USHER. 



once every three years. When Uflier had attained his 30th 

 year, he was unanimoudy elefted to the provolKhip of the 

 college ; but he thought proper to decline this honourable 

 office. Two years afterwards he was admitted to the de- 

 gree of D.D. In 1613, upon a vifit to England, he 

 printed at the royal prefs his firft publication, entitled 

 " Gravifrimx QuaelUonis de Chriilianarum Ecclefiarum, in 

 Occidentis pra;fertim Partibus, ab Acoftolicis tempon- 

 bus ad noftram ufqiie aetatcm, continua fucceffione et ftatu, 

 Hiftorica Explicatio." This work may be regarded as 

 a continuation of biihop Jewel's " Apology for the Church 

 of England," intended to prove that the tenets of the Pro- 

 teftants were the fame with thofe of the primitive Chriftians. 

 In this year he married the daughter of Dr. Euke Chaloner, 

 who charged his daughter, on his death-bed, to marry no 

 one but Dr. Ufher, if he ever propofed the conneftion. 

 She was an heirefs with a confiderable fortune; and they 

 lived together in the greatcll harmony for 40 years, and left 

 an only child, who was a daughter, and afterwards lady 

 Syrrel. 



At a convocation of the prelates and clergy of the Irifli 

 eftabhfhment, held at Dublin in the year 1615, it was deter- 

 mined that they (hould alfert their independence on the 

 church of England. Ufher was principally employed on 

 this occafion ; and as he was known to maintain the opinion, 

 that bilhops were not a diftinft order in the church, but 

 only fuperior in degree to prefbyters, he was rcprefented to 

 king James as a favourer of puritanifm, which was the ob- 

 jeft of that monarch's invincible antipathy. When he 

 vifited England in 1619, he thought proper to bring with 

 him a recommendatory letter from the lord-deputy and his 

 council to the Englifh privy-council, containing a tefti- 

 monial to his orthodoxy, and a high encomium on his pro- 

 feflional and moral character. This atteftation, together 

 with the fatisfaftion which lie gave to the king of his ortho- 

 doxy religious and political, more efpecially with regard to 

 the head of the church, and the unlawfulnefs of refillance to 

 the royal authority, not only removed the prejudice which 

 had been conceived againft him in the royal mind, but ob- 

 tained for him a fpontaneous nomination to the fee of Meath. 

 On his return to Ireland in the following year, he was con- 

 fecrated, and took pofTeffion of his fee, with a refolution 

 faithfully to perform the duties of his ofEce. In a fermon 

 preached before the lord-deputy in 1622, from the following 

 text, " He beareth not the fword in vain," he gave offence 

 to the Recufants, who confidered it as a kind of call upon 

 the new governor, lord Falkland, to employ the fword 

 againft the enemies of the eftabliihed reHgion. Some excep- 

 tionable paffagcs were pointed out to him by his metro- 

 politan, primate Hampton, who advifed a voluntary re- 

 traftation. In this inftance, the good prelate feems to have 

 been urged by his zeal to overpafs the limits both of dif- 

 cretion and equity. However this be, the perfons then in 

 power did not difapprove his fentiments ; and the king was 

 fo pleafed with the fupport he gave to his fpiritual fupre- 

 macy, that he foon after nominated him a privy counfellor 

 of Ireland. In order to oppofe the errors and fuperftitions 

 of Popery, which were then prevalent, he pubhfhed an 

 Engli(h treatife concerning " the Religion of the ancient 

 Irifh and Britons :" the defign of which was to evince the 

 conformity of the doftrines and rites of the early ages of 

 Chriftianity in thefe countries with thofe of the Proteitants ; 

 and to point out the periods in which the practices of the 

 church of Rome were introduced. This learned treatife 

 was reprinted at London in 1 63 1 . He was afterwards en- 

 gaged, by command of king James, in an elaborate work 

 on the antiquities of the Britifh church ; and he came over 



to England, in order to obtain every kind of neceffary in- 

 formation on his fubjeft. On his return to Ireland in 1624, 

 he employed fome time in writing a reply to the challenge 

 of an Irifh Jefuit, in which work he difplayed a very accu- 

 rate acquaintance with ecclefiaftical hiftory and the writings 

 of the fathers. Dr. Hampton having by his death left a 

 vacancy in th.e fee of Armagh and primacy of Ireland, 

 Uflier was nominated by the king to the vacant dignity, and 

 received fome other tokens of the king's predileftion in his 

 favour. The fame attachment was manifefted to our author 

 by Charles I., who fucceeded to the throne. In November 

 1625, our prelate was invited by the earl Mordaunt, 

 afterwards the firft earl of Peterborough, to vifit him at his 

 feat at Drayton, in Northamptonfhire. The objcft of this 

 \')fit w:as a difputation on the points in controverfy between 

 the churches of Rome and England. His lordfliip was a 

 zealous Catholic, and his lady, the daughter and heirefs of 

 Howard lord Effingham, an equally zealous Proteftant, 

 who being defirous of converting her hufband, had folicited 

 Uflier as her champion. The Catholic advocate was an 

 Englifli Jefuit. The conference between the difputants 

 lafted three days, five hours in each day. The Catholic 

 champion, upon a trivial pretence, withdrew from the con- 

 teft, and lord Mordaunt became a convert. Upon his 

 return to Ireland, after this adventure, in 1626, he was in- 

 ftalled in his new dignity, and took his place at the head of 

 the Irifti church. As war fubfil^ed at this time both with 

 France and Spain, it was propofed to augment the military 

 of Ireland ; and to engage the concurrence of the Catholics, 

 they were led to expeft a more enlarged toleration of re- 

 ligion. The primate fummoned a meeting of prelates, and 

 they protefted againft the propofed indulgence ; alleging, 

 " that the religion of the Papifts is fuperftitious and ido- 

 latrous ; their faith and doftrine erroneous and heretical ; 

 and their church, in refpeft of both, apoftatical. To give 

 them, therefore, a toleration, or to confent that they may 

 freely exercifc their rehgion, and profefs their faith and 

 doftrine, is a grievous fin." Upon this proteftation, Bavle 

 obferves, " that the archbifhop and his fuffragans afted ac- 

 cording to the principles of the extremeft intolerance ; for 

 they did not found their reafoning upon maxims of ftate, 

 hke the advocates for mitigated intolerance, but folely upon 

 the nature of the Roman Catholic worfhip ; without making 

 any mention of its perfecuting fpirit, which is the only caufe 

 why even the friends of toleration argue that it ought not 

 to be tolerated :" and this cenfure is unqueftionably well 

 grounded. Milton, though a friend to toleration in general, 

 adds to his reafons for not tolerating Popery, that of its 

 being idolatrous. But it is well obferved by Dr. Aikin 

 (ubi infra), that tlie argument againft the toleration of 

 Popery, on account of its being a falfe religion, is fuch as 

 erery eftabliftied religion may with equal right urge againft 

 every other, and may therefore juftify univerfal intolerance. 

 See Toleration. 



The primate, befides attending to the various duties of 

 his office, employed himfelf and obtained the affiftance 

 of others in augmenting his library, and in promoting the 

 common interefts of literature. In order to procure oriental 

 books and MSS., he correfponded with an inteUigent mer- 

 chant at Aleppo, and by his means obtained a curious copy 

 of the Samaritan Pentateuch, a Syrian Pentateuch, and a 

 Commentary on a great part of the Old and New Tefta- 

 ments, and feveral other valuable MSS. From the Sama- 

 ritan Pentateuch he furniflied fome extrafts for his friend 

 Selden, in his " Arundelian Marbles ;" and he depofited 

 the MS. itfelf in the Cottonian hbrary. Dr. Walton 

 availed himfelf of Ufher's coUeAion in his Polyglott Bible ; 



and 



