter, Phoebe Challoner, to inherit his large fortune, much of which consisted of house property in the city. He had charged her to marry James Ussher, should an alliance open in that direction. The learned doctor proposed for her at the beginning of the year 1614, and they were married, with the result of forty years happy wedded life.

[15] Smith is in error when he says, in his Life of Ussher (p. 34), that Hampton was Vice-Chancellor of the University, and as such conferred this degree on Ussher. Hampton simply acted on the occasion as Moderator of the Divinity Disputation (as Ussher himself did subsequently).

Page 101

On the backs of some of Ussher's letters, preserved in the Rawlinson MSS. in the Bodleian Library, and written in his minute, neat hand, maybe seen interesting items of Ussher's private expenses at this time, containing entries as to expenditure on food and drink, and servants, &c. "Phoebe's apparell" is set down, at £40; "Given to Phoebe 17s. for a hat"; 20s. for a petticoate; 10s. for shoes shee had." [16]

The fruit of the union was one daughter, born and baptized in London in 1620, who married Sir Timothy Tyrrell, of Shotover House, Stratford-on-Avon, and in his time the Royalist Governor of Cardiff Castle. If we are to judge from his letters, Ussher had entertained for some time tender feelings towards Phoebe Challoner, to whom, writing to her father from London in 1612, he desires his “most hearty commendations." A short time after their marriage, his future chaplain, Dr. Bernard, sends loving remembrances to Mrs. Ussher, "your little Phoebe and second self.”

We find from the College accounts that incense was used at Dr. Challoner's funeral. [17] The remains of his statue in alabaster, which was destroyed by the weather, may still be seen behind the College chapel.

[16] See Ball Wright's Memoirs, pp, 89-90.

[17] Stubbs History of the University of Dublin, p. 24.

Page 102

A Latin inscription was once to be read on the wall beside it, of which this rough rendering has been given: "Under this staircase lies Challoner's sad carcase, by whose prayers and entreaties, this house now so great is." [1]8 In 1614, we find Ussher elected Vice-Chancellor of the University by the Provost and Fellows. He also held the office of Vice-Provost during the temporary absence of its head.

[18] Stubb's Hist., p.32I. For another, and more refined rendering, see Fuller's Church History, vol. iii. p. I36. The monument was erected by his daughter Phoebe. Dr. Luke Challoner is commemorated as "the first mover and the earnest solicitour for the buildinge and founding of Trinitie Colledge, by Dublin." - Funl. Entries, Ulster Office, cited in Ball Wright's Memoirs, p. 108. Dr. Challoner left several MSS. which are preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, including a catalogue of his books, an account of his lands at Finglas held from the Archbishop of Dublin, and a Common-Place Book (Class D, I. 9).