IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 175 



Gray's Inn in 1635, having, it is believed by some, 

 bequeathed to St John's College a large number 

 of volumes from his library, which, however, cannot 

 be ear-marked as his, if he really did make the 

 bequest. 



JAMES USSHER, ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH 



(1581-1656). 



" Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel. " 



These words Ussher had engraved as his motto on the 

 Episcopal seals at Meath and at Armagh. 



He was born in the Parish of St Nicholas, 

 Dublin. His uncle, Henry Ussher, Archbishop of 

 Armagh, sent him to Trinity College, Dublin, to be 

 educated. Dr Johnson refers to that "great 

 luminary of the Irish Church," and he has been 

 called " learned to a miracle." He carried on a 

 book-war with Milton, and became Bishop of 

 Meath, and later on Bishop of Carlisle, before 

 being appointed Archbishop of Armagh and 

 Primate of all Ireland.^ He witnessed, from a 

 neighbouring housetop, the last moments of Charles 

 the First on the scaffold, from the effects of which he 

 never recovered. He died rather suddenly at 



^"His Augustinian theology commended him to the Puritans, his 

 veneration for antiquity to the High Churchmen." Ussher visited 

 England many times to live, as he termed it, " among the libraries," 

 "hiving wisdom with each studious year." His Protestantism was 

 "out and out." 



