LIV. A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 86 LV. A Letter from Mr. Henry Holcroft to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 87 LVI A Letter from Dr. Goad and Dr. Feately to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 88 LVII A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 89 LVIII A Letter from the Right Reverend Thomas Morton Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 90 LIX A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath to the Most Reverend Dr. Hampton Arch-Bishop of Armagh 90 LX. A Letter from the Most Reverend the Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 92 LXI A Letter from Dr. Ryves to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 301 LXII A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 302 LXIII A Letter from Dr. Thomas James to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 303 LXIV A Letter from Mr. William Eyres to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 304 LXV A Letter from Dr. Thomas James to Mr. Calandrine 306 LXVI A Letter from Dr. Thomas James to Mr. Calandrine 307 LXVII A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 309 LXVIII A Letter from Dr. Thomas James to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 310 LXIX A Letter from Mr. Thomas Davis in Aleppo to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 311 LXX A Letter from Mr. Thomas Pickering to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 312 LXXI A Letter from Mr. Thomas Davis in Aleppo to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 313 LXXII A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 314 LXXIII A Letter from Dr. Samuel Ward to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 315 LXXIV A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath to Dr. Samuel Ward 315 LXXV A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 316 LXXVI A Letter from Dr. Thomas James to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 317 LXXVII A Letter from Dr. Thomas James to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 318 LXXVIII A Letter from Dr. Samuel Ward to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 320 LXXIX A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 321 LXXX A Letter from the Right Reverend the Bishop of Kilmore to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop Elect of Armagh 322 LXXXI A Letter from Mr. Thomas Davis from Aleppo to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 323 LXXXII A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 325 LXXXIII A Letter from Mr. Thomas Davis at Aleppo to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 326 LXXXIV A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend John Williams Bishop of Lincoln and Lord Keeper 327 LXXXV A Letter from Mr. Abraham Wheelock to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 329 LXXXVI A Letter from Dr. Samuel Ward to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 330 LXXXVII A Letter from Dr. Thomas James to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 331 LXXXVIII A Letter from Mr. John Selden to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 332 LXXXIX A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Dr. Samuel Ward 333 XC A Letter from Dr. Samuel Ward to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 333 XCI A Letter from Dr. Samuel Ward to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 334 XCII A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Lord Keeper and Lord Treasurerer 335 XCIII A Letter from Mr. John Selden to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 338 XCIV A Letter from Mr. John Cotton of New England to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 338 XCV A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Dr. Samuel Ward 340 XCVI A Letter from Dr. Samuel Ward to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 340 XCVII A Letter from Dr. Samuel Ward to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 341 XCVIII A Letter from Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Dr. Samuel Ward 342 XCIX A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Dr. Samuel Ward 343 C. A Letter from Dr. Samuel Ward to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 344 CI. A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Samuel Ward 345 CII A Letter from Mr. Ralph Skinner to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 346 CIII A Letter from Mr. Ralph Skinner to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 356 CIV A Letter from Mr. Ralph Skinner to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 358 CV A Letter from Mr. Ralph Skinner 363 CVI. A Letter from Mr. Ralph Skinner to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 366 CVII A Letter from Mr. James White to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 368 CVIII A Letter from Dr. Samuel Ward to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 368 CIX A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Dr. Samuel Ward 369 CX A Letter from Dr. John Bainbridge to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 370 CXI A Letter from Mr. Thomas Davis from Aleppo to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 371 CXII A Letter from Mr. Alexander Cook to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 372 CXIII A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Lord Faulkland 373 CXIV A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Most Reverend Robert Abbot Arch-Bishop of Canterbury 374 CXV A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inn 375 CXVI A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Most Reverend Robert Abbot Arch-Bishop of Canterbury 376 CXVII A Letter from Dr. Samuel Ward to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 377 CXVIII A Letter from the Lord Deputy Faulkland to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 379 CXIX A Letter from the Most Reverend Robert Abbot Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 380 CXX A Letter from Mr. Thomas Davis in Aleppo to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 381 CXXI A Letter from the Reverend John Hanmer Bishop of St. Asaph to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 382
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
your Lordship from this place are That the Lord Vicomte Doncastré returneth within three days into France as 't is thought invited thereunto by that King both at his coming from thence and since by his Ambassadour resident here which occasioneth some forward natures to presage of Peace very speedily in those Parts between the King and his Protestant Subjects Whereof notwithstanding except want of moneys the importunity of his old Councellors at length having been long slighted the disunion of his Grandees and desperate resolution of the afflicted Protestants to withstand these Enemies shall beget an alteration for my own part I see little reason for it is not likely That either the Prince of Condé who hateth the Protestants and loveth to fish in troubled Waters or the Jesuit party earnest votaries of the House of Austria being still powerful in France will ever suffer that King to be at rest until their Patrons Affairs shall be settled in Grisons Germany c. From Italy I hear that in Rome there is lately erected a new Congregation De fide propaganda consisting of 12 Cardinals whereof Cardinal Savelli is chief A principal Referendary thereof being Gaspar Schioppius There are to be admitted into this Congregation of all Nations and their Opus is to provide maintenance from their Friends c. for Proselites of all Nations who shall retire into the Bosom of the Romish Church But I fear I begin to be tedious to your Lordship and therefore craving Pardon as well for my present boldness as former omissions with my ancient and most unfeigned Respects I take leave of your Lordship desiring to know if in these parts I may be useful to your Lordship and remaining ever Your Lordships most Affectionate to love and serve you William Boswel From Westminster Colledge March 17. 1621. LETTER XLV A Letter from Sir Henry Spelman to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath Right Reverend and my most worthy Lord THough I be always tied to reiterate my thankfulness to your Lordship for your favours here in England yet is it not fit to trouble you too often with Letters only of complement And other occasion I have hitherto not had any save what in Michaelmas Term last I wrote unto you touching the Monument of Bury Abby which the Cutter going then in hand with came to me about as directed so by your Lorship I was bold to stay him for the time and signified by those Letters that I thought much exception might be taken to the credit of the Monument for that both the ends of the upper Label pictured in the Glass over the head of Antichrist are stretched out so far as they rest not in the Glass but run on either way upon the stone Pillars which as your Lordship knows could not possibly be so in the Window it self How it cometh to pass I do not know whether by the rashness of the Painter not heeding so light a matter as he might take it or that perphaps those which in the picture seem to be the Pillars of the Window were but painted Pillars in the Glass it self and so the whole Window but one Pannel I cannot determine this doubt but out of all doubt such a picture there was and taken out exactly by a Painter then as a right honest old Gentleman which saw it standing in the Abby Window and the Painter that took it out did often tell me about 40 years since affirming the picture now at the Cutters to be the true pattern thereof But at that time my understanding shewed me not to make this doubt if I had he perhaps could have resolved it For my own part though I think it fitter in this respect not to be published as doth also Sir H. Bourgchier yet I leave it to your direction which the Cutter hitherto expecteth So remembring my service most humbly to your Lordship and desiring your blessing I rest Your Lordships to be commanded Henry Spelman Tuttle-street Westm. Mar. 18. 1621. LETTER XLVI A Letter from Mr. John Selden to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath My Lord I Should before this have returned your Nubiensis Geographia but Mr. Bedwell had it of me and until this time presuming on your favour he keeps it nor can we have of them till the return of the Mart. Then I shall be sure to send your through Mr. Burnet There is nothing that here is worth memory to you touching the State of Learning only I received Letters lately out of France touching this point Whether we find that any Churches in the elder times of Christianity were with the Doors or Fronts Eastward or no because of that in Sidonius Arce Frontis ortum spectat aequinoctialem lib. 2. ep 10. c. and other like I beseech your Lordship to let me know from you what you think hereof I have not yet sent it but I shall most greedily covet your resolution And if any thing be here in England that may do your Lordship favour or service and lye in my power command it I beseech you and believe that no man more admires truly admires your worth and professes himself to do so than Your Lordships humble Servant J. Selden March 24. 1621. Styl-Anglic My Titles of Honour are in the Press and new written but I hear it shall be staid if not I shall salute you with one as soon as it is done LETTER XLVII A Letter from Sir Robert Cotton to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath My honourable Lord THe opportunity I had by the going over of this honourable Gentleman Sir Henry Bourgchier I could not pass over without doing my service to your Lordship in these few lines We are all glad here you are so well settled to your own content and merit yet sorry that you must have so important a cause of stay that all hopes we had to have seen your Lordship in these parts is almost taken away Yet I doubt not but the worthy work you gave in England the first life to and have so far happily proceeded in will be again a just motive to draw you over into England to see it perfected for without your direction in the sequel I am afraid it will be hopeless and impossible Let me I pray you intreat from your Honour the Copy of as much as you have finished to show his Majesty that he may be the more earnest to urge on other Labourers to work up with your Lordships advice the rest I have received Eight of the Manuscripts you had the rest are not returned If I might know what my Study would afford to your content I would always send you and that you may the better direct me I will as soon as it is perfected send your Honour a Catalogue of my Books The Occurrents here I forbear to write because a Gentleman so intelligent cometh to you What after falleth worthy your Honours knowledge I will write hereafter upon direction from your
Lordship whither and by whom I may address my Letters I cannot forget your Lordships promise to get me a Book of the Irish Saints Lives and that Poem of Richard the Second your Honour told me of A love to these things I hope shall make excuse for my bold remembrance My service to your self I remain Your Lordships constant and assured to be ever Commanded Robert Cotton New Exchange Mar. 26. 1622. LETTER XLVIII A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath Most Reverend in Christ I Must excuse my long silence partly by my long stay by the way and partly by my expectation of your Lordship here about this time Now being somewhat doubtful of your repair hither I have adventur'd these as an assured Testimony of my respect and observance to your Lordship Many of your good friends here were glad to hear of your health and hopeful to see you Sir Robert Cotton hath purchased a House in Westminster near the Parliament House which he is now repairing and there means to settle his Library by Feoffment to continue for the use of Posterity Mr. Camden is much decayed Et senio planè confectus in so much that I doubt his friends shall not enjoy him long Sir Henry Spelman is busie about the impression of his Glossary and Mr. Selden of his Eadmerus which will be finished within three or four days together with his Notes and the Laws of the Conqueror the comparing whereof with the Copy of Crowland was the cause of this long stay for they could not get the Book hither though they had many promises but were faign to send one to Crowland to compare things We have not yet the Catalogue of Frankfort nor any news but what you often hear The reports of the Princes entertainment in Spain fills the Mouths and Ears of all men and not so only but also set the Printers a work I should be very glad to know your Lordships resolution of coming into England that I might accordingly send you either Books or other news which we have here If your Lordship would be pleased to send me your Copy of Dionysius Exiguus I would willingly take some pains in the publication of him for I doubt your own labours take you up so much that you cannot attend him I desire to be most kindly remembred to Mr. Dean of Christ-Church I hear much murmurings among the Papists here especially those of our County against some new persecutions you know their Phrase lately raised in Ireland and particularly against some courses of your Lordships in the Diocess of Meath as namely in the case of Clandestine Christnings c. beyond all others of your rank I should be larger did I not doubt of my Letter 's finding your Lordship there but wheresoever God will dispose of us let it be I will ever approve myself Your Lordships true Affectionate Friend and Servant Henry Bourgchier London April 16. 1622. Your Colledge Statute of seven years continuance is much disliked here with some other things in that Society and some fault laid upon us that we did not take a more exact Survey of their Affairs LETTER XLIX A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath to Mr. John Selden Worthy Sir I Received your loving Letter sent unto me by Sir Henry Bourgchier and do heartily thank you for your kind remembrance of me Touching that which you move concerning the situation of Churches in the elder times of Christianity Walafridus Strabo De rebus Ecclesiasticis cap. 4. telleth us Non magnoperè curabant illius temporis justi quam in partem orationis loca converterent Yet his conclusion is Sed tamen usus frequentior rationi vicinior habet in Orientem orantes converti pluralitatem maximam Ecclesiarum eo tenore constitui Which doth further also appear by the Testimony of Paulinus Bishop of Nola in his twelfth Epistle to Severus Prospectus verò basilicae non ut usitatior mos Orientem spectat And particularly with us here in Ireland Joceline in the Life of St. Patrick observeth That a Church was built by him in Sabul hard by Downe in Ulster Ab aquilonali parte versus meridianam plagam Add hereunto that place of Socrates lib. 5. hist. Eccles. cap. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And compare it with that other place of Walafridus Strabo where he sheweth both in the Church that Constantine and Helena builded at Jerusalem and at Rome also in the Church of All-Saints which before was the Pantheon and St. Peters Altaria non tantum ad Orientem sed etiam in alias partes esse distributa I desire to have some news out of France concerning the Samaritan Pentateuch and how the numbers of the years of the Fathers noted therein do agree with those which the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath in Graecis Eusebianis Scaligeri also whether Fronto Ducoeus his Edition of the Septuagint be yet published I would intreat you likewise if it be not too great a trouble to transcribe for me out of the Annals of Mailrose in Sir Robert Cotton's Library the Succession and Times of the Kings of Scotland So ceasing to be further troublesome unto you at this time I rest Your most assured loving Friend Ja. Mid. Dublin April 16. 1622. LETTER L. A Letter from Dr. Ward Margaret Professor at Cambridge to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath My good Lord THe remembrance of our former love doth embolden me to present these lines to your Lordship which otherwise I would not presume to do I wish your Lordship in your great Place and Dignity all happiness and contentment still perswading my self That your Place and Dignity doth not so alter you but that you still do continue to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no less than that Bishop of Durham R. Angervile was I hope therefore it will not be altogether ungrateful to write of things touching that argument I am right sorry to hear of that heavy news which was reported unto me upon Monday last of the taking of Heydelberg by Tilly the Commander of the Duke of Bavaria It is a great grief that the place where the purity of the Reformed Religion hath so long been maintained should now come into the hands of the Enemy I take it I have heard that out of fear it should be Besieged care was taken that the Manuscripts were conveyed into the Duke of Wirtemburg's Country I wish it were so if it be not It should grieve me if that famous Library too should come into their hands who are so faithless in setting them out Your Lordship was partly acquainted with a business which I had undertaken to answer one Chapter of Perron's latest work set out after his decease Since that time Petrus Bertius the Remonstrant is turned Roman Catholick and hath undertaken the Translation of that whole Book into Latin and hath in Specimen set forth the Translation
divinitùs valida sunt ad subversionem munitionum Antichristi Davidis exemplo in nomine Domini exercituum addebellandum incircumcisum illum accessisti Certe hic in Anglia ad arma Ecclesiae communia capessenda quae preces sunt lachrymae heu nimis segnes sumus omnes alibi forsan ad arma carnalia minimè necessaria nimis proclives fuerunt valdè multi oraculi Apostolici non satis ut videtur memores de interitu Antichristi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod non solum de praedicatione veritatis vivâ voce sed etiam ac praecipuè de Polemicis Theologorum nostrorum scriptis interpretari licet quò Sibyllinum etiam illud a quibusdam transfertur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quoniam scilicet ex linteis contritis fit papyrus quae scriptioni inservit Sed quorsum haec apud Dominationem tuam Accedo ad illa quorum tu nupèr mentionem fecisti Fateor me ante annos aliquot quaedam meditatum fuisse quae verè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel etiam antidoti vice esse possent non solùm contrà venenata aliquam multorum scripta qui sacrosanctos fontes corruptelae passim insimulant sed etiam adversus nonnullorum Pontificiorum nostrorum de origine Biblicae punctationis scriptionisque admodùm periculosas vel certè nimis temerarias conjecturas quorundam etiam aliorum ex adversa parte judaizantium superstitiosas vel minùs probabiles opiniones Nam inter Biblicam masoreticam punctationem diligenter distinguendum esse censeo ut Veritatem tà m ab excessu quà m à defectu inter utrumque vindicemus sartam tectam defendamus Caeterùm haec etiam omnia id genus alia à nobis semipaganis qui nec otio nec literis abundamus qui literis quam libris sumus abundantiores ad te releganda sunt limatissimum tuum judicium stylum desiderant In his aliis ejusdem farinae spinosis perplexis nobis eris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel in Apologia quam in promptu habes pro sacrorum fontium puritate authentica utriusque instrumenti editione vel in Bibliotheca tua Theologica quam post lucubrationes tuas de Christianarum Ecclesiarum successione Expectemus Fieri quidem potest ut rectè quis sentiat forsan etiam firmissimis argumentis ostendat confirmet sed illud ipsum nec commodè nec expeditè nedum politè latinè proferre possit quod tamen in hoc de punctatione Hebraicâ argumento mihi videtur necessarium Quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adtinet lectum reperies in Manuscripto exemplari inter alia Symboli Apostolici Romanis characteribus expresso Cantabrigiae in Archivis Bibliothecae Benedictinae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 iisdem ferè verbis cum lxx ut opinor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 63 cum Apostolo Ephes. 4. Mirum in modum debacchantur hic adversarii nostri quod non satis Theologi Catechistae nostri consentiunt in hoc articulo explicando Et certè populus plerisque in locis apud nos articulum hunc tantum non planè negare rejicere jamdudum occoepit Quod Concionatorum Catechistarum quorundam vel imperitia vel ut levissimè dicam incogitantiâ factum esse videtur Mihi semper maximè consentaneum visum est ad obstruendum os Pontificiis ad piorum consolationem si unà cum confutatione errorum de Limbo Patrum c. unum idemque doceamus profiteamur nempe juxta tum articulos Doctrinae Catholicae Ecclesiae Anglicanae tum utrumque Catechismum nostrum minorem majorem Christum scilicet Dominum nostrum verè reapse ad locum damnatorum descendisse quoad efficaciam infernum c. debellasse c. ut in Noellano Catechismo si dextrè intelligatur exprimitur Sed manum de tabula ne Epistolae modum excedendo gravissimum occupationum tuarum cursum impediam Temporis totiusque villicationis nostrae reddenda est ratio in die illo coram supremo judice Quoties mihi in mentem venit venit autem saepiuscule tua in me singularis Clementia toties me ipsum vel ingratitudinis vel socordiae accusare me posse videar quòd non faepius per literas officii grati animi significationem dederim Ignoscas igitur quaeso huic temeritati meae Christus opt max. Te incolumem servet precor omnique benedictionum genere cumulatiffimum reddat Vale Dominationi tuae devotissimus in Domino Guilielmus Eyre Colcestriae Martii vii 1623 4. LETTER LXV A Letter from Dr. James to Mr. Calandrine Good Mr. Calandrine I Am glad my Lord hath a mind this way I am told that he may perhaps have those fair Houses furnished for the speaking Godstow of Sir Tho. Walters which is not far from Oxford by Land or by Water at pleasure Water-Eaton of Sir Richard Lovelace four miles distant Waterstock of Sir Geo. Crooks six miles I move not because I hear not from his Lordship but if I may both Dr. Bambridge and my self will do our best for the best in our Intentions both for my Lord's Health and the facilitating of his Lordship's Studies Sir John Walter and Sir Geo. Crook may be spoken withal in London Concerning our beginning and that with the Councels taking Damasus de Pontificibus and the Epistles Decretals together I wish it here presently if we had my Lord of Canterbury's Letters and Copies Normannus certainly is no Anabaptist Alph. de Castro is in the Index Expurgatorius as well as Cajetan contrary to both our Expectations Not only the peices but the whole Tracts are at my Lord's command That of Anselm Plessis had not from me Of that my Cousin is transcribing I know that Asinus Burnelli of Nigellus Wiraker is long ago printed now out of print but he hath compared his Manuscript with two more and enlarged it the print is not to be come by Stampensis and Serlo I think are no where extant In my note D. I am not as yet assured to be that in Lambeth the sight will shew that it is a MS. so ancient that it was Theodorus's written almost in Gregory's Time The Copy of the Concordance I send you you need not keep a Copy of it for I have the Original by me Anentine of Ingolst I have not seen he is much corrupted as all our Historians two quire taken out of him two out of Cuspinian more than a quire out of Krantzius If my Cousin come I will perhaps send I dare not venture them otherwise Remember my Duty to my Lord sic te Deo Your assured Friend Tho. James April 11 1624. LETTER LXVI A Letter from Dr. Tho. James to Mr. Calandrine Good Mr. Calandrine I Receiv'd your last weeks Letter The Collection out of Stella I have but no Stella it self and that I will not trust an ordinary Carrier with the Lyon's Addition and the Index Expurgatorius of
credited of your Grace or any Man clse But to the well-doing and perfecting of this Work two things are requisite First That the Fathers Works in Latin be reprinted the Vindiciae will not serve wherein I desire to have three or four able Doctors or Batchelors of Divinity to be my Assistants in framing the Annotations Secondly That there be provision either in Parliament or out that the Copies may be sent from any Cathedral Church or Colledg upon a sufficient Caution non obstante statuto both these being granted as at your Lordships instance they may be I doubt not of a most happy success of the whole Business Which that I may not be too troublesome to your Grace I commend unto the protection of the Almighty praying for your Lordships health and happiness and resting as I am in all Bands of Duty and Service Your Grace's in all Duty Tho. James Oxon 27 Feb. 1625. I have a Pseudo-Cyprian Arnaldus Bonavillacensis Work collated and restored by the MS. and printed here under your Graces Name of Authors falsified it is the greatest instance that can be given the whole Treatise fairly written forth is at your Grace's dispose your mind being signified It hath sundry foul Additions and Diminutions in many Points of Controversy LETTER LXXXVIII A Letter from Mr. John Selden to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord I Was glad to have occasion to send to your Lordship that I might so hear of the good Estate of your Self and your Family to which certainly all good Men wish happiness I was the last week with Sir Robert Cotton at Connington at my parting from him when he was with his Son to go to Oxford to the Parliament he gave me leave to send to your Lordship to spare me the two Saxon Chronicles you have of his which I beseech you to do and to send them me by this Bearer together with my Matthew Paris Baronius his Martyrologie and Balaeus I exceedingly want these five Books here and if you command it they shall be sent you again in reasonable time I presume too my Lord that by this time you have noted the Differences between the Texts of the received Original and that of the Samaritan I beseech you to be pleased to permit me the sight of those Differences if they may with manners be desired especially those of Times I shall desire nothing more than upon all opportunity to be most ready to appear and that with all forwardness of performance in whatsoever I were able Your Lordships most Affectionate Servant J. Selden Wrest in Bedfordshire August 4. 1625. LETTER LXXXIX A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Dr. Samuel Ward Salutem in Christo Jesu SIR Robert Cotton did assure me that the Psalterium Gallicum Romanum Hebraicum was in Trinity-Colledg in an extraordinary large Folio but hereby you must not understand any Text written either in the French or in the Hebrew Language but by Hebraicum the Latin Psalter translated by St. Hierom out of the Hebrew and by Gallicum the Latin Psalter translated by him out of the Greek which is the very same with our Vulgar Latin Edition so called because it was first received in the French Church as the other Romanum because it was used in the Church of Rome which if our last Translators had considered they would not have alleaged as they do in their Epistle to the Reader for confirmation of the translating of the Scriptures into the Vulgar Tongue the Testimony of Trithemius that Efnarde Einardus they mean about the Year 800 did abridg the French Psalter as Beda had done the Hebrew If this Book cannot be had as I much desire it may I pray fail not to send me the other two Manuscript Psalters which you write unto me are in the same Library viz. the Greek thought to be Theodori Cantuar. and the Hebrew that is interlin'd with a Latin Translation for Aug. Justiniani Psalterium Octaplum I have of mine own When you remove to Munden if it be not troublesome unto you I wish you did bring with you your Greek Ganons Manuscript I understand that Mr. Boyse hath gotten lately into his hands a Greek Manuscript of the Acts of the first Council of Nice I should be glad to hear how it differeth from that of Gelasius Cyzicenus which we have and whether he can help me with any old Greek Copy of the Psalms or any Commentary upon them So ceasing to trouble you any further at this time I commend you and all yours to God's blessed direction and protection ever resting Your own in Christ Jesus Ja. Armachanus Much-Haddam Aug. 9. 1625. LETTER XC A Letter from Dr. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and my very good Lord IReceived your Lordship's Letter and according as you will me have borrowed the two Books you mention Dr. Maw would intreat you to set down some limited time for which you would borrow them and to signify the receipt of them in some Note under your hand There is as I remember a part of the Psalter in King's-Colledg Library Manuscript in a great Folio which was brought from Cales I will look into it When I come to Munden I will bring the Books you mention Mr. Boyse his Manuscript of the Acts of the Nicene Council is surely the Collection made by Gelasius He came to me to borrow the printed Copies I lent him two of them and withal told him there is another Manuscript of Gelasius in Trinity-Colledg Library The next time I speak with Mr. Boyse I will know whether he have any Greek Copy or Commentary upon the Psalms Thus hoping to see you e're long if God will with my best Service remembred I commend you and all yours to the gracious protection of the highest Majesty in these dangerous Times resting Your Lordships in what he may Samuel Ward Sidn Coll. Aug. 11. 1625. LETTER XCI A Letter from Dr. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend my very good Lord I Received your Letter and the enclosed which I will deliver to Dr. Maw This day I met with one of King's-Colledg and he tells me the great Volume they have in Manuscript of the Psalms in Latin which was brought from Cales is but half of the Psalter I willed him to compare it with the Vulgar Edition and to tell me whether they differ He promised me he would I received not the Letter â—ill six a Clock this Night and this Bearer is to be gone early in the Morning so that I cannot compare it with the Vulgar now but I verily think it is no other but the Vulgar Edition it is the greatest Folio that ever I saw Yesterday after I sent you the two Books I hit upon the Book you desired Psalterium Gallic Roman Hebraicum at one of our Stationers set out by Jacobus Stapulensis with his Commentary which I here send you
to move his Majesty that he the said Doctor might be spoken to for the surrendering of his Patent together with the renewing of a former Suit of making him my Servant in that place sealed up with a promise of rendring his due obedience and thankfulness unto me for my favour So far was he then from those high terms whereon he now standeth But the case is now so far altered that this obedient Servant of mine affecteth not an Equality only with me by exempting himself wholly from my controul but also for ought I see a Superiority over me For if it shall please him to visit my Diocess or my Province as he did in the time of my Predecessor what is there in that Patent as he hath drawn it whereby I may hinder him from so doing Your Honour may by private Instructions and his Discretion free your self of this fear faith my Lord-Keeper in his Marginal Annotations upon my former Letter But good my Lord give me leave to think that the hope of such a Prize as he got by his other Visitation of all the Arch-bishops and Bishops in our Kingdom will very easily blind this Man's Discretion and for my private Instructions what weight will they be of if it be now thought a matter not reasonable that my Substitute should be tied by them As for the Report which your Lordships are to make unto his Majesty upon the reference of this Business unto you I humbly crave that for so much as doth concern me it may be made to this effect First That I never did nor do refuse to submit my self to that Agreement which you have put under your hands to be signified to his Majesty but am ready to perform it in every particular Secondly That for the limiting of my Substitute and the terms whereupon he must hold his Place under me of which there is nothing laid down in that Agreement which you have signed that which concerneth Fees and Profits only excepted I do desire that his Patent only be drawn according to the Pattern of Sir Henry Martin's and that the same Power may be reserved to me and my Successors that my Lord of Canterbury's Grace doth retain unto himself in the exercise of the Office of Prerogative and Faculties Which if it may here stand well with Sir Henry Martin's Reputation I see not but it may stand as well likewise in Ireland without any such great disparagement to Mr. Doctor 's Dignity And lastly If the Doctor herein shall not hold himself to be fairly and exceeding favourably dealt withal my desire is that both of us may be left to the Law to try our Rights together For thereby it shall be made as clear as the Light that the Doctor 's Patent was absolutely void or voidable ab initio that whatsoever validity it had at the beginning yet it was afterwards forfeited by his notorious Misdemeanour and in fine that it was actually surrendred into the Hands of His Majesty and by him cassated and annulled howsoever the Ceremony of cancelling it hath been neglected Which kind of Trial by course of Law I do now the rather desire yet strill submitting my self to the former Agreement if it shall so seem fit unto your Lordships 1. Because the Doctor wished mine Agent to certify me in plain terms that he would not be under me and hereby for his part hath disclaimed the benefit of your Lordships Order 2. Because by his incensing of my Lord of Canterbury against me of whose Grace I never yet deserved evil by his abusing of me in his Reports unto your Lordships and by his disgraceful traducing of me in all Companies he hath made himself utterly unworthy of the Favour which I intended to shew unto him 3. Because as long as my Life shall be conceived to remain in that pretended Patent the validity of the Acts that have passed in the Prerogative Court during the time of my Predecessor some whereof have been of very great moment may be held in suspence it being still questionable whether they were done coram non-Judice or no. All which I leave unto your honourable consideration and humbly craving pardon if I have any way overshot my self in defending mine Innocency and Reputation against the unworthy Proceedings of my ungrateful Accuser I rest Your Lordships ready to do you Service J. A. Much Haddam Aug. 20. 1625. LETTER XCIII A Letter from Mr. John Selden to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord IT was most glad News to me to hear of your so forward Recovery and I shall pray for the addition of Strength to it that so you may the easier go on still in the advancement of that Common-wealth of Learning wherein you can so guide us I humbly thank your Lordship for your Instructions touching the Samaritan Bible and the Books I have returned the Saxon Annals again as you desired with this suit that if you have more of them for these are very slight ones and the old Book of Ely Historia Jornallensis the Saxon Evangelist the Book of Worcester the Book of Mailros or any of them you will be pleased to send me them all or as many as you have of them by you and what else you have of the History of Scotland and Ireland and they shall be returned at your pleasure if you have a Saxon Bede I beseech you let that be one also If I have any thing here of the rest or ought else that your Lordship requires for any present use I shall most readily send them to you and shall ever be Your Lordship's most affectionate Servant J. Selden Sept. 14. 1625. Wrest Sept. 19. Sent him upon this Annales Latino-Saxonici the Book of Mailros Fordoni Scotichronic Fragment Scotic Annal. ad finem Ivonis Carnot Fragment Annalium Abb. B. Mariae Virginis Dublin Annales Hiberniae Thomae Case The Book of Hoath Pembrig's Annals Ms. There is hope as Sir Robert Cotton tells me that a very ancient Greek MS. Copy of the Council of Nice the first of them of that name is to be had some where in Huntingdonshire I thought it was a piece of News that would be acceptable to your Lordship he is in chase for it LETTER XCIV A Letter from Mr. John Cotton of Boston in New-England to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Right Reverend MY beloved Neighbour-Minister Mr. Wood acquainted me with your desire to hear from me how I conceived of the way of God's eternal Predestination and the Execution of it I should not have hearkned to him herein tho I love him well were it not for the deep Affection and Reverence I bear to your Person and Gifts which hath constrained me together with his importunacy to yield to the sending of this Discourse to you which I was occasioned to write a year ago for the satisfaction of a Neighbour-Minister in Points of this nature The Questions and Answers in the beginning of the Book I delivered and opened
I meant I do it very willingly for I never meant him nor any Man else but thought it concerned your Grace to know what I credibly heard to be spoken concerning your Court Neither as God knows did I ever think it was fit to take away the Jurisdiction from Chancellors and put it into the Bishops Hands alone or so much as in a Dream condemn those that think they have reason to do otherwise nor tax your Grace's Visitation nor imagine you would account that to pertain to your Reproof and take it as a Wrong from me which out of my Duty to God and you I thought was not to be concealed from you I beseech you pardon me this one Error Si unquam posthac For that Knave whom as your Grace writes they say I did absolve I took him for one of my Flock or rather Christ's for whom he shed his Blood And I would have absolved Julian the Apostata under the same form Some other Passages there be in your Grace's Letters which I But I will lay mine Hand upon mine Mouth And craving the blessing of your Prayers ever remain Your Grace's poor Brother and humble Servant Will. Kilmore and Ardaghen Kilmore March 29. 1630. LETTER CLVI A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Lords Justices My most Honoured Lords I Received a Letter from your Lordships without any Date wherein I am required to declare what Motives I can alleadg for the stopping of Sir John Bathe's Patent Whereunto I answer That I cannot nor need not produce any other reason than that which I have done and for the maintenance of the sufficiency whereof I will adventure all I am worth namely that for the Particular now in question Sir John Bathe's Letter hath been gotten from his Majesty by meer surreption and therefore no Patent ought to be passed thereupon For although I easily grant that my Lord Treasurer and the Chancellor of the Exchequer might certify unto his Majesty that there was no other thing left to be passed here but Impropriations though Sir John Bathe I think hath found already somewhat else to be passed in his Book and may do more if he will not be so hasty but take time to enquire Yet how doth it appear that either of these two noble Gentlemen did as much as know that his Majesty had taken a former Order for the settlement of these things upon the Church To which Resolution had they been privy I do so presume of their Nobleness and care of the Publick Good that the remittal of a Matter of two thousand pounds would not induce them to divert his Majesty from making good that precious Donation which by the Example of his Father of never-dying memory he had solemnly devoted to God and his Church such an eximious Act of Piety as is not to be countervalued with two or twenty thousand pounds of any earthly Treasure But whatsoever they knew or knew not of his Majesty's own pious Resolution and constant Purpose never to revoke that which he hath once given unto God I rest so confident as I dare pawn my Life upon it that when he did sign those Letters of Sir John Bathe's he had not the least intimation given unto him that this did any way cross that former Gift which he made unto the Church upon so great and mature deliberation as being grounded upon the Advice first of the Commissioners sent into Ireland then of the Lords of the Council upon their report in England thirdly of King James that ever blessed Father of the Church and lastly of the Commissioners for Irish Affairs unto whom for the last debating and conclusion of this business I was by his now Majesty referr'd my self at my being in England I know Sir John and his Counsel do take notice of all those Reasons that may seem to make any way for themselves But your Lordships may do well to consider that such Letters as these have come before now wherein Rectories have been expresly named and those general Non obstantes also put which are usual in this kind and yet notwithstanding all this his Majesty intimateth unto you in his last Letters that he will take a time to examine those Proceedings and punish those that then had so little regard to the particular and direct expression of his Royal Pleasure for the disposing of the Impropriations to the general benefit of the Church Which whether it carrieth not with it a powerful Non obstante to that surreptious Grant now in question I hold it more safe for your Lordships to take Advice among your selves than from any other bodies Counsel who think it their Duty to speak any thing for their Clients Fee As for the want of Attestation wherewith the credit of the Copy of a Letter transmitted unto you is laboured to be impaired If the Testimony of my Lord of London who procured it and the Bishop Elect of Kilfennora who is the bringer of it and of a Dean and an Arch-Deacon now in Ireland who themselves saw it will not suffice it will not be many days in all likelihood before the Original it self shall be presented to your Lordships In the mean time I desire and more than desire if I may presume to go so far that your Lordships will stay your hands from passing Sir John Bathe's Patent until my Lord of London himself shall signifie his Majesties further Pleasure unto you in this Particular And it my Zeal hath carried me any way further than Duty would require I beseech your Lordships to consider that I deal in a Cause that highly concerneth the good of the Church unto which I profess I owe my whole self and therefore craving Pardon for this my Boldness I humbly take leave and rest still to continue Your Lordships in all dutiful Observance J. A. Droghedah April the 3d 1630. Instructions given to Mr. Dean Lesly April 5. 1630. for the stopping of Sir John Bathe's Patent 1. YOU are to inform your self whether Sir John Bathe's Patent be already sealed and if it be whether it were done before Saturday which was the day wherein I received and answered the Lords Justices Letters touching this business and at which time they signified the Patent was as yet unpast and use all speedy means that the Patent may not be delivered into Sir John Bathes hands before you be heard to speak what you can against it and if that also be done I authorize you to signifie unto the Lords Justices that I must and will complain against them to his Sacred Majesty 2. You are to go unto Sir James Ware the younger from me and enquire of him whether he gave any Certificate unto my Lord Treasurer and the Chancellor of the Exchequer that the King had not of Temporal Lands the annual Rent of 300 l. to grant in reversion but that of necessity must be supplied with the Grant of the reversion of Tithes impropriate And withal learn
of him to what value the Temporal Rents not yet passed in reversion do arise and what proportion thereof Sir John Bathe is now a passing in his Book 3. Whereas the Lords Justices in their Letter do signifie unto 〈◊〉 that such a Certificate had been made unto his Majesty by the Lord Treasurer and Chancellor of the Exchequer you may certifie them that Sir John Bathe sent unto me a Certificate under their hands to view wherein they do inform his Majesty that in their Judgments the granting of 〈◊〉 l. Rent in Reversion will countervail the Sum which Sir John was to remit but that there was no other thing leâ—t to be passed but Impropriations which is the main thing that concerns this business that to my remembrance they meddle not with at all and Sir John Bathe by the Temporal Lands that now he is passing in his Book doth prove it to be otherwise 4. Take a view of Sir John Bathe's Letter and consider with your Counsel first whether there be any general Non obstante in it against all precedent Instructions and Directions of which I much doubt And secondly Whether any such general Non obstante have power to cross the particular Letter which in â—y apprehension is more then an Instruction at large which I brought over from his Majesty that now is for the disposing of the Impropriations otherwise 5. Let Sir John Bathe be demanded upon his Conscience whether he did so much as know that I had obtained any such Letter from his Majesty when he procured his If he did why did he not to take away all suspicion of surreption cause a special Non obstante to be inserted against it as well as he hath done against another particular Instruction mentioned in the end of his Letter If he did not as his Kinsman who brought me the Lords Justices Letters assured me he did not how in any common intendment can it be presumed that the Particularities of my former Letter were 〈◊〉 into due consideration and revoked by his Majesty If it be alledged that his Letter coming after mine is of it self a sufficient Revocation thereof I alledg in like manner that this last Letter of mine coming after his is of it self a sufficient Revocation of his and so much the more by far because his was obtained upon my direct Complaint against Sir John Bathe's Letter as surreptitiously procured which I take to be a Non-obstante sufficient enough against him whatsoever it be against any other whereas in the procuring of Sir John Bathe's there was no notice at all taken of my particular Letter 6. You are to 〈…〉 the Instructions which they received with the Sword they are 〈…〉 make stay of the passing of any Grant for which the King's Letters are brought unto them where they have cause to doubt whether his Majesty were fully informed or no concerning the 〈◊〉 or inconveniency of that Particular Wherein if my Lord of London's Letter be not of authority sufficient otherwise to make a legal Attestation of his Majesties Royal Intendâ—ent yeâ— I suppoâ—◠〈◊〉 will 〈◊〉 so much weight with it as to 〈◊〉 theâ—◠〈◊〉 little which longer as they have done 〈◊〉 when they had nothing so strong a 〈◊〉 until his Majesty being fully informed upon both sides shall signifie his express Pleasure unto them in this particular And in doing otherwise they may justly conceive that it will be charged upon them for a neglect in performance of his Majesties Pleasure LETTER CLVII A Letter from the Right Reverend George Downham Bishop of London-Derry to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend MY very good Lord. The Book and Papers which you were pleased to send to me I have now returned with Thanks Of which I made this use so soon as I had received them that I gave Directions to Mr. Price to insert those Additions unto the 13th Chapter of Perseverance and § 3. both in the beginning whereof I spake of Adulti of whom properly this Controversy is understood And in the end thereof where I speak of Infants touching whom I say first That this Controversy is not understood of those who neither are endued with Habit of Grace nor are able to produce the Acts thereof as not having the use of Reason And therefore being neither justified by Faith nor sanctified by the Habits of Grace cannot be said to fall from them Thus I thought good to rid my self of that Question rather then to profess a difference from them who notwithstanding that Objection taken from Baptism agree with me in the Doctrine of Perseverance yet I must profess to your Grace that I do not subscribe to their Opinion who extend the benefit of Baptism beyond either the Purpose or Covenant of Grace But hereof more when it shall please God to give us a meeting In the mean time and always I commend your Grace to the gracious Protection of the Almighty In whom I ever rest Your Grace's in all Duty Georg. Derens. Fawne April 24. 1630. LETTER CLVIII A Letter from the Right Reverend Thomas Morton Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Salutem in Christo Jesu Most Reverend I Was right glad to receive by your Graces own Letters the report of your late almost desperate Sickness they being therein the Messengers of your present Health Wherein I and others are to acknowledg the Mercâ— of God unto us who hath preserved you to be still a most emâ—nenâ—â—nstrument of his Glory and Comfort of his Church I do also condole with your Lordship the loss of those rare Lights of Learning mentioned in your Letter but yet enjoying also with you the hopes of their Blessedness Your Grace inquires after Christ his Mass a Fruit which will not be in season before Michaelmas I have an eager longing to be made partaker Histoâ—icae Controversiae Predestinatianae together with your new Edition of altering the Jesuits Challenge I had the sight of your Adversaries Book but obiter at what time I alight on a palpable Falsification of his but ea est infelicitas Memoriae that I have forgot it else according to my Duty I should have acquainted your Grace with it Good my Lord that which our outward Man denieth let our inward continually seek to embrace and enjoy our mutual presence by brotherly Affection and holy Prayer unto God that we may be that which we profess Filii Gratiae Charitate Fratres Our Lord Jesus preserve us to the Glory of his saving Grace Your Grace's in respectful Acknowledgment Tho. Covent Litchfield Eccleshall-Castle May 21 1630. LETTER CLIX. A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Dr. Ward Salutem à salutis fonte D. N. Jesu Christo. YOur Letter of the 24th of November lay by the way almost a quarter of a Year before it came into my hands but was the most welcome when it came of any that I did receive from
bear to your Person and to the eminence of your place in the Church have moved us to make choice of your Lordship to preach here before this State on the Day whereon we purpose to perform those Ceremonies of Thankfulness due from us which we have thought fit to make known unto you purposing shortly to let you know the day when we desire your presence Yet if you shall find by your late Sickness any indisposition in your Body or danger to your Health to perform this Charge which we know would otherwise be very acceptable to you we do not in such case so strictly require your presence with us but that we do freely leave it to your own choice to come or stay as you shall find the disposition of your Body to enable you Only we desire to understand from you whether we shall then expect you or not to the end we may make choice of another if you may not come And so we bid your Lordship very heartily farewel From his Majesty's Castle of Dublin Junii 18. 1630. Your Lordship 's very loving Friends R. Cork Ad. Loftus Canc. In imitation of the like sent us out of England we have caused the inclosed to be imprinted here LETTER CLXVI A Letter from the Right Reverend William Laud Bishop of London to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Salutem in Christo. My very good Lord I Hope your Grace will pardon me that in all this time I have not written unto you For though I thank God I have recovered my Health in a measure beyond expectation yet I have been so overlaid with Business that I have not been able to give you any account or at least not such as I desired Your Lordship's first Letters for I owe you an answer to two bear date April the 5th and your later June the 4th 1630. The Main of both Letters is concerning Sir John Bathe And though in your last Letters you be confident that Sir John's Grant is not past the Seals as he hath avouched it is yet I must acquaint your Grace that you are mistaken therein for it appeared at the last sitting of the Committee that the Seal was put to his Grant at the beginning of April last Of which Doctrine you may make this Use what close conveyance and carriage there may be when the Church is to be spoiled I understand by Mr. Hamilton that the Lord Chancellor of Ireland is in Holy Orders and that being Deacon he holds an Arch-Deaconry yet of good value Surely my Lord if this be so there is somewhat in it that I will not express by Letter but were I his Superior in Ordinary I know what I would do and that I have plainly expressed both to his Majesty and the Lords Committees But my Lord for the Business I have stuck so close unto it both with his Majesty and with the Lords especially the Lord Treasurer who hath been and is very noble to the Church that I hope Sir John Bathe will see his Error and pitch upon some other Reward for his Services and surrender this Patent though seal'd that we may go on with the King 's Royal and Pious Grant to the Church Things being thus far onward once more there are two things which stick with the Lords 1. One is They like not the placing of these Impropriations upon any Incorporations Dublin or other To this I answered That neither did I like it and that it must be alter'd because it is against Law So it is resolved that we shall hereafter take not only that but all other material Passages of the Grant into consideration and therefore I think neither your old nor your new Letter will stand Some thought it fittest that these Impropriations should be left to the King to give To this I replied That that course would by the Suit of the Clergy and their Journeys over take off a great part of the Benefit intended them And to leave them in the Power of the Lord Deputy that might be but to enrich his Secretaries and expose the Church to that which I will not speak 2. The other Difficulty is That this Grant to the Church is too much against the King's Profit in these difficult Times because in the Lay-way the King's Rent may be improved which according to this Grant cannot be This Blow I looked not for but answered upon the sudden That I thought the Church of Ireland would be glad to take the King's Grant though it were with some improvement upon such Impropriations as might well bear it This I did partly to bear off the shock for the time and partly to gain opportunity to write to you who understand that Business better And I pray you by your next Letters give me all the help you can towards this Business One thing more and then I have done with Sir John Bathe Upon occasion of his Speech That the Clergy had a third part of that Kingdom I represented to the Lords the Paper which you sent me concerning the State of the County of Louth It was a miserable spectacle to them all yet at the last some Doubt arose whether those Values there expressed were the Rate in the King's Books or the uttermost value to the Incumbent To this I was not able to make a resolute Answer yet I feared they were Rates to the utmost value Hereupon the Lords required of me to write unto you to desire you to send me word with all the speed you can what value that Note of yours contain'd of which I pray fail not Your Grace is pleased in another Passage to desire me not to be too strict to my Rule in chusing Deans only to be Bishops My Lord it is true Deans are or should be the likeliest Men to be fitted for Bishopricks but they and no other was never any Rule of mine to my remembrance My Rule was and is and to that I shall ever be strict not to suffer any Bishop to hold any Deanery in Commendam if it lie in my power to hinder it For that which concerns the Bishop of Clonfert and Killmacduagh I have read the inclosed Papers you sent and see cause more than enough to pity but the way for remedy will be full of difficulty And for Killâ—anora there will be time enough to think upon Annexation For the Colledg and their Chauntry-Lands c. when they come for their Patent they shall not need to doubt all the lawful assistance that I can give them And now my Lord for as my Business stands 't is time to make an end I must needs thank you that you make it a matter of Joy to hear of my late Honour in being chosen Chancellor of Oxford My Lord I speak really it was beyond my deserts and contrary to my desires but since it hath pleased God by their Love to lay it upon me I must undergo the Burden as I may My honourable Predecessor enriched his Name by the Greek Manuscripts
Arbitrary Innovations not within the compass of the Rule and Order of the Book of Common-prayer and that he did not take upon him to introduce any Rite or Ceremony upon his own Opinion of Decency till the Church had judged it so p. 147. What the Lord Primat's behaviour was in England in relation to some of these Ceremonies of lesser moment either to the peace or well-being of the Church the Lord Primat needs no Apology he having reason enough for what he did if he conformed himself no further than the Doctor would have him But to give one Instance for all of the Doctor 's want of Charity towards the Lord Primat Dr. Bernard having asserted his Conformity to the Discipline Liturgy and Articles of the Church of England and that many of those who were called Puritans received such satisfaction from him as to concur with him in the above-said particulars The Doctor immediatly makes this Remark For this says he might very well be done and yet the Men remain as unconformable to the Rules of the Church their Kneeling at the Communion only excepted as they were before Now what other Rules of the Church the Doctor means I know not since I always thought that whoever had brought over a Lay-Nonconformist to conform to the Service and Orders of the Church had done a very good work and I know not when that is done what is required more to make him a true Son of the Church of England But I shall say no more on this ungrateful Subject since I doubt not but the Lord Primat's great Esteem and Reputation is too deep rooted in the hearts of all Good Men to be at all lessened by the Doctor 's hard Reflections tho I thought I could do no less than vindicate the Memory of so pious a Prelate since many ordinary Readers who were not acquainted with this good Bishop or his Writings may think Dr. H. had cause thus to find fault with him So avoiding all invidious Reflections upon the Reverend Doctor long since deceased I shall now conclude heartily wishing that whatever he hath written or published had never done any more prejudice to that Church which he undertook to serve than any of those Writings or Opinions of the Lord Primat's which he so much finds fault with FINIS A COLLECTION Of Three Hundred LETTERS Written between the Most Reverend Father in GOD JAMES USHER Late Lord Arch-Bishop of ARMAGH and most of the Eminentest Persons for PIETY and LEARNING in his Time both in ENGLAND and beyond the SEAS Collected and Published From Original Copies under their own Hands by RICHARD PARR D. D. his Lordships Chaplain at the Time of his Death with whom the Care of all his Papers were intrusted by his Lordship LONDON Printed for NATHANAEL RANEW at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVI THE CONTENTS LETTER I. A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Mr. Richard Stanihurst at the English Colledge in Lovain Page 1. II. A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Mr. William Eyres 2 III. A Letter from Mr. William Eyres to Mr. James Usher 3 IV. A Letter from Mr. Henry Briggs to Mr. James Usher 11 V. A Letter from Mr. Thomas Lydiat to Mr. James Usher 13 VI. A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Mr. Thomas Lydiat 14 VII A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Mr. Thomas Lydiat 15 VIII A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Dr. Challoner 16 IX A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to Mr. James Usher 17 X. A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Mr. Samuel Ward 18 XI A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to Mr James Usher 22 XII A Letter from Mr. Alexander Cook to Mr. James Usher 32 XIII A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to Mr. James Usher 33 XIV A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to Mr. James Usher 34 XV. A Letter from Mr. William Eyres to Mr. James Usher 34 XVI A Letter from Mr. Henry Briggs to Mr. James Usher 35 XVII A Letter from the Most Reverend Tobias Matthews Arch-Bishop of York to Mr. James Usher 36 XVIII A Letter from Mr. Thomas Gataker to Mr. James Usher 37 XIX A Letter from Mr. Robert Usher to Dr. James Usher 38 XX. A Letter from Mr. Thomas Lydiat to Dr. James Usher 39 XXI A Letter from Dr. James Usher to Mr. Thomas Lydiat 43 XXII A Letter from Dr. James Usher concerning the Death and Satisfaction of Christ. 46 XXIII An Answer to some Objections against the said Letter by Dr. James Usher 49 XXIV A Letter from Sr. Henry Bourgchier to Dr. James Usher 53 XXV A Letter from Mr. William Crashaw to Dr. James Usher 55 XXVI A Letter from Mr. Thomas Gataker to Dr. James Usher 56 XXVII A Letter from Mr. Thomas Lydiat to Dr. James Usher 57 XXVIII A Letter from Mr. William Eyres to Dr. James Usher 59 XXIX A Letter from Mr. James Warren to Dr. James Usher 60 XXX A Letter from Dr. James Usher to Mr. Thomas Lydiat 60 XXXI A Letter from Sr. Henry Bourgchier to Dr. James Usher 61 XXXII A Letter from Mr. William Eyres to Dr. James Usher 62 XXXIII A Letter from Dr. James Usher to Mr. William Camden 63 XXXIV A Letter from Mr. William Camden to Dr. James Usher 65 XXXV A Letter from Mr. Thomas Warren to Dr. James Usher 66 XXXVI A Letter from the Right Reverend Thomas Morton Bishop of Chester to Dr. James Usher 67 XXXVII A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to Dr. James Usher 67 XXXVIII A Letter from Dr. James Usher to Mr. Thomas Lydiat 68 XXXIX A Letter from Dr. James Usher 71 XL. A Letter from Mr. Edward Browncker to Dr. James Usher 72 XLI A Letter from Dr. James Usher Bishop Elect of Meath to the most Reverend Dr. Hampton Arch-Bishop of Armagh 73 XLII A Letter from the most Reverend Dr. Hampton Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 75 XLIII A Letter from Mr. Thomas Gataker to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 76 XLIV A Letter from Sir William Boswell to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 77 XLV A Letter from Sir Henry Spelman to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 78 XLVI A Letter from Mr. John Selden to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 78 XLVII A Letter from Sir Robert Cotton to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 79 XLVIII A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 80 XLIX A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath to Mr. John Selden 81 L. A Letter from Dr. Samuel Ward to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 81 LI. A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath to Oliver Lord Grandison 83 LII A Letter from the most Reverend Dr. Hampton Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 84 LIII A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath to Dr. Samuel Ward 85
Most Reverend William Laud Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 476 CLXXXV A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Dr. Samuel Ward 477 CLXXXVI A Letter from Ludovicus de Dieu to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 478 CLXXXVII A Letter from Ludovicus de Dieu to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 480 CLXXXVIII A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Ludovicus de Dieu 481 CLXXXIX A Letter from the Most Reverend William Laud Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 482 CXC A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Gerardus Vossius 483 CXCI. A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Fredericus Spanhemius 484 CXCII A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Constantinus L'Empereur ab Oppych 485 CXCIII A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Ludovicus de Dieu 486 CXCIV A Letter from Ludovicus de Dieu to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 487 CXCV. A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Ludovicus de Dieu 487 CXCVI. A Letter from Mr. J. Battiere to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 488 CXCVII A Letter from Constantinus L'Empereur ab Oppych to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 490 CXCVIII. A Letter from Arnoldus Bootius to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 491 CXCIX A Letter from Dr. William Gilbert to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 492 CC. A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Dr. Samuel Ward 494 CCI. A Letter from Sir Simon D'Ewes to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 495 CCII. A Letter from the Right Honourable Dudly Loftus Lord Chancellor of Ireland to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 497 CCIII A Letter from Mr. Arnold Boate to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 498 CCIV. A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Lewis de Dieu 499 CCV A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh concerning the Sabbath and Observation of the Lords Day 500 CCVI. A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Sir Simon D'Ewes 505 CCVII. A Letter from Johannes Priceus to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 506 CCVIII A Letter from Sybilla Christiana Comitiss Hanoviae to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 507 CCIX. A Letter from D. Blondellus to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 508 CCX A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Claudius Salmasius 508 CCXI. A Letter from Mr. John Greaves to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 509 CCXII. A Letter from Dr. Gerard Langbaine to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 510 CCXIII. A Letter from Christianus Ravius to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 511 CCXIV. A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Dr. Gerard Langbaine 512 CCXV A Leter from Dr. Gerard Langbaine to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 513 CCXVI A Letter from Dr. Gerard Langbaine to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 514 CCXVII A Letter from T. to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 515 CCXVIII A Letter from the Right Reverend Joseph Hall Bishop of Norwich to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 516 CCXIX. A Letter from Mr. Patrick Young to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 517 CCXX A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Fredericus Spanhemius 518 CCXXI A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Johannes Gerardus Vossius 518 CCXXII A Letter from the Right Reverend Thomas Barlow now Bishop of Lincoln to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 519 CCXXIII. A Letter from Claudius Sarravius to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 521 CCXXIV. A Letter from Fredericus Spanhemius to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 522 CCXXV. A Letter from Dr. Gerard Langbaine to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 523 CCXXVI A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Christophorus Justellus 526 CCXXVII A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Claudius Sarravius 527 CCXXVIII A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Isaacus Vossius 527 CCXXIX A Letter from the Right Reverend Joseph Hall Bishop of Norwich to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 528 CCXXX A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend Joseph Hall Bishop of Norwich 529 CCXXXI A Letter from Gerardus Johannes Vossius to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 529 CCXXXII A Letter from Dr. Jsaac Basire to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 530 CCXXXIII A Letter from Sir Thomas Ryves to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 531 CCXXXIV A Letter from Mr. Arnold Boate to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 533 CCXXXV A Letter from Dr. Gerard Langbaine to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 535 CCXXXVI A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Dr. Alexander More 536 CCXXXVII A Letter from Sir Thomas Reeves to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 537 CCXXXVIII A Letter from Isaacus Gruterus to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 538 CCXXXIX A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Johannes Gerardus Vossius 539 CCXL A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Johannes Hevelius 540 CCXLI. A Letter from Dr. Henry Hammond to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 541 CCXLII. A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Dr. Henry Hammond 541 CCXLIII A Letter from Dr. Henry Hammond to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 542 CCXLIV A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Dr. Henry Hammond 542 CCXLV A Letter from Dr. Henry Hammond to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 543 CCXLVI A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Dr. Henry Hammond 543 CCXLVII. A Letter from Mr. Edward Davenant to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 544 CCXLVIII A Letter from Mr. Abraham Wheelock to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 545 CCXLIX A Letter from Isaacus Gruterus to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 547 CCL A Letter from Petrus Scavenius to the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh 547 CCLI A Letter
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
Midensis Dublin Oct. 16. 1622. LETTER LII A Letter from the Most Reverend Dr. Hampton Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath Salutem in Christo. My Lord IN the exceptions taken by Recusants against your Sermon I cannot be affected as Gallio was at the beating of Sosthenes to care nothing for them I am sensible of that which my Brethren suffer And if my advice had been required I should have counselled your Lordship to give lenitives of your own accord for all which was conceived over harsh or sharp the inquisition whether an offence were given or taken may add to the flame already kindled and provoke further displeasure it is not like to pacifie anger But let your case be as good as Peter's was when the Brethren charged him injuriously for preaching to the uncircumcised the great Apostle was content to give them a fair publick satisfaction Act. 11. and it wrought good effects for the Text saith His auditis quieverunt glorificaverunt Deum it brought peace to the Congregation and glory to God My Noble Lord Deputy hath propounded a way of pacification that your Lordship should here satisfie such of the Lords as would be present wherein my poor endeavours shall not be wanting howbeit to say ingenuously as I think that is not like to have success for the Lord of Kilkenny and your other friends trying their strengths in that kind at Trim prevailed not but can tell your Lordship what is expected And if my wishes may take place seeing so many men of Quality have something against you tary not till they complain but prevent it by a voluntary retractation and milder interpretation of the points offensive and especially of drawing the Sword of which spirit we are not nor ought to be for our Weapons are not Carnal but Spiritual Withal it will not be amiss in mine opinion for you Lordship to withdraw your self from those Parts and to spend more time in your own Diocess that such as will not hear your Doctrine may be drawn to love and reverence your Lordship for your hospitality and conversation Bear with the Plaines of an Old mans Pen and leave nothing undone to recover the Intercourse of Amitie between you and the People of your Charge Were it but one that is alienated you would put on the Bowels of the Evangelical Shepherd you would seek him and support his Infirmities with your own Shoulders how much more is it to be done when so many are in danger to be lost But they are generous and noble and many of them near unto you in Blood or Alliance which will plead effectually and conclude the matter fully whensoever you shew your self ready to give them Satisfaction In the mean time I will not fail to pray God for his Blessings unto the Business and so do rest Your Lordships very loving Brother Armagh Tredagh October 17. 1622. LETTER LIII A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath to Dr. Samuel Ward Master of Sidney Sussex Colledge Cambridge Worthy Sir I Was heartily glad when I heard that upon my Lord of Sarum's Promotion you were chosen to succeed him in Reading the Lady Margaret's Lecture and do very well approve the Judgment of them who advised you to handle the Controversies mentioned in that Chapter of Cardinal Perron's Book which Bertius pretendeth to have been the principal Motive of verifying in himself the Title of his old Book Hymenoeus Desertor His Oration of the Motives to his Perversion I saw before I left England than which I never yet did see a more silly and miserable Discourse proceed from the Hands of a learned Man The Epistle that Chrysostom wrote unto Caesarius against the Heresie of Apollinarius and others that confounded the Deity and Humanity in Chirist is not cited by Leontius but by the Author of the Collections against the Severians who is thought to have lived about the time of Damascen In the 8th Tome Bibliothecae patrum Edit Colon. An. 1618. pag. 336. you shall find these words alledged by him ex Chrysostomo ad Caesarium Monachum Hoc est absurdum dogma Apollinarii amentis haec est hoeresis impiissima introducentium mixtionem et compositionem Sir Henry Savil was of your mind that Pet. Martyr met with this Treatise only in Latine but I shewed him the contrary by the Controversie that was betwixt Gardiner and Him Respons ad Object 201 concerning the Interpretation of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Martyr mistaking it as if it had been derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so translating it in that Sentence Sic et divinâ mundante corporis naturâ and Gardiner on the other side contending it should be rendred Firmante corporis naturâ and the righter of the three peradventure being that which I follow divinâ naturâ in corpore insidente I am at this present in hand with such a Work as you are imployed in being drawn thereunto by a Challenge made by a Jesuit in this Country concerning the Fathers Doctrine in the Point of Traditions Real Presence Auricular Confession Priest's Power to forgive Sins Purgatory Prayer for the Dead Limbus Patrum Prayer to Saints Images Free-will and Merits I handle therein only the positive Doctrine of the Fathers and the Original of the contrary Error leaving the Vindication of the Places of Antiquity abused by the Adversary until I be urged thereunto hereafter by my Challenger The better part of the Work I have gone through already As soon as the whole is finished I will not forget to send it unto you or else deliver it with mine own hands In the mean time I send you a Treatise written by one of our Judges here touching these Controversies with a Discourse of mine own added thereunto concerning the Religion professed by the Ancient Irish And so leaving you and all your painful Endeavours unto the Blessing of our good God I rest Your own in all Christian Love and Affection Jac. Midensis Tinglass March 18 1622. LETTER LIV. A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath Salutem à fonte Salutis Most Reverend in Christ I Cannot hope to send you any Portion of our London News which common Fame will not bring sooner to you I notwithstanding fail in my Duty if I adventure not The same day of your departure hence the Houses of Parliament presented their Petition concerning Recusants to the King to which they received a large and very satisfactory Answer and a Proclamation to that purpose is expected within a few days On Saturday the day following the Spanish Ambassador I mean the Marquess desiring Audience acquainted the King with a Practice of Treason namely That the Prince and my Lord of Buckingham had conspired That if they could not draw the King to their Desires this Parliament by the Authority thereof they would confine him to some place of Pleasure and transfer the Government to
the Princes About this there is now much consultation in what manner to proceed Salvo legatino jure and Sir Robert Cotton as you know his manner is hath been very busie in ransacking his Papers for Presidents Of this more hereafter This day my Lord Treasurer makes his Answer about the beginning of the next Week we shall know his Doom Our good Friend D. Lyndsel was cut on Munday and is yet God be praised well after it there was a Stone taken out of his Bladder about the bigness of a Shilling and rough on the one side I am now collating of Bede's Ecclestastical History with Sir Robert Cotton's Copy wherein I find many Variations I compare it with Commelyn's Edition in Folio which is that I have All that I expect from your Lordship is to understand of the Receipt of my Letters which if I know I shall write the more confidently I should also willingly know how you like your Dwelling My Lord of Bristol is come I pray you present my Love and Service to Mrs. Usher And so with many thanks for all your kind Respects I will ever remain Your very affectionate Friend and Servant Henry Bourgchier London April 28. 1623. Sir Robert Cotton is like to get a very good Copy of Malmsbury de Antiquit Glaston It is a Book I much desire to see I pray you remember the Irish Annal which you promised me before your going out of Town LETTER LV. A Letter from Mr. H. Holcroft to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath My Lord IT hath pleased his Majesty now to direct this Letter to the Lord Deputy to admit you a Privy Counsellor of that Kingdom I am ashamed it hath staid so long in my hands before it could be dispatch'd But if it had come at the first to me during the Duke of Buckingham's being here it had not staid three days but gone on in the plain High-way which is ever via sana After the Lord Deputy was pleased to put it into my Hands at my first Access I moved his Majesty and shewed his Lordships Hand But the King willed it should stay and it became not me to press it further at that time I know the Cause of the Stay was not any dislike of your Person or Purpose not to grant it But if the Duke had come home in any time you should have been beholding to him for it I pray your Lordship not to think it strange that about the same time his Majesty dispatch'd the Letter for Sir Edward Trevour to be a Counsellor The Grant was gotten by my Lord of Buckingham before his going and by his Commandment I drew it I do strive to give your Lordship a particular Accompt of this Business and do pray your Lordship to endeavour to satisfie the Lord Deputy of whose Commands herein I was not negligent So soon as I acquainted his Majesty with his Lordships second Letter I had his Royal Signature of which I wish you much Joy My Lord Grandison is in reasonable good Health So I remain Your Lordships most assured Friend Henry Holcroft Westminster June 13. 1623. LETTER LVI A Letter from Dr. Goad and Dr. Featly Chaplains to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath Admodum Reverende Domine HAving so convenient a means we send to your Lordship which perhaps you have not yet seen translated and thus Armed with a Preface by a worthy and learned Gentleman Sir Humphrey Lynd our Neighbour To whose Observations concerning the Censures upon this Tractate de Corpore Sang. Christi if you will add any thing which he hath not espyed we will impart the same from you to him whereby your Lordship shall more encourage this well deserving Defender of the Cause of Religion to whom in other Respects the Church and common Cause oweth much For at this instant upon our Motion he hath undertaken the Charge of printing the particular passages of many late Writers castrated by the Romish Knife The Collections are made by Dr. James and are now to be sent unto us for preparation to the Press We shall begin with Polydore Virg. Stella Mariana and Ferus Proeterea in eodem genere alia texitur tela The Story of the Waldenses written in French and comprising Relations and Records for 400 years is now in translating into English to be published Before which it is much desired that your Lordship will be pleased to prefix a Preface for the better pass which we think will be very acceptable and the rather because we hope your Lordship will therein intimate that in the same Subject jamdudum aliquid parturis whereto this may serve for a Midwife unless the Masculine birth deliver it self before this foreign Midwife come Thus desiring to hear from your Lordship but more to see you here upon a good occasion we take our Leave and rest Thomas Goad Your Lordships to be commanded Daniel Featly Lambeth June 14. 1623. LETTER LVII A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath Salutem à Salutis fonte D. N. Jesu Christo. Most Reverend in Christ THough I have little to say more than the remembrance of my love and best respects I could not forbear to lay hold on the opportunity of this Bearer our common friend thereby to present them as many ways most due from me to your Lordship You have been so long expected here that your Friends Letters have by that means come more rarely to your hands We have little News either of the great business or any other though Messengers come Weekly out of Spain And I conceive that Matters are yet very Doubtful The new Chapel for the Infanta goes on in Building and our London-Papists report That the Angels descend every Night and Build part of it Here hath been lately a Conference between one Fisher a Jesuit and one Sweete on the one side and Dr. Whyte and Dr. Feately on the other The Question was of the Antiquity and Succession of the Church It is said that we shall have it Printed All our Friends are in good Health namely Sr. Robert Cotton Sr. Henry Spelman Mr. Camden Mr. Selden and the rest and Remember themselves most Affectionately to you Mr. Selden will send you a Copy of his Eadmerus with the first opportunity which should have been done before this time had not his expectation of you here stayed his hand Philip Cluverius is lately Dead at Leyden of a Consumption Before his Death he was so happy as to finish his Italia which they say is done with great diligence and the Impression so forward that we shall have it this Autumnal Marte My Lord Chichester is to go within a Fortnight to Colen to the Treaty and Meeting there appointed for the Restitution of the Palatinate But some think that the Armies now a-foot in Germany will much hinder it Bethlem Gabor troubles the Emperor again in Austria The Duke of Brunswick in
Bohemia Lusatia and Silesia and Manfeyld in other places I believe I shall see your Lordship in Ireland before I see you here If your Answer to the Challenge be Printed I hope I shall be beholding to you for a Copy And thus wishing your Lordship as much happiness as to my self I will ever remain Your Lordships most Affectionate Friend and Servant Henry Bourgchier London July 14. 1623. Divers of my fellow-Commissioners remember their best Affections to your Lordship especially Sr. Nath. Rich and Mr. Crew My Lord Marshal speaks of you often with much Affection you will find him a noble Friend if occasion be to use him which if it be in your absence and my self present I shall be most glad to be your Sollicitor LETTER LVIII A Letter from the Right Reverend Thomas Morton Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath Salutem in Christo Jesu Right Reverend and Dear Brother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I Do much joy to hear of your health wherein consisteth the comfort of many I have been much beholding unto Mr. Dr. Barlow for his pains both in commending your Lordships health unto me and in inviting me by his presence to write unto you yet more especially for the view that he gave me of your Treatise which is now lately published At the sight of the Inscription viz. The Religion professed by the Ancient Irish I was compelled to usurp that saying Num boni quid ex Galiloea Yet when I came and saw it is that good which beyond expectation doth much affect me This is Ex tenebris lucem Macte industriâ sanctitate and bless the World with your labours When I shall have any thing that may seem acceptable I shall be ready to impart it unto your Lordship My request is That when you shall have occasion for London I may be your Host for I lie directly in the Road In the interim let us I pray you enjoy the Rite of Christian Absents to pray one for another And thus desiring our Lord Jesus to preserve us to the glory of his Saving Grace I rest Your Lordship's loving Brother and Friend Tho. Coven Litch Eccleshall July 19 1623. LETTER LIX A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath to the Most Reverend Dr. Hampton Arch-Bishop of Armagh My very good Lord IT is now above a fortnight since I received your Graces direction for prosecuting the Order for settlement of the payment of Tithes in the Escheated Counties whereof some question was made at the Council Table My Lord Docwra and my self the next day after we received your Letters addressed our selves unto the Lord Deputy and possessed him fully with the substance of the business Within two hours after your Graces Letter was openly read at the Table together with which I exhibited the Orders set down in your Triennial Visitation Anno 1620. Whereupon my Lord Deputy very honourably moved that the former Act of State might be renewed and enlarged with the addition of such particulars as were in your Orders expressed and there omitted It was replyed That the matter was of great importance and much concerned the Country and therefore it was not suddenly to be resolved upon until the advice of the Judges and some other of the Bishops were had therein In the mean time for the preparing of matters Mr. Vice-Treasurer my Lord Chief Justice Sir Roger Jones Sir Adam Loftus and my self were appointed to meet in private and to consider of those particulars in your Graces Order which were not formerly contained in the Act of State The things questioned at that meeting were 1. For the Titles of Warrens and Fish of which they made doubt whether they ought to be paid or no. 2. Of Tradesmen Merchants and Sellers of small Wares under which Title they said all sellers of Ale all manual Occupation and day Labourers might be comprehended yea and the Servants of all the Trades also as well as the Masters 3. To the Title of Milk and Calves they would have the words of Cheese and Butter added to take a way all questions about them 4. That no Seed of Hemp and Flax should be paid but such as are in the Bundle with the stalks of the Hemp and Flax as it was no otherwise I told them in the Order intended 5. Of Mortuaries was the last and greatest Controversie which being given heretofore as was alledged for praying for dead mens Souls it was by some said That it was against Law and Conscience to demand them now when such praying is held to be unlawful But generally the exception taken against the Order was That the poor only did suffer therein and therefore it was wished that a certainty might be laid down for all Mortuaries This is the substance of all that passed at that meeting since which I have attended divers times to see unto what issue these things might be brought at the Table And to be sure that nothing should be done therein in my absence I took with me your Graces Orders and the Commissioners Animadversions upon them and still detain them in mine own custody At last considering that it was your Graces pleasure that my Lord Chancellor should be made acquainted with this business before it came to the Table seeing by reason of his absence that could not then be done I thought it not amiss yesterday to move my Lord Deputy that things might be deferred until my Lord Chancellor's coming hither for now that my Lord Docwra is in England I think we shall not find any like affected unto us in this business as my Lord Deputy and Lord Chancellor have always shewed themselves to be My continual expectation of the ending of this matter hath occasioned the delay of my writing unto your Grace therein now as you shall be pleased to give me further direction I will either proceed in the same or forbear until we may have the benefit of my Lord Chancellor's presence While I was writing of this I received your Graces Letter brought by this Bearer together with his complaint made against Heglye and others in the prosecution of that suit I will according to your direction give order to my Official that these violent courses may be stayed until the truth of things upon further examination may appear I find more trouble with Mr. Heglye and Mr. Shepherd in causes of this nature than with all the Ministers in Meath beside and in truth my Lord unless some course be taken for restraining such unquiet spirits as these our whole Clergy will pessime audire for their sakes Yesterday I was fain my self to prefer a Petition to my Lord Deputy in the behalf of my Clergy that no Indictments might be permitted to proceed against them at the Assizes for matters of this kind but they might be referred to the Ecclesiastical Court unto which the cognisance of the right of Tithes doth properly appertain And I do discern at
Spain will satisfy your longing therein some of the first places are amended according to the Prescript of that unholy Inquisition but farther they proceed not all the rest and in one place a whole leaf or two are to be expunged but untouched in that of Lyons We have fully finished the Collation of the Opus imperfectum hereafter more of that matter mean time I have taken pains for trial sake to compare both our Basil and it with the Manuscript for one Homily I find wonderful need of a second review I have sent you a Proof of some few Differences from both the printed Copies whereby you may perceive how this Book and sundry others have been tossed and tumbled by ignorant Men what and how great mistakes and need of a diligent review for this is but lapping I do send you up also in thankfulness for Dr. Goad's Project a Fancy of mine which I pray you to impart to the good Bishop if he give any liking to it let it go forward if otherwise let it be remanded it is both fesible and possible in my judgment If Cambridge will set up or set forward the like I dare undertake more good to be done for the profit of Learning and true Religion than by building ten Colleges I have of late given my self to the reading only of Manuscripts and in them I find so many and so pregnant Testimonies either fully for our Religion or against the Papists that it is to be wondred at Religion of Papists then and now do not agree How many private Men out of their Devotion would singly be able to found such a College much more jointly considered but I leave all to God's Providence it shall suffice and be a great comfort to me if this cannot be effected that by my Lord of Canterbury's Letters which I have long'd for we may have a quasi College and the whole benefit of that which is expected in Dr. Goad's refin'd Project I my self by my intreaty have set twenty or thirty a-work how may the Lord Archbishop command our Heads of Houses and they their Company or at least one out of a College or Hall I have or shall receive this week three quire of Paper of my Workmen for which as they finish the quire I lay out the Mony 20 s. for each quire of Gu. de S. Amore I have received one quire and so of Wickleph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is harder to read and the other in English of Wicklephs I look for this day Platina is almost done Alphonsus à Castro respited a while and Cajetan likewise till I hear from the Learned Bishop Touching Wicelius I thank you for your Advertisment I now perceive my Conjecture fails me not that Cassander was much holpen by him and his Judgment confirm'd by reading his but if I read his Epistles I will tell you my mind howsoever in the interim Wicelius is of more authority than Cassander and his Books concealed purposely or made away quantum in illis by the Inquisitors I have ever been of Dr. Ward 's mind touching the publishing those Books which they make away so fast ut jugulent homines furgunt c. Fisher de natura Dei is in one of their Indices impudently denied to be his tho some one in the Council of Trent say nay Upon the fifth of Matthew is but a scantling to those great Volumes which I have ready if any Man please to come hither he may see the whole My Lord of Meath's return and earnestness for the Plot both before and since as also Dr. Goad's forwardness to print ought hereabout I pray God the News be not too good to be true glads me much as the Sickness of my Lord of Ely doth some no less It were not from the purpose if Dr. Sutcliff do see this whole Project of our College and Purpose and if he did turn away his mind wholly from Chelsey I durst presume of more fasibility and possibility here of doing good Lastly for the Catalogue it is a great and painful Work but hath well requited my Pains in that I find some Books that I have long sought after and could not find as Stella of the Popes and such like If any thing be printed I would print only those that are not mentioned in our present Catalogue But where is the Encouragement for the printing or doing any thing If our Genevians had sent us over that of Gregory at this Mart how seasonable had it been to have put an egde to our great Business I am sorry it came not but see no remedy What of the Enchiridion nothing my Judgment you have and it is free to alter that do nothing at pleasure but sure I am some things are past question lay aside and expunge all doubtful Treatises till our College take them in hand which shall rivet them in after another fashion if God give Life I have now at length recovered the Spanish Book of Mr. Boswell the Book is a Commentary upon our English Laws and Proclamations against Priests and Jesuits spightful and foolish enough but especially about the Powder-Treason laying it to Puritans as Cobham Gray and Rawley or to the whole State or a Policy to intrap Them and their Estates I would my Lord of Meath did understand the Tongue that from him the King might understand the Mystery of Iniquity contained in the Book No Place or Time when or where it was printed Was he asham'd of that he did and it seemeth it or the like like hath been divulged in many Languages But I end and pray God That the Clergy give us not a fair denial that is a delay to our Businesses at this Session Let my Lord prevent as wisely and timely as he can God have you and all yours in his safe keeping and remember my Service in dutiful manner to my Lord and Commendations to my Cousin with whom if I had had the Spirit of Prophecy Dr. Featly should not have coaped withal but God send the Truth to take place if the President be faulty to be punished if innocent to be delivered And so once again I bid you heartily farewel Your most assured Friend Tho. James Oxon the 23d of May 1624. If my Lord of Meath nor any other there hath Wicelius it shall be written out unless my Lord please to speak with Sir William Paddy who was the Donor of the Book and may command it to London where it may be reprinted LETTER LXVII A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath My very good Lord YEsterday being the 27th of September I received this inclosed Letter In reading whereof it presently came into my mind that this was the Man at whose Sermon his Majesty was so much offended when I was last at Court Whereupon I sent for the party and upon Conference had with him found indeed that I was not deceived in mine Opinion I put him in mind that his Conceits were contrary to the
did not send it which by the next Ship if your Lordship please God willing I will send you But I pray understand that by the Syriack Tongue they mean here the Caldean And every Man tells me it is all one the Syrians and Caldeans being one and the same People but questionless the same Language Therefore if your Lordship mean and desire to have the Old Testament in Caldean I beseech you to write me by the first over Land that I may provide it by the next Ship Also I beseech you to take knowledge that I dare not promise you to send it according to the Hebrew for neither my self nor any other Man here can determine it only I must be forc'd to take his word that sells it me who is a Minister of the Sect of the Marranites and by birth a Caldean but no Scholar neither is there any to be found in these parts but if your Lordship will have me send it at adventures though it cost dear as it will cost 10 l. I will do my best endeavour to send it by the first Conveyance but shall do nothing herein until such time I have further order from your Lordship to effect business of this nature in these parts requires time Travel being very tedious in these Countries I have inquired of divers both Christians and Jews of the overflowing of Jordan but can learn no certainty Some say it never rises but after great Rain but I met with a learned Jew at least so reputed who told me that Jordan begins to flow the 13th of July and continues flowing 29 days and is some 18 or 20 days increasing but I dare not believe him his Relation not agreeing with the Text for Harvest is near ended with them by that time and unless you will understand by Harvest the time of gathering Grapes it cannot agree I have also sent to Damascus concerning this and trust ere long to satisfy your Lordship in this Particular and in the Calendar of the Samaritans A French Frier who lived at Jerusalem told me that it never overflowed except occasiond by Rain whereupon I shewed him the words in Joshua 3. 15. that Jordan overfloweth his Banks at the time of Harvest which words are written with a Parenthesis and therefore said he are no part of the Text which I know is his ignorance I could have shewed him the thing plainly proved by that which he holds Canonical Scripture Ecclus. 24. 26. If I have done your Lordship any Service herein I shall greatly rejoyce and shall ever be ready and willing to do the best Service I can to further the Manifestation of God's Truth yea I should think my self happy that I were able to bring a little Goats Hair or a few Badgers Skins to the building of God's Tabernacle I acknowledg your Lordship's Favour towards me who have not neither could deserve at your hands the least Kindness conceivable yet the Graciousness of your sweet Disposition emboldens me to entreat the continuance of the same and also the benefit of your faithful Prayers so shall I pass the better amongst these Infidel Enemies to God and his Christ. And so I pray God to encrease and multiply his Favours and Graces both upon your Soul and Body making you happy in what ever you possess here and hereafter to grant you Glory with Christ into whose hands I recommend your Lordship and humbly take leave ever resting Your Lordship 's in all bounden duty to command Thomas Davies Aleppo Aug. 29. 1624. LETTER LXX A Letter from Mr. Thomas Pickering to the R. R. James Usher Bishop of Meath at Wicken-Hall Right Reverend and my very good Lord I Was not unmindful according to my Promise to send to Dr. Crakenthorp for Polybius and Diodorus Siculus immediatly after I was with your Lordship But he attending the Visitations at Colchester and Maldon came not home till yesterday At which time sending my Man for the Books the Doctor returned Answer That your Lordship shall command any Books he hath whensoever you please That he had not Diodorus Siculus but he sent me Polybius and Marianus Scotus which he says Dr. Barkham told him you desired to borrow These two Books your Lordship shall now receive and if it fall out that you be already provided of Marianus Scotus then it may please you to let that come back again because the Doctor tells me that after a while he shall have occasion to see some things for his use in Sigebert and other Writers which are bound in this Volume with Marianus but by all means he desires your turn should be served however I shall be most ready to afford your Lordship any Service that lieth in my power during your aboad in these parts holding my self in common with the Church of God much bound to you for your great and weighty Labours both formerly and presently undertaken in the Cause of our Religion The God of all Wisdom direct your Meditations and Studies and grant you Health and all Conveniences for the Accomplishment of your intended Task And so with remembrance of Dr. Crakenthorp's and my own Love and Service I humbly take leave and shall ever rest Your Lordship 's in my best Devotions and Services to be commanded Tho. Pickering Finchingfield Sept. 9. 1624. LETTER LXXI A Letter from Mr. Thomas Davies in Aleppo to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath Right Reverend Sir MY bounden Duty remembred c. News here is not any worthy your knowledg the great Rebel Abassa still troubles the State and hinders the going forward of the Army against the Persian Some few days time News came that the Vizier had given Battel to the Rebel and that the Rebel had cut off 12000 Janisaries yet they report the Vizier to have the best of the day which most Men judg to be but report certainly it is that Abassa will give them great trouble pretending only Revenge upon the Janisaries for the Blood of his Master Sultan Osman The greatest Villanies that ever were practised or intended never wanted their Pretences Yet it is thought by many that this Man hath done nothing without leave from the Port otherways it is strange they had not cut him off long since for what can be his Forces against the Grand Signior's Powers The Janisaries refuse to go to War before the Rebel be cut off or Peace made with him whereby you may observe what Power the King hath over his Souldiers the truth is they command and rule all oppressing and eating up the Poor When I consider the Estate of the Christians in these Parts yea the Mahumetans themselves that are not Souldiers then must I say happy yea thrice happy are the Subjects of the King of England who live in peace and enjoy the Fruits of their own Labours and yet have another and a greater Blessing the free passage of the Gospel I pray God we may see and be thankful for so great Favours expressing it by Obedience
to God and Honour to our King Thus fearing that I have troubled your Lordship with a slender Discourse humbly take my leave beseeching the Lord of Lords to multiply his Graces upon you recommending you with all yours to God's Grace and Mercy rest Your Lordship 's in all Duty to command Thomas Davies Aleppo 29th September 1624. LETTER LXXII A Letter from Sir H. Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath My very good Lord I Received your Lordship's Letter for which I return many thanks My Journy into Ireland is of such necessity that I cannot defer it long though I have many motives besides those mentioned by your Lordship to urge my stay As for the Books which you mention I find Jordanus in vitas Fratrum in the Catalogue of the Publick Library at Oxford Mr. Selden told me he never heard of the Author if any Library about London have it or that other Work of his I will endeavour to discover them As for the new Edition of Sealiger de Emendat Temporum as many as I speak withal are of opinion that it is so far from coming out that it is not yet come in to the Press Here are already come two Dry-fats of Mart Books and they expect but one more you may perceive by the Catalogue what they are Here will be very shortly some good Libraries to be had as Dr. Dee's which hath been long litigious and by that means unsold One Oliver a Physician of St. Edmundsbury of whose writing I have seen some Mathematical Tracts printed and Dr. Crakanthorp are lately dead If there be any extraordinary Books which your Lordship affects if you will be pleased to send a note of them they shall be bought Such News as we have you receive so frequently as coming from me they would be stale which you know destroys their very Essence We have had Bonfires Ringing Shouting and also Ballads and base Epithalamiums for the conclusion of the French Marriage and yet I am but modicae fidei Our Country-man Florence Mr. Carthye was committed to the Tower some five days since And thus remembring my best Affection to your Lordship and Mrs. Usher I will remain Your Lordship 's very affectionate Friend and Servant Henry Bourgchier London in haste Novemb. 24. 1624. LETTER LXXIII A Letter from Dr. Ward to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath at Much-Haddam in Essex My very good Lord IT was my purpose to have come to visit your Lordship at Haddam to morrow but the truth is upon Thusday last before I came out of Cambridg I was made acquainted with a business which will occasion my return to Cambridg to morrow I notwithstanding brought with me the Manuscripts of Bedes Ecclesiastical Story which I have of Sir R. Cotton's and have sent it unto you by this Bearer Walter Mark I will expect the Book from you when you have done with it for that I would keep it till Sir Robert restore a Book of mine which he had of Mr. Patrick Young I had purposed to have borrowed also out of our University Library Simeon Dunelmensis but I find that I am deceived in that I thought it had been his History or Chronicle but it is only the History of the Church of Durham and of the Endowments of that Church and not his History of England And thus sorry that my occasions will not suffer me to see your Lordship this time and with my kind Salutations to Sir Gerard Harvy and his Lady with Thanks for my kind Entertainment when I was there I commend you to the gracious Protection of the highest Majesty Your Lordship 's in all observance Samuel Ward Much-Mondon Jan. 2. 1624. LETTER LXXIV A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath to Dr. Samuel Ward Good Mr. Doctor I Received by W. Marks your Ancient Bede which I suppose did sometime belong to the Church of Durham As soon as I have compared it with the printed Book I will not fail God willing to send it you safe back again As for Simeon Dunelmensis his History of the Church of Durham which is in the publick Library of your University I would intreat you to borrow it for me however it hath not proved to be the Chronicle which I at first desired for I have a great mind to see and transcribe all that hath been written by Simeon and Turgotus Dunelmensis Turgotus I hear is with Mr. Tho. Allen of Oxford and if my memory do not much deceive me at my being in England the last time before this you told me that you had begun to transcribe the Annals of Simeon Dunelmensis which continue the History of Bede I pray you if you know where those Annals may be had do your best to help me unto them I could wish that Mr. Lisle would take some pains in translating the Saxon Annals into our English Tongue for I do not know how he can more profitably imploy that Skill which God hath given to him in that Language If I had any opportunity to speak with him my self I would direct him to five or six Annals of this kind three of which belonging to Sir Rober Cotton I have in my hands at this present our of which there might be one perfect Annal made up in the English Tongue which might unfold unto us the full State of the Saxon Times But how that Gentleman's Mind stands affected that way I know not the feeling of his Mind therein I leave to you And so commending all your good Endeavours to the Blessing of our good God I rest Your most assured Friend Ja. Mid. Much-Haddam Jan. 4. 1624. LETTER LXXV A Letter from Sir H. Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath My very good Lord I Received your Lordship's Letter which was must wellcome to me and much more the News of your Recovery which was deliver'd to me by Mr. Burnet and by me to some others of your Friends who were no less glad than my self I am afraid that you converse too much with your Books I need not tell you the danger of a Relapse This News which I sent your Lordship deserved not Thanks because vulgar and trivial that of the Death of Erpenius is but too true and is much lamented by learned Men in all places for the cause by your Lordship truly expressed he died of the Plague Mr. Briggs was gone from London some three days before the Receipt of your Lordship's Letter But I will write to him that which I should have delivered by word of Mouth if he had tarried here In the collating of Books your Lordship hath made a good choice that being a fit study in time of Sickness as not so much imploying the Mind as other Studies As for Bede I doubt the Collation of him will be scarce worth your labour For as far as I went they seemed rather to be variantes lectiones than material Differences a very few excepted To make use
his own Wants and Desires himself I have trespassed too much on your Lordship whom God long preserve Your Lordship 's in all Duty Tho. James Oxon Feb. 15th 1624. LETTER LXXVIII A Letter from Dr. Ward to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath at Much-Haddam in Essex Right Reverend I Received your Lordship's Letter which I should have answered ere now But the truth is I had a purpose to have seen your Lordship at my return from London at the end of the Term but I was hindred in that intention And since my return home I heard your Lordship was fallen into a burning Fever whereupon I purposed to have made a Journey to visit your Lordship and to that purpose went to Mr. Crane to have his Company But being born in hand by one of Jesus Colledg that he should shortly hear from Haddam how your Lordship did the Party went out of Town and so I heard nothing till Mr. Crane came home I did hear at London of the decease of the late Primate of Armagh and of your Lordship's Designment by his Majesty to succeed in that place which I pray God may turn to his Glory the Good of the Nation and your own Comfort and Contentment I have borrowed of Mr. Vice-Chancellor the Book wherein is the History of the Church of Lindifern after of Durham it is in four Books the Book is none of those which Bale mentioneth I borrowed it of him for two Months It is one of them which Matthew Parker gave to the University-Library I spake with Mr. Lisle as touching the setting of some of the Saxon Chronicles He saith he hath seen some but few of them have any thing which are not in other Chronicles now extant If you have any which you think were worth his pains I would incite him thereunto I suppose your Lordship hath seen the Process against the Corps Picture and Books of the Arch-bishop of Spalato Unwise Man that could not easily have presaged these things By halting between two he hath much obscured his worth with all Parties I have perused some of Dr. Crakenthorp's Book which is well done I purpose to see your Lordship at Easter if God will and you continue with Sir Gerard Harvy This Messenger bringeth the Book and things from Mr. Crane with two Letters from him Thus with my Prayers to God for the Recovery of your Health and to bless you in all your Affairs with my best Wishes I commend your Lordship to the gracious Protection of the highest Majesty Your Lordship 's in all Practice Samuel Ward Cambridg this 21st of March 1624. LETTER LXXIX A Letter from Sir H. Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh at Much-Haddam Salutem in Christo. Most Reverend in Christ IN discharge of my Promise and that great Obligation of Thankfulness due from me I thought good to present these Lines to your Lordship Your Friends here were glad to conceive so good hope of your perfect Recovery which I doubt not will be daily greater I have herewithal sent your Lordship Eusebius's Chronicle and Asserins de vita Alfredi from Mr. Patrick Young together with the remembrance of his Love and Service It was neither his fault nor mine that you had them not sooner He desires that your Lordship will be pleased to return the Transcript of Epistles which you borrowed of me if you have not present occasion to use them for among them are some Epistles of Grossetede which my Lord Keeper desires to have having contracted with the Printer for the Impression of his Works with which he goes in hand presently as I told your Lordship Sir Rob. Cotton hath not yet gotten Malmesbury de Antiquit. Glaston but expects it daily I have been with my Lord of Winehester and presented your Lordship's Love and best Respects to him I also told him of your Samaritan Pentateuch of which he was very glad and desires to see it with your Lordship's best Convenience He keeps his Chamber for a Cold being otherwise very well Since my being with your Lordship I understand that Mr. Mountagues Appeal to Caesar for so he stiles it is in the Press I am promised Sirmundus upon Sidonius Apollinaris and Anastasius Bibliothecarius History which are not common the former with Savarons Notes I have but Mr. Selden will furnish your Lordship in the mean time with both Vettius Valens in Greek is Mr. Selden's now but was sometimes Dr. Dees But the rest of his Books will be had very shortly as many as are worth the having and so much de re literaria Now your Lordship will expect something of the publick Occurrents of the World which may be to you some Recreation The Siege of Breda holds still the Prince of Orange will be in the Field by the 20th of April Stylo novo with 50000 Foot 9000 Horse and 150 pieces of Ordnance and as they say is resolved to fight rather then Breda shall be lost Here is now great talk of the French Match and of the Duke 's present Journey thither but I confess I believe little For I hear others speak of the Popes Nephew Cardinal Barberino coming with great Pomp into France and as some say rather to hinder thâ—n further the Match Here is great preparation for a Fleet to go to Sea They speak of a Press of 10000 Land Souldier and 7000 Mariners to furnish that Fleet and that it shall be victual'd for eight Months Here is News come out of Spain of a great loss lately sustained by the Spaniards in the South Sea and that by the Holland Fleet that went for Lima. And thus wishing your Lordship perfect Health and as much Happiness as to my self I will ever remaim Your Lordship 's very affectionate Friend and humble Servant Henry Bourgchier London March 23d 1624. LETTER LXXX A Letter from the Bishop of Kilmore to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop Elect of Armagh Most Reverend and my honourable good Lord I Do congratulate with unspeakable Joy and Comfort your Preferment and that both out of the true and unfeigned Love I have ever born you for many years continued as also out of an assured and most firm Perswasion that God hath ordained you a special Instrument for the good of the Irish Church the growth whereof notwithstanding all his Majesty's Endowments and Directions receives every day more Impediments and Oppositions than ever And that not only in Ulster but begins to spread it self into other places so that the Inheritance of the Church is made Arbitrary at the Council-Table Impropriators in all places may hold all ancient Customs only they upon whom the Cure of Souls is laid are debarr'd St. Patrick's Ridges which you know belonged to the Fabrick of that Church are taken away Within the Diocess of Ardagh the whole Clergy being all poor Vicars and Curats by a Declaration of one of the Judges this last Circuit by what direction I know not without speedy remedy will be brought to much
and slew the Turks in great numbers who after eight Months were forced to raise their Seige and be gone who whilst they sought to starve their Enemies were themselves almost famish'd the Persians having stopped all Passages whereby Provision should have been brought to the Camp The Vizier having raised the Siege and marching toward Mossell a City formerly called Ninive was pursued by their subtil Adversaries demanding their Ambassador who the Turks contrary to the Laws of Arms did detain in this their Fight the Persians had the slaughter of the Turks and after three days the Ambassador was delivered them who with great Honour and Joy returned to Bagdat and the Turks with great loss and greater dishonour marched weakly towards Mossell who before they could arrive thither what with want of Victuals and a Sickness that raigned amongst them as also an extream hot Wind that sometimes happens in those Parts there died in one day twelve thousand Persons in fine they lost in these Wars the greater part of the Army which consisted of 150 thousand Men and now the Vizier with a great part of the Army are here in Aleppo where they purpose to winter and in the Spring to make a second on-set and try their Fortunes as they term it with their Enemies But a good success such unruly and rebellious Souldiers can scarce expect their long Ease and unjust gotten Wealth hath caused them to forget Obedience either to their King or his Lieutenant But whether of these two Mahumetans prevail I think makes not much my Prayers shall be that God his Enemies may be scattered and his Truth take place Your Graces in all bounden Duty Thomas Davis Aleppo July 1625. LETTER LXXXIV A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend John Lord Bishop of Lincoln Lord Keeper of the Great Seal My very good Lord IT pleased your Lordship and my Lord Treasurer upon the reference made unto you by his Majesty to order that Dr. Rives should forgo the Claim which he made by his Patent to the exercise of the Office of the Prerogative and Faculties and to execute the same only as Substitute under me But the Doctor having taken upon him to set down in Writing your Lordship's Mind hath done it with such advantage to himself that I am forced to become an humble suitor unto your Lordship to commit the drawing up of that order to some Person that shall be more indifferent For there he hath inserted a Clause that he may enjoy the place which he desireth during his Life which is not fit to be granted unto any Substitute but during his good Behaviour and generally he setteth down all things therein as may most make for his own behoof without reserving any Power unto me to limit him any way in the exercise of those Offices when it was no part of my meaning to give him any such unlimited and absolute Power but such only as other Bishops ordinarily do give unto those which they place under them And whereas in Ireland the power of granting Dispensations is not by Law restrained to any competent distance of place to any certain number of Benefices or to any Qualification of Persons I more particularly declared my Mind therein unto my Lord Treasurer in the Doctor 's own presence that I held it no ways fit that my Substitute should have Authority to grant Faculties as he listed but only to such Persons and in such manner as I my self should appoint yet so as the whole profit of such Grants should wholly be reserved unto him and the care of ordering them left only unto me Hereupon a motion was made by my Lord Treasurer that as we had referred the main business unto your Lordship so we should also refer the condition and limitation of that Deputation which was to be granted unto him by me unto which Motion both of us then yeilded After this he brought unto me the Copy of an Instrument drawn by himself wherein there was no manner of mention at all made of any limitation of his Power either in the granting of Dispensations or in any thing else So that by virtue hereof he might also likely do what he pleased without controul or restraint from me I leave unto your Lordship's Wisdom to consider whether it would be convenient that the Doctor should take upon him to visit the whole Clergy of the Kingdom to convent Arch-bishops and Bishops before him and to grant all manner of Dispensations whether I will or no and whether I should not wrong both my self and the whole Clergy of Ireland who have groaned long under this heavy burden as your Lordship discerns by the Copy of their Petitions here inclosed if I did commit any such transcendent and unlimited Power unto him My humble suit therefore unto your Lordship is that you would be pleased to get the Order drawn by Dr. Rives into your hands again and to commit the laying down both of it and of the Authority which he is to receive from me unto some other which shall not respect his own Ends but simply express what shall be your Lordship's pleasure therein whereunto I will most willingly submit my self and ever rest Your Lordship 's in all Duty ready to be commanded Ja. Armachanus Much-Haddam 6 July 1625. The Answer of the Bishop of Lincoln My Lord I do not conceive this Patent to be so unreasonable so a Clause be added therein of a Power reserved to you and your Successors Person to take unto your own Cognizance any Exercise of any one private Act of Jurisdiction or issuing forth of any one particular Dispensation that may be of consequence to the State or the Church which Clause Sir Henry Martyn will at my desire and request clear up for your Lordship Jo. Lincoln C. S. LETTER LXXXV A Letter from Mr. Abraham Wheelock to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Right Reverend MY most humble Duty remembred to your Lordship being not a little affected with your Recovery My Lord you may peradventure blame me of Neglect or Forgetfulness or both concerning some business I was entrusted with when last I was with your Lordship I had wrote a Letter fully to excuse my self The Fellows of Emanuel were confident they had not that Thalmud your Lordship desired Mr. Dr. Ward undertook the delivery of that Bennet-Colledg Book when I intended to have by a Letter excused my self but a long fit of Sickness prevented me I could draw little or nothing from Mr. Downs whose Memory fails him by much a-do I desired him to shew me that place which Mr. Broughton so much talked of concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is in Plato his Cratylus pag. 54. at the bottom of the Leaf of the Basil Edition apud Henricum Petri where he brings Socrates shewing why Pluto was so called your Lordship will better gather the Argument that I can fitly set it down Socrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
which I told your Lordship of whereof I would have had this but an Appendix We have had this Week a gracious Letter from his Majesty much approving the Choice of our Chancellor And another from our Chancellor To both which Answers are returned by our University God dispose of all to good Our Chancellor seemeth to be forward for the erecting a Library here I have not spoken with Mr. Boyse as yet nor do I hear that Mr. Chaunty is come home I would be sorry your Lordship should so soon leave us I will still hope of your longer continuance Howsoever when you leave us I will accompany you and all yours with my best Devotions for your safe Journey and Arrival at your home And so commend you and Mrs. Usher to the gracious Protection of the highest Majesty Your Lordship 's in all observance Samuel Ward Sidney-Coll June 10th 1626. LETTER XCVIII A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Dr. Samuel Ward SIR I Have received from you the divers readings of the continuation of Eusebius's Chronicle and your Concio ad Clerum for which I heartily thank you Your Gratia Discriminans I doubt not will settle many Mens minds in those dubious Times to which I wish that the other things which you intended had been added especially those places which you observed out of St. Augustin against falling from Grace But of this Argument I earnestly beseech you to take special care as soon as your Commencement Businesses are past over and when you have put your Notes together I pray you make me so happy as to have a Copy of them Neque enim mihi gratior ulla est Quam sibi quae Wardi praefixit pagina nomen The suddain Dissolution of the Parliament hath amazed us all Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking on those things which are coming on the Land The Lord prepare us for the Day of our Visitation and then let his blessed Will be done There is a Proclamation to be presently set out for the stopping of those Contentions in Points of Religion I have dealt with your Chancellor very effectually for the erecting of your Library to which he is of himself exceeding forward I have procured him to send unto Leyden for all the printed Hebrew Books of Erpenius his Library which together with his Manuscripts which he hath already he purposeth to bestow upon your University I have also perswaded him to send thither for the Matrices of the Syriack Arabick Aethiopick and Samaritan Letters and to bestow them like wise upon you Mr. White hath sent up unto me the Variae Lectiones of the Psalms accompanied with a very kind Letter I pray you tell him from me that I will keep them by me as a perpetual testimony of his love and respect to me whereof he shall find that I will not be unmindful whensoever either himself or any of his shall have occasion to use me Nicetus his Orthodaxus Thesaurus I have not seen in Greek the Latin I have in Ireland but whether it be inserted into Bibliotheca Patrum I cannot tell the Book being not now by me That Gregory Nyssen's Catechetical Oration hath been evil handled and interpolated by Hereticks I think is somewhere observed by Nicephorus himself see his Ecel Elist lib. 11. cap. 19. yet that Discourse of the Eucharist if my Memory fail me not is inserted by Cuthimius in his Panoplia And I have seen it my self in two ancient Greek Manuscripts of Gregory Nyssen with Mr. Patrick Toung the one whereof was Mr. Caâ—sabon's the other of Metrophanes the Grecian which you may do well to see collated with the printed Spalatensis also I think suspecteth this place of Forgery In Sir Rob. Cotton's Library there be four several Saxon Annals and one written both in the Saxon and in the Latin Tongue In Benet-Colledg Library likewise Vol. 269. there is another ancient Saxon Annal. I should have gone from hence at the time I wrote unto you of but since that time I received a Letter from the Lord Chamberlain signifying the King's Pleasure that I should preach at Court the 25th of this Month which hath caused me to put off my Journey until the end of the Term. So with the remembrance of my best wishes to you I rest Your most assured Ja. Armachanus Lond. Jun. 16. 1626. LETTER XCIX A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Dr. Samuel Ward Salutem in Christo Jesu SIR SInce I wrote unto you last I have received intelligence from Leyden that all Erpenius's printed Books are already sold and his Matrices of the Oriental Tongues are bought by Elzevir the Printer there so that now you must content your selves with his Manuscripts only which are a very rare Treasure indeed and for which your University shall rest much beholden unto your Chancellor I my self have now received out of Mesopotamia an old Manuscript of that Syrian Translation of the Pentateuch out of the Hebrew the same which St. Basil citeth in his Hexameron which I make very great account of The Patriarch of the Jacobites in those parts who sent this promiseth also to send the rest of the Old Testament e're long in the mean time I have received the Parcels of the New Testament which hitherto we have wanted in that Language viz. the History of the Adulterous Woman the 2d Epistle of Peter the 2d and 3d Epistles of St. John the Epistle of Jude and the Revelation as also a small Tractate of Ephram Syrus in his own Language Elmenhorst is dead but I will do my best to hearken after his Copy of the Acts of the Council of Calcedon at Hamburg I will also speak with Mr. Patrick Young for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the 37th Chapter of Greg. Nyssen's Catechet as soon as I can meet with him The place of Nyssen doth not trouble you more than a like one of Chrysostom hath done me viz. Sermone quinto de Poenitentiâ Tom. 6. edit Savil. pag. 791. which in the Latin Tomes is Homil. de Eucharistiâ in Eucaeniis where I would willingly understand what the meaning of his Similitude is and of that Mysteria consumi Corporis substantiâ There is another place likewise of Chrysostom cited by Bellarmin in his Apology Ex Hom. 3. in 2 Thess. Jubebit seipsum pro Deo coli at in Templo Collocari non Hierosolymitano solum sed etiam Ecclesiis where my Lord of Winchester telleth the. Cardinal that the word tantum is not in the Greek I pray you see in Commelinus's Edition or that of Verona for Sir H. Savil's is otherwise Tom. 4. pag. 232. Your Assured Friend J. Arm. London June 23. 1626. LETTER C. A Letter from Dr. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and my very good Lord I Received your Lordships last Letter of the 23 d of this month and do perceive thereby that Erpenius's printed
can Mr. Walker hath not Gersham nor any Comment on Daniel but the same that I have only he lent me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so I have read over the whole Tractate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but there is not any word touching the duration of the Babylonian Kingdom or any other Kingdom It only handleth on what days the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be read and their Rites and Ceremonies I confess I read only the Text of Megillah I read not Rambanus nor Bartinorah's Comment for that would require many days and I found no one word in the Text tending any thing at all towards any such Matter and therefore my Lord I would be glad to know what Author referred you to that Tractate of Megillah or whether your Grace hath mistaken the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I humbly thank your Grace for your Lordship's last kindness unto me when I was at Much-Haddam for defraying my Charges at mine Inn. And now my Lord vetus conferendo beneficium invitas novum It hath pleased my Lord Carew who lieth at Nonesuch some mile and an half from Sutton before whose Honour I have often preached to be pleased to write his Letter to the Right Honourable my Lord Keeper Sir Thomas Coventry that he would be pleased at his Request to bestow a Benefice on me when any shall fall in his Gift And he was pleased moreover to send the Letter by Sir Thomas Stafford to my Lord Keeper to sollicit the Matter also by word of mouth And so I was there at Hampton-Court and presented my self to my Lord Keeper who gave me his hand and promised that within three months or sooner he assured himself he should provide for me And now my Lord my request is that your Grace would be pleased to write your Letter also unto my Lord Keeper in my behalf to this effect having relation to my Lord Carew's Precedent That whereas your Lordship is informed that my Lord Carew hath sollicited my Lord Keeper to bestow a Benefice on one Ralph Skynner Minister and Preacher of the Word at Sutton under Mr. Glover a Man of honest Life and Conversation and conformable to the Orders of our Church and so forth as it shall please your Lordship to write of me that you would be pleased to second my Lord Carew's Request effectually for that I am but mediocris fortunae Vir and have not means and maintenance to buy me Books and other Necessaries This your Grace's Letter in my behalf to my Lord Keeper if your Lordship would be pleased to send it before Christide inclosed in a Letter to Mr. Burnet's and to give me leave to seal it after I have read it it 's likely my Lord Keeper would remember me the sooner I have given my Lord Carew satisfaction in many Questions at sundry times of conference and especially in these three 1. That the Pope and Conclave be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. That the Points and Vowels were given by God from Sinai and not the invention of the Masorits 3. That the Hebrew Tongue is the most ancient Tongue and that Moses wrote in it and not in the Caldee and Egyptian and all this proved expresly out of the Text of the Scripture For which my Lord hath given me a greater commendation in the ancient Tongues to my Lord Keeper than I either have deserved or can answer unto And thus with my humble Service to your Grace I end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Per Metathesin RADULPH SKYNNER London Decemb. 8. 1625. LETTER CVII A Letter from Mr. James White to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Illustrissime Reverendissime Antistes QUòd venerandae Antiquitatis Monumenta quae meae curae non ita pridem conferenda credidit Dominatio vestra tardiùs multò quà m vellem ad umbilicum perduxerim est quod sperem apud tantum Candorem veniae locum me inventurum Quòd autem eo auspicio dicam an infortunio transacta sint ut neutiquam industriae meae specimen exhibendi nedum judicio vestro sublimi satisfaciendi copia fiat quicquid veniae audacia arrogaverit nullam fidenter sperari posse exploratum habeo Siquidem quod minimè dissimulandum existimavi vel ipsae liturae quibus inter scribendum imprudens indulsi incuriae me vel invitum coarguunt Quin inter sacras illas paginas conferendas semel atque iterum in ea loca incidi unde me facilè expedire non potui Intelligat obsecro Dominatio vestra Psalmos 117 147. Quo utroque in loco idem scrupulus eadem occurrit difficultas Utrobique enim Psalmi duo fronte satis distincti materiâ varii titulis etiam à se invicem diversi Identitatem numericam si ipsum Catalogum spectemus mirum in modum prae se ferunt Porrò naevo haud minore laborant Psalmi 145 146. ad quos liber ille typis excusus quem praeire voluisse expectavi claudus adeò inventus est ut id spatii meâ solius conjecturâ in versibus à nnotandis emetiri coactus fuerim Has istiusmodi densiores ingenii mei nebulas vestro benignè affulgente candore opportunè dispersum iri nullus dubito Colophonem imposuimus quatuor S. S. Evangeliis ante-Pentecosten coronidem pariter Actis Apostolorum si Deus dederit breve addituri Interim quà m sim obstrictus Dominationi vestrae quòd me indignum ullis negotiis hisce sacris dignatus fueris Praesul amplissime preces meae testatum faciant Deo Opt. Max. apud quem ardentissimis uti par est votis contendo ut Reverentiam vestram Ecclesiae suae columen diutissimè conservet Reverendissimae vestrae Dominationis Observantissimus Jacobus White Cantabrigiae ex Col. Sid. Nonas Junii 1626. LETTER CVIII A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and my very good Lord I Received your Lordship's I understood by others this Commencement of your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Sermon before his Majesty as touching the repressing of the Arminian Faction God's Blessing be upon you for this good Service to opportunely performed I pray God his Majesty may have a true apprehension of the ensuing Danger I was told by some that notwithstanding the Proclamation Mr. Mountague was to set out a Book but I cannot say it for certain Mr. Whalley spoke to me above a month ago to write to your Lordship to leave Mr. Lively his Chronology with him and me and we would take care for the publishing thereof If your Lordship have not sent it away we desire it may be sent hither I had quite forgot in my last Letters to mention it I did your Lordship's Message to Mr. Chancy I have sent your Lordship the Book which Mr. Boys had as also his Transcript which he doth expect hereafter again Those Commencement-Affairs here so distracted me that I cannot recollect my self to bethink of some things which I would
propound any indefinite Sum to be levied according to their Discretions but a precise one of 395 l. and 4 s. for one months pay of the new Supplies in Ulster And as for the present paiment of that Sum order hath been already taken that according to your Lordships special Directions 70 l. should be delivered unto Sir William Calfield One hundred twenty one Pounds and a Noble I have since received which is ready to be delivered unto any one who shall be authorized to receive the same under your Lordship's Hand The Bishop of Clogher who hath already paid half of that Sum which was assigned unto Sir William Calfield is there at Dublin ready to give an account of that which remaineth due upon his Clergy The Bishop of Derry hath left with me his Ticket wherein he undertakes to pay 50 l. unto any one of the Captains to whom your Lordship shall appoint Upon the Diocess of Meath there was 85 l. 1 s. 4 d. taxed in this Levy which is the double twentieth part of the Clergy there the twentieth part of the Bishoprick it self being abated because the Bishop is yet in First-Fruits For this I have used my utmost endeavour both with the Bishop and with his Clergy but could not prevail to get from them more than 50 l. And therefore of them I must rid my self and wholly leave them unto your Lordship As for the Remain of the Total Sum betwixt this and the beginning of the Term I will use my best endeavour to get in what may be had and give a particular Certificate of the Names of those who will not pay to the end your Lordship may deal with them as in your Wisdom you shall think fit And so expecting your Lordship's further Commands in this or any other Service I humbly take leave for the present and ever-more rest Your Honour 's faithful Servant J. A. Droghedah Jan. 7. 1626. LETTER CXIII A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the most Reverend George Abbot Arch-bishop of Canterbury My most gracious Lord WHen I took my last leave of you at Lambheth I made bold to move your Grace for the settlement of the Provostship of our Colledg here upon some worthy Man whensoever the place should next become void I then recommended unto you Mr. Sibbes the Preacher of Grays-Inn with whose Learning soundness of Judgment and upâ—â—ghtness of Life I was very well acquainted And it pleased your Grace to listen unto my Motion and give way to the coming over of the Person named when time required The time my Lord is now come wherein we have â—t last wrought Sir William Temple to give up his place if the other may be drawn over And therefore I most humbly intreat your Grace to give unto Mr. Sibbes that Encouragement he deserveth in whose behalf I dare undertake that he shall be as observant of you and as careful to put in Execution all your Directions as any Man whosoever The matter is of so great importance for the good of this poor Church and your Fatherly Care as well of the Church in general as our Colledg in particular so well known that to shall not need to press you herein with many words And therefore leaving it wholly to your Grace's grave Consideration and beseeching Almighty God to bless you in the managing of your weighty Imployments I humbly take leave and rest Your Grace's in all Duty ready to be commanded J. A. Droghedah January 10th 1626. LETTER CXV A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inn My most worthy Friends I Cannot sufficiently express my Thankfulness unto you for the Honour which you have done unto me in vouchsafing to admit me into your Society and to make me a Member of your own Body Yet so is it fallen out for the present that I am enforced to discharge one piece of debt with entring into another For thus doth the case stand with us Sir William Temple who hath governed our Colledg at Dublin these seventeen Years finding Age and Weakness now to encrease upon him hath resolved to ease himself of that Burthen and resign the same to some other Now of all others whom we could think of your worthy Preacher Mr. Sibbs is the Man upon whom all our Voyces have here settled as one that hath been well acquainted with an Academical Life and singularly well qualified for the undertaking of such a place of Government I am not ignorant what damage you are to sustain by the loss of such an able Man with whose Ministry you have been so long acquainted but I consider withal that you are at the Well-head where the defect may quickly be supplied and that it somewhat also tendeth to the honour of your Society that out of all the King's Dominions your House should be singled out for the place unto which the Seminary of the whole Church in this Kingdom should have recourse for help and succor in this case And therefore my most earnest suit unto you is that you would give leave unto Mr. Sibbes to repair hither at leastwise for a time that he may see how the place will like him For which great Favour our whole Church shall be obliged unto you and I for my part shall evermore profess my self to rest Your own in all Christian Service ready to be commanded J. A. Droghedah Jan. 10th 1626. LETTER CXVI A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the most Reverend George Abbot Arch-bishop of Canterbury My very good Lord I Wrote unto your Grace heretofore concerning the Substitution of Mr. Sibbes into the place of Sir William Temple But having since considered with my self how some occasions may fall out that may hinder him from coming hither and how many most unfit Persons are now putting in for that place I have further emboldened my self to signify thus much more of my Mind unto you That in case Mr. Sibbes do not come unto us I cannot think of a more worthy Man and more fit for the Government of that Colledg than Mr. Bedel who hath heretofore remained with Sir Henry Wotton at Venice and is now beneficed about Berry If either he or Dr. Featly or any other worthy Man whom you shall think fit can be induced to accept of the place and your Grace will be pleased to advise the Fellows of the Colledg to elect him thereunto That poor house shall ever have cause to bless your Memory for the Settlement of it at such a time as this where so many labour to make a Prey of it In ordering the Affairs that do belong unto the Primacy the greatest trouble that I yet meet withal is the Persidiousness of the Register whom my Predecessor hath fastened upon me He hath combined with one Chase a base Fellow that is now acting this business at Court to overthrow the Ministry which King James by your Grace's special
Incitation hath so happily planted in the Diocess of Armagh by making the Rectories that did belong to the Vicars Chorals of Armagh to be Lay-fee unto which Incumbents have been hitherto by his Majesties own Direction still presented and the Livings also taxed with payment of First-fruits as all other presentative Livings are Dawson is a Man so notoriously branded for his lewd Carriage that I dare not trust him with the keeping of the Records or suffer him any ways to intermeddle with the businesses of the Church To see therefore whether I can fairly rid my hands of him I have made a grant of his places unto others and so left them to the trial of their Titles by course of Law Which hath so incensed Dawson that he laboureth now by his Emissary Chase to disgrace me in Court with all the Calumnies that his wicked Heart can devise Wherein I doubt not but your Grace as occasion shall require will be ready to stand for me in my just defence As for the general state of things here they are so desperate that I am afraid to write any thing thereof Some of the adverse part have asked me the question Where I have heard or read before that Religion and Mens Souls should be set to sale after this manner unto whom I could reply nothing but that I had read in Mantuan that there was another place in the World where Coelum est venale Deusque I procured a meeting of all the Prelates at my House who with one voice protested against these Courses and subscribed this Protestation of theirs with their hands But forasmuch as we knew that the Project was wonderful distastful unto the Papists themselves we contained our selves in publick and suffered the Breach to come from their side I know their Agents are not asleep at Court but our hope is that your Grace is as vigilant there to make opposition unto their Practices and to advise of some other course to give the King content which may be more for his honour and the good of the Church All which I humbly leave unto your Grace's sage Consideration and evermore rest Your Graces ready to do you all Service Ja. Armachanus Drogheda February 9. 1626. LETTER CXVII A Letter from Dr. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and my very good Lord MY best Service premised c. I received your Lordship's last Letters to me dated from Leverpool and have heard by others since of your Lordship's safe arrival in Ireland As touching Sir Gerard Harvy I have been with him at Hadham since and have had Letters once or twice about his business from him I consulted with Mr. Whalley and wrote to Sir Gerard what Fine will be expected besides his coming in Rent-corn which he is willing to pay The Fine will be about 200 l. for renewing his Lease and adding of ten Years to the time he hath about Easter he will be with us about it I am sorry your Lordship missed of that Epistle of Chrysostom ad Caesarium Monachum at Oxford I was in good hope your Lordship would have hit upon it It is to be feared it is purloin'd away I received Mr. Boys his variae lectiones in Liturgiam Basilii which your Lordship left to be sent him I spake with Mr. Patrick Young who telleth me that Sirmondus hath all Fronto's Papers and that he is in hand with Theodoret and that after he is set out I shall have my Transcript upon the Psalms He saith your Lordship hath the Greek Transcript of Euthymius I have seen Athanasius Graecol newly set forth at Paris it hath some Homilies added by one Holstein but it wanteth the varia lectiones which are in Coâ—mâ—lin's Edition Eusebius in three Volumes Graecol is daily expected but not yet come Dr. White now Bishop of Carlisle hath sold all his Books to Hills the Broker His Pretence is the charge of Carriage so far by Land and the danger by Water Some think he paid for his Place I did hear of his Censure of your Lordship which I would not have believed but that I heard it credibly reported about the time of your Lordship's departure hence Sundry Bishopricks are still remaining unbestowed The Precedent is not good Concerning Court and Commonwealth-affairs here I suppose you have better Information than my Pen can afford I would I could be a Messenger by my Letter of better news than any I hear here The 25th of January deceased your good Friend and mine Mr. Henry Alvey at Cambridge I was with him twice when he was sick the first time I found him sick but very patient and comfortable He earnestly prayed that God would give him Patience and Perseverance The later time I came he was in a slumber and did speak nothing I prayed for him and then departed Shortly after he departed this Life He desired to be buried privatly and in the Church-yard and in a Sheet only without a Coffin for so said he was our Saviour But it was thought fitting he should be put in a Coffin and so he was I was at his interring the next day at night Thus God is daily collecting his Saints to himself The Lord prepare us all for the Dies accensionis as St. Cyprian stileth it Since the decease of Dr. Walsall Dr. Goslin our Vice-Chancellor and Dr. Hill Master of Katherine-Hall are both dead In their places succeed in Bennet-Colledg Dr. Butts in Caius-Colledg Mr. Bachcroft one of the Fellows in Katherine-Hall Mr. Sibbs of Grays-Inn Concerning the place of Chrysostom Homilia de Encaeniis which you mention in your last Letters I cannot write now as I would I having not my Book by me My last Lecture was touching it I see a great difference in the Reading between the reading in the Manuscript of New-Colledg in Oxon which Sir H. Savill printed and the reading in M. Baraciro which is in the Notes of Sir H. Savill The Latin Translation is answerable to that of New-Colledg That speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gave occasion I think to Damascene to say the like Though I do somewhat suspect some corruption by later Grecians in that Point especially Origen writing to the contrary as you know in Matth. 15. In the similitude following from Wax the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is translated in the Latin Translation nihil remanet substantiae contrary as I conceive to the Greek for it should be nihil substantiae perdit For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est aliquid substantiae perdo It is not easy to conceive the sense of that Similitude both for the Protasis and Apodosis But of this when I come home at better leasure I do purpose God willing in my Determinations when I shall dispute upon any to go in the Point of Free-will for that as I conceive it is the chief ground of the rest of the Errors maintained by the Remonstrants or at least of most of them I have been here above a fortnight
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
Duty But here is not all for it seems he hopes by the words of your Decree to hold all this till he be possessed of some Ecclesiastical Benefice notwithstanding his Term by the Charter expires at Midsommer We have answered my Lord Chancellor as your Grace shall find by these inclosed and do humbly desire your Grace to certify either him or us of your intention and to draw a Line or two to be sent to the rest of the 〈◊〉 for this Allowance if you 〈◊〉 it for mine own and the Fellows Discharge in the paying it These Letters your Grace will be also pleased to send us back as having by reason of the shortness of time no time to copy them We have obtained this night a Warrant from my Lord Chancellor to the Serjeant at Arms to arrest Sir James Caroll who in all this time of your Grace's being in Dublin would never be seen and is now as we hear in Town We have not yet delivered your Grace's return of the Reference made to you at the Council Table touching the Inclosure at the Colledg-Gate as having but lately received it In the mean while the Scholars upon St. Matthew's Day at night between Supper and Prayer-time have pulled it all down every Stick and brought it away into the Colledg to several Chambers Yet upon warning that night given at Prayers that every Man should bring into the Quadrangle what he had taken away there was a great pile reared up in the Night which we sent Mr. Arthur word he might fetch away if he would and he did accordingly This Insolency though it much grieved me I could not prevent I did publickly upon the Reference pray them to be quiet signifying our hope that we had of a friendly composition but when they heard that Mr. Arthur fell off they would no longer forbear Concerning the Affairs in England I know your Grace hath better intelligence than I. Our Translation goeth on in the Psalms and we are now in the 88th Mr. Neile King is in Chester Your Grace will pardon this scribling And so I commit you to God desiring to be remembered in your Prayers and resting Your Grace's in all Duty W. Bedell Trinity Coll. March 5. 1628. LETTER CXXXVI A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend in Christ my very good Lord I Must first desire your Grace's pardon for my long silence and that you will be pleased to believe that it proceeded not from any neglect of him whom I have so long and so much honour'd I presume your Grace continually receiveth advertisement of what passeth here from abler Pens than mine and therefore my pains in that may well be spared Among the rest you cannot be ignorant of the close imprisonment of your Grace's Friend and Servant Mr. Selden for some offence given or rather taken at his carriage and deportment in Parliament Here is lately deceased the Earl of Marleburgh I was often with him about his Irish Collections and was so happy in the pursuit of them that I received from him the greatest part of them not many days before his death Also the Earl of Westmoreland is lately dead and my ancient Friend and Kinsman the Earl of Totnes deprived of his sight and not like to live many days If his Library will be sold I will strain my self to buy it wholly for it is a very select one But howsoever I will not miss God willing his Irish Books and Papers Mr. Selden's Titles of Honour is ready to come forth here and his De Diis Syris at Leyden both well enlarged I wish he were so too that his Friends who much love him might enjoy him Sir Robert Cotton doth add to his inestimable Library Mr. Thomas Allen hath been lately bountiful to it He is now in London and also Mr. Brigges If I should only enumerate those who make enquiry of your Grace's Health their Names would fill a Letter Mr. Brigges's Book of Logarithms is finished by a Dutch-man and printed again in Holland Mr. Brigges tells me that Kepler is living and confesses his mistake in the advertisement of his Death by being deceived in the similitude of his name with one D. Kapper who died in that manner as he related But it appears sufficiently by his long-promised Tabulae Rodolphiae which now at last are come forth but they answer not the expectation which he had raised of them Dr. Bainbridge is well at Oxford Dr. Sutcleffe is lately deceased Yesterday at Newgate Sessions Fa. Muskett your Grace's old Acquaintance was arraigned and two other Priests and one of them an Irish-man they were all found guilty of Treason and had judgment accordingly There were an hundred Recusants presented at the same time It is said that a Declaration shall come forth concerning the Arminian Doctrine done by those Divines who were at the Synod of Dort L. Wadding our Country-man hath published a second Tome of his Annales Fratrum Minorum The Jesuit's Reply to your Grace is not to be gotten here those that came into England were seized and for ought I can hear they lie still in the Custom-house that which I used was borrowed for me by a Friend of the Author himself half a year since he being then here in London and going by the Name of Morgan Since the Dissolution of the Parliament there is a strange suddain decay of Trade and consequently of the Customs God grant there follow no inconvenience in the Common-Wealth The French and Dunkerkers are very bold upon the Coast of England and I hear of no means used to repress them It is said that our Deputy shall be presently removed his designed Successor my Lord of Danby is expected from Garnsey He was imployed thither to furnish that Island with Munition and other Necessaries when there was some jealousy of the French while that Army lay hovering about the parts of Picardy and Normandy but it is now gone for Italy and is passed the Mountains they have taken some Town in Piedmont the King is there in Person It is now said that Matters are accommodated by Composition if not it will prove a bloody War between those two great Kings and the French will put hard for the Dutchy of Millain I humbly desire to be held in your Grace's Opinion as one who will ever most willingly approve himself Your Grace's very affectionate Friend and humble Servant Henry Bourgchier London March 26. 1629. Sir Robert Cotton desires to have his humble respects presented to your Grace LETTER CXXXVII A Letter from Mr. Archibald Hamilton to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend ON Thursday last I understood by certain intelligence that my Lord of London whether by the perswasion of Sir Henry Wotton or others I know not earnestly moved his Majesty in Dr. Bedell's behalf Provost of Dublin-Colledg that he might be preferred to the Bishoprick of Kilmore which his Majesty hath granted and the
Letter for his Consecration is like to be there as soon as this I am heartily glad of his good Preferment but am somewhat grieved withal that the Colledg hath enjoyed him for so small a time who was like to make it much happy by his careful Government Some fear there is conceived that one or other from hence may be put upon the House who will not it may be so truly aim at the religious Education of the Students for some one deeply tainted with the Arminian Tenets putteth in close to be recommended thither by his Majesty and thinks to prevail by that means This I thought good to certify that your Grace may give timely warning thereof to the Fellows that they may make a wary and a safe Election of some sound Scholar and Orthodox Divine I will not presume to name any but I think Mr. Mead might be well thought of the place being formerly intended for him and he generally reputed a very able Man for such a Charge The Earl of Totnes departed this Life some ten days since his Corps is not yet buried Soon after his decease I went and made enquiry after that Press of Books and Manuscripts which only concern Ireland and asked whether he had left them as a Legacy to our Colledg as your Lordship heretofore moved him and as he himself lately promised to Sir Fran Annesly and my self that he would whatsoever the good Man intended or whatsoever direction he gave I cannot learn but the Colledg is not like to get them for one Sir Thomas Stafford the reputed Son of the said Earl hath got them and many other Things of my Lord 's into his hands out of which there will be hard wringing of them Sir Fran. Annesly and I have earnestly dealt with him that he would give them to the Colledg as the Earl intended to leave them and if not that he would let your Lordship have the refusal of them before any other if they be to be made away he absolutely refuseth to part with them upon any terms alleadging that he purposeth to erect a Library wherein they and all other the Earl's Books are to be preserved for his everlasting memory He promiseth withal that if your Grace or any that your Lordship will appoint hath a mind to exemplify write out or collect any thing out of any of the said Books and Manuscripts he will most willingly affoyd your Lordship or them a fire and leasurely use of the same as to you shall seem sitting and this was all that we could get from him If your Lordship's Letter can be so powerful it were not amiss to write to himself for it may be conjectured for all his fair pretences that a ready sum of Mony may make an easy purchase of them In my last Letter I advertised your Lordship how far I had proceeded in the business of Armagh since which time I have driven it to no further perfection partly because I expect to hear your Lordship's express pleasure therein and partly by reason of the Lord Keeper and Lord Grandison's late Sickness which hath kept them and the rest of the Committees from meeting to make a final determination of their Report that his Majesty's Letter may be procured accordingly for the setting off all things to your Lordship's desire If the Report were once made the Letter shall come speedily over and in a sufficient time to settle all before the Parliament sit or can conclude any Acts for restraining of Bishops to set any Leases for any longer term than one and twenty Years Thus recommending your Lordship to the blessed protection of the Almighty and humbly intreating your Lordship to have a vigilant care for the providing of an able Head to the Colledg I humbly take leave and remain Your Grace's Servant Archibald Hamilton White-hall April 8. 1629. LETTER CXXXVIII A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend in Christ my very good Lord I Received your Lordship's Letter of the 22d of March by Sir Jo. Neutervill I doubt not but your Grace hath heard of the Greek Library brought from Venice by Mr. Fetherston which the Earl of Pembroke hath bought for the University-Library of Oxford it cost him 700 l. there are of them 250 Volumes Dr. Lindsell now Dean of Litchfield tells me that it is a great Treasure far exceeding the Catalogue He likewise tells me that there are a great number of excellent Tracts of the Greek Fathers never yet published besides divers ancient Historians and Geographers and particularly that there is as much of Chrysostom as will make a Volume equal to any of those published by Sir H. Savil I do not hear of any Books brought home by Sir Thomas Rae besides the ancient Greek Bible which was sent to his Majesty by him from Cyrill the old Patriarch sometime of Alexandria but now of Constantinople It is that which went among them by Tradition to be written by St. Tecla the Martyr and Scholar of the Apostles but it is most apparent not to be so ancient by some hundreds of years and that as for divers reasons so especially because there is before the Psalms a Preface of Athanasius I hear he hath brought home a rare Collection of Coyns and Medals I now spend my spare time in gathering Matter for the Story of Hen. 8. which in time if God spare me Life and Health I intend to publish And thus with the tender of my Love and Service to your Grace I will remain Your Grace's very affectionate Friend and humble Servant Henry Bourgchier Lond. April 13. 1629. LETTER CXXXIX A Letter from the Right Honourable the Lord Falkland Lord Deputy of Ireland to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord I Have received information both of the unreverend manner of publishing the late Proclamation at Drogedah and the ill observance of the same since it was published For the first That it was done in scornful and contemptuous sort a drunken Souldier being first set up to read it and then a drunken Serjeant of the Town both being made by too much Drink uncapable of that task and perhaps purposely put to it made the same seem like a May-game And for the latter That there is yet very little obedience shewed thereto by the Friers and Priests only that they have shut up the Fore-doors of some of their Mass-houses but have as ordinary recourse thither by their private Passages and do as frequently use their superstitious Service there as if there were no command to the contrary those Mass-houses being continued in their former use though perhaps a little more privately without any demolishing of their Altars c. I expected to have been informed as well of the publishing thereof there as of the Effects it had wrought from no Man before your Lordship both in respect of your Profession and the eminent place you hold in the Church and of your being a
Consecration I must now humbly intreat your Grace to send me the Names and Values of all the Bishopricks and Deaneries in Ireland And what Bishopricks are joyned to others that I may be the better able to serve that Church being as yet one of the Committee And I pray excuse my not writing to Mr. Bedle for in truth I have not leisure So I leave you to the Grace of God and rest Your Grace's very loving Brother Guil. London June 16 1629. LETTER CXLIII A Letter from the Right Reverend W. Laud Bishop of London to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh at Armagh My very good Lord THE two Fellows of the Colledg of Dublin which are attendant here about the freedom of their Election were commanded by his Majesty to send to the Colledg there and to know whom they would pitch upon for their Governour And his Majesty was content upon the Reasons given by me and the Petition of the Fellows to leave them to freedom so they did chuse such a Man as would be serviceable to the Church and Him Upon this after some time they delivered to the King that they would choose or had chosen Dr. Usher a Man of your Grace's Name and Kindred His Majesty thereupon referred them to the Secretary the Lord Vicount Dorchester and my self to inform our selves of his Worth and Fitness My Lord proposed that they should think of another Man that was known unto us that we might the better deliver our Judgments to the King I was very sensible of your Lordship's Name in him and remembred what you had written to me in a former Letter concerning him and thereupon prevailed with his Majesty that I might write these Letters to you which are to let your Grace understand that his Majesty puts so great Confidence in your Integrity and readiness to do him Service that he hath referred this business to the Uprightness of your Judgment and will exercise his Power accordingly For thus he hath commanded me to write That your Grace should presently upon receipt of these Letters write back to me what your Knowledg and Judgment is of the worth and fitness of Dr. Usher for this place setting all Kindred and Affection aside And upon that Certificate of yours the King will leave them to all freedom of their choice or confirm it if it be made So wishing your Lordship all Health and Happiness I leave you to the Grace of God and shall ever rest Your Grace's very loving Friend and Brother Guil. London London House June 25. 1629. LETTER CXLIV A Letter from Dr. Bainbridg to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My very good Lord THis Bearer's unexpected departure hath prevented my desire to discharge some part of those many Obligations wherein I am bound unto your Grace but assuring my self that your Grace will a little longer suspend your Censure I am bold to mediate for another Whereas our Turky Merchants trading at Aleppo being now destitute of a Minister have referr'd the choice of one unto your self may it please you to understand that there is one Mr. Johnson a Fellow of Magdalen-Colledg who hath spent some Years in the Oriental Languages and being desirous to improve his Knowledg therein is content to adventure himself in the voyage he would take the pains to preach once a week but not oftner being desirous to spend the rest of his time in perfecting his Languages and making such other Observations as may tend to the advancement of Learning If your Grace upon these terms please to recommend him to the Merchants I dare engage my Credit for his civil and sober Behaviour and his best Endeavours to do your Grace all respective Service I do not commend an indigent Fellow enforced to run a desperate hazard of his Fortunes but a learned Gentleman of fair hopes and presently well furnished with all things needful to a Scholar I suppose that Fetherstone did send you a Catalogue of Barroccins his Greek Manuscripts they be now Prisoners in our publick Library by the gift of one Chancellor and with them some few more given by Sir Tho. Rae amongst which there is as I take it a fair Copy in Arabick of the Apostles Canons If there be any thing in these Manuscripts which may give you content I shall with my hearty Prayers for your good Health endeavour to approve my self Your Graces most affectionate Servant John Bainbridge Oxon July 20 1629. LETTER CXLV A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend W. Laud Bishop of London My very good Lord YOur Letters of the 25th of June I received the 8th day of August wherein I found contained a large Testimony as well of your special care of the welfare of our poor Colledg as of your tender respect unto my Name and Credit for which I must acknowledg my self to stand ever bound to perform all faithful Service unto your Lordship I have hereupon written unto the Fellows of the House that in making their Election they should follow their Consciences according to their Oaths without any by-respects whatsoever Dr. Usher is indeed my Cousin german but withal the Son of that Father at whose instance charge and travel the Charter of the Foundation of the Colledg was first obtained from Queen Elizabeth which peradventure may make him somewhat the more to be respected by that Society To his Learning Honesty and Conformity unto the Discipline of our Church no Man I suppose will take exception And of his Ability in Government he hath given some proof already while he was Vice-Provost in that House where his care in preventing the renewing of the Leases at that time was such that thereby we have been now enabled so to order the matter that within these six Years the Colledg-Rents shall be advanced well-nigh to the double value of that they have been Whereunto I will add thus much more that I know he sincerely intendeth the good of his Country meaneth to go on where Dr. Bedell hath left and in his proceedings will order himself wholly according as your Lordship shall be pleased to direct him Which if it may prove an inducement to move his Majesty to confirm his Election I shall hold my self strongly engaged thereby to have a special eye to the Government of that Colledg seeing the miscarriage of any thing therein cannot but in some sort reflect upon my self who would rather lose my Life than not answer the Trust reposed in me by my Soveraign In obedience unto whose sacred Directions and discharge of the Care committed unto me by his Letters of the 7th of November last the Copy whereof I send herewith I humbly make bold to represent this also unto your Lordship's Consideration whether if the Lord Bishop of Glogher shall be removed unto the Arch-bishoprick of Cashell the Dean of Raphoe may not be thought upon to succeed him in Glogher as being a very well deserying Man and one toward
service to your Grace I rest Your Grace's in all duty W. Kilmore Kilmore Decemb. 28. 1629. LETTER CL. A Letter from L. Robinson to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My honourable and most dear Lord MY poor Prayers to God shall never be wanting for the continuance and increase of your Lordship's Health and all true Happiness nor my serviceable and thankful Affections for all your noble Favours done to me and mine I forbear to treat with my Lord of Kilmore altogether about any of those things which are divulged under his hand being perswaded his Desires were only to do good and assured himself sees his expectation fail in them partly by the Apology he made for himself amongst his Ministers gathered together in the Church of Kilmore at the inhibiting of Mr. Cook where he shewed much grief that there were divers scandalous Reports rais'd of him As that he was a Papist an Arminian an Equivocator Politician and traveller into Italy that he bow'd his Knee at the Name of Jesus pull'd down the late Bishop's Seat because it was too near the Altar preached in his Surplice c. There generally he affirmed his education in Christian Religion and his love to the Truth shewing the Reasons of his Travels and the Use of the Ceremonies not to hinder any Man's liberty of Conscience nor urge Conscience but as he had voluntarily practis'd them in England for the good of some others so here Some things he denied and others he shew'd Reasons for so that he gave us all good satisfaction and we hope we shall have much comfort in him Yet 't is true he sent a strange Absolution to an Irish Recusant in a Letter using many good Instructions for the Man was sick in this form If you be content to receive Christ and believe in him by the Authority which is given to me I absolve you from all your Sins you have confessed to Almighty God and are truly contrite for in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Amen Thus craving pardon for being troublesome to your Grace I take leave and will ever rejoice to remain Your Lordship 's poor Servant to be commanded Lau. Robinson Farnh Jan. 18. 1629. LETTER CLI A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend in Christ and my very good Lord I Did very lately presume to present my Service to your Grace by my Servant whom I sent into Ireland whose return from thence I expect very shortly and by him to hear at least of your Grace's Health and welfare than which no news can be more welcome to me Your Friends here as many as I know are all well Sir Rob. Cotton is not altogether free of his Trouble but he and his Friends hope he shall shortly Mr. Selden is also a Prisoner in the King's-Bench but goes abroad when he pleaseth so that his Friends enjoy him often I hope we shall have his Titles of Honour very shortly At Paris there is ready to come forth the King of Spain's Bible that was It will be now in ten Volumes whereas the other was but in eight and much fairer than the other as they say that have seen it which I think can hardly be Here is little News at this present The French Army is gone into Italy commanded by the Cardinal Richleau The Imperialists are so terrified with their coming that they have raised the Siege of Mantua and drawn themselves into the Dutchy of Milan for the defence thereof There is a Treaty of Peace there and in the Low-Countries of a Truce between the King of Spain and the States and the Spanish Ambassador is here about the same Business and ours in Spain And these several Treaties depend so one upon another that it is thought it will either prove a general Peace or a general War I wrote to your Grace in my former Letter of Mr. Vossius being here in England Within these two days I heard from him by Mr. Junius his Brother-in-law who went over with him He liked his entertainment so well in England that he hath now a good mind to settle himself here Concerning our own poor Country I can say nothing only that the Business of Philim Mac Teagh is in question which I mention the rather because your Grace had your part in it as a Commissioner The King hath sat two days already with the Lords and heard it with great patience and attention My Lord of Falkland as I hear hath ended his part which was to answer the Certificate and Report of the Commissioners in Ireland as far as it touched himself Sir Henry Beatinges part is next when those have done the other side shall have liberty to reply I cannot hear any speech of a new Deputy I believe the Government will continue as it is and the rather because it is a saving way which these Times do easily hearken unto I have sent your Grace here inclosed something that hath been lately done concerning the Church of England I doubt not but your Grace hath received it from other hands but I thought good to adventure it howsoever I intend with God's Assistance to be in Ireland about the midst of March at the farthest If your Grace desire any thing from hence I shall willingly conveigh it to you and if they be Books I can do it conveniently because I carry many of my own I will desire your Grace to esteem me in the number of those who most reverence and honour you and will ever approve himself Your Grace's most affectionate Friend and humble Servant Henry Bourgchier London Jan. 21. 1629. LETTER CLII. A Letter from the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend Father my honourable good Lord THE report of your Grace's indisposition how sorrowful it was to me the Lord knows albeit the same was somewhat mitigated by other News of your better Estate In that fluctuation of my mind perhaps like that of your Health the saying of the Apostle served me for an Anchor That none of us liveth to himself neither doth any die to himself For whether we live we live to the Lord or whether we die we die to the Lord Whether we live therefore or die we are the Lord's Thereupon from the bottom of my heart commending your Estate and that of his Church here which how much it needs you he knows best to our common Master though I had written large Letters to you which have lien by me sundry Weeks fearing in your sickness to be troublesom I thought not to send them but to attend some other opportunity after your perfect recovery to send or perhaps bring them When I understood by Mr. Dean of his Journey or at least sending an express Messenger to you with other Letters putting me also in mind that perhaps it would not be unwelcome to you to hear from me though you
pietate fundatum tantis quoque successoris sumptibus laboribus reparatum in pristinam formam restitueremus Quapropter desiderium Scholarcharum uti pium honestum utile Reipublicae Ecclesiae Tibi Reverende Pater majorem in modum recommendatum volumus obnixè rogantes ut ea qua polles authoritate totum negotium pro impetrando aliquo liberali subsidio promovere nos non dedigneris offerimus è contrà nostro omnium Reipublicae partium nomine gratam animi recognitionem officia paratissima Vale. Dabamus Hanoviae 14 Octobris Ann. 1641. Sibylla Christina nata ex Illustrissima Domo Anhaltina c. Comitista ac Domina in Hanau Rhinec Domina in Muntzenberg c. Vidua Tutrix Sibylla Christina Comitissa in Hanau LETTER CCIX. A Letter from the learned D. Blondell to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Reverendissimo in Christo Patri Domino Honoratissimo Domino Jacobo Armachano Ecclesiae Archiepiscopo Hibernorum Primati Londinum Reverendissime in Christô Pater Domine honoratissime QUandoquidem te intolerandô 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cruciatu propè enectum ex ipsis quodammodò sepulchri faucibus potenti dextrâ Ecclesiae suae misertus Dominus eripuit qui in communi piorum luctu privato dolori indulsissem coeleste beneficium totô mentis affectu praedicare necesse habeo teque velut redivivum novis obsequii mei officiis prosequi Benedictus miserationum pater totius consolationis Deus qui te propitius ex altô respexit adjectis super sanctae vitae tuae dies diebus in bonis desiderium tuum repleat ut aquilae juventam tuam renovet tibi ex Sion benedicere pergat ut deinceps bonum Jerusalem pacemque super Israël videas nè quid inauspicatum Ignatii veris suis natalibus restituendi editioni obsistat votisque Honoratissime Pater Paternae tuae Reverentiae observantissimi D. Blondelli Udanci Carnutum Idis Octob. An. 1642. LETTER CCX A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Claudius Salmasius Nobillissimo Doctissimo viro D. Claudio Salmasio Vir Clarissime NOstram de ignatii Epistolis dissertationem censendam tibi mitto Ipsum quoque Ignatium simul missurus si bellicae turbae quibus Musarum antiquum hoc domicilium jam premitur non obstitissent Sicubi à te dissentio id eâ temperatum videbis modestiâ quam tibi spero nòn displicituram Quicquid sit id tibi persuadeas velim eorum qui adhuc tibi ignoti sunt reperturum te neminem qui te tua in Rempub. literariam merita pluris aestimet quà m Tuum si eo dignari velis me honore Jacobum Usserium Armachanum Oxonii Prid. Kalend. Jun. Julianas An. 1644. LETTER CCXI. A Letter from Mr. John Greaves to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh I Should be glad to hear that your Grace had received either from the Vaticane Library or that of the Escurial in Spain a Transcript of Ptolemy or rather Hipparchus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So much the rather because in perusing of some of my Arabian and Persian MSS. I have found some Observations which may much conduce to the clearing of that Argument I have not now leisure to send your Grace those which were made by the Indians at Kôbah and Kandahar or those others which were made by the Persians before Yezdegerd's time and by Yezdegerd and long after him in Almamon's time as I find them mentioned by Alhashamy an Arabian Author Those of the Chatéans and of Nassir Eddin and of Aly Kôsgy as later than the former so exacter I could not but send them to your Grace The true Solary Year According to the Chateans in 365 days 2436 10000 parts of a day According to Nassir Eddin 365 days 14′ 32″ 30 According to Aly Kôsgy who observed in the 841 Year of the Hegira almost 200 Years after Nassir Eddin 365 days 14′ 33″ 32 whereas Ptolemy is much more 365 days 14′ 48″ I have finished those Lemmata of Archimedes which the Arabians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if I be not deceived such as wish well to the Mathematicks will think my Pains well bestowed As indeed it was no small labour to correct the Diagrammes and the Letters which were too often perverted in the MS. and sometimes to supply what was defective in the Demonstration it self According to your Grace's advice I have made a Persian Lexicon out of such words as I met with in the Evangelists and in the Psalms and in two or three Arabian and Persian Nomenclators So that I have now a stock of above 6000 words in that Language I think as many as Raphelengius hath in his Arabick Dictionary Wherefore I have a greater mind than ever to go to Leyden and peruse their Oriental Manuscripts which were procured by the expence of the States a thing which long since your Grace would have had me to have done But yet considering my Lecture in Oxford though as yet it cannot be read it will not be fit for me to go without special leave from our Honourable Chancellor and two or three more of the Lords of his Majesties Privy Council I shall therefore desire your Grace to procure this Favour for me in writing with this Caution that my absence for a while may be no prejudice to me at home especially since my Journey is for the improvement of Learning and for the publishing of some of those Books which I long since have finished There I shall have an opportunity of printing your Grace's Map and of perfecting and publishing that Discourse of Dr. Bainbrigg concerning the periodus Sothiaca and I hope your Grace will think of something else in which I may be serviceable to you and useful to the Commonwealth of Letters Your Grace cannot sufficiently command him whom by your many Favours you have ever made Your Grace's most obliged Servant John Greaves Septemb. 19. 1644. If I may serve Dr. Harvy I shall be most ready either here or at Leyden to do it LETTER CCXII. A Letter from Dr. Langbaine to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord IN August last I did cursorily survey that Edition of Ignatius out of the Florentine Copy by Isaac Vossius and found with content what I look'd after with greediness your Lordship's Judgment in discerning and distinguishing the Genuine from the Spurious confirmed by a new Testimony of that Antiquity and Authority as few will hereafter dare to question tho your Lordship's Reasons before were to me and I doubt not to many others of that moment and the Conjecture built upon so good grounds that as Pliny says of Eratosthenes puduit non credere That your Lordship goes on in the same course notwithstanding all the Opposition and Discouragements of the Times as we cannot doubt but there remains a Blessing for your self so it may I am sure it ought have an influence upon us here below
Auctarium or Gruter can I find it no nor in Boissardus who puts together all at Rome by their places not in method of their quality as the rest do Sigonius A. ab V. C. DCCLIII hath Caius and Paulus for Coss. on his Fasti and Onuphrius lib. 2. Com. in Fast. the same DCCLIV neither of them mention this Stone But Onuphrius cites indeed another C. Caesar Augusti F. Cos. vias omnes Arimini Sterni as divers other Stones remember him by that dignity But for that mentioned by Lipsius and Casaubon I see no sign of it after a careful search again through the places also which your Lordship mentions or the Auctarium of Gruter of Magistrates Your Lorship 's most humble Servant J. Selden White-friers Aug. 13. 1653. LETTER CCLXXIX A Letter from the Learned Mr. John Selden to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord STephan Pighius in U. C. DCCLIII hath no other Inscription than that in Gruter pag. 1075. 2. C. CAESARE AUG FIL. L. PAULLO COS. LARES AUGUSTOS c. Nor any thing that further concerns the Matter more than every Body there have Touching his mention of Junius Gallio I neither find him or that Province in the time of Nero which he runs through Who that Gallio in the Acts was indeed appears not clearly whether the adopting Father or adopted Son Gallio the Father you know was banished by Tiberius That M. Seneca had three Sons whereof L. was the second appears in Epist. 8. Sic mihi sic Frater Majorque Minorque superstes As likewise in the Titles of the Controversies and Declamations Novatus Seneca Mela so reckoned whence Novatus is taken for the Eldest That L. Seneca had a Brother called Gallio appears by himself in his Inscription of his de Vita Beata and also in that of Statius in Genethliaco Lucani Hoc plus quà m Senecam dedisse mundo Aut dulcem generasse Gallionem And in that of Tacitus Annal. 15. under Nero Junium Gallionem Senecae Fratris morte pavidum pro incolumitate supplicem increpnit Salienus Clemens besides the mention of him by the Name of Junius Gallio Frater Senecae in Eusebius num MMLXXX where that ridiculous Mistake is of propria se manu interfecit mortem ejus Nerone in suam praesentiam differente in Editione Scaligerana aliisque for Olymp. 211. non est acta Nerone in suam praesentiam differente And afterward MMLXXXIV L. Anneus Melas Senecae Frater Gallionis bona Lucani poetae filii sui à Nerone promeretur And Tacitus also lib. 16. Mela quibus Gallio Seneca parentibus natus c. Which of these three were Eldest is not altogether clear But it is a good Argument taken from the enumeration by their Father that their Births were agreeable to that Order And then Novatus or Gallio must be eldest And Tacitus proves Gallio's priority in the place now cited Hence Lipsius in de Vita Seneca cap. 2. and divers times on his Works makes Novatus the Eldest But in his Elect. 1. cap. 1. he makes him the second and L. the first So doth Pontacus on Eusebius pag. 573. And Grotius ad Act. 18. 12. Erat hic Frater Magni Senecae dictus cum junior esset Novatus sed adoptatus postea à Junio Gallione But I confess the Father's Enumeration sways most with me Touching the Adoption I can find no unlikelyhood that M. Seneca should give away any of his Sons by adoption which was usually made for advantage And Junius Gallio the Father might well deserve it And that of Seneca ad Mareium rather confirms the reasonableness of it and the like use Now for that Gallio in the Acts whom the Arab calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Dio Galonus the Father Gallio it sorts very well with all Circumstances that he should have been Seneca's Brother as Baronius Anno 53. § 33. Pontacus in Eusebium Grotius c. doubt not Seneca's Power in Court will warrant it and his Comfort to his Mother of her two Sons cap. 16. Alter honores industriâ consecutus est alter contemsit plainly meaning Novatus or Gallio and Mela. And of Gallio's greatness in Praefat ad Nat. Quaest. 4. Solebam tibi dicere Gallionem fratrem meum quem nemo non parum amat Etiam qui amare plus non potest alia vitia non nosce hoc etiam adulationem odisse And it doth not well appear what became of Gallio the Father likely enough before lost upon his Banishment But neither doth it clearly appear that either Father or Son was Proconsul in Achaia there being no necessity that the mention of Gallio and Achaia together only with relation to his Sickness contracted there Epist. 104. should prove him Proconsul of it And it may be as much wondred at and more that Seneca after his way had not mentioned or touched his dignity when there was an unavoidable mention to be had of Achaia whence he speaks of his coming as of an ordinary Traveller more I say than that he calls him Dominus meus Gallio Whether he were his elder Brother or not he might by reason of his Dignities which he so had and affected as Seneca expresly takes notice of in that to his Mother complementally call him Dominus meus though Lipsius refers it every where after he grew of the mind that Novatus was eldest to the Eldership Pardon my thus troubling your Lordship and especially my ill writing and blotting which I could not mend by transcribing because I was to dispatch it away as soon as I had done Your Lordship 's most humble and most affectionate Friend and Servant J. Selden Whitefreirs Octob. 13. 1653. Golius his Lexion is come My second de Synedriis is done only it wants the dressings previous to it And the third is begun in several Sheets and will I hope be soon dispatched That Salmasius is dead is by every Body undoubtedly believed and I am afraid it is too true For the Name of Dominus you best know the frequent use of it in Compellations and Appellations out of Martial lib. 2. Epig. 68. ad Olum and enough of Seneca's Time Quod te nomine jam non saluto Quem Regem Dominum priùs vocabam Ne me dixeras esse contumacem c. And Lib. 1. Ep. 113. In Priscum Cum te non nossem Dominum Regemque vocabam Cum bene te novi jam mihi Priscus eris And Lib. 4. Epig. 84. In Naevolum Sollicitus donas Dominum Regemque salutas This was frequent in Salutations and mutual Expressions though the Emperors sometimes avoided it as too much earnest or seeming so to the rest it being in jest or complement Truly Seneca used not a less expression of that kind to him when he began his Books de Ira with Exegisti à me Novati ut scriberem quemadmodum ira possit leniri c. Exigere is actus Dominii as exigere Tributum Vectigal c. in
JACOBUS USSERIUS ARCHIEPISCOPUS ARMACHANUS TOTIUS HIBERNIAE PRIMAS London Printed for Nath Ranew and Ionat Robinson at the Kings Armes in S. Pauls church yard 1676 THE LIFE Of the Most Reverend Father in GOD JAMES USHER Late Lord Arch-Bishop OF ARMAGH Primate and Metropolitan of all IRELAND With a Collection of Three Hundred LETTERS between the said Lord Primate and most of the Eminentest Persons for Piety and Learning in his time both in England and beyond the Seas Collected and published from Original Copies under their own hands by RICHARD PARR D. D. his Lordships Chaplain at the time of his Death with whom the care of all his Papers were intrusted by his Lordship LONDON Printed for NATHANAEL RANEW at the Kings-Arms in St. Pauls Church-Yard MDCL XXXVI THE PREFACE WHEN the Son of Syrach undertook to recount the Famous Men of Old and record their Worth and Renown he says of them That they were Men of Knowledge Wise and Eloquent in their Instructions that of these there are who have left behind them a Name beloved of God and good Men whose Memorials are Blessed honoured in their Generation being the Glory of their times whose Righteousness shall not be forgotten and although their Bodies be buried yet their Names shall live for Ever And as in the former so likewise in these latter Days there have been many Men of excellent Endowments for Wisdom and Learning for Piety and all other eminent Vertues whose Memorials are with us in Church and State Among these of the first Rank this admirable Primate James Usher whose Life we are about to relate ought to be reckoned whether we consider him as he was indeed a profound Scholar exactly skilled in all sorts of Learning Divine and Humane or as a Person of unfeigned Piety and exemplary Vertue and Conversation or as a Subject of steady and unmoveable Loyalty to his Sovereign Prince or as a Clergy Man in all his Capacity from a Presbyter to a Bishop and Primate So that I think of him it may be as truly said as of St. Augustine with a kind of Admiration O Virum ad totius Ecclesiae publicam utilitatem natum factum datúmque divinitùs This Character his Writings have justly purchased him among the best and most Learned whether of these or other Nations whose Encomiums of him are too many and large for this Place let me therefore include all in that of a memorable Bishop of our Church who upon the Receipt of the Primates Book de Primordiis thus writes of him I may truly say that the Church hereafter will owe as much Reverence to his Memory as we of this present Age ought to pay to his Person And therefore when we have before us a subject of so Eminent Dignity we shall no need Apology for reviving the Memory of this incomparable Prelate and collecting such materials from his Life his Papers and the Informations of Wise and Knowing Men as may render him as well useful to future Ages in his Example as a Person truly Illustrious in himself 1. But perhaps it may be a needless attempt to write again the Life and Actions of this incomparable Primate seeing it hath been performed already by several Persons 2. And likewise it may be demanded how it comes to my share and what were the enducements to undertake this Province 1. To the first I say that though Dr. Bernard in the Sermon be Preached at the Funerals of the Lord Primate hath said many worthy things of him truly which we have reason to believe having the joynt Testimonies from Persons of Worth and unquestionable Credit who had been acquainted with this great and good Man for many years both in England and Ireland and must go along with the Dr. a good way in reciting many material passages contained in the said Sermon yet I take leave to say that he hath omitted very many remarkable things which perhaps either slipt his Memory or came not at all under his observation or because that those then in Power would not indure that any thing should be said of the Primate which might reflect upon that Usurpation Therefore we thought it needful to make up those defects by adding such Remarks as are wanting in that Description and likewise to rectifie the mistakes of those Writers of the Lord Primates Life who Writing after Dr. Bernard's Copy are deficient also in their Accounts and lyable to Question in some instances 2. If it be demanded how it comes to my share to revive the Memory of this great Man and to undertake the Task To this I say that I waited and heartily wished to see if any Person better Qualified than my self being sensible of my own weakness would engage himself in this Affair to whom I would most readily have Communicated those Materials and Observations which I had gathered together and lay by me for a long time but at length perceiving it not likely to be undertaken I was perswaded by those who have a prevailing Power with me to take upon me this Task and to acquaint the World with my own Observations touching this most Reverend Primate Usher whom I had the Advantage of any Man now living to know for I had the Blessing of an intimate Acquaintance with his Person and Affairs by my Attendance on him during the last thirteen years of his Life So that I may be thought capable to give a considerable Account not only of the Lord Primates particular Disposition and heavenly Conversation but likewise of those Passages and Performances of which I was an Eye Witness and may confidently relate upon mine own Knowledge This is the thing I undertake to perform especially in that part of the History of his Life and Actions from the year 1642 to the time of his Death 1655. But not withstanding my long experience of this excellent Person and what I had collected from several passages in Letters and by conference with those who made Observations yet I had not the confidence to attempt this work by my own strength or skill without Counsel and Help therefore when I had drawn together the Memorials I consulted with Persons of better understandign than my self with request to correct and amend what was misplaced or not well expressed and to remind me of any remarkable passage that had escaped my Memory And the assistance I had in this kind was administred by that Learned and Judicious Gentleman James Tyrrell Esq Grandson to the Lord Primate one as deeply concerned for the honour of his Grandfather as can be he became helpful to me in hinting many passages touching his Grandfather which he tho then young had himself observed and had heard from Persons of great Worth and Credit and of the Primates familiar Acquaintance We also owe unto him the account given of the Lord Primates Printed Works both of the time and occasion of Writing them and subject matter treated on as the Reader will perceive in the following History
in their proper places In the next place it is requisite to mind the Reader touching the following Collection of Letters herewith published being for the most part Originals written by the Lord Primate to learned Men of our own and foreign Nations or of those written to him relating mostly to matters of Learning These Epistles I gathered together with what care I could and when I had selected those out of a far greater number that I thought might prove most fit for publick view and useful both in respect of the Learning contained in them and the various subjects whereof they consisted I would not presume to publish the Collection until they had passed the Inspection and Censure of those Learned Men to whom they were first shown being Persons of great Judgment and Integrity and who retain a very high Esteem and Veneration for the Primate's Memory Perhaps the Reader will expect to meet with if not all yet many more of the Primate's Letters in this Collection than may be found but by all our Industry and search they cannot yet be retrieved partly because the Primate himself seldom kept Copies of his Lettes and many of those he had reserved met with the same fate which many others of his loose Papers and Manuscripts which were either lost in his often forced removals or fell into the hands of the Men of those spoiling times who had no regard to things of that Nature There are other Epistles not numbred with the former at the end of this Collection written by Men of great Names found among my Lord Primate's Papers which are thought worthy to be inserted and Printed Before I dismiss the Reader I have one thing more to advertise touching two Letters in the Collection one written by Dr. Bedell then Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland to the Primate Usher then Arch-Bishop of Armagh and his answer to it as you will find Numb 142. and 143. importing an accidental difference between those two Eminent Bishops and most intire Friends touching the Administration and Jurisdiction in Ecclesiastical Courts as then exercised in the Kingdom of Ireland which Letters however otherwise Worthy of perusal yet are now more especially published for the doing right to the Arch-Bishops Character which might else have suffered by some injurious Reflections upon him in the Life of that Bishop lately Written taken up partly from some uncertain Reports and partly upon the Bishops Letter to him upon that occasion But how little Reason there was to say the Primate was not made for the Governing part of his Function as that Author affirms besides his known abilities that way his Answer to the Bishops Letter and other Composures of his upon those kind of Arguments will sufficiently testifie Of which inadvertency as the Composer of that Life is already made sensible so we hope that he will do him Right according as he hath promised when time shall serve The order observed in disposing these Letters in the following Volume is according to their several Dates that being concluded fittest beth for the use and delight of the Reader only some of them through mistake are transposed and others that were brought in late are Printed at the latter end of which the Reader may consult the Advertisment at the end of the Book Farewell THE LIFE Of the Most Reverend Father in GOD JAMES USHER Late Lord Arch-Bishop OF ARMAGH Primate and Metropolitan of all IRELAND Collected and Written by RICHARD PARR D. D. his Lordships Domestick Chaplain Psalm CXII v. 6. The Righteous shall be had in Everlasting Remembrance Proverbs X. v. 7. The Memory of the Just is blessed but the Name of the Wicked shall rot LONDON Printed for NATHANAEL RANEW at the Kings-Arms in St. Pauls Church-Yard MDCLXXXVI THE LIFE OF The Most Reverend Father in God JAMES USHER SOMETIME Arch-Bishop of Armagh PRIMATE of all IRELAND THIS great Person whose Life we now write was Born in the City of Dublin the Metropolis of Ireland upon the fourth day of January Anno Domini 1580. His Father Mr. Arnold Usher one of the Six Clerks of Chancery and of good repute for his prudence and integrity was of the Ancient Family of the Ushers aliàs Nevils whose Ancestor Usher to King John coming over with him into Ireland and setling there changed the name of his Family into that of his Office as was usual in that Age his descendants having since brancht into several Families about Dublin and for divers Ages bore the most considerable Offices in and about that City His Mother was Margaret Daughter of James Stanihurst who was of considerable note in his time being chosen Speaker of the Honourable House of Commons in three Parliaments and was Recorder of the City of Dublin and one of the Mastres of Chancery and that which ought always to be mention'd for his honour he was the first mover in the last of the three Parliaments of Queen Elizabeth for the Founding and Endowing of a Colledge and University at Dublin which was soon after consented to by Her Majesty and being perfected hath ever since continued a famous Nursery for learning and good manners blessing both the Church and State with many admirable men eminently useful in their several Stations His Uncle by the Fathers side was Henry Usher sometime Arch-Bishop of Armagh a wise and learned Prelate one who industriously promoted the founding of that University and by his Zeal and Interest procured of the said Queen an established Revenue for the maintainance of a Provost and Fellows Students and Officers as may be seen by the Charter and Statutes of that Foundation and so it has flourished ever since with ample improvement A happy Foundation and great honour to that Kingdom having in the space of somewhat more than 90 years sent out divers Persons very considerable both in Church and State and yielded more than fifty Bishops besides others of inferiour Dignities who were many of them of great parts and excellent learning His Uncle by the Mother side was Richard Stanihurst a Learned man of the Romish Perswasion an excellent Historian Philosopher and Poet as appears by several of his Works still extant though some of them for that reason written against his Nephew yet notwithstanding their difference in Judgment they had frequent correspondencies by Letters some of which you will see hereafter in this following Collection He often mentioned two of his Aunts who were blind from their Cradle and so continued to their deaths and yet were blessed with admirable understanding and inspection in matters of Religion and of such tenacious Memories that whatever they heard read out of the Scriptures or was preached to them they always retained and became such proficients that they were able to repeat much of the Bible by heart and as their Nephew told me were the first that taught him to read English He had but one Brother Ambrose Usher who though he died young yet attained to great skill and perfection in the Oriental
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
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
IT is Lawful to fight in the Company of notorious wicked men and of a different Faith looking at the Cause whatever inordinate ends they have The Primitive Christians fought in the Company of Heathens and Idolaters under their Heathen Emperors and did by prayer obtain relief for the whole Army when it was in distress Which did also shew That God approved that their Service it being the duty they owed to their Lawful Emperors From the performance of which duty to a Sovereign the many evil Examples and occasions of Sin which the Military life abounds with cannot excuse that Subject that is justly Commanded to it But the Conscionable Souldier must commend himself to the Grace and Protection of the Almighty who is able to keep him from the dangers as of the Body so of the Soul too Remember the Examples of the good and faithful Centurion that came to our Saviour Luke 7. And of the Godly Centurion Cornelius who is approved of God Acts 10. To the Seventh FOR obeying Extrajudicial Precepts of his Majesty If they be such as command a Man to be Active in doing that which is unjust by the known Laws of the Land he yields truest Obedience that denies to fulfil such a Command Only this must not be generally pronounced as a Rule in time of War where necessity will be in many things a stronger Law than that which is fixed for a peaceable Government But if they be such Commands as make me only Passive by requiring some of my Estate upon a Loan or Tax I may not hastily square with my Sovereign by denyal and standing out For any Man as he may recede from his right and that which is his own so ought he not to contest with his Sovereign upon matters of no very great Moment As for the Infringing of the Liberties of the Subject such Taxes or Loans or any other Extrajudicial Commands of the King must be General extending to all or most Subjects and Customary being often imposed before they can be judged so immediately to infringe the Subject's Liberty as to make a Subject think he is bound to deny To the Last TO yield to Martialists quartered upon him if they be the King 's he is bound in duty if of the Rebels he is directed by prudence to yield unto it when they can by force command it About this time he also preached before the King on a Fast day the Text 2 Chron. 7. 14. If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways Then will I hear from Heaven and will forgive their Sin and will heal their Land In this Sermon among other things suitable to the occasion he had this remarkable passage viz. The casting of our Eyes upon other mens sins more than upon our own makes us to esteem the things we suffer to be the injuries of men and not the punishments of God When the outward senses fail we take it to be a sign of approaching death and so when we are given over to have Eyes and see not Ears and hear not it is an argument of decaying Souls For as no Prayers or Fastings in the World can sanctifie a Rebellion nor tempt God to own an unjust party so neither will a good cause alone justifie us any more than a true Religion without practice we must first do our duties otherwise neither the one nor the other will do us any good with many other things against that looseness and debauch'dness of manners which he had observed in too many who believed that the being of the right side would atone for all other faults Thus he neither spared or flattered any when his duty required him to speak the truth and to reprove those sins that were most scandalous at that time and place He would also tell them in conversation that such actions would frustrate all our hopes of success for how could they expect that God should bless their Arms whilst they were fighting against him Nor was he less severe against the actions of the then Rebellious Houses against his Majesty and declared against the War they made as wicked and of fatal Consequence and which cast an irreparable scandal upon the Reformed Religion so that they thereby rendered themselves liable to the Censures of the Church that might justly have been pronounced against them And during the Treaty of Peace at Uxbridge he preached likewise before the King on a Fast day upon Jam. 3. 18. The fruits of Righteousness is sown in Peace of them that make Peace Wherein he shewed from vers 16. the great evils which come of Contention Strife and War and from whence they proceed and the great happiness and blessings of Peace and wished that those then up in Arms in a Rebellious manner against their Prince would seriously consider this and speedily accept of those gracious Concessions that His Majesty then offer'd though all to no purpose for the Treaty quickly after broke off the Rebels being too stout to yield to any equal Terms and so that unhappy War for a short time suspended broke out again with greater violence never ceasing till at last it ended not only with the murder of the best of Kings but also with the loss and destruction of those very Rights and Priviledges for which these men pretended to shed so much blood And now it being given out that Oxford would soon be besieged year 1644 5 and that the King would speedily quit that place the Lord Primate was advised by his friends if it were possible to be avoided not to run that hazard and therefore having been before invited by his Son-in-law Sir Timothy Tyrrel who had married his only Daughter to come to them to Caerdiffe in Wales where the said Sir Timothy was then Governor and General of the Ordnance under the Lord Gerard Lieutenant General of his Majesty's Forces in South Wales which invitation the Lord Primate resolved to accept and so having taken leave of His Majesty he with his approbation took the opportunity of waiting upon his Highness the Prince of Wales our late Gracious Sovereign as far as Bristol and from thence he went to Caerdiffe where his Son and Daughter welcomed him with all that Joy and Affection which so good a Father after so long an absence could expect Here he staid almost a year free from the dangers of War this being a strong Garrison and well manned which invited many persons of good Quality to come thither for safety so that the Lord Primate had a good opportunity to pursue his Studies having brought many Chests of Books along with him and he now made a great progress in the first part of his Annals Whilst he was at Caerdiffe his Majesty after the fatal Battle at Naseby came into Wales to my Lord Marquess of Worcester's at Ragland and from thence to Caerdiffe where he staid some days And the Lord Primate then enjoyed the satisfaction
though upon a sad occasion of his Majesty's excellent conversation in the same House who received him with his wonted kindness and favour Whilst he was here the Lord Primate preached before him in the Castle and when his Majesty went away and that the Lord Primate had taken his leave of him I heard him declare that nothing came nearer to his heart than the imminent danger of the King and Church with the effusion of so much Christian Blood His Majesty's necessities now not permitting him to leave many men in Garrisons he was now forced to unfurnish this as well as others of its Souldiers and Ammunition so that Sir Timothy Tyrrel was forced to quit that Government by reason of which the Arch-Bishop being forced to remove was in a great strait whether to go the ways from thence to Oxford being all cut off by the Enemy so that he had some thoughts being near the Sea of going over into France or Holland to both which places he had been formerly invited as hath been already mentioned But whilst he was in this perplexity the Lady Dowager Stradling sent him a kind invitation to come to her Castle of St. Donates as soon as he pleased which he accepted as a great favour But by that time he was ready to go with his Daughter the Lady Tyrrel the Country thereabouts was up in Arms in a tumultuous manner to the number of Ten Thousand as was supposed who chose themselves Officers to form them into a Body pretending for the King but yet would not be governed by English Commanders or suffer any English Garrisons in the Country this gave the Lord Primate a fresh disturbance the Welch-men lying upon the ways between that place and St. Donates but there were some at that time in Caerdiffe who would needs undertake to convey the Lord Primate and his company through by ways so that they might avoid this tumultuous Rabble which though it might be well advised by the then Governor of Caerdiffe and was faithfully enough executed by them that undertook it yet happened very ill for my Lord and those that were with him for going by some private ways near the Mountains they fell into a stragling Party that were scouting thereabouts who soon led them to their main Body where it was Crime enough that they were English so that they immediately fell to plundering and breaking open my Lord Brimate's Chests of Books and other things which he then had with him ransacking all his Manuscripts and Papers many of them of his own hand writing which were quickly dispersed among a thousand hands and not content with this they pulled the Lord Primate and his Daughter and other Ladies from their Horses all which the Lord Primate bore with his wonted patience and a seeming unconcernedness But now some of their Officers coming in who were of the Gentry of the Country seemed very much ashamed of this barbarous treatment and by force or fair means caused their Horses and other things which were taken from them to be restored but as for the Books and Papers they were got into too many hands to be then retrieved nor were these Gentlemen satisfied with this but some of them very civilly conducted him through the rest of this tumultuous Rabble to Sir John Aubery's House not far off where he was civilly received and lodged that Night When he came thither and had retired himself I must confess that I never saw him so much troubled in my life and those that were with him before my self said That he seemed not more sensibly concerned for all his losses in Ireland than for this saying to his Daughter and those that endeavoured to comfort him I know that it is God's hand and I must endeavour to bear it patiently though I have too much humane frailty not to be extremely concerned for I am touched in a very tender place and He has thought â—it to take from me at once all that I have been gathering together above these twenty years and which I intended to publish for the advancement of Learning and the good of the Church The next day divers of the neighbouring Gentry and Clergy came to Visit him and to Condole this irreparable loss promising to do their utmost endeavours that what Books or Papers were not burnt or torn should be restored and so very civilly waited on him to St. Donates And to let you see that these Gentlemen and Ministers did not only promise but were also able to perform it they so used their power with the people that publishing in the Churches all over those parts That all that had any such Books or Papers should bring them to their Ministers or Landlords which they accordingly did so that in the space of two or three Months there were brought in to him by parcels all his Books and Papers so fully that being put altogether we found not many wanting those most remarkable that I or others can call to mind were two Manuscripts concerning the VValdenses which he much valued and which he had obtained toward the continuing of his Ecclesiarum Christianarum Successione As also another Manuscript Catalogue of the Persian Kings communicated by Elikmannus and one Volume of Manuscripts Variae Lectiones of the New Testament And of Printed Books only Tully's Works and some others of less concernment Whilst the Lord Primate was at St. Donates till he could get his own Books and Papers again he spent his time chiefly in looking over the Books and Manuscripts in the Library in that Castle and which had been collected by Sir Edward Stradling a great Antiquary and friend of Mr. Cambden's and out of some of these Manuscripts the L. Primate made many choice Collections of the British or Welch Antiquity which I have now in my Custody Within a little more than a Month after my Lord Primate's coming hither he was taken with a sharp and dangerous illness which began at first with the Strangury and suppression of Urine with extremity of torture which at last caused a violent bleeding at the Nose for near forty hours together without any considerable intermission no means applied could stop it so that the Physicians and all about him dispaired of his life till at last when we apprehended he was expiring it stanched of it self for he lay a good while in a trance but God had some farther work for him to perform and was pleased by degrees to restore him to his former health and strength but it is worth the remembering that whilst he was in the midst of his pain as also his bleeding he was still patient praising God and resigning up himself to his Will and giving all those about him or that came to visit him excellent Heavenly advice to a Holy Life and due preparation for death e're its Agonies seized them saying It is a dangerous thing to leave all undone till our last sickness I fear a Death-bed Repentance will avail us little if we have lived
a return for all her favours Then he desired to be left to his own private Devotions After which the last words he was heard to utter about One of the Clock in the Afternoon praying for forgiveness of Sins were these viz. O Lord forgive me especially my sins of Omission So presently after this in sure hopes of a glorious Immortality he fell asleep to the great grief and affliction of the said Countess who could never sufficiently lament her own and the Churches great loss by his too sudden departure out of this life Thus dyed this humble and holy man praying for his sins of Omission who was never known to omit his duty or scarce to have let any time slip wherein he was not imployed in some good action or other and if such a man thought he had so much to beg pardon for what an account must those have to make who scarce bestow any of their time as they ought to do He had been when he died 55 years a Minister and almost all that time a constant Preacher near 14 years a Professor of Divinity in the Univesity of Dublin and several years Vice-Chancellor of the same he sat Bishop of Meath near 4 years and one and thirty years Arch-Bishop of Armagh being from St. Patrick the 100 Bishop of that See As soon as his Relations received the sad news of his death they gave orders for his interment at Rygate where he dyed the Honourable Countess with whom he had lived and dyed intending to have him buried in her own Vault in order to which his Relations being then not near it was thought fit to preserve the Corps by such means as are proper in that case so a Chyrurgeon being sent for the Body was opened and a great deal of Coagulated blood found setled in his left side which shewed that the Physician had mistook his disease not expecting a Pleurisie in a man of above 75 years of Age. But now whilst they were preparing speedily to bury him some or other put it into Oliver Cromwell's head how much it would be for the Lord Primate's as well as his own honour to have him solemnly buried which he approving of and thinking it a good way to make himself Popular because he well knew what great reputation the deceased had among all Ranks and Degrees of men Whereupon he presently caused an Order to be drawn and sent to the Lord Primate's Son-in-law and Daughter straitly forbidding them to bury his Body any where else than at Westminster Abby for that his Highness as he then called himself intended a Publick Funeral for him This Command his Relations durst not disobey as the Times then were though it was much against their Wills perceiving well enough the Usurper's design that as it was intended so it would make more for his own honour than that of the deceased Primate and withal perceiving what accordingly happened that he would never defray half the expence of such a solemn Funeral which therefore would cause the greatest part of the charge to fall upon them though they were least able to bear it and yet he would reap all the glory of it I should not have said so much on this subject had it not been to shew the World the intriguing subtilty of this Usurper even in this small Affair and that for the expence of about 200 l. out of the Deodands in his Amoner's hands which was nothing at all to him he was able to put those he accounted his Enemies to treble that charge However since it could not be avoided the Corps was kept unburied till the 17th of April following when it was removed from Rygate towards London being met and attended by the Coaches of most of the Persons of Quality then in Town the Clergy in and about London waiting on the Hearse from Somerset House to the Abby Church where the Crowd was so great that there was forced to be a Guard to prevent the rudeness of the people The Body being brought into the Quire Dr. Nicholas Bernard then Preacher of Grays-Inn preached his Sermon his discourse was on 1 Sam. 25. 1. And Samuel died and all Israel were gathered together and lamented him and buried him Of which I shall say nothing more since it is in print and is but for the most part an account of his life which we now give you more at large The Sermon ended the Corps was conveyed to the Grave in St. Erasmus Chappel and there buried by the said Dr. according to the Liturgy of the Church of England his Grave being next to Sir James Fullerton's once his School-Master there waiting a glorious Resurrection with those that dye in the faith of our Lord Jesus Many Tears were shed at his Obsequies the City and Country being full of the singular Piety Learning and Worth of the deceased Primate which though it fall not to every man's Lot to equal yet it is his duty to follow so good an example as far as he is able Quamvis non passibus aequis In the next place I shall give you a faithful account without flattery of his personal Qualifications Opinions and Learning As for his outward form he was indifferent tall and well shaped and went always upright to the last his Hair naturally Brown when young his Complexion Sanguine his Countenance expressed Gravity and good Nature his Carriage free a presence that commanded both Respect and Reverence and though many Pictures have been made of him the Air of his face was so hard to hit that I never saw but one that was like him He was of a strong and healthy Constitution so that he said That for the most part of his life he very rarely felt any pain in his head or stomach in his youth he had been troubled with the Sciatica and some years after that with a long Quartan Ague besides the fit of the Strangury and Bleeding above mentioned but he never had the Gout or Stone A little sleep served his turn and even in his last years though he went to Bed pretty late yet in the Summer he would rise by five and in the Winter by six of the Clock in the Morning his Appetite was always suited to his dyet he would feed heartily on plain wholsom Meat without Sauce and better pleased with a few Dishes than with great Varieties nor did he love to tast of what he was not used to Eat He liked not tedious Meals it was a weariness to him to sit long at Table but what ever he Eat or Drank was never offensive to his Stomach or Brain for he never exceeded at the greatest Feast and I have heard some Physicians impute the easieness of his Digestion to something very particular in the frame of his Body for when the Chyrurgeon had opened him he found a thick Membrane lined with Far which as I suppose was but a continuation of the Omentum which extended it self quite over his Stomach and was fastened above to
judicio praeterquam suo Praesul verè Magnus Qui Ecclesiam Veterum institutis Clerum suo Exemplo Populum Concionibus Affidue instruxit Chronologiam sacram pristino nitori restituit Bonarum artium Professores Inopia Afflictos Munificentiâ sublevavit Denique qui Haereses repullulantes calamo erudito contudit His ingenii dotibus his animi virtutibus ornatus Praesul optimus piissimus meritissimus Cum inter bella Civilia Ecclesiae Patriae suae funesta Sibique Luctuosa Nec Ecclesiae nec Patriae diutius prodesse poterat In Christo pacis Authore placide obdormivit Anno Aerae Christianae 1655. Aetatis suae 76. Riegat in Comitatu Surrey Martii 21. Obiit Sepultus apud Westmonast In Hen. 7mi Capellâ Apr. 5. 1656. A Catalogue of the Lord Primate James Usher's Works and Writings already Printed In Latin DE Ecclesiarum Christianarum Successione Statu cum Explicatione Quaestionis de Statu Ecclesiarum in partibus praesertim occidentis à tempore Apostolorum De primordiis Ecclesiarum Britannicarum Epistolarum Hibernicarum Sylloge Historia Gotes-Chalci Polycarpi Ignatii Epistolae Graec. Lat. cum desertatione de eorum Scriptis deque Apostolicis Canonibus Constitutionibus Clementi tributis Appendix Ignatiana De Romanae Ecclesiae Symbolo Apostolico vetere aliis fidei formulis De Anno solari Macedonum Epistola ad Lodovicum Capellum de textus Hebr. variantibus Lectionibus Annales Vet. Test. Annales N. Test. Chronologia Sacra De Graecâ Septuaginta Interpretum versione Syntagma Desertatio de Cainane In English AN Answer to Malon the Jesuits Challenge The Religion professed by the Ancient Irish and Britains A Sermon Preached before the House of Commons Westminster A Sermon of the Visibility of the Church Preached before King James Jun. 25 1624. A Speech delivered in the Castle Chamber Dublin concerning the Lawfulness of taking and danger of refusing the Oath of Supremacy Nov. 22. 1622. A Speech in the same Place upon the denial to contribute for the Supply of the Kings Army for the defence of the Government April 30 1627. Immanuel or the Mistery of the Incarnation of the Son of God A Geographical Description of the lesser Asia A Discourse of Bishops and Metropolitans A small Catechism entitled the Principles of Christian Religion with a brief Method of the Doctrine thereof His Annals of the Old and New Testament Translated into English with the Synchronisms of the Heathen Story to the destruction of Jerusalem The Power of the Prince and Obedience of the Subject stated with a Preface by Dr. Robert Sanderson late Bishop of Lincoln Published from the Original Copy written with his own hand by James Tyrrell Esq Grandson to the Lord Primate A Body of Divinity or the Summ and Substance of Christian Religion by way of Question and Answer collected by himself in his younger years for his own private Use and through the Importunity of some Friends communicated to them but not with a Design to be Printed though afterwards published by others with good Acceptance A Volume of Sermons in Folio Preached at Oxford before his Majesty and elsewhere published since his Death These that follow were gathered out of the Fragments of the Lord Primate and Published since his Death by Dr. Bernard HIS Judgment and Sense of the State of the present See of Rome from Apocal. 18. 4. Ordination a Fundamental His Sense of Hebrews 6. 2. Of the use of a Set form of Prayer in the Church The extent of Christs Death and Satisfaction with an Answer to the Exceptions taken against it Of the Sabbath and Observation of the Lords Day His Judgment and Sense of John 20. 22. 23. Receive ye the Holy-Ghost Whose Sins ye Remit c. A Catalogue of the Lord Primate Ushers own Manuscripts of various Subjects not Printed Lemmata Manuscriptorum CEnsura Patrum aliorum Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum five Bibliotheca Theologica Historiae dogmaticae Quaestionum inter Orthodoxos Pontificios Controversarum Specimen in Quaestione de Communi Sacrarum Scripturarum usu contra Scripturarum lucifugas De veterum Pascalibus Scriptis de ratione Paschali quibus computi Ecclesiastici in Universo orbe Christiano ante Gregorianam reformationem apperiuntur ex vetustissimis Manuscriptis codicibus notis Illustratum Veterum de tempore Passionis Dominicae Phaschalis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Variae Lectiones Collationes Vet. Nov. Instrumenti 1. Genesis Longe antiquissimum exemplar Graecum Cottonianum cum editione Francofurtensi Collatum 2. Collatio Psalterii à B. Hieronymo ex Heb. conversi à Jacobo Fabro Parisiis An. 1513. editi cum aliis exemplaribus Manuscriptis Impressis 3. Annotationes variarum Lectionum in Psalmis juxta Masoreth Judaeorum five cum notâ aliquâ Masoreticâ 4. Psalterium cum versione Saxonicâ interlineatâ in Bibliothecâ Salisburiensis Ecclesiae 5. Psalterium Gallicum cum Romano collatum Hebraico 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oppositum Manuscripto in Westmonasteriensis Ecclesiae Bibliothecâ 6. Collatio Canticorum utriusque Testamenti cum editione vulgatâ Latinâ 7. Variae Lectiones Collationes N. Test. ex vetustissimis Exemplaribus 8. Collatio editionis Chronici Eusebii à Josepho Scaligero edit cum Manuscripto è Regiâ Bibliothecâ 9. Collatio variorum Pentateuchi Samaritani Exemplarium cum notis Observationibus 10. Chronologia Legum Codicis Theodosiani Justiniani collata cum Malmesburiensi Manuscripto Julianae Periodi ad Juliani anni usum vulgaris aerae Christianae ad anni Juliani pariter Gregoriani Methodum accommodatae fixa jam Epochâ cum Tabulâ reductionis dierum Anni Juliani veteris ad dies Anni Gregoriani Novi hodie usitati in pluribus partibus orbis Ratio Bissextorum literarum Dominicarum Equinoctiorum Festorum Christianorum tam mobilium quam immobilium De Institutione Chronologicâ viz. De Tempore illius Mensurâ de Die ejusque partibus de horis scrupulis de Hebdomadibus Mensibus de Anno Astronomico de variâ Annorum Supputatione Secundum Graeca Exemplaria De differentiâ circuli spherae de cursu septem Planetarum Signorum Coelestium de quinque Parall in sphera Zonasdistinguent Veteres Observationes Coelestes Chaldaicae Graecae Aegyptiacae Insigniorum Imperiorum Regnorum quae ante Christi adventum in orbe floruerunt successiones et tempora ad usum veteris Historiae studiosorum eorum praesertim qui exoticam Chronologiam cum Sacra conferre cupiunt Series Chronologica Syriaca Regum Imperatorum Babylonicorum Persarum Graecorum Romanorum à Nebuchadnezzar ad Vespasianum ab Anno Mundi 4915. ad Annum 5585. De fastis Magistratuum Coss. Triumphorum Romanorum ab Urbe Condita usque ad excessum Caesaris Augusti ex fragmentis Marmoreis foro Romano effossis à doctissimis nostri temporis Chronographis suppletis Catalogus Consulum ex variis Authoribus De Ponderibus Mensuris De
6 am Propositiones nee denique cujuscunque limae Versiones nostrae sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conscriptae ut patet ex 3 a appendice libri primi Ergo Sola Hebraica Veteris Instrumenti editio sicut Graeca Novi authentica est pura Vides methodum quam mihi proposui In animo etiam fuit difficultates quasdam tibi doctissime vir proposuisse in quibus exactissimum tuum judicium cognoscerem Sed sentio me jam modum epistolae excessisse vereor ne interpellem te nimis nugis meis à gravioribus negotiis Ignoscas quaeso Guilielmo tuo qui prolixè cordatè potiùs quam eleganter suaviter te compellare maluit Nactus jam tandem Tabellarii opportunitatem remisi ad te manu fidâ ejusdem Postelli Grammaticam unâ cum libello altero quem tibi benevolentiae ergô dicavi majorem daturus si Anglia nostra aliquid librorum non-vulgarium ad antiquitatem eruendam suppeditaret Nondum aliquid efficere potui in Arabicis quod dignum sit operâ forsan si Christmanno muto Magistro aut Bedwello Londinensi vel potiùs Ambrosio tuo Dubliniensi vivâ voce praeceptore uti liceret aliquid efficerem Sed non licet Velit jubeat clementissimus pater qui in coelis est ut Ecclesiae suae pomoeria dilatet nostras Ecclesias in verâ pace conservet tibÃque frater doctissime tuis omnibus in Christo benedicat Vale è Musaeo m Collegio Emmanuelis Cantabrigiae 9 o Kalendas Aprilis juxta veteres Fastos anno Domini 1607 juxta computum Ecclesiae Anglicanae Tuus in communi fide ac Ministerio Evangelii frater Amantissimus GUIL EYRE LETTER IV. A Letter from Mr. H. Briggs to Mr. James Usher afterward Arch-Bishop of Armagh Salutem in Christo. Good Mr. Usher PArdon me I pray you that I have not written unto you of late nor gotten the Book you gave me printed for now I cannot think it yours I received your Letter the other day and did the same day twice seek Mr. Rimay and your Books mentioned in the end of your Letter of all which Abraham could get none save one Catalogue of the last Mart which I have sent you within a Book of the Shires of England Ireland and Scotland which at length I send to Mr. D. Chaloner to whom I pray you commend me very kindly with many thanks and excuses for my long deferring my promise Abraham hath taken all the names of your Books and promiseth to get them for you at the next Mart. I was likewise with Mr. Crawshaw he hath not gotten nor cannot find Confes. Ambrosianam of whom I have now received your Book again because he saith it is impossible to get it printed here without the Author's name or without their Index Expurgatorius if any thing in it do sound suspiciously He hath not read it over himself and he is had in some Jealousie with some of our Bishops by reason of some points that have fallen from his Pen and his Tongue in the Pulpit I will keep your Book till you please to send me word what I shall do with it I think Sir J. Fullerton or Sir J. Hamilton may with one word speaking have it pass without name but I am now determined not to mention it to them until you give me some better Warrant Concerning Eclypses you see by your own experience that good purposes may in two years be honestly crossed and therefore till you send me your Tractate you promised the last year do not look for much from me for if another business may excuse it will serve me too Yet am I not idle in that kind for Kepler hath troubled all and erected a new frame for the Motions of all the Seven upon a new foundation making scarce any use of any former Hypotheses yet dare I not much blame him save that he is tedious and obscure and at length coming to the point he hath left out the principal Verb I mean his Tables both of Middle-motion and Prosthaphaereseων reserving all as it seemeth to his Tab. Rudolpheas setting down only a lame pattern in Mars But I think I shall scarce with patience expect his next Books unless he speed himself quickly I pray you salute from me your Brother Mr. Lydyat Mr. Kinge Mr. Martin Mr. Bourchier Mr. Lee. Macte Virtute Do not cease to help the building of Sion and the ruinating of Babel yet look to your health ut diu valide concutias hostium turres The Lord ever bless you and your labours and all that most worthy Society Farewel Tuus in Christo H. Briggs Aug. 1610. Concerning Sir R. Cotton's Letter I must crave pardon at this time for I am but very lately come home and full of business going out of the Town again I think to morrow and now if perhaps I find him I shall hardly get it copied But I pray you to what question of sound Divinity doth this appertain Yet do not think me so censorious but I can like you should sometimes descend to Toys for your Recreation My opinion is He that doth most good is the honestest man whosoever have precedence but if harm the less the better Pray for us The Lord ever bless his Church and us all in particular Mr. Bedwell is not well and keepeth altogether at his t'other Living at Totenham Farewel Yours ever in the Lord Henry Briggs LETTER V. A Letter from Mr. Thomas Lydyat to Mr. James Usher afterward Arch-Bishop of Armagh Mr. Usher I Received your Letter this Friday the 13th of March for which I thank you It had been broken open by Chester Searchers before it came to him but I thank God I have not lost any thing of moment for ought I find as yet The East-Indian Fleet is gone about six weeks since but I remain at London still a suiter unto you that the School of Armagh be not disposed of otherwise than I have hitherto requested you until I speak with you in Ireland or rather here in London where I shall be glad to see you The night before I received your Letter Mr. Crashaw acquainted me with a Letter from Mr. Cook wherein he seemed to doubt of divers things in Mr. James his English Book whereof you write signifying withal that he purposeth to be at London this Spring where I hope to see you all three meet to the better performing of that business Mr. Provost told me that he had sent you a Minister for Warberies Mr. I have forgot his name Mr. Provost being now out of Town with my Lord Arch-Bishop his Letters commendatory to my Lord Chancellor I think he is come to you ere this time Printing of Books especially Latin goeth hard here mine is not yet printed nevertheless I thank God mine honourable friends whom I have acquainted with the matter shew me still a friendly countenance with which I rest comforting my self with that pro captu lector is habent sua
though in substance they agree yet in many circumstances they disagree as for example in many particulars in the said Prefaces also in the distinction of Canons and sometimes in Titles So it should seem also for number of Decretal Epistles if that which Eckius saw were the same with that H. Canisius had for it should seem that Eckius's Book had the Decrees of 15 Popes whereas Codex Moguntinus hath but 13 and not 11 only as you seem to say out of Pithoeus And now since I mention Pithoeus if his copy of Ferrandus's Breviary of the Canons were true there were other Canons amongst the Sardican Canons than those we have as may appear in Ferrandus his Breviary num 92 93 and 214 for the 1. and 13. Tit. there alledged are not to be found in the Canons of Sardica now extant Another thing also touching Pithoeus He saith in the Preface of Ferrandus's Breviary that that Version which is in Codice Moguntino is not that of Dionysius Exiguus but I assure you Baronius Ant. Augustinus and the Recognisers of Gratian in their Annotations and Binius in the late Cologne Edition take that which is in Codice Moguntino to be that of Dionysius Exiguus You alledge Hincmarus Rhemens in lib. de variis capitul Eccles. I would know whether you have the Book or you have it from some others who do alledge him I would desire your help for such Books as were pertinent to this business Hincmarus was an excellent man and a stout Champion against Innovations and all such as prejudged ancient Canonical Liberties As for the Decretal Epistles I am of opinion with you That first they were brewed in Spain and broached by Riculfus and afterward by Otgarius or Autcarius as Bened. Levit. proefat in 5. lib. capitular termeth him And so much doth Hincmarus lib. contra Hincman Laudunens insinuate alledged inter testimonia proefixa capitularibus and in Fr. Pithoeus his Glossary lit R. and by Baron ad an 865. n. 5. But in one thing I cannot accord to Fr. Pithaeus in the forenamed place That Isidorus Mercator was the Collector of the Decretal Epistles from Clement to Gregorius Magnus It seemeth tho that the Decretal Epistles began chiefly to be in request about the time that Isidore lived according to your account for in the XIV Council of Toledo Can. 11. there is somewhat which may argue so much But I do not think that Cresconius followed Isidore his Collection considering it may be doubted whether ever he saw it and therefore though Isidore gathered the Decretals to Gregory the Great as he intimateth in his Preface yet Cresconius as it should seem followed some former My Error in Concil Cellensi was in that I presupposed that all the Councils mentioned by Ferrandus excepting those which are in Codice Tiliano were in Africk whereas Tela is in Spain as Antoninus's Itinerarium witnesseth I have not that Edition of Isidore printed by Merlinus 1530. but by those your directions I shall acknowledge it when I meet with it I have included here a note by which you may know how to find the whole Codex Moguntinus in Crab's Edition I had verily thought you had had it As for the Acts of the Councils in Greek which are promised to be set out at Rome and have been a long time I do fear me there will be jugling in that work It is much to be lamented that Ant. Augustinus who had gotten Manuscript Copies out of the chief Libraries of Asia and Europe of the IV General Councils and had them almost in a readiness for the Press was prevented in this Work by untimely death I have been at Bennet Colledge but could not get into the Library the Master who had one of the Keys being from home I will remember sometime for to look the places out of Burchardus As for that other place of your Irish Synod alledged Dist. 82. Can. 5. But of that Canon thus writeth Ant. August emendat Gratian. lib. 1. Dialog XIV Post Concilium Carthaginens III. quaedam fragmenta sunt incerta quibus proeponitur illud quod Gangrensi Concilio falsò Gratianus poenitentiale Romanum tit 8. c. 6. ascribunt cujus initium est Presbyter si fornicatione Concilio Hiberniensi vindicatur in lib. Anselmi Lucensis Romano lib. 8. cap. ult Et ut audio ita inscribitur à Gregorio Presbytero in Polycarpi lib. 4. titulo De Incontinentia Clericorum Poenitentiali Theodori in veteri lib. Mich. Thomasii certè illud Hiberniense Concilium sub eodem Theodoro Cantuariensi habitum est Since the time in which I writ the former part of this Letter which was in the beginning of Lent upon the receipt of yours I have been occasioned to be going and coming from and to Cambridge to have some settled place of abode being limited in my time for the keeping of my place in our Colledge which if I could have enjoyed I should hardly have removed hither where I am now with the Bishop of Bath Wells or any where else But the Bishop sending for me and offering me a Competency in that kind I requested of him then when I was unprovided I could not neglect God's Providence and was advised hereunto by my best Friends This unsettled Abode of mine was the Cause why I finished not this Letter so long since begun and sent it not before this I have since got Jacob Merlin's Edition of Isidore's Collection and before that at my being in the North I borrowed out of Durham Library the Manuscript of it which is all one with Corpus Canonum in Bennet Colledge Library and in Trinity Colledge Library newly erected there is another Copy of the same I got also in the North a fair Transcript of the Greek Canons which as I understand Erasmus caused to be copied out of an ancient Copy which was brought to Basil at what time the Council of Basil was held This Copy Erasmus sent to Cuthbert Tunstall Bishop of Durham where it hath been since Bishop Barnes who was Bishop there since gave it to his Son and his Son to me It is the same with that which is translated by Gentian Harvett and which Balsamon commenteth upon The other day my Lord shewed me a Letter which came from one of his Chaplains at Windsor who signified unto him that Sir Henry Savil had an intendment to set out the Greek Councils I fear me he will hardly get Copies I will inquire further into it and will further it what lyeth in me Antonius Augustinus had gathered all the Acts of the 4 first General Councils out of all the Libraries of Italy and had purposed to have set them forth as Andreas Schottus reporteth in a funeral Oration upon him Nay he saith further he had writ a Book thus entituled Concilia Graeca Latina cum Historia Scholiis Variae Lectiones But surely they will be suppressed for ever As for the Title of Volusianus ad Nicholaum in
do not demurre themselves nor intangle others though needlesly yet sophistically in any one Quillity or Cavil more than in that particular before expressed Were I not throughly perswaded both of your sufficiency and integrity I would not intimate thus much unto you All which notwithstanding I refer to your own Pious and Discreet consideration yet hoping withal to hear from you ere long by whom you now receive these from me which I trust you will reserve to your self alone howsoever you entertain or dislike yea or deliberate of the motion The while here I right heartily commend you and your godly studies to the special good blessings of the Almighty Yours very loving in the Lord Tobias Eboracensis Bishopthorpe May 12 1616. LETTER XVIII A Letter from Mr. Thomas Gataker to Mr. James Usher late Arch-Bishop of Armagh Health in Christ. Good Sir PResuming on your kindness shewed me at your being in these parts together with your ingenuous disposition otherwise I am bold to request a further courtesie from you I have in mine hands a Manuscript containing among others certain Treatises which I cannot yet learn to have been printed to wit Guilielmi de Sancto Amore de periculis novissimorum temporum as also divers things of Robert Grosthed sometime of Lincoln viz. An Oration delivered in writing to the Pope at Lions whereof I find a peice recorded in Catalogus Testium excerpta quaedam ex ejusdem epistolis tractatus de oculo morali de modo confitendi sermones quidam Some of these peradventure if they be not abroad already might not be unworthy to see the light nor should I be unwilling if they should be so esteemed to bend my poor and weak endeavours that way but of that Oration to the Pope certain lines not many are pared away in my Copy though so as the sense of them may be guessed and gathered from the context And in the other Treatises there are many faults that cannot easily or possibly some of them without help of other Copies be amended My desire is to understand from you whether at your being here in England for I wot well how careful you were to make inquiry after such Monuments you lighted upon any of these and where or in whose hands they were There are besides in this Manuscript a Commentary on Augustine De Civitate Dei and a Postil on Ecclesiastes with a Treatise De modo proedicandi but these two imperfect of nameless Authors Besides Guilielm Paris de Prebendis Malachiae Minorith de veneno spirituali which two last I understand to have been published I should be glad to hear as many others desire that the second part of your painful and profitable Task so generally applauded and no less greedily expected were preparing or fully prepared for the Press and much more to see it abroad Works of that kind are in these times very seasonable nor deserve any better of God's Church than those that deal soundly and learnedly in them among whom your self as not a few acknowledge may well claim a prime place Your Labours both in that kind and others the Lord bless and continue unto you life and strength to be long an Instrument to his glory and of his Churches good Yours assured in the Lord Thomas Gataker Rederith Martii 18. 1616. LETTER XIX A Letter from Mr. Robert Usher to Doctor James Usher afterward Arch-Bishop of Armagh Ornatissimo viro amantissimoque suo sobrino Jacobo Usserio dignissimo in nostra Academia Theologiae Professori Salutem DUas fulgentes insignes stellas vir ornatissime firmamento nostrae Ecclesiae nuper decessisse cimmeriae horrendae quibus miserima haec Insula in occasum vergens Academia involvuntur tenebrae promulgant ad quas dispellendas te sulgenti scientiarum splendore omnibus praelucentem admirabili morum candore corruscantem summoque honore coronatum Deus elegit ut studiorum tuorum habenas ad emolumentum nostrae Ecclesiae Babylonica superstitione infestae ad salutem Patriae mentis caecitate laborantis ad dignitatem Academiae in praecipitem ruinam irruentis expeditè flectas Miseris fuccurrere te didicisse ter nobilis illa pugna nunquam fatis laudanda nuper cum superba septemplici Romanae gentis Hydra sub Christi vexillo inita pro maturata aetate ac illibatâ despectae Ecclesiae castitate palam testatur quam pene oblivio vel potius cruenta tyrannorum rabies etiam spirantem absorbuit sepelivit Perpetuas hujus peregrinationes duraque exilia terribilem Draconis faciem fugientis ab ultima antiquitate quâ in cunabulis fuerat ad nostra fere tempora vivis coloribus depinxisti Nunc igitur facessant nostris finibus mendaces Romanae Synagogae Cretenses quos olim abyssus turmatim evomuit facessant inquam non sine hac novitate quâ perfidam obscoenam Babyloniae meretricem salutent ferreo tui ingenii ariete Antichristiani regni fundamenta concussa vel potius convulsa novâ restauratione indigere veram Christi sponsam demum tenebrosis umbris extulisse caput teque istius gravissimae controversiae contentionis palmam reportasse Hinc omnes quos liber tuus variâ sane lectione doctrina perpolitus vel saltem ejus fama à limine salutavit uno ore te solum in hac materia Apollinis lyram attigisse constanter perhibent hoc idem insignis tua fama astipulatur quae nullam Europae partem insalutatam reliquit idem industriae ingenii tui foetus quem omnes avidè arripiunt summoque prosequuntur amore Filium equidem parentis causâ omnes fovent parentem filii gratiâ omnes admirantur sic cunctos te cum admiratione amare cunctosque te cum amore admirari facile percipias Immortales Deo grates propterea quod te per devios antiquorum campos vagantem in penetralia suae veritatis deduxit benignitatis suae Thesauros tibi apperuit teque patriae incolumem patriamque tibi restituit tibique amantissime sobrine justissimas habeo gratias quas me tibi diu debuisse immensa tua erga me gratia comprobat cujus tuum cubiculum mihi creditum minimam non esse tesseram ingenuè fateor Sed ne chartacea haec salutatio te gravissimorum negotiorum mole obrutum molestiâ afficiat vela contraham hoc interim abs te flagitarem hoc audaciae meae symbolum pariterque amoris ferena humanitatis fronte accipias Tuae salutis felicitatis studiosiss Rob. Usserius Ad obscoenam meretricem septem insidentem Montibus de tuo libro Carmen Frigore cur pavido trepidas Babylonica Thais Cur trepidae proebes turpia terga fugoe Fluctibus Hesperiis emergit lucida stella Quâ Veniente fagis quâque Oriente cadis Purpuream lucem vitat caligo profunda Dagon sic Arcam concidit ante Dei. Hac radiante patent cunctis genitura nefanda Gorgoneusque tuus partus uterque parens Mordaces anni violataque foedera lecti
Grosthead's Epistles out of a Manuscript remaining in Merton Colledge Library That treatise de oculo morali I lighted lately on in another Manuscript bound together with Grosthead in Decalog having this Title before it Incipit Liber de Oculo morali quem composuit Magister Petrus de Sapiere Lemovicensis And I find it cited by Petrus Reginaldeti a Friar in his Speculum finalis retributionis under the name of Johannes de Pechano as the Author of it Neither seemeth it though written honestly yea wittily and learnedly as the wit and learning of those times was to be of the same frame and strain for gravity that other the works of that Bishop are which also maketh me suspect those Sermons that in my Manuscript go under his name should not be his having lately at idle times run over some of them If I meet with your Country-man Malachy at any time I will not be unmindful of your request And if any good Office may be performed by me for you here either about the Impression of your Learned and Religious Labours so esteemed and much desired not of my self alone but of many others of greater judgment than my self or in any other imployment that my weak ability may extend it self unto I shall be ready and glad upon any occasion to do my best therein I lighted of late upon an obscure fellow one Hieronymus Dungersheim de Ochsenfart who in Anno 1514 published a confutation dedicated to George then Duke of Saxony of a confession of the Picards which whether it be the same with that which Gretser saith Luther set out with his Preface I wot not The Title of it is Totius quasi Scripturae Apologia and the beginning of it In summi Dei maximo nomine terribili Amen Nos homines in terrae or be quanquam ad ima subacti c. And though it be not entirely inserted by him in his answer yet so much is picked out of it and set down in their words as may shew in divers main points their dissent from them and consent with us But it is not likely that this Author though obscure and not worthy the Light hath escaped your curious eye Gesner seemeth mistaken in him when he saith Hieronymus Dungersheim scripsit Apologiam sacrae Scripturae Boemorum for he wrote not it but against it But I trouble you it may be unseasonably with needless trifles amids your more serious Affairs which forbearing therefore to do further at this present with hearty Salutations and my best Prayers unto God I commend you and your godly Labours to his gracious Blessing and rest Your assured Friend and Unworthy Fellow-Labourer in the Lord Tho. Gatacre Rederith June 24. 1617. LETTER XXVII A Letter from Mr. Thomas Lydyat to Dr. James Usher afterward Arch-Bishop of Armagh Salutations in Christ. Reverend Mr. Usher I Received both your Letters and as touching your discourse in the latter about the beginning of Artaxerxes's Reign and Daniel's weeks and the time of our Lord's Passion c. depending thereupon I framed mine answer to your former discourse therebout in your Letter bearing date Octob. 6. 1615. upon the ground of your opinion which I gathered out of the Words thereof Darius hath there in Ptolemy 's Canons 36 years and Xerxes 21 which maketh me somewhat to stagger at your beginning of Artaxerxes Which words I could not otherwise understand than that they had drawn Artaxerxes's Beginning back again in your conceit unto the vulgar Station lower than I had advanced it upon the grounds mentioned in the beginning of your last Letter and that place of Fast. Sicul. which either I had not marked or else had neglected and forgotten And to the same purpose seems unto me to tend that you inferr in the same Letter upon Cimon's taking Eione and Scyrus in the beginning of his Admiralty first mentioned by Diodorus Siculus in Demotion's year Whence it would follow That the Siege of Naxos and Themistocles's Flight at the same time was later and the Victory at Eurymedon yet later than that My Manuscript Chronicle being the third part of my Treatise de Emendat Tempor after my first project wherein I have wholly translaed those places of Thucydides and Diodorus concerning Themistocles's Flight I did communicate unto you if I have not much forgotten my self and if I be not much deceived you shall find that part of my Translation agreable both to Diodorus his Words and to the Truth Wherefore it made me marvel that in the latter part of the same Letter you now go about contrariwise to set Themistocles's Flight according to Eusebius's Chronicle and consequently the beginning of Artaxerxes according to Thucydides two or three years higher at what time I supposed his troubles began about the Arraignment and Examination of Pausanias and so much the more that for your purpose you alledge Aurelius Probus or Cornelius Nepos affirming Themistocles to have been expelled Athens four years before Aristides's Death and the beginning of Perieles's Government which falling out just upon the very same year of my supposal strongly confirmeth the same and so much the more strongly for that his Words seem to have direct reference to those of Thucydides Erat enim Themistocles patriâ puisus per ostracismum Argis vitam agens per caeteram Peloponnesum commeans Whereas therefore Cornelius Nepos his account casts Themistocles's expulsion or exostracism from Athens right upon that same year after which time saith Thucydides he lived at Argis and was going up and down about Peloponnesus needs must his Pursuit and Flight be supposed a good space after that upon the Execution of Pausanias whose first plotting of Treason and endictment thereupon whereabout was long and much ado before his Execution seem to have be fallen the 4th year of the 75 Olympiad Where Diodorus relateth his whole History together according to his manner But that that made me most of all to marvel was that by your thus urging Artaxerxes's beginning together with Themistocles's Flight two or three years higher than my Pitch you not only utterly discredit your Ptolemy's Canons for giving 36 years to Darius and 21 to Xerxes together with Diodorus and Eusebius but also all other Authors of Antiquity that I know whereof none ascribes less than 31 to Darius and 20 to Xerxes which hereby whether upon oversight or otherwise you enforce your self to do namely subtracting two or three years more from Xerxes leaving him scarce 15. whose Authorities and Testimonies together with the other reasons that I have in place alledged will I trust in the end prevail with you to move and draw you to assent to the truth which I have delivered concerning the beginning and ending of Daniel's weeks and the time of the Passion and Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Christ with all the dependences thereupon For certainly how weak soever I the restorer and publisher thereof am yet it is strong and will prevail and notwithstanding mine obscure estate in
very desirous to be certified of from you the one In what sort you would have him answer that Calumniation of our Irish Libeller where he intimateth that you dissemble your Religion and write otherwise than you think delusus Spe hujus secult et mundani honor is lenocinio illectus The other What you think of our great St. Patrick and of his Miracles Touching the former I assured him of my own knowledge that you were wrong'd most shamefully what you did you did out of Judgment and not led by any such base Respect as you were charged withal and that I knew for certain that with your heart you embraced the Religion which by Authority is maintained in the Church of England For the latter I gave him good leave to discredit as much as he list that Pack of ridiculous Miracles which latter Writers had fastned upon St. Patrick but wished him in no wise to touch the Credit of that worthy man himself nor to question his Succession to Palladius nor to cast him unto lower Times contrary to the consent of all Writers that ever make Mention of him And to this end I shewed unto him what I had gathered together to this purpose in a Treatise which I lately wrote at the Request of Dr. Hampton Lord Arch-Bishop of Armagh of the first Planters of the Christian Faith in Ireland and specially of St. Patrick and his Successors in the See of Armagh but one word from you will satisfie him more than a hundred from me and therefore let me intreat you that you would here erranti comiter monstrare viam You easily may see what little Credit the Testimony or the Silence rather of so late an Author as Platina is may carry to bear down the constant agrement of all our own Writers The Objection would be far more specious if it were drawn from the Silence of venerable Bede who making express Mention both in his History and his Chronicle of Palladius speaketh nothing at all of Patricius Yet have I seen in Sir Robert Cotton's Library an ancient Fragment written before the time of Bede wherein St. Patrick is not only mentioned but also made to be as ancient in time as hitherto we have still believed him to have been It was found among Mr. Josseline's Papers and is now bound up in blew Leather with other Antiquities If you can come by the Book and will be pleased to transcribe that place of it where the Tradition of the Liturgy from Man to Man is described for there this Mention of St. Patrick is to be found either that or nothing will give full Satisfaction to our Doctor The Company of Stationers in London are now erecting a Factory for Books and a Press among us here Mr. Felix Kingston and some others are sent over for that Purpose They begin with the printing of the Statutes of the Realm afterwards they purpose to fall in Hand with my Collections De Christianarum Ecclesiarum Successione Statu I do intreat you of all Love to look over the first Edition and what you find I have mistaken or what you think may be further added out of the Antiquities which you have met withal signifie unto me I wrote unto you to this purpose about four years since by a Kinsman of mine Mr. John Brereton at which time also I desired to understand from you Whether it were possible to get the Copy of the Epistles to the Monks of Glastenbury attributed to St. Patrick which I remember you told me you had sometimes seen But since that time I have heard nothing from you If you will be pleased at this time to write unto me or to Dr. Rives who earnestly expecteth your Answer you may leave your Letters at my Lord Knevet's House in Westminster there to be delivered unto Sir Henry Docwra our Treasurer at Wars who will take Order that they shall be safely conveyed unto me And thus craving Pardon for my Boldness in troubling you thus far I take my Leave for this time resting always Your most loving and firm Friend James Usher Dublin June 8. 1618. LETTER XXXIV A Letter from Mr. William Camden to Dr. James Usher afterward Arch-Bishop of Armagh My most esteemed good Mr. Dr. YOur loving Letter of the Eighth of June I received the Fourth of July being retired into the Country for the recovery of my tender health where portum anhelans beatadinis I purposed to sequester my self from Worldly business and cogitations Yet being somewhat recovered I could not but answer your love and Mr. Doctor Rieves Letter for your sake with the few lines herein enclosed which I submit to your censure I thank God my life hath been such among men as I am neither ashamed to live nor fear to die being secure in Christ my Saviour in whose true Religion I was born and bred in the time of King Edward VI. and have continued firm therein And to make you my Confessor sub sigillo Confessionis I took my Oath thereunto at my Matriculation in the University of Oxon. when Popery was predominant and for defending the Religion established I lost a fellowship in All-Souls as Sir Daniel Dun could testifie and often would relate how I was there opposed by the Popish Faction At my coming to Westminster I took the like Oath where absit jactantia God so blessed my labours that the now Bishops of London Durham and St. Asaph to say nothing of persons employed now in eminent place abroad and many of especial note at home of all degrees do acknowledge themselves to have been my Scholars Yea I brought there to Church divers Gentlemen of Ireland as Walshes Nugents O Raily Shee s the eldest Son of the Arch-Bishop of Cassiles Petre Lombard a Merchants Son of Waterford a youth of admirable docility and others bred Popishly and so affected I know not who may justly say that I was ambitious who contented my self in Westminster School when I writ my Britannia and eleven years afterward Who refused a Mastership of Requests offered and then had the place of a King of Arms without any suit cast upon me I did never set sail after present preferments or desired to soar higher by others I never made suit to any man no not to his Majesty but for a matter of course incident to my place neither God be praised I needed having gathered a contented sufficiency by my long labours in the School Why the Annalectist should so censure me I know not but that men of all humours repair unto me in respect of my place and rest content to be belied by him who is not ashamed to belie the Lords Deputies of Ireland and others of honourable rank Sed haec tibi uni soli That I might give you better satisfaction I sent my Servant with directions to my Study at Westminster who found this which I have herein inclosed Which if they may stead you I shall be right glad As my health will permit I will look over
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
of that Chapter which I had undertaken to answer as a principal motive of his Conversion to them which he hath added to the Oration of the motives to his Conversion I suppose you have seen the Book Now having been lately chosen upon my Lord of Sarum his promotion to be Reader of the Margaret Lecture in our University Lam advised by my good friends and namely the Lords Bishops of Wells and Sarum to read those Controversies mentioned in that Chapter And upon more mature advice have resolved to set down positively the Fathers Doctrine not barely by Thesis but with their several proofs and the Vindication of them from the Adversaries cavils I will be bold to communicate with you the special difficulties which I shall observe if it be not troublesome unto your Lordship In the first Controversie touching the Real Presence they except against the testimony produced by P. Martyr of Chrysostom ad Caesarium Monachum I have heard your Lordship say it is alledged by Leontius but by what Leontius and where I remember not I cannot find it in such Tractates of Leontius as I find in Bibliotheca Patrum I desire your Lordship in a word to certifie me It seemeth P. Martyr read it in Latin for otherwise it is probable he would have alledged the Greek Text if originally he had it out of the Greek I suppose your Lordship hath seen the third Tome of Spalatensis containing his VII and IX Book I fear me he may do some harm with the Treatise which he hath lib. 7. c. 11. touching the matter of Predestination wherein he goeth about to shew That both Opinions may be Tolerated both that of St. Austin's which makes Predestination to be gratuita and that other which maketh Predestination to be Ex proevisis fide operibus But chiefly he goeth about to invalidate St. Austin's Opinion It will confirm the Remonstrants in their Error for he hath said more than any of them but all in vain for doubtless St. Austin's Opinion is the truth and no doubt but it is special Grace which doth distinguish Peter from Judas and not solum liberum arbitrium It is great pity the man was so carried away with Ambition and Avarice otherwise I think he is not inferior to Bellarmine for the Controversies I write this Letter upon my way being at Sarum where my Lord Bishop of Sarum doth salute you I cannot now dilate further but with my best service and wishes commend your Lordship to the Highest Majesty and so rest Your Lordships in all service Samuel Ward Sarum Sept. 25. 1622. I intreat your Lordship that I may know where Leontius doth alledge that Tractate of Chrysostom LETTER LI. A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath to the Right Honourable Oliver Lord Grandison My very good Lord I Had purposed with my self long ere now to have seen your Honour in England which was one reason among others why I did forbear to trouble you hitherto with any Letters But seeing I think now it will fall out that I shall remain here this Winter I thought it my duty both to tender my thankfulness unto your Lordship for all the honourable favours which I have received at your hands and withal to acquaint you with a certain particular which partly doth concern my self and in some sort also the state of the Church in this poor Nation The day that my Lord of Falkland received the Sword I preached at Christ-Church and fitting my self to the present occasion took for my Text those words in the 13th to the Romans He beareth not the Sword in vain There I shewed 1. What was meant by this Sword 2. The Subject wherein that power rested 3. The matters wherein it was exercised 4. Thereupon what it was to bear the Sword in vain Whereupon falling upon the Duty of the Magistrate in seeing those Laws executed that were made for the furtherance of God's Service I first declared That no more was to be expected herein from the subordinate Magistrate than he had received in Commission from the Supreme in whose power it lay to limit the other at his pleasure Secondly I wished That if his Majesty who is under God our Supreme Governour were pleased to extend his clemency toward his Subjects that were Recusants some order notwithstanding might be taken with them that they should not give us publick affronts and take possession of our Churches before our Faces And that it might appear that it was not without cause that I made this motion I instanced in two particulars that had lately fallen out in mine own Diocess The one certified unto me by Mr. John Ankers Preacher of Athloane a man well known unto your Lordship who wrote unto me That going to read Prayers at Kilkenny in West-Meath he found an old Priest and about 40 with him in the Church who was so bold as to require him the said Ankers to depart until he had done his business The other concerning the Friars who not content to possess the House of Multifernan alone whence your Lordship had dislodged them went about to make Collections for the re-edifying of another Abby near Molengarre for the entertaining of another swarm of Locusts These things I touched only in general not mentioning any circumstances of Persons or Places Thirdly I did intreat That whatsoever connivance were used unto others the Laws might be strictly executed against such as revolted from us that we might at least-wise keep our own and not suffer them without all fear to fall away from us Lastly I made a publick Protestation That it was far from my mind to excite the Magistrate unto any violent courses against them as one that naturally did abhor all cruel dealings and wished that effusion of blood might be held rather the Badge of the Whore of Babylon than of the Church of God These points howsoever they were delivered by me with such limitations as in moderate mens judgments might seem rather to intimate an allowance of a Toleration in respect of the general than to exasperate the State unto any extraordinary severity yet did the Popish Priests perswade their followers that I had said The Sword had rusted too long in the Sheath whereas in my whole Sermon I never made mention either of Rust or Sheath yea some also did not stick to give out That I did thereby closely tax your self for being too remiss in prosecuting of the Papists in the time of your Government I have not such diffidence in your Lordships good opinion of me neither will I wrong my self so much as to spend time in refelling so lewd a calumniation Only I thought good to mention these things unto your Lordship that if any occasion should be offered hereafter to speak of them you might be informed in the truth of matters Wherein if I have been too troublesome unto you I humbly crave pardon and rest Your Honours in all Duty ever ready to be commanded Jac.
this time a kind of a general combination to be made for the disgrace and keeping down of our Ministers What that particular is which your Grace doth mention in the beginning of your Letter I do not yet understand John Forth having not as yet sent any Letter unto me But whatsoever it is I will not fail God willing to be present at the Assizes in Trim and both in that particular and in all other things wherein your Grace shall be pleased to employ me to follow your directions as one who desireth always to be accounted Your Graces ready to do you all service Ja. Midensis Pinglass August 6. 1623. LETTER LX. A Letter from the Most Reverend the Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath Salutem in Christo. UPon Sunday last as I was going to Bed a Pacquet was brought unto me from my Lord Deputy with the Advertisements of all that passed at White-Hall the 20th of July But by good hap I received advice from my Lord Grandison five days before of the King 's noble profession in a Speech used to his Judges That as he had so he would still maintain the Religion Established in the Church of England and would never give way to the contrary Only he wished the Judges to proceed in the execution of Laws with temperance and fitting moderation Seeing it hath pleased God whose Councils may be secret but not unjust to exercise us with this mixture let us remember how dangerous it is to provoke Princes with too much animosity and what hazard Chrysostom brought to Religion that way The Gospel is not supported with wilfulness but by patience and obedience And if your Lordship light upon petulant and seditious Libels too frequent now-a-days as report goeth I beseech you to repress them and advise our Brethren to the like care So I commend you to God resting Your Lordships very loving Brother Armagh August 12. 1623. LETTER LXI A Letter from Dr. Ryves to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath Right Reverend and my very good Lord I Have now too long time forborn to write unto your Lordship the cause whereof hath been for that we have here lived in suspense our selves of what would ensue of our Noble Prince his Journey into Spain neither durst I write you any thing for certain because I was ever in fear of a contrary report before my Letter could come unto you and as for Uncertainties they were not worth the writing But now at the last thanks be to our good God we have our Prince again he came to London on Monday Morning last being the 6th of this present at Eight of the Clock in the Morning it was my hap to be at Lambeth at that time with my Lord of Canterbury and whilst I was there the Prince came to Lambeth Stairs where his Grace received him and kissed his Hand and from thence in his Graces Barge went to York-House where he brake his Fast and presently went away to Royston where the King then was and is News of his lodging that Night at Guilford came to his Grace of Canterbury that Morning at Three of the Clock and presently all London rang with Bells and flamed with Bonfires and resounded all over with such Shouts as is not well possible to express The day without bidding was kept festival by every Man whereof because I took such pleasure in seeing it I conceive your Lordship will also take some pleasure in hearing the Relation As for the Match Rumor in ambiguo est pars invenit utraque causas some say it will be a Match others that it will not and each part thinks he hath reason for what he says but nothing is yet known that may be reported for a certainty As for my self hanging otherwise in equal Ballance between the two Opinions your divining Spirit is always obversant before mine eyes and sways me to believe as I hope that it will please God to dispose of our Prince's Affections for the greater benefit of his Church and our State It hath happly ere this came to your Lordship's Ears that I was not long since commanded to attend my Lord Chichester into Germany after a while that Negotiation was hung up upon the Nail in expectance of the Princes return and now we look to hear of a new Summons but nothing is done as yet therein And even so my good Lord humbly desiring your good Prayers to God for me in all my honest Endeavours I take leave and rest Your Lordship 's in all Service to be commanded F. Ryves From my House near the Doctors-Commons this 8th of October 1623. POSTSCRIPT MY good Lord no Man doubts but that the Prince went a good Protestant out of England but it 's as certain thanks be given to God for it that he is returned out of Spain tenfold more confirm'd in ours more obdurate against their Religion than ever he was before So is the Duke of Buckingham in so much that upon his Letters to his Dutchess out of Spain she went also publickly to her Parish-Church at St. Martins the Sunday before Michaelmas-day and on Michaelmas-day it self and so continueth Moreover what is befallen to the Prince himself and to the Duke the same is befallen to all the rest of his Company they all return more resolv'd Protestants than ever being thorowly perswaded ex evidentia facti that Popery is Idolatry if ever any were F. R. LETTER LXII A Letter from Sir H. Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath Salutem à D. N. Iesu Christo. Most Reverend in Christ I Hope you will impute my long silence to your long expected and much wished repair hither which you seemed in your last kind Letter to intend before this time I trust that your Stay proceeds not from want of Health but some other occasion which I shall most gladly understand We are here full of business but all in Treaty and so little concluded that I know not what to deliver for Truth to my Friends Here hath been a great Conventicle of Embassadors which is now dissolved Dieguo de Mendoza who accompanied the Prince is gone yesterday Dieguo de Meshia who came from Bruxells with a fair train of Nobles Gentlemen and Military Men goes away on Tuesday next Our late prodigious Events as that of the fall of the House in Black-friers being related in three several Pamphelts the late dangerous Fire in London with some others of that kind cannot now be new to your Lordship The latest which I must send you is very sad and dolorous being of the death of our late worthy Friend Mr. Camden whose Funeral we solemnized at Westminster on Wednesday last in the Afternoon with all due Solemnity At which was present a great Assembly of all Conditions and Degrees the Sermon was preached by Dr. Sutton who made a true grave and modest Commemoration of his Life As he was not factious in Religion so neither was
Judgment of the Church of Christ from the beginning of the Gospel unto this day and that of old they were condemned for heretical in the Nazarites But finding that for the present he was not to be wrought upon by any reasoning and that long a dies was the only means to cure him of this Sickness I remembred what course I had heretofore held with another in this Country who was so far ingaged in this Opinion of the calling of the Jews tho not of the revoking of Judaism that he was strongly perswaded he himself should be the Man that should effect this great Work and to this purpose wrote an Hebrew Epistle which I have still in my hands directed to the dispersed Jews To reason the matter with him I found it bootless I advised him therefore that until the Jews did gather themselves together and make choice of him for their Captain he should labour to benefit his Country-men at home with that Skill he had attained unto in the Hebrew Tongue I wished him therefore to give us an exact Translation of the Old Testament out of the Hebrew Verity which he accordingly undertook and performed The Translation I have still by me but before he had finished that Task his Conceit of the calling of the Jews and his Captainship over them vanished clean away and was never heard of after In like manner I dealt with Mr. Whitehall that forasmuch as he himself acknowledged that the Mosaical Rites were not to be practised unto the general calling of the Jews he might do well I said to let that matter rest till then and in the mean time keep his Opinion to himself and not bring needless Trouble upon himself and others by divulging it out of season And whereas he had intended to write an historical Discourse of the retaining of Judaism under Christianity I counselled him rather to spend his pains in setting down the History of Purgatory or Invocation of Saints or some of the other Points in controversy betwixt the Church of Rome and Us. So far I prevailed with him herein that he intreated me to become a Suitor unto your Lordship in his behalf that the loss of his Living and those other Troubles which he hath already sustained might be accepted for a sufficient Punishment of his former Offence and that he might have the Favour to be restored only unto his Fellowship in Oxford where he would bind himself to forbare intermedling any way with his former Opinions either in publick or in private and spend his time in any other Employment that should be imposed upon him How far it will be fitting to give way unto this motion I wholly leave unto your own grave Consideration Thus much only I have presumed to propound unto your Lordship in discharge of my Promise made unto Mr. Whitehall with whom I could have no long Communication by reason I way presently to begin my Journey for the visitation of the Diocess of Meath Until my return from thence I have stayed the printing of the rest of mine Answer unto the Jesuits Challenge the former part whereof I humbly make bold to present unto your Lordship's view as unto whom above all others I most desire my simple Labours in this kind may be approved And so craving pardon for my boldness in troubling you thus far I rest Your Lordship's in all Christian Duty ready to be commanded Ja. Midensis Dublin Sept. 28. 1621. LETTER LXVIII A Letter from Dr. Thomas James to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath MY Duty remembred unto your Lordship I am much beholden to your Lordship for your last Book which I received before the Act by my good Friend Mr. Calendrine I have punctually perused it and do render unto your Lordship both common and private thanks for the same and expect your Lordship 's of the Britains ancient Religion wherein as I see no difficulty so I would be glad to assist with my Pains if any thing were worthy yet of my Cousin Mr. Rich. Jame's who remembreth himself most dutifully to your Lordship I send a Taste or Essay of what may be done by him I will say no more of him or it but this That I know no Man living more fit to be imployed by your Lordship in this kind than himself his Pains incredible and his Zeal as great and his Judgment in Manuscripts such as I doubt not but your Lordship may use to the great benefit of the Church and ease of your Lordship may there be but some course taken that he may have victum vestitum independant from any one This if he may have from your Lordship or by your Lordships means I know his Deserts and Willingness to deserve well of the Church For my own Business I know not what to say whether to go onward or to stay Guil. de s. Amore is transcribed and wants but the three Books from your Lordship whereof Mr. Calendrine hath given me good hopes Wickleph de Veritate is the better part done I have hitherto laid out the Money but my Purse will hold out no longer to defray the Charges If it would be so that I may receive the Money to recompence their pains I would not doubt before the next Session but to have most of Wickleph's Works transcribed but I fail in the burden and refer all to God's Providence and your Lordship's Direction being not idle in these Businesses And so in haste with my own and my Cousin's Duty to you I end and rest Your Lordship 's in all Duty Tho. James Oxon the 27 July 1624. LETTER LXIX A Letter from Thomas Davies to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath Right Reverend MAY it please your Lordship to take notice that your Letter of the 24th of January in London came to my hands the 14th of July unto which I have given due perusal and perceiving your Lordship's pleasure thereby omitted no opportunity neither any time but the very day that I received it began to lay out for those Books you writ for The five Books of Moses in the Samaritan Character I have found by a meer accident with the rest of the Old Testament joyned with them but the mischief is there wants two or three leaves of the beginning of Genesis and as many in the Psalms which notwithstanding I purpose to send by this Ship lest I meet not with another yet I have sent to Damascus and if not there to be had to Mount Gerazim so that in time I hope to procure another which shall contain the five Books of Moses perfectly I sent a Messenger on purpose to Mount Libanus and Tripoly for the Old Testament in the Syriack Tongue but he returned without it and brought word that there I might have one after two months but could not have it time enough to send by this Ship The reason why they sent it not was that they wanted Parchment to copy one of the Books and so not being perfect
of my Collations your Lordship shall not want the Heydelburg Edition which I will take care to have sent unto you I have been this Morning with Mr. Patrick Young who cannot give me satisfaction concerning those Books till he have been in the Princes Library For the nameless Annal I conceive that your Amanuensis mistook your meaning for where you say that it begins at the year of our Lord 744 and ends in the year 1100 I cannot see how Asserius Menevensis could be the Author of most of it Mr. Young will make search for it and return an Answer as soon as conveniently he may As for Asserius de rebus gestis Alfredi he tells me that they have only a Transcript of it but Sir Robert Cotton hath an ancient Copy the same he tells me of Florentius Wigorniensis and Simeon Dunelmensis Of Eusebius Chronicle they have three or four Copies and if you please shall have all of them or which you please Sir Rob. Cotton doth daily augment his store he hath gotten lately a Book of St. Edm. Bury By the next return I hope to send the Books which you desire and perhaps to play the Carrier my self There is a rumor of the Adjournment of the Parliament till April but no Proclamation yet come forth There is a new Secretary Sir Albertus Morton to be sworn in the place of Sir Geo. Calvert I have not heard any thing out of Ireland since my last to your Lordship Mr. Young tells me that he received lately a Letter from Paris from one Lucas Holstenius a young Man whom I mention'd sometime to your Lordship being acquainted with him here in London the last year he writes to him that a Jesuit there doth publish a new Edition of Eusebius in Greek and Latin for the furtherance of which Work Mr. Mountague and Mr. Young sends thither their Notes and Observations upon him Petavius is busy about his work de Emendat Temp. which will shortly come abroad Holstenius is printing Scylax Artemidorus Ephesius with divers other old Geographers some of which were heretofore publish'd by D. Haeschelius and some till now never publish'd I doubt not but D. Ryves hath sent your Lordship his Answer to the Analecta I have read him over and approve the Work but not in every particular as where he makes Sedulius among others pag. 46. lib. 2. to be one of St. Patrick's forerunners in the plantation of Christian Religion in Ireland I do not see how that can be The best Authors making him contemporary if not later than St. Patrick Some other passages I could censure both of ancient and modern times but I will spare that labour till our meeting In the mean time with the remembrance of my Love and Service to your Lordship and Mrs. Usher and my heartiest Wishes and Prayers for your Health I will remain Your Lordship's most affectionate Friend and Servant Henry Bourgchier Lond. Jan. 17. 1624. LETTER LXXVI A Letter from Dr. Thomas James to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath AFter my Duty in humble manner premised I hope and am right glad to hear of your Lordship's Recovery I have received from your Lordship two Books whereby I have not been a little benefited yet of Boston I hear there is a greater Catalogue extant I forbore to write all this while for fear of trouble I have laboured ever since in the common business as your Lordship shall perceive by an humble Supplication printed which your Lordship shall receive by Mr. Calandrine which could I have had the happiness that it might have passed your learned Censure would have been much more perfect but ut quimus aut quando non ut volumus I have done it as advisedly as I could and doubt not to give every Man good satisfaction in good time If our Friends of Cambridge will joyn with us the Work may be well atchieved within half the time they taking half the Points mentioned and they both sending to us their Observations to be revised by us we ours to them to be revised by them that it may be the work jointly of both Universities My Zeal and Knowledg cannot match Dr. Ward 's yet I will endeavour to do my best I deâ—ire to have my Service remembred to my Lord of Ely I have upon a Letter of your Lordship's imployed some in transcribing Guil. de S. Amore not that which your Lorship sent but another greater and fuller Work that is done and a great deal besides More had been if we had not been compell'd for want of Mony to have surceased and my poor Means would not serve to supply Wants and I am indebted for that which is done Your Lordship by Letter if I mistake not undertook for my Lord of Ely's 20 l. per Annum had all promised been paid I had had 20 or 30 quire in readiness that which I have shall be fitted against the Parliament in the exactest manner that it can be done for the Press I have in the Press at the present these things A Confutation of Papists out of Papists in the most material Articles of our Religion whose Testimonies are taken either out of the Indices Expurgatorii or out of the ancient Books especially the Manuscripts An Index librorum prohibitorum 1ae 2ae vel 3ae Classis vel expurgatorum quovismodo chiefly for the use of our publick Library that we may know what Books and what Editions to buy their prohibition being a good direction to guide us therein I have cast them into an exact Alphabet My Cousin Rich. James desireth to have his Duty remembred to your Lordship he hath reviewed and inlarged his Book of Bochel's Decanonization a Book so nearly concerning Kingly Dignity and so fully opening the History of those Times that I know not where a Man shall read the like I would he might have the happiness that your Lordship might see it being now fair transcribed that it might pass your Lordship's Censure before it pass any further And I am perswaded over-weaning perhaps in love to my Cousin that if his Majesty saw it it would please him having so many good pieces of Antiquity in it it is his and shall be my chiefest Study I have here found upon search thereof Petrus Minorita's Homil. upon Matthew and two Books of St. Augustins coming here into England which are of good note but I make no doubt your Lordship hath seen them already I leave therefore to trouble your Lordship any further being right glad to hear of your Lordship's Preferment as I am informed for the good of the Church and so I rest Your Lordship 's in all Duty Thomas James Oxon Febr. 8. LETTER LXXVII A Letter from Dr. Thomas James to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath My humble Duty remembred to your Lordship I Am incouraged by your Lordship's Letters to go on chearfully in my intended course and discovery solus aut quomodo what is one Man able to resist when
Insolence of an Arab called Emeere Farrach there is a force of Men gone against him he being of no great power will be soon quiet The Estate of his Empire decays and will be utterly ruined by the Tyranny and Oppression of the Spahees and Janisaries who are Lords and Governors of the Country what Man is he that dare oppose a Souldier The Mahometans are Slaves to the Souldiers the Christian and Jew under both it would grieve a Man's Heart to see the poor Estate and Condition of the Christians in these Parts nor so much for their outward Estate tho that be marvelous grievous but they are to be pitied for their Estate of Christianity for I know that in a manner all true knowledg is departed both from Minister and People the Lord in Mercy visit them Pardon my Tediousness and Presumption and excuse my weakness who shall daily pray unto the Lord of Lords to prosper all your ways and bless all your Endeavours and grant you a long Life here with Happiness and everlasting Glory in the Life to come and will ever rest Your Graces in all humble observance to be commanded Thomas Davis Aleppo the 16th of January 1625. LETTER LXXXII A Letter from Sir H. Bourgchier to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh at Much-Haddam Most Reverend in Christ and my very good Lord I Received your Lordship's Letter of the 26th of March for which I return many humble Thanks I have written to Mr. Pat. Young both concerning his Transcript of Epistles and the nameless Annal but I could yet receive no Answer from him and I have not yet had time to go to him myself I have spoken with Sir Rob. Cotton concerning Malmesbury and the two Books of Saints Lives in Sarisbury Library all which he hath undertaken your Lordship shall have with all convenient speed As for the other two Books he tells me that you have one of them if not both already but if you want either of them you shall have it sent to you Giraldus Cambrensis of the Lives of David and Patrick was in my hands which I send your Lordship herewithal I have transcrib'd him for the Press only I will desire that when the Printer is ready for that part I may have it to compare with my Transcript for I purpose to go in hand with the Impression of his Works tho I make some adventure of my own Purss. If my Memory fail me not that Arabick Book is in my Lord Marshall's Library but I have not had opportunity to go in since the receipt of your Lordship's Letter by the next I will give your Lordship an account of it I received some Letters out of Ireland of the 25th of March but containing little memorable only which is very lamentable of five hundred Souldiers lately transported from the River of Chester three hundred at least are lost by Shipwrack upon the Coast of Wales Sir Ed. Chichester is created Baron of Belfast and Viscount of Carikfergus Here is much preparation for the Solemnities of the Funeral Parliament and Coronation The new Writs are gone out returnable the 17th of May. The Funeral-day is appointed the 10th of May which doubtless will be very great and sumptuous It is said that the King of Bohemia his eldest Son comes over to be chief Mourner There is no day certain for the Coronation because it depends upon the Marriage that both may be done together Italy which hath been quiet sixty Years some few Brables of the D. of Savoy excepted is now grown the Stage of War The French the Duke of Savoy and the Venetian Forces are 50000 and are come within twelve Miles of Genoa having already taken divers of their Towns But now my Paper bids me end wherefore with the remembrance of my Love and Service to your Lordship and Mrs. Usher as also to Sir Garret Harvy and my Lady I will ever remain Your Graces most affectionate Friend and humble Servant Henry Bourgchier London April 7. 1625. LETTER LXXXIII A Letter from Mr. Thomas Davies to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend Father and my no less honoured Lord IT is a good while since I writ your to Grace for want of a good occasion not presuming to trouble you with unnecessary Lines so trust my long silence will be excused The five Books of Moses with those parcels of the New Testament which your Lordship writ for in the Caldean Tongue sent you ten Months ago I trust in safety are come to your hands whereof I should be glad to hear I have used my best Industry to procure those other Books that you would have bought but hitherto have not been so happy as to light upon any of them such Books being very rare and valued as Jewels tho the Possessors are able to make little use of them Amongst all the Caldeans that lay in Mount Libanus Tripoly Sidon and Jerusalem there is but only one old Copy of the Old Testament in their Language extant and that in the custody of the Patriarch of the Sect of the Maronites who hath his residence in Mount Libanus which he may not part with upon any terms only there is liberty given to take Copies thereof which of a long time hath been promised me and indeed I made full account to have been possessed of one ere this time having agreed for it but I was deluded which troubled me not a little so in fine resolved to send a Man on purpose to Libanus to take a Copy thereof who is gone and I hope in four or five Months will finish it and by the assistance of the Almighty I trust to be able to send it by our next Ships By our Ships lately departed I have sent your Lordship some of the Works of Ephrem which if they prove useful I have my desire however I trust will be acceptable The last Letter I received from your Lordship bears date the 21st of February and came to my hands the 18th of July where I perceive you would have the New Testament in the Aethiopian Language and Character wherein my best Endeavours have not wanted for which purpose I have sent to Damascus where a few of the Abissines do inhabit yet have had no answer thence and in case do not prevail here I purpose to send to Jerusalem where divers of them do attend upon the Sepulcher of our Lord whence I hope to be furnished and in due time to send it with the Old Testament in the Syriack Tongue by the next Ships Thus much I beseech your Lordship to be assured of that I will omit no time nor neglect any means for effecting what you have or shall command me Touching such Occurrences which are worthy your Lordship's knowledg this unsettled tottering Estate affords little The Turks Forces were before Bagdat and during the Siege the Persians sallied out of the City divers times and had many Skirmishes with the Turks but ever came off with Honour
where he addeth much more concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if I were able to give the sum of it it needeth not if your Lordship have Plato if not except London Stationers now furnish I can with much conveniency send down to Tottenham any Book I was lately with one Mr. Boyse whose Notes are on Chrysostom with Mr. Downes's he is now comparing of Nicene Syn. in Greek with an old Manuscript which was by great chance offered to him he is very learned in the Greek Authors and most willing to communicate tho your Lordship needs not those Excellencies he is but four Miles dwelling out of Cambridg I intend to go over of purpose to him concerning the same Queries which your Lordship propounded because he was Mr. Downes his Scholar I shall intreat him to furnish me with all the Notes if he may conveniently that he gathered from Mr. Downes My Lord if I be not over-bold to desire such a Favour I wish I had that Table wherein your Lordship hath compared the Hebrew Greek and Latin Alphabet which sheweth plainly the right Pronunciation of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the whole consent of the rest When I have done with Mr. Boyse and have obtained any thing worth your view I will by that Messenger desire your Servant to copy out that Table for me which would give great content to my Scholars which study the Languages And thus craving pardon of your Lordship I humbly take my leave and rest Your Lordship's humble Servant to his Power Abraham Wheelock Clare-Hall July 12. 1625. LETTER LXXXVI A Letter from Dr. Sam. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh at Much-Haddam Most Reverend and my very good Lord I Received a Note from Dr. Lindsell written by your Lordship wherein you desire to have a Book out of Trinity-Colledg Library which you intitle Psalterium Gallicum Romanum Hebraicum MS. in magno Folio There is no such Book there as the Master telleth me but he shewed me the Psalter in Hebrew MS. interlinear with a Latin Translation and two other Collateral Translations in Latin but there is no French and it is but in a little Folio The Catena in Psalmos 50 priores Daniele Barbaro interprete I cannot learn where it is Whereas you desire some old Impression of the Greek Psalms in Trinity-Colledg Library there is Augustini Justiniani Episcopi Nebiensis Psalterium Octaplum in which there is the Greek Translation also the Arabick and Chalde Paraphrase but I suppose you have that Book already Also they have a Manuscript Psalter in Greek a very good Hand which it seemeth was Liber Theodori Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis If you would have any of those I will procure them from Dr. Maw I had purposed to have seen you e're now and now this Week I had purposed to have brought my whole Family to Mundon but this day I received a Letter that one of my Workmen at my Parsonage had a Sister who is suspected the last Saturday to die of the Plague at Standon I thank God we are yet well at Cambridg If you please to write unto me your mind touching the Books aforesaid I will do what you would have me Thus desiring the Lord to mitigate this grievous Judgment which hath seized upon our Mother-City and from thence is diffused to many other Towns in the Land and to stay it in his good time and in the mean time to sanctify this Correction unto the whole Land that it may have that powerful working for which God sends it to make us sensible of our Sins and of his Wrath for our Sins and of the Miseries of our Brethren under the Cross and so to move us to true Repentance and new Obedience which He effect in us for his Mercy 's sake Thus with my best Service to your self and Mrs. Usher and my kind Love to Sir Gerard and his Lady I commend you to the safe protection of the highest Majesty Your Lordships in all observance Samuel Ward Sidney-Coll Aug. 3. 1625. I am careful that the Letter be conveyed by Persons safe from all Infection LETTER LXXXVII A Letter from Dr. James to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh After the remembrance of my humble Duty MAY it please your Grace to pardon my long silence and neglect of writing according to my Duty occasioned partly by Sickness partly by Discontent and Discouragement from our great Ones But being now freed from both God be thanked I address my self wholly to the care of the Publick long since by me intended Wherein now more than ever I must be bold to crave your Lordships furtherance that as it had its first beginnings from your Grace so it may its final end and a fulfilling by your Lordships good means It is true my Lord of Litchfield is intrusted with the whole direction and managing of this Business but had your Grace been near there would have been none more able nor willing than your Grace I do therefore most humbly intreat your Lordship that sometime before your Grace's departure into Ireland you would be pleased upon conference with my Lord of Litchfield to settle the whole Business what Authors we shall begin with in what order and after what manner As for the Canon-Law which I have looked unto not without the vocation and approbation of Mr. Vice-chancellor I must confess my forwardness therein upon a supposal of sundry Additions unto Gratian and my Fellow-labourers are as earnest as my self upon that little which we have hitherto found Doubtless Gratian was one of the first Compilers of the Popish Religion in his hotch-potch of the Canon-Law but yet he is not so bad as he is made the Corruptions are of a later hue and came in long since his time I have given a taste as of all that I have hitherto done in certain rude Papers overhastily perhaps sent up to pass your Lordships Censure and Judgment and from thence to the Press that I may have a taste to present unto my Lord the Bishops and others that have already promised their helps If this of almost an hundred places corrupted in point of Religion not taking all upon an exact survey but a few to give proof of the faisibility of the Work to the common profit of the Church shall be thought fit to be printed and an hundred places of flat contradiction Men if ever will be stirred up to advance this Work for the doing whereof with some jeopardy of my Health and loss of all worldly Preferment I am most willing to be imployed to the uttermost of my simple Endeavours having nothing to promise but Fidelity and Industry Good my Lord what can be done by your Grace let it be done to the uttermost the Work is in a manner yours to God be the Glory and if the Church of England receive not as much profit by this one Work being well done as by any thing since Erasmus's Time I will never look hereafter to be
I will also write to Mr. Bedell for the Manuscript Psalter he hath Thus in some haste I commend your Lordship to the safe protection of the highect Majesty Your Lordships in what he may Samuel Ward Cambridg Aug. 12. 1625. I send you also one Edition of the Psalms Graeco Lat. but I think it will do you no great pleasure LETTER XCII A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh To the Right Honourable and my special good Lords the Lord-Keeper of the Great Seal and the Lord High-Treasurer of England My most honoured Lords YOUR Lordships Letters bearing date the 9th of this Present were delivered unto me by a Servant of Dr. Rives the 18th of the same In reading whereof I found my self much grieved that the Doctor by his sinister Suggestions should so far prevail with your Wisdoms as to make you conceive that I refused to perform the Agreement which your Lordships made betwixt us True it is indeed that I complained unto your Lordships that the drawing up that Agreement was committed to the Party himself who was careful enough to lay down all things therein to his own best advantage without reservation of any Power unto me to limit him any way in the exercise of that Authority which he was to hold under me But as soon as I had received satisfaction from your Honour my Lord Keeper under your hand writing that I might limit him by private Instructions though not by Patent and that the clause of good-behaviour was ever included in these Offices howsoever they were granted during Life I presently did agree to sign his Patent And this is that second Agreement he talketh so much of which I never took to be any other than that which was at first intended Concerning this he affirmeth in his Petition that having shewed unto me my Lord Keeper's Opinion signified in writing concerning the Exceptions taken by me against his Draught of the Patent I agreed to seal him the said Patent provided that two Clauses only might be added but most guilefully suppresseth that which was not to be inserted in the Patent but to pass in private betwixt us two namely that I might limit him by private Instructions according to my Lord Keeper's direction which at that very time he delivered unto me in writing My Lords if you think that I have any Faith or Honesty in me believe me herein that I propounded this unto him as the main foundation of our Agreement and that he gave his assent unto it before ever I would promise to seal his Patent He only adding this That he did not doubt when he could shew cause unto me why I should vary from my Instructions in any Particular I would be ruled by better Reason Herewith for the present did I rest satisfied but the day following I considered better with my self what a slender Tie I had upon him if I only should rest contented with his bare Word only which at his pleasure he might deny where-ever he saw cause And therefore to prevent all matter of future Discord I intreated him by Letter that as I had shewed my self ready to gratify him by binding my self publickly under my Hand and Seal unto him so he would privately tie himself in like manner for giving more full satisfaction unto me in two Particulars For the former of these which doth concern the Registership I signified unto him at the time of our Agreement that I had made promise of it already to one Mr. Hilton Which being a Matter of less importance the Doctor doth now so little stand upon it that in a Letter lately written unto me he hath utterly disclaimed all Power of conferring the said Office upon the next avoidance But for the latter which concerneth the limiting of him by private Instructions according to my Lord-Keeper's express direction he hath now at full discovered that whereof I conceiv'd at first but a jealousie namely that he did but dare verba and intended nothing less than performance when to get my consent unto the signing of the Patent of his own drawing he submitted himself to be ordered by the Instructions which I should give him For as if res were adhuc integra and no such Agreement at all had passed betwixt us he now maketh your Lordships to write that you do not think it reasonable that this should be imposed upon him I am bold to say that he maketh your Lordships to write thus because I am verily perswaded that if the Matter be examined it will be found that this Letter was of his own drawing Wherein what infinite wrong he hath done unto your Honour my Lord-Keeper I humbly beseech you to consider First He bringeth your Lordship's Writing unto me signifying that I might limit him by private Instructions though not by Patent and hereunto he shewed himself then content to yield And now he hath stolen another Letter from your Honour wherein he would have you signify again that you do not think it reasonable that he should be tied to follow the Instructions that I shall give him Behold Jordanes conversus est retrorsum and now not Littora littoribus contraria but litterae litteris Your Lordships had need to watch this Man's Fingers when-ever you trust him with drawing up of any Orders or Letters that do concern his own Particular for otherwise you may chance to find him as nimble in putting Tricks upon your selves for his own advantage as now he is in putting them upon me Which that your Lordships may yet be more sensible of I intreat you to weigh well the Reason which he maketh you here to render of the unreasonableness of the Condition that I require of him For did ever any reasonable Man hold it to be a thing unreasonable that a Substitute should be ordered by him that hath appointed him to be his Substitute This may be true will he say in thesi but not in hypothesi in other Substitutions but not in this because upon your Lordships motion he hath submitted himself to take that under me which he hath a fair pretence to challenge in his own Right So that were it not for the respect which he did bear unto your Lordships motion his stout heart belike would not stoop to such terms of submission but hazard the whole rather by putting his own Right in trial Yea but what if this prove to be another piece of the Doctor 's Legerdemain and that it do appear evidently under his own hand that this desire of submission did primarily and originally proceed out of his own breast ex motu mero proprio long before your Lordships had any thing to do in the business If you will be pleased to take so much pains as to peruse the inclosed copy of a Letter which he wrote unto me not long before the decease of his late Majesty of blessed memory you shall find a Motion tendred therein unto me for the intreating of Sir Henry Holcraft
by way of Catechism long ago which a Neighbour-Minister having afterwards gotten from some of my Hearers he wrote those Doubts which follow in the Book the better to inform either himself or me Whereupon as I could get any time in the midst of other continual Employments too heavy for me I wrote to him the Discourse following the more fully to acquaint him with the grounds of my Judgment as knowing well his sufficiency to object fully if he found himself unsatisfied in any Passage thereof The Style I confess is unmeet for you to read as being plain and popular and therefore too large and withal empty of variety of reading which store of other Occurrences in my Calling here inforceth me too often to intermit Thus much let me humbly intreat at your Lordship's hands by the honour which you owe to Christ and by the Love you bare to his poorest Servants stick not I beseech you to advertise me freely of any such tenent herein as you shall think less safe I trust you shall find me conscious of mine own Slenderness and glad to râ—â—â—ive such Light as God shall be pleased to impart to me by you Yet this one thing more let me also add Tho I yield some degree of Efficacy in Christ's Death unto all yet I conceive it far short both of Impetration and Application of that gracious Atonement which is thereby wrought to the Elect of God whence also it is that I dare not preach the Gospel indifferently unto all before the Law nor the worth of Christ before the need of Christ. Childrens Bread is not meet for Whelps and full Souls will despise Hony-Combes I see John Baptist was sent to humble before Christ to heal and Christ himself preached Repentance before Faith in the Promises Mark 1. 15. Neither do I remember in the Gospel any Promise of Grace pardoning Sin nor any Commandment to believe Sin pardoned but to the broken the bruised the poor the weary the thirsty or the like Faith in the Promises before the Heart be changed from Stoniness to Brokenness I fear is no better than the Temporary Faith which is found in the stony Soil Luke 8. 13. But I cease your Lordship 's further Trouble Now the Lord Jesus who hath delighted in you to fill your Heart with the Riches of his manifold precious Graces be pleased to enlarge you to the Employment of them to his best advantage guide all your Ways in his Faithfulness and Wisdom and sustain you with his Mercy and Power unto the end So I humbly take leave and rest Earnestly desirous to be directed by your Lordship or confirmed in the Truth John Cotton Boston May 31. 1626. LETTER XCV A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Dr. Samuel Ward Salutem in Christo Jesu SIR I Am very sorry to hear of your Distractions there but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to whose Guidance we must refer both this and ipsam rerum summam quae in summo jam si quid videmus versatur discrimine When the Collaters have finished the Acts I could wish they collated the Epistles with the Text which is inserted into the Commentaries of Photius and Oecumenius Manuscripts in the University Library where there are some varieties of readings also as I remember noted in the Margent in the brief Scholies that are written in red Letters Remember me to Mr. Chancy and learn of him what he hath done for Mr. Broughton's Books intreat him also to look into the Manuscript Psalter in Hebrew and Latin in Trinity Colledg-Library and thence transcribe for me the last Verse save one of the 52 Psalm which is wanting in our printed Hebrew Bibles the Latin of that Verse if I forget not beginneth Consilium Mosis c. I would willingly also hear how far he hath proceeded in the Samaritan Bible and what Mr. Boys hath done in the transcribing of the Greek Manuscript which I left with him Wish Mr. Green to send me Lucian in Greek and Latin Your assured Friend J. Ar. LETTER XCVI A Letter from Dr. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and my very good Lord I Received your Lordship's Letter and that which I signified to your Lordship in my last Letter was almost really effected The night before the choice of our new Chancellor I was very ill so as without hazard of my Health I could not be at the choice and so was absent The Duke carried it not above three or four Voices from the Earl of Berkshire and had not neither carried it but that the King's Pleasure was signified for the Duke both by Message and Letter Quod vis summam rerum in summo versari discrimine timeo doleo I acquainted Mr. White with your Pleasure and wished him to impart it to the rest of the Collators as touching the Collation of the Text in the Comments of Photius and Oecumenius I send you inclosed the Hebrew Verse you writ for They are in Denteronomy in the Samaritan Pentateuch I have not as yet spoken with Mr. Boyse I received the Books you mention and sent two of them to Mr. Austine Mr. Green will send you the two Books Lucian Graeco Lat. and N. Testam Syrlacum-Latin to Mr. Burnets Mr. White sendeth up unto you the Variae Lectiónes upon the Psalms The divers Readings of Prosper shall be sent you Dr. Goad sent me two sheets of my Latin Sermon printed But I hear not whether our Suffrage be reprinted I would know whether Nicetus his Orthodoxus Thesaurus be extant in Greek I suppose it is in Latin at least in the New Bibliotheca He is said to interpret Greg. Nyssen his Opinion of the Conversion which is made in the Eucharist mentioned c. 37 Catechet I cannot tell what to pronounce touching that discourse His discourse is somewhat plausible till he come to the conversion made in the Eucharist by Christ's words and then he doth faulter I pray you let me know where the Manuscript Copies of the Saxon Annals are to be had Mr. Mede and Mr. Whalley are both in good health I am right sorry that your Lordship should so soon go from us I am now in business in Disputations in our Schools I shall forget many things which I should have enquired of And so with my best Service remembred to your Lordship and Mrs. Usher I commend you to the gracious Protection of the highest Majesty and so rest Your Lordship 's in all Observance Samuel Ward Sidney-College June 6. 1626. There is good Agreement God be thanked in King's College LETTER XCVII A Letter from Dr. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and my very good Lord I Have sent you here enclosed the diverse Readings of the Continuation of Eusebius's Chronicle by Hierom and both the Prospers Mr. Elmar will bring your Lordship the Concio ad Clerum which against my mind is set forth without those other things
have demanded of your Lordship I am right sorry of your departure from us so soon I will intreat you to remember Chrysostom ad Caesarium Monachum I pray God to be with you in initio progressu exitu itineris My best Wishes and Devotions shall accompany you to Tredaw and there also And so with my Prayers for your Lordship's Health and Happiness I take my leave resting Your Lordships for ever Samuel Ward Sidney-Colledg July 5. 1626. Amicitia quae desinere potest nunquam vera fuit Hieron I shall be bold to transmit my Letters as occasion shall serve LETTER CIX A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Dr. Ward Salutem in Christo Jesu AMong the Manuscripts of the Library of Magdalen Colledg in Oxford in Dr. James's Catalogue numb 211. I found Lib. Jo. Chrysostomi contra illos qui negant veritatem carnis humane assumptae à Deo Which I verily did suppose to be the Book ad Caesarium Monichum which he wrote against the History of Sidonius Apollinarius But coming unto the Library and making search for the Book I found it was conveyed away and not to be heard of which did not a little offend me I spake with Mr. Young for the Collation of the place in Gregory Nyssen's Catechetical Oration touching the matter of the Eucharist who told me that Mr. Cafaâ—hon and himself had heretofore collated that place but could find nothing that could bring help to the interpretation of the place or make much any way to or fro You have in Trinity-College a Greek Manuscript of Euthymius's Panoplia Dogmatica wherein this is cited If you find any difference bet wixt it and the printed I pray you acquaint me therewith as also with your Judgment concerning the place of Chrysostom which I proposed unto you and the similitude of Wax which he there useth I had many things to write but am now intercepted by the time being ready to take Barque presently yet in all my haste I cannot forget Sir Ger and Harvy's business unto Trinity College in giving furtherance whereunto as I have already found your exceeding great forwardness so I earnestly intreat you in my absence to supply what I my self would most willingly have done if I were there present for which Favour to a noble Friend unto whom I have so extraordinarily been beholden as well as for the many other Fruits of your Love shewed to me I shall ever rest Your assured Friend and Brother Ja. Armachanus Leverpool Aug. 17. 1626. LETTER CX A Letter from Dr. Bambridge Professor of Astronomy in Oxford to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Right Reverend and my singular good Lord BEsides my many obligations of Service to your Grace I am in particular engaged in an expedite and resolute method of calculating Eclipses which I hope to accomplish to your Grace's Content and would now have presented the same but that many other pursuits in my Astronomical History have taken up my time Presently after my return from your Grace I made haste to London but could find nothing of Dee's Books but bare Titles whereof some did very much please me and encourage me to make a diligent enquiry after them I reforted to Sir Rob. Cotton with very kind welcome but his Books being not yet ordered in a Catalogue I deferred my search there till another opportunity and now am bold to enter your Grace's Bibliotheca with humble request that I may have the names of such Mathematical Books as were Dee's It may be I shall find those Books whose Titles did promise so much If I had the Books at Oxford I would make an abstract of all things making to Astronomical History and Chronography the two chief Objects of my Enquiry and safely return the Books and Abstract to your Grace Being at London I procured an Arabick Book of Astronomy the Tables whereof I do perfectly understand but the Canons annexed are more difficult and yet do so much the more incite me to find out that particular meaning which is not possible without knowledg in the Arabick wherefore I have made entrance into the Rudiments thereof and hope labore Constantiâ at length to be able to translate any Arabick Book of Mathematicks It is a difficult thing which I undertake but the great hopes I have in that happy Arabia to find most precious Stones for the adorning and enriching my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do overcome all difficulties besides the great Satisfaction to see with mine own Eyes videre est octava scientia and not to be led hoodwinkt by others who tho they may be expert in that Tongue yet without special skill in these particular Sciences cannot truly translate the Arabick besides that every one hath a special purpose in his study of that Language taking no delight to follow anothers course flultum est ducere invitos caâ—es ad venandum I relate this to your Grace in assurance of your Favour herein if you please in your enquiry at Aleppo and other Eastern Places for Syriack Books to take in all Arabick Books of the Mathematicks and Chronology and amongst the rest a good Arabick Copy of the Alkoran the only Book whereby that Language is attained If your Grace have one already I humbly request the use thereof for some time for ours are bound Prisoners in the Library wherein are many Arabick Books but aut hore nescio-quo de re nescio qua I hope to bring them in lucem meliorem and with them many others if I may have the gracious Rays of your favourable assistance I am not yet come to the closure of my Apology I beseech your Grace's patience a while Besides my Enquiries I am very busy in the Fabrick of a large Instrument for Observations that I may mea fide both teach and write and here again I humbly entreat you to take in your Consideration my Petition at Oxford that you would as occasion shall be offered commend to the Munificence of some noble Benefactors this excellent and rare part of Astronomy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which would certainly commend them to Posterity in the mean time I would not fail to publish their Fame unto the Learned World I may not forget in my return from your Grace I called on Mr. Burton to see his Leland and there in the Catalogue of Books in Worcester Church I found Commentarii ' Dunchagt praesulis Hybernensis in Mart. Capel opus eruditum if I do well remember for I cannot now find my written note I spake to the Dean of Worcester who was with me at Oxford about it but he made no esteem thereof Yet if it please your Grace I will cause it to be perused I shall account my self very happy if I may here do any thing worthy your Grace's Acceptation In the mean time I much desire to hear of your Grace's safe return into Ireland with your worthy Confort and with many hearty Prayers to God that
you may live many heathful and happy Years I rest Your Grace's most humbly devoted Servant John Bainbridg Oxon. Octob. 3. 1626. LETTER CXI A Letter from Mr. Thomas Davis to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend Sir AFter I had writ the former Lines came to my hands your Lordship's Letter of the 31th of July from Oxford whereto I have given due perusal and thereby take notice that your Grace hath received mine of the 16th of January with the Books sent you by the Ship Patience of London being very glad thereof but more joy ful that your Lordship finds such content in them being sorry that I am not able to perform to the full what you desire The Patriarch's Name that sold me the Books of Moses is Jesu Jáb which in the Chaldee Tongue is as much as to say Jesus give me And whereas I writ he was a Jacobite I pray take notice that he is a Nestorian and hath his residence in Emite and Zert and continually comes to this Town to visit them that are of that Heresy His promise to me he hath not kept neither could I ever hear from him since he sent me that Book now in your Lordships possession yet I caused divers Letters to be writ to him and at this present have given order to write to him again But as I often writ to your Grace those Books are rare especially in the Chaldean Tongue and Character the greatest part of the Chaldee Books are written in the Arab Character which I think you would not have nor esteem As for the remainder of the Old Testament in the Chaldee I have sent a Man to Mount Libanus to take a Copy thereof intending to send you the whole Old Testament in one Volume notwithstanding I know you have the Books of Moses and the Psalms those you have are old Copies and this will be a new Transcript presuming your Lordship will not think much of the Charge which if I had excepted would have been very little less than now it will be And as for the Samaritan Books in the hands of the Damasceen Spahee I will use my best diligence to find him out again and redeem them at as easy a rate as I can And so continue my care in accomplishing your Lordship's Will in every thing desiring the benefit of your particular Prayers And so fearing to be further troublesom to your Grace humbly take my leave and remain Your Graces most humbly to command Thomas Davis Aleppo Novemb. 14. 1626. English Account The 14th day of the 3d Month of the Turkish Account and the 1036 of Mahomet The Turks and Moors begin their Month when they first see the Moon after the Change LETTER CXII A Letter from Mr. Alexander Cook to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My good Lord IAcknowledg my self much bounden unto you for your Letter sent me from Liverpool in your return to Ireland Yet I confess I had not from this place where now I am returned you thanks but that I was desirous to acquaint you with an Accident lately fallen out some Circumstances whereof I had better occasion to know than many my betters It concerneth my Lady Faukland She within this fortnight hath declared her self to be a Papist One of the Priests who perverted her goeth under the Name of Fitz Gerard though his true Name is George Pettinger a York-shire Man an idle pâ—ating Companion and a Serving-man not many years ago a frequenter of Baudy-Houses and a Cozener of Trades-men in London as I my self in part know and as I am credily informed by Sir Tho. Savile to whom he was well known and by some Gentlemen of his own Kindred Mr. Mountague Mr. Coseâ—s and the Colledg as it is called at Durham-house are sensible of the disgrace which they sustain by reason of her fall Mr. Mountague told her That dying an English Papist she died in the state of Damnation Mr. Coosens told her That she had sinned damnably in departing from that Church wherein she was born and baptized before she had consulted with the Governors thereof Besides Mr. Coosens gave her a few Notes which she sent unto her Priest to answer whose Answer came to my hands and in my poor Opinion was a very silly one Yet Mr. Coosens would not reply but took his farewel of the Lady without purpose of ever visiting her again She protested that if ever she turned again she will turn Puritan not Moderate Protestant as she phraseth it for Moderate Protestants viz. Mr. Coosens c. are farther from Catholicks than Puritans And thus much concerning her who for any thing I know is neither fallen from Grace nor to Grace Here is 15000 l. offered as it 's said for the Bishoprick of Winchester by the Dean of Winchester And some say it is worth it for he may make of the Leases at his first entrance 10000 l. The other Bishopricks are rated proportionably and destinated to Men of corrupt Minds Dr. Laud is Dean of the Chappel and Dr. White Bishop of Carlisle Chamierus is lately come forth against Bellarmine they are sold as fast as they come over But Mr. Fetherston looks daily for 40 more of which I hope to have one The Papists brag that God hath not shewed himself a Hugonite for these three years last past They have great hopes but I trust their hopes shall perish Yet wise Men are afraid of what may follow and are more inquisitive than heretofore to know Whether Dotage may not be wrought by Sorcery I shall be glad to see your second part of the Succession of Christian Churches or any thing else of yours against the common Adversary Your Lordship had need now to do something for few go with a right foot and the Enemies are many I thought all this while I had been writing to Mr. Usher which made me write so carelesly but ere-now my Memory serves to tell me that it is my Lord Primat of Armagh to whom I ought to have written more respectively yet I cannot find in my heart to burn what I have written but to pass it a way as it is not doubting of a pardon from your Lordship if for no other respect yet for this that I live in the North where we know not well what Manners mean And so with remembrance of my humble Duty and Service I rest Your Lordship 's poor welwiller A. Cook Lond. Nov. 30. 1626. LETTER CXII A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Right Honourable the Lord Deputy Falkland May it please your Lordship MY diligence hath not been wanting either in treating with my Lords the Bishops when they were present or in writing unto them when they were absent touching the Augmentation and the present paiment of the Loan-monies demanded of the Clergy in the Province of Armagh The Augmentation with one Voice they did deny alledging that your Lordship in your Letters directed unto them did not
for to get a License of Mortmain for the holding of 240 Acres of Capite Land which a Gentleman would give to our Colledg but I find great difficulty in effecting it so as I fear me I must return re infectâ If you would be pleased to send Mr. Lively's Chronology I think Mr. Whalley would see to the publishing of it And thus with tender of my best Service and my best Wishes and Prayers for the happy success of your good Designs and prospering of all your Endeavours and for the publick Peace and Safety of both the Nations Yours and Ours in these tottering and troublesome Times I commend your Lordship and all yours to the gracious protection of the highest Majesty Your Lordship 's in all Service Samuel Ward London Feb. 13. 1626. LETTER CXVIII A Letter from the Right Honorable the Lord Deputy Falkland to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord YOur judicious apprehension of the Perils which threaten the Peace of this Kingdom which your dutiful consideration of the King's Wants through his other manifold Occasions of Expence together with your Zeal to his Service is clearly manifested by conforming your Tenants to the good Example of others to join with the rest of the Inhabitants in contributing to the relief of the new Supplies and other Souldiers sent hither for the publick Defence notwithstanding your Privileges of Exemption by Patent from such Taxes which I will take a fitting occasion to make known to his Majesty for your Honour And where your Lordship doth complain that other Country Charges are imposed upon your Tenants whereof you conceive they ought to be free by virtue of your Patent I can give no direct answer thereunto until I be informed from your Lordship of what Nature they be but do faithfully assure your Lordship that neither my Lord Chichester nor my Lord Grandison did ever shew more respect to your Predecessors than I will be ready to perform towards your Lordship as well in this your Demand as in all other things which lie in my Power not being prejudicial to the King's Service which I know is as much as your Lordship will ever desire and do pray your Lordship to send me a Copy of their Warrants for my information what hath been done in that behalf before my Time I have kept Sir Charles Cootes Company from that County as long as I could and will remove them thence as soon as I can conveniently But your Lordship may please to understand that by the earnest intercession of some well-willers to that County it hath been less burthened with Souldiers than any other within that Province saving only Fermannagh which is much smaller in scope than it And for the Distinction you desire to be made between your Town-Lands which you alleadg are generally less by one half than those that are held by others that Error cannot be reformed without a general admeasurement and valluation of the different Fertilities for we all know that a hundred Acres in a good Soil may be worth a thousand Acres of Lands that are mountainous and barren and therefore it will surely prove a Work of great difficulty and will require a long time to reduce it to any perfection so as it is best to observe the custom in usage until such a reformation shall be seriously debated and agreed upon For the Bridg to be built at Charlemount it was propounded to the Board by the Lord Caulfield he informing that the old one was so decayed that it could hardly last out another Year The usesul Consequence of that Bridg in time of War guarded by a strong Fort which Defence others want being well known to the Table did make it a short Debate every Man concurring in Opinion with an unanimous consent that it was most necessary for the King's Service that a substantial Bridg should be erected there with expedition Then the Question grew At whose Charge whether at the King 's or Countries Which upon mature debate was ordered that the Country should bear as well for that it is a place of equal conveniency with any other that is or can be made elsewhere for passage of the Inhabitants over that deep River in times of Peace as because they shall enjoy great security by their Neighbourhoods to that strong Fort of Charlemount in times of Combustion built and maintained without their Charge These Considerations did move us to give direction to certain of the Justices of Peace of each of these Counties of Tyrone and Armagh to view the place and treat with Workmen which they accordingly did Upon whose Certificate we gave Warrant to applot the same according to their Agreement with Workmen which I wish may be levied without opposition or interruption and do make it my request unto your Lordship to give way and furtherance thereunto for this Work tending so much to the Service of the King and Country which I shall take in very good part from your Lordship and you cannot want your Reward in Heaven for it it being a Work of that kind which is accounted pious And so I commit your Lorship to God's protection and rest Your Lordships very affectionate Friend Falkland Dublin-Castle March 15. 1626. I have given order for the preparing a Fyant for the passing of those Particulars your Lordship desired by Mr. Singe Falkland LETTER CXIX A Letter from the most Reverend George Abbot Arch-bishop of Canterbury to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My very good Lord I Send unto you Mr. Sibbes who can best report what I have said unto him I hope that Colledg shall in him have a very good Master which hitherto it hath not had You shall make my excuse to the Fellows that I write not unto them You shall do well to pray to God that he will bless his Church but be not too sollicitous in that Matter which will fall of it self God Almighty being able and ready to support his own Cause But of all things take heed that you project no new ways for if they fail you shall bear a grievous Burthen If they prosper there shall be no Thanks to you Be patient and tarry the Lord's leasure And so commending me unto you and to the rest of your Brethren I leave you to the Almighty and remain Your Lordship's loving Brother G. Cant. Lambeth March 19. 1626. LETTER CXX A Letter from Mr. Thomas Davis to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend Sir MAY it please your Lordship to take a view of my Proceedings for the procuring of such Books you gave me order for such as I could get and have in readiness to be sent by our next Ships which may depart this Port about four months hence are certain Books and loose Papers in the Samaritan Tongue of what use or value I cannot learn The Old Testament in the Chaldean which after seventeen months time is written in a fair Character wanting only the Book
not only from the Samaritan but also betwixt themselves Eusebius pag. 10. Graeci Chronici differeth from my Samaritan Text only in the Years of Ragau Yet there lin 15. in Phalec instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would be read more fully 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and lin 17. in Seruch instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod res ipsa indicat lin 16. it is said of Ragau 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereas the Samaritan Text hath a whole hundred Years less And that we may not suspect there was here any Error Librarii by putting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wheraas Rehu or Ragau is said to have lived 132 Years before he begat Serug 107 after the whole sum of the Years of his Life is added to be 239. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For so the Samaritan in the 11th of Genesis as allothers in the 5th useth to sum up the whole Time of the Lives of the Fathers It is true indeed that attributing unto Ragau 207 years after he begat Serug he should have continued his Life by this Account until the 77th of Nachor But the Text it self of the Samaritan Bible beareth such sway with me that I should rather think Eusebius did out of it as elsewhere always set down 107 as he found it there And Georgius the Monk in his miswritten Copy finding 207 laboured thus to fit the whole unto the 77th of Nachor Which I am so much the more easily induced to believe because in the Chronology of the LXX related by Eusebius pag. 9. lin 37. Non dissimile quid animadvertisse mihi videor for there the same Ragau is said to have begotten Seruch at 135 years Scaliger giveth there a mark that it should be 132 as every where else it is read and that so it should be here appeareth plainly by the Total in lin 44 and 45 of 942 from the Flood and 3184 from Adam unto Abraham Which to be the genuine calculation of Eusebius Nemo harum rerum paulo peritior ignorat Yet George not heeding this but finding 35 written in that Copy which came to his hands of Eusebius turneth the Stream that way and maketh the 406 years which Eusebius giveth to Salah after he begat Eber to end in the 7th of Seruch which would not so fall out unless Ragau did hold his 135 years In like manner he maketh the 207 years of Ragau himself after he begat Serug in the printed Books pag. 10. lin 37. there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to end in the 77th of Nachor And the 209 of Peleg after he begat Ragau to end in the 75th of Serug though in these there be one years odds For of the 135 years that Eber is said to have lived until the 38th of Nachor p. l. 33. we can make here mense because both the Numbers are vitiated Thus much I thought good to write unto you concerning the State of the Samaritan Account because no Man hath dealt herewith since Scaliger I have likewise the old Syriack Translation of the Pentateuch which was received from the beginning of Christianity in the Church of Antioch but neither have I transcribed any thing unto you out of that nor out of my Arabick Manuscript of Moses because the former hath but a meer Translation of the Years of the Fathers as they are found in our common Hebrew Text and the other is wholly taken out of the LXX I have had also another Book lately sent unto me from the East intituled Otzar Raza or rather Razaja a Treasury of Secrets containing a brief Commentary in the Syriack Language upon the whole Old Testament excepting the Book of the Lamentations Chronicles Ezra Nehemiah and Esther and likewise the New those parts only excepted which are wanting in our printed Syriack Testaments the Text whereof I have procured likewise from the Patriarch of the Nestorians in Syria viz. The 2d Epistle of St. Peter the 2d and 3d of St. John that of St. Jude and the Revelation In this Treasure among other things worth the observation are found 1. A Genealogical Table from Adam to Moses 2. A Table of the Judges to Samuel 3. A Table of the Kings of Judah from Saul to Sedechias 4. A Chronological Table of the Kings that successively reigned in Babylon Persia and Egypt from thence unto Vespasian Where to Nebuchadnezzar after the time of Sedechias are assigned 24 years To Evilmerodach 1. To Belshatzar 2. To Darius the Mede 3. To Cyrus 30. To Cambyses 8 and all this to make 70 years to the second of Darius Hystaspis from the desolation of Jerusalem according to Zachar. 1. 12. In these Tables some Heathenish Antiquities also are inserted as of the building of Tarsus c. But these are nothing in comparison of the Treasure which you have found of the Kings and Archons of Athens than which as you have rightly judged nothing can please me more You have made my Teeth water at the mention thereof and therefore I pray you satisfy my longing with what convenient speed you may I can give you no occasion of Inscriptions because I am fixed here in a Country where the old Romanists never had any footing All that I have in this kind I did but borrow from the Monuments of my Lord of Arundel my Lord William Howard of Naworth and Sir Robert Cotton which to send back unto you who are there at the Well-head were inanis opera Those Hebrew Fragments of Aldersgate had your own explication in Latin adjoined unto them as I remember which made me seek no further especially because those Inscriptions were made by later Jews and so were of the same stamp with that of R. Moses filii R. Isaac found in Ludgate whereof Stow maketh mention in his Survey I think you may do well to put together all the Inscriptions printed and imprinted which are not to be found in the great Volume of Goltzius and amongst the rest the Latin one v. Scipionis Barbati F. with Sirmondus his Explanation and the Greek of Herod expounded by Casaubon for Salmasius his Exposition is a little too long And whatsoever Punick Letters can be had in any Coin as one or two Sir Robert Cotton hath of them would be added also because these are scarce known to any There was a Chronology some years since published by one of Ausborough and dedicated to the Pope the Emperor and King James which was prescribed by the Church of Rome I pray you if you can help me to a sight of it and let me understand whether your second Edition of Titles of Honour be yet come abroad for as yet I have heard nothing of it By this time I suppose I have tired you with a tedious Letter and therefore now I dismiss you and rest always Your most assured loving Friend Ja. Armachanus Drogheda Nov. 30. 1627. LETTER CXXIII A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Mr. Dean Mr. Dean I
Do acknowledg no Promise made unto you on my part but upon a Condition to be performed on your part of desisting to prosecute any further your Sacrilegious Intention either by your self or by any of yours the jealousy whereof you have been so far from taking away out of my mind by your two last Letters that you have increased it much more To bear me in hand that you will not follow the Business your self but leave it only to the prosecution of your Friends and that if they obtain your desire yet you will submit all afterward to mine own disposition I esteem no better than a meer delusion of me And therefore if you intend to say no more than this when you come up you may save your Journey for I will accept no other Satisfaction but an absolute disclaiming of the prosecution of this Business either by your self or by others And this I look you should certify unto me before Sir Archibald Atcheson's arrival for afterward I care not a rush for it And when you both have tried the uttermost of your Wits to subvert the good Foundation laid by King James of happy Memory you shall but struggle in vain with shame enough And so beseeching Almighty God to give you the Spirit of a right Mind and to pardon the Thoughts of your Heart I rest Your Loving Friend Ja. Armachanus Drogheda Febr. 1. 1627. LETTER CXXIV A Letter from Dr. W. Bedell Provost of the Colledg at Dublin to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Right Reverend Father my honourable good Lord YOur Letters of the 20th of September came not to my hands till the beginning of November Upon the receipt whereof I wrote to the Vice-Provost to forbear to proceed to the election of Fellows if it were not past before Not but that the Course was such as stood by the Statutes in being e're I came to the place but because by your Grace's earnestness therein I conceived your Wisdom saw more to lie in it than I could perceive Since that I am sorry to understand the success of that Election was not such as gave satisfaction to your Grace and hath bred a new Broil in the Colledg For the restriction of the Statute for Batchelors that they should be at least of seven Terms standing if there be any blame it must lie upon me who would have had it according to that in Emanuel Colledg that they should be of the third Year but that by some of the Company this temper was found Wherein the Lord is witness I respected meerly the good of the Colledg and had not so much as in my thoughts the Case of any that was to pretend the next Election but resolved as every Statute came to be considered to reduce it to such perfection as there should be as little need as was possible to touch them afterward I have seen by experience that the timely preferring of young Men makes them insolent and idle and the holding them a little longer in expectation of Preferment doth them more good in one year than two years before or perhaps after Wherefore I cannot herein repent me of that which was done If Mr. Vice-Provost and the Seniors have in any other Point failed of their Duty I desire your Grace not only to excuse me in participation in it but them also thus far that as I hope it proceedeth of Error and not Malice And of one thing I do assure my self and have been bold to undertake so much to the Fellows that your Grace though it be in a sort necessary for you and all Men of place to give satisfaction in words to importune Suitors will not take it ill that we discharge our Consciences coming to do acts upon Oath such as this is otherwise miserable were the condition of such places and happy are they that are farthest from them I understood further by your Grace's said Letters That you dislike not that the time of the Fellows should be extended to twelve years though you would not have it mentioned upon this suddain c. Which made me send for the University-Statutes of Cambridg to my Friend Mr. Ward having leisure this Winter to that purpose to think of some Project according to my last Letters to your Grace And shortly it seems to me that with one labour the University might be brought into a more perfect Form and yet without touching our Charter At my being in Dublin there came to me one Dr. de Lanne a Physician bred in Immanuel Colledg Who in speech with me discovered their purpose to procure a Patent like to that which the Colledg of Physicians hath in London I noted the thing and partly by that occasion and partly also the desire of the Fellows to extent their time of stay in the Colledg I have drawn a Plot of my Thoughts in that behalf which I send your Grace herewith I have imparted the same generally to my Lord of Canterbury who desireth that your Grace would seriously consider of it and to use his own words That it may be weighed with Gold Weights and if it be found fit will concur thereto when time shall be I could have wished to have been present with you at the survey of it to have rendred the reason of some things which will now perhaps be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but your Wisdom Experience and Knowledg of the Place will easily pierce through and disperse all those Mists which perhaps overcloud my understanding and howsoever I shall hereby dare sapienti occasionem For my speedy return which your Grace presseth I confess to them that I am ready to forethink that ever I came there so conscious to my self of mine own weakness and unfitness for the place as I fear rather to be burthensom than profitable to the Colledg Which also made me desirous to retain if I might lawfully the Title to my Benefice resigning the whole Profits and care to some able Man to be nominated by the Patron and approved by the Bishop of the Diocess that I might have upon just cause whither to retire my self I have not yet received your Grace's decision of this Case I wrot also to the Society hereabout who being conditores juris perpetui are also interpretes Neither have I understood what they conceive Since my coming away by occasion of my Lord Deputy his voluntary Offer to confer upon me the Treasurership of St. Patricks I entreated them to present a Petition to his Lordship for the enjoying the 40 l. anciently granted to the Colledg for the enlarging the Provost's Maintenance and upholding the Lecture at Christ's Church whereof I was put in hope before my coming They have not so much as vouchsafed me an Answer When I took my Oath to the Statutes I made protestation that I intended not to renounce my Benefice that place being litigious and my Affairs not yet accommodated here Since my coming home hither my Corn Cattel and some Goods and a Lease
and Physick and attend only to the ordering of one poor Colledg of Divines whereas with a little more labour and a few Priviledges attained a great many more good Wits might have been allured to study and seasoned with Piety and made Instruments for the bringing in Learning Civility and Religion into that Country I did communicate the Plat to my Lord of Canterbury at my first being with him especially in that Point of admitting all Students that should be matriculated though they lodg in Dublin in private Houses and of the four Faculties with their several Promoters c. who seemed not to dislike it but required it should be maturely thought of by your Grace and the University and promised his assistance if it were found fit At that time I left with him the Statutes of our Colledg which I had this Winter written out with mine own hand and caused to be fair bound He retained them with him till the very morning of my departing from London At which time he signified his good approbation of the whole only accounted that too strait for the Provost's absence but six weeks whereas many Causes there would be which would require longer discontinuance I shewed his Grace that Colledg-Business was excepted and that we had not innovated any thing in that Statute it being so before my Election Another Point he disliked was touching Students wearing Gowns always in the Colledg and if it might be when they went into the Town Whereas that of all other said he would have been provided for I answereth The Streets in Dublin were very foul and that by the Statutes Scholars were not permitted to go ordinarily into the Town without their Tutors consent He said they might if the Streets were never so foul take their Gowns under their Arms. I told him that this was also an old Statute e're I came there With the occasion I told his Grace of the new Stirs I heard of in the Colledg for even but the day before I had understood by other Mens Letters more perfectly of my Lord Deputy's putting in certain Fellows and of their displacing of Mr. Lloyd by your Grace and the Visitors whereof I had no intelligence till then save by Rumors only I added of mine own fears that I should make a very ill Pilot in so rough Seas He perswaded me to go on using that Verse Tu ne cede malis c. I told him of my deafness and that the Law not allowing surdum procuratorem how could it be but absurd in the Provost of such a Society He told me that was not so great a matter for a great many did male andire He bad me not be dismayed representing to me the future Reward I told him indeed if that were not I had little eneouragement sith neither I should for ought I saw have the Maintenance for the Lecture which I was put in hope of nor retain the Title of my Benefice only renouncing the Profits To that he said there was no question I might that I had not beneficium and he would maintain it to any Man c. With these Discourses having brought his Grace from his Chamber to his Barge I recommended my self to his Prayers The same morning e're my departure I wrote to Dublin amongst others to Mr. Lloyd endeavouring to let him see his Fault and to keep him from being hardned in it At my return home I found one of my Sons yet afflicted with an Ague which hath held him these six weeks and the Ways being not yet fit for travel the Spring having been very late and winterly I have resolved to attend your Grace's Letters both in answer to my Case propounded in my Letters of September and of my last from London wherein I did put my place there wholly in your disposition and if you think it may be more to the good of the Colledg and Church there that I forgo it did and do again by these Presents absolutely resign it into your hands or the hands of them whom it may concern Your Grace may be pleased to consider seriously my insufficiency which by my last being there partly by your own experience and the report of others you may have understood to be more than perhaps you imagined before And by these new Accidents you may perceive the need the Colledg hath of a more able Head I have ever liked and loved to proceed by that good old Form Ut inter bonos bene ageir c. I have seen it written from thence that you and other wise Men account me a weak Man and in truth I do know my self so to be Do not the Colledg that wrong to clog it with me hitherto iâ— hath received no great damage and these new Broils may serve fitly as a good occasion to cover my defectiveness I may without any disgrace and with much content fit still That which Annibal when in the Common-Council at Carthage he plâ—cked down a turbulent Orator that stood up to disswade a necessary Peace said to excuse his uncivility That the Feats of War he had meetly learned but the Fashions of the City he was to be taught by them I would crave leave to invert the Arâ— of dutiful Obedience and just ruling also in part I did for 17 years endeavour to learn under that good Father Dr. Chaderton in a well temper'd Society the câ—â—nning tricks of paching siding bandying and 〈◊〉 with and between great Men I confess my self ignorant in and am now I fear too old to be taught And me thinks the Society it self like to the Frogs in the Tale weary of the Block set over them esteem the neither worthy to be acquainted with the Colledg-Affairs nor so much as answered in mine own and wherein they do extreamly wrong not me only but your Grace also as I verily believe do keep your Letters from me I wish them a more active Governor Concluding I be send your Grace vouchsafe me your last resolution for my coming or stay and esteem 〈◊〉 as you shall ever truly Your Grace's humble Servant in Christ Jesus W. Bedell Horningerth April the 15th 1628. LETTER CXXVII A Letter from Dr. Samuel Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh at Tredagh Most Reverend and my very good Lord THough I must needs acknowledg my neglect in writing or forgetfulness or both since your last going into Ireland yet now I could have no further pretext for the omission of that Duty by which I am obliged by no few Bonds especially having such conveniency of sending by my most worthy Friend with whom I am most loth to part but that upon higher considerations I conceive God may use him as an Instrument of much good in that place if God send him health and life I assure your Lordship I know not where you could have pitched upon a Man every way so qualified for such a place He is a sincere honest Man not tainted with avarsee of ambition pious
First For that they gave me assurance of your Recovery then that among your weighty Affairs of Church and Common-wealth you should descend to think on me so remote in Application to your Lordship though no Man nearer in Affection and Devotion I register it in my Memorials of your Goodness as also your sending to me the Copy of the Synod of St. Patrick which I much desired and many thanks to your Lordship for it Touching the Books it pleased you to require my help in procuring them by some of my Friends and Kindred in France your Grace knoweth that all intercourse between us and them is now stopped up Yet have I taken order with Mr. Boswell who is gone over with my Lord of Carlisle and to pass near Province that if any opportunity may serve he will endeavour to procure them and my Son who is gone after them shall put him in mind of it It is said that my Lord of Carlisle having treated beyond the Sea with the States of the Low-Countries and not satisfied in their Answer hath left some Protestation against them as he passed from them and that the States have done the like against us I hope it is not true we have Enemies enow I suppose your Lordship would gladly hear how the great Orb of State moveth here in Parliament your own and many others depending on it And I would very willingly have been the first that should have done you that Service if the Messenger had staid a day or two longer that we might have seen the Event For all hangeth yet in suspence but the Points touching the Right of the Subject in the Property of their Goods and to be free from imprisonment at the King's Pleasure or without lawful cause expressed upon the Commitment hath been so seriously and unanswerably proved and concluded by the Lower House that they have cast their Sheat Anchor on it and will not recede from any tittle of the Formality proposed in their Petition of Right touching the same The Upper House hath in some things dissented from them proposing a Caution to be added to the Petition for preservation of the King 's Soveraign Prerogative which the Lower House affirms they have not rub'd upon in ought that of right belongeth to it Yet will they not admit that Addition lest it impeach the whole intent of their Petition Wherein they are so resolute that having upon Thursday last admirably evinced the Right of the Subjects in every part thereof at a Conference with the Upper House they refused to meet the Lords the day following in a Committee required by them for qualification as was conceived Thereupon the Lords spent Saturday in debate among themselves but concluded nothing that we hear of It is reported the Lord Say did then speak very freely and resolutely on behalf of the Subject with some unpleasing rubs upon the Duke there present but by others interposition all was well expounded What this Day will produce Night must relate And of what I have written I have nothing but by hear-say for I am no Parliament-man My Lord of Denbigh with the Navy that went for the rescue of Rochel is returned without blow or blood-draught It is said their Commission gave them not sufficient Warrant to fight and one Captain Clark suspected in Religion is committed to the Gatehouse for disswading them Thus praying for your Health and Happiness I rest Your Grace's most humbly devoted in all Service Henry Spelman Barbacan May 26. 1628. LETTER CXXIX A Letter from J. King to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and my especial good Lord TWo things do occasion me to write to your Lordship the one to show the continuance of my dutiful and best respect to your Lordship which I have born to your Lordship ever since your Childhood which indeed descended first from your Father who loved me always in his life-time as I did him truly and faithfully The other is upon some mislike I understand your Lordship hath conceived of the Lord Camfield my Son-in-Law which indeed I am sorry for for I never found him but honest and religious I know he may have ill Instruments about him and the World is full of Pick-thanks and such as usually do lewd Offices amongst Men of Place and Quality But if your Lordship would please to take him into your favour and upon any occasion if any happen to make known to him what is or may be reported to your Lordship of any of his miscarriages or unfriendly dealings towards your Lordship I would not doubt of his conformity and giving of your Lordship meet satisfaction and this is my Suit and Petition to your Lorship for of all Men in that Kingdom I do wish him and all others that are my Friends to be serviceable and respective to your Lordship and for my self so long as it shall please God to give me Life I will pray for your Lordship which is all the Service I can do you Our worthy Bishop here who I have found here ever since I came hither a worthy Friend and a godly Pastor and Pillar of the Church hath many times and often most kindly remembred your Lordship and surely he is as good a Man as may be yet in this Parliament which is yet scarcely ended some have conceited not so well of him as before but who can or doth escape the malice of wicked Men this being the last and worst Age of the World and surely for all crying and notorious Sins as Whoredom Lying Swearing and Drunkenness I am perswaded that now our own Nation is become the very worst of any in the Christian World which makes me much afraid that God Almighty hath some heavy Judgment a preparing for us It is certain that in Spain are wondrous great preparations for War especially for Sea-Service which some think is rather for Denmark and those Eastern parts than for us and the rather it is conjectured of because Monsieur Oillur lies yet with a great Army of above 60000 Men about Stoade Hambourgh and other parts If his Fleet come on this Summer as it is thought it will and pass the Narrow Seas unfought withal and unbeaten by us it is to be feared that Spain and France or one of them will next land upon our Continent and sit down and fortify being hopeful as it may be well imagined of aid from English Papists whereof the Kingdom is too well stored Rochel is much doubted cannot long hold out and then there is little hope of any Mercy from the King of France which would be a woful case to have so many poor Souls put to the Sword It is thought his Majesty would relieve them if these Subsidies could come in time And it is to be wished now that his Majesty had never medled with them for in the beginning they were well provided to have made their own Peace It is strange to be believed how this Kingdom is weakned by the
loss of Shipping for within this three years it is said England hath lost of Vessels great and small 400. All things concur very untowardly against us but God Almighty hath reserved Victory to himself only We had great rejoicing every where for his Majesty's gracious and good agreement with the Parliament but some ten days ago the House of Commons having exhibited certain Remonstrances to his Highness which as it seemed touched the Duke after reading thereof his Majesty rose up and said They should be answered and instantly gave the Duke his Hand to kiss which the Parliament-men and others were much amazed at God Almighty amend what is amiss if it be his blessed Will and send Unity at Home that we may the better keep off and withstand our Enemies Abroad and continue Peace in these Kingdoms and more pertinently I pray to keep the Spaniards out of Ireland for we shall far better hold tack with them here if they should land than you can do there where too many are ready to join with them I know I can write nothing to your Lordship which is News to you yet express my Love and hearty and humble Affection to your Lordship I make bold to trouble you with a long Letter And so with my Service to Mrs Usher I take leave and rest Your Lordship 's ever truly assured to honour and serve you J. King Layfield June 30. 1628. LETTER CXXX A Letter from Sir Henry Spelman to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh May it please your Grace I Have nothing since my Letter by your Servant Mr. Sturges to trouble you with but this Bearer my Kinsman coming to see your noble Country I have requested him and therewith enjoined him to present my humble and most devoted Service to your Lordship and to bring me certain word how it standeth with you for your Health which to the good of the Common-Wealth as well as my own particular respect no Man more desireth and prayeth for For the Passages here of note I know you receive them by many Pens and therefore I will not enter into any relation of them only I wish they were better Yet amongst them I desire to present your Grace with the first printed Copy of the Petition of Parliament to his Majesty for their ancient Rights and Liberties with his gracious Answer thereto And by much instance I even in this hour obtained it from Mr. John Bill the Printer before they yet are become publick and to the laming of the Book from whence they are taken I send you also Mr. Glanvill's and Sir Henry Martyn's Speeches to the Upper House about this Matter and the Proclamation agaisnt Mr. Doctor Manwaring's Sermons But the King notwithstanding hath as it is credibly reported released him of all the censure imposed upon him by the Upper House of Parliament and this next month he is to serve in Court The Deputys Lieutenants also of the West Country are released and some of them repaired with the dignity of Baronet others of Knighthood all with Grace Mr. Bill desired me to remember him most humbly to your Lordship and to advertise you that he willingly will print your noble Work in one Volume as well in Latin as in English which with multitude of others I shall much rejoice to see Thus with all humble remembrance to your Grace I rest A Servant thereof most bound and devoted Henry Spelman Barbacan July 1. 1628. LETTER CXXXI A Letter from Dr. George Hakewill to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My very good Lord YOur Lordship 's favourable interpretation and acceptance of my poor Endeavours beyond their desert hath obliged me to improve them to the utmost in your good Lordship's Service and more especially in the good education of that going Gentleman Ja Dillâ—â— whom you weâ—â— pleased to commend as a Jewel of price to my care and trust praising God that your Lordship hath been made his Instrument to reclaim him from the Superstitions of the Romish Church and wishing we had some more frequent Examples in that kind in these cold and dangerous Time For his tuition I have placed him in Exeter Colledg with Mr. Bodley a Batchelor of Divinity and Nephew to the great Sir Thomas Bodley of whose sobâ—â—ty gravity piety and every way sufficiency I have had a long trial and were he not so near me in Blood I could easily afford him a larger Testimony He assures me that he finds his Scholar tractable and studious In that such a Disposition having met with such a Tutor to direct and instruct it I make no doubt but it will produce an effect answerable to our expectation and desire And during mine abode in the University my self shall not be wanting to help it forward the best I may Your Lordship shall do well to take order with his Friends that he may have credit for the taking up of Monies in London for the defraying his Expences for that to expect it from Ireland will be troublesome and tedious I wish I could write your Lordship any good News touching the present state of Affairs in this Kingdom but in truth except it please God to put to his extraordinary helping hand we have more reason to fear an utter downfal than to hope for a rising Thus heartily praying for your Lordship's Health and Happiness I rest Your Lordship 's unfeignedly to command Geo. Hakewill Exeter Colledg in Oxford July 16. 1628. LETTER CXXXII A Letter from Dr. Prideaux Rector of Exeter Colledg or Oxon to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend Father in God YOur letters 〈◊〉 the more welcome unto me in that 〈◊〉 brought news of the publishing of your Ecclesiastical 〈◊〉 so much desired In which the 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 and 〈…〉 thing fully and in 〈…〉 see will put a period I trust to the 〈…〉 is a high favour that iâ— pleased you to make use of my 〈◊〉 for the placing of your Kinsman I shall strain 〈◊〉 best endeavours to make good your Undertakings to his Friends Young Tutors oftentimes fail their Pupils for want of Experience and Authority to say nothing of Negligence and Ignorance I have resolved therefore to make your Kinsman one of my peculiar and tutor him wholly my self which I have ever continued to some especial Friends ever since I have been Rector and Doctor He billets in my Lodgings hath three fellow Pupils which are Sons to Earls together with his Country man the Son of my Lord Caulfield all very civil studious and sit to go together I trust that God will so bless our joint Endeavours that his worthy Friends shall receive content and have cause to thank your Grace Whose Faithful Servant I remain Jo. Prideaux Oxon Aug. 27. 1628. LETTER CXXXIII A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Right Honourable My most honourable Lord THE noble respect which in a singular manner you have still born to the preservation of
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
Privy Counsellor who was present and assistant in all the Consultations about setting it forth and privy to the Resolutions of the Board thereupon But since this is come to my hands from another I do hereby pray and authorize your Lordship calling to your assistance Mr. Justice Philpot who is now resident there to enter into a serious examination of the Premises and to give me a full information of what you find thereof by the first opportunity So desiring to be remembred in your daily Prayers I am Your Lordship 's very affectionate Friend Falkland Dublin-Castle Apr. 14. 1629. LETTER CXL A Letter from Mr. Philpot to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My good Lord I Have had some Conference with my Lord Deputy about those Matters wherein your Grace and I were lately imployed he telleth me that this day he will advise with the Counsel upon the Informations sent by us and afterwards will take such course therein as shall be thought fit His Lordship insisteth much upon that part of Mr. Sing's Information where he saith That the Titulary Bishop of Rapho did make a Priest at a publick Mass in an Orchard He saith That the said Bishop is as dangerous a Fellow here in Ireland as Smith is in England and that he hath good Bonds upon him and would be glad to this occasion to call him in and therefore I pray your Grace to wish Mr. Sing to be ready to make good his Accusation for the said Bishop is bound not to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction I told my Lord Deputy how careful you were to see him before his going from hence and that your Grace intended to make a journey of purpose hither having now no other business here He told me that if your Grace had any such purpose that you need not make any great haste for he hoped to have time enough before his going to make some good progress in the Business begun concerning the Jesuits and their Houses c. and that he had not his Summons yet to go away which could not come till the Wind turned and if it came then he said he would stay ten days after at the least in which your Grace may have notice time enough to perform your desire I told my Lord that your Grace was somewhat troubled at his Letter for which he was sorry and blamed his Secretary protesting he did not intend to give your Grace any cause of discontent His Lordship told me that the News of Mantua is true which is relieved and the French King returned but there is no certainty but a common report of any Peace concluded with France I shall be ready upon all occasions to do your Lordship any acceptable Service and will for ever remain Your Grace's faithful Servant Jo. Philpot. Dublin April 27. 1629. LETTER CXLI A Letter from the Lord Deputy c. to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh After our right hearty Commendations to your Lordship BY your Letters of the 6th of this Instant which we the Lord Deputy thought fit to communicate to the Council we perceive and do well approve the care and pains you have taken as well in searching out the truth of the Matter concerning the Titulary Bishop of Raphae as in endeavouring to inform your self of the Proprietors and Possessors of the Popish Conventual-Houses in that Town Touching the Titulary Bishop we rest satisfied by your Lordship 's said Letters that at that time he did no publick Act nor gave Orders to any But as yet remain unsatisfied whether there were any great Assembly of People at that Meeting and what Persons of Note were among them wherein we desire to receive further satisfaction from your Lordship As to their Conventual-Houses we have given his Majesty's Attorney-General a Copy of the Paper enclosed in your Letters to us and gave him direction to put up Informations in his Majesty's Court of Exchequer against the Proprietors and Possessors of those Houses that thereby way may be made to such further course of proceeding as the several Cases shall require And this being all for the present we bid your Lorship very heartily farewel From his Majesty's Castle of Dublin May 15. 1629. Your Lordship 's very loving Friends H. Falkland A. Loftus Canc. Anth. Midensis Hen. Docwra W. Parsons Tyringham LETTER CXLII 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 Am glad Mr. Bedell's Preferment gives your Grace such contentment Your former Letter came safe to my hands so did your second I see nothing is so well done but Exceptions can fret it for I hear that which I looked not for concerning Mr. Bedell's Preferment whole Name was never put to the King till both the other Competitors were refused by his Majesty as too young Ardagh is not forgotten in the Letter for since upon receipt of your Lordship's last Letters I spake with Sir Hen. Holcroft about it Beside those of your Lordship's I have received Letters from Mr. Bedell and from the Fellows about their freedom of election of a Provost My Lord his Majesty would fain have a Man to go on where Mr. Bedell leaves I am engaged for none I heartily love Freedoms granted by Charter and would have them maintained If they will return which are come hither and all agree or a major part upon a worthy Man that will serve God and the King I will give them all the assistance I can to keep their Priviledg whole The King likes wondrons well of the Irish Lecture begun by Mr. Bedell and the course of sending such young Men as your Grace mentions I hope before our Committee for the establishment of Ireland end I shall find a time to think of the Remedy your Lordship proposes about scandalous Ministers in which or any other Service I shall not be wanting For the particulars concerning Clark I have your inclosed and if he stir any thing while I am present you shall be sure I will do you right Now my Lord I have answered all your Letter save about the Arch-bishop of Cassa's for the old Dean I have done all I am able for that reverend and well-deserving Gentleman but the King's Majesty hath been possessed another way and it seems upon like removes hereafter will move more than one And at this time he will give Cassils to my Lord of Clougher if he will take it and so go on with another to succeed him of whom he is likewise resolved And who shall be Cassils if my Lord of Clougher refuse There is nothing which the Dean of Cassils can have at this time unless he will with a good commendam be content to take Kilfanora To which tho I do not perswade yet I would receive his Answer And I add it will be a step for him to a better As for Betts the Lord-Elect that was he hath lapsed it by not proceeding to
whom his Majesty hath very gracious Intentions But of him I shall need deliver no more than what is contained in the enclosed Testimonial sent by my Predecessor unto King James of blessed Memory And so with remembrance of my Service unto your Lordship I rest Your Lordship 's in all Christian Duty ready to be commanded J. Armac Armagh August 10th 1629. LETTER CXLVI Reverendo Viro D. Ludovico de Dieu Orientalium Linguarum in Academiâ Leydensi Professori eximio Siab Academiâ is abfuerit tradantur Literae istae vel Danieli Heinsio vel Gerardo Joh. Vossio resignandae QUod ita compellem te familiaritèr homo quem tu ne de facie quidem nosti non est quòd adeo mireris Vir eruditissime Ex Apocalypsi enim tuâ Syro-Latinâ quam cum MS o meo codice diligenter contuli Hebraeo-Chaldaicis Institutionibus ita mihi visus sum habere te cognitum ut participare me tecum thesauros ex Oriente advectos primo quoque tempore communicare penè gestiam Interim ecce tibi Samaritanorum illud Pentateuchum in quo comparando Christianae pietatis homines paulo negligentiores hactenus fuisse conquestus est olim magnus vester Scaliger Cujus voto aliquâ certe ex parte fuerit satisfactum si ex Academiâ cujus ille dum vixit ingens fuit ornamentum primùm in lucem prodeat tamdiu desideratum venerandae antiquitatis monumentum Verum properato hîc opus ne hanc vobis desponsam jam destinatam laudem alius praereptum eat Neque est quod deterreat libri moles merum enim Pentateuchum est idque à punctis vocalibus accentibus omnibus planè liberum Ut cùm in promptu vobis sint Samaritani typi à Clarissimo Erpenio relicti nihil obstare videam quo minus proximis Vernalibus Nundinis opus absolutum publice edi possit ac passim divendi Tu modo operi manum admovere velis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in te suscipere officium Ad exemplar ipsum quod attinet recentius quidem illud est verum ex antiquioribus satis fideliter expressum Leviticum à se descriptum annotavit librarius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mense Giumadi altero anni nongentesimi filiorum Ismaelis Mensis vero ille anni aerae Ismaeliticae sive Mahummedicae 900 mensi respondet Martio anni Christianae nostrae epochae 1495. Geneseos vero librum qui casu aliquo exciderat ab alio suppletum fuisse res ipsa loquitur quidem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 si ego decurtatas illas voces recte interpretor qui annus Hegirae 986. in aere nostrae 1578. incurrit Ut autem Judei in describendo Libro Legis quo in Synagogis suis utuntur minores suas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ita Samaritani sectiones illis ut plurimum respondentes quos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellant curiose observant propriâ notâ apposita unamquamque terminantes interjecto insuper spatio à proxime insequente discludentes Quin numerum earum ad uniuscujusque libri calcem recensent 250 Geneseos Exodi 200. levitici 134 vel 135. Numerorum 118. 160 Deuteronomii Harum igitur distinctionem uti in editione negligi nollem ita quo commodius textus Samaritani cum Judaico collatio possit institui tùm capitum quibus vulgò utimur ad marginem tum verficulorum intra contextum numerum adjiciendum existimarem eo modo quo in primis partibus libri Geneseos à nobis factum vides quidem versiculorum nostrorum numerum constanter retinendum judicarem etiam iis in locis nam ejusmodi aliquando occurrunt in quibus à Samaritis ordo est immutatus Ubi vero integrae periodi ab iisdem ad sacrum contextum sunt adjectae ut in XI Capite Geneseos verbi gratiâ post xxx Capitis 36 versiculum in libro Exodi frequentissimè Ziphram o praeâ—igimus Habeo Praefationem paratam in quâ inter alia quî factum ut solos Mosis libros Samaritani receperint rationem explico quo tempore quo Authore facta sit haec primigenii contextus interpolatio ostendo authoresque veteres Eusebium Diodorum Tarsensem Hieronymum Cyrillum Anesperum Georgium Syncellum alios qui illius Testimoniis sunt usi commemoro Eam si editione dignam censebis accipies quam primùm quid illic acturi sitis resciero Est apud nos Dublinii Petrus quidam Wiboraeus cujus in Mercaturis faciendis operâ utuntur Middleburgensium vestrorum negotiatorum nonnulli Est Londini Franciscus Burnetus qui in vico quem Lombardicum vocant habet domicilium ad insigne Aurei Velleris Horum uter literas tuas recte ad me curabit deferendas Vale vir doctissime V. V. Cl. Danieli Heinsio ac Gerardo Joh. Vossio quos ego ambos ob interiores illas reconditas in quibus praeter caeteras excellunt literas unicè diligo salutem meis verbis dicito Tuus ex animo JACOBUS USSERIUS Armachanus Pontanae in Hiberniâ Kalendis Octobris An. MDCXXIX LETTER CXLVII A Letter from Sir H. Bourgchier to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend in Christ my very good Lord MY last Letter sent by Mr. Ja. Ware I presume is come to your Grace's hands long before this time I have the happiness to hear of your Grace sometimes by Mr. Burnet which is a great Comfort unto me especially when I heard of your Health and Ability to perform so great a Journey in your late Visitation of your Province of which I shall ever wish the continuance I am very sorry that it is my ill fortune so often to advertise your Grace of the misfortune of your Friends here Sir Robert Cotton hath been lately committed to the Custody of the Bishop of Ely and often strictly examined concerning the publication of a Project tending to the oppression of the Common-wealth and with him were restrained in several places the Earls of Bedford Somerset and Clare and some others after ten or twelve days close Imprisonment and several Examinations they were all enlarged and an Information exhibited against them in the Star-Chamber to which they are now to answer Mr. Solden is also made a party to this Information he is still a Prisoner in the Tower but enjoyeth now the liberty of the Prison At my last being with him he desired me to present his Service to your Grace he would have done it himself if he might with safety Here hath been a good while with us Ger. Jo. Vossius of Leyden a Man well known to your Grace by his Books and now to me de facie and which is more with whom I have contracted Familiarity and Friendship He told me that your Grace was well known to him both by your Latin Book which he had diligently read and by the Report of divers learned Men. and when
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
Cook 's Patent to be void and so judicially declâ—â—ing it I wish you would not be too forward in standing upon that Point To 〈◊〉 in a judicial manner of the validity or invalidity of a Patent in no office of the Ecclesiastical but of the Civil Magistrate and for the one to 〈…〉 the Judiciture of that which appertaineth to another you know draweth near to a 〈…〉 Complaints I know will be made against my Court and your Court and every Court wherein Vice shall be punished and that not by Delinquents alone but also by their Landlords be they Protestants or others who in this Country 〈◊〉 not how their Tenants live so they pay them their Rents I learned of old in Aeschylus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if they 〈…〉 the like Authority will be ready to receive such Accusations against their Brethren every one will judg that there is less cause why they should be pitied when they are served so themselves The way to help this is not to take away the Jurisdiction from the Chancellors and to put it into the Bishops hands alone All Bishops are not like my Lord of Kilmore I know a Bishop in this Land who exerciseth the Jurisdiction himself and I dare boldly say that there is more Unjustice and Oppression to be found in him alone than in all the Chancellors in the whole Kingdom put together and though I do not justify the taking of Fees without good ground yet I may truly say of a great part of mine own and of many other Bishops Diocesses that if Men stood not more in fear of the Fees of the Court than of standing in a white Sheet we should have here among us another Sodom and Gomorrah Your course of taking pains in keeping Courts your self I will commend so that you condemn not them that think they have reason why they should do otherwise As for my self mecum habito and am not ignorant quam sit mihi curta supellex My Chancellor is better skilled in the Law than I am and far better able to manage Matters of that kind Suam quisque norit artem runneth still in my mind and how easy a matter it is for a Bishop that is ignorant in the Law to do wrong unto others and run himself into a Premunire and where Wrong is done I know Right may more easily be had against a Chancellor than against a Bishop If my Chancellor doth Wrong the Star-Chamber lieth open where I will be the Man that will cast the first Stone at him my self as I did for the removing and censuring of him whom I found at my first coming into the Diocess of Meath And as for my late visiting of your Diocesses your Lordship need not a whit be terrified therewith It is not to be expected that an Arch-bishop passing through a whole Province upon a suddain should be able to perform that which a Bishop may do by leasure in his every years Visitation Neither may the Arch-bishop meddle with the Reformation of any thing but what is presented If any such Presentation were made and reformation of the Abuse neglected there is cause to complain of the Visitation But as for the taking of Mony your Lordship will find that when you come next to visit your self there will be great odds betwixt the Sum that ought to be paid unto you and that which was delivered unto me and yet if your Clergy can get but half so much for their Mony from you as they did from me they may say you were the best Bishop that ever came among them When the Clergy of the Diocess of Ardagh was betrayed into the hands of their Adversaries à quibius minime omnium oportuorat and like to be so overborn that many of them could scarce have a bit of Bread lest them to put in their Mouths I stood then in the Gap and opposed my self for them against the whole Country and stayed that Plague In the other Diocess of Kilmore when complaint was made against the Clergy by that Knave whom they say your Lordship did absolve I took him in hand and if the Clergy had not failed in the prosecution would have bound him fast enough without asking any question for Conscience-â—ake whether he were of our Communion or no. And whereas they held their Means as it were by courtesy from the State I took the pains my self to make up the Table of all their Tithes and Duties and at this very instant am working in England to have it firmly established unto them by his Majesty's Authority And yet the Sums of Meâ—â—y which they paid me were not so great but that I could make a shift to spend it in defraying the Charges of the very Journey I am a Fool I know in this commending or defending rather my self but consider who constrained me The Writings which you sent me I had long before from the same hand which sent them unto you I should be glad to hear your judgment of them and would be glad also to go on in further answering of the remain of your Letter but that I am quite tired and what I have written I fear will not be so pleasing unto you What resteth I partly refer to Mr. Dean's Relation and partly to our Conference when we shall next meet where many things may be more fitly delivered by word of mouth than committed to a Letter In the mean time I commend you to the Blessing of our good God and ever rest Your most assured loving Friend and Brother notwithstanding any unkind Passages which may have slip'd from me in this Letter Ja. Armachanus Drogheda Feb. 23. 1629. LETTER CXLIV 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 Thank your Grace heartily for your Letters especially for the Preface of this your last It is true my Lord God hath restor'd me even from Death it self for I think no Man was farther gone and scap'd And your Grace doth very Christian-like put me in mind that God having renewed my Lease I should pay him an Income of some Service to his Church which I hope in the strength of his Grace I shall ever be willing and sometime able to perform I have not yet recovered the great Weakness into which my Sickness cast me but I hope when the Spring is come forward my strength will encrease and enable me to Service In the mean time my Lord as weak as I have been I have begun to pay my Fine but what the Sum comes to God knows is very little Your Table of the Tithes of Ulster and the Business concerning the Impropriations are both past and concerning both I leave my self to Mr. Hygat's Report As touching the Deanery of Armagh I am glad to hear that any place of Preferment in that Kingdom hath so good means of subsistence without Tithes But I must needs acquaint your Grace that neither my Lord
of Wiâ—chester that now is nor Dr. Lindsell did ever acquaint me with your Grace's purpose of drawing Johannes Gerardus Vossius into those parts had I known it in time the Business might have been easier than now it will be For First Upon an attempt made by the Lord Brook to bring Vossius into England to be a Reader in Cambridg the States allowed him better Maintenance and were unwilling to have him come and himself was not very willing in regard of his Wife and many Children being loth to bring them from all their Kindred and Friends into a strange place And if he were unwilling upon these Grounds to come into England I doubt whether he will venture to Ireland or no. But secondly my Lord since this my Lord Duke in his life-time procured him of his Majesty the Reversion of a Prebend in Canterbury which is since fallen and Vossâ—â—s came over into England in the time of my Infirmity and was installed and I was glad I had the happiness to see him After he had seen both the Universities he return'd home again and within these two days I received a Letter from him of the safety of his return thither The Church of Canterbury notwithstanding his absence â—â—ow him an hundred pounds a Year as they formerly did to Mr. Casaubaâ—â— Now I think the Prebend of Canterbury would he have been Priest and resided upon it would have been as much to him as the Deanery of Armagh But howsoever my Lord the King having given him that Preferment already will hardly be brought to give him another especially considering what I could write unto you were it fit Nevertheless out of my lovâ— to the Work you mention if you can prevail with Vossius to be willing and that it may appear the Deanery of Armagh will be of sufficient Means for him and his numerous Family if your Grace then certify me of it I will venture to speak and do such Offices as shall be fit And now my Lord for your own Business Mr. Archibald Hamilton who it seems by your Grace's Letters is your Agent here hath not as yet been with me but whensoever he shall come he shall be very welcome and I hope your Grace knows I will be very ready to do that Church and you the best Service I can As I had written thus far Mr. Hamilton came to me so that now I shall inform my self as well as I can of your Lordship's Business which he tells me is perpleâ—d by some to whom it was formerly refer'd His Majesty is now going to New-Market so that tâ—â— his return little or nothing can be done but so soon as he comes back I will not be wanting to that part which shall be laid upon me I formerly writ to your Grace about divers Businesses and I have received your Answer to the most of them only to one particular you have answered nothing which makes me think that Letter scarce came safe to your hands It is about the Bishoprick of Kilfanora which is so poor in it self that no Man asks it of the King and his Majesty is graciously pleased that your Lordship would think of some good Parsonage or Vicariâ—g or Donative that might for ever be annex'd unto it And though nothing be now perchance actually void to fit this Purpose yet I conceive the Annexation may be presently made though the Profit arising from the thing come not to the Bishop till it become void I pray your Grace take as much care of this as possibly you can and let me hear from you what may be done This Letter my Lord is a great deal too long but so many Occasions would not suffer it to be shorter I wish you all Health and so leave you to the Grace of God ever resting Your Grace's loving poor Friend and Brother Guil. London Loâ—d House Feb. 23. 1629. LETTER CLV A Letter from the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend Father my Honourable good Lord THe Superscription of your Grace's Letters was most welcome unto me as bringing under your own Hand the best evidence of the recovery of your Health for which I did and do give hearty thanks unto God For the Contents of them as your Grace conceived they were not so pleasant but the Wounds of a Friend are faithful saith the Wise Man Sure they are no less painful than any other Unkindness cuts nearer to the Heart than Malice can do I have some experience by your Grace's said Letters Concerning which I have been at some debate with my self whether I should answer them with David's Demand What have I now done Or as the Wrongs of Parents with Patience and Silence But Mr. Dean telling me that this day he is going towards you I will speak once come of it what will You writ That the course I took with the Papists was generally cried out against neither do you remember in all your Life that any thing was done here by any of us at which the Professors of the Gospel did take more offence or by which the Adversaries were more confirmed in their Superstitions and Idolatry Wherein you could wish that I had advised with my Brethren before I would adventure to pull down that which they have been so long a building Again what I did you know was done out of a good intention but you were assured that my Project would be so quickly refuted with the present Success and Event that there would be no need my Friends should advise me from building such Castles in the Air c. My Lord all this is a Riddle to me What course I have taken with the Papists What I have done at which the Professors of the Gospel did take such offence or the Adversaries were so confirmed What it is that I have adventured to do or what Piece so long a building I have pulled down what those Projects were and those Castles in the Air so quickly refuted with present success as the Lord knows I know not For truly since I came to this place I have not changed one jot of my Purpose or Practice or Course with Papists from that which I held in England or in Trinity-Colledg or found I thank God any ill Success but the Slanders only of some Persons discontented against me for other Occasions Against which I cannot hope to justify my self if your Grace will give ear to private Informations But let me know I will not say my Accuser let him continue mask'd till God discover him but my Transgression and have place of Defence and if mine Adversary write a Book against me I will hope to bear it on my Shoulder and bind it to me as a Crown For my recusation of your Court and advertisement what I heard thereof I see they have stirred not only Laughter but some Coals too Your Chancellor desires me to acquit him to you that he is none of those Officers
you as bringing with it the joyful news of your Life together with your godly Caveat of putting us in mind of our subjection to the Law of Mortality which Instructiâ—n God did shortly after really seal unto me by his Fatherly Chastisement whereby he brought me even to the Pits brink and when I had received in my self the Sentence of Death was graciously pleased to renew the Lease of my Life again that I might learn not to trust in my self but in him which raised the Dead our Comfort is that Life as well as Death and Death as well as Life are equally ours For whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords I heartily thank you for your large Relation of the state of your Differences there Let me intreat you to take present care that a fair Copy be taken as well of your Lectures touching Grace and Free-will as of your others touching the Euchariâ—t which I much desire you should finish that it may not be said of you as it hath been noted of Dr. Whitaâ—er 〈◊〉 and Chamier That God took them all away in the midst of their handling of that Argument making an end of them before they made in end of that Controversie It is great pity your Lectures should be hazarded i◠〈◊〉 exemplari two at least I would have and preserved in two divers places lest that befal to them which happened to Dr. Raynold's Answer to Sanders touching the King's Supremacy a Copy whereof I have by God's good Providence recovered and his writing of Christ's Descent into Hell which I fear is utterly abolished Mr. Vâ—ssius having some notice that I intended to publish Marianus Scotus the printed Fragment of his Chronicle being scarce worthy to be accounted his sent me word that he likewise had a like intention to print the same out of a Manuscript Copy which he received from Andr. Scotus and desired that either I would receive his Notes for the setting forward of that Edition or else send unto him what I had in that kind I purpose to send unto him my Transcript both of Marianus himself and of his Abbridger Robertus Lotharingus Bishop of Hereford as also the History of Gotteschalcus and the Predestination-Controversy moved by him which I am now a making up whereunto I insert two Confessions of Gotteschalcus himself never yet printed which I had from Jacobus Sirmondus I touch there also that Commentitious Heresy of the Predestinatians which was but a Nick-name that the Semi-Pelagians put upon the Followers of St. Augustine who is made the Author thereof in the Chronicle of Tiro Prosper whose words in the Manuscript are Praedestinatorum Haeresis quae ab Augustino accepisse dicitur initium not as in the printed Books Ab Augustini libris male intellectis for which I desire you should look your Manuscript Prosper which is joined with Eusebius his Chronicle in Bennet-Colledg Library I could wish also that when you came thither you would transcribe for me Gulielmus Malmesburiensis his short Preface before his Abbreviation of Amalarius which is there in Vol. 167. and Scotus de Perfectione Statuum which is there in Vol. 391. cum Tragediâ—â— Seneca if it be but a short Discourse I have written a large Censure of the Epistle of Ignatius which I forbear to publish before I have received a Transcript of the Latin Ignatius which you have in Caius Colledg Vol. 152. of Dr. James Catalogue if I could certainly have learned that Mr. Thâ— Whaley had been in Cambridg I should have written to him for procuring it unto me but if he fail I must make you my last refuge whatever Charges be requisite for the transcription Mr. Burnet will see defâ—ayed You have done me a great pleasure in communicating unto me my Lord of Salisbury's and your own Determination touching the Efficacy of Baptism in Infants for it is an obscure point and such as I desire to be taught in by such as you are rather than deliver mine own Opinion thereof My Lord of Derry hath a Book ready for the Press wherein he handleth at full the Controversy of Perseverance and the Certainty of Salvation He there determineth that Point of the Efficacy of Baptism far otherwise than you do accommodating himself to the Opinion more vulgarly received among us to which he applieth sundry Sentences out of St. Augustine and among others that De Baptismâ— Sacramenta in solis electiâ— hoc verè efficiâ—nt quâ—d figurant I have finished the History of Gotteschalcus and the Predestination Controversy stirred up in his Time whereunto you have given a good furtherance in your learned Observations sent unto me touching the original of the Nick-name of the Predestinatiani imposed by the Semi-Pelâ—gians upon the Followers of St. Augustine I have had out of Corbey Abbey in France two Consessions written by Gotteschalcus himself which as yet have not been printed If we could but obtain Râ—thranâ—s his Treatise of the some Argument written unto the Eâ—peror Charles the same time I doubt not but it would give us as great contentment as his other Work doth De 〈◊〉 ◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for he held constantly St. Augustine's Doctrine against the Semi-Pelagians I have now in hand Institutionum Chronologicarum Lib. 3. wherein I labour by clearness of method and the easy manner of handling to make that perplexed Study familiaâ— to the Capacity of the meanest Understanding Therein I handle only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 making up as it were the Body of an Act. After which I intend if God spare my Life and Health to fall upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Sacred Chronology and there to handle all the Controversies of that kind which may bring Light to the Sacred History and the Connexion of it with the Exotical I have review'd also my Answer to the Jesuit's Challenge and enlarged it with many Additions which by this time I suppose are newly printed â—n London Forget not in your Prayers Ja. Armachanâ—t Your most assured Friend and Brother Drogheda Dec. 10. 1630. LETTER CLX A Letter from Dr. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and my very good Lord I Received your Lordship's Letter sent by Mr. Stubbin by which I understood of your Lordship's late Recovery even from the Jaws of Death but more fully by Mr. Stubbin himself who related unto me the great hazard you Lordship was in by so excessive bleeding so many days together as is almost ineredible So that as it is said of Abraham that he received his Son from the Dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so we all even God's Church have received your Lordship in like manner à â—aucibus Oxci Praise be to the Lord of Life who killeth and reviveth again who bringeth down to Hell and bringeth back again To him be given all Glory for ever Amen Amen Since the receipt of your Lordship's
he gave and it gives me much content that I was the means of it And now for the Bargain which you mention of Ancient Coins to the number of 5500 I cannot upon the sudden say any things for my own Purse is too shallow and my Lords the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Pembrook are dead You say they are a great Bargain at 600 l. I pray therefore if you have so much Interest in the Seller send me word as soon as you can how many Ounces the Gold Coin comes unto and how many the Silver and then I shall be able to judg of the Copper and then upon my return to those your Letters I will give you answer where I can find any noble Spirit that will deal for them or no. You may judg by these Letters I am not in haste but indeed I am and yet in the fulness of my Business more troubled a great deal that I cannot remedy what I see amiss than at any disproportion between the weakness of my Shoulder and the weight of my Load Let me have your Prayers and in them and God's Grace I shall rest Your Grace's very loving Friend and Brother Guil. London Fulham-house July 5. 1630. LETTER CLXVII A Letter from the King's Council in Ireland to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh After our very hearty Commendations to your Lordship HIS Majesty by his Letters of the 5th of June last hath been graciously pleased to signify unto us that it hath pleased God of his infinite Grace and Goodness to vouchsafe his Majesty a Son and us a Prince born at the Palace of St. James's the 29th day of May last A Copy of which Letters together with some of the Prayers framed in England upon this occasion and lately imprinted here we have thought fit to send you here inclosed that by timely order from you the same may be communicated unto your Clergy as to those who with all Duty and loving Affection will embrace whatsoever may make for the prosperous advancement of the Publick Good wherein all of us have Interest The Joy and Gladness we apprehend in this great Blessing hath justly moved as to set apart one Day to be jointly and unanimously celebrated as a Festival throughout the whole Kingdom in expression of the thankfulness due from us all upon this happy occasion which Day we have resolved shall be the 15th Day of this Instant whereof we give your Lordship notice to the end you may cause the same to be notified to your Clergy and that on that day there be publick Prayers Thanksgivings and Sermons in the several Churches of your Diocess and that the said Prayers be then publickly read in the time of Divine Service and that afterwards ringing of Bells making of Bone-fires and all other expressions of Joy may be made to testify the general Joy and Gladness of that Day And we pray and require you to be with us here at that time to the end all of us who are partakers of this Benefit may join in the Solemnities of this intended Festival And so we bid your Lordship very heartily farewel From his Majesty's Castle of Dublin July 5. 1630. Your Lordship 's very loving Friends A. Loftus Canc. R. Corke Grandison Hen. Valentia W. Caulfeild Hen. Docwra Fra. Mountnorris W. Shurley W. Parsons J. Erskyne Cha. Coote Thory Duttoy Ad. Loftus LETTER CLXVIII A Letter from the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh at his House at Termonfeckin Most Reverend Father my Honourable good Lord I Cannot easily express what contentment I received at my late being with your Grace at Termonfeckin There had nothing hapned to me I will not say since I came into Ireland but as far as I can call to remembrance in my whole Life which did so much affect me in this kind as the hazard of your good Opinion For loving and honouring you in Truth for the Truth 's sake which is in us and shall abide with us for ever without any private Interest and receiving so unlooked for a blow from your own hand which I expected should have tenderly applied some Remedy to me being smitten by others I had not present the defences of Reason and Grace And although I knew it to be a fault in my self since in the performance of our Duties the judgment of our Master even alone ought to suffice us yet I could not be so much Master of mine Affections as to cast out this weakness But blessed be God which as I began to say at my being with you refreshed my Spirit by your kind renewing and confirming your love to me And all humble thanks to you that gave me place to make my defence and took upon you the cognizance of mine Innocency And as for mine Accuser whose hatred I have incurred only by not giving way to his covetous desire of heaping Living upon Living to the evident damage not only of other Souls committed to me but of his own Truly I am glad and do give God thanks that his Malignicy which a while masked it self in the pretence of Friendship hath at last discovered it self by publick opposition It hath not and I hope it shall not be in his power to hurt me at all he hath rather shamed himself and although his high Heart cannot give his Tongue leave to acknowledg his Folly his Understanding is not so weak and blind as not to see it Whom I could be very well content to leave to taste the Fruit of it also without being further trouble some to your Grace save that I do not despair but your Grace's Authority will pull him out of the Snare of Satan whose Instrument he hath been to cross the Work of God and give me more occasion of joy by his amendment than I had grief by his perversion and opposition Your Grace's Letters of August 23. were not delivered to me till the â—9th In the mean space what effect those that accompanied them had with Mr. Dean you shall perceive by the inclosed which were sent me the 28th the Evening before our Communion I answered them the next Morning as is here annexed As I was at the Lord's Table beginning the Service of the Communion before the Sermon he came in and after the Sermon was done those that communicated not being departed he stood forth and spoke to his purpose That where as the Book of Common Prayer requires that before the Lord's Supper if there be any 〈…〉 there should be to conciliation this was 〈…〉 because they all knew that there was been 〈…〉 he did profess that he 〈…〉 no 〈…〉 and 〈…〉 me in any thing he was â—orry I answered That he had good reason to be sorry considering how he had behaved himself For my part I bare him no malice and if it were in my power would not make so much as his finger ake Grieved I had been that he in whom I knew there
discharge the Duty let him have the Wages to better his Maintenance But when your Grace assureth us we shall lack no Men when there is besides Mr. Crien whom D. Sheriden hath heard preach as a Frier in that very place which I account would be the more to God's Glory if there now he should plant the Truth which before he endeavoured to root out besides him we have Mr. Nugent who offereth himself in an honest and discreet Letter lately written to me We have sundry in the Colledg and namely two trained up at the Irish Lecture one whereof hath translated your Grace's Catechism into Irish besides Mr. Duncan and others With what colour can we pass by these and suffer him to fat himself with the Blood of God's People Pardon me I beseech your Grace when I say We I mean not to prescribe any thing to you My self I hope shall never do it or consent to it And so long as this is the cause of Mr. D's Wrath against me whether I suffer by his Pen or his Tongue I shall rejoice as suffering for Righteousness sake And sith himself in his last Letter excuses my Intent I do submit my Actions after God to your Grace's Censure ready to make him Satisfaction if in any thing in Word or Deed I have wronged him For conclusion of this business wherein I am sorry to be so troublesome to your Grace let him surcease this his greedy and impudent pretence to this Benefice let Mr. Nugent be admitted to it or Mr. Crien if he be not yet provided for to whom I will hope ere long to add Mr. Nugent for a Neighbour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If these second questionless better Thoughts have any place in him as in his last Letters he gives some hope let my Complaints against him be cast into the Fire God make him an humble and modest Man But if Mr. Dean will needs persist I beseech your Grace to view my Reply to the which I will add no more As touching his traducing me in the Pulpit at Cavan I have sent your Grace the Testimonies of Mr. Robins and Mr. Teate altho he had been with them before and denied what they formerly conceived And if your Grace will be pleased to enquire of Mr. Cape by a Line or two with whom I never spake word about the matter or compare the heads of his Sermon which he saith were general with his former Reports made of me I doubt not but you will soon find the Truth I have sent also his Protestation against my Visitations wherein I desire your Grace to observe the blindness of Malice He pretends that I may not visit but at or after Michaelmas every Year As if the Month of July wherein I visited were not after Michaelmas for before the last Michaelmas I visited not I omit that he calls himself the Head of the Chapter The Canon Law calls the Bishop so he will have the Bishop visit the whole Diocess together directly contrary to that form which the Canons prescribe But this Protestation having neither Latin nor Law nor common Sence doth declare the Skill of him that drew it and the Wit of him that uses it Which if your Grace enjoyn him not to revoke I shall be enforced to put a remedy to it otherwise in respect of the evil Example and Prejudice it might bring to Posterity And now to leave this unpleasing Subject Since my being with you here was with me Mr. Brady bringing with him the Resignation of the Benefice of Mullagh which I had conferred upon Mr. Dunsterville and united to his former of Moybolk he brought with him Letters from my L. of Corke and Sir W. Parsons to whom he is allied But examining him I found him besides a very raw Divine unable to read the Irish and therefore excused my self to the Lords for admitting him A few days after viz. the 10th of this Month here was with me Mr. Dunsterville himself and signified unto me that he had revoked his former Resignation Thus he plays fast and loose and most unconscionably neglects his Duty Omnes quae sua sunt quaerunt Indeed I doubted his Resignation was not good in as much as he retained still the former Benefice whereto this was united Now I see clearly there was a compact between him and Mr. Brady that if he could not be admitted he should resume his Benefice again I have received Letters from Mr. Dr. Ward of the Date of May 28 in which he mentions again the point of the Justification of Infants by Baptism To whom I have written an Answer but not yet sent it I send herewith a Copy thereof to your Grace humbly requiring your Advice and Censure if it be not too much to your Graces trouble before I send it I have also written an Answer to Dr. Richardson in the question touching the Root of Efficacy or Efficiency of Grace but it is long and consists of five or six sheets of Paper so as I cannot now send it I shall hereafter submit it as all other my Endeavours to your Grace's Censure and Correction I have received also a large Answer from my Lord of Derry touching Justifying Faith whereto I have not yet had time to reply Nor do I know if it be worth the labour the difference being but in the manner of teaching As whether justifying Faith be an Assent working Assiance or else an Assiance following Assent I wrote presently upon my return from your Grace to my Lords Justices desiring to be excused from going in person to take Possession of the Mass-houses and a certificate that my Suit with Mr. Cook is depending before them I have not as yet received Answer by reason as Sir Will. Usher signified to my Son the Lord Chancellor's Indisposition did not permit his hand to be gotten I do scarce hope to receive any Certificate from them for the respect they will have not to seem to infringe your Grace's Jurisdiction Whereupon I shall be inforced to entertain a Proctor for me at your Graces Court when I am next to appear it being the very time when my Courts in the County of Leatrym were set before I was with you Asham'd I am to be thus tedious but I hope you will pardon me sith you required and I promised to write often And having had opportunity to convey my Letters this must serve instead of many Concluding with my humble Service to your Grace and Thanks for my kind Entertainment I desire the Blessing of your Prayers and remain always Your Graces humble Servant Will. Kilmore and Ardaghen Kilmore Sept. 18. 1630. LETTER CLXIX A Letter sent from Dr. Forbes Professor of Divinity at Aberdeen with his Irenicum to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Reverendissimo in Christo Patri Jacobo Usserio Dei miseratione Archiepiscopo Armacano totius Hiberniae Primati meritissimo Domino suo colendissimo Salutem in Domino Reverendissime Sanctissime Pater TAnta mihi ex
Quotis ad R. D. Tuam unà cum Eucharisticis missimus rectè redditas esse Ita nunc etiam pro novissimis duabus Quotis quae 185 libras Sterl 8 Solidos continuerunt hic nostrae Monetae florenos 1231 confecerunt Catalogum hisce adjunctum mittimus Ut hanc distributionem non minùs quà m priores duas fideliter à nobis factas esse inde constare possit In quem finem etiam Apocham pro acceptis pecuniis non tantùm à nobis collectae Administratoribus sed etiam ab aliis Primariis Viris subscriptam ad opt humaniss Virum Dom. Christianum Bor. Mercatorem Dublinensem missimus Habemus praeterea hîc ad manus diligenter asservamus singulorum Participantium Chirographa quibus se portiones in Catalogo assignatas accepisse attestantur Si fortè ad probandam Accepticum Expenso congruentiam iis aliquando opus sit Quod restat quod unum gratitudinis argumentum edere nunc possumus nos non tantùm pro salute incolumitate tuâ seduli ad DEUM precatores verùm etiam tuorum in nos meritorum laudumque tuarum grati buccinatores apud homines futuri sumus ita ut quocunque terrarum nostra nos fata deferent fidelem tui memoriam nobiscum simus ablaturi Bene vale Pater eximie venerande DOMINUS JESUS opus manuum tuarum confirmet ad nominis sui gloriam Ecclesiae suae incrementum Amen Norinburgae die xiii Septembris Anno Dei Hominis facti M. DC XXXI Reverendiss Dom. Tuam Subjectissimo Studio colentes Sacrae Collectae pro Exulib Archipalatinatus Superioris Administratores Fratrum omnium nomine Ambrosius Tolner quondam Pastor Ecclesiae Tursehennentensis Dioceseos Waldsassensis Inspector unde nunc exul in agro Norico suo Ln. Georgii Summeri nomine jam absentis Gebhardus Agricola Ecclesiae Aurbacensis quondam Pastor Inspector nunc in Marchionatum exulans c. Jonas Libingus Judex quondam Archipalatinus Caenobii Weisseno nunc in Exilio ad facrae Collectae negotia Deputatus Norimbergae LETTER CLXXII A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the most Reverend William Laud Arch-bishop of Canterbury My most gracious Lord WHen I took Pen to write the first thing that presented it self to my thoughts was that saying in the Scripture Why are you the last to bring the King back to his House For methought I could not but be much blamed for coming thus late to congratulate both his Majesty's safe return and your own advancement joined therewith unto the highest place of Church-Preferment that is within his Highnesses Dominions Wherein I may truly say thus much for my self to begin withal that since the time I received the Letter you wrote unto me the day before you began your Journey for Scotland no day hath passed hitherto wherein I have not made particular mention of you in my Prayers unto Almighty God who hath graciously heard my Request and granted therein as much as my Heart could desire But thus in the mean time did the Case stand with me Upon the arrival of the Lord Deputy I found him very honourably affected toward me and very ready to further me as in other things that concerned the Church so particularly in that which did concern the settlement of the Lands belonging to the Arch-bishoprick of Armagh Wherefore not being willing to let slip so fair an opportunity I presently obtained a Commission for making an inquiry of all the Lands that remained in my quiet possession and took my Journey though in an unseasonable time of the Year into the Northern Parts of the Kingdom Where beside the speeding of the Offices that were taken in the three several Counties of Armagh Tirone and London-Derry there was offered the opportunity of solemnizing the translation of the Bishop of Raphae and a Consecration of the Bishop of Ardagh in the Cathedral Church of Armagh where no such Act had been before performed within the memory of any Man living And much about this time had we the News of your Grace's Election into that high Dignity which his Majesty hath called you unto for which as this poor Church in general so none more than my self in particular have great cause to rejoice God having no doubt given you such high favour in our Master's Eyes that you might be enabled thereby to do the more good unto his Church and especially to put a happy end to that great Work which hitherto hath received so many Impediments of setling the Reversion of the Impropriations of this Kingdom upon the several Incumbents Whereunto I assure my self your Grace will easily work my Lord Deputy who every day sheweth himself so zealous for the recovering of the dissipated Patrimony of the Church that mine Eyes never yet beheld his match in that kind By the death of your Predecessor our University of Dublin was left to seek a new Chancellor whom I advised to pitch upon no other but your self which they did with all readiness and alacrity If your Grace will design to receive that poor Society under the shadow of your Wings you shall put a further tie of observance not upon that only but upon me also who had my whole breeding there and obtained the honour of being the first Proctor that ever was there I am further intreated by our Lord Treasurer the Earl of Corke to certify my knowledg touching the placing of his Monument in the Cathedral Church of St. Patrick's in the Suburbs of Dublin The place wherein it is erected was an ancient Passage into a Chappel within that Church which hath time out of mind been stopped up with a Partition made of Boards and Lime I remember I was present when the Earl concluded with the Dean to allow thirty Pounds for the raising of another Partition betwixt this new Monument and the Quire wherein the Ten Commandments might be fairly written Which if it were put up I see not what offence could be taken at the Monument which otherwise cannot be denied to be a very great Ornament to the Church I have nothing at hand to present your Grace withal but this small Treatise written unto Pope Calixtus the 2d by one of your Predecessors touching the ancient Dignity of the See of Canterbury Which I beseech you to accept at the hands of Your Grace's most devoted Servant J. A. 1632. LETTER CLXXIII Another Letter to the same May it please your Grace UPon my return from my Northern Journey I wrote unto you by Sir Francis Cook declaring the cause of my long silence together with the extraordinary Zeal of our noble Lord Deputy I may justly term him a new Zerubbabel raised by God for the making up of the Ruins of this decayed Church who upon an occasion openly declared himself an opposite to the greatest of those that have devoured our holy Things and made the Patrimony of the Church the Inheritance of their Sons and Daughers I likewise made bold
Rabbinicum codicem ubi in latinum Sermonem convertero id enim ago objectionibus respondero faciam Deo dante ut Illustrissima tua dignitas exemplar quamprimum habeat Et quandoquidem intellexi ex antiquis raris Manuscriptis illustrissimam tuam dignitatem percipere magnam venustatem reticere nequeo quin de alio Manuscripto cujus me compotem fecit D. Buxtorfius mentionem injiciam nomen est Nizahon virulentum scriptum contra Christianos Vertere etiam coepi ut eodem modo edam atque transmittam Porrò cum in D. tuâ instructissimá Bibliothecâ Syriacum in Biblia Commentarium esse intellexerim sive Thesaurum secretarium atque ab iis qui vetus Testamentum transferunt in linguam Belgicam rogatus sim ut observationes ad loca difficiliora porrò suppeditem si optare liceret istius Syriaci in Hagiographa Prophetas posteriores Commentarii usum ad tempus concedi exoptarem Nam Pentateuchum reliquos Historicos quod concernit istos jam examinarunt revisores ut vocant atque ad Hagiographa pergunt In locis dubiis Abrabanielem meum omnium Commentatorum coryphaeum consulere soleo sed ne is quidem per omnia satisfacit Attamen ne vel minimum quidem hac mea petitione D. tuae commodis obesse velim neque committendum censeo ut liber adeo rarus cum discrimine amittendi periculo in incertum mittatur verum suo loco relinquendum si tuta mittendi ratio desit existimo De Chronico Samaritanorum Arabico cum collega D. Golio egi quod D. tuae votum esse cognoscerem ut ex Arabico in Latinum verteretur Sed tot jam negotiis se implicitum quaeritur ut hoc tempore id praestare nequeat ita enim praeter stata negotia undique sollicitari ut suus non sit Cyclium denique Paschalem V. M. de quo D. t. ad Dominum Frey perscripserat in nostra Bibliotheca nondum invenire potui Hactenus curas tuas interpellari boni quaeso consulas tua facilitate fretus id feci qui mea officia offero Illustrissimae dignitati tuae cujus cliens audire gestio Constantinus L'Empereur ab Oppych Ludg-Bat 16 Kal. Dec. An. 1633. Partae salutis LETTER CLXXVIII A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Dr. Ward Good Doctor I Received with your last Letter the Penitential Canons of Maimonides for which I heartily thank you In lieu whereof I hereby send you the History of Gottheschalcus the first Latin Book I suppose that ever was printed in Ireland I have directed it as you see to Mr. Vossius but upon your advertisement forbore to commit the publication of it unto him For the Arminian Questions I desire never to read any more than my Lord of Salisbury's Lectures touching Predestination and Christ's Death and yours concerning Grace and Free-will together with the determination of the Question of Perseverance which you shewed unto me The Book of Scotus in Benet-Colledg I guess to be the same with a Manuscript which I have my self without the Author's Name beginning thus Quod status Praelatorum viz. pastorum Ecclesiae presupponit statum alium probatur sic I had thought the other had been written by Johannes Erigena or else I had not much desired it but now I discern it came from Johannes Duns I do not much esteem it If I be not deceived being once in talk of Scaliger at your Table Mr. Mead made mention of some Mistake of his in the Fragments of Abydenus or Berosus which he hath published at the end of his Book De Emendatione Temporum but what it was I cannot call to remembrance If you have a better memory I pray you help mine or else enquire of Mr. Mead himself when you shall next see him I received a very kind Letter from Mr. Vossius for my History of Gottheschalcus A Copy of your Writings touching the Efficacy of Baptism and the Questions with the Remonstrants I much desire Dr. Twisse I see as you feared hath followed the rigid part I have gotten a good large Fragment of the beginning of Clement's genuine Epistle to the Corinthians Your own most assured Ja. Armachanus Dublin April 30. 1634. LETTER CLXXIX A Letter from Dr. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and my very good Lord I Received your Grace's Letter of the 30th of April for which I humbly thank your Lordship and crave pardon withal of my long silence I am right sorry to hear of the late decease of the worthy Bishop of Derry Boni deficiunt mali proficiunt I heard before the receipt of your Lordship's Letter of it at London I heard also there that Dr. Bramhall of our Colledg was likely to succeed him I pray God he may succed him as in place so in all his Vertues and vertuous Actions I pray God to be assistant to the Parliament of State with you and to bless all the Proceedings therein and to give an happy success to that Honourable Meeting in all their Important Affairs For my Lectures of the Eucharist I have as yet no leisure to transcribe them nor others touching the Remonstrants As for my Lord of Sarum his Readings I will see if I can get Mr. Burnet to procure them to be transcribed As for an Answer to the Animadversions you mention I will God willing e're long send your Lordship a Copy of them The Author of the Animadversions is now with us We have had some doings here of late about one of Pembrook-Hall who preaching in St. Mary's about the beginning of Lent upon that Text James 2. 22. seemed to avouch the insufficiency of Faith to Justification and to impugn the Doctrine of our 11th Article of Justification by Faith only for which he was convented by the Vice-Chancellor who was willing to accept of an easy acknowledgment but the same Party preaching his Latin Sermon pro gradu the last week upon Rom. 3. 28. he said he came not palinodiam canere sed eandem cantilenam canere which moved our Vice-Chancellor Dr. Love to call for his Sermon which he refused to deliver Whereupon upon Wednesday last being Barnaby day the day appointed for the admission of the Batchelors of Divinity and the choice of the Batchelors of Divinity which must answer Die comitiorum he was stayed by the major part of the Suffrages of the Doctors of the Faculty And though sundry Doctors did favour him and would have had him to be the Man that should answer Die comitiorum yet he is put by and one Mr. Flatkers of our Colledg chosen to answer Whos 's first Question is Sola sides justificat 2. Realis praesentia Christi in Eucharistia non ponit Transubstantiationem The truth is there are some Heads among us that are great Abettors of Mr. Tourney the Party above mentioned who no doubt are backed by others I pray God we may persist in the Doctrine
of our Church contained in our Articles and Homilies Innovators are too much favoured now a-days Our Vice-Chancellor hath carried Business for Matter of Religion both stoutly and discreetly Dr. Lane died on Sunday last and was buried in the night upon Tuesday in St. John's Colledg It may be you are willing to hear of our University Affairs I may truly say I never knew them in worse condition since I was a Member thereof which is almost 46 years Not but that I hope the greater part is Orthodox but that new Heads are brought in and they are backed in maintaining Novelties and them which broach new Opinions as I doubt not but you hear others are disgraced and checked when they come above as my self was by my Lord of York the last Lent for favouring Puritans in Consistory and all from false Informations from hence which are believed without any examination At that time also I intreated my Lord of Canterbury to speak to the Dean of Wells that now is who had sundry times excepted against me for not residing three months per Annum as I should by Charter which I nothing doubt but it was by his instigation he promised me then he would but not having done it yet I repaired again to my Lord's Grace about it in November But now he cannot for that his Majesty hath given him in charge to take account of the Bishops in his Province how Residence is kept I told him my Case was not every Man's Case and that I had a Benefice at which I desired to be in the Vacation-Time but nothing would prevail And yet as I told him I am every Year at Wells sometimes a month or six weeks I think they would have me out of my Professor's place and I could wish the same if I could have one to succeed according to my mind for then I should have leasure to transcribe things Well howsoever God's Will be done and he teach us Humility and Patience I heard also of some doings with you The Lord of Heaven direct you and us and teach us to submit to him in all things I have not yet sent my Answer to Mr. Ch. but intend e're long I have not finished yet one Point to shew the Arminian Opinions were condemned in the Synods which condemned the Pelagian Heresy At Mr. Burnet's importunity who could not get a good Scrivener to transcribe my Lord of Sarum's Readings de Praedestinatione morte Christi I gave way that he should send it to you which I intreat your Lordship if you have received it to return it me as soon and as safely as you conveniently can The Tractate de Praedestinatianis in defence of your Lordship I know not your Adversary nor his Name is Dr. Twisses it may be he hath sent your Lordship a Copy of it He is a deserving Man We have a Vice-Chancellor that favoureth Novelties both in Rites and Doctrines I could write more sed manum de Tabula The greatest part of this was inclosed in the Letter your Lordship had sent Jan. 14. I made now a few additions And so I rest Your Grace's in all observance Samuel Ward Sidn Coll. Jun. 14. 1634. Dr. Baden a Dean with you in Ireland answereth the Act In Vesperiis Comitiórum His Questions are 1. Justificatio non suscipit magis minus 2. Non dantur Consilia perfectionis supra legem LETTER CLXXX A Letter from Constantinus L'Empereur ab Oppych to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Illustrissimo Primati D. Jacobo Usserio Archiepiscopo Armachano Hyberniae Primati I. V. S. P. Vir Reverende EST quod mihi admodum gratuler qui cum antea viro illustri nonnisi de nomine innotuissem tamen quod in votis habebam audacter petiissem tantam evestigio nactus sim benevolentiam ut illustris tua dignitas expetitum commentariorum in sacras literas volumen Syriacum transmittere gravata non fuerit Dabitur Deo favente opera ut fideliter in Hyberniam transmittatur ubi usus fuero In veteri Testamento spei meae non respondet licet subinde notatur digna animad vertam Ad textum Syriacum commentaria accommodata sunt non verò quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suadebat consultus fuit Ebraicus Imo quantum adhuc videre possum Syriacus quo usus fuit contextus è Graeco expressus fuit ideoque saepe aliter legit author quam in Ebraeo extat Aliquando etiam verba de industria secus collocat quam invenit Graecae Linguae peritiam prae se fert in Syriaca nimis anxiè quae ad vocales spectant persequitur Occidentalem Syrum fuisse id est viciniorem Mari Mediterraneo ostendit quod sect 28. Usa annotat Tandem hoc observo ut omnia conglomerem quae è lectione in mentem veniunt non satis ad messam applicare quae ad ipsum passim directa fuere Nihilominus pro usu istius libri gratias habeo maximas inprimis cum praeclara annotentur in Testamentum Novum Quae in c. 1. Matt. observata sunt evolvi placent admodum Caeterum est in illustris D. T. Bibliotheca uti intelligo versio Syriaca duplex V. T. patruus autem meus D. Antonius Thysius paratum habet commentarium in duo priora cap. Genes ubi Historiam creationis illustrat cui praemittere statuit versiones primarias Ideoque summa diligentia è variis autoribus Symmachi Theodotionis Aquilae c. interpretamenta ita collegit ut continuum contextum reddant Itaque valdè sibi gratum fore dicit si versionem Syriacam ab Amanuensi aliquo descriptam obtinere in 2. cap. Gen. posset Hoc vix à me impetro ut subjungam verum fortassis post libri editionem istius consilii se non factum certiorem D. tua aegre ferret ut cui hoc unum cordi sit prodesse publico Hic subsisto Patri D. nostri I. Christi commendo Illustrem tuam dignitatem cujus permanere gestio cliens humillimus Constantinus L'Empereur ab Oppych Lug. Bat. 3. Kal. Jul. ā partae salutis 1634. LETTER CLXXXI A Letter from Dr. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and my very good Lord OUR Commencement is now over where Dean Baden now Dr. Baden did well perform his part who answered the Act Vesperiis Comitiorum And so did the Batchelor of Divinity Die Comitiorum being one of the Fellows of our Colledg The Vice-Chancellor Dr. Love did well perform his part especially in encountring with one Franciscus de S. Chara but his true name is Davenport who in a Book set forth at Doway would reconcile si diis placet our Articles of Religion with the Definitions of the Council of Trent But we have dismissed the Auditors this Year with much more content than they were the Year before Our Stirs we had a little before the Commencement are prettily well over There is a little Book intituled
characterum mutationem longe antea factam somniet Morinus Cloaca quo magis agitatur eo Mephitin exhalat magis Morinus Samaritanis antiquis Samaritanior etiam evasit Illi enim teste Eulogio Jesum filium Nave Prophetam praedictum Mosi similem futurum profitebantur Librum ejus pro Canonico certò habuere qui hanc illi gloriam tribuebant At hunc librum nobis eripuit cùm aliis prophetiis Dositheus Morini antecessor Det nobis Morinus charactere Samaritano scriptos Prophetarum libros aut fateatur se plures scripturae sacrae codices quam dederit abstulisse Sed nec ferendum est hominem Christianum Samaritanos Dei hostes Judaeis Dei populo in libris sacris tuendis anteferre Praecipuè cum constet Prophetas fuisse post commentitiam characterum mutationem in populo Judaico in Samaritano nullos Cur non ergo Samaritana Biblia nobis reliquere Prophetae Cur de tanta mutatione silent Cur apud Haereticos sepulta Biblia in lucem Spiritu Divino eos illustrante non producunt Ut taceam Morini in Sacris Literis tractandis magistralitatem qui eodem jure in his quo Sorbona in aliis censurâ afficiendis utitur Hoc placet illud displicet quandoque Samaritanus codex quandoque Latinus Graecus semper nunquam illi Hebraicus approbatur Si prout meritus est verbis asperioribus nonnunquam castigetur Morinus nemo nobis vitio vertat neque enim cum Haeretico aliquo res est qui articulum fidei unum aut alterum negat aut textum peculiarem aliter quà m veritas posuit interpretatur sed cum eo qui fontes sacros in universum abripit pro Deo Israelis falsi Messiae adulteria nobis obtrudit Nec ignorantiam nobis objiciat quis quòd Jesuitam eum appellemus Indignaretur sat scio Morinus si Congregationis Oratoriae Iesu Christi Presbyterum titulo isto non dignaremur Liber certè totus Jesuiticum spiritum frontem perfrictam Societati illi familiarem nimis prodit Si quid sit quod ulteriorem disquisitionem requirat totum illud si respondere Morino visum fuerit in replicatione fusiùs tractabitur Prelo aliàs impraesentiarum vacante oblata vulgandi opportunitas festinationem operis urgebat Haec interim habui quae tibi dummodo id placeat quod pro singulari tua tum pietate tum candore nullus ambigo in perpetuum erga Dominationem tuam studii observantiae meae monumentum dedicarem Deus verbi sui majestatem contra omnes impiorum latratus potenter ipse tueatur per totum orbem indiès ampliùs diffundat Te verò Hibernae gentis ornamentum in Christianae Religionis emolumentum diutissimè in terris florentem conservare tandemque sero tamen in gloriam sempiternam recipere dignetur Claphamae Calend. April 1635. Reverendissimae Dominationi tuae addictissimus Franciscus Tailerus LETTER CLXXXIV A Letter from the most Reverend William Laud Arch-bishop of Canterbury to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Salutem in Christo. My very good Lord I Thank you heartily for your Letters and am as heartily glad that your Parliament and Convocation are so happily ended especially for the Church and that both for the particular of your letting Leases which is for Maintenance and for the quiet and well-ordering and ending of your Book of Canons I hope now the Church of Ireland will begin to flourish again and that both with inward Sufficiency and outward Means to support it And for your Canons to speak Truth and with wonted liberty and freedom though I cannot but think the English Canons entire especially with some few amendments would have done betterly yet since you and that Church have thought otherwise I do very easily submit to it and you shall have my Prayers that God would bless it As for the Particular about Subscription I think you have couched that well since as it seems there was some necessity to carry that Article closely And God forbid you should upon any occasion have rouled back upon your former Controversy about the Articles For if you should have risen from this Convocation in heat God knows when or how that Church would have cooled again had the cause of Difference been never so slight By which means the Romanist which is too strong a Party already would both have strengthned and made a scorn of you And therefore ye are much bound to God that in this nice and picked Age you have ended all things canonically and yet in peace And I hope you will be all careful to continue and maintain that which God hath thus mercifully bestowed upon you Your Grace's very loving Friend and Brother W. Cant. Lambeth May 10. 1635. LETTER CLXXXV A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Dr. Ward Good Doctor I Have been almost tired with continual attendance on out long continued Parliament and Convocation which being done they would needs impose upon me also the moderating of the Divinity Act and the creating of the Doctors at our last Commencement I am now at last retired from Dublin to my old Place where I begin at length Redire in gratiam cum veteribus Amicis I send you herewith Harrys his Book against the Friars and our New Canons The Articles of Religion agreed upon in our former Synod Anno 1615 we let stand as they did before But for the manifesting of our Agreement with the Church of England we have received and approved your Articles also concluded in the Year 1562 as you may see in the first of our Canons But while we strive here to maintain the Purity of our ancient Truth how cometh it to pass that you in Cambridg do cast such stumbling-blocks in our way by publishing unto the World such rotten Stuff as Shelford hath vented in his five Discourses wherein he hath so carried himself ut Famosi Perni amanuensem possis agnoscere The Jesuits of England sent over the Book hither to confirm our Papists in their obstinacy and to assure them that we are now coming home unto them as fast as we can I pray God this Sin be not deeply laid to their charge who give an occasion to our blind thus to stumble I thank you most heartily for communicating my Lord of Salisbury's Lectures unto me they are excellent learnedly foundly and perspicuously performed and I hope will do much good here for the establishing of our young Divines in the present Truth Will you not make us as much beholden unto you for your own Lectures upon the other Questions You may not think that the same accurateness is expected in the Writings which you privately communicate unto your Friends as in that which you are to commit unto the Press after you have added supremam manum thereunto Neither were it amiss that you should make a Collection of all your Determinations as you see the Bishop of Salisbury hath done and cause your Lectures of the Eucharist to
omnes Provincias unitas post actas Deo solennes gratias accendendi ob recuperatum singulari Dei beneficio Schenkianum munimentum praecedenti anno turpissima nostrorum incuria deperditum Nunquam magis quam tum triumphavit hostis nunquam nos luximus magis tanto magis triumphamus nunc quod dissipatis magnis quae agitabat Consiliis ipsi ignominia nobis securitas data sit Faxit Deus ut tantum grata mente beneficium semper recolentes datori ejus dignas gratias rependamus ab eo uno pendeamus eum revereamur colamus Ejusdem favori ac clementiae Amplissimam tuam Dignitatem commendat utque ea sospes diù sit atque incolumis maximopere optat qui est erit Amplissimae tuae Dign devotissimus Servus Ludovicus de Dieu Datum Lugd. Bat. 4 Maii 1636. LETTER CLXXXVII A Letter from the Learned Lodovicus de Dieu to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Reverendissime Praesul QUas per Cl. ac Nobilissimum D. Boswellum 4 o Maii ad Ampl. tuam dedi literas quin acceperis nullus dubito Monitus iterum per eundem D. Boswellum qui est ejus singularis in me favor de nave Dublinium cogitante non potuit non Rever tuam submissè vel verbulo salutare Scripseram de Historia Christi à Jesuita Hieronymo Xaverio Persicè contexta à me vero translata brevi censura notata Addideram tradi mihi dum scriberem Apostoli Petri Historiam eodem Autore Transtuli exinde hanc atque utriusque textum Persicum descripsi ingenti sane taedioso cum labore necessario tamen quia Orientalium scriptura legi à Typothetis non poterat Omnia jam sunt prelo adaptata eique proxima volente Deo septimana subjicientur Imprimitur jam tractatus Talmudicus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum translatione Cl. Lempereur ejusque notis sequentur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Specimen quoque nuper vidimus sacraram Observationum Cl. Heynsii in universum N. Testamentum in procinctu est ut editio ejus procedat Opus certe luculentum multifaria eruditione refertum Haec sunt Vir amplissime quae hîc nunc potissimum in re literaria aguntur Quae nos tam tua scire interest quam hîc omnes docti valetudinem tuam resciscere avent anni enim sunt ex quo nihil de rerum tuarum statu cognovimus Incolumen tamen salvum speramus utque idem diu sis ardentissimis votis precamur Plurimum se favori tuo Cl. Lempereur commendat utque nos deinceps amore tuo digneris obnixè ambo rogamus Datum Lugd. Batav 22. Augusti 1636. Reverendae Amplit tuae Devotissimus Ludovicus de Dieu LETTER CLXXXVIII A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Learned Lodovicus de Dieu Admodùm Reverendo in Christo fratri D. Ludovico de Dieu Ecclesiae Lugduno-Batavae Pastori vigilantissimo Leydam Reverende Vir ac Charissime in Christo Frater ELiteris tuis 22 o Augusti Gregoriani datis quae ante paucos dies ad me fuerant perlatae intelligo te alteras non ita pridem ad me dedisse quae nondum mihi visae sunt intercidisse illas quas ipse ad te scripseram Eucharisticas post allatas mihi eruditissimas tuas in Acta Apostolorum animadversiones in cujus luculenti operis Praefatione quòd quaedam haud admodùm magna beneficia tibi à me exhibita depraedicas in eo majorem propriae tuae humanitatis quà m rei ipsius rationem habuisti Ad duos verò illos Tractatus Persicos à te in Latinum sermonem conversos quod attinet diffiteri nemo potest quin omnes Persicae Linguae studiosi magnam inde haurire queant utilitatem Sed ut ingenuè animi mei sensum tibi aperiam indignos puto Jesuitas qui afficiantur illo honore ut hujusmodi ipsorum scriptis ullus transferendi labor impendatur praesertim à viris ad majora natis Itaque posthac si me uti monitore volueris potius aut in Syriacis Ephraemi illustrandis aut in pertexendis tuis in Novum Testamentum observationibus perges quâ ratione multo majus addes gloriae tuae incrementum quà m collocando operam tuam ibi unde neque ad nos insignis utilitas nepe ad te quicquam nisi cognitionis peregrini idiomatis fama redire queat Ephraemi Opusculorum si quid adhuc in Syriâ lateat eruendum curabimus quâ in re ne operam ludamus ac impensam emendo illa quae jam possidemus omnium ejus tractatuum quos istic Leidae habetis titulos atque exordia proprio sermone ac charactere descripta ad me transmittas velim Et quia scire valdè aveo quos secum ex Oriente libros attulerit Cl. Golius si catalogum ipsorum impressum addideris quem hactenus nancisci non potui rem mihi facturus es gratissimam Eruditissimi Heinsii praeclaras illas in Novum Testamentum Observationes avidissime expectamus cujus generis alias Clarissimum Grotium moliri jampridem intelleximus Doctissimum verò Salmasium tamdiu cessare miramur neque tot jam annis quicquam novi procudere quum praesertim tot circum urgeatur exemplis quae vel ignarum quenquam excitare queant ad praeclaros conatus nedum tantum ac talem virum Breviarium quoddam linguâ ut putabatur Aegyptiacā conscriptum illi transmittendum Arnoldo Bootio nostro tradidi sed illud intercidisse audio Plurimum velim meo nomine illi Heinsio si quos alios illic amicos habemus salutem dicas Vale Clarissime Vir ac me porrò amare perge Ja. U. Arm. Ex aedibus nostris Termino-fechinianis Septembris Juliani die 14. Anno Salutis MDCXXXVI LETTER CLXXXIX A Letter from the most Reverend William Laud Arch-bishop of Canterbury to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Salutem in Christo. My very good Lord I Have been put to no small pains considering my other Occasions to read over and in a manner to study the several Letters and other Papers which have been sent and come to my hands some from your Grace some from the Provost and Fellows that join with him some from Pheasant and the other Party and some from the Lords Justices and Council there to the Lord Deputy and from his Lordship to me and all of them about the late unhappy difference fallen between the Visitors of the Colledg near Dublin and the Provost The more carefully I have read over these Papers the more I clearly confess to your Grace I am troubled at the Business and could heartily wish some friendly way were thought on there to prevent a formal and legal Decision by me Of which yet seeing so little hope as I do I have taken all the pains which I can preparatory to a final Sentence For I have
Battiere to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend Father in God my most honoured Lord I Have received a Letter from your Grace by Mr. Cullen with much joy as well to hear of your Grace's good Health which I pray to God may continue long so for the Good of Christendom as to see me favoured with some Employment again for your Grace than whom I know no body living I desire to serve with more affection I will with one word set down here what hath been done in your Lordship's Business since Mr. Cullen's arrival I brought him first to my Lord the Earl of Leicester who for your Grace's sake and his own worth shewed him all kindness and to Mr. Joanes I carried him to Mr. Duluy where he made acquaintance bestowing a Complement upon them from your Grace Pere Sirmond and Mr. Rigault we could not find at home yet nor Gabriel the Sionita whose great Bible I shewed him also and conferred the Syrian Characters together of which there be three or four here but of this Mr. Cullen will give a better account a while hence for I have written also to Geneva where such a Character is to be sold to have the sight of it in print and at what rate they mean to sell it to compare the Prices and Characters together with these here In the mean while Mr. Cullen is advised to sequester himself from English and Irish to profit the more in the French Tongue for conversing afterwards with those that he hath business withal and to that end I hope he will not be denied a prorogation of his licence of travelling and absenting himself from the Colledg for some few months longer with the continuation of his Stipend he being imployed in Work so good for the Common Wealth especially upon your Grace's Commendation I have set one to work for the transcribing of Concil Lemovicense and Theodori Poenitentiale and will go on with the rest one by one as I can get them for to demand so much at once would seem strange to them although they be very courteous and officious Of printed Books I bought Vita Leonis Caroli of Sirmondus but the rest marked to me are not his Hincmari Opusc. are of Cordesius and I think you Grace hath them Ivo Carnotensis of Juret Damianus of Caetan a Benedictine Bellarm. de Script Eccl. of Sirmond but scarce any thing altered in it Browerus de Treverensis Ecclesiae Antiquit I cannot get yet There is nothing added to the Councils of Binius nor any thing printed of St. Chrysostom but what your Grace hath Du Chesnes's third and fourth Volume are a printing but not yet finished This Kingdom being now in Wars on all sides doth not afford any great Design for the advancement of Learning Of late one Mr. Gallant a Counsellor of State and a Protestant set forth a Book de Franco allodio in French in which he gives a touch unto the Waldenses History and Simon de Montfort I wrote of this Man heretofore to your Grace as one best versed in that History and best stored with their Writings this Book I will send with the rest I wonder your Grace hath not received my former with one from Mr. Buxtorf if I am not deceived I sent them away with those of the City and University of Basil to my Lord Deputy to whom I made bold to add one of mine to thank his Greatness for the Favour of my Naturalization in Ireland and for his nobleness to my Kinsman Frey I am not so out with Ireland where I have heretofore received so good entertainment but I hope to see it again which I desire the more for your Grace's sake to tender my best Respects in Person to so much worth and should think me happy if I could deserve a mean Prebend in your Cathedral to wait more close upon your Grace I humbly crave your Grace's Blessing and remain with my hearty Prayers for your Health and Prosperity Your Grace's most humbly obedient and devoted Servant J. Battiere Paris 2◠1◠August 1637. My Lord the Earl of Leicester remembers his Love and Service to your Grace LETTER CXCVII Illustrissimo viro Domino Jacobo Usserio Armachano totius Hyberniae Archiepiscopo Dublin D. I. V. S. P. Antistes reverende QUas ad me 15 Septembris dedisti literas ubi perlegissem non mediocriter incensus fui ut in eruenda antiquitate Judaica iis quae ad gentem illam ex propriis ipsorum scriptis convincendam faciunt evulgandis majori quam antea animi alacritate progredi animo meo constituerem Benignum enim istud de scriptis meis judicium non potui non facere maximi ut pote ab eo profectum quem Belgium hoc confoederatum ut alias linquam nationes ob acerrimum judicium latissimam eruditionem suspicit ac miratur summè Hoc tempore si quis abstrusiora tractet vel invidia vel pravo imperitorum judicio saepe laborat utriusque securum jure optimo reddunt tanti viri qui mihi Belgio nostro est instar omnium favor ac Judicium Hoc nomine ingentes ago gratias uti etiam pro Thesauro secretorum quem uti singulari promovendae cognitionis studio miseras ita etiam diuturniorem in reddendo à me necti moram passus Sed jam per D. legatum Boswellum remitto navi quae Rotterodamo rectà in Hiberniam solvit Animum etiam in omnes literatos pronum in eo agnosco quod articulos fidei in Hiberniae Synodo stabilitos ad primas literas obtinuerim Quos viris doctis orthodoxiae amantibus communico postea isti missurus qui ut antea scripsi confessionum orthodoxarum editionem molitur Vicissim vobis Catalogum librorum quos D. Golius ex Oriente attulit quemque D. Botius petierat transmitterem verum D. de Dieu utsibi id officii relinquerem voluit ut qui ea de re literas à D. tua accepisset Accepi hisce diebus à D. Gomaro T. D. Professore in Academia Groeningana poesin Abraam sive veteram illam carminum rationem ac formam qua poemata sacri contextus in Jobo Psalmis Proverbiis diversisque Canticis concinnata confecta fuere Eamque poesin cum illa Pindari Sophoclis perpetuò confert Hujus editionem mihi mandavit atque alia mea opera nonnihil remoratus est Etenim cum liber perpetuis exemplis refertus sit eqque sine versione latina apposuerit super eo monitus non responsurum fructum nisi ea vetantur hanc operam mihi offerenti imposuit ne forte liber si remitteretur in itinere periret De ista veteri poesi scripsere etiam antehac docti libri Cosroes author Abrabaniel Rabbi Azarias quem postremum vertere incaepi Sed isti aliam sequuntur rationem ut qui magis in membrorum inter se convenientia quam in syllabarum quantitate numero
metrum investigent Atque haec hactenus Caeterum D. O. M. veneror ut curis ac laboribus D. tuae benedicat eamque Ecclesiae suae quam diutissimè superesse concedat Interim permanere gestio Amplitudinis tuae cliens humillimus Constantinus l'Empereur Lug. Bat. 8 Kal. Jan. An. 1637. LETTER CXCVIII. A Letter from Mr. Arnoldus Botius to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Reverendissime Domine DUM tuam in Evangelia catenam Syriacam percurro obiter deprehendi quod praeter ineptas illas allegorias de quibus jam tum ex prima inspectione R. D. T. locutus fueram multa etiam seria ac lectu omnino digna contineat ac plerorumque locorum difficiliorum interpretationes afferat minime poenitendas Sed non pauca ibi reperi ad controversias hodie inter nos ac Pontificios agitari solitas spectantia quidem ejusmodi partim ut ipsis potius quam nobis favere videantur Sane de sacra communione ita loquitur acsi panis vini transubstantiationem ut nunc loquimur planissime agnosceret adeo quidem ut siquis Papistarum velit Veterum quempiam pro sua causa loquentem introducere ac pro arbitrio suo ipsius verba efformare non videam quid ultra desiderare possit Sed fortasse me judicium fallit Tu Domine judicabis in quem finem totum locum non quidem hic inserendum duxi quum prolixior esset sed per se descriptum huic epistolae inclusi Rursus sunt ibi quae pro nobis potius facere videantur cujusmodi est enarratio Matt. 3. 6. ad verba illa Confitentes peccata sua ubi quum movisset quaestionem Quomodo veriti non fuerint Judaei peccata sua palam profiteri quum ex lege Mosis quae minuta duntaxat peccata tamque quae per ignorantiam commissa essent expiabat confitentes reos certe mors quidem lapidationis maneret ego adhuc quaero unde hoc hauserit ac respondisset his verbis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Johannes major ipsis habetur dederatque ipsi Deus baptisare in poenitentiam ut ostenderet abolitam esse Legem sacrificiorum tempus praeteriisse ac advenisse foedus novum quod peccatores poenitentes suscipit Deinde hanc apponit observationem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hinc animo collige tres ordines sacerdotum unus est eorum sub lege qui offerebant sacrificia pro peccatis per ignorantiam commissis iis vero peccatis quae scienter patrata erant mortem lapidationis infligebant 2. Johannis qui baptisando peccata scienter commissa palam faciebat 3. Sacerdotes novi foederis dum baptisant non faciunt peccata palam sed expiant peccata tam scienter quam ignoranter commissa remissionem eorum exhibeat Hic quum novi foederis sacerdotibus non aliam remissionis peccatorum administrationem attribuat quam baptismum omnino mihi inde sequi videtur confessionem auricularem quae ipsi annectitur remissionem peccatorum ipsi ignotam fuisse quum alioquin ejus mentionem hic facere debuerit loco ipso id prorsus efflagitante Pluribus R. D. T. nunc non distinebo quare hic finiens Divinae protectioni ipsam supplianter commendo R. D. Tuae Devotissimus cliens Arnoldus Botius Dublin 30 Octob. 1638. LETTER CXCIX A Letter from Dr. William Gilbert to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My very good Lord ALL my expectancies for observation of this Lunar Eclipse last Tuesday morning were lost in the cloudy disposition of the Heavens for that time which offered matter of more consequence to my meditation in that idle interim of expecting a fairer Season That Hysteron Proteron of Opinions in translating the Sun into the Center and making it Stationary In advancing the Earth up into an Orb and making it Ambulatory Howsoever it hath suffered by popular prejudice in some and the resty disposition of others in their own Errors yet doth it excellently accommodate many irregular Motions to Account and open a large Field for the search and invention of high things for thus By the apparent Semidiameter of the Sun in his Apoge and the Angle of half the Conick shadow of the Earth is most artificially and easily determined the true Parallax of the Sun And by the Parallax his distance from the Earth And by these the semidiamiter of the fixt Stars and Planets together with the several parallaxes they make upon the Orb of the Earth and their distances Upon this Account the Semidiameter of the Orb of the Earrh in his middle-distance from the Sun is 1498 semidiameters of the Earth the Cube of 1498 is 3 361 517 992 And so many times is the Orb of the Earth or Sun bigger than the Earth it self yet all this whole Orb in respect of the Orb of Saturn which makes not one minute of parallax upon it is but a Point And the Orb of Saturn again in respect of the Firmament is but a Point for the fix'd Stars make but a Parallax of five minutes at the Orb of Saturn as by the Difference of the Semidiameters of their Orbs may appear so that I wonder at many of the Ancients that have shrunk and shrivelled up these two Heavens of the Planets and of the fix'd Stars into one whereas they are not only almost infinitely and disproportionably distant but are also distinguish'd by their different Heat and Light this Planetary Heaven having its Heat and Light from its Heart and Centre the Sun which from thence communicates his Heat and Light to all the Planets more or less as they are nearer or farther from him And therefore we see how languishing a Light he lends to Saturn as being twice farther from him than some of the rest and the last of those Bodies receive Light from him What the World now come to Spectacles hath by her Optick Eyes of Glass lately discovered is obvious to every Man namely that Saturn a Body 46 times bigger than this Earth that bears us hath besides the same Sun common to us with it to serve it by day a certain number of Moons also appropriate to it to serve it by night And that Jupiter a Body 25 times bigger than this Earth hath besides the same Sun common to us with it to serve it by day three Moons also appropriate to it to serve it by night and whereof if need were we could give the Places and the several Vicissitudes of their Changes Wains and Fulls Our Earth also proportionable to her bigness hath one Moon assigned her for her service by Night which howsoever great by its very nearness it appears to us on Earth yet undoubtedly is as undiscoverable from the Orb of Jupiter as are his Moons from hence which are not seen without Spectacles What all these things may import I spare to speak that this Earth may enjoy her own Opinion to have been the only work of
scilicet qualis nulla unquam fuit nisi in primo seu aureo seculo quando hominibus praeerant Dii sicuti mutis animalibus homines quam fabulam prolixe tractat in eodem libro Plato non magis conferendum sit quam homines Diis Quanquam enim utrique 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unum idemque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nomen sit commune ac ambo Reges appellentur latissimum tamen inter ipsos esse intervallum Ex illo igitur loco non potest Platoni attribui acsi dixisset Regem esse velut Deum inter homines quum illud dixerit non de Regibus quales sunt fueruntque in mundo sed qualem inter reliquas Ideas sibimet ipse consinxit quod quia videre non poteras si nuda tantum verba illa de quibus R. D. T. quaerebat ascripsissem ideo me in tantam prolixitatem necessario diffudi I do not in any part of my Studies take so much delight as I do in what may be serviceable to your Grace Whom praying to rest fully assured of that and accordingly to employ me as often as occasion shall be offered I humbly take leave ever remaining Your Grace's most affectionate Servant Arnold Boate. Dublin Nov. 15. 1639. LETTER CCIV. A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Learned Lewis de Dieu Reverendissimo in Christo fratri D. Lodovico de Dieu Ecclesiae Lugduno-Batavae Pastori fidelissimo Leydam POstremae tuae Literae dilectissime frater Londini mihi sunt redditae unà cum Catalogo librorum quos mihi comparaveras Pretio quod ut illic persolveretur probi cujusdam Bibliopolae Londinensis fidei commendavi Interim gratissima mihi fuit tua cura de locupletandâ Bibliothecâ meâ novo hoc auctario cui xx illa volumina Graecorum Aristotelis interpretum accessisse mihi jam gratulor ea cum reliquis libris Londinum ad Bibliopolam illum de quo dixi post pretium enumeratum transmitti velim Quas Britannicarum turbarum futurus sit exitus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hiberniae enim nostrae status adhuc est pacatissimus de cujus motibus inanes apud vos sparsi fuerant rumores sed de nostris rebus omnibus certiores vos reddet D. Boswellus noster qui confestim ad vos iter ingressurus est Deus te Custodiat piis tuis laboribus benedicat Scripsit haec raptim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ja. Usserius Armacanus Londini Jun. 28. M. DC XL. LETTER CCV A Learned Letter of the late Arch-bishop of Armagh concerning the Sabbath and observation of the Lord's Day Worthy Sir YOur Letter of the first of February came unto my hands the seventh of April but my journy to Dublin following thereupon and my long stay in the City where the multiplicity of my publick and private Employments would scarce afford me a breathing time was such that I was forced to defer my Answer thereunto untill this short time of my retiring into the Country Where being now absent also from my Library I can rather signify unto you how fully I concur in judgment with those grounds which you have so judiciously laid in that question of the Sabbath than afford any great help unto you in the building which you intend to raise thereupon For when I gave my self unto the reading of the Fathers I took no heed unto any thing that concerned this Argument as little dreaming that any such controversy would have arisen among us Yet generally I do remember that the word Sabbatum in their writngs doth denote our Saturday although by Analogy from the manner of speech used by the Jews the term be sometimes transferred to denote our Christian Festivities also as Sirmondus the Jesuite observeth out of Sidonius Apollinaris lib. 1. Epist. 2. where describing the moderation of the Table of Theodorick King of the Goths upon the Eves and the excesse on the Holy-day following he writeth of the one that his convivium diebus profestis simile privato est but of the other De luxu autem illo Sabbatario narrationi meae super sedendum est qui nec latentes potest latere personas And because the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the fourth Commandment pointeth at the Sabbath as it was in the first institution the seventh day from the Creation therefore they held that Christians were not tied to the observance thereof Whereupon you may observe that S. Augustine in his speculum in operum tomo 3o. purposely selecting those things which appertained unto us Christians doth wholly pretermit that Precept in the recital of the Commandments of the Decalogue Not because the substance of the Precept was absolutely abolished but because it was in some parts held to be ceremonial and the time afterwards was changed in the state of the New Testament from the 7th to the first day of the week as appeareth by the Author of the 25 Sermon de tempore in 10 o tomo Operum Augustini and that place of Athanasius in homil de semente where he most plainly saith touching the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whereupon Caesarius Arelatensis in his twelfth homily doubted not to preach unto the people Verè dico Fratres satis durum prope nimis impium est ut Christiani non habeant reverentiam diei Dominico quam Judaei observare videntur in Sabbato c. Charles the Great in his Laws taketh it for granted that our observation of the Lord's Day is founded upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the fourth Commandment Statuimus saith he libro 1o. Capitularium cap. 81. secundum quod in lege Dominus praecepit ut opera servilia diebus Dominicis non agantur sicut bonae memoriae genitor meus in suis Synodalibus edictis mandavit And Lotharius likewise in legibus Alemannorum titulo 30. Die Dominico nemo opera servilia praesumat sacere quia hoc lex prohibuit sacra scriptura in omnibus contradicit Accommodating the Law of God touching the Sabbath unto our observation of the Lord's Day by the self-same Analogy that the Church of England now doth in her publick Prayer Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this Law The Jewes commonly hold two things touching their Sabbath as Manasses Ben-Israel sheweth in his eighth Probleme de creatione which he published at Amsterdam the last Year First that the observation thereof was commanded only unto the Israelites where he speaketh also of the seven Precepts of the Sons of Noah which have need to be taken in a large extent if we will have all the duties that the Heathen were tyed unto to be comprised therein Secondly that it was observed by the Patriarchs before the coming out of Egypt For that then the observation began or that the Israelites were brought out of Egypt or the Egyptians drowned upon the Sabbath I suppose our good Friend Mr.
time should appear otherwise to be directly opposite to the sentence of Ignatius whereas his main intention was to oppose the Ebionites of his own time who as Eusebius witnesseth in the third Book of his Ecclesiastical History did both keep the Sabbath with the Jews and also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By whose imitation of the Church herein the antiquity of the observation of the Lord's Day may be further confirmed Ebion being known to have been St. Paul's Antagonist and to have given out of himself that he was one of those that brought the prices of their Goods and laid them down at the Apostles feet as the universality of the observance may be gathered by the Argument drawn from thence by Eusebius towards the end of his Oration of the Praises of Constantine to prove the Preeminency of our Saviour Christ above all the Gods of the Heathen because this Prescript of his touching the Celebration of this Day was admitted and submitted unto not within the Dominions of Constantine only but also throughout the compass of the whole World Quis enim saith he cunctis totins orbis terrarum incolis seu terra seu mari illi sint praescripserit ut singulis septimanis in unum convenientes diem Dominicum festum celebrarent instituentque ut sicut corpora pascerent cibariis sic animos Divinis Disciplinis reficerent We see then that the Doctrine which the true Ignatius received immediately from the hands of the Apostles was the very same with that was delivered by the Father of the Council of Laodicea about 250 Years after for the Proofs produced by the Authors to whom my Lord of Ely pag. 73. referreth us for having it to be held before the first Nicene are nothing worth Non oportet Christianos Judaizare in Sabbatho otiari sed ipsos eo die operari diem autem dominicum praeferentes otiari si modo possint ut Christianos The contrary whereunto Pope Gregory the First in Registr lib. 11. Epist. 3. esteemeth to be the Doctrine of the Preachers of Antichrist Qui veniens diem Dominicum Sabbatum ab omni opere faciet custodiri Which my Lord of Ely pag. 219 rendreth Upon the old Sabbath-day or upon the Sunday by a strange kind of mistake turning the Copulative into a Disjunctive Ja. Armachanus LETTER CCVI. A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Worshipful Sir Simon Dewes D. Simonidi Dewesio Equiti Aurato Suffolciensi Vice-Comiti Vir Eximie SEcundae tuae literae ix Kalend. datae hic Londini mihi demum sunt redditae sicut tertiae prid Non. Junii insequentis perscriptae ex quibus postremis tristem de unici tui filii immaturâ morte nuncium dolens accepi sed cum Deus hoc ità voluerit ac ipsius decreta impatientèr ferre non minus irreligiosum sit quà m irritum omninò in ipsius voluntate est acquiescendum Et quanquam propriâ sapientiâ ad haec similia quibus omnes obnoxii sumus fortitèr toleranda abundè instructus sis Optâssem tamen ut parti alicui tanti doloris leniendae aliquod solatium praesens adhibere possem Illo Enniano subinde mihi in mentem recurrente fi quid ego adjuto curamve levasso quae nunc te coquit versat sub pectore fixa Verùm quo minùs voto hìc meo satisfacere valeam Comitiorum utriusque Academiae facit vicinitas quae Cantabrigiae haerere me nòn patitur sed ad Oxoniensium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 porrò visendam confestìm inde me avocat spes tamèn adhuc superest post finitam agri Suthfolciensis tibi commissam custodiam simul nos conventuros cùm de aliis ad Remp. literariam pertinentibus tùm de Spelmanni nostri instituto tuisque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quas avidissime percurri aliquanto liberius quà m ista scribendi ratiò permittit collocuturos Quo tempore Ninium ità enim appello vetustissimi codicis authoritatem nominis ejusdem in Ninia Niniano expressa vestigia secutus cum variis MSS. à me nòn indiligentèr comparatum tecum sum communicaturus ut Exemplaria Cottoniana quibus in hac ipsâ collatione ego sum usus denuò consulete necesse nòn habeas Nà m ad diplomata Anglo-Saxonica quod attinet non in uno aliquo volumine simul collecta sed per varios illius Bibliothecae libros dispersa ea fuisse animadverti de quibus in unum corpus compingendis dabitur ut spero opportunus tecum coram consultandi locus Interim ut egregiis tuis conatibus Deus adsit benedicat summis votis exoptat qui Ex animo tuus est Ja. Armachanus Londini xii Kal. Jul. An. M. DC XL. LETTER CCVII. A Letter from the Learned Johannes Priceus to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Joannes Priceus Reverendissimo in Christo Patri ac Domino D. Jacobo Archiepiscopo Armachano S. D. COllectanea Antistes eruditissime de Britannicarum Ecclesiarum primordiis accepi dudum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ac humanitatis pariter insigne specimen At dum indies quem cassus rumor vulgaverat praestolor adventui tuo alieno jam satis tempore adimplevi officium meum Nae tu nimis doctissime Praesul facilis es communis qui in tantâ illustrium literis aut honoribus abundantiâ homunculum nullius ordinis cohonestare sustines Contrectabitur sanè eximium manus istud assiduis ac religiosis manibus librorumque atque adeò cogitationum mearum locum principem occupabit Joannes Priceus Dabam ex rure suburbano Honoratissimi Domini Georgii Radcliffe iiii Kalend. Sept. 1640. LETTER CCVIII Reverendo Illustri Praesuli Domino Jacobo Usserio Archiepiscopo Armachano totius Hyberniae Primati c. Amico nostro honorando Reverende Illustris Domine Praesul Amice honorande EA quae Scholarchae de Illustris nostri Gymnasii Hanovici restauratione ex mandato nostro non ità pridem ad Tepleniùs perscripsêre atque efflagitâre multis verbis repetere supersedemus non dubitantes quin animo tuo adhuc infixa haereant Notum est ità res esse humanas ut alias copiâ abundent aliàs penuriâ laborent subindè aliter atque aliter sese habeant notum illud quando res humanae semel loco moveri inclinarivè sede sua captae quò majores sunt eò aegriùs seriusque vestigio sisti atque reponi Quid mirum igitur quod Scholarchae nostri aliena quaerant subsidia utpotè propriis destituti Eo enim res rediit ut propter penuriam redituum totum fere Gymnasium suo quoque splendore inclinari coeperit nec multùm abfuit quin vix ac ne vix quidem restitueretur nisi rebus nostris ex bona parte restitutis nihil antiquiùs duxissemus quà m ut animum quoque ad restaurationem dicti Gymnasii converteremus quod ab initio tanta Authoris
satis laudatas subjungit Symbolum fidei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. ut in versione Turriani nisi quod recte conjectavit Canisius quod Spiritum Sanctumrà patre procedere dicit Nulla uti Turrianus adjecerat filii mentone factà Inde Narrationem de septem Synodis instituit quam Turrianus misit Sed latine dedit Binius Concil Tom. 3. p. 400. Demum monita plura politica subjicit Quae in latinis Turriani enim comparent Vid. Cod. African ad finem Crabbe F. 155 308. LETTER CCXV A Letter from Dr. Langbaine to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord I Received yours of the 22d upon the 25th of April and have bestowed the most part of the last Week in the search of those Particulars there mention'd I am sorry the Event has not answered my Desires and Endeavours I do not doubt but your Lordship will make good that Assertion of the Nicene Creed though I profess I yet look upon it with some prejudice as being prepossessed with an anticipated Notion to the contrary Something in these Papers which I have collected in haste do in the general look that way upon perusal if it be not too much trouble to your Lordship and the time not overpast already your Lordship will make the Consequence In that Synodicon of Basilius Jalimbanensis I met with nothing directly to the purpose only in the beginning of the Book this enclosed of Germanus de sex Synodis What he says of the two first as only to the purpose I have transcribed In each of them is mention of a Symbol but not of the difference I have in the same Argument sent to and confronted two pieces of Photius the one out of his Epistles the other I met with in a Copy of his Nomocanon with Balsamon's Scholia much larger than the printed I have looked upon that in Gregory Nazianzen and compared it with that in Crab which he calls Fides Romanorum and do readily subscribe that by Romanorum must be meant the Eastern Church but then he that made that Title must be supposed to have writ since the division of the Empire In Magd. Coll. Library I spent two days in search after Nazianzen's Translation by Ruffin but in vain I do not find they have any such Book What seem'd next like it was some pieces of Basil of Ruffin's Translation at the end whereof there is indeed a part of his Exposition on the Creed While I was there tumbling amongst their Books I light upon an old English Comment upon the Psalms the Hymns of the Church and Athanasius's Creed which I presently conjectured though there be no Name to it to be Wickliffs and comparing the beginning with Bale found that I had not erred in the Conjecture and therefore writ this piece out in which he calls the Nicene Creed the Creed of the Church I remember two Years ago when I had an opportunity to read some Saxon Books that had formerly as I suppose belonged to the Church of Worcester I met twice with the Nicene Creed in Saxon but I do not remember any difference from that we use I have sought in the ancientest Editions of Ambrose but return with a non est inventus Wicelius we have not and for the Russian Offices if I can find any thing you shall have it by the next I presume you have already a Copy of that old Latin Creed at the end of the ancient Copy of the Acts given by my Lord of Canterbury and therefore I forbore to send it Gulasius in the Acts of the Nicene Council brings in the Philosopher disputing against the Holy Ghost as well as against the Son and that may be as far as the authority of the Author will bear somewhat to the purpose I received my Copy of the Arch-bishops of Constantinople and do return unto your Grace with thanks that Oration of Himerius which I had from your Lordship The Papers which I send are somewhat confused and some not right writ I fear some my Boy has left in the Publick Library and the Carrier will be gone before the Library be open I have in the Margent thus * marked what I conceive your Grace may possibly make use of I am very much straitned in time and therefore desire your Lordship's favour for thus scribling I am Your Lordship 's to command Gerard Langbaine Q. C. Oxon. May 4. 1647. LETTER CCXVI A Letter from Dr. Langbaine to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord SInce my last this day seven-night I have enquired and I do here send you what I met with concerning the use of the Nicene Creed among the Russians which I conceive full to your purpose I perceive my haste made me then omit at sealing that Oration of Himerius which I now return with thanks to your Lordship and perhaps by mistake I might send some other Papers no way pertinent I have thought sometimes and have not yet found any sufficient reason to remove me from that Opinion That notwithstanding what Vossius hath said the Church was never without some Form of Confession which they required before they admitted any to Baptism I know not otherwise how to expound that of Heb. 6. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For though Vossius affirm no more to have been required but barely In nomina Patris Filii Spiritus sancti yet methinks that of Repentance from dead Works of the Resurrection of the Dead and everlasting Judgment are made parts of those Fundamental Doctrines and Faith in God seems to comprehend the rest To this purpose I conceive Justin Martyr Apolog. 2. pag. 93. speaks for the Requisites to Baptism in the Practice of the Church in his Time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then follows the mention of the Three Persons of the Trinity not simply but with equipollent Attributes to those in the Creed of the Father as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which what is it else but what we read both in Cyrill of Jerusalem and Epiphanius and the latter part of the Nicene Creed In like manner Clemens Alex. Paedagog lib. 1. cap. 6. p. 92 93 94. gives this Attribute to Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and speaking then of Baptism under the various names of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quotes Joh. 5. for everlasting Life mentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Resurrection of the Dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where he produceth again a Testimony out of John 3. That every one that believes hath Life everlasting and I will raise him up again at the last Day Where considering the proper importance of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Matter there treated of Baptism and the Points there spoken of Resurrection Life Eternal I suppose it may not absurdly be collected that he implies these Doctrines were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
confessed before Baptism I forbear to say any thing of that Regula Fidei in Irenaeus and the like in Tertullian for substance the same and containing expresly those Points which make up the close in the Nicene Creed and which Vossius supposeth to have been added by the Constantinopolitan Fathers What varieties are for matter of expression in the Citations observed out of Ruffin c. I think does not conclude without hard measure against the Antiquity of some publick form Wherein if it were not written we may suppose it capable of more we may be content to bear with some in words so long as they bear up to the same sense considering that the Quotations of those most ancient Writers out of Scripture it self are made with so much liberty and yet no Man doubts but they had a much more certain Rule to go by I am again overtaken by the Time and with the desire of your Lordship's Prayers and the continuance of your Love and Encouragement take leave and rest Your Lordship 's in all Duty Gerard Langbaine Queens Coll. May 11. 1647. LETTER CCXVII A Letter from to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord UNderstanding that Dr. Price is going for London I could not omit to recommend him to your Grace if you should meet with any means to encourage his Studies that I can scarce expect or at least to keep him from those Precipices which the straitness of his Fortune and manifold occasions of Discontents may drive him unto I know that it is needless for me to write thus much knowing your good Inclinations to him if things were as in Times past when there were Means and Opportunities to help one another But when I think of the loss of Hugh Cressey and some others whose melancholy Thoughts have blinded their Judgments and disposed them to be easily wrought upon by the other Party to the dishonour of our sometimes most glorious Church when I see how they brag of these Conquests methinks we should leave nothing unattempted that may by any possibility prevent Mens stumblings at those Rocks of Offence which these sad Times cast them upon I find here our Lawyers differ much from the Ecclesiasticks about the Councels of Constance and Basil These go far higher for the Popes Authority than those will give way to The King of France hath as much Authority in Church-Businesses as the King of England claims so far as I can perceive Among the Doctors of the faculty of Divinity of Paris whereof the Sorbon is but a little part here be divers that are not for the Infallibility of the Church but such a certainty of an inferior degree as yet for the Authority of the Church and her Pastors we are all bound to submit unto a Point I think very well gained and of good consequence David Blundell's last Book about Episcopacy is much cried up by those of the Reformed Religion who are generally very sharp against our English Hierarchy upon the Credit of Mr. Pryn and Bastwick's Papers and such like Testimonies I hope your Grace will vindicate your Order in general and in particular the Credit of Ignatius his Epistles against his Exceptions as I hear young Vossius in part hath done but I have not yet seen the Book That which is my great Comfort my young Master is his Fathers Son and peremptorily constant to the Principles wherein he was bred which makes me hope that our Posterity may yet see the Sun shine again I humbly beg your Prayers for My Lord your Grace's most humble Servant T. Rouen May 18 1647. LETTER CCXVIII A Letter from the Right Reverend Joseph Hall Bp of Norwich to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh GRatulor vero ex animo te Antistitum decus Sancto Ignatio tuo Gratulor tibi imò universo orbi Christiano Ignatium meritissimò tuum sed quidem tuo benificio nostrum Gratiorem profecto operam navare Dei Ecclesiae nullus unquam potuisset quam tantum tam antiquum sanctumque Apostolicae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 patronum ac tam egregium primaevae pietatis exemplar ab injuria temporis vindicando Inciderat nempe bonus iste viator Hierosolymitanus in Latrones quosdam Hierochuntinos qui illum non spoliârant modò sed misere etiam penèque ad mortem vulnerârant praeterierant saucium ac fere moribundum nescio quot Parkeri Coci Salmasii aliique nuperae sectae coryphaei vestra vero molliora uti sunt viscera tam durâ hominis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sorte miserecorditer commota sunt vestra unius pietatis optimi instar Samaritae vinum oleumque infudit tam patentibus vulneribus abstersit saniem foedèque hiulca plagarum ora manu tenerâ fasciavit ferèque exanimem vestro typorum jumento imposuit ac communi denique Ecclesiae hospitio non sine maximis impensis commendavit Profecto hoc uno nomine assurgent Amplitudini tuae boni quotquot sunt omnes manusque tam salutares piis labiis exosculabuntur Intelligent jam novitiae paritatis assertores quid illud sit quod tanto molimine usque machinantur sentientque quam probe illis cum sanctissimo Martyre ac celeberrimo Apostolorum Discipulo conveniat Illud vero inter doctissimas Annotationes vestras saliente corde oculo legisse me fateor quo egregium illud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salmasianum de tempore suppositicii Ignatii leni illa quidem sed castigatrice manu corripueris Fieri ne potuit ut tantus author in re tanti momenti Chronologicâ tam foede laberetur aut num forte hoc pacto quandoquidem haec causae disciplinariae Arx merito habeatur Dominis suis palpum obtrudere maluit Quicquid sit bis Martyrium passus Ignatius noster tuâ demum operâ Praesul honoratissime reviviscit causamque iniquissime jam abdicatae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Ecclesiae totius foro tam cate agit ut non pudere non possit hesternae Disciplinae astipulatores tam malè-suscepti litis injustae patrocinii Quod si nullum aliud foret nostrae sententiae propugnaculum nobis quidem abundè sufficeret habuisse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nostrae veritatis patronos te Ignatium Vale Primatum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecclesiae laboranti precibus operis quod facis subvenire perge fave Cultori tuo ac maloru tuorum Socio praeconi meritorum Jos. Norvicensi E Tuguriolo nostro Highamensi Maii 25 o 1647. LETTER CCXIX. A Letter from Mr. Patrick Young to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Right Reverend and my very good Lord HItherto being disappointed by the Carrier who brought my Trunck hither so late I have been hindred to satisfie your Lordship touching the Passage Psal. 142. 9. which I find in my Roman Edition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without any variety in the Margin and consequently so in the ancient Manuscript Copy I long to see your
Treatise de tribus Symbolis as any thing else which cometh from your learned Pen be pleased I pray you so soon as it is printed to send it unto my Son-in-law Mr. John Attwood Counsellor at Law in Grays-Inn who will speedily hasten it unto me unto whom likewise I intreat your Lordship to deliver the Key of my Study lest when I come to Town I should miss of it if your Lordship go into the Country Thus with remembrance of my ever bounden Respects I take my leave remaining as ever Your Lordships truly devoted Friend and Servant Pat. Young Broomefield the 25th of June 1647. LETTER CCXX A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to D. Fredericus Spanhemius Admodum Reverendo in Christo Fratri D. Frederico Spanhemio Academiae Lugduno-Batavae pro tempore Rectori dignissimo Leydam ET tuam de gratiâ disputationem uberrimam funebrem Aransicani Principis laudationem accepi Spanhemi Charissime atque in utraque tum ingenii acumen tum facundiam singularem perspexi admiratus sum Quas tamen dotes in priore argumento adversus communes Gratiae adversarios intendendas multò magis optavissem quà m adversus amicos idem bellum adversus Pelagianos Semipelagianos nobiscum professos licet in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 circumstantiis quibusdam nonnihil dissidentes de quâ controversiâ quaenam moderatiorum apud nos Theologorum fuerat sententia ex inclusâ doctissimi Davenantii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 schedulâ poteris cognoscere Pro amplioribus vero donariis illis tuis de Symbolis dissertatiunculam meam tibi remitto munus sanè levidense sed quod tu ex mittentis affectu aestimabis si tanti videbitur D. Salmasio D. Heinsio Jo. Latio ac D. Riveto quoque si commode poteris communicabis plurimam illis salutem verbis meis nunciabis Tuus in Christo Frater 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 J. U. A. Scripsi Lundini xiv Kal. Sextilis Juliani Anno M. DC XLVII LETTER CCXXI A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Learned Johannes Gerardus Vossius Viro Clarissimo Johanni Gerardo Vossio Historiarum apud Amstelodamenses Professori celeberrimo Vir Eximie QUod post acceptos eruditissimos tuos de Diis Gentium Commentarios qui in Mythici Temporis Chronico quod ante multos Annos congesseram recognoscendo mihi magno fuerant usui nihil hactenus ad te rescripserim etsi culpâ liberare me nequeam excusationem tamen asserere possum aliquam non justam illam quidem sed quam humanitati tuae aliquantulùm probari posse non diffidam Subitò incendio tempore illo correpta est nostra Hibernia quod nedum deflagravit sed serpit quotidiè potiùs adaugescit In eo praeter calamitatem publicam Religionis Reformatae Professorum lanienam post homines natos immanissimam crudelissimam externis istis bonis quae appellantur exutus sum omnibus solâ Bibliothecâ è flammis illis ereptâ à quâ ipsâ tamen ad hunc usque diem etiam exulo Exceperunt enim me deinde novi in Angliâ furores qui me Oxonio in Cambriam depulerunt ubi per integrum XVIII Septimanarum spatium gravissimo afflictus morbo aegerrimè tandem ex ipsis quodammodo sepulchri faucibus summâ Dei Misericordiâ sum revocatus Quomodò Londini posteà acceptus fuerim commemorare non libet Neque priorum illorum malorum omnino meminissem nisi ut inde intelligeretur quae animum meum necessitas à literarum literatorum omnium consortio hucusque penè alienaverit Ubi vero primum colligere me caepi ut illam neglecti in te colendo officii culpam aliquo pacto expiarem brevem hanc de Symbolis notissimâ tibi materiâ dissertationem tuo nomini inscribere visum fuit in quâ quia deinceps te alloquor hic finio totus tuus maneo De Mariano Scoto edendo nùm omnem cogitationem abjeceris admodum scire aveo J. U. A. Londini xiii Kalend. Augusti Anno M. DC XLVII LETTER CCXXII A Letter from the Reverend Dr. Barlow now Bishop of Lincoln to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord I Did receive by the hands of Mr. Tozer your Grace's Tract de Symbolis for which great Honour done unto me this piece of Paper comes to return my most humble and hearty Thanks I confess I have ever been inquisitive after your Grace's Writings and thought my self happy when I had found them for I was never deceived in my Expectation but ever found old Orthodox Truth maintained upon just and carrying Grounds which elsewhere I have often sought but seldom found I wish Vossius in putting out and composing his Tract de tribus Symbolis had used the same Judgment and Diligence your Grace hath done in this For tho your Grace be pleased to give that Tract of his a civil Commendation yet 't is undeniably the most indigested thing that ever Vossius put out And here well knowing your Lordship's unparallell'd Skill in Antiquity and your Candor and Willingness to communicate your Knowledg to the Benfit of others I shall take the boldness humbly to desire your Grace's Opinion concerning the 13 Can. of the Council of Ancyra the words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I find no various reading in any Greek Copies Balsamon Zonaras Tilius Justellus c. all agreeing only Salmasius Apparatu ad lib. de Primatu pag. 78. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it seems Dionysius Exiguus reads it so too The Latin Translations make it quite another thing than the Greek imports as your Lordship may see by those two Translations in Grabb followed by the rest and that of Justellus in his Codex Can. Ecclesiae Universae pag. 2. which runs thus Chorepiscopis non licere Presbyteros vel Diaconos ordinare Sed nec Presbyteris Civitatis sine literis Episcopi in alienâ Parochià aliquid agere Where Justellus adds these two last words Aliquid agere as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or some such thing were in the Greek which I find not I confess Fulg. Ferrandus in Breviat Cano. Can. 92. reads it as Justellus Ut Presbyteri Givitatis sine jussu Episcopi nihil jubeant nec in unaquaque Parochiâ aliquid agant tho the Greek is otherwise and the old Latin Translation vid. Cod. Can. veterem Ecclesiae Romanae Mogunt 1525. postea Par. 1609. agrees exactly with the Greek So then the sense of the Can. seems to be this That the Chorepiscopi and Presbyteri civitatis may not ordain Priests or Deacons without Commission from the Bishop but with it they may Here first I shall make no question but the Chorepiscopi might ordain with Licence first had from the Bishop for tho it hath been the general opinion of the World that the Chorepiscopi were only Simplices Presbyteri
from D. Langbaine to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord TWO Particulars I remember whereof your Lordship required an account from me one concerning Marianus Scotus whether William of Malmsbury as I then affirmed made any mention of him and if so in what manner First Lib. 3. de Regib in Willielmo primo pag. 116. Sub isto Imperatore Henrico regnante floruit Maurinianus Scotus qui primò Fuldensis Monachus mox apud Mogontiacum inclusus contemptu praesentis vitae gratiam futurae demerebatur Is longo vitae otio Chronographos scrutatus dissonantiam cyclorum Dionysii Exigui ab Evangelica veritate deprehendit Itaque ab initio seculi annos singulos recensens viginti duos qui circulis praedictis deerant superaddidit sed paucos aut nullos suae sententiae sectatores habuit Quare saepe mirari soleo cur nostri temporis doctos hoc respergat infortunium ut in tanto numero discentium in tam tristi pallore lucabrantium vix aliquis plenam scientiae laudem referat Adeo inveteratus usus placet Adeo ferè nullus novis licèt probabiliter inventis serenitatem assensus pro merito indulget Totis conatibus in sententiam veterum reptatur Omne recens sordet Ita quia solus favor alit ingenia cessante favore obtorpuerunt omnia Again lib. 4. de pontificib pag. 286. cap. de Episcopis Herefordensibus Non multò post accepit sedem illam Robertus Lotharingus omnium liberalium artium peritissimus abacum praecipuè lunarem computum coelestium astrorum cursum rimatus Erat tunc temporis monachus Marianus apud Mogontiam inclusus qui longo Solitudinis otio Chronographos scrutatus dissonantiam cyclorum Dionysii Exigui contra Evangelicam veritatem vel primus vel solus animadvertit Itaque ab initio seculi annos singulos recensens viginti duos qui circulo deerant superaddidit magnam diffusissimam Chronicam facere adorsus Eum librum miratus unicè aemulatus mirificè Angliae invehendum curavit Denique captus Mariani ingenio quicquid ille largius dixerat in arctum conferens defloravit Adeo splendidè ut magis valere videatur defloratio quà m ingentis illius voluminis diffusio I am partly of opinion that this defloration of Marianus was the plain Song and what was added by Florence of Worcester and other Monks in their several Cloysters in relation most an end to their particular Foundations and the memorable Passages of their several Monasteries were but so many several descants upon that Ground We have in our Bodlean as the printed Catalogue more than once informs a Manuscript with this Title Excerpta ex Chronico Mariani the Author in Litera H. Rog. Herefordensis And again in K. Rodgerius Hereford Episc. Excerpt de Chronico Mariani But in the Manuscript it self both the Name of the Author and Title of the Book runs otherwise viz. Exceptio Rodberti Herefordensis Episcopi de Chronicis Mariniani The Tract is but short consisting of 24 Chapters and the Argument of them answerable to the ten first Chapters in Marianus's Manuscript de computo Ecclesiastico Where in the 7th Chapter he gives us this Chronological Character of the Time and Place he writ in In Anno praesenti qui secundum Dionysium pronunciatur Millesimus octogesimus quintus Incarnationis contra Evangelistas caeterosque Doctores Hic est Annus Vigesimus Willielmi Regis Anglorum quo judente hoc anno totius Angliae facta est descriptio in agris singularum provinciarum possessionibus singulorum procerum in agris eorum in mansonibus in hominibus tam sevis quà m liberis tam in tugurio tantum habentibus quà m domos agros possidentibus in carrucis in equis caeteris animalibus in servitio censu totius terrae omnium Alii inquisitores post alios ignoti ad ignotos mittebantur provincias ut alii aliorum discretionem reprehenderent rego eos reos constituerent Et vexata est terra multis cladibus ex congregatione regalis pecuniae proce dentibus Upon which I should not doubt to build that this is the same Robert the deflorator of Marianus mentioned by Malmesbury though the historical part be here wanting the Name the Time the Place the Subject all concurring to strengthen this Conjecture This and somewhat more concerning Marianus either in my Letters or Papers I have formerly transmitted to my good Friend Dr. Duck from whom if your Lordship think it may be tanti you may at any time recieve those indigested Notes which being bur ordinary will add nothing to your Lordship in a Point which you have already so thoroughly canvassed The second enquiry which your Lordship was pleased to employ me in was as I remember about a Greek Piece concerning Lacedemonian Months in the Catalogue of the King of France his Library but upon search not found by the Puteani Fratres I conceived then the best direction for the search would be to note what other Tract were next Neighbours in the Catalogue which might be a means to help me with that Volumn in which surely this concerning the Months makes the least part Which I have accordingly done hereunder And becuase upon perusal of the Catalogue I found it very corrupt and that the Writer is guilty of many obvious Mistakes I conceived this of ours to be only a Transcript of some other which possibly may be there in the Library and therefore I took the pains to page our Catalogue as hoping that might expedite the search if the Enquirer make use of any other Catalogue of the same kind with this by considering the proportion of Pages whereof this contains in all 280 and is regularly writ I find several Pieces of that Subject how diverse in themselves I know not but I chose rather to set down all than to run the hazard of omitting what possibly you might most desire In Catalogo Manuscriptorum in Bibliotheca Regis Galliae repertorum Anno 1636. Pag. 127. Nili Gnomae De Synodis usque ad VII Oecumenicam De aedificii Constantinop De Epiphania Domini ex Constitutionibus Apostolicis De nominibus Mensium secundum Judaeos Macedones Graecos aegyptios De Sacris bibliis Prophetis Prophetissis Jo. Damascen de Lumine Igne Sole Stellis Pag. 184 Pythagorae paraeneses Septem Sapientum dicta De Mensibus Atheniensium Lacedaemoniorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Musis De Mensib Athen. Roman Maced Hebr. Aegypt Graec. De Vita Aristotelis Proverbia Numerorum Notae Pag. 210. De Figura situ Italiae ex Polybio De Mensib Graecorum Alexandrinorum Nomina Urbium mutata De Inventoribus Artium De Scriptis Rhetorum Musarum nomina inventa Nomina Mensium Excerpta ex Rhet. Zenophontis Pag. 221. Propositiones Arithmeticae De Syllogismis De Mensibus De Septem Sacramentis Pag. 221. Nili Praecepta De Mensibus
a few days Monsieur Justel having understood of me that you have some of Ephrems Works in Syriack hath given me the inclosed Note praying you to let him know which of them they be you have He is going to reprint his Codex Canonum with many other Collections of the same nature several whereof were never printed before Thus humbly kissing your Grace's hands I rest Your most humble and most affectionate Servant Arnold Boate. Paris 15 25 Aprilis 1648. D. S. Ephraem Syro Ex Hebed Iesu Sobensi Episcopo de Catalogo Syrorum Scriptorum EPhraem magnus qui Syrorum Propheta cognominatus est commentaria confecit in Libros Geneseos Exodi Sacerdotum item in librum Josue Filii Nun Judicum Samuelis Regum Davidis Isaiae ac duodecim Prophetarum minorum Ieremiae Ezechielis atque beati Danielis Extant praeterea ejusdem opera de Ecclesiae fide nec non Sermones Carmina Elegia Hymni ac totum defunctorum officium theses de literis Alphabeti Disputationes contra Judaeos Manichaeum Bardesanem Marcionem Philetum Hypetum Demumque dissolutio impietatis Juliani LETTER CCXXXV A Letter from Dr. Langbaine to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord I Have lately read Mr. Cressy the late Dean of Laghlin his Exomologesis who in his 27th Chapter pag. 178. informs That in his hearing one of the most learned Protestant Prelats in the King of England 's Dominions quoting your Grace in the Margent professed That whereas he had had of many Years before a design to publish the New Testament in Greek with various Sections and Annotations and for that purpose had used great diligence and spent much Mony to furnish himself with Manuscripts and Memoires c. I humbly desire to be informed from your Lordship how much of Truth there is in that Report and whether you collated the Manuscripts in our Publick Library I have in some part made enquiries upon some suspected or doubtful places and it was in my thoughts to have gone through the whole which if by your Lordship's pains or means it hath been done already I should be loth actum agere Together with the Greek I would have compared that venerable Latin Manuscript of the four Gospels in the Bodlean which is writ in fair large Letters partly Saxon in a continued order without distinction of words which seems to promise some considerable variety for I find in Matth. 20. after the words Sicut filius hominis non venit ministrari sed ministrate dare animam suam redemptionem pro multis these added I know not whether according to any other Greek or Latin Copy Vos autem quaetitis de modico crescere de minimo minui I would likewise willingly know whether your Lordship be not of opinion as I profess I am that the additional Passage which Robert Stephens says he found in two of the most ancient Manuscripts and Beza in one of those which he used concerning the Man whom our Saviour is said to have seen working upon the Sabbath c. Luke 6. have not been infarsed dolo malo Whether by the Marcionites as Grotius or some others and in general what we may think of those many various Lections of which we know the Books of the New Testament afford more store than most other Writings I do not expect your Lordship should undergo so much trouble as to give me any account in writing but I have taken this occasion to mention so much of my own desires hoping when I shall wait upon your Lordship in Person to receive that satisfaction in these as I have done in others of this kind For whose Health and Happiness I shall according to my bounden Duty ever pray and humbly beg the like from your Lordship in behalf of Your Grace's most humble Servant to be commanded Gerard Langbaine Queens Coll. Apr. 24. 1648. LETTER CCXXXVI A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to D. Alexander More Admodum Reverendo in Christo fratri D. Alexandro Moro Genevensis Ecclesiae Pastori dignissimo REctè omninò judicâsti Vir Eximie à doctissimo simul prudentissimo Exoniensi Episcopo primum scriptae fuerint istae literae quibus deinde multum rogatus nomen quoque meum non illibentèr apposui Etsi enim per leges regni nostri matrimonium ità illegitimè initum consummatum quicquid de eo apud vos demum statueretur rescindi non potuisse minimè ignorarem Exempli tamen interfuturum existimabam ut ab Ecclesiâ Republicâ vestra severioris disciplinae observantissimâ legi Dei tam adversum crimen non planè dimitteretur impunitum Quod quidem tam candidè à Reverendo caetu vestro fulsse acceptum magnoperè sum gavisus Summum illum amorem literis etiám contestantibus quem inter eos esse decebat qui sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 atque earundem pretiosissimarum promissionum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neque in nullâ felicitatis meae parte ponendum duco quòd hac occasione ad amicitiam tuam mihi factus sit aditus cui aliquantum firmandae Ignatiana à me edita hoc tempore misissem nisi libri moles obstitisset ne tamen prorsus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad te accederem leviculam hanc de Symbolis Diatribam literis hisce comitem visum fuit adjungere Quam tu ex mittentis affectu aestimabis qui est ex animo Frater tui amantissimus in Christi Ministerio conservus devinctissimus Ja. Usserius Armachanus Scripsi raptim Londini xvi Kalend. Julii Anno M. DG XLVIII LETTER CCXXXVII A Letter from to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Vir Illustrissime ac Reverendissime NON indignaberis quod hac Epistola tuas interrumpam curas quibus immortalitatem emis Me ad scribendum inducit summa tua humanitas quae inter caeteras tuas virtutes egregias dotes familiam ducit Tanto enim favore non dedignatus es me dum degerem in Angliâ isto bonarum artium emporio celebetrimo ingeniorum felicissima altrice complecti ut in aeternum non desint hujus rei monumenta me non solum in tui consortium colloquium quo nihil gratius benigne admisisti sed etiam de variis rebus movisti sermones mea studia comprobasti quod nimium est consiliis reipsa meos conatus promovere Hac fretus fiduciâ non erubesco tuum de itinere meo Constantinopolitano exposcere consilium quod mihi instar oraculi erit norma mearum rerum gerendarum Non me latet quantâ peritiâ rerum Orientalium cognitione librorum MSS. praesertim Graecorum quorum praecipuos summa cura inquirendos nominasti mihique sponte obtulisti eorundem catalogum fretus melius tum publicae tum privatae utilitati visâ occasione prospiciam fateor ingenue me nullum alium ob finem iter suscipere quam ob bonum Reip.
aut acta fuerit gratia Ante annum quod excurrit Appendicem meam Ignatianam ac de Macedonum ac Asianorum anno solari dissertationem mittere ad te memini sed quid tantilla illa ad justos hosce poëticae tuae tanta diligentia industriâ elucubratos commentarios Majoris fortasse operis pretii usus certè aliquandò uberioris futuri sunt Annales nostri sacri Cum Asiatico Aegyptiaco Olympiadum exordio usque ad Vespasiani imperium ex scriptoribus exteris deducto chronico Quamprimum opus absolutum fuerit quod ante finem proximae aestatis futurum spero consendum ad te sum missurus Si lucis hujus usuram saevitia temporum tantisper mihi permiserit Intereò literarum harum latorem D. Johannem Priceum insignis eruditionis probitatis virum quem ex scriptis notum tibi esse non dubito sui praecipuè mei etià m cui amicissimus est causâ finu complexuque tuo recipe me licet id parum commerentem amare non cessa Tui Cupidissimus Ja. Usserius Armachanus Londini xvii Kalend. April anno 1648 9. LETTER CCXL A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Learned Johan Hevelius Viro Clarissimo D. Johanni Hevelio Dantiscano Gedanum Vir Praestantissime SElenographiam tuam admirandam ostendit mihi Hartlibius noster Splendidissimum munus Dubliniensi nostrae Bibliothecae benignissime à te donatum Cui inter tumultus bellicos jam animam penè agenti Academiae inter primos in illam admissos ego jam unicus superstes relictus filius officii mei esse duxi gratias quantum possum maximas dulcissimae matris nomine tibi persolvere atque privati mei insuper in te affectus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Asiaticum Aegyptiacum nostrum chronicon à mundi primâ origine ad Antiochi Epiphanis Maccabaica tempora deductum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qualiscunque vicem suppleturum ad te transmittere Quod ut boni consulas oro ut profectum ab homine Tui amantissimo J. U. Armachanus Londini pridie Kalend. Novemb. Julian anno aerae Christianae MDCL LETTER CCXLI. A Letter from the Reverend Dr. Hammond to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord SOme few Dissertations I have put together with some purpose to adventure them to the Press But first desire to offer them to your Grace's view to receive your judgment of the fitness of so doing If the whole do bring too great a trouble to your Grace you may then read over the Lemmata and thereby be directed to read where you think there will be most hazard of my running any Error And if upon survey your Grace shall find cause to send back the Book again for my further thoughts it will be welcome if accompanied with your Directions But if there be no more dangerous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than what your Pen may without much trouble correct I desire it may then be returned to Mr. Royston this Bearer with a word of notice to him that he may proceed But I must desire from your Grace the favour of perfect secrecy till the Book be printed and then it shall visit your Grace again From Your Graces most humble Servant H. Hammond Dec. 6. LETTER CCXLII. A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Reverend Dr. Hammond Good Doctor I Received heretofore by your direction from Mr. Allestree the Greek Passage of Irenaeus and yesterday your most accurate descanting upon the same for which I return unto you very hearty thanks being very glad also to understand by your Letter of the 20th of August therewith received that you have a thought of making an entire dissertation for the vindicating of Ignatius his Epistles Which together with your Treatise of Episcopacy in Latin enlarged with such additions as you mention of Act. 20. and the Ancyran Canon I hold would be to exceeding good purpose The new Title wherewith you were dubbed of Sir Knave is in the railing Book writ expresly against Desiderius Heraldus which having but look'd on I sent to young Heraldus the other 's Son who hath not hitherto restor'd the same to me I pray God to bless you in all your Godly Endeavours in whom I ever more rest Your very loving Brother Ja. Armachanus Rigate in Surry Apr. 30. 1649. LETTER CCXLIII A Letter from the Reverend Dr. Hammond to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord I Must not omit to render my most humble Acknowledgments for the favour of your last Book of Chronology added to the many former Obligations laid on me by your Grace I could not but smile when I was of late required by the London-Minsters to answer the Objections which you had made to the Epistles of Ignatius The Printer will shortly give you an account of the Return I have made to it I find now in another Caviller against those Epistles a Testimony out of St. Jerom Dial. 3. cont Pelag. Jgnatius vir Apostolicus Martyr Scribit audacter Elegit Dominus Apostolos qui super omnes homines peccatores erant which I find not in his Epistles Doth your Grace remember any thing of it If it be not troublesome I beseech you impart one word concerning it to Your most humble Servant H. Hammond May 16. LETTER CCXLIV A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Reverend Dr. Hammond Good Doctor I Have read with great delight and content your accurate Answer to the Objections made against the Credit of Ignatius his Epistles for which as I do most heartily thank you so am I moved thereby further to entreat you to publish to the World in Latin what you have already written in English against this Objector and that other who for your pains hath rudely requited you with the bare appellation of Nebulo for the assertion of Episcopacy to the end it may no longer be credited abroad that these two have so beaten down this Calling that the defence thereof is now deserted by all Men as by Lud. Capellus is intimated in his Theses of Church-Government at Sedan lately published Which I leave to your serious consideration and all your Godly Labours to the blessing of our God in whom I evermore rest Your very loving Friend and Brother Ja. Armachanus July 21. LETTER CCXLV A Letter from the Reverend Dr. Hammond to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord TO the trouble that I lately offered your Grace I beseech your pardon if I present this Addition in desiring a view of your Variae Lectiones of the New Testament which I conceive fit to be look'd on to prepare those Notes for the Press which I have now in good part done If this Favour be uncivil for me to ask or inconvenient for your Grace to grant I shall by your least word be kept from farther importuning it but
as were many more of his Parts and Merits Your Grace was pleased to ask him what I was doing My Lord I cannot spend my time better than after the Holy Scriptures in gathering your Lordship's Observations upon many obscure Texts of the Bible but by my constant attending on my Lectures I am prevented of doing what I otherwise might Sir Henry Spelman's Saxon Lecture honoured by your Lordship's first motion to the Heads of Houses and have I not cause to admire God's Providence as my Lord of Exeter told me that the Work should be countenanced by so transcendent Patronage hath made me your Grace's Scholar as in truth the Ecclesiae ipsae Britannicae Universae at this time are But my Lord pardon my boldness and give me leave to chalenge the Stile if not of Scholar or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 since I never counted my self worthy to wait on your Person yet a true admirer of all your Lordship's most rich Treasures now in your most learned Writings bequeathed to the Church but my Saxon Imploiment will bind me much to be acquainted with your Primordia Eccles. Britannicarum tho your Grace will pity my Condition as being not able to compass the use of those rare Manuscripts cited in that most rich Magazine yet I am glad that we have many excellent and rare Antiquities there at large cited to us I presumed two Years since to send Mr. Hartlib a Specimen of my Intentions and beginnings of a Confutation of the Alcoran It was according to my poor skill a discovery of Mahomet's and his Chaplains devilish Policy to raze out of the Faith of the Eastern People the memory of the Three Persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by substituing in the stead thereof three words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so in the same manner as by fair and goodly Language he blotted out of the Christian Church the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so doth he the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gloria Patri by his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glory be to God the Lord of the World c. for this intent to square out a Platform of Faith easy for all the World to believe that so he and his succeeding Chalifs may gain such a false believing and seduced World to the infernal See of Meccha and that was his meaning in binding all to pray towards Meccha Had I Skill and Means and Encouragement from your Grace I would endeavour to make some progress in the same Work not but that I know many in this Kingdom far more able than my self but that I fear none of them will attempt it but rather smile at the Design The Language of the Alchoran to write in that stile may be attained the matter of Confutation may be easy to any that will attend to the wicked Plots of Apostates then and ever practised in the World But Mr. Hartlib returned my Papers and told me they were not or else my Intention was not approved I purposedly was desirous to be ignorant who should give this severe Censure lest they should think I should grieve thereat Mr. Hartlib I thank him did me the pleasure as to conceal it from me I could scarce keep my self from some such Imployment about the Alchoran but these Times call us now to other Thoughts The fear of losing the Univers as well as Regnum Sacerdotium doth not a little amaze us When a Messenger comes hither from your Grace I shall be glad to be informed by him wherein I may best in this Lambeth Library be serviceable and express my bounden Duty to your Lordship The Lord still add to the number of your Days to the comfort of the afflicted Britain Churches which next to God cast their Eyes upon you in these sad Extremities which they have already suffered Your Grace's most humble Servant Abraham Wheelocke We expect every day the setting up of the Lambeth Books in the Schools where your Grace above 30 Years since heard Mr. Andrew Downs read the Greek Lecture as yet they remain in Fat 's or great Chests and cannot be of any use LETTER CCXLIX A Letter from the Learned Isaacus Gruterus to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Viro Maximo Jacobo Usserio Archiepiscopo Armachano Hiberniae Primati S. P. D. Isaacus Gruterus NON passus sum me abripi affectu virtutes tuas si non aestimare saltem venerari nescio cum mihi nuper apud te calamum feci pararium Neque ex alto nunc causas arcesso quae necdum consumptae fiduciam sustinent fore ut secundae allocutioni sua venia sit interiorem tantae Eruditionis in perspectâ multis humanitate cultum meditanti Eorum quae tunc scripsi alia tempus mutavit intermedium alia integram officii gratiam habent si vel partem desiderii nostri expletam imputare liceat tuae benevolentiae Savilii enim filiam Sidleijo cuidam olim nuptam obiisse narravit mihi Nobiliss. Boswellus vir non aliis magis virtutibus quas plures benignior indulsit natura quam literarum patrocinio illustris Quid vero Savilianae industriae ineditum servent alicubi scrinia chartacea non alîunde quam ex te melius constare mihi posse videtur cum doceant scripta tua propriori vos familiaritate coaluisse Illud ergo repetere ausus sum hoc Epistolae compendio explicatum forte olim uberius ut in concilianda istius rei notitia gratificari velis homini extero in magna felicitatis parte habituro per istud obsequium posse tibi commendare quamcunque affectus sui operam testem positi non apud ingratum beneficii Vale. Isaacus Gruterus Hagae-Comitis 26. Febr. iv Calendas Martii CICICCL LETTER CCL A Letter from P. Scavenius to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Vir Illustrissime Reverendissime NIhil gratius mihi accidere potuit quà m tuas literas iisque inclusa mandata accipere Totus fui in ea exequendo ut tuae petitioni meo voto rectè satissecisse viderer sed nescio quo fato res hic aguntur ut semper objiciantur tantae remorae praetextus quibus suas res ornare allaborant quibus alienae parum curae sunt qui potius nomine quam reipsa aliis inservire cupiunt divites ut aiunt promissis tardi vel seri in fide datâ servandâ Clariss Dominus Holsteinius infinitis destrictus negotiis nam Censor est librorum qui hic typis mandantur merito fugit hunc laborem quippe immensum quem requirit vel descriptio vel collatio hujus MS. cum excusis codicibus Codex enim est antiquissimus hinc inde mutilus ut interdum Oedippo opus sit sensum indagare Promisit tamen se missurum parvulas aliquot varias lectiones quas successive sparsim in unum vel alterum Prophetam notavit excusavit se non posse ipsum Codicem mittere eumque periculis
plus reditus quà m ex luculenta p Blondellus huc vocatus in locum Vossii nondum venit proximè tamen expectatur Schurman ipsa dicitur â Reginâ vocata renuere tamen Multae fuere in Suecia turbae Cartesii Sepulturam quae cum non esset pro voluntate Reginae splendida non secuta est quod alias cohonestatura fuerat praesens Hâc aestate nondum Coronabitur Regina Meum desiderare adventum affert Jansonius Jansonii Bibliopolae nostri filius ibi uti Reginae Typographus Regius Opus tuum Eminentissime Praesul quaeso oro dedices Reginae Nostrae nihil timere habes ob eam dedicationem Non mirabuntur vestri Senatores Eruditissimum Praesulem Eruditissimae REGINAE alteri Elizabethae Anglicae aut Angelicae dedicare opus summae eruditionis qua illa delectetur cum vestri Martis alumni sint si Deus me salvum in Sueclam deduxerit inde laetiora quaeque expectando me quod facis amare perge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amstelodami 3 13 Maii 1650. Communes nostros Amicos Patrone Venerande cum Te salutatum ut solent venerint Seldenum Patr. Junium Des Euwes Leigh studiorum meorum fautores meo quaeso nomine devotissimè salvere jube ipse ut valescas cura diligenter Mitto Serenissimae Reginae Effigiem LETTER CCLIII A Letter from Dr. Langbaine to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh To the most Reverend and his much honoured Lord and Patron James Lord Arch-bishop of Armagh at the Countess of Peterborough 's House by Charing-Cross My most honoured Lord I Have at last return'd what I intended to have brought to your Lordship those two pieces of British Antiquities which your Lordship was pleased to impart to me and whereof I have taken Copies and may possibly hereafter give some better account than as yet I can I mean as to that of Vale Crucis As for the other unless the Characters can be more exactly taken from the Original I give for desperate What Character the ancient Britains used whether that which the Saxons after as your Lordship if I remember well is of Opinion or the same with your ancient Irish which I conceive to be not much different from the Saxon and to which this Monument of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. both as to the form of some Letters and the Ligatures of them seem to come nearer than to the Saxon I dare not take upon me to determine but shall here subjoin what I met with in a very old Manuscript sometimes St. Dunstan's in which besides Ars Euticis Grammatici de discernendis Conjugationibus in the beginning and Ovid de Arte Amandi at the end are contain'd several other Pieces some in Saxon some in Greek but in Saxon Characters Some in Latin inter alia after this Rubrick Nemninus istas reperit literas uituperante quidam scolastico saxonici generis quia brittones non haberent rudimentum at ipse subito ex machinatione mentis suae formavit eas ut vituperationem et hebitudinem deiceret gentis suae de figuris et de nominib ductis Follows an Alphabet as in the next Page saving that I add de proprio the words Nomen Figura Potestas Nomen alar braut curi dexu egui fich guidir huil iechuit kam louber Figura Potestas a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h. i. k. l. Nomen muin nihn or parth quith rat sung traus uir â—eil ofr Figura Potestas m. n. o. p. q. r. s. t. u. x. Nomen zeirc aiun estiaul egun aur emc. hinc henc elau utl orn Figura Potestas z. ae et eu au el. hinc ego ecce vult ae But the Characters are in the Manuscript much more elegant and neat than I could express What I said of an Irish Saxon Character I am bold to call it so because I find it used in our old Irish Chronicle and some other Latin pieces of good Note and Antiquity writ if not in Ireland yet by an Irish hand In which kind I have met with Chalcidius his Translation of Plato's Timaeus and I think a Dialogue of his own about the State of the Soul after Death both for the Matter and Stile somewhat remarkable but imperfect We have two Copies of the Acts of Sylvester in Manuscript Latin in our Publick Library one in a good old Book which was sometime the Passional of the Monastery of Ramesey in which those Acts are divided into two Books The other Copy is one continued Story the Book in which it is found is of a good fair Hand well bound gilt Leaves and has been perused by John Leland whose notes occur sparsim in the Margin besides his Tetrastich at the beginning of the Book which containing the Lives of divers Saints and in the first of St. Martin by Sulpitius Severus occasioned these Verses from him Plutarchus vitas scripsit vitasque Severus Et pulchre officio functus uterque suo est Quanto Plutarchus linguâ praestantior alter Materia tanto clarior atque fide Amongst other Lives there is that of Sylvester translated as the Preface pretends out of Eusebius the words to that purpose are Historiographus Noster Eusebius Caesariensis Cum Historiam Ecclesiasticam scriberet pretermisit ea quae sunt in aliis opusculis vel quae se meminit retulisse Nam viginti libros omnium penè provinciarum passiones Martyrum-continere fecit Deinde secutus ab Apostolo Petro omnium Apostolorum nomina gesta conscripsit earum urbium quae auctoritatem pontificatus per Apostolicas sedes tenere noscuntur urbes Roma Antiochia Jerosolyma Ephesus Alexandria Harum igitur urbium Episcoporum omnium preteritorum usque ad tempus suum Graeco Sermone conscripsit Ex quorum numero unus Episcoporum Urbis Romae S. Sylvestri me de Graeco in Latino transferre praecepisti The beginning in both Copies is the same viz. Sylvester igitur urbis Romae Episcopus cum esset infantulus But in the process of the Story they somewhat differ both one from the other and from the printed Acts by Surius In both I meet with the Story of the Bull c. If your Lordship think it worth the while I shall willingly bestow some further pains in collating both these and another Copy which I think I saw some Years since in Baliol-Colledg Library If the Time and this Paper would admit I should give you an account of my self and this place But at present I must respit that trouble I am Your Lordship 's in all observance Gerard Langbaine Q. Coll. June 21. 1650. LETTER CCXLIV A Letter from the Right Reverend Godfrey Goodman Bishop of Gloucester to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh at the Countess of Peterborough 's at Lovewick in Northamptonshire Most Reverend I Have here made bold to send you my Sufferings on the back-side of the Prayer and I desire that
antiquitatem discernendam plurimùm conducit cum hisce editionibus cum aliis Veterum sive translationibus sive paraphrasibus consimilis facta collatio Sed de Criteriis illis jam non agitur quibus Vatiantium textus Hebraici lectionum discriminari possit vel praestantia vel antiquitas unde petendae illae sint quantùmque vel augendae vel minuendae tota inter nos vertitur quaestio In qua tractanda si occurrent aliqua quae minus tibi arrideant da quaeso libertati huic meae veniam ab homine nominis honoris tui ut ex animo anteà ad te scripsi studiosissimo profecta ea omnia esse cogita Vale. Ja. Usserius Armachanus LETTER CCLXVIII A Letter from the Right Reverend Brain Duppa Bishop of Salisbury to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord I Humbly thank you for that excellent Piece of Origen against Celsus which though in my younger days I had met withall in Latin yet I never saw it in his own Language till now And indeed the Book hath been a double Feast to me for besides my first course which is Origen himself I find in the same Volume that piece of Gregory his Scholar which was wrote by way of Panegyrick of him and hath served me instead of a Banquet But besides that which the Ancients have done of whom many have been liberal in this Argument either by way of Praise or of Apology I find in some Notes that I have taken the mention of two more modern Apologists for him the one Jo. Picus of Mirandula the other more obscure to me for I have not otherwise met him cited Jacobus Merlinus If the latter of these be in your Lordship's Judgment worth the reading and in your power to communicate and impart to me I beseech you to afford it me for a time for Origen hath had so many Enemies that I cannot in charity pass by his Friends without seeing what they can say in his defence I have something else to be a Suitor for and that is your Lordship 's own Book I dare not beg it of you for this is no time for you to be a giver I shall only desire the loan of it that I may have a fuller view than I had from that which I borrowed from Sir Edward Leech I beseech you my Lord pardon this boldness of mine which your own Goodness hath made me guilty of I have no more to trouble your Lordship withal but only to remain Your Lordship 's most humble Servant Br. Sarum Richm. Octob. 20. LETTER CCLXIX Viro Admodum Venerando Doctrina Pietate insigniter Eminenti Domino Jacobo Usserio Archiepiscopo Armachano meritissimo c. Plurimam in Christo salutem precat Gothofredus Hotton QUòd ego homo peregrinus id fiduciae sumo ut hoc quicquid sit literarum ad Tuam venerandam Dignitatem exarare mittereque ausim illud ipsum est Praesul Excellentissime quod principio humillimè deprecor Nec certè eò prorupissem ni Nobilissimus juxta atque longè Eruditissimus Vir Dominus Junius Tuarum Virtutum cultor animum addidisset mihi dubitanti promissâ nimirum à bonitate Tuâ culpae meae si qua subsit pronâ promptâ veniâ At quâ de re Te Vir Reverendissime primum epistolâ hac meâ appellem utique Evangelicus Praeco Dei Gratiâ cum sim de rebus quae studia Theologiae mea concernunt si Tecum paucis agam id forsan Tuâ meaque cura non videbitur indignum Vidit nec prorsus ut spero improbavit Tua Excellentia ea quae ante paucisimos annos de Tolerantia inter Europaeos Evangelicos in Charitate stabilienda libello consignavi evulgavique In iis pacis cogitationibus me adhuc totum esse in ardes scere sciant volo quotquot sunt Pacis Filii ubi ubi reperiantur Qua ratione vero illuc consilii venerim non in consultum fortassis erit si Reverendae Tuae Dignitati brevibus aperiam Monasterii Westphalorum ubi eo tempore congregabant Europae plurimi Proceres de pace consulturi atque acturi consilia agitari inter malè affectos mihi secreto tunc temporis relatum est de Reformatis à pace Imperii excludendis èo quòd ut illi opinabantur non essent Augustanae Confessionis socii Nec relatum est duntaxat à nostratium qui ibidem erant primariis sed significatum insuper summè necessarium esse ut quam ejus fieri posset citissimè aliquid remedii huic malo adhiberetur Qua monitione ego animosior mea sorte factus haec qualia-qualia mea in chartam festinanter conjeci et ter Descripsi festinantiùs Et descripta illa tria exemplaria misi unum ad ipsam Sueciae Reginam Alterum ad Plenipotentiarios quos jam vocant Principum Lutheranorum dicto loco coactos ad Reformatorum Tertium suppresso obscuri ignoti Authoris nomine Quid factum eam his conatibus dedit Deus pacis benedictionem ut melioribus mollioribusque consiliis à Primatibus Monasterii operantibus locus datus sit Articulusque Instrumento Pacis insertus fuerit quo cautum est ex aequo libertati securitati Reformatorum in Imperio atque Lutheranorum quod nunquam antea ita solemniter fuerat factum Factum praeterea ut aliquis qui solus Authorem norat inter Primores Authoris nomen contra ejus mèntem revelaverit unde ipsi aliqua necessitas imposita fuit Tractatum suum typis edendi Editus ergo est sed prima vice sine nomine postea cum nomine mandante id nostrarum Gallobelgicarum Ecclesiarum in his Provinciis Synodo Dordrechti eo temporis articulo coacta ut apparet ex approbatione Synodali quae libello Gallica lingua concepta praefigitur Ex illo tempore quamplurimae in nostra Reformatione Societates in iis societatibus magni Viri calculo suo ista mea Moderationis conamina approbare voluerunt reipsa missis ad eam rem suis literis concorditer approbavêre Ea porro publica approbatoria hortatoria Testimonia sequenti anno cum bono Deo juris publici facere mihi decretum est idque de communi consilio facturus sum nempe ut ex una parte malè feriatis quibusdam os obthuretur ansa praeripiatur cavillandi calumniandi ex altera verò ut via apud bonos per bonos muniatur strictioris inter partes vinculi de quo successu spes mihi non mediocris surgit ut ex praesentium exhibitore amicissimo tua excellentia intelligere poterit Me beares Virorum Optime rem faceres fortassis te dignam Reipublicae Christianae non inutilem si his Ecclesiarum nostrarum suffragiis Tuum maximi in iis ponderis testimonium addere dignaveris quod à Tua bonitate etiam atque etiam efflagitare audeo Deus Ter Optimus
Maximus Venerandae Dignissimae Amplitudini Tuae tuisque in Ecclesiâ suâ magnis laboribus abunde benedicere pergat Vale. Tuae Excellentiae Observantissimus cultor Gothofredus Hotton Propria manu Dabam xxviii Januarii 1652. Amstelodami LETTER CCLXX. A Letter from R. Vaughan to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Reverend Father MY Duty most humbly remembred unto you with thanks for your Opinion of King Cadwalader which hereafter shall be unto me a Tract to follow as best agreeing with Reason and Truth I hope you have received your Books in November last and if they are any way impaired in the carriage if you please to send them me I will have them fairly written again for you What I omitted in my last Letter by reason of the Bearers haste is that in your Giraldus his first Book Laudabilium and 8. Cap. I observe that my Countrymen in his time used to yoke their Oxen for the Plow and Cart four in a breast in these words Boves ad aratra vel plaustra non binos jungunt sed quaternos c. which I find not in the printed Book This may happily give some light and help to understand a clause in our ancient British Laws treating of Measures made as is there alleged by Dyfrewal Moel-mud King of Britain where it is said that the Britains in his time used four kinds of Yokes for Oxen the first was four foot long the second eight foot the third twelve and the fourth was sixteen foot long The first was such as we use now a-days for a couple of Oxen the second was that mentioned by Giraldus serving for four Oxen the third as I suppose suitable with those two for six Oxen and the fourth consequently for eight Oxen. The two last are clean forgotten with us and not as much as a word heard of them saving what is in that old Law but of the second mentioned by Giraldus we have a Tradition that such was in use with us about sixscore Years ago and I heard how true I know not that in Ireland the People in some places do yet or very lately did use the same I pray you call to your mind whether that be true or whether you have heard or read any thing of the use of the other two in any Country and be pleased to let me know thereof The Copy of Ninnius you sent me hath holpen me well to correct mine but finding such difference between the three Manuscript Books which the Scribe confesseth to have made use of I presume your Transcript comprehends much more in regard you have had the benefit of eleven Copies as you confess to help you which Differences are very requisite to be known of such as love Antiquity And also where those several Copies that you have seen are extant and to be found at present and how many of those Copies bear the name of Gildas before them and how many the name of Ninnius And what those of Gildas do comprehend more or less in them than those of Ninnius And whether the Notes of Samuel Beulan are found in any of those of Gildas or yet in every one of the Copies of Ninnius and whether the name of Samuel be added to those Notes in any of those Copies and to which of them All which with the antiquity of the Character of those several Copies are very necessary to be known and may easily be discovered by you and very hardly by any other ever after you Moreover about three Years ago I sent a Copy of the Tract concerning the Saxon Genealogies extant if I mistake not in Gildas and Ninnius unto you to be corrected by your Book and Sir Simon D'Ewes undertaking that charge for you as Mr. Dr. Ellis told me returned me only this Answer upon the back of my own Papers viz. The eldest Copy of this Anonymon Chron. doth in some places agree with the Notes sent up but in others differs so much as there can be no collation made of it c. But those my Notes do agree very well with the Book you sent me and differs not in twenty words in all the Tract whereof either many are only Letters wanting or abounding and therefore I marvel what he meant in saying so unless he had seen a larger Copy of the same than that I had but your last Letter unto me tells that it is only extant in Sir Thomas Cotton's two Books and wanting in all the other Books that bear the name either of Gildas or Ninnius and that Book you sent me was copied out of one of Sir Thomas Cotton's Books and examined by the other He further addeth that the Author of that Tract being as he saith an English-Saxon lived in the Year of our Lord 620 upon what ground I know not Yet I cannot think otherwise but that Sir Simon D'Ewes had some grounds for the same and it may be the very same that Leland the famous Antiquary had to say that Ninnius lived tempore inclinationis Britannici imperii and Jo. Bale who more plainly saith that he lived in the Year 620 just as Sir Simon D'Ewes hath And for that Sir Simon is dead I desire to know of you whether the said Tract be not more copious in one of Sir Thomas Cottom's Books than it is in the other Or whether Sir Simon D'Ewes might not find a larger Copy of the same elsewhere for if it be not the work of Ninnius nor Samuel Beulan it may as well be in other Books as in those especially if an English-Saxon was Author of it But if it be not found elsewhere I pray you tell me upon what grounds is the Author of it said by Sir Simon to live Anno 620 and Ninnius by Leland and Bale likewise said to live in the same Time when by the first Chapter of some Copies of Ninnius his Book it seemeth he wrote not two hundred Years after Moreover in regard you prefer that small Tract so much spoken of by me before all the rest of the Book it were a deed of Charity for you to paraphrase a little upon it whereby such as are but meanly skilled in Antiquity may reap some profit by it Truly some remarhable Passages from the Reign of Ida to the Death of Oswi Kings of Northumberland are contained in it which being well understood would add a greater luster to the British History Lastly Most Reverend Father I pray you be pleased to lend me your Copy of that Fragment of the Welch Annals sent by the Bishop of St. David's Rich. Davies to Matthew Parker Arch-bishop of Canterbury who bestowed a Copy thereof upon the Library in Bennet-Colledg in Cambridg or your Copy of the Book of Landaff and I shall rest most heartily thankful unto you and I do hereby faithfully promise to return whatsoever you shall send me as soon as I shall have done writing of it I have already taken order to provide a little Trunk or Box for the safe carrying of
editionibus Venetis cum sua itidem translatione Latina Another Paris 7 17 May 1653. IN the same Letter I gave you likewise my Judgment about the Biblia Polyglotta that they are going to print at London having nothing to add unto what I told you then but that I am amazed at several Expressions in the printed Papers concerning that Design which you sent me by these last Packets viz. at that honourable and most notoriously false Character they give to that Adulterine Samaritan Pentateuch the Morinian and Capellian calling of the true Hebrew Text by the name of Modern and at their making so great an account of Critica Capelli and of the Variae Lectiones to be collected out of the same whereas of Verae Variae Lectiones there is not one to be found there but what he hath borrowed from others being vulgarly known And as for those Chimerical ones wherewith the Critica is stuffed from one end to the other if they pretend to take them into the number of the true Ones they are altogether inexcusable after that the folly of the same hath so evidently been laid open not only by me and Buxtorfius but by my Lord Primat too LETTER CCLXXVI A Letter from Dr. Brian Walton afterward Bishop of Chester to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh May it please your Grace I Made account to have waited upon your Grace before you went out of Town but was prevented by your early departure from Lincolns-Inn where I was about an hour after you were gone I have been with my Lord of Ardah and have left with him the Copy of the LXX which he is to follow I perceive he will be engaged in Work of his own for this half Year yet I hope he will not neglect this but take some care of it himself because we cannot rely upon Mr. Huish I would gladly know whether Mr. Young's Executor will let us have his Notes or upon what Terms they will be of very great use if they may be had if your Grace please to give me order to write or call to Mr. Atwood about them and to make use of your Name I will see what may be done If your Syriack Copy be come out of France Mr. Thornedike would gladly have it to collate both with the Paris and your other Manuscript for all may be done with the same labour If yours cannot be had as yet I will borrow some part of Mr. Pocock's till the other come over Mr. Whelock hath sent me a Specimen of what he hath done about the Samaritane Version where it differs from the Heb. Samaritane I have sent your Grace a Copy of it Dr. Lightfoot as I hear from a Friend is willing if it be desired to undertake the same Task or part of it and because of Mr. Wheelock's infirm Body I would gladly have some subsidiary help He accounts it a thing easy the Samar being a Dialect of the Chaldee and I would gladly have something done in it both to satisfy the Desires and Expectations of many that write about it as also that we may have something more than is in the Paris Bibles if your Grace thinks fit Mr. Whelock propounds another thing concerning the whole Work which I look upon as a thing hardly practicable or which will at least require a great deal of time viz. to have all the Homogeneal Languages together and one Latin Translation of them all as the Heb. Chald. Samar and our Latin Translation for all So the Roman LXX with the Complutense and that of Tecla's and our Latin Translation c. This I look upon as a Fancy yet I promised to acquaint your Grace and others with it and to desire your Opinions I hope we shall shortly begin the Work yet I doubt the Founders will make us stay a week longer than we expected as soon as the first Sheet is printed I shall make bold to send one to your Grace In the mean time with my Prayers for your Grace's Health and Happiness I take leave and rest Your Grace's most humble Servant Brian Walton From Dr. Fuller's in St. Giles-Cripplegate Church-Yard July 18. 1653. We have resolved to have better Paper than that of 11 s. a Ream viz. of 15 s. a Ream LETTER CCLXXVII A Letter from the Learned Mr. Selden to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord IT is true that Lipsius in Annal. Taciti lib. 1. num 18. as it is in my Edition Paris 1606. upon that of Principes Juventutis in Suetonius and Tacitus cites the Ancyran Stone thus Verba sunt ut ad me missa beneficio viri illustris Augerii Busbequii EQUITES AUTEM ROMANI UNIVERSI PRINCIPEM HASTIS ARGENTEIIS DONATUM APPELLAVERUNT Quam Lacunam ritè expleveris Principem Juvent Caium So he there and in his Auctarium pag. 20. the Inscription is so cited his words upon it being Explerem IVV. C. id est Principem Juventutis Caium So Is. Casaubon on Suetonius lib. 2. cites the whole Stone and so this Piece but without the Supplement of which he makes no doubt adding Mirum ita Augustum loqui quasi alter tantùm filiorum eo honore fuerit affectus Nam certum est ambos Principes Juventutis esse appellatos Etiam de hastis Argenteis dissentit Dio qui aureas vult fuisse lib. LV. The Periocha wherein this is in Lipsius Casaubon Gruter fol. 231. is thus Line for Line HONORIS MEI. CAUSA SENATUS POPULUSQUE ROMANUS ANNUM QUINTUM ET DECIMUM AGENTIS CONSULIS DESIGNAVIT UT CUM MAGISTRATVM INIRENT POST QUIN QUENNIUM EX EO DIE. DUO DEDUCTI IN. EORUMVE INTERESSENT CONSILIIS PUBLICIS DECREVI SENATVS EQVITES AVTEM ROMANI UNIVERSI PRINCIPEM HASTIS ARGENTEIS DONATVM APPELLAVERVNT If Ph. L'Abbe had let me know of his Edition of the Assises of Jerusalem I could have furnished him from another and far ampler Copy than that of the Vatican out of my own Store Your Lordships moct humble and devoted Servant J. Selden White-friers Aug. 8. 1653. My Lord IN answer to your further Instruction concerning Gruteri Inscription of Caius Caesar Mr. Selden hath wrote this Letter Mr. Pearson hath received the Copy of Hosea and Joel from Rome and expects the rest shortly Your humble Servant Jo. Crooke Lond. Aug. 8. 53. LETTER CCLXXVIII A Letter from the Learned Mr. Selden to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord IT is true that Quem Populus Cos. c. Ex Marmore Romae is cited there by Lipsius notâ 23. in the later Editions To the same purpose Casaubon in Moniment Ancyran Caium XIV natum annos creatum fuisse consulem ex historia Dionis vetere Lapide qui hoc disertè continet notum est But where that Inscription is to be found described non liquet I have searched as diligently as I can but in vain Neither in Smetius Lipsius his
most familiar Language I have thus poured out my Fancies to you which I know you will in your excellent Goodness and Judgment look upon with gentle pardon So that if Gallio in the Acts were either of Them that had such relation to the Seneca's I suppose it to be most probable it was this Novatus LETTER CCLXXX A Letter from Dr. Price to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend my good Lord THE last week and no sooner fix of your Books were delivered to me one of them I presented in your Name to the Prince Elector three others I am sending into France two of them in your Name to Bignonius and Sarravius and a third as from my self to Monsieur Militerius the fifth I will give as from you to the Fr. and the sixth I will keep by me to be disposed of as shall be ordered I lately received Letters from Bignonius and Sarravius in the former o◠which there is my Lord this passage concerning you Particuliement j◠vous ay grande obligation de m' avoir concilié la bienuiellance d'un Prelat tres eminenten doctrine dont je cognois des long temps le merites par la reputation Publique qui le publie non seulement pour son rare scauoir mais aussy pour sa grande sagesse singuliere moderation In the other there is this passage Et particulierement je vous prie d' asseuner Monsieur l' Archevesque d' Armach des mes tres-humbles respects Lors que i'auray receu son liure que vous me promettez je prendray la liberté de l'en remercier moy mesme par vostre entremise which I suppose I shall not need to English I likewise received Letters from Sir G. Radcliffe which do thus conclude I long to hear what my Lord Primate does with his Chronological Observations It were pitty that a Work about which he hath bestowed so much time should perish or prove imperfect for want of his last hand And so much for these Matters We are here still as far as I see in a doubtful and dangerous estate In the Houses there are great Divisions and since the return of those Members which the General himself guarded and conducted the Presbyterians a pretty ridiculous Business out-vote the Independents The Scots likewise by a constant Report are coming in again In this condition we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing can comfort us but the coming again of our Titus A few days 't is thought will produce somewhat very extraordinary The rest of this Letter is nothing else but what is verbatim to be found in Pricaeus's Notes upon 1 Tim. 4. 12 15 16. As is also what is inserted in Letter 283 upon 2 Tim. 2. 9. Your Grace's most humble and faithful Servant John Price London Aug. 19. The sixth Copy I have thought upon it would not be unfitly sent to Monsieur Naudeus There will want one likewise for the Puteani Fratres whom I presume my Lord it is your mind should have one I will therefore send them mine but as from you my Lord. LETTER CCLXXXI A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Learned Ludovicus Capellus Viro Clarissimo Ludovico Capello S. T. Literarum Hebraicarum in Academiâ Salmuriensi Professore eximio Vir Clarissime LIteras tuas Salmurii die Septembris XXVI datas Octobris nostri Juliani die XXIII o Londini accepi quibus tamèn respondere ut vellem Caligantes oculi non sinunt qui me à toto hoc scribendi studio jampridem avocant Conabor tamen Deo volente post absolutam Annalium partem alteram quae jam effecta proditur in lucem quae de LXX Interpretum versione animo concepi in brevem diatribam conficere licet ut hic versione Graecâ ità in historiae Apostolicae dispositione in Annalibus non semel à te dissentiam semper tamen apud me valiturum illud dubitare noli Non eadem sentire bonis de rebus iisdem incolumi licet semper amicitia Codicem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alexandria à Cyrillo Patriarchâ in Angliam transmissum quem Theclae vocant edere caepit eruditissimus Patricius Junius Sed eo ad meliorem vitam translato nulla illius editionis spes nobis est relicta Cuduntur tamèn apud nos Biblia Polyglotta in quibus veteres sacri contentus Editionis uno conspectu representatae exhibentur In his Alexandrini illius codicis cum editione Graecâ Vaticana collatio instituitur textus quem desideras Samariticus simùl adjungitur quemadmodum inprimis hisce magni operis paginis quas ad te mittere libuit videre licet Tu ista quaeso boni consule me amare pergas Tuus in Christo frater amantissimus Ja. Usserius Armachanus Londini Octobris 27. Anni MDCLIII LETTER CCLXXXII A Letter from Dr. Price to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend my good Lord I Have been somewhat the longer in answering your Letter conveyed to me by Mr. Thorndike as desiring to satisfy you about the Tractate of Chrysostom against Apollinarius Much search hath been made in this Library but as yet it appears not and no great wonder here being almost thirty Volumes of that Father some of them without beginning others without end and some like Eternity without beginning and end if the Pluteus and Number had been specified by your Lordship it would have facilitated the Enterprize And perhaps there is no such thing here for neither hath your Lordship specified from whom you learned it Canisius whom to that end I looked into citing only in Latin two Passages out of it but not telling us in the Margin where the Greek Manuscript is Of Gregory Nyssen contra Apollinarium we have the Greek here but that we know is printed I will not yet count your Business desperate perhaps that piece of Chrysostom may be lighted upon in some other Volume of promiscuous Tractates and what we could not by Industry we may obtain by good Fortune I understand with much both satisfaction and consolation of the perfecting of your Lordship 's Chronology but despair for the present at least in this interruption of Traffique by the War between England and Holland to get sight of it as likewise of Mr. Young's Septuagint and Dr. Hammond's Version and Notes on the New Testament Some Notes of mine upon a part of Paul's Epistles which I would not have mentioned but that your Lordship is pleased to enquire of my low Studies lie ready by me and had been printed above a Year since if in Venice at least for here in Florence is not so much as a Greek Stamp there could have been found ô tempore ô moribus as says Sir Philip Sidney's Rhombus a fit Corrector In those Notes on the passage of 2 Tim. 2. 9. there is somewhat concerning Ignatius which coming yesterday under mine eye while I was thinking of writing to your Lordship
gravissimis studiis occupatum tam molesto labore mei causâ defungi velim Sed si quis fortè apud vos studiosus eum librum tuâ causâ conferre voluerit cum vulgatis editionibus aut si quis fortasse jam contulit rogo ut varias lectiones mecum communices Ego vicissim tibi spondeo honorificam mentionem et Tui ejus qui hanc operam subierit in meis annotationibus me esse facturum Vale Vir Clarissime omnium Anglorum doctissime Tibi addictissimus Henr. Valesius Lutetiae Parisiorum iii Nonas Decemb. An. Christi 1654. LETTER CCXCV. A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Learned Henricus Valesius Viro doctissimo D. Henrico Valesio Vir Clarissime EUsebium nostrum tandèm salvum ad te pervenisse gaudeo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illas longè antequà m Genevensis editio lucem aspexit à D. Henrico Savilio in eo fuisse annotatas tibi confirmare possum Quem ex proprio Manuscripto suo eas se desumpsisse nòn semel dixisse mihi memini Et alio hic quà m Christophorsoni codice eum fuisse usum Tam ex lacunis in libris de vitâ Constantini suppletis quam ex appendice ad finem Theodoreti historiae adjectâ tutè poteris cognoscere Pervolutaverat diligenter per aliquot annos magnus ille vir tùm Pontificiam Vaticanam tùm Viennensem Imperatoriam tùm Vincentii Pinelli aliorum tunc temporis clarorum Italorum privatas Bibliothecas ex quibus rariora quaeque suâ manu descripta in patriam secum detulit Quorum nonnulla ipse quoque in libello de anno solari veterum Macedonum commemoro Quanto verò studio omnia omnium locorum scrinia libraria ad perficiendum suum Chrysostomum rimatus ille fuerit quis ignorat Cujus editionem ad Rempub. Augustanam missam quùm Marcus Velserus primum usurpasset oculis sublatis exclamâsse fertur Nil â—riturum alias nil ortum tale fatemur Ne quis ad humile quid vulgare demittere illum se potuisse existimet sed qualiscumque demum codex noster fuerit arbitratu tuo uti eo tibi licebit donèc Eusebii tui tantopere desideratam editionem absolveris Interea nostrum ad te mitto de LXX Interpretum Versione Syntagma Ex quo Patricium Junium jamdudum vitâ esse functum intelliges Te autèm diu adhuc superstitem conservet summus ille Deus in quo viviâ—us movemur sumus quod secundis votis ab eo expetit Tui amantissimus J. U. A. Junii die 15 25 Anno 1655. LETTER CCXCVI. A Letter from Dr. Barlow now Bishop of Lincoln to the most Reverend James Usher late Arch-bishop of Armagh My good Lord IN obedience to your Grace's Command I have made search for those Books in the Passages in them which you enquired after and in answer to your Queries I do hereby make this return Q. 1. For the first Query Whether in 1 Chron. 1. Cainan be in both places in the Moscovitical Translation Sol. Be pleased to know that 1 Chron. 1. 18. the Biblia Moscovitica have not Kainan between Arphaxad and Sala as the Septuagint have For whereas in the LXX 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Moscovitical Translation hath only thus leaving Kainan out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arphaxad begot Sala and Sala begot Eber. But ver 24. of the same Chapter the LXX Translators and the Moscovite agree and both have Kainan For as it is in the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So in the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the Sons of Sem Arphaxad Kainan Sala Q. 2. For the second Query concerning the Passage in Genebrard be pleased to know that Genebrard in Epistolâ ad Lectorem Psalmis praefixâ justifying the Septuagint against the Hebrew as the Masorites have made it with Points and Distinctions he hath these words Masoretas versus confudisse ac misâ—uisse ut proinde metrica veterum Carminum ratio periret quae tempore Septuaginta integra erat Quod sane extra Poëtas aliquando accidit Ut. 2. Paral. 30. versu 18. qui clauditur per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pro. ut proinde Kimchi eum in sequentem extendat Pro omni qui cor suum praeparat c. Q. 3. For the third Query Whether in Ptolomy's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Manuscript Copies Be pleased to know that I have consulted two excellent Manuscripts and 't is in both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Q. 4. For the fourth Query Whether it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have consulted two Manuscripts now in my custody and they very fair ones in the first and more ancient Manuscript in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we read thus 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So it is writ in the Manuscript where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is manifestly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For 1. So he writes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Manuscript pag. 42. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Manuscript pag. 271. 2. And in the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 55. of the Kings of Egypt having named one Ptolomy Evergetes then Ptolomi's more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do immediatly follow and next after them another Ptolomy Evergetes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So. pag. 231. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is writ thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. And in the other Manuscripts which is later t is distinctly writ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that I conceive that 't is beyond all question that it must be read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Q. 5. For the last Question Whether the Doxology be in the Lord's Prayer in the Moscovitical Translation I can return no answer satisfactory for though I know the Character and can read the Language and so may know the proper Names which are contained in all Languages yet not understanding the Language I cannot assure you that the Doxology is there In our ancient Saxon Manuscript of Gospels the Doxology is wanting both in Matth. 6. 9. and Luke 11. 1. In Matthew the Lord's Prayer ends thus 7 ne gelaede þu us on costnunge ac alys us of yfle soðlice i. e. And lead thou us not into temptation but free us truly from evil 'T is the same in Luke only the word soðlice is not there So it is also in Fox's printed Copy of the Saxon. The Doxology is wanting also in an old Latin Manuscript of the Gospels in Saxon Letters both in Matthew and Luke My Duty and humble Service remembred I beg your Grace's Benenediction and Pardon for the rude
scrible of My Lord Your Grace's most humble Servant Thomas Barlow Q. Coll. Oxon. Sept. 28. 1655. LETTER CCXCVII. A Letter from Mr. Herbert Thorndike to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord I Have perused Bar Nachman upon Gen. 12. 40. but do not find that he begins the 430 Years from the Birth of Isaac He recites the Exposition of Jarchi that the 400 Years begin from the Birth of Isaac because it is said Thy Seed shall be a Pilgrim but the 30 from the Decree between the cloven Creatures Which though he confesses to be the Opinion of their Doctors he easily refutes because Abraham was 75 Years old when he came out of Haran much more then This he says Seder Olam salves by saying that Abraham was but 70 Years old when God made that Covenant with him and that he returned afterwards into Mesopotamia and left it finally when he was but 75 Years old But this being in his Eye but a Midrash he says according to the Letter that when it is said Thy Seed shall be a Pilgrim 400 Years the intent is only to express the time in gross not to determine precisely the time of it which he reserves a latitude for by mentioning the fourth Generation and the wickedness of the Amorite to be compleated which occasioned also 40 Years stay in the Wilderness And so the construction of the words he makes to be this and the Pilgrimage of the Children of Israel in Egypt was till 430 Years that they dwelt there until that were fulfilled to them which was said In a Land not their own Which is the same phrase saith he with that of Deut. 11. 14. And the days that we travelled from Kadesh Barnea till we passed the Brook Zered were 38 Years For this time was not spent in travelling from Kadesh Barnea for there they staid many Years and passed the Brook Zered where 38 Years were accomplished And so Dan. 12. 12. Happy is he that expects and attains to 1335 days Which is not to those days but to the end of them Here I confess having Jarchi his reason to begin the 400 Years at Isaac and this to add 30 I thought he might have taken that course But then the Children of Israel must have dwelt 240 Years in Egypt which is with him an inconvenience because the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Gemara signifies that they were to stay in Egypt but 210. But another consideration he hath of good account to my thinking That the Revelation of 400 Years tending to limit the time when God would give his Seed the Land which presently he promised him it is to be understood from the time of the Promise And because then they must have dwelt in Egypt 220 Years or thereabouts he says if the 210 Years be a Tradition in Israel it may be salved by imputing it to the Sons of Jacob only not reckoning the 17 Years that he lived in it to be of the number For thus 227 in Egypt 190 from the birth of Isaac unto Jacob's going down and 13 from the Promise to the birth of Isaac make 430 so I understand him He saith further That the 30 Years must be understood to be added for the sins of the Israelites in Egypt Idolatry neglect of Circumcision and the like upon this rule that all Promises that are not with Oath imply a tacit Condition And that upon the same account their Pilgrimage is prolonged 40 Years in the Wilderness a Land not theirs but belonging to the Serpents and Scorpions This is the effect of his Commentary upon that place which being close couched I would not undertake to abridg further if perhaps any thing in it may prove Novelty to your Grace As for Abarbniel I can easily assure that he understands the calling of Abraham Gen. 12. 1. to have been out of Charan for he calls the Opinion of Abenezra expounding that Text of his calling out of Ur which we follow as agreeing with S. Stephen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a plain Lye for he doth not believe at all that Terah or Abraham came out of Ur of the Chaldees upon any call of God but observes all the Text of Gen. 11. 25 to intimate the misfortunes of Terah in Ur that whereas the Posterity of Sem had Children at 30 Years he had none till 70. That whereas they begat Sons and Daughters he had but three Sons that of these three one died young another having married had no Children and the like and infers that these were the occasion to resolve him to leave Ur and to come into Canaan whether as more healthy or whether as more fortunate according to his Astrology Something nevertheless he delivers which seems to justify S. Stephen's words in that he holds both Ur and Charan to have been in Mesopotamia beyond Euphrates according to the words of Joshua 24. 2. For though Chaldea he supposes to be on this side the River yet he supposes that a place beyond the River may well be called Ur of the Chaldees As for the purpose if we suppose that the Chaldees under Nimrod should conquer beyond the River this place as well as those we read of Gen. 10. 10 11. which he thus understandeth that Nimrod went forth from those parts when he said afore that the beginning of his Kingdom was to inlarge it in those parts which he mentions afterwards In this then he seems to comply with S. Stephen's words But for the coming of Abraham out of Ur he acknowledges no Call of God though he maintains the Truth of the Tradition that Abraham was to have been cast into the Furnace of Fire because he disputed against Nimrod's Gods and that being cast into Prison in the mean time he was let go to avoid further inconvenience which concurring with Terah in his former deliberations resolved them to go from thence into Charan a place of the Country of Syria out of the Dominion of the Chaldeans And this is that which I find Abarbniel acknowledg that they have by Tradition Now I cannot say that I have found any thing in Bereshith Rabba that he came out of Charan after the death of Terah but I conceive I have found something that might move a Man to think so For there it is said that one R. Isaac observing that there wants 60 Years to the death of Terah by the time of Abraham's travelling excuses it by the mystical sense that the Wicked are said to be dead when they are alive Abraham he says was afraid that they would blaspheme God's Name if his Servant should forsake his Father in his old Age. Whereupon God said I will dispense with the honour of Father and Mother in thee though in no body else And besides he shall die before thou shalt go forth Which in regard of the Promises I should take to signify that it shall be said in the Scripture Terah died c. to wit in the mystical sense It followeth there
Jarki in cap. 29 Exodi vers 7. M. Tr. Rep. cap. 10. throughout James 2. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 May. Tract Fund cap. 2. Sec. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 4. Rabbi Sagnadias the eminent Doctor his Exposition on Dan. 9. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sagnadias That is 70 years of Babel 's Captivity and 420 Zorubbabel 's Temple stood make together 490 Years or 70 Weeks Our English Cover comes of his Hebrew Mother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 literis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 organi permutatis R. Sagnadias by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 means Solomon 's Temple so called the House of Perpetuity for that the Ark rested there longer then in any other place as I shewed in unvailng Moses 's Tabernacle Pag. 2. Yet forgetting himself he begins the 77 of Daniel from the first of Cyrus From the first year of Cyrus till the second of Darius the Persian are 7 weeks or 49 years of those 490 years the first division of the Weeks the City Bither whereof Ben. Cozba was King Adrianus Caesar took 73 years after the destruction of the second Temple after other 52 years He misreckons himself 11 years here for 49 and 420 and 10 make but 479 to which add 11 years and there is 490. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abben Ezra knows not that Moses 's Cermonial Law had its Funerals and Death in Christ's Death Col. 2. 14. agreeing with this of Dan. 9. 24. when Christ was crucified and nailed to the Cross then was the Ceremonial Law crucified and nailed to his Cross. Abben Ezra confutes Rabby Sagnadiah as before I but not by Titus but by Antiochus * Wing of Roman Souldiers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or February makes the mensis Embolismicus or intercallaris being doubled The 70 Years of the Captivity was a Type the time of Man's Life a Captivity of 70 Years In the Psalms Teach us so to number our dayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in number 70 and hath reference to the 70 Years named immediatly before the allusion is sweet Or because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If I could tell but what Verse and Chapter he writes of this New Moon I had translated it I will seek more at leisure I understand not by these two Eclipses what time is gained I would be glad to learn of your Grace To build again Abben Ezra his account of the 70 weeks So the whole is seven until Vid. E. in Dan. 11. 2. 62 Weeks are 434 Years so long Zerobabel 's Temple stood viz. to be 1290 days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ruth 1. 16 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est communis generis therefore may agree with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Major Minor Concl. * Nicephors Chronologiam excipio ubi tam in Graeco libro edito quam in MS. Anastasii Bibolothecarii translatione habentur 135 licet ibi quoque Contius substituâ—rit 132. †Omnes nostri libri cum Antiquiss Cottoniano MS. habent 330. ‖ And again p. 231. in Chronico Casauboniano verum in Raderi editione restitutum est 63. * The Syriack lately set out at Leyden may be much amended by my Manuscript Copy Scal. de Emend lib. 7. pag. 627. Sir James Ware the younger made no Certificate but upon conference with Sir Francis Cottingham Sir James told him that there was but little left in lease to the value but Impropriations As is alledged in the Lords Justices Letter 2 Cor. 1. 9. 1 Cor. 3. 22. Rom. 14. 8. Heb. 11. 9. 61 in all Biblioth Sanct. lib. 4. in Arnob. Rather Fol. 6. pag. 1. * Lib. 4. c. 17. §. 10 11. and in 1 Cor. 11. 24. Iastitut l. 4. c. 17. §. 10. Pag. 192. Scot. in 4 dist 1. 9. 2. De verbo non Scrip. c. 4. Gen. 17. 10 11 12. * In his first Letter about Mr. N. King Euseb. l. 5. Hist. Eccles. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Sam. 11. 7. Cic. Orat. pro Dejotaro Confir distinct Deut. 20. 10 11 16 17. * Angustior distinguitur à Giliade i. Paraeà Josu 22. 9 32. Jos. 24. 11 12 cum Exit 23. 31. Deut. 7. 1 20. * Vid. Augustin Praefat. in speculum * Edit Lindebrog p. 842. †Ibid. p. 373. * Whether the Proselyte or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were tied thereunto is handled in the Talmud of Jerusalem Seder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fol. 8. d. of my Edition †Compare with Deut. 16. 12. 7. Part. 1. cap. 4. Pag. 83 84. Pag. 90. * The variation of some rude American breaketh here no square no more than it doth in the unskilful reckoning of their Times They being meer Savages * This word was not well left out by Gomarus in Investigat p. 123. The Greek S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 †Upon these two words I ground the strength of the Argument which will hold notwithstanding the correction of Gottefredus out of that in libro 1. ad Nationes cap. 13. Quod quidem facitis exorbitantes ipsi à vestris ad altenas religiones * Oper. Lucian Graeco-lat pag. 893. edit Paris Anno 1615. Isych lib. 6. in Levit. cap 23. Vid. Lidyat De variis annorum formis cap. 5. * i. Consecuti sumus juxta usum loquendi veterum Concil Foro-Julien s. c. 13. †Part. 2. cap. 2. pag. 19. 1. * Against Doctor Heylin part 2. cap. 1. pag. 14. 1 Cor. 5. 7. Levit. 23. 10 11. 1 Cor. 15. 20. Math. 27. 52 53. Levit. 23. 15 16 17. Numb 28 26. Exod. 34. 22. Acts 2. 1 4 5 41. Jam 1. 18. Revel 14. 4. Thom. Waldens Doctrinal Tom. 3. Tit. 16. c. 140 Revel 7. 10. Acts 11. 26. * It may be the three first syllables of this word were wanting in the Greek Copy which the Translator used thence eame his viventes * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 †D. White 1 Apud Blondel Pseudo-Isidori pag. 530 c. 2 Distinct. 68. Can. 4 5. 3 In Epit. Jur. Pontificii lib. 6. Tit. 2. cap. 1 2 3. 4 Wal. Messal cap. 5. pag. 315. 5 Apologiae Sect. 3. p. 93 c. 6 Of the Church l. 5. c. 29. 7 De Republ. Eccl. part 1. l. 2. c. 9. §. 17 18 19. 8 Irenico l. 2. cap. 11. Prop. 14. p. 249 c. 9 Apud Fred. Lindenbrog l. 7. c. 318 328 329. lib. 5. c. 168. l. 6. cap. 19 284. lib. 1. cap. 9. lib. 7. cap. 310. * Al. Marianus †Al. Marimannus * F. Homiuum + F. descriptionem * These Latin words Sunt à recentiori manu uti vel primo statim aspectâ— liquet I know not what to make of the last Figure and therefore I have expressed the shape of it as near as I could 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed planissime scriptum est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Praeter innumera ista Exscriptoris errata permulti praeterta occurrunt crassi soloecismi barbarismi ab ipso ut videtur autore is quibus nihil mutavi virgulam tantum iis subduxisse contentus An. 1601. Calvis Edit 3. 1629. Francofurt p. 7. col 1. * Nemnius †f. quodam ‖ dejiceret * Unius * Judgment on the same †Either in questione facti aut juris * Apologet. epist. pag. 10. * De Punctor antiquit part 1. cap. 16. * Epist. §. 2. * Apolog. p. 11 12. * Append. Epist. p. 104. * Apolog. p. 101 * Jacob. Cappel ad ann Mundi 3837. * Critic p. 178. * Commentar Masorethic l. 1. c. 9. * Epist. §. 14. * Critic Defens §. 14. * Epist. §. 55 57 58. †Apol. pag. 93. ‖ Ibid. pag. 94. * Ibid. pag. 96. * Critic p. 478 479 480. †Ibid. p. 292. * Apolog. p. 21. * Critic p. 214. †Ibid. p. 300. * Epist. ad Jul. Africanum * Job 42. 10. * Critic p. 295. * Critic p. 293. * Ibid. p. 132. * Apolog. p. 35. * Critic p. 570. †Ibid p. 572. * Apolog. p. 105. * Maimoni in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tract 5. c. 8. § 4. * Esth. c. 10. sin in edit Graec. Vatican †Joseph lib. 2. contr Apion * Critic p. 513. * Critic p. 510. * Tract 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 1. * Trac 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 7. †Tra. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 3. * Elias Praefat. 3. Masoreth hammasoreth * Comment de varia Hebraicor libror. scriptions lectione cum Bibliis interlineatis edit Antuerp ann 1584. * Apud Euseb. lib. 8. Praeparat Evangelic * Critic p. 571. †Joseph in lib. Belli Judaici Prooemio ¶ Antiquit. lib. 1. cap. 1. lib. 10. cap. 11. * Ibid. lib. 1. ca. 1 †Critic pa. 324. * Antiqu. lib. 1. cap. 1. lib. 10. cap. 11. cum lib. 20. cap. ult contr Apion li. 1. * Vulgata ejus editio non multum distat ab Hebraico Unde non satis miror quid causae fuerit ut si eosdem in universis libris habemus interpretes in aliis eadem in aliis diversa transtulerint Hieronym Prolog in Ezechiel * A. Gel. lib. 20. cap. 5. * Critic pag. 513 * Emendat tempor lib. 7. * Critic p. 572. †Ibid. p. 41. * In Johann tom 13. * In hoc volumine insertam vid. p. 3. * Vide partem post Annal. Usserii pag. 527. Per. Jul. 4079. 1 For Agentes Lips Grut. Salurt L. C. And Casaubon Scribe Agencies filios * Lips Grut. Cùm 2 Lips Grut. Quo. sed apud Casaubonum legitur EX EO DIE DEDVCTI INTERESSENT entiâ longe aliâ 3 Cas. Grut. Facio Cum. Divido * Vide partem post Annalium Usserianorum p. 527. Jul. Per. 4709. * Vid. Annal. Usser part poster pag. 670. Per Jul. 4768. * Vid. Annalium part post loco supra citato * 1 Thess. 3. 1. * So Mr. Livly and I observed * Interpreters you know vary about the number of Paschas after his Baptism till his Death * Under anom lun * Videlicet 12. g 11. i 26.ii Eusebii Septemb. 27. 1650. Lond. Jan. 14 24 1650.