SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.
BIOGRAPHY,
The Life of the Most Reverend James Ussher, DIE, Lord Archbishop of Armagh, and Primate of an Ireland. With an Account alas Writings. By Charles Richard D.D., Begins Professor of Divinity in the University of Dublin. Parker; Rodger and Smith, Dublin. Timms, The Henpecked Husband ; a Novel. By the Author of "The M.P.'s Wife." In three
volumes. Newby. Aftscet.r.s.wzotys Lirea.cruar., Revelations of Ireland in the Past Generation. By D. Owen-Madden, Esq.. of the Inner Temple; Author of Ireland and Its Rulers," "The Age of Pitt and Fox,"
&c. &c Orr and Cu. ; deGlashan, DR. ISLRINGTON'S LIFE OP ARCHBISHOP V8SHER.
AMONG the great divines of the first and second Stuarts, Archbishop -Hasher stands preUminent for the vastness of his learning, the amiable- ness of his personal character, and the blamelessness of his private life. Like other very amiable persons, however, he was somewhat deficient in the firmness necessary for the public man, especially in the bad age upon which his lot was cast. His submission to the Court and to Strafford, in affairs as much lay as clerical, could, however, be upheld as a necessary consequence of his doctrine of passive obedience. The mariner in which at various times he leaned towards the views of the Puritans and Pres- byterians, especially on the subject of Episcopacy, would either indicate a complying mind under circumstances of outward pressure, or (which was perhaps the case) that his opinions verged towards heterodoxy; not, in- deed, in questions of doctrine, on whose fundamentals he was perfectly sound, but on matters of discipline and church-government. Judged by the universal principles of right, Archbishop Ussher's ideas of the ministerial vocation were lax. Although an Irish divine, he occa- sionally passed long periods of time in England, and perhaps always allowed study to encroach too much upon his time as a ruler of the Church. The same feeling probably induced him to be lenient towards abases, especially where improvement would bear hard upon individuals; and his amiableness seems to have placed him too much in the hands of those about him, as in the case of his differences with the excellent Bishop Bedell. Great allowances, however, should be made for his age and country. Authority received a reverence in those days of which it is difficult for us to form a conception. Even religious enthusiasm bowed down before "the powers that be" upon all matters except their peculiar case of conscience : how much more, then, was obedience to be looked for in the member of a church whose leading doctrine was obedience, till James the Second laid his hand upon the liberties and profits of its minis- ters. The stormy Reformation in England, and its successive changes under Henry, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth, together with the secular motives which animated, many of- the Reformers, had introduced the grossest practical abnses into,the Church. Bishoprics and benefices were kept vacant in order that the Crown or other patrons might receive the revenues ; bargains were made by which the incumbent agreed to pay large portion of the income to the patron or some nominee; the matt 'who assented to such an agreement being, of course, n sorry sample of a Christian minister. If these things took place in England with Eliza- beth's sense of decorum, and when Parliament and public opinion had some weight, what must have been the state of Ireland. At Ussher's birth (January 1580-81) the country was not conquered, and was not in fact properly subdued till the government of Strafford, (1632 et seq.) some years after Ussher had been promoted to the Primacy. In a wild country, distracted by barbarian warfare, inhabited by half-savages pro- fessing a different religion from that of the Protestant clergyman, and stimulated by persecuted Popish priests, "residence" must frequently have been unsafe, and sometimes not possible; neither, perhaps, was it possible to find a competent body of clergymen to fill livings. Such a state of things must have rendered the public mind callous to what are now thought gross ecclesiastical abuses. From this feeling the best men could not be altogether free; and if they were they could not find a remedy. It is from not sufficiently attending to the unavoidable influence of con- temporary circumstances upon men, that some later writers have rather depreciated the character of Umber. That he wanted strength of deter- mination, and that as an Archbishop he postponed his administrative duties to his scholastic studies, must probably be granted; but his vir- tues, in the opinion of his contemporaries, far overbalanced these two de- fects, and suspended political animosities even in political enemies. Some imagined that he possessed the gift of prophecy. Burnet, in estimating his character, considers his weakness in the "governing function" of the Church as a necessary part of his humanity : it "was the only alloy that seemed left, and without which he would have been held per- haps in more veneration than was fitting." The Parliament, while they took away his title, allowed to " James Ussher, Doctor in Diviuitie," 4001. a year, when the disturbances in Ireland bad deprived him of his revenues; although the pension does not seem to have been very punc- tually paid. Cromwell professed for him the greatest respect and re- gard; and on Ussher's death, in 1656, forbade the family preparations for his funeral, alleging that he could only be buried in Westminster Abbey with a public ceremony.* Ussher's stanch opposition to Popery might in part be the cause of the favour with which sectarians regarded him. In this he certainly was not beyond his age, but indeed behind some part of it. When Bishop of Meath, he preached a sermon before the Lord-Lieutenant on his investiture—" receiving the sword "—from the text " He beareth not the sword iu vain." The hortatives in this discourse were con- sidered to be of so persecuting a tendency, that a great outcry was raised against him; the Primate wrote him a severe letter, and the Bishop had to preach an explanatory sermon.
• The disfavourers of Cromwell assert that he left the family to pay the greater part of the expenses. This statement, however, does not appear to be strictly accurate: Cromwell ordered a public funeral and an issue of 200f. towards it; so that the excess is what fell upon the family. As a scholar, Dasher's learning was vast, but rather extensive than various; for although he mastered many languages, it was only with one object; and his experience landed him in the conclusion, that except the Hebrew the profit derived from studying the Oriental tongues was not a sufficient reward for the labour. His studies were confined to Biblical and Patristic literature, and ecclesiastical antiquities; in the knowledge of which he appeared in the first rank, if not alone. His chronology of the Bible stands in juxtaposition with the original authorities. He read through the whole of the Fathers, to ascertain whether the Papistical assertion was correct as to the antiquity of the Romish Church ; on which task he was employed for eighteen years. In ecclesiastical anti. quities, especially British and Irish, he was extensively and profoundly skilled. Like many other men of vast acquirements, however, he wanted the ability to use what he possessed. He was deficient in the sublimating power of his great antagonist Milton, to separate the essential spirit of things from their grosser parts, and in the vital genius to animate them, His chronology, reducible to the tabular form, is almost as widely spread as the study of the Bible ; but the greater portion of his works are store. houses of materials, or they treat of subjects whose interest is limited to few. Hence, he is rather known to the world as a learned man than as supplying the world with knowledge—his learning rather furnished re. sults to others than to himself.
Dr. Elrington's Life of Archbishop Usslurr was originally under. taken as an introduction to the collected edition of his works, which is now in the course of completion ; and it is published separately, under the just idea that many persons would wish to have the biographical memoir alone. This life is scholarly—full in matter and close in style; but rather too ecclesiastical for general readers. The man is lost sight of in the clergyman and the scholar. Dr. Elrington does not, of course, fall into the prevailing literary fashion, and stuff his book with accounts of events only contemporary to the Archbishop; but, biographically speaking, he enters too minutely into public events of a clerical kind, in which the Archbishop was concerned. The analytical notice of Dasher's principal publications is useful either as an introduction to the collected works or as a summary for a general reader ; but the subjects are pro. fessional and limited. The kind of book we are describing was no doubt designed, and Dasher's life is chiefly to be found in his labours : but an arrangement by which the account of his writings would have been pre- sented by themselves, with a little more of skill in the selection andof ani- mation in the presentation of personal traits, would have imparted greater interest to the Memoirs.
Perhaps the times of Archbishop Umber are almost as clearly indicated as he is himself, at least as a man. He came early before the public, and from his reputation and position was connected with persons of the highest dignity ; so that the narrative of his life frequently introduces the reader IOW what the tate Mr. D'Israeli has been ridiculed for calling "secret history." In the following we have James the First instructing his newly-promoted Bishop of Meath as to hew ,he should handle the House of Commons before wham he was to preach. The account is by Ussher himself.
" I was appointed by the Lower House of Parliament to preach at St. Marga- ret's, Westminster. The Prebends claimed the privilege of the Church and their exemption from Episcopal jurisdiction fur many hundred years, and offered their own service: whereupon the House being displeased, appointed the place to be at the Temple. I was chosen a second time; and Secretary Calvert by the appoint- ment of the House spoke to the King, that the choice of their preacher might stand: the King said, it was very well done. Feb. 13, being Shrove Tuesday, I dined at Court; and betwixt four and five I kissed the King's hand, and had con- ference with him touching my sermon. He said, I had charge of an unruly flock to look to next Sunday.' He asked me how I thought it could stand with tree divinity, that so many hundred should be tyed upon snub short warning to receive the communion upon a day. All could not be in charity after so late contentions in the House: many must needs come without preparation, and eat their own con- demnation: that himself required all his own household to receive the communion, but not all the same day, unless at Easter, when the whole Lent was a time of preparation. He bad me to tell them I hoped they were all prepared, but wished they might be better; to exhort them to unity and concord; to love God first, and then their Prince and country; to look to the urgent necessities of the times and the miserable state of Christendom, with Bis dat qui cito dat. Feb. 18th, the first Sunday in Lent, I preached at St. Margaret's to them: and Feb. 27th, the House sent Sir James Perrot and Mr. Drake to give thanks, and to desire me to print the Sermon, which was done accordingly; the text being upon the First of the Cor. x. 17. 'For we being many are one bread and one body, for we are all par- takers of that one bread.'"
The following passage exhibits Ussher in his old age, in an interview with Cromwell, when the Protector had forbidden the clergymen of the Church of England to exercise any part of their ministerial functions, or to teach in a school.
"Many of the clergy in London and its neighbourhood, hearing that Cromwell professed great respect for Archbishop 'lusher, entreated him to wait upon the Protector and endeavour to procure for them the same liberty of conscience which hi granted to all classes of Dissenters; to solicit permission, as they were ex- cluded from the public Churches, to officiate in their own private congregations; and to be secured from the disturbance of the soldiers, who interrupted their service and insulted their persons. The Archbishop complied, and prevailed so far as to obtain a promise that the episcopal clergy should not be molested, pro- vided they did not interfere with subjects relating to the Government. The Primate went a second time to get the promise confirmed and put in writing. He found the Protector under the hands of his surgeon, who was dressing a boil on his breast. The Protector requested the Primate to sit down, and that be would speak with him as soon as the dressing was completed. Upon this a very remarkable conversation ensued. Cromwell addressed the Primate, and said, pointing to the boil,' if this core were once out, I should be soon well.' The Archbishop replied—' I doubt the core lies deeper; there is a core in the heart, which must be taken out, or else it will not be well." Ah replied the Protector, 'so there is indeed.' And, though he affected to be unconcerned, a sigh followed his words. When the Primate introduced the subject of his visit, Cromwell told him, that having more maturely considered the subject, he had been advised by his &mica not to grant any indulgence to men who were restless and im- placable enemies to his person and government; and then dismissed him with professions of civility and kindness. The aged Archbishop returned to his lodgings in great agitation, and deeply lamented the ill success of his interference. Dr. Parr relates, that he visited the Primate soon after in his chamber, and heard fron him words to the following effect= This false man bath broken Lis word with me, and refuses to perform what he promised. Well, he will have little cause to glory in his wickedness, for he will not continue long: the King will return; though I shall not live to see' it, you may. The Government, both in Church and State, is in confusion: the Papists are advancing their projects, and making sucb advantages as will hardly be prevented. "The Primate of Ireland, after interceding with Cromwell for ejected ministers without success, retired to the country, using this expression to Dr. Gauden, that he saw some men had only guts and no bowels; intestine non viscera."— Farther Continuation of Friendly Debates. London, 1670, p. 148.
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