239 



URSINUS, BENJAMIN. 



USHER, JAMES. 



210 



URSI'NUS, BENJAMIN, a descendant of the celebrated Zacharias 

 Ursiuu?, distinguished himself as a Lutheran preacher during the 

 latter part of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century. He 

 was at first court preacher to the elector of Brandenburg. In 1701, 

 when Frederic I. assumed the title of king of Prussia, he made Ursinus 

 bishop, and raised him to the rank of nobility. Ursinus used to 

 begin his sermons with the words ' Onco upon a time.' When Frede- 

 ric I. died, in 1713, his successor, Frederic William I., who employed 

 himself in regulating the finances of his kingdom and reducing the 

 public expenditure, also reduced the salary of the bishop Ursinus. 

 The bishop petitioned that his former income might be restored : the 

 king replied by a letter, which contained only these words, ' All that 

 was once upon a time." The sermons preached by Ursiuua on various 

 great court occasions are said to be superior to those of other preachers 

 of the time, both in style and matter. 



URSI'NUS, FU'LVIUS, one of the most eminent Italian scholars 

 of the 16th century, was born on the 2nd of December 1529, at Rome. 

 He was the natural eon of a commander of the order of Malta, who 

 belonged to the noble family of the Orsini. During his early years 

 his education was conducted with great care, but afterwards a dispute 

 arose between his mother and his father, in consequence of which she 

 and her child were cast upon the world without any means of subsist- 

 ence, and she was obliged to seek support by begging. However, 

 some early indications of talent which the boy evinced procured him 

 a place as 'clericus' in the church of St. John in the Lateran. Here 

 he attracted the attention and gained the attachment of a canon of 

 the name of Gentilio Delfini, who not only took him into his house, 

 but also instructed him in the Latin and Greek languages. The 

 amiable character of Ursinus, his industry, and his talent*, induced 

 the canon to use all his influence in his behalf; and after Ursinus had 

 been ordained priest, he obtained successively several preferments in 

 the Church, and became at last the successor to his benefactor. He 

 now formed the acquaintance and friendship of the most distinguished 

 and learned men in Rome and Italy. Cardinal liainutius made him his 

 librarian ; and, after his death, Cardinal Alexander Farnese engaged 

 his services for the same purpose. In these positions he was very 

 liberally rewarded, and had also opportunities of becoming acquainted 

 with all the treasures of ancient literature and art which were then 

 known. Cardinal CarafFa recommended him. to Pope Gregory XIII., 

 and procured him an annual pension of 200 ducats. The ample 

 income which he now enjoyed enabled him to spend considerable sums 

 on books, manuscripts of ancient authors, and a valuable archaeological 

 museum, and to support his mother; for whom he always showed a 

 tender affection. When he was advanced in years he made his will, 

 in which he bequeathed his museum to Cardinal Odoardo Farnese, hia 

 manuscripts to the Vatican library, his printed books to Horatio Lance- 

 lotti, and the sum of 2000 crowns to Geatilio Delfini, bishop of Cama- 

 rino, who was probably a near relation to his early benefactor. He 

 died at Rome, on the 18th of May 1600. 



Fulvius Ursinus possessed very extensive learning, and he was a man 

 of good sense and talent. His knowledge of ancient manuscripts was 

 very great, and he was particularly skilled in deciphering them. Of 

 this art he appears to have made a sort of secret, upon which he 

 avoided giving any information when he was asked. His works, 

 which are very numerous, consist of commentaries, critical and exe- 

 getical,-on ancient writers, editions of them, and original treatises on 

 antiquarian subjects. Among his commentaries, which are usually 

 very short, but useful for the critical study of the ancients, the most 

 important are those on the ' Scriptores Rei Rusticae ; ' on the Roman 

 historians, such as Sallust, Caesar, Livy, Velleius, Tacitus, Suetonius, 

 Spartianus, and others. These notes on the Roman historians are 

 reprinted at the end of his ' Fragmenta Historicorum Romanorum,' 

 8vo, Antwerp, 1595. His notes on Sextus Pomponius Festus are 

 printed in several subsequent editions of this grammarian : those on 

 all the works of Cicero appeared at Antwerp, 8vo, 1581, and are also 

 contained in Lambinus's edition of Cicero. Besides the fragments of 

 the Roman historians, he edited a collection of the lyric and elegiac 

 poets of Greece ; and in 1582 he published the first edition of the 

 ' Eclogae de Legationibus,' which contained various parts of the works 

 of Polybius, Dionysius, and Appian, which had until then been 

 unknown. Among the original dissertations of Ursinus we may 

 mention 1. 'Familiae Romanae, qute reperiuntur in antiquis numis- 

 matibu?,' of which an improved and enlarged edition was published 

 by C. Patin, 1663. It is also printed in vol. vii. of Grfevius's ' The- 

 saurus Antiquitatum Romanarum.' 2. ' Imagines et Elogia Virorum 

 illustrium, e marmoribus, nunimis, et gemmis expressax' The best 

 edition is that of J. Faber (1606), with a commentary. 3. An appendix 

 to Ciaconius's treatise ' De Triclinio Romano.' A Life of Ursinus, in 

 which his will also is printed, was published by Joseph Castalio, 8vo, 

 Rome, 1657. It is reprinted in the 'Vitae Selectao eruditorum quorun- 

 dam Virorum,' published at Breslau, 1711. 



(Compare Tomasini, Elogia; Niceron, Mtmoires des Hommes Illustrcs, 

 vol. xxiv. ; Jb'cher, Allgem. Gdehrten-Lexic.) 



URSI'NUS, ZACHARI'AS, a celebrated German divine of the 16th 

 century, was born at Breslau on the 18th of July 1534. He studied 

 at Wittenberg, and as he was very poor, he was obliged to live on 

 gratuities and on what he could earn by private lessons. His uncom- 

 mon perseverance and industry gained him the friendship of Melanch- 



thon, who, in 1557, took him with him to the conference at Worms. 

 From Worms Ursinus went to Geneva, and thence to Paris, for the 

 purpose of acquiring a knowledge of French and of studying Hebrew 

 under Mercer. Almost immediately after his return to Wittenberg 

 he was appointed rector of the Gymnasium Elizabethanum at Breslau, 

 in 1558. Being a follower of Melanchthon, he soon became involved 

 in theological controversies with the strictly Lutheran divines 

 of Breslau respecting the nature of the Lord's supper and baptism 

 and he was designated by the name of 'the Sacramentarian.' He 

 explained his own views on these subjects in a dissertation, but as he 

 could not silence his adversaries, and as he himself was not inclined to 

 continue the controversy, he asked leave to resign in 1560, and went 

 to Zurich, where he met with a kind and hospitable reception from 

 Peter Martyr, Gesner, Simler, and others. He had not been much 

 more than a twelvemonth at Zurich, when he was invited to a profes- 

 sorship in the Collegium Sapieutae at Heidelberg. 



In the year 1562 Ursinus was made Doctor of Divinity, and, at the 

 command of the elector palatine, Frederic III., Ursinus drew up the 

 famous Heidelberg Catechism, which was subsequently adopted by all 

 the German Calvinists as the exposition of their creed. It was 

 fiercely attacked by the Lutherans, such as Flacius, Hoshusius, and 

 others. The elector ordered Ursinus to write a defence of it, which 

 appeared in 1563, in German. The attacks upon the elector and his 

 protdge" however did not proceed from Lutheran divines alone; 

 and the elector was charged by some princes of the empire with 

 protecting and propagating doctrines contrary to the Augsburg Con- 

 fession. Ursinus was again called upon to write a defence of his 

 doctrines. This he did in 1563, in a work called ' Exegesis Verae 

 Doctrinae de Sacramentis contra Bacmeisterum.' In 1564 Ursiuus 

 attended the colloquy at Maulbrunn, at which he spoke with great 

 energy against Brentius and Schmidlinus, and the doctrine of Ubiquity 

 maintained by them. About the same time the elector founded some 

 new educational establishments at Amberg, Heidelberg, and Neuhaus; 

 and Ursinus, at his request, drew up the rules for their administration. 

 The manner in which he discharged this and other clutie- 

 Ursinus so high in the esteem of his prince, that in 1571, when the 

 professorship of Theology in the university of Lausanne was offered 

 to him, and he seemed inclined to accept it, the elector took the pains 

 to persuade Ursinus to remain at Heidelberg. The elector palatine 

 Frederic III. died in 1577, and was succeeded by his sou Ludwig. on 

 which a great change took place in the palatinate ; for as this prince 

 tolerated only strict Lutherans among his clergy and in the university, 

 Ursinus and his disciples were obliged to quit Heidelberg in 1078, 

 and went to Neustadt, where he was appointed professor of theology 

 at the gymnasium which was just established there. Here Ursinus 

 taught theology and logic, aud continued his studies without any 

 further disturbance until his death, on the 6th of March 1583. 



Ursinus was a modest though very passionate man ; but he exer- 

 cised great control over his passions, and he is said never to have 

 answered an objection immediately. He had no talent for preaching, 

 aud he discontinued it as soon as he discovered his unfitness. His 

 diligence and application were extraordinary ; and in order that he 

 might not be disturbed by intruders, he put the following inscription 

 on the door of his study : 



" Amice, quisquis hie venis, 

 Aut agito paucis, aut abi, 

 Aut me laborantem adjuva ! " 



Some of his works were at the time translated into English : for 

 instance, his exposition of the Heidelberg Catechism, under the title 

 of ' Summe of the Christian Religion,' translated by Henry Parrie, 

 1587, 4to. All his works were collected and published after his death, 

 at Neustadt, 1587; but the best and most complete edition is that 

 which was edited by his former pupils, David Pareus and Quirinus 

 Reutems, at Heidelberg, 1612, 3 vols. fol. 



URVILLE, DUMONT D.' [DUMONT D'URVILLE, J. S. C.] 

 USHER or USSHER (in Latin USSERIUS), JAMES, a most 

 learned and distinguished Irish prelate, was born at Dublin, on the 

 4th of January 1580. His father, the descendant of an ancient family, 

 founded by an Englishman of the name of Nevil, who in exchange 

 for that had assumed the name of his office on coming over to Ireland 

 with Henry II.'s son John in the quality of usher, about 11S5. was 

 Arnold Usher, one of the six clerks of the Irish court of chancery ; 

 his mother was a daughter of James Stauyhurst, who was thrice 

 elected speaker of the Irish House of Commons, and held the offices 

 of one of the masters in chancery and recorder of the city of Dublin. 

 A brother of his father's, Henry Usher (about whom, there is an 

 article in Bay le), was Archbishop of Armagh from 1595 to 1613: a 

 brother of his mother's was Richard Stanyhurst, who (as well as his 

 sister and his father) latterly became a Roman Catholic, and is the 

 author of a translation of the first four books of the ' JEneid ' into 

 English hexameters, besides several learned theological and historical 

 works, of one of which, his ' Descriptio Hiberniae,' an English transla- 

 tion is printed in Holinshed's Chronicles. 



Usher, who was his father's eldest son, is said to have been taught 

 to read by two aunts who had been blind from their cradle. He was 

 then sent, at eight years of age, to a school kept in Dublin by two 

 secret political emissaries of King James of Scotland, Mr. (afterwards 

 Sir) James Fullerton and Mr. James Hamilton (afterwards created 



