draw them up which Articles being signed by Arch-Bishop Jones then Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Speaker of the House of the Bishops in Convocation as also by the Prolocutor of the House of the Clergy in their names And signed by the then Lord Deputy Chichester by order from King James in his name As I shall not take upon me to defend these Articles in all points therein laid down or that they were better than those of the Church of England So on the other side I cannot be of the opinion of that Author who would needs have the passing of these Articles to be An absolute Plot of the Sabbatarians and Calvinians in England to make themselves so strong a Party in Ireland as to obtain what they pleased in this Convocation unless he will suppose that the Bishops and Clergy of that Church could be so inveagled by I know not what Inchantments as to pass those things for Articles of their Belief which they had never so much as studied nor understood the true meaning of And that the then Lord Deputy and King James were likewise drawn in to be of the Plot to Sign and Confirm those Articles which they knew to be Heterodox to the Doctrine and Articles of the Church of England Anno 1619 But though Dr. Usher was thus remarkable for Piety and Learning yet he could not escape the common Fate of extraordinary men viz. Envy and Detraction for there were some in Ireland though of no great repute for Learning or Worth who would needs have him to be a Puritan as then they called those whom they looked upon as disaffected to the discipline of the Church as by Law establisht And to lay a block in the way of his future Preferment they had got some to traduce him as such to the King who had no great kindness for those men as he had little reason But the Dr. hearing of it and having occasion about this time to come for England as he always had done once in three or four years The Lord Deputy and Council were so sensible of this scandal that for his Vindication they writ by him this Recommendatory Letter to His Majesties Privy-Council here May it please Your Lordships THe extraordinary merit of this Bearer Mr. Doctor Usher 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 hath 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 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 an 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 Your Lordships most humbly at Command Ad. Loftus Canc. Henry Docwra William Methwold John King Dud. Norton Oliver St. John William Tuameusis Fra. Anngiers From Dublin the last of Sept. 1619. But that you may see this odious nick-name was put upon many Pious and Orthodox Divines that did not deserve it it will not be amiss to give you this following Letter to Dr. Usher then in England from a worthy Divine then in Ireland Reverend 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 imbrace the Gospel with much comfort to themselves and heart-breaking to the Priests who perceiving they cannot now prevail with their jugling Tricks have forged a new device 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 of Puritanism among them which word though not understood but only known to be most odious to his Majesty makes many afraid of joyning 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 those 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. But to return whence we have digressed this Character of the Lord Deputy together with King James's own conversation with and tryal of Dr. Usher whom he sent for on purpose to that end did so fully satisfie the King that after he had discoursed with him in divers points both of Learning and Religion he who was well able to judge of both was so extreamly well satisfied with him that he said he perceived That the knave Puritan was a bad but the knave's Puritan an honest man And of which latter sort he accounted Dr. Usher to be since the King had so good an opinion of him that of his own accord he now Nominated him to the Bishoprick of Meath in Ireland being then void Anno 1620 with this expression That Dr. Usher was a Bishop of his own making and so his Conge d' Eslire being sent over he was elected by the Dean and Chapter there And that you may perceive how much the report of his advancement rejoyced all sorts of men this following Letter from the then Lord Deputy of Ireland may testifie To Dr. James Usher Bishop Elect of Meath My Lord I Thank God for your Preferment to the Bishoprick of Meath His Majesty therein hath done a gracious favour to his poor Church here There is none here but are exceeding glad that you are called thereunto even some Papists themselves have largely testified their gladness of it Your Grant is and other necessary things shall be Sealed this Day or to Morrow I pray
About this time whilst his late Majesty was kept Prisoner at year 1648 Carisbrook Castle in the Isle of Wight the Lord Primate was highly concerned at the disloyal actions of the two Houses towards their Lawful Prince to express which he preached at Lincolns-Inn on this Text Isa. 8. 12 13. Say ye not a Confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say a Confederacy neither fear you their fear nor be afraid Sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread Wherein he sufficiently expressed his dislike of those Covenants and Consederacies which they had now entred into contrary to that Oath they had taken already and that we should not fear man more than God when we were to do our Duty to our Prince or Country Not long after which the Presbyterians finding the Independant party too strong for them had no way left to secure themselves but by recalling their Votes of Non-Addresses and to Vote a Treaty with his Majesty in the Isle of Wight And because the differences concerning Church-Government were not the least of those that were to be setled and concluded at this Treaty and for which it was necessary for his Majesty to consult with some of his Bishops and Divines the Lord Primate was sent for by the King among divers others to attend him for that purpose when he came thither he found one of the greatest points then in debate was about the Government of the Church The Parliament Commissioners insisting peremptorily for the abolishing and taking away Arch-Bishops Bishops c. out of the Churches of England and Ireland His Majesty thought he could not with a good Conscience consent to that demand viz. totally to abolish or take away Episcopal Government but his Majesty then declared that he no otherwise aimed at the keeping up the present Hierarchy in the Church than what was most agreeable to the Episcopal Government in the Primitive and purest Times But his Majesty since the Parliament insisted so obstinately on it was at last forced to consent to the suspension of Episcopacy for three years but would by no means agree to take away Bishops absolutely But now to stop the present career of the Presbyterian Discipline the Lord Primate proposed an expedient which he called Episcopal and Presbyterial Government conjoyned and which he not long after he came thither delivered into his Majesty's hands who having perused it liked it well saying it was the only Expedient to reconcile the present differences for his Majesty in his last Message to the Parliament had before condescended to the reducing of Episcopal Government into a much narrower compass viz. Not only to the Apostolical Institution but much farther than the Lord Primate proposed or desired even to the taking away of Arch-Bishops Deans Chapters c. Together with all that additional Power and Jurisdiction which his Majesty's Predecessors had bestowed upon that Function Which Message being read in the House was by them notwithstanding voted unsatisfactory So that the Presbyterian Party was so absolutely bent to abolish the very Order of Bishops that no proposals of his Majesty's though never so moderate would content them till at last when they had wrangled so long till they saw the King's person seized by the Army and that the power was like to be taken out of their hands they then grew wiser and would have agreed to his Proposals when it was too late and so the Presbyterian Party saw themselves within a few days after forcibly excluded and turned out of doors by that very Army which they themselves had raised and hired to fight against their Prince which as it was the cause of his Majesty's destruction so it proved their own ruine But since some of the Church of England have been pleased to judge very hardly of this Proposal made by the Arch-Bishop as if it too much debased the Episcopal Order and levelled it with that of Presbyters To vindicate the Lord Primate from which imputation I desire them to consider these particulars first the time when this Expedient was proposed viz. When his Majesty had already consented to the suspension of Episcopal Government for three years absolutely as also for setling Presbytery in the room of it for that time and for quite taking away Arch-Bishops Deans and Chapters c. as hath been already said whereas the Lord Primate's Expedient proposes none of these but supposes the Arch-Bishops or Primates ought to be continued appointing them to be the moderators of the Provincial Synods of Suffragans and Pastors And though it is true he mentions Bishops as to be only Presidents of the Diocesan Synod yet he no where denies them a Negative Voice in that Assembly and though he mentions at the beginning of this Expedient that the Bishops were wont in the Primitive times to do nothing of moment without the advice of a Synod of their Clergy as he proves from divers quotations out of the Fathers and Ancient Councils yet he does not assert this practice as a thing of Divine or unalterable right but only as the custom and practice of the Church in those Times which being only prudential may be altered one way or other according as the peace and order of the Church or the exigency of Affairs may require and though in Sect. 11. of this Expedient he proposes the making of as many Suffragans in each Diocess as there are Rural Deanries in the same and who should assemble a Synod of all the Rectors or Ministers of their Precinct yet their power was only to be according to the Statute of the 26th of Henry the Eighth whereby they are expresly forbid to act in any matters but by the Authority of and in Subordination to their Diocesan Bishop nor does the Lord Primate here extend their power farther than to be moderators of this lesser Synod where matters of Discipline and Excommunication only were to be determined still reserving the power of Ordination to the Diocesan this being no where given from him in this Expedient neither was this power of Excommunication left absolutely to this lesser Synod without an Appeal to the Diocesan Synod of the Suffragans and the rest of the Pastors wherein the Bishop was to preside only I shall say thus much That it was not the Lord Primate's design or intention in the least to rob the Bishops of any of those just Rights which are essentially necessary to their Order and Constitution and without abasing Episcopacy into Presbytery or stripping the Church of its Lands and Revenues both which the Lord Primate always abhorred for he was of his Majesty's mind in his excellent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Presbytery is never so considerable or effectual as when it is joyned to and Crowned with Episcopacy And that the King himself was then convinced that this was the best Expedient for the setling of the differences of the Church at that time You may
of some Pasture Grounds which I held I have forgone but the main Matter of my Estate lying in Mony I cannot yet recover At my coming up hither I left one of my Children sick of an Ague which he hath had these three Weeks and if he should be recovered he cannot be presently fit to travel neither are the Ways and Weather indeed seasonable thereto But that which to deal plainly doth most of all trouble me is the report of the new Broils in the Colledg which I see partly in other Mens Letters for to my self as if I were but a Cypher in Algorism they vouchsafe not a word That some Fellows are displaced by the Visitors others placed by Mandate of my Lord Deputy old Grudges and Factions revived malè sarta gratia necquicquam coit rescinditur I never delighted nor am made for it ignum gladio fodere Some of my Friends represented to me the Examples of Mr. Travers and Mr. Alvey and that comes to my mind Better sit still than Rise and Fall I have now an honest Retreat with that form Non nostrum inter vos tantas componere lites It is written hither and I have seen it with mine Eyes That I am said to be a weak Man and so thought to be by wise Men. This Witness is most true In all these regards I humbly beseech your Grace by your undeserved love to me which God knows how much I value and that it was no small encouragement to me to enter into this Business by your love to the Colledg which I know is great by your love to our Lord Jesus Christ whereof he takes that proof your love to his Lambs Since you know now my weakness a little better than when you first nominated me to that place and the want of the Colledg of an able Head dispose of my place as you shall think most fit for that Colledg University Church and Kingdom For my part I do here absolutely resign all my Interest unto it into your Grace's hands or the hands of those whom it may concern Assuring your Grace that I shall account your freeing me from this burden the greatest favour that you can do me under the which if it had not been for the fear of offending God I think I had never put my shoulder so far as I have done But if you shall esteem in Conscience I cannot go back I beseech you be pleased freely to set down your Opinion touching my Case propounded in my last I desire of God that neither my Living nor my Life may be so dear unto me as to finish my Course with joy and the Ministry that I have received of the Lord Jesus Upon the receipt of your Graces Letters I shall resolve presently if God let not to come or stay Touching the Parliament-Affairs I know your Grace hath better advertisement than I can give you The beginnings yet go marvellously well the Lower House excellently tempered Nothing hath as yet been so much as put to question The Upper House joined with them insomuch as when they had received the Motion for a publick Fast they added a Motion to petition to his Majesty for the putting in execution all Laws and Acts of State against Recusants This Petition was penned by the Bishops of Norwich and Litchfield and presented to his Majesty by both Houses The former is appointed by Proclamation to be April 21. The latter the King hath taken into consideration with good signs of approbation The Lower House is now employed about the Liberties of the Subjects which they deduce even from the Conquest and so down They purpose it seems to proceed to the examination of the infringing of them and of their Causes and Remedies It is resolved among them that the Grievances of the Subjects shall go hand in hand with the Supply of the King's Wants which are so great as his Majesty when he received the latter Petition told them March 3. That without present Supply he could not set forth one Ship c. God of his Mercy grant that the Progress and End may be correspondent In which hearty Prayer I end recommending your Grace to the Lord's Protection and my self to your Prayers and rest Your Grace's in all Duty W. Bedell London April 1. 1628. LETTER CXXV A Letter from Dr. Bainbridge Professor of Astronomy in Oxford to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Right Reverend and my very good Lord HAving so fit opportunity I am bold to remember my Service to your Grace and withal my former suit concerning Hipparchus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being both in the Vatican and Escurial I marvel that Patavius did not procure a Transcript thereof certainly it would have helped much in his Doctrina Temporum contra Scaligerum Whereas now the neglect of that and other ancient Monuments hath left that Work imperfect and given just cause to others of a more curious search wherein I purpose to bestow my best Endeavours not doubting of your Grace's Favour Mr. Selden hath written some Notes upon certain ancient Greek Inscriptions which were brought out of Turky for my Lord of Arundel amongst which one doth promise some light in the Persian Chronology I mean of the Persian Monarchy which of all others I most desire to be illustrated being so necessary to the connexion of Sacred and Prophane History concerning which I will yet forbear to signify my Opinion daily expecting a view of Mr. Selden's Book Your Grace's most obliged Servant John Bainbridg Oxon April 7. 1628. LETTER CXXVI A Letter from Dr. Bedell to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Right Reverend Father my honourable good Lord HAving the opportunity of this Bearer's return from his Friends my Neighbours to Kelles I thought fit to send by him if it were but the Duplicate of my last to your Grace from London the first of this Month sent as Mr. Burnet told me by one Mr. Goodwyn of London-Derry who had special occasion to repair to your presence Wherein I satisfied you I hope of the rightness of my Intention in the restriction of the Statute for Batchelors Probationers to seven Terms standing and represented to your Grace the chief exercise of my Thoughts since my leaving Ireland I mean the Draught of a new Patent and new Statutes to be procured for the University which I hope you have safely received You may perhaps esteem it a pragmatical unquietness of Spirit in me that would busy my self with things beyond mine own line But since it hath pleased God to embarque me by their means in the Affairs of that Country I take my self bound to further the Voyage what I may not only for mine own safety and the rest of the Passengers but for the honour of your self that are the Pilot and the Glory of God especially unto which Port I am well assured all your Course is directed I suppose it hath been an Error all this while to neglect the Faculties of Law
Tongues and did render much of the Old Testament from the Original Hebrew into English before King James's Translation was made which I have seen and is now in Manuscript with his Nephew Sir Theophilus Jones Knight one of his Majesties Privy-Council in Ireland He also Translated out of Latin into English that Book written by his Brother James Usher De Ecclesiarum Christianarum successione statu which Translation is yet only in Manuscript And of this Ambrose being a very young man the Learned Mr. William Eyre in a Letter to Dr. James Usher writes thus Interea vero agnosco me valde obaeratum esse tibi doctissimo juveni fratri tuo Ambrosio qui peritissima manu sua quaedam in meum usum ex Alcorano Arabice excripsit which knowledge in the Arabick Tongue in those days was very rare especially in that Country But our James Usher as God had furnisht him with excellent endowments of Nature a treatable Disposition a strong Memory and a ready Invention so by God's blessing on his improvement of them by his Learning and Industry he arrived to that admirable perfection that gave him a reputation superiour to all that he could derive from his Family and rendred his name famous beyond the narrow bounds of his own Country even throughout the Christian World wherever true Piety and useful Learning were had in any esteem and veneration After he had learnt to read from his Aunts he entered on the Bible that Book of Books as he ever called it in which he made a happy beginning and a more happy progress like Timothy of whom it is recorded That from a Child he had known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make a man wise to Salvation According to which excellent Rule he always governed his life and conversation He began early to have a deep sense of Religion and to consider the great concernment of his Soul how he might serve God aright Remembring his Creator in the days of his Youth even but in the tenth year of his Age When he became fit for a Grammar-School it happened that two eminent Persons of the Scottish Nation though their business and quality were then unknown came to Dublin being sent over thither by King James then King of Scotland to keep a correspondence with the English Protestant Nobility and Gentry about Dublin in order to secure his interest in that Kingdom when Queen Elizabeth should happen to die these for a colour undertook the imployment of School-Masters to instruct and discipline Youth in Learning and good Education for the want of such was very great there at that time The one was James Fullerton afterward Knighted and of the Bed-chamber to King James the other was James Hamilton afterward also Knighted and created by the King Viscount Clandebois To their Instruction and Tuition was our James Usher committed by his Parents with whom he made so great a proficiency in a short time that he became the best Scholar of the School for Latin Poetry and Rhetorick all this being within the space of five years He would usually say when he recounted the Providences of God towards him That he took this for one remarkable instance of it That he had the opportunity and advantage of his Education from those men who came thither by Chance and yet proved so happily useful to himself and others He told me That in this first Scene of his life he was extreamly addicted to Poetry and was much delighted with it but afterward growing to more maturity and consideration he shook it off as not suitable to the great end of his more resolved serious and profitable Studies and then set himself industriously to pursue Learning of a higher Nature Yet he always loved a good Poem that was well and chastly writ And lighting once upon a passage in Tully viz. Nescire quid antea quam natus sis acciderit id est semper esse Puerum and also reading Sleidan's History of the four Empires he presently resolved on the study and search of Antiquity and all sorts of Learning and how he might contribute to the advancement thereof this was a brave and a manly attempt for a Lad but of 12 or 13 years of age yet as he attempted so he conquered all the difficulties which he met with in the search after and bringing to light those many things which ignorance had corrupted and time well-nigh buried in oblivion especially in a Country where there was then so great a scarcity of good Books and learned Men. I mention these things so much above his years for a remembrance of God's special Providence over this Person in endowing him with such admirable gifts of Nature to dispose him so vigorously to Learning and to fit and qualifie him for such highly serviceable Undertakings so that he seem'd designed by God by his Doctrine and Example to teach men how to live and by his deep Learning and strong Reason to confute the clamorous Cavils of the greatest adversaries of our Religion year 1593 In the year 1593 was Trinity Colledge in Dublin finished and James Usher then in the thirteenth year of his age adjudged by his School-Masters sufficiently qualified for an admittance into that University and so was entered accordingly Dr. Loftus sometime Fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge afterwards Arch-Bishop of Dublin being the first Provost of that College and Mr. Hamilton one of this our Usher's School-Masters and Senior Fellow was Tutor to this early ripe Youth whose name as the first Scholar there stands to this day in the first line of the Roll not without a future presage that he might prove an honour and ornament to that Colledge and Nation as he afterwards did And being thus fixed he sets himself in good earnest to the study of the Languages and Liberal Arts not neglecting Ecclesiastical History and Antiquity in all which he improved to admiration for between fifteen and sixteen years of age he had made such a proficiency in Chronology that he had drawn up in Latin an exact Chronicle of the Bible as far as the book of Kings not much differing from the method of his late Annals excepting the enlargements in some more accurate Observations and Synchronisms of Heathen Stories Sometime after this before he was Batchelor of Arts he had read Stapleton's Fortress of the Faith and finding his confidence in asserting Antiquity for the Tenents of Popery and taxing of our Church with Novelty in what it dissented from theirs he was in a great dispute with himself where the truth lay not then knowing but that those quotations he made use of might be true but this he took for an undeniable truth That the ancientest must needs be the right as the nearer the Fountain the purer the Streams and that Errours sprang up as the Ages succeeded according to that known Speech of Tertullian Verum quodcunque primum adulterum quodcunque posterius He suspected that Stapleton might misquote the Fathers or
of Dublin And when the Sum was raised it was resolved by the Benefactors That Dr. Challoner and Mr. James Usher should have the said 1800 l. paid into their hands to procure such Books as they should judge most necessary for the Library and most useful for advancement of Learning which they accordingly undertook and coming into England for that purpose where as also from beyond Sea they procured the best Books in all kinds which were then to be had So that they most faithfully discharged that great trust to the Donors and the whole Colledges great satisfaction And it is somewhat remarkable that at this time when the said Persons were at London about laying out this money in Books they then met Sir Thomas Bodley there buying Books for his new erected Library at Oxford so that there began a correspondence between them upon this occasion helping each other to procure the choicest and best Books on several subjects that could be gotten so that the famous Bodleyan Library at Oxford and that of Dublin began together About this time the Chancellorship of St. Patrick Dublin was conferred on him by Dr. Loftus then Arch-Bishop of Dublin which was the first Ecclesiastical Preferment that he had and which he retained without taking any other Benefice until he was thence promoted to the Bishoprick of Meath Here he lived single for some years and kept Hospitality proportionable to his Incomes nor cared he for any overplus at the years end for indeed he was never a hoarder of money but for Books and Learning he had a kind of laudable covetousness and never thought a good Book either Manuscript or Printed too dear And in this place Mr. Cambden found him Anno 1607. when he was putting out the last Edition of his Britannia where speaking of Dublin he concludes thus Most of which I acknowledge to owe to the diligence and labour of James Usher Chancellor of the Church of St. Patricks who in various learning and judgment far exceeds his years And though he had here no particular obligation to preach unless sometimes in his course before the State yet he would not omit it in the place from whence he received the profits viz. Finglass not far from Dublin which he endowed with a Vicaridge and preached there every Lord's Day unless hindered by very extraordinary occasions year 1607 In the year 1607. being the seven and twentieth of his age he took the degree of Batchelor of Divinity and soon after he was chosen Divinity Professor in the University of Dublin wherein he continued thirteen years reading weekly throughout the whole year his Lectures were Polemical upon the chief Controversies in Religion especially those Points and Doctrines maintained by the Romish Church confuting their Errors and answering their Arguments by Scripture Antiquity and sound Reason which was the method he still used in that Exercise as also in his Preaching and Writings when he had to do with Controversies of that Nature then most proper to be treated on not only because incumbent upon him by virtue of his place as Professor but also in respect of Popery then prevailing in that Kingdom But as for those many learned and elaborate Lectures he then read written with his own hand and worthy to be Printed we cannot tell what is become of them those and many other of his Pieces full of excellent Learning being dispersed or lost by the many sudden removals of his Papers or detained by such to whom they were lent and as 't is pity any of the Works of this great man should be lost so I wish that those Persons who have any of them in their hands would restore them to compleat these Remains since they cannot be so useful in private Studies as they would be if published to the World year 1609 About this time there was a great dispute about the Herenagh Terman or Corban Lands which anciently the Chorepiscopi received which as well concerned the Bishops of England as Ireland He wrote a learned Treatise of it so approved that it was sent to Arch-Bishop Bancroft and by him presented to King James the substance of which was afterwards Translated by Sir Henry Spelman into Latin and published in the first part of his Glossary as himself acknowledgeth giving him there this Character Literarum insignis Pharus Which Treatise is still in Manuscript in the Arch-Bishop's Library at Lambeth This year also he came over into England to buy Books and to converse with learned men and was now first taken notice of at Court preaching before the Houshold which was a great honour in those days And now whilst here he made it his business to inquire into the most hidden and private paths of Antiquity for which purpose he inquired after and consulted the best Manuscripts of both Universities and in all Libraries both publick and private and came acquainted with the most learned men here such as Mr. Cambden Sir Robert Cotton Sir John Bourchier after Earl of Bath Mr. Selden Mr. Brigs Astronomy Professor in the University of Oxford Mr. Lydiat Dr. Davenant after Lord Bishop of Salisbury Dr. Ward off Cambridge and divers others with most of whom he kept a constant Friendship and Correspondence to their Deaths After this he constantly came over into England once in three years spending one Month of the Summer at Oxford another at Cambridge the rest of the time at London spending his time chiefly in the Cottonian Library the Noble and Learned Master of which affording him a free access not only to that but his own Conversation year 1610 This being the thirtieth years of his age he was unanimously chosen by the Fellows of Dublin Colledge to the Provostship of that House but he refused it fearing it might prove a hinderance to his studies no other reason caN be given for his refusal For at that time he was deeply engaged in the Fathers Councils and Church History comparing Things with Things Times with Times gathering and laying up in store Materials for the repairing of the decayed Temple of Knowledge and endeavouring to separate the purer Mettal from the Dross with which Time Ignorance and the Arts of ill designing men had in latter Ages corrupted and sophisticated it For some years before he began to make large Notes and Observations upon the Writings of the Fathers and other Theological Authors beginning with those of the first Century and so going on with the rest as they occurred in order of time passing his judgment on their Works and divers Passages in them which were genuine which spurious or forged or else ascribed to wrong Authors So that in the space of about eighteen or nineteen years in which he made it his chief study he had read over all the Greek and Latin Fathers as also most of the considerable School-men and Divines from the first to the thirteenth Century So he was now well able to judge whether the passages quoted by our adversaries were truly cited or not or
is the Bishop of Rome And the Title whereby he claimeth this power over us is the same whereby he claimeth it over the whole World because he is S. Peter's Successor forsooth And indeed if St. Peter himself had been now alive I should freely confess that he ought to have spiritual Authority and Superiority within this Kingdom But so would I say also if St. Andrew St. Bartholoâ—ew St. Thomas or any of the other Apostles had been alive For I know that their Commission was very large to go into all the World and to preach the Gospel unto every Creature So that in what part of the World soever they lived they could not be said to be out of their Charge their Apostleship being a kind of an Universal Bishoprick If therefore the Bishop of Rome can prove himself to be one of this rank the Oath must be amended and we must acknowledge that he hath Ecclesiastical Authority within this Realm True it is that our Lawyers in their Year-Books by the name of the Apostle do usually design the Pope But if they had examined his Title to that Apostleship as they would try an ordinary man's Title to a piece of Land they might easily have found a number of flaws and main defects therein For first It would be enquired whether the Apostleship was not ordained by our Saviour Christ as a special Commission which being personal only was to determine with the death of the first Apostles For howsoever at their first entry into the execution of this Commission we find that Matthias was admitted to the Apostleship in the room of Judas yet afterwards when James the Brother of John was slain by Herod we do not read that any other was substituted in his place Nay we know that the Apostles generally left no Successors in this kind Neither did any of the Bishops he of Rome only excepted that sate in those famous Churches wherein the Apostles exercised their ministry challenge an Apostleship or an Universal Bishoprick by virtue of that Succession It would secondly therefore be inquired what sound Evidence they can produce to shew that one of the company was to hold the Apostleship as it were in Fee for him and his Successors for ever and that the other eleven should hold the same for term of life only Thirdly if this state of perpetuity was to be cast upon one how came it to fall upon St. Peter rather than upon St. John who outlived all the rest of his follows and so as a surviving feoffee had the fairest right to retain the same in himself and his Successors for ever Fourthly if that state were wholly setled upon St. Peter seeing the Romanists themselves acknowledge that he was Bishop of Antioch before he was Bishop of Rome we require them to shew why so great an inheritance as this should descend unto the younger Brother as it were by Burrough-English rather than to the elder according to the ordinary manner of descents Especially seeing Rome hath little else to alledge for this preferment but only that St. Peter was crucified in it which was a very slender reason to move the Apostle so to respect it Seeing therefore the grounds of this great claim of the Bishop of Rome appear to be so vain and frivolous I may safely conclude That he ought to have no Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Authority within this Realm which is the principal point contained in the second part of the Oath JAMES REX RIght Reverend Father in God and Right Trusty and Welbeloved Councellor We greet you well You have not deceived our expectation nor the gracious opinion We ever conceived both of your abilities in Learning and of your faithfulness to Us and our Service Whereof as we have received sundry Testimonies both from Our precedent Deputies as likewise from Our Right Trusty and Welbeloved Cousin and Councellor the Viscount Falkland Our present Deputy of that Realm so have We now of late in one particular had a further evidence of your Duty and Affection well expressed by your late carriage in Our Castle-Chamber there at the censure of those disobedient Magistrates who refused to take the Oath of Supremacy Wherein your zeal to the maintenance of Our Just and Lawful Power defended with so much Learning and Reason deserves Our Princely and Gracious thanks which We do by this Our Letter unto you and so bid you farewell Given under Our Signet at Our Court at White-Hall the eleventh of January 1622. In the twentieth year of Our Reign of Great Britain France and Ireland To the Right Reverend Father in God and Our Right Trusty and Welbeloved Councellor the Bishop of Meath This discourse had so good an effect that divers of the Offenders being satisfied they might lawfully take those Oaths did thereby avoid the Sentence of Praemunire then ready to be pronounced against them After the Bishop had been in Ireland about two years it pleased King James to imploy him to write the Antiquities of the British Church and that he might have the better opportunity and means for that end he sent over a Letter to the Lord Deputy and Council of Ireland commanding them to grant a Licence for his being absent from his See part of which Letter it may not be amiss to give you here Verbatim JAMES REX RIght Trusty and Welbeloved Cousins c. We Greet you well Whereas We have heretofore in Our Princely judgment made choice of the Right Reverend Father in God Dr. James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath to imploy him in Collecting the Antiquities of the British Church before and since the Christian Faith was received by the English Nation And whereas We are also given to understand That the said Bishop hath already taken pains in divers things in that kind which being published might tend to the furtherance of Religion and good Learning Our pleasure therefore is That so soon as the said Bishop hath setled the necessary Affairs of his Bishoprick there he should repair into England and to one of the Universities here to enable himself by the helps to be had there to proceed the better to the finishing of the said Work Requiring you hereby to cause our Licence to be passed unto him the said Lord Bishop of Meath under Our Great Seal orotherwise as he shall desire it and unto you shall be thought fit for his repairing unto this Kingdom for Our Service and for his continuance here so long time as he shall have occasion to stay about the perfecting of those Works undertaken by him by Our Commandment and for the good of the Church c. Upon which Summons the Bishop came over into England and spent about a year here in consulting the best Manuscripts in both Universities and private Libraries in order to the perfecting that noble Work De Primordiis Ecclesiarum Britannicarum though it was not published till above two years after when we shall take occasion to speak thereof more at large
After his coming over again he was for some time engaged in answering the bold challenge of Malone an Irish Jesuite of the Anno 1624 Colledge of Lovain which Treatise he finished and published this year in Ireland which he so solidly and learnedly performed that those that shall peruse it may be abundantly satisfied that those very Judges the Challenger appealed to viz. the Fathers of the Primitive Church did never hold or believe Transubstantiation Auricular Confession Purgatory or a Limbus Patrum Prayer for the Dead or to Saints the Use of Images in Divine Worship Absolute Free-Will with Merits annexed with those other points by him maintained And though about three years after the publishing of this Treatise when the Colledge of Lovain had been long studying how to answer it the said Malone did at last publish a long and tedious reply stuffed with Scurrillous and Virulent Expressions against the Lord Primate his Relations and Calling and full of quotations either falsly cited out of the Fathers or else out of divers supposititious Authors as also forged Miracles and lying Legends made use of meerly to blind the Eyes of ordinary Readers who are not able to distinguish Gold from Dross all which together gave the Bishop so great a disgust that he disdained to answer a fool according to his folly and made no reply unto him though some of his worthy friends would not let it pass so But the learned Dr. Hoyl and Dr. Sing and Mr. Puttock did take him to task and so fully and clearly lay open the falshood and disingenuity of those his Arguments and Quotations from the Ancient Records and Fathers of the Church which had been cited by this Author that he had very little reason to brag of his Victory After the Bishop had published this Treatise he returned again into England to give his last hand to his said Work De Primordiis and being now busied about it the Arch-Bishoprick of Armagh became vacant by the death of Dr. Hampton the late Arch-Bishop not long after which the King was pleased to nominate the Bishop of Meath though there were divers competitors as the fittest Person for that great charge and high dignity in the Church in respect of his own great Merits and Services done unto it and not long after he was Elected Arch-Bishop by the Dean and Chapter there After which the next Testimony that he received of His Majesties favour was his Letter to a Person of Quality in Ireland who had newly obtained the Custodium of the Temporalties 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 Arch-Bishop since he was here imployed in His Majesties special Service c. Not long after which favour it pleased God to take King James of Pious Memory out of this World Nor was his Son and Successor our late Gracious Sovereign less kind unto him than his Father had been which he signified not long after his coming to the Crown by a Letter under his Privy Signet to the Lord Deputy and Treasurer of the Realm of Ireland That Whereas the present Arch-Bishop 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 But before the return of the said Arch-Bishop into Ireland I shall here mention an accident that happened about this time to let you see that he neglected no opportunity of bringing men from the darkness of Popery into the clearer light of the Reformed Religion I shall give you his own relation of it from a Note which though imperfect I find of his own hand writing Viz. That in November 1625. he was invited by the Lord Mordant and his Lady to my Lord's House at Drayton in Northampton-shire to confer 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 So far my Lord's Note What was the issue of this Dispute we must take from the report of my Lord and Lady and other Persons of Quality there present that this Conference held for some days and at last ended with that satisfaction to them both and confusion of his Adversary that as it confirmed the Lady in her Religion whom her Lord by the means of this Priest endeavoured to pervert so it made his Lordship so firm a Convert to the Protestant Religion that he lived and died in it When the Lord Primate had dispatcht his Affairs in England he year 1626 then returned to be Enthroned in Ireland having before his going over received many Congratulatory Letters from the Lord Viscount Falkland then Lord Deputy the Lord Loftus then Lord Chancellor the Lord Arch-Bishop of Dublin and divers others of the most considerable of the Bishops and Nobility of that Kingdom expressing their high satisfaction for his promotion to the Primacy many of which I have now by me no way needful to be inserted here Being now returned into his native Country and setled in this Anno 1626 great charge having not only many Churches but Diocesses under his care he began carefully to inspect his own Diocess first and the manners and abilities of those of the Clergy by frequent personal Visitations admonishing those he found faulty and giving excellent advice and directions to the rest charging them to use the Liturgy of the Church in all Publick Administrations and to Preach and Catechise diligently in their respective Cures and to make the Holy Scripture the rule as well as the subject of their Doctrine and Sermons Nor did he only endeavour to reform the Clergy among whom in so large a Diocess and where there was so small Encouragements there could not but be many things amiss but also the Proctors Apparitors and other Officers of his Ecclesiastical Courts against whom there were many great complaints of abuses and exactions in his Predecessor's time nor did he find that Popery and Prophaneness had increased in that Kingdom by any thing more than the neglect of due Catechising and Preaching for want of which instruction the poor People that were outwardly Protestants were very ignorant of the Principles of Religion and the Papists continued still in a blind obedience to their Leaders therefore he set himself with all his power to redress these neglects as well by his own example as by his Ecclesiastical
Discipline all which proving at last too weak for so inveterate a Disease he obtained his Majesty's Injunctions to strengthen his Authority as shall be hereafter mentioned The Winter after his coming over there were some Propositions made and offered to be assented unto by the Papists for a more full Toleration of their Religion viz. The maintaining 500 Horse and 5000 Foot wherein the Protestants must have born some share also for the consideration of which a great Assembly of the whole Nation both Papists and Protestants was called by the then Lord Deputy Falkland The meeting was in the Hall of the Castle of Dublin The Bishops by the Lord Primate's invitation met first at his House and both he and they then unanimously drew up and subscribed a Protestation against the Toleration of Popery which was as follows The Judgment of divers of the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of Ireland concerning Toleration of Religion THe Religion of the Papists is Superstitious and Idolatrous Their Faith and Doctrine Erroneous and Heretical Their Church in respect of both Apostatical To give them therefore a Toleration or to consent that they may freely exercise their Religion and profess their Faith and Doctrine is a grievous sin and that in two respects For 1. It is to make our selves accessary not only to their Superstitions Idolatries and Heresies and in a word to all the abominations of Popery but also which is a consequent of the former to the perdition of the seduced People which perish in the Deluge of the Catholick Apostacy 2. To grant them Toleration in respect of any money to be given or contribution to be made by them is to set Religion to sale and with it the Souls of the People whom Christ our Saviour hath Redeemed with his most precious blood And as it is a great Sin so also a matter of most dangerous consequence The consideration whereof we commend to the Wise and Judicious Bejeeching the God of Truth to make them who are in Authority Zealous of God's Glory and of the advancement of true Religion Zealous Resolute and Courageous against all Popery Superstition and Idolatry Amen James Armachanus Richard Cork Cloyne Rossens Mal. Casellen Andr. Alachadens Anth. Medensis Tho. Kilmore Ardagh Tho. Fernes Leghlin Theo. Dromore Ro. Dunensis c. Michael Waterford Lysmore George Derens. Fran. Lymerick This Protestation of the Bishops Dr. Downham Lord Bishop of Derry at the next meeting of the Assembly April 23 d. 1627. published at Christ-Church before the Lord Deputy and Council in the midst of his Sermon wherein he spake much against mens subordinating Religion and the keeping of a good Conscience to outward and worldly respects and to set their Souls to sale for the gain of earthly matters c. The Lord Primate the next Lord's Day preached before the same Auditory the Text was 1 John 5. 15. Love not the World nor the things that are in the World when he made the like Application with the Bishop rebuking such who for worldly ends like Judas would sell Christ for thirty pieces of Silver The Judgment of the Bishops prevailed so much with the Protestants that the Proposals were drove on very heavily but yet upon serious consideration when it was found that the weak and distracted condition of the Kingdom could not well subsist without some standing Forces it was resolved by the Lord Deputy and Council that the Lord Primate then a Privy-Councellor should in regard of his great esteem with all Parties declare in a Speech to the whole Assembly the true state of the Kingdom and the necessity of a standing Army for the defence thereof against any foreign Invasion or intestine commotions and consequently that a competent supply was needful to be granted for that purpose and that without any Conditions whatsoever as well by the Roman Catholick as Protestant Subjects for which end the Lord Deputy having Summoned the Assembly to the Castle-Chamber at Dublin the Lord Primate addressing himself to the Lord Deputy made this ensuing Speech My Lord THe resolution of those Gentlemen in denying to contribute date April 30th 1627 unto the supplying of the Army sent hither for their defence doth put me in mind of the Philosopher's observation That such as have a respect to a few things are easily misled The present pressure which they sustain by the imposition of the Souldiers and the desire they have to be eased of that burthen doth so wholly possess their minds that they have only an eye to the freeing of themselves from that incumbrance without looking at all to the desolations that are like to come upon them by a long and heavy War which the having of an Army in readiness might be a means to have prevented the lamentable effects of our last Wars in this Kingdom do yet freshly stick in our memories neither can we so soon forget the depopulation of our Land when besides the combustions of War the extremity of Famine grew so great that the very Women in some places by the way side have surprised the men that rode by to feed themselves with the flesh of the Horse or the Rider And that now again here is a Storm towards wheresoever it will light every wise man may easily foresee which if we be not careful to meet with in time our State may prove irrecoverable when it will be too late to think of Had I wist The dangers that now threaten us are partly from abroad and partly from home abroad we are now at odds with two of the most potent Princes in Christendom and to both which in former times the discontented persons in this Country have had recourse heretofore proferring the Kingdom it self unto them if they would undertake the Conquest of it for it is not unknown unto them that look into the search of those things that in the days of King Henry the Eighth the Earl of Desmond made such an offer of this Kingdom to the French King the Instrument whereof yet remains upon Record in the Court of Paris and the Bishop of Rome afterwards transferred the Title of all our Kingdoms unto Charles the Fifth which by new Grants was confirmed unto his Son Philip in the time of Queen Elizabeth with a resolution to setle this Crown upon the Spanish Infanta Which donations of the Pope's howsoever in themselves they are of no value yet will they serve for a fair colour to a Potent Pretender who is able to supply by the power of the Sword whatsoever therein may be thought defective Hereunto may we add that of late in Spain at the very same time when the treaty of the Match was in hand there was a Book published with great approbation there by one of this Country birth Philip O Sullevan wherein the Spaniard is taught That the ready way to establish his Monarchy for that is the only thing he mainly aimeth at and is plainly there confessed is first to set upon Ireland which being quickly obtained
the Conquest of Scotland next of England then of the Low Countries is foretold with great facility will follow after Neither have we more cause in this regard to be afraid of a foreign Invasion than to be jealous of a Domestick Rebellion Where left I be mistaken as your Lordships have been lately I must of necessity put a difference betwixt the Inhabitants of this Nation some of them are descended of the race of the Ancient English or otherwise hold their Estates from the Crown and have Possessions of their own to stick unto who easily may be trusted against a foreign invader although they differ from the State in matter of Religion For proof of which fidelity in this kind I need go no further than the late Wars in the time of the Earl of Tyrone wherein they were assaulted with as powerful temptations to move them from their Loyalty as possibly hereafter can be presented unto them For at that time not only the King of Spain did confederate himself with the Rebels and Landed his Forces here for their assistance but the Bishop of Rome also with his Breves and Bulls solicited our Nobility and Gentry to revolt from their Obedience to the Queen declaring that the English did fight against the Catholick Religion and ought to be repugned as much as the Turks imparting the same favours to such as should set upon them that he doth unto such as fight against the Turks and finally promising unto them that the God of Peace would tread down their Enemies under their Feet speedily And yet for all the Pope's promises and threatnings which were also seconded by a Declaration of the Divines of Salamanca and Valledolid not only the Lords and Gentelmen did constantly continue their Allegiance unto the Queen but also were encouraged so to do by the Priests of the Pale that were of the Popish profession who were therefore vehemently taxed by the Traytor O Sullenan for exhorting them to follow the Queen's side which he is pleased to term Insanam venenosam Doctrinam tartareum Dogma a mad and venomous Doctrine and a hellish Opinion But besides these there are a great number of Irish who either bear a secret grudge against the English planted amongst them or having nothing at all to lose upon the first occasion are apt to joyn with any foreign Invader for we have not used that policy in our Plantations that wise States have used in former times They when they setled new Colonies in any place did commonly translate the Ancient Inhabitants to other dwellings We have brought new Planters into the Land and have left the old Inhabitants to shift for themselves who being strong in Body and daily increasing in number and seeing themselves deprived of their means and maintenance which they and their Ancestors have formerly injoyed will undoubtedly be ready when occasion is offer'd to disturb our quiet whether then we cast our eyes abroad or look at home we see our danger is very great Neither may you My Lords and Gentlemen that differ from us in point of Religion imagine that the Community of profession will exempt you more than us from the danger of a common Enemy Whatsoever you may expect from a foreigner you may conjecture by the answer which the Duke of Medina Sidonia gave in this case in 88 That his Sword knew no difference between a Catholick and a Heretick but that he came to make way for his Master And what kindness you may look for from the Country-men that joyn with them you may judge as well by the carriage which they ordinarily use towards you and yours both in the Court and in the Colledges abroad as by the advice not long since presented by them unto the Council of Spain wherein they would not have so much as the Irish Priests and Jesuits that are descended of English blood to be trusted but would have you and yours to be accounted Enemies to the designs of Spain In the Declaration published about the beginning of the Insurrection of James Fitz-Morice in the South the Rebels professed it was no part of their meaning to subvert honorabile Anglorum Solium their quarrel was only against the person of Queen Elizabeth and her Government But now the case is otherwise the translating of the Throne of the English to the power of a Foreigner is the thing that mainly is intended and the re-establishing of the Irish in their Ancient possessions which by the valour of our Ancestors were gained from them This you may assure your self manet altâ mente repôstum and makes you more to be hated of them than any other of the English Nation whatsoever The danger thereof being thus common to us all it stands us upon to joyn our best helps for the avoiding of it only the manner how this may be effected is in Question It was wont to be said Iniquum petas ut aequum feras and such perhaps might be the intent of the project the other day propounded unto you but now I observe the distate you have conceived against that hath so far possessed you that hardly can you be drawn to listen to any equal motion The exceptions taken against the Project are partly general made by all partly special that toucheth only some particulars Of the former there are two the quantity of the sum demanded and the indefiniteness of the time which is unlimited For the proportion required for the maintenance of 5000 Foot and 500 Horse you alledge to be so great and your means so small that in undertaking that which you are no ways able to perform you shall but delude his Majesty and disappoint the Army of their expected pay And although the sum required were far less and for a time able to be born by you yet are you fearful that the payment being continued for some number of years may afterwards be continued as a constant Revenue to his Majesties Exchequer with which perpetual burden you are unwilling to charge your Posterity The exceptions of the second kind are taken against the Grants annexed unto the former demands the granting whereof seemed rather to hinder than further the Service as not so agreeing with the rules of Equity For first some have the full benefits of the Grants and have their charge little augmented as the Countries which pay Composition-rents which by those Grants during the time of the new payments are suspended Secondly others that have the charge of the payment imposed upon them to the full are not partakers at all of the benefit of the Grants as the British planted in the six Escheated Counties of Ulster Thirdly such as the most forward to further his Majesties Service and to contribute with the most are troubled in Conscience for yielding thereto upon the terms proposed especially for that condition whereby the execution of the Statute against Recusants is offer'd to be forborn Wherein if some of my Brethren the Bishops have been thought to
matter of Fact he himself might make a judgment having been present at all proceedings against the said Earl where if upon the hearing of the Allegations on either side he did not conceive him guilty of the Crimes wherewith he was charged he could not in justice condemn him But for the matter in Law what was Treason and what was not he was to rest in the opinion of the Judges whose Office it was to declare the Law and who were Sworn therein to carry themselves indifferently betwixt Him and his Subjects Which gave his Majesty occasion to complain of the dealing of the Judges with him not long before That having earnestly pressed them to declare in particular what point of the Lord of Strafford's Charge they judged to be Treasonable forasmuch as upon the hearing of the proofs produced he might in his Conscience perhaps find him guiltless of that Fact he could not by any means draw them to nominate any in particular but that upon the whole matter Treason might justly be charged upon him And in this second meeting it was observed That the Bishop of London spake nothing at all but the Bishop of Lincoln not only spake but put a Writing also into the King's hand wherein what was contained the rest of his Brethren knew not From all which we may observe my Lord Primate's modesty who would not set down his own particular judgment in this matter but only that it agreed with that of his Brethren but also his charity and fidelity who would not though to acquit himself betray his trust and accuse the only person of that company who was supposed to have moved the King to the doing of it Nor is the reason those men have supposed why my Lord Primate should perswade the King to do this less false and improbable viz. Revenge because the Earl of Strafford whilst Lord Lieutenant of Ireland had outwitted him and made him the Instrument before he was aware of abrogating the Articles of Ireland above mentioned the falseness of which Calumny may sufficiently appear from what hath been already said upon this subject for the Lord Primate did willingly and upon due consideration without any surprise propose the Admission of those Articles of the Church of England nor was he ever convinced neither did my Lord Strafford ever insist upon it that the admission of these Articles was an abrogation of the former and if the Lord Primate had any private grudge against the Earl upon this Score he carried it very slyly insomuch that the Earl himself nor any of his friends were ever sensible of it for whilst the Earl continued in Ireland there was never any dispute or unkindness between them but they parted good friends as will appear by some Letters which you will find in this Collection The Earl writ to him after this business and not long before his going for England full of kindness and respect So likewise after the Earl's Commitment to the Black-Rod as also when he was a Prisoner in the Tower the Lord Primate frequently visited him and the Earl was pleased to consult with him in divers matters relating to his defence at his Tryal And certainly had the Earl believed that the Lord Primate bore any malice towards him much more had advised the King to put him to death which could not have been well concealed from him though we may suppose the Earl had so much Christian charity as to forgive so great an injury yet it is not very likely that he should exercise such a piece of mortification as to chuse him whom he believed to be the promoter of his death to prepare him for it and to be the man to whom he addressed his Speech upon the Scaffold and whose assistance he desired in that his last extremity But I shall speak no farther of this matter till I can in order of time tell you what the Lord Primate himself said unto me concerning it when he lay as he thought on his Death-bed and not likely to live an hour and also what his Majesty declared when he heard the report of his death Not many Months after the Execution of this great and unfortunate Earl there came over the unhappy news of the breaking out of the horrid Irish Rebellion in which as his Majesty's with the English and Protestant interest in that Kingdom received an unexpressible blow so likewise the Lord Primate bore too great a share in that common affliction for in a very few days the Rebels had plundered his Houses in the Countrey seized on his Rents quite ruined or destroyed his Tenements killed or drove away his numerous Flocks and Herds of Cattle to a very great value and in a world had not left him any thing in that Kingdom which escaped their fury but his Library and some Furniture in his House in Droghedah which were secured by the strength of that place notwithstanding a long and dangerous Siege by those Rebels which Library was some years after conveyed over to Chester and from thence to London This must needs reduce him to a very low condition happening not long after Michaelmas when he expected a return of his Rents so that he was forced for his present supply to sell or pawn all the Plate and Jewels he had this though a very great Tryal yet made not any change in his Natural Temper and Heavenly Disposition still submitting to God's Providence with Christian Patience and Magnanimity having long before learned to use the things of this World as if he used them not and in whatsoever condition he was therewith to be content Yet these afflictions were sufficient to move compassion even in the breasts of Foreigners for some Months after his losses the City and University of Leyden offered to chuse him their Honorarie Professor with a more ample stipend than had been formerly annexed to that place And Dr. Bernard in the above cited Sermon likewise tells us that Cardinal Richlieu did about the same time make him an Invitation to come into France with a promise of a very noble Pension and freedom of his Religion there and that this is not unlikely though I never heard my Lord Primate speak of it may be proved from the great honour that Cardinal had for him which he expressed by a Letter full of kindness and respect accompanied with a Gold Medal of considerable value having his own Effigies stamped upon it which is still preserved these were sent him upon his publishing his Work De Primordiis Ecclesiarum Britannicarum which Present was also returned by the Lord Primate by a Letter of thanks with a handsome present of Irish Grey-hounds and other rarities which that Countrey afforded But it pleased his late Majesty to provide for him much better in England by conferring on him the Bishoprick of Carlisle lately void by the death of Dr. Potter to be held in Commendam this though very much abated by the Scotch and English Armies Quartering upon it as also by
vainly and viciously and neglected our Conversion till we can sin no longer Thus he exhorted us all to fear God and love and obey the Lord Jesus Christ and to live a Holy Life And then said he you will find the comfort of it at your death And your Change will be happy While he was thus bleeding there came to visit him one of the then House of Commons that was related by marriage to that Family To whom he said Sir you see I am very weak and cannot expect to live many hours you are returning to the Parliament I am going to God my blood and life is almost spent I charge you to tell them from me That I know they are in the wrong and have dealt very injuriously with the King and I am not mistaken in this matter After this the Room being cleared of company and only my self left with him he spake somewhat to me about his own private concerns giving orders how he would have his Books and Papers disposed of here and elsewhere and that those Books which he had borrowed should be restored and that if any friend would undertake to finish his Annals he should have the use of his Papers and Collections he thought Dr. Langbaine the fittest man for that purpose as being very well vers'd in those Studies and so most able if willing to undertake it After some other discourse I then made bold to ask him if he had advised the King to pass the Bill against the Earl of Strafford as it had been reported To which he replyed I know there is such a thing most wrongfully laid to my charge for I neither gave nor approved of any such advice as that the King should assent to the Bill against the Earl but on the contrary told his Majesty that if he was satisfied by what he had heard at his Tryal that the Earl was not guilty of Treason his Majesty ought not in Conscience to consent to his Condemnation And this the King knows well enough and can clear me if he pleases Nor was my Lord Primate mistaken in this for when not long after it was told his Majesty at Oxford that the Arch-Bishop of Armagh was dead he spake to Colonel William Leggt and Mr. Kirk then of the Bed-Chamber as they were since to his late Majesty to this effect viz. That he was very sorry for his death together with high expressions of his Piety and Merits But one there present replyed That he believed he might be so were it not for his perswading Your Majesty to consent to the Earl of Strafford 's Execution To which the King in a great passion returned That it was false For said the King after the Bill was past the Arch-Bishop came to me saying with Tears in his Eyes Oh Sir What have You done I fear that this Act may prove a great trouble to Your Conscience and pray God that Your Majesty may never suffer by the Signing of this Bill or words to that effect This is the substance of two Certificates taken at divers times under the hands of these two Gentlemen of unquestionable credit both which since they agree in substance I thought fit to contract into one Testimony which I have inferted here having the Originals by me to produce if occasion be And now I hope after what hath been said to justifie my Lord Primate of this calumny that no honest or Charitable person can believe it but as for those who are so ill Natur'd and Censorious as to think and speak ill of all men that do not fully comply with their Notions and Opinions it is no great matter what they either believe or report Whilst the Lord Primate was in Wales there was published at London under his name by Mr. Downame a Book Intitled A Body of Divinity or the Sum and Substance of the Christian Religion which being formerly lent by the Lord Primate and transcribed by some who had borrowed it but was not intended by him to be published being only some Collections of his out of several modern Authors for his own private use when he was a young man And though he did at the importunity of some friends communicate it to them yet it was not with a design to have it printed but the Treatise at the end of this Book Intitled Immanuel or the Incarnation of the Son of God is wholly my Lord Primate's and is an excellent Discourse being the substance of divers Sermons he had formerly preacht upon that subject There came out likewise not long after under his name a Catechism Intitled The Principles of Christian Religion and was an Epitome of the former and which he had extracted for his own private Family without any intention to be made Publick but seeing contrary to his mind it had by many impressions been divulged and that in a very faulty manner he was resolved at last to review it as well for his own Vindication as the common good and so much he thought fit to tell the Reader in his Preface to the Edition which himself published in the year 1653. After the Lord Primate had fully recovered his strength at St. year 1646 Donates and been most kindly entertained and tenderly used during his great weakness by the Lady of that place he began now to consider where next to remove but the King's Affairs growing every day more desperate and Oxford like speedily to be taken there was no returning thither nor yet had he a mind to trust himself at London the Faction there being very much exasperated against him therefore he began to reassume his former thoughts of passing beyond the Seas and upon this endeavoured to get a Vessel for his Transportation having before obtained a Pass from the Earl of Warwick then Admiral for that purpose but when we had now procured him a Vessel and that we were preparing to go to it there came into the Road before Caerdiffe a Squadron of Ships under the Command of one Molton Vice-Admiral for the Parliament Whereupon my Lord Primate sent me to him being then on shoar at Caerdiffe to know if he would suffer him to go by him and I shewed him the Pass aboye mentioned to which Molton returned a rude and threatening answer absolutely refusing it and saying If he could get him into his hands he would carry him Prisoner to the Parliament and threatned likewise to send me also to his Ship By which you may see how highly inraged those of that Faction were at this good Bishop for adhereing to the King He being thus disappointed in this design attempted it no farther And not long after came to him a most kind invitation from that noble Lady the Countess Dowager of Peterborough to come and make his abode with her and she would engage that he should not be molested but have all accomodations suitable to his condition and the great affection and esteem she had for him as a return for those benefits she had formerly received from
with great Solemnity in former times it pleaseth God that this day begins the 49th year of his Majesty's life and let me call it the year of Jubilee to his Majesty The Jews had a Custom that in the 49th year of any mans life he should be at liberty whatever his sufferings were before It must be the desire and prayer of every Loyal heart that the King may have a Jubilee indeed This is that which Loyalty bids us do I will not stand too much upon this particular but this I will say Oh! that we knew our happiness to have a King that is the Son of Nobles a King that is not a Child a King that is at full Age to Govern by Wisdom and Prudence And truly as God gives us this blessing so he expects we should acknowledge it thankfully Eccles. 10. 16. Wo be to thee O Land saith the Preacher when the King is a Child To have him when his experience hath riveted in him sound judgment and ability to Govern The Lord threatned Jerusalem in Isa. 3. 4. I will give Children to be their Princes and Babes shall rule over them Those that would have their own Wills could I warrant you be content that the youngest should Reign To have a base man exalted is one of the things that the Earth cannot bear but some Body must have the Government it doth not belong to all you see here is one that alone hath a right to it After which he concluded to this effect That all true Christians are the First-born of God Heb. 12. The Congregation of the First-born they are all Heirs of Heaven in the same relation that Christ is by Nature we are by Grace and Adoption c. This Sermon together with the Arch-Bishop's steady carriage in the point of Episcopacy did so much enrage both the Presbyterian and Independant Factions that in their News Books and Pamphlets at London they reproach'd the Lord Primate for flattering the King as also for his perswading him not to abolish Bishops and that he had very much prejudiced the Treaty and that none among all the King's Chaplains had been so mischievous meaning to Them as He which reproaches whether the Lord Primate did deserve or not I leave to the candid Readers both of the said Sermon and Reconciliation above mentioned to judge I am sure his Majesty's Affairs were in as ill a condition to tempt any man to flatter him as the temper of his Soul was then to suffer it But the truth is the Lord Primate did no more than assert his Majesty's just Rights and Prerogative then trampled upon and it was no more than what he had both preached and written before in that Treatise since published Of the Power of the Prince and Obedience of the Subject After the Lord Primate had taken his last leave of his Majesty and done him and the Church all the service he was able at that time though not with that success he desired he returned to Southampton in order to his going towards London where he was kindly received by the chief of the Town and withal intreated to preach there the next day being Sunday but when he thought of complying with their desires the Governor of the Garrison hearing of it came to my Lord Primate and told him he had been informed he intended to preach on the morrow to which when my Lord answered yes 't was true he replyed that it might be at that time of ill consequence to the Place and therefore wished him to forbear for they could not permit it and so they suffered him not to preach there for they were afraid of his plain dealing and that he would have declared against that Villainy they were then about to execute For not long after my Lord's return to London his Majesty was brought up thither as a Prisonerby the Army in order to that wicked piece of Pageantry which they called his Tryal And now too soon after came that fatal Thirtieth of January never to be mentioned or thought on by all good men without grief and detestation on which was perpetrated the most Execrable Villainy under the pretence of Justice that ever was acted since the World began A King Murthered by his own Subjects before his own Palace in the face of the Sun For which the Lord Primate was so deeply sensible and afflicted that he kept that day as a private Fast so long as he lived and would always be wail the scandal and reproach it cast not only on our own Nation but Religion it self saying That thereby a great advantage was given to Popery and that from thence forward the Priests would with greater success advance their designs against the Church of England and Protestant Religion in general Nor will it be impertinent here to relate a passage that happened to the Lord Primate at the time of his Majesty's murther The Lady Peterborough's House where my Lord then lived being just over against Charing-Cross divers of the Countesse's Gentlemen and Servants got upon the Leads of the House from whence they could see plainly what was acting before White-Hall as soon as his Majesty came upon the Scaffold some of the House-hold came and told my Lord Primate of it and askt him if he would see the King once more before he was put to death My Lord was at first unwilling but was at last perswaded to go up as well out of his desire to see his Majesty once again as also curiosity since he could scarce believe what they told him unless he saw it When he came upon the Leads the King was in his Speech the Lord Primate stood still and said nothing but sighed and lifting up his Hands and Eyes full of Tears towards Heaven seemed to pray earnestly but when his Majesty had done speaking and had pulled off his Cloak and Doublet and stood stripped in his Wastcoat and that the Villains in Vizards began to put up his hair the good Bishop no longer able to endure so dismal a sight and being full of grief and horror for that most wicked Fact now ready to be Executed grew pale and began to faint so that if he had not been observed by his own Servant and some others that stood near him who thereupon supported him he had swounded away So they presently carried him down and laid him on his Bed where he used those powerful weapons which God has left his People in such Afflictions viz. Prayers and Tears Tears that so horrid a sin should be committed and Prayers that God would give his Prince patience and constancy to undergo these cruel Sufferings and that he likewise would not for the vindication of his own Honour and Providence permit so great a wickedness to pass unpublished This I received from my Lord Primate's Grandson who heard it from the mouth of his Servant who lived with him till his death After this sad Tragedy the Government if it may be so called was managed by a
that perswasion and therefore it was thought to be enough to condemn Transubstantiation and to say that Christ was present after a spiritual manner and received by Faith And to say more as it was judged superfluous so it might occasion division Upon this these words were by common consent left out and in the next Convocation the Articles were subscribed without them This shews that the Doctrine of the Church then subscribed by the whole Convocation was at that time contrary to the belief of a Real and Corporal Presence in the Sacrament only it was not thought necessary or expedient to publish it Tho from this silence which flowed not from their Opinion but the Wisdom of that Time in leaving a liberty for different Speculations as to the manner of the Presence Some have since inferred that the chief Pastors of this Church did then disapprove of the Definition made in King Edward 's time and that they were for a Real Presence And that our Protestant Bishops that were martyr'd in Queen Mary's days were against this expression of a Real Presence of Christ as a Natural Body appears by those Questions which they disputed on solemnly at Oxford before their Martyrdom The first Question Whether the Natural Body of Christ was Really in the Sacrament The second Whether no other substance did remain but the Body and Blood of Christ Both which they held in the Negative So that since this expression of a Real Presence of Christ's Body was not maintained by our first Protestant Reformers nor used by the Church of England in her Articles I do not see of what use it can be now tho perhaps only meant in a spiritual sence by most that make use of it For the real presence of a Body and yet unbodily I suppose those that speak thus understand as little as I do unless that some Men love to come as near the Papists as may be in their expressions tho without any hopes now of ever making them approach the nearer to us and in the mean time giving matter of offence and scandal to divers ignorant and weak Christians of our own Religion The fifth Point that the Doctor taxes the Lord Primat with as held by him contrary to the Church of England is That she teaches that the Priest hath power to forgive Sins as may be easily proved by three several Arguments not very easie to be answered The first is from those solemn words used in the Ordination of the Priest or Presbyter that is to say Receive the Holy Ghost Whose Sins ye forgive they are forgiven and whose Sins ye retain they are retained Which were a gross prophanation of the words of our Lord and Saviour and a meer mockery of the Priest if no such power were given unto him as is there affirmed The second Argument is taken from one of the Exhortations before the Communion where we find the people are exhorted by the Priest that if they cannot quiet their Consciences they should come unto him or some other discreet Minister of God's Word and open their grief that they may receive such ghostly advice and comfort as their Consciences may be relieved and that by the Ministry of God's Word they may receive Comfort and the benefit of Absolution to the quieting of their Consciences and avoiding of all scruple and doubtfulness The third and most material Proof is the Form prescribed for the Visitation of the Sick In which it is required that after the sick Person hath made a Confession of his Faith and professed himself to be in Charity with all Men he shall then make a special Confession if he feel his Conscience troubled with any weighty matter And then it follows that after such Confession the Minister shall absolve him in this manner viz. Our Lord Jesus Christ who hath left power to his Church to absolve all Sinners that truly repent and believe in him of his great Mercy forgive thee thine Offences And by his Authority committed to me I absolve thee from all thy Sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost Amen Of the first of these three places deduced all of them from the best Monuments and Records of the Church of England the Lord Primat takes notice in his Answer to the Jesuit's Challenge p. 109. where he treateth purposely of the Priests power to forgive Sins but gives us such a Gloss upon it as utterly subverts as well the Doctrine of this Church in that particular as her purpose in it And of the second he takes notice p. 81. where he speaks purposely of Confession but gives us such a Gloss upon that also as he did upon the other But of the third which is more positive and material than the other two he is not pleased to take any notice at all as if no such Doctrine were either taught by the Church of England or no such Power had been ever exercised by the Ministers of it For in the canvassing of this Point he declares sometimes that the Priest doth forgive Sins only declarative by the way of declaration only when on the consideration of the true Faith and sincere Repentance of the Party penitent he doth declare unto him in the Name of God that his Sins are pardoned and sometimes that the Priest forgives Sins only optativè by the way of Prayers and Intercession when on the like consideration he makes his prayers unto God that the Sins of the Penitent may be pardoned Neither of which comes up unto the Doctrine of the Church of England which holdeth that the Priest forgiveth Sins authoritativè by virtue of a Power committed to him by our Lord and Saviour That the Supream power of forgiving Sins is in God alone against whose Divine Majesty all Sins of what sort soever may be truly said to be committed was never question'd by any who pretended to the Christian Faith The Power which is given to the Priest is but a delegated power such as is exercised by Judges under Soveraign Princes where they are not tied unto the Verdict of Twelve Men as with us in England who by the Power committed to them in their several Circuits and Divisions do actually absolve the party which is brought before them if on good proof they find him innocent of the Crimes he stands accused for and so discharge him of his Irons And such a power as this I say is both given to and exercised by the Priest or Presbyters in the Church of England For if they did forgive Sins only declarativè that form of Absolution which follows the general Confession in the beginning of the Common-prayer-Book would have been sufficient where the Absolution is put in the third person Or if he did forgive Sins only optativè in the way of prayers and intercession there could not be a better way of Absolution than that which is prescribed to be used by the Priest or Bishop after the general Confession made by such as
that passage be left out of the present Article according as it passed in the Convocation of the Year 1562 yet cannot it be used as an Argument to prove that the Church hath altered her Judgment in that Point as some Men would have it that passage being left out for these Reasons following For first that passage was conceived to make the Article too inclinable to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome which makes the chief end of Christ's descent into Hell to be the fetching thence the Souls of the Fathers who died before and under the Law And secondly because it was conceived by some Learned Men that the Text was capable of some other construction than to be used for an Argument of this Descent The Judgment of the Church continues still the same as before it was and is as plain and positive for a Local Descent as ever she had not else left this Article in the same place in which she found it or given it the same distinct Title as before it had viz. De Descensu Christi ad Inferos in the Latin Copies of King Edward the 6th that is to say Of the going down of Christ into Hell as in the English Copies of Queen Elizabeth's Reign Nor indeed was there any reason why this Article should have any distinct place or title at all unless the maintenance of a Local Descent were intended by it For having spoken in the former Article of Christ's Suffering Crucifying Death and Burial it had been a very great Impertinency not to call it worse to make a distinct Article of his descending into Hell if to descend into Hell did signifie the same with this being buried as some Men then fancied or that there were not in it some further meaning which might deserve a place distinct from his Death and Burial The Article speaking thus viz. as Christ died for us and was buried so is it to be believed that he went down into Hell is either to be understood of a Local Descent or else we are tied to believe nothing by it but what was explicitly or implicitly comprehended in the former Article And lastly That Mr. Alex. Noel before mentioned who being Prolocutor of the Convocation in the Year 1562 when this Article was disputed approved and ratified cannot in reason be supposed to be ignorant of the true sence and meaning of this Church in that particular And he in his Catechism above mentioned declares that Christ descended in his Body into the bowels of the Earth and in his Soul separated from that Body he descended also into Hell by means whereof the power and efficacy of his Death was not made known only to the Dead but the Devils themselves insomuch that both the Souls of the Unbelievers did sensibly perceive that Condemnation which was most justly due to them for their Incredulity and Satan himself the Prince of Devils did as plainly see that his tyranny and all the Powers of Darkness were opprest ruined and destroyed But on the contrary the L. Primat allows not any such Local Descent as is maintained by the Church and defended by the most learned Members of it who have left us any thing in writing about this Article And yet he neither followeth the Opinion of Calvin himself nor of the generality of those of the Calvinian Party who herein differ from their Master but goes a new way of a later discovery in which although he had few Leaders he hath found many Followers By Christ's descending into Hell he would have nothing else to be understood but his continuing in the state of separation between the Body and the Soul his remaining under the power of Death during the time he lay buried in the Grave which is no more in effect tho it differ somewhat in the terms than to say that he died and was buried and rose not till the third day as the Creed instructs us In vindication of the Lord Primat's Judgment in the sence of this Article I shall lay down some previous Considerations to excuse him if perhaps he differed from the sence of the Church of England in this Article if it should appear that it ought to be understood in a strict and literal sence For first you must understand that this Article of Christ's Descent into Hell is not inserted amongst the Articles of the Church of Ireland which were the Confession of Faith of that Church when the Lord Primat writ this Answer to the Jesuit the Articles of the Church of England amongst which this of Christ's Descent into Hell is one not being received by the Church of Ireland till the Year 1634 ten years after the publishing of this Book so that he could not be accused for differing from those Articles which he was not then obliged to receive or subscribe to 2dly Had this Article been then inserted and expressed in the very same words as it is in those of the Church of England could he be accused of being Heterodox for not understanding it as the Doctor does of a Local Descent of Christ's Soul into Hell or the places of Torment since the Church of England is so modest as only to assert that it is to be believed that he went down into Hell without specifying in what sence she understand it For as the Lord Primat very learnedly proves in this Treatise the word Hell in old Saxon signifies no more than hidden or covered so that in the original propriety of the word our Hell doth exactly answer the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which denotes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the place which is unseen or removed from the sight of man So that the word Hell signifies the same with Hades in the Greek and Inferi in the Latin Concerning which St. Augustin gives us this Note The name of Hell in Latin Inferi is variously put in Scriptures and in many meanings according as the sence of the things which are intreated of do require And Mr. Casaubon who understood the property of Greek and Latin words as well as any this other They who think that Hades is properly the seat of the Damned be no less deceived than they who when they reade Inferos in Latin Writers do interpret it of the same place Whereupon the Lord Primat proceeds to shew That by Hell in divers places of Scripture is not to be understood the place of the Wicked or Damned but of the Dead in general as in Psal. 89. 48. What Man is he that liveth and shall not see Death shall he deliver his Soul from the hand of Hell And Esa. 38. 18 19. Hell cannot praise thee Death cannot celebrate thee they that go down into the Pit cannot hope for thy Truth The Living the Living he shall praise thee as I do this day Where the opposition betwixt Hell and the state of Life in this World is to be observed Therefore since the word Hell does not necessarily imply a place of Torment either in Scriptures or
there be any other places or other Mansions by which the Soul that believeth in God passing and coming unto that River which maketh glad the City of God may receive within it the lot of the Inheritance promised unto the Fathers For touching the determinate state of the faithful Souls departed this life the ancient Doctors as we have shewed were not so throughly resolved The Lord Primat having thus shewn in what sence many of the ancient Fathers did understand this word Hades which we translate Hell proceeds to shew that divers of them expound Christ's Descent into Hell or Hades according to the common Law of Nature which extends it self indifferently unto all that die For as Christ's Soul was in all points made like unto ours Sin only excepted while it was joined with his Body here in the Land of the Living so when he had humbled himself unto the Death it became him in all things to be made like unto his Brethren even in the state of dissolution And so indeed the Soul of Jesus had experience of both for it was in the place of human Souls and being out of the Flesh did live and subsist It was a reasonable Soul therefore and of the same substance with the flesh of Men proceeding from Mary Saith Eustathius the Patriarch of Antioch in his Exposition of that Text of the Psalm Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the place of humane Souls which in the Hebrew is the world of Spirits and by the disposing of Christ's Soul there after the manner of other Souls concludes it to be of the same nature with other Mens Souls So St. Hilary in his Exposition of the 138th Psalm This is the Law of humane Necessity saith he that the Bodies being buried the Souls should go to Hell Which descent the Lord did not refuse for the accomplishment of a true man And a little after he repeats it that desupernis ad inferos mortis lege descendit He descended from the supernal to the infernal parts by the Law of Death And upon Psal. 53. more fully To fulfil the Nature of Man he subjected himself to Death that is to a departure as it were of the Soul and Body and pierced into the infernal seats which was a thing that seemed to be due unto Man I shall not trouble you with more Quotations of this kind out of several of the ancient Greek and Latin Fathers which he makes use of in this Treatise most of them agreeing in this That Christ died and was buried and that his Soul went to that place or receptacle where the Souls of good Men do remain after Death which whether it is no more in effect but differing in terms than to say he died and was buried and rose not till the third day which the Doctor makes to be the absurdity of this Opinion I leave to the Judgment of the impartial Reader as I likewise do whether the Lord Primat deserves so severe a Censure after his shewing so great Learning as he has done concerning the various Interpretations of this word Hades or Hell both out of sacred and prophane Writers that it only serves to amaze the Ignorant and confound the Learned Or that he meant nothing less in all these Collections than to assert the Doctrine of the Church of England in this particular Or whether Christ's Local Descent into Hell can be found in the Book of Articles which he had subscribed to or in the Book of Common-Prayer which he was bound to conform to And if it be not so expressed in any of these I leave it to you to judge how far Dr. H. is to be believed in his Accusation against the Lord Primat in other matters But I doubt I have dwelt too long upon this less important Article which it seems was not thought so fundamental a one but as the Lord Primat very well observes Ruffinus in his Exposition of the Creed takes notice that in the Creed or Symbol of the Church of Rome there is not added He descended into Hell and presently adds yet the force or meaning of the word seems to be the same in that he is said to have been buried So that it seems old Ruffinus is one of those who is guilty of this Impertinency as the Doctor calls it of making Christ's descent into Hell to signifie the same with his lying in the Grave or being buried tho the same Author takes notice that the Church of Aquileia had this Article inserted in her Creed but the Church of Rome had not which sure with Men of the Doctor 's way should be a Rule to other Churches And further Card. Bellarmin noteth as the Lord Primat confesses that St. Augustin in his Book De Fide Symbolo and in his four Books de Symbolo ad Catechumenos maketh no mention of this Article when he doth expound the whole Creed five several times Which is very strange if the Creed received by the African Church had this Article in it Ruffinus further takes notice that it is not found in the Symbol of the Churches of the East by which he means the Nicene and Constantinopolitan Creeds the latter of which is nothing else but an Explanation or more ample Enlargement of Creed Apostolical Tho this indeed be not at this day read in the Greek or other Eastern Churches or so much as known or received in that of the Copties and Abyssines But the Doctor having shown his Malice against the Lord Primat's Memory and Opinions in those Points which I hope I have sufficiently answered cannot give off so but in the next Section accuses him for inserting the nine Articles of Lambeth into those of the Church of Ireland being inconsistent with the Doctrine of the Church of England But before I answer this Accusation I shall first premise that as I do not defend or approve that Bishops or others tho never so learned Divines should take upon them to make new Articles or define and determine doubtful Questions and Controversies in Religion without being authorized by the King and Convocation so to do Yet thus much I may charitably say of those good Bishops and other Divines of the Church of England who framed and agreed upon these Articles that what they did in this matter was sincerely and as they then believed according to the Doctrine of the Church of England as either expresly contained in or else to be drawn by consequence from that Article of the Church concerning Predestination And certainly this makes stronger against the Doctor for if with him the Judgment of Bp. Bilson Bp. Andrews and Mr. Noel in their Writings be a sufficient Authority to declare the sence of the Church of England in those Questions of Christ's true and real Presence in the Sacrament and his Local Descent into Hell why should not the Judgment and Determination of the two Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and York with divers other Bishops and
learned Divines after a serious debate and mature deliberation as well declare what was the Doctrine of the Church of England in those Questions of Predestination Justifying Faith Saving Grace and Perseverance But it seems with the Doctor no Bishops Opinions shall be Orthodox if they agree not with his own But to come to the Charge it self The main Reason why the Doctor will needs have the Lord Primat to be the cause of the inserting these Articles of Lambeth into those of Ireland agreed on in Convocation 1615 is because the Lord Primat being then no Bishop but only Professor of Divinity in the University there and a Member of Convocation was ordered by the Convocation to draw up those Articles and put them into Latin as if Dr. Usher could have then such a great influence upon it as to be able to govern the Church at his pleasure or that the Scribe of any Synod or Council should make it pass what Acts or Articles he pleases or that one private Divine should be able to manage the whole Church of Ireland as the Doctor would needs have him do in this Affair Whereas the Doctor having been an ancient Member of Convocation could not but know that all Articles after they are debated are proposed by way of Question by the President and Prolocutor of either House and are afterwards ordered to be drawn into form and put in Latin by some Persons whom they appoint for that purpose and tho perhaps they might not be themselves in all points of the same Opinion with those Articles they are so ordered to draw up and that Dr. Usher did not hold all those Articles of Ireland in the same sence as they are there laid down appears from what the Doctor himself tells us in this Pamphlet for p. 116 he saith That it was his viz. the Lord Primat's doing that a different explication of the Article of Christ's descent into Hell from that allowed of by this Church and almost all the other Heterodoxies of the Sect of Calvin were inserted and incorporated into the Articles of Ireland And p. 129 he finds fault with the 30th Article of that Church because it is said of Christ that for our sakes he endured most grievous Torments immediatly in his Soul and most painful Sufferings in his Body The enduring of which grievous Torments in his Soul as Calvin not without some touch of Blasphemy did first devise so did he lay it down for the true sence and meaning of the Article of Christ's descending into Hell In which expression as the Articles of Ireland have taken up the words of Calvin so it may be rationally conceived that they take them with the same meaning and construction also But the Doctor owns that this was not the Lord Primat's sence of this Article for p. 113 aforegoing he says thus Yet he viz. the Lord Primat neither follows the Opinion of Calvin himself nor of the generality of those of the Calvinian Party who herein differ from their Master but goes a new way of a later discovery in which altho he had few Leaders he hath found many Followers But as I shall not take upon me to enter into a dispute with the Doctor or his Followers in defence of these Irish Articles and to prove they are not contradictory to those of England it not being my business yet I cannot forbear to observe that it is highly improbable that all the Bishops and Clergy of Ireland should incorporate the nine Articles of Lambeth containing all the Calvinian Rigours as the Doctor calls them in the points of Predestination Grace Free-will c. if they had thought they were inconsistent with those of the Church of England and had not been satisfied that it was the Doctrine then held and maintained in those Points by the major part of the Bishops and Clergy of our Church as also believed by the King himself who confirmed them and certainly would never else have sent one Bishop and three of the most Learned Divines within his Dominions to the Synod of Dort to maintain against the Remonstrants or Arminians the very same Opinions contained in these Irish Articles But if all those must be counted by the Doctor for Rigorous Calvinists that maintain these Articles and consequently Heterodox to the Church of England I desire to know how he can excuse the major part of our Bishops in Queen Elizabeth and King James's Reign and a considerable part of them during the Reigns of the two last Kings of blessed Memory some of whom are still living from this Heterodoxy And if all Men must be guilty of Calvinism who hold these Opinions concerning Predestination Grace and Free-will then the most part of the Lutherans who differ very little from Calvin in these points must be Calvinists too Nor are these Points held only by Protestants but many also of the Church of Rome hold the same as witness the Jansenists and also the Order of the Dominicans who come very near to Calvin in the Doctrines of Predestination c. and are as much opposed by the Jesuits as the Arminians are by the Anti-remonstrants in Holland But perhaps the Doctor may make St. Augustin a Calvinist too since he is much of the same Opinion with the Lord Primat in most of these Points against the Pelagians Having now I hope vindicated the Lord Primat from these unjust Accusations of his differing from the Church of England in matters of Doctrine I now come to answer his Aspersions upon the Lord Primat in lesser matters and that you may see how unjustly he seeks out a Quarrel against him he makes it a crime in him because those who were aspersed with the names of Puritans made their Addresses to him by Letters or Visits and because he was carress'd and feasted by them where-ever he came as the Doctor will have it as if the Lord Primat had no other Perfections but his asserting those Calvinian Tenents Then he goes on to tax the Lord Primat with Inconformity to the Rules and Orders of the Church of England in several particulars but with how great want of Charity and with how many malicious Inferences and Reflections without any just grounds I leave to the impartial Reader who will give himself the trouble to peruse that Pamphlet many of those passages being cull'd here and there out of Dr. Bernard's Treatise entitled The late Lord Primat's Judgment c. without ever considering what went before or what followed after and without taking notice that several things enjoined in the Canons of the Church of England had no force or obligation in that of Ireland where those Canons were not yet subscribed to or received and consequently such Ceremonies as were by them enjoined being in themselves indifferent as the Church declares it had been singularity in him to have observed them there and much worse to have imposed them upon others for it is truly said of him by Dr. Bernard That he did not affect some
CXXII A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Mr. John Selden 383 CXXIII A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher to Mr. 387 CXXIV A Letter from Dr. William Bedell to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 387 CXXV A Letter from Dr. John Bainbridge to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 390 CXXVI A Letter from Dr. William Bedell to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 391 CXXVII A Letter from Dr. Samuel Ward to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 393 CXXVIII A Letter from Sir Henry Spelman to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 395 CXXIX A Letter from Mr. John King to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 396 CXXX A Letter from Sir Henry Spelman to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 398 CXXXI A Letter from Dr. George Hakewill to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 398 CXXXII A Letter from the Reverend John Prideaux Bishop of Worcester to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 399 CXXXIII A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher to the Right Honourable 400 CXXXIV A Letter from the Right Reverend William Laud Bishop of London to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 401 CXXXV A Letter from Dr. William Bedell to the Most Reverend JamesUsher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 402 CXXXVI A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 403 CXXXVII A Letter from Mr. Archibald Hamilton to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 405 CXXXVIII A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 406 CXXXIX A Letter from the Right Honourable the Lord Deputy Faulkland to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 407 CXL A Letter from Mr. John Philpot to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 407 CXLI A Letter from the Lords of the Council in Ireland to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 408 CXLII A Letter from the Right Reverend William Laud Bishop of London to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 409 CXLIII A Letter from the Right Reverend William Laud Bishop of London to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 410 CXLIV A Letter from Dr. John Bainbridge to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 411 CXLV A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend William Laud Bishop of London 412 CXLVI A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Ludovicus de Dieu 413 CXLVII A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 414 CXLVIII A Letter from the Right Reverend William Laud Bishop of London to the Most rend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 415 CXLIX A Letter from the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 416 CL. A Letter from Mr. Lawr. Robinson to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 417 CLI A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 418 CLII A Letter from the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 419 CLIII A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore 424 CLIV. A Letter from the Right Reverend William Laud Bishop of London to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 426 CLV A Letter from the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 428 CLVI A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Lords Justices in Ireland 429 Instructions to Mr. Dean Lesly for the stoping of Sir John Bathes Patent 430 CLVII A Letter from the Right Reverend George Downham Bishop of London-Derry to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 432 CLVIII A Letter from the Right Reverend Thomas Morton Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 432 CLIX. A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Dr. Samuel Ward 433 CLX A Letter from Dr. Samuel Ward to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 435 CLXI A Letter from the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore to Dr. Samuel Ward concerning Baptism 440 CLXII A Letter from Dr. Samuel Ward to the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore concerning Baptism 440 CLXIII A Letter from the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore to Dr. Samuel Ward concerning Baptism 441 CLXIV A Letter from King Charles the First to the Lords of the Council in Ireland 446 CLXV A Letter from the Earl of Cork and the Lord Chancellor of Ireland to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 447 CLXVI A Letter from the Right Reverend William Laud Bishop of London to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 448 CLXVII A Letter from the Kings Council in Ireland to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 450 CLXVIII A Letter from the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 451 CLXIX A Letter from Dr. John Forbes to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 455 CLXX A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Dr. John Forbes 456 CLXXI. A Letter from the Ministers of the Pallatinate to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 457 CLXXII A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend William Laud Bishop of London 459 CLXXIII A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend William Laud Bishop of London 460 CLXXIV A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Ludovicus de Dieu 461 CLXXV A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Ludovicus de Dieu 464 CLXXVI A Letter from Johannes Buxtorfius to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 465 CLXXVII A Letter from Constantinus L'Empereur ab Oppych to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 468 CLXXVIII A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Dr. Samuel Ward 469 CLXXIX A Letter from Dr. Samuel Ward to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 470 CLXXX A Letter from Constantinus L'Empereur ab Oppych to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 472 CLXXXI A Letter from Dr. Samuel Ward to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 473 CLXXXII A Letter from Constantinus L'Empereur ab Oppych to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 474 CLXXXIII A Letter from Mr. Francis Taylor to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 475 CLXXXIV A Letter from the
Parts wherein was certified of them ducentis abhinc annis ex regione Pedemontanâ profectos in provinciae partemillam commigrasse c. as may be seen in Crispin lib. 3 o Actionum Moniment Martyrum Thuanus hath here 300 Years but 200 of these times they were persecuted under the Name of the Beghardi I alledge the Testimony of Matthias Parisiensis who lived in Bohemia about the year 1390. Qui alienant se strenuè saith he in lib. de Sacerdotum Monachorum spiritualium abominatione Cap. 30. ab exercitio tulium à contubernio propter Domini Jesu timorem amorem mox à vulgo Christiano hujus mundi conviciantur confunduntur nota pessima singularitatum vel Hoeresum criminantur propter quod tales homines devoti qui similia vulgo profano non agunt Bechardi vel Turspinii lego Turebipini aut aliis nominibus blasphemis communiter jam nominantur quod figuratum est in illis primis in Babylone quibus alia nomina impofuerunt quà m habuerunt in terra Israel There cometh also unto my mind another place which is not common touching the Beghardi and Fratricelli out of the Book de squaloribus Romanae Curiae written by Matthew de Cracovia who was Bishop of Worms ab anno 1405 ad 1410. Thus he there complaineth Vadunt Beckardi Fratricelli Sectuarii suspectissimi de hoerefi clero infestissimi erectis capitibus absque ullo timore in urbe et seducunt liberè quotquot possunt And mark that this fell upon the time of Pope Gregory the XII who usually did send his Letters to the Princes and Bishops of Christendom per Lollardos seu Beguardos ad quos semper videbatur ejus affectio specialitèr inclinari As is affirmed by Theodoricus à Niem lib. 3. de Schism cap. 6. Whereby we see what Rest and Boldness the same Professors got by the great Schism in the Papacy agreeable to that which Wickliff writeth lib. 3. de Sermone Domini in monte You see when I begin I know not how to make an end and therefore that I prove not too tedious I will abruptly break off desiring you to remember in prayers Your most Assured Loving Friend and Brother James Usher Dublin Aug. 16. 1619. LETTER XXXIX A Letter of Dr. James Usher 's afterwards Arch-Bishop of Armagh Sir YOU hear I doubt not ere this of the lamentable news out of Bohemia how it pleased God on the 29th of October last to give victory to the Emperor's Army against the King of Bohemia His whole Army was routed 3000 flain on the ground others taken Prisoners who have yielded to save their lives to serve against him Himself and the chief Commanders fled with 2000 Horse came to Prague took away the poor Queen being with Child and some of his Councellors with such things as in that hast could be carried away and so left that Town it not being to be held and withdrew himself into Silesia where he hath another Army as also in Moravia though not without an Enemy there invading also How those of the Religion in Bohemia are like to be dealt with you may imagine and what other evil effects will follow God knoweth if he in mercy stay not the fury of the Enemy who in all likelihood intendeth to prosecute the Victory to the uttermost Spinola also prevaileth still in the Palatinate one Town or two more with two or three little Castles he hath gained and now we hear that a Cessation of Arms is on either side agreed upon for the space of five months The Spaniard hath made himself Master of the Passage betwixt Italy and Germany by getting Voltelina where he hath put down five Protestant Churches and Erected Idolatry in their places He hath so corrupted many among the Switzers as they cannot resolve on any good course how to help the mischief or how to prevent the further increasing of it The French that should protect them are Hispaniolized The Germans have their hands full at home And the Venetians that would dare not alone enter into the business And now newly while I am writing this addition we are certified here that the King of Bohemia hath quit Moravia and Silesia seeing all things there desperate and hath withdrawn himself unto Brandenburgh God grant we may lay this seriously to heart otherwise I fear the judgment that hath begun there will end heavily upon us and if all things deceive me not it is even now marching toward us with a swift pace And so much touching the Affairs of Germany which you desired me to impart unto you whether they were good or evil Concerning Mr. Southwick's departure although not only you but divers others also have advertised me yet I cannot as yet be perswaded that it is intended by him for both himself in his last Letter unto me and his Wife here no longer than yesterday hath signified unto me the plain contrary Your Son Downing wisheth the place unto Mr. Ward your neighbour Mr. Johnson unto Mr. Cook of Gawran and others unto one Mr. Neyle who hath lately preached there with good liking as I hear The last of these I know not with the first I have dealt and am able to draw him over into Ireland Your assured loving Friend James Usher 1619. LETTER XL. A Letter from Mr. Edward Browncker to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath SIR I Marvel much at the Deputy's exceptions he discovers a great deal of unworthy suspicion What answer I have made unto him you may here see I doubt not but he will rest satisfied with it unless he hath resolved to do me open wrong You may seal it up with any but your own Seal I pray you lend me your best furtherance it shall not go unacknowledged howsoever I speed As for the Manuscripts you desire to hear of neither one nor the other is to be found It is true according unto Dr. James his Catalogue there was one Gildas in Merton Colledge Library but he was Gildas Sapiens not Gildas Albanius whom Pitts says was the Author of the Book entituled De Victoria Aurelii Ambrosii neither is that Gildas Sapiens now to be seen in Merton Colledge he hath been cut out of the Book whereunto he was annexed Yet there is one in our Publick Library who writes a story De Gestis Britannorum in whom I find mention of King Lucius his Baptism His words be these Post 164 annos post adventum Christi Lucius Britannicus Rex cum Universis Regulis totius Britaniae Baptismum susceperunt missa legatione ab Imperatore Papa Romano Evaristo As for the Orations of Richard Fleming there be no such to be heard of in Lincoln Colledge Library Neither can I find or learn that the Junior Proctor's Book relates any passage of the Conversion of the Britains If you have any thing else to be search'd for I pray make no scruple of using me further So wishing you comfort in your
Consecrated and thereupon desire Justice I shall be ready to shew reason and yield account of my Opinion as well in the King's Courts as in Theological Schools For to pass the general words of his grant cum omnibus Jurisdictionibus which grant him Jus ad rem but not in re The Statute of 2 Eliz. cap. 1. expresly forbiddeth all that shall be preferred to take upon them receive use exercise any Bishoprick c. before he hath taken the corporal Oath of the King's Supremacy before such person as hath Authority to admit him to his Bishoprick As for the Statute of Conferring and Consecrating Bishops within this Realm I find not the words you have written viz. That he which hath the King's Letters Patents for a Bishoprick is put in the same state as if he were Canonically elected and confirmed But that his Majesties Collation shall be to the same effect as if the Conge delire had been given the election duly made and the same election confirmed for the Dean and Chapters election in England is not good until the King have confirmed by his Royal assent then it followeth in the Statute upon that collation the person may be consecrated c. Afterward in the same Statute it is further enacted That every person hereafter conferred invested and consecrated c. shall be obeyed c. and do and execute in every thing and things touching the same as any Bishop of this Realm without offending of the Prerogatives Royal. Now by an argument à contrario sensu it appeareth that it is not I which stand against his Majesties Prerogative but they which exercise Jurisdiction without the form prescribed in these Statutes Confider again how impertinent the opinion of Canonists is in this case where the King's collation is aequivalent to a Canonical Election and Confirmation The Confirmation which the Canonists speak of is from the Pope not from the Prince Gregoriana constitutione in Lugdunensi Consilio cautum est Electum infra tres menses post consensum suum electioni proestitum si nullum justum impedimentum obstat confirmationem à superiore Proelato petere debere alioqui trimestri spatio elapso electionem esse penitus irritandam When the See of Armagh falleth void the Dean and Chapter have Authority by the Canons to exercise Jurisdiction which the Bishop elect hath not until he be consecrated as you may read in Mason's Book and elsewhere and so it is practised in England Behold the cause which maketh the Dean capable namely the Authority Canons and Custom of the Church So is not the Bishop elect warranted and standeth still in the quality of a simple Presbyter until he be further advanced by the Church When Jo. Forth shall bring his Libel I will do the part which belongeth to me In the mean time I commend you to God and rest Your Lordships very loving Friend Armagh 13 July 1621. LETTER XLIII A Letter from Mr. Thomas Gataker to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath Right Reverend MY duty to your Lordship remembred This Messenger so fitly offering himself unto me albeit it were the Sabbath Even and I cast behind hand in my studies by absence from home yet I could not but in a line or two salute your Lordship and thereby signifie my continued and deserved remembrance of you and hearty desire of your welfare By this time I presume your Lordship in setled in your weighty charge of Over-sight wherein I beseech the Lord in mercy to bless your Labours and Endeavours to the glory of his own Name and the good of his Church never more in our times oppugned and opposed by mighty and malitious Adversaries both at home and abroad never in foreign Parts generally more distracted and distressed than at the present Out of France daily news of Murthers and Massacres Cities and Towns taken and all sorts put to the Sword Nor are those few that stand out yet likely to hold long against the power of so great a Prince having no succours from without In the Palatinate likewise all is reported to go to ruine Nor do the Hollanders sit for ought I see any surer the rather for that the Coals that have here been heretofore kindled against them about Transportation of Coin and the Fine imposed for it the Quarrels of the East-Indies the Command of the Narrow Seas the Interrupting of the Trade into Flanders c. are daily more and more blown upon and fire beginneth to break out which I pray God do not burn up both them and us too I doubt not worthy Sir but you see as well yea much better I suppose than my self and many others as being able further to pierce into the state of the times and the consequents of these things what need the forlorn flock of Christ hath of hearts and hands to help to repair her ruines and to fence that part of the Fold that as yet is not so openly broken in upon against the Incursions of such ravenous Wolves as having prevailed so freely against the other parts will not in likelihood leave it also unassaulted as also what need she hath if ever of Prayers and Tears her ancient principal Armor unto him who hath the hearts and hands of all men in his hand and whose help our only hope as things now stand is oft-times then most present when all humane helps and hopes do fail But these lamentable occurrents carry me further than I had purposed when I put Pen to Paper I shall be right glad to hear of your Lordship's health and welfare which the Lord vouchsafe to continue gladder to see the remainder of your former learned and laborious Work abroad The Lord bless and protect you And thus ready to do your Lordship any service I may in these parts I rest Your Lordships to be commanded in the Lord Thomas Gataker Rothtrith Sept. 19. 1621. LETTER XLIV A Letter from Sir William Boswel to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath My very good Lord IF your Lordship hath forgotten my name I shall account my self very unhappy therein yet justly rewarded for my long silence the cause whereof hath especially been my continual absence almost for these last eight years from my native Country where now returning and disposed to rest I would not omit the performance of this duty unto your Lordship hoping that the renewing of my ancient respects will be entertained by your Lordship as I have seen an old Friend or Servant who arriving suddenly and unexpected hath been better welcomed than if he had kept a set and frequent course of visiting and attendance With this representing of my service I presume your Lordship will not dislike that I recommend my especial kind friend Dr. Price one of his Majesties Commissioners for that Kingdom and for his Learning Wisdom and other Merits which your Lordship will find in him truly deserving your Lordships good affection The most current news I can signifie to
all Monuments of Antiquity hath emboldned me at this time to put your Lordship in mind of a present occasion which may much conduce to the general good of all of us that employ our Studies in this kind of Learning That famous Library of Giâ—cono Barocci a Gentleman of Venice consisting of 242 Greek Manuscript Volumes is now brought into England by Mr. Fetherstone the Stationer Great pity it were that such a Treasure should be dissipated and the Books dispersed into private hands If by your Lordship's mediation the King's Majesty might be induced to take them into his own hand and add there unto that rare Collection of Arabick Manuscripts which my Lord Duke of Buckingham purchased from the Hens of Erpenius it would make that of his Majestys a Royal Library indeed and make some recompence of that incomparable loss which we have lately sustain'd in the Library of Heidelberg We have 〈◊〉 a poor return unto your Lordship of our Commission in the business of Pbeliâ— Mâ—â— Fâ—â—gh Birr and his Sons And because the directions which we received 〈◊〉 the Lords required the dispatch thereof with all convenient expedition 〈◊〉 we have made more haste I fear than good speed fully purposing in our selves that the examination which 〈…〉 taken should have come unto your 〈…〉 your Lordships Resolutions 〈…〉 have been notified before the beginning of Hilâ—â—y Teâ—m That things have fallen out otherwiseâ— iâ— that I confess wherein we shall be hardly 〈…〉 â—â—â— selves 〈…〉 that this important Business might in such 〈◊〉 be 〈…〉 that the Honour and Dignity of his Majesty 〈…〉 might withal be very tenderly respected for the least shew of 〈…〉 that may 〈…〉 he given from thence 〈◊〉 Authority will add encouragement to such â—â— are too apt to 〈…〉 his Majesty's Ministers here from being so forward as otherwise they would be in prosecution of such publick Services of the State Which I humbly leave unto your Lordship's deeper consideration and evermore rest Your Honour 's in all dutiful Service ready to be commanded Ja. Armachanst Dublin Jan. 22. 1628. LETTER CXXXIV A Letter from the Right Reverend William Laud Bishop of London to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My very good Lord I Have received your Grace's second Letters and with the Letters from Dr. Barlow a Man known to me only by Name and good Report I have upon receipt of these a second time humbly presented Dr. Barlow's Suit to his Majesty with all fair representation to his Majesty of the necessity of a good Commendam to the Arch-bishop of Tuam And tho in my judgment I hold it very unfit and of ill both Example and Consequence in the Church to have a Bishop much more an Arch-bishop retain a Deanery in Commendam Yet because there is as I am informed much service to be done for that Arch-bishop and because I have conceived this Man will do that Service for so he hath assumed and because much of that Service must be done at Dublin where that Deaury will the better fit him as well for House as Charge and because it is no new thing in that Country to hold a Deanry with a Bishoprick I made bold to move his Majesty for it and his Majesty is graciously pleased to grant it and I have already by his Majesty's special Command given order to Sir Hen. Holcross to send Letters to my Lord Deputy to this purpose But there two things his Majesty commanded me to write to your Lordship The one that young Men be not commended to him for Bishops The other that he shall 〈◊〉 be drawn again to grant a Deanry in Commendam Any other Preferment though of more value he shall be content to yield I am glad I have been able to serve your Grace's desires in this Business And for Dr. Barlow I with him joy but must desire your Lordship to excuse my not writing to him for between Parliament and Term I have not lenure So I leave you to the Grace of God and shall ever rest Your Graces loving Friend and Brother Guil. London Jan. 29. 1628. My Lord Arch-bishop of Tak Dr. Barlow's 〈…〉 that was is of my 〈◊〉 for holding a 〈…〉 LETTER CXXXV A Letter from Dr. William Bedell to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh at Drogheda Right Reverend Father my honourable good Lord SInce your Graces departure from Dublin I began to peruse the Papers you left me of Dr. Ghaloner's hand about the first foundation of the Colledg which although in some places I cannot read word for word yet I perceive the sense and have transcribed so far as they go without interruption But they refer to some Copies of Letters which I have not nor yet are in our Chest as namely the City's Letter to Queen Elizabeth and the Lord Deputy and Comisales and hers to the Lord Deputy here for the founding of the Colledg All which if they might be had would be inserted into the History of the Colledg ad Verbum And which is worse the third Duernion is wholly missing noted it seems in the Front with the Figure 3. This makes me bold to write to your Grace to search if you can find any thing more of this Argument that there may be somewhat left to Posterity concerning the beginnings of so good a Work I have also since your Grace's departure drawn a Form of the Confirmation of our Rectories from the Bishop of Clougher in conformity to two Instruments viz. the Resignation of George Montgomery sometime Bishop thereof and Derry and Rapho and our Colledg Patent I have used all the means I can to know whether any Predecessor of your Grace did in like manner resign into the King's Hands any Patronages within your Diocess and what their Names be which if I could understand I would entreat your Grace to go before in your Diocess and to be our Patron in the soliciting the other Bishops to follow in theirs I send your Grace the form of the Confirmation and the Names of the Rectories in our Patent referring the rest to your wisdom and love to the Colledg This is a Business of great importance to this Society and hath already been deferred so long and Mr. Usher's sudden taking away to omit my Lord of Kilmore admonishes me to work while the day lasts Another Business there is which enforceth me to have recourse to your Grace which is this Yesterday as I was following Mr. Usher's Funeral there was delivered me a Letter from my Lord Chancellor containing another to his Lordship from Mr. Lloyd together 〈◊〉 a Note which I send herewith He demandeth of the Colledg not only his Diâ—t in his absence which the Statute expresly denies to a Fellow and which a your Grace and the Visitors intended to grant him you did him a Favour instead of a Punishment but Wages for being a Prime-Lecturer whereas his Year came out at Midsummer and he had till then his Allowance although he performed not the
he understood by me how much you esteemed and loved him he desired me to return his humble Thanks with desire that you would imploy his Service in whatsoever he is able to perform His Majesty has conserr'd on him the Prebend in Canterbury which lately was Dr. Chapman's He is now settling himself in it he saith he hath received a late Advertisement of the Death of Bertius who over-lived his own Credit and Reputation Mr. Selden's Titles of Honour hath long slept under the Press by reason of his long close Imprisonment but now he tells me it shall go forward and he thinks within two Months it will come abroad The War in Italy is like to proceed the French King raiseth a great Army for that Expedition Here was a report that the States had taken Gulick but it holds not for a certain Truth One thing I must not over-pass and that a strange and monstrous Accident lately happened here in England One Dorington a younger Son of Sir William Dorington of Hamp-shire and Grand-Child to that Dorington who brake his Neck from St. Sepulchres Steeple in London being reprehended for some disorderly Courses by his Mother drew his Sword and ran her twice through and afterwards she being dead gave her many Wounds and had slain his Sister at the same time had he not been prevented I presume your Grace hath heard of the Death of Dr. Tho. James his Nephew Mr. Rich. James is fallen into some Trouble by reason of his Familiarity and Inwardness with Sir Robert Cotton I suppose you have the last Catalogue of Francfort which hath nothing of note But I fear I have been over troublesome to your Grace's more serious and weighty Imployments wherefore with the remembrance of my Love and Service I will ever remain Your Grace's most affectionate Friend and humble Servant Henry Bourgchier London December the 4th 1629. LETTER CXLVIII A Letter from the Right Reverend William Laud Bishop of London to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My very good Lord I Have received two or three Letters from you since I writ you any Answer I hope your Grace is not of opinion that it is either idlenesi or neglect which have made me silent for the plain truth is I fell into a fierce burning Fever August the 14th which held me above three Weeks It was so fierce that my Physicians as well as my Friends gave me for dead and it is a piece of a Miracle that I live I have not yet recovered my wonted Strength and God knows when I shall yet since I was able to go to the Court tho not to wait there I have done as much business as I could and I think as your Grace hath desired of me for the Church of Ireland as your Lordship will see by this brief Account following And first my Lord I have obtain'd of his Majesty the new incorporating of the Dean and Chapter of Derry and I think the Dean is returned At the same time the King was pleased to give order for confirming the Election of Dr. Usher to be Governour of the Colledg in Dublin Thirdly upon the refusal of my Lord of Clougher his Majesty gave in the time of my Sickness the Arch-bishoprick of Cassills to the Bishop of Killally and the Bishoprick of Killally to the Dean of Rapho And whereas your Grace in the close of one of your Letters did acquaint me that there was a fear lest some cunning would be used to beg or buy some Patronages out of the King's Hands I moved his Majesty about that likewise and he made me a gracious promise that he would part with none of them And now my Lord I give your Lordship thanks for the Catalogue of the Bishopricks of Ireland which I heartily desire your Grace to perfect as occasion may be offered you And for the last business as I remember concerning the Table of Tything in Ulster I have carefully look'd it over but by reason I have no experience of those parts I cannot judg clearly of the Business but I am taking the best care I can about it and when I have done I will do my best with his Majesty for Confirmation and leave Mr. Hyegate to report the Particulars to your Grace I have observed that Kilphanora is no fertile Ground it is let lie so long Fallow Hereupon I have adventured to move his Majesty that some one or two good Benefices lying not too far off or any other Church-Preferment without Cure so it be not a Deanery may be not for this time only but for ever annex'd to that Bishoprick The care of managing that Business he refers to your Grace and such good Counsel in the Law as you shall call to your assistance And I pray your Grace think of it seriously and speedily and though I doubt you will find nothing actually void to annex unto it yet if that Act be but once past the hope of that which is annex'd will make some worthy Man venture upon that Pastoral Charge and so soon as you are resolv'd what to do I pray send me word that so I may acquaint his Majesty with it and get pow'r for you to do the Work These are all the Particulars that for the present I can recall out of your Letters sent unto me in the time of my Sickness So with my hearty Prayers for your Health and Happiness and that you may never be parch'd in such a Fire as I have been I leave you to the Grace of God and rest Your Grace's loving poor Friend and Brother Guil. London London-house Decemb. 7. 1629. LETTER CXLIX A Letter from the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Right Reverend Father my Honourable good Lord I Have received your Grace's Letters concerning Mr. Cook I do acknowledg all that which your Grace writes to be true concerning his sufficiency and experience to the execution of the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction neither did I forber to do him right in giving him that Testimony when before the Chapter I did declare and shew the nullity of his Parent I have heard of my Lord of Meathe's attempt and I do believe that if this Patent had due Form I could not overthrow it how unequal soever it be But falling in the essential parts besides sundry other defects I do not think any reasonable Creature can adjudg it to be good I shall more at large certify your Grace of the whole Matter and the reasons of my Counsel herein I shall desire herein to be tried by your Grace's own Judgment and not by your Chancellor's or as I think in such a case I ought to be by the Synod of the Province I have resolved to see the end of this matter and do desire your Grace's savour herein no farther than the equity of the Cause and the Good as far as I can judg of the Church in a high degree do require So with my humble
labours I rest Your very loving and thankful Friend Edward Browncker From Wadham Colledge Septemb. 11. 1620. LETTER XLI A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop-elect of Meath to the most Reverend Dr. Hampton Arch-Bishop of Armagh My very good Lord I Received yesterday your Grace's Letter whereby I understand how unadvisedly the Bishop of Clogher entred into contestation with your Lordship for the exercise of his Jurisdiction and laboured to turn your particular favour toward me to his own advantage whereat I was not a little grieved It was far from my meaning ever to oppose either your Archiepiscopal right or the duties of your Register for the time present much less for the time to come The difference betwixt the Registers is by their mutual consent referred to the determination of my L. Chancellor before whom let them plead their own Cause I mean not to intermeddle with it The exercising of the Jurisdiction hitherto cannot be justified by taking out a Commission now from your Lordship But seeing what hath been done herein cannot now be undone I will thus far shew my respect unto your Metropolitical Authority that whensoever the matter shall be called in question I will profess that what I have done in the exercising of the Jurisdiction I have done it by your special Licence without which I would not have meddled with it And for the time to come I have given order to my Commissary that he shall proceed no farther but presently surcease from dealing any way in the Jurisdiction that no occasion may be left whereby it might be thought that I stood upon any right of mine own to the derogation of any point of your Archiepiscopal Authority And thus much for my self As for my Lord of Clogher howsoever I be none of his Council yet the respect and duty which I owe unto you as unto my Father forceth me to wish That your Grace would seriously deliberate of this business before you bring it unto a publick Tryal For then I fear the matter will be determined not by Theological Argumentations of the power of the Keys but by the power of the King's Prerogative in Causes Ecclesiastical and the Laws of the Land If my Lord of Clogher's Council told him that he might challenge the exercising of his Jurisdiction as an incident to that which he had already received from the King It is certain that in his Letters Patents the Bishoprick is granted unto him Una cum omnibus Juribus Jurisdictionibus Prerogativis Preeminentiis Allocationibus Commoditatibus Privilegiis tam spiritualibus quà m temporalibus with a Mandamus directed Universis singulis Archiepiscopis Episcopis Decanis Archidiaconis Officialibus Commissariis Rectoribus Vicariis Presbyteris aliis personis Ecclesiasticis quibuscunque quatenus ipsum Episcopum ejus Officiarios tam spirituales quà m temporales Episcopatum proedictum habere percipere gubernare gaudere disponere permittant And howsoever if the matter were to be disputed in the Schools he peradventure might obtain the victory who did defend That Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical doth issue from the Keys not from the Sword Yet I doubt me when the case cometh to be argued in the King's Court he will have the advantage that hath the Sword on his side and standeth to maintain the King's Prerogative Again by the Statute of 2 Eliz. whereby Congedelires are taken away he that hath the King's Letters Patents for a Bishoprick is put in the same state as if he were Canonically both Elected and Confirmed Now howsoever by the Law a Bishop barely elected can do little or nothing yet the Canonists do clearly resolve that he who is both Elected and Confirmed may exercise all things that appertain to Jurisdiction although he may not meddle with matters of Ordination until he receive his Consecration Lastly I would intreat your Lordship to consider when the See of Armagh becometh void as sometimes it hath been for two or three years together in whom doth the exercise of the Archiepiscopal Jurisdiction remain Doth it not in the Dean and Chapter of Armagh If a Dean then who is but simplex Presbyter without receiving Commission from any other Bishop is by the custom of the Land capable in this case of Episcopal Jurisdiction What should make him that is elected and confirmed a Bishop to be uncapable of the same I speak now only of the Law and ancient Customs of the Realm by which I take it this matter if it come to question must be tryed All which I humbly submit unto your Graces grave consideration protesting notwithstanding for mine own particular that I will not only for the time to come cease to exercise the Jurisdiction of the proceeding further wherein I see no great necessity before my Consecration but also willingly herein submit my self unto any course that your Lordship shall be further pleased to prescribe unto me There is at this time in Dublin neither Civilian nor Register with whom I might advise touching the matter of the Dilapidation My Lord Chancellor offered to grant if I pleased a Commission out of the Chancery for the inquiry hereof But I considered with my self that this business was more proper for the Archiepiscopal Court whereof I remembred that famous President of William Wickham Bishop of Winchester who sued the Executors of his Predecessor in the Court of William Witlesey Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and recovered against him 127 afros 1556 boves 3876 mutones 4717 oves matrices 3521 agnos 1662 libras cum 10 solidis pro reparatione Aedificiorum ad ruinas vergentium as in the Register of the said Witlesey is yet to be seen I will cause Mr. Ford to draw up my Libel in the best manner he can and then expect the issuing of the Commission with all convenient expedition For it behoveth me that the inquiry of the Dilapidations be returned before I go in hand with the reparation and that I must do very shortly though upon mine own charges unless I will see the house fall quite down the next Winter I humbly thank your Grace for your remembrance of me in the matter Armagh For howsoever I conceive very little hope that I shall ever enjoy that Deanry yet am I nothing the less beholding unto you for your care of me for which and for all the rest of your honourable favours I must always remain Your Graces in all Duty to be Commanded James Usher Dublin July 11. 1621. LETTER XLII A Letter from the most Reverend Dr. Hampton Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath Salutem in Christo. I Thank your Lordship for your care and respect of me as likewise your counsel that I should be well advised ere I brought the matter of Jurisdiction into publick Tryal I truly have not cause to complain but if the Bishop of Clogher or any other think themselves wronged that I give not way to the exercise of his Jurisdiction until he be