The Caroline church: James Ussher and the Irish dimension

Historical Journal

Volumn 39, Issue 1, 1996, Pages 57-85

  Capern, Amanda L ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF HULL   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 85011454590     PISSN: 0018246X     EISSN: 14695103     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0018246X00020677     Document Type: Article

References (229)

1. Kevin Sharpe, The personal rule of Charles I (New Haven, 1992), pp. 279–285.
2. Julian Davies, The Caroline captivity of the church (Oxford, 1993), passim
3. cf. Sharpe, The personal rule, pp. 281–2, 285, 288–9.
4. Derek Hirst, Review: ‘The king redeemed: a revisionist account of the reign of Charles I’, Times Literary Supplement, 15 Jan. 1993, p. 3.
5. Sharpe, The personal rule, pp. 287, 291–2.
6. Much of the information for this has been extracted from A. L. Capern, ‘Slipperye times and dangerous dayes: James Ussher and the Calvinist reformation of Britain, 1560–1660’, Unpub. Ph.D. thesis (University of New South Wales, 1991), especially ch. 4.
7. Nicholas Bernard, The life and death of the most reverend and learned father of our church, Dr James Usher, late archbishop of Armagh and primate of all Ireland (London, 1656), pp. 37, 44–6
8. Richard Parr, The life of the most reverend father in God, James Usher, late lord archbishop of Armagh, primate and metropolitan of all Ireland (London, 1681), pp. 8, 10–11.
9. Sharpe, The personal rule, p. 278.
10. Cf. Hugh Kearney, Scholars and gentlemen: universities and society in pre-industrial Britain 1500–1700 (London, 1970),pp. 67–70
11. Alan Ford, The reformation in Ireland, 1500–1641 (Frankfurt, 1985), pp. 23, 56, 75–7, 107, ch. 8, 250–1, 259–67, 273–6, 291
12. T. W. Moody et al., A new history of Ireland (Oxford, 1976; rep. 1991), iii, 257.
13. Robert Buick Knox, James Ussher, archbishop of Armagh (Cardiff, 1967), pp. 27, 33–5
14. Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1623–1625 (C.S.P.D.), 12 Feb. 1625, p. 472 a separate and detailed account of Ussher's movements in the early 1620s is to be found in Capern, ‘ Slipperye times and dangerous dayes…’, ch. 3.
15. Bernard says he was at court until August when he returned to Ireland - Bernard, Life …of… James Usher, p. 86.
16. See also C. R. Elrington, The life and works of the most reverend James Ussher (17 vols., Dublin, 1847–64) (W.W.), Ussher to Samuel Ward, 17 Aug. 1626, xv, 349–50
17. Ussher is supposed to have preached a sermon before the king on 25 June 1627 - this is reprinted in W.W., xiii, 335ff. - however, this is possibly misdated as on the 16 June 1626 Ussher told Samuel Ward that the king had asked him to preach on 25 June of 1626 before he left for Ireland. It seems too much a coincidence that exactly a year later he was preaching before the king again, especially as evidence points to him being in Ireland through 1627. Dr Elrington believed he made another very brief trip to England in 1632
18. W.W., 1, 131. He follows Parr's account here - Pan-states that Ussher returned to England in late 1631 for the English publication of A discourse of the religion anciently professed by the Irish and British
19. Parr, Life of… James Usher, p. 40. There is no other evidence to support Parr's account and he may be mistaken.
20. Aidan Clarke, The Old English in Ireland, 1625–42 (New York, 1966), pp. 28–31
21. for the crown's vacillating policies concerning the Old and New English in Ireland, see Brendan Fitzpatrick, Seventeenth-century Ireland: the war of religions (Totowa, N.J., 1989), ch. 2
22. Calendar of state papers relating to Ireland 1625–1632 (C.S.P.I.), July 1627, pp. 250–251.
23. Cf. Knox, James Ussher, pp. 35–36
24. W.W., Ussher to Archbishop Abbot, 9 Feb. 1626/27, xv, 366.
25. This speech was made at Dublin Castle on 30 Apr. 1627 and is transcribed at Bodleian (Bodl.) Tanner MS 314, fos. 57–9
26. see also C.S.P.I. 1625–1632, p. 229
27. Bernard, Life…of …James Usher, pp. 66–81.
28. C.S.P.I. 1625–1632, 24 May 1628, pp. 339–40, 1 Aug. 1628, p. 327.
29. W.W., Richard Sibbes to Ussher 27 May 1628, xvi, 522 (this letter is one of the collection of 300 letters printed by Parr and added by Dr Ellington as an appendix in W. W., xvi - Ellington followed Parr's dating of 1634–5, Dut apart from the mention of a petition of right, Sibbes also talks of John Preston ‘ inclining to a consumption,… his state is thought doubtful’, and Preston in fact died the day the letter was written in 1628).
30. Richard Montagu, Appello Ctesarem: a just appeale from two unjust informers (London, 1625), p. 72
31. Montagu's emphasis, throughout his work, on the English church ‘ foreignizes’ anything outside England so that he frequently damns Irish formulations by implication, e.g. A gaggfor the new gospell? no: a new gagg for an old goose (London, 1624), pp. 157, 183.
32. The constitutional documents of the puritan revolution 1625–1660, selected and edited by Samuel Rawson Gardiner (Oxford, rep. 1979), p. 81
33. Commons debates 1628, M. F. Keeler, M.J. Cole and W. B. Bidwell (eds.) (New Haven, 1978), p. 261
34. cf. Nicholas Tyacke, Anti-Calvinists: the rise of English Arminianism c. 1590–1640 (Oxford, 1987), pp. 154–155.
35. Davies, The Caroline captivity of the church, pp. 10–11, 13–14, 16, 297, 300
36. Richard Cust and Ann Hughes (eds.), Conflict in early Stuart England: studies in religion and politics 1603–1641 (London, 1989). pp. 25. 130.
37. William Prynne, Anti-Arminianisme: or, the church of Englands old antithesis to new Arminianism (London, 1630), Epistle dedicatory, pp. 13–14, 17–21.
38. Historical Manuscripts Commission (H.M.C.), Hastings MSS iv, William Laud to John Bramhall, 11 May 1635, p. 67.
39. Laud shared this fear with Richard Montagu whose Diatribe upon the fast part of the late history of tithes (London, 1621) attacked John Selden's Erastian claims over the church. See, for example, the letter signed by Laud, John Buckeridge and John Howson to the duke of Buckingham 2 Aug. 1625 supporting Montagu and arguing that the church has never submitted to any judge of her doctrines but the monarch and the national synod of convocation, nor should ever be made to
40. rep. in Tyacke, Anti-Calvinists, pp. 266–267
41. citing The works of the most reverend father in God William Laud…lord archbishop of Canterbury, W. Scott and J. Bliss (eds.) (7 vols., Oxford, 1847–1860), vi, 244–6 (from B.L. Harl. MS 7000, fo. 183r-v). Laud's later distrust of parliaments was partly shaped by the opinions of Wentworth, but stemmed from his experience of the interference in the church's handling of the Montagu affair by the Caroline parliaments of the late 1620s.
42. Parr, Life of …James Usher, pp. 40–41
43. Knox, James Ussher, pp. 45–46.
44. Hugh Trevor-Roper, ‘James Ussher, archbishop of Armagh’, in Catholics, Anglicans and puritans (London, 1987), p. 140
45. there are not many letters exchanged between Laud and Ussher extant. Dr Ellington claims that most for die early 1630s had perished (W.W., 1, 186).
46. It has to be wondered why and suspicions are raised when Richard Parr tells us that he ‘ selected’ his 300 letters for publication (Parr, Life of …James Usher, p. 41)
47. however, there are twenty-two letters between Ussher and Laud to be found transcribed at Bodl. Sancroft MS 18. These have now been printed
48. Alan Ford, ‘Correspondence between archbishops Ussher and Laud’, Archivium Hibernicum, xlvi (1991–1992), 5–21.
49. It must also be noted that on two occasions after Wentworth went to Ireland Laud complained about Ussher's dilatoriness in writing to him at all, The earl of Strafford's letters and dispatches with an essay towards his life by Sir George Radcliffe, William Knowler (ed.), (Strafford's letters and dispatches), (2 vols., printed by R. Reilly for Robert Owen, 1711), William Laud to Thomas Wentworth, 15 Nov. 1633,1, 156, 29 Dec. 1638, ii, 263.
50. Peter Heylin, Aerius redivivus: or, the prehistory of the presbyterians (Oxford, 1670), p. 394
51. Cyprianus Anglicus: or, the history of the life and death of… William… lord archbishop of Canterbury … containing also the ecclesiastical history of the three kingdoms… (London, 1671), pp. 24, 192–5
52. The historical and miscellaneous tracts of Peter Heylin: the quinquarticular history of the church of England, above p. 630
53. Ussher's biographer, Nicholas Bernard, accused Heylin almost of heresy for his redefinition of Ussher as ‘ Calvinist’ and ‘ puritan’ - for this debate, see Nicholas Bernard, The judgement of the late archbishop of Armagh …of the extent of Christ s death and satisfaction… with a vindication of him… (London, 1657)
54. William Sanderson, A compleat history of the life and raigne of King Charles (London, 1658)
55. Peter Heylin, Respondet Petrus; or, the answer of Peter Heylin to Dr. Bernard's book entituled The judgement of the late Primate of Ireland. To which is added an appendix in answer to certain passages in Mr. Sanderson's History of the life of King Charles (London, 1657), Parr, Life of …James Usher, p. 42 and Appendix.
56. A measure of the success of Laud's, and later Heylin's, propaganda about Ussher specifically (not to mention William Prynne's, which did him more harm than good), and the character of the Anglo-Irish church more generally, is that this debate was taken up again in the nineteenth century, when Elrington tried to rescue Ussher from co-option into the Scottish presbyterian church fold - see James Seaton Reid, History of the presbyterian church in Ireland (3 vols., Belfast, 1867), 1, 92–3, 136, 158, 406–13
57. C. R. Elrington, An answer to Dr. Reids animadversions upon the life of Archbishop Ussher (London, 1849), passim
58. Montagu, Appello Ctesarem, pp. 10, 69, 72, 105, 107, 110–14, 118, 148.
59. Davies, The Caroline captivity of the church, p. 2 and passim.
60. For example, Ussher sent a detailed report on church revenues to Laud (as bishop of London) on 11 Sept. 1629, C.S.P.I. 1625–1632, p. 481.
61. Another example is the letter used against Laud in his trial in which Ussher told him ‘You strike such terror in the hearts of those who wish to despoil the church, that if I merely mention your name at the Council table it is like a Gorgon's head to some of them.’; C.S.P.I. 1625–1632, Ussher to William Laud, 11 July 1631, p. 622. Originally, this letter was probably intended to flatter rather than incriminate.
62. Ussher's notes and petitions about the primacy are at Trinity College Dublin (T.C.D.) MSS 580, 581, 582, 786, some of which are printed in W.W., 1, Appendix VI, pp. cxxvii-cxliii.
63. W.W., Ussher to John Williams, 6 July 1625, xv, 278–9, 20 Aug. '625, xv, 296–300
64. C.S.P.I. 1625–1632, petition of Ussher and the dean and dignitaries of St Patrick's cathedral, 31 Dec. 1628, p. 416.
65. C.S.P.I. 1625–1632, Charles I to Lord Deputy Falkland, no date, p. 364.
66. W.W., Ussher to John Williams, 20 Aug. 1625, xv, 300.
67. C.S.P.I. 1625–1632, certificate of William Crofton, and Charles I to Lord Deputy Falkland, pp. 451, 364
68. cf. Knox, James Ussher, pp. 42–43.
69. C.S.P.I. 1633–1647, 14 July 1634, p. 62.
70. Davies, The Caroline captivity of the church, pp. 39–40.
71. C.S.P.I. 1625–1632, Ussher to William Laud, 11 July 1631, p. 622.
72. J. M. Barkley, ‘ Some Scottish bishops and ministers in the Irish church, 1605–35’, in Duncan Shaw (ed.), Reformation and revolution (St Andrews, 1967), pp. 142–3, 145–7, 149, 156–7
73. Ford, The protestant reformation in Ireland, p. 99.
74. C.S.P.I. 1625–1632, Ussher to William Laud, 11 July 1631, p. 622.
75. Barkley,’ Some Scottish bishops and ministers in the Irish church’, in Shaw (ed.), Reformation and revolution, pp. 142–3, 145, 151, 153, 157.
76. Reformation and revolution. p. 158.
77. Reformation and revolution. pp. 157–158.
78. Robert Echlin of Down replaced Blair, Dunbar and Welsh in 1634
79. Henry Leslie of Down deposed Edward Bryce, Robert Cunningham, James Hamilton (who was the only person brave enough to vote against the Laudian canons after the trouble in convocation in 1634), John Livingstone and Samuel Row in 1636 and John Leslie of Raphoe deposed Robert Pont
80. David Kennedy was removed by the court of high commission in 1638 and John McClelland and Hugh Peebles were forced to go back to Scodand. All the deposed ministers were graduates of Glasgow except Bryce and Row.
81. Observations made from tabulating information in Handbook of British chronology, Sir F. Powicke and E. B. Fryde (eds.), Offices of the Royal Historical Society (London, 1961), pp. 202–91, 351–74; it is also worth recording that Scotland had a very low turnover, most of the bishops being the 1610 appointments of James I.
82. W. W., Ussher to Archbishop Abbot, 10 Jan. 1626/27, xv, 361–2, 9 Feb. 1626/27, xv, 365–7
83. Abbot to Ussher, 19 Mar. 1626/27, xv, 375
84. Samuel Ward to Ussher, 16 May 1628, xv, 402–5
85. Trevor-Roper, ‘James Ussher’ in Catholics, Anglicans and puritans, p. 141
86. Archbishop Laud 1573–1645 (Hamden, Connecticut, 1962, 2nd edn, rep. London, 1988), p. 239.
87. W.W., William Bedell to Ussher, 15 Apr. 1628, xv, 397–8
88. Bodl. Tanner MS 71, William Bedell to Samuel Ward, 2 Apr. 1630, fos. 43–4
89. W.W., Samuel Ward to Ussher, 25 May 1630, xv, 507
90. Dr Ellington published sections of undated and incomplete letters of Bedell's to prove the essential friendship between himself and Ussher, W.W., xv, 508–20
91. Barkley,’ Some Scottish bishops and ministers in the Irish church’, in Shaw (ed.), Reformation and revolution, p. 157
92. W.W., Archibald Hamilton to Ussher, 8 Apr. 1629, xv, 433.
93. W.W., William Laud to Ussher, 16 June 1629, xv, 443
94. Laud to Ussher, 25 June 1629, xv, 445
95. Ussher to Laud, 10 Aug. 1629, xv, 449
96. Joseph Mede to Ussher, 4 May 1630, xv, 494.
97. Strafford's letters and dispatches, William Laud to Thomas Wentworth, 11 Mar. 1633/34,1, 213.
98. William Laud to Thomas Wentworth.
99. William Laud to Thomas Wentworth, 11 Mar. 1633/34, i, 213.
100. Wentworth to Laud, 1 Sept. 1632, 1, 299.
101. Works of… William Laud, William Laud to Thomas Wentworth, 19 Jan. 1634/35, vii, 99.
102. C.S.P.I. 1633–1647, William Laud to Thomas Wentworth, 8 Sept. 1636, p. 140
103. Works of… William Laud, Laud to Wentworth, 26 Sept. 1636, vii, 287.
104. Works of… William Laud, William Laud to Thomas Wentworth, 26 Sept. 1636, vii, 288.
105. William Laud to Thomas Wentworth.
106. C.S.P.I. 1633–1647, William Laud to Thomas Wentworth, 18 Oct. 1636, p. 141 (rep. in Strafford's letters and dispatches, ii, 36–7).
107. H.M.C., Cowper MSS, 12th report, series 23 (1888), Ussher to Sir John Coke, 10 Aug. 1631, 1, 438–9
108. Kevin Sharpe has recently cited this as an example to show that the personal rule of Charles I did have avenues for criticism even though no parliaments were held. However, the seriousness of the archbishop of Armagh questioning the legality of some aspects of that personal rule cannot be overestimated - Sharpe, The personal rule, p. 707.
109. C.S.P.1.1633–1647, Ussher to William Laud, 24 Mar. 1633, p. 6, 26 April 1633, p. 8
110. Charles I to Thomas Wentworth, 10 May 1633, p. 10
111. Ussher to the lords justice and council, 24 Aug. 1633, p. 3
112. Charles I to earl of Nithesdale, 29 July 1635, p. 109
113. C.S.P.I. 1625–1632, Ussher to Laud, 23 Dec. 1631, p. 638.
114. Strafford's letters and dispatches, William Laud to Thomas Wentworth, 30 Apr. 1633,1, 81–82.
115. See the description in C. V. Wedgewood, Thomas Wentworth, first earl of Strafford 1593–1641 (London, 1961)
116. citing Strafford's letters and dispatches, 1, 172
117. British Library (B.L.) Harleian MS 4297, fo. 35, C.S.P.D. 1633–1634, p. 179.
118. C.S.P.I. 1633–1647, John Bramhall to William Laud, 10 Aug. 1633, p. 16.
119. C.S.P.I. 1633–1647. William Laud to Thomas Wentworth, c. end Sept. 1633, p. 20.
120. William Laud to Thomas Wentworth, order of the lord deputy and council, no date (between Sept. and Dec. 1633), pp. 31–32
121. Strafford's letters and dispatches, Thomas Wentworth to William Laud, no date, Dec. 1633, 1, 173.
122. On 15 Nov. 1633 Laud commented to Wentworth that he had not heard from Ussher since Wentworth had arrived in Ireland - Strafford's letters and dispatches, I, 156.
123. Strafford's letters and dispatches, Thomas Wentworth to William Laud, 1 Sept. 1634, 1, 298.
124. Thomas Wentworth to William Laud. William Laud to Thomas Wentworth, 11 Mar. 1633/34, i, 211.
125. Thomas Wentworth to William Laud.
126. Thomas Wentworth to William Laud. William Laud to the earl of Cork, 21 Mar. 1633/34, 1, 222–3.
127. Thomas Wentworth to William Laud. Thomas Wentworth to William Laud, 1 Sept. 1634,1, 298.
128. Thomas Wentworth to William Laud.
129. cf. John Bramhall's comment to Laud - ‘ I am tied by promise not to acquaint you with the passages in the Convocation House. The Irish Articles had like to be confirmed the very last day of the session… together with the English, without consulting his Majesty or his Deputy…What exceptions are against them you know well. For this kingdom and at this time they are most incommodious’ - H.M.C., Hastings iv, John Bramhall to William Laud, 21 Aug. 1634, p. 61.
130. It has never been confirmed that Ussher was the sole author of the Irish Articles and Alan Ford has questioned his authorship, suggesting instead that the Irish Articles need to be seen as a product of the Irish convocation and the consensual Calvinist milieu of the Irish church (Ford, The protestant reformation in Ireland, pp. 194 ff.).
131. Ussher's early biographers affirmed him as author (Bernard, Life… of… James Usher, pp. 49–50
132. Parr, Life of …James Usher, pp. 14–15)
133. I am willing to accept their version because of the weight of circumstantial evidence - the wording of the articles bears remarkable correspondence to Ussher's early catechistical work at Trinity College Dublin. See T.C.D. MS 291 rep. W.W., xi, 197 ff.
134. It is difficult not to regard Wentworth simply as an insensitive bully. However, two of his biographers have researched his relationship with Ussher and formed the opinion that Ussher was cunning and could not be trusted. There is certainly evidence here that Ussher went to great lengths to cover his tracks over the Irish Articles. See Elizabeth Cooper, The life of Thomas Wentworth, earl of Strafford and lord lieutenant of Ireland (2 vols., London, 1874), pp. 304–305
135. Wedgewood, Thomas Wentworth, p. 176.
136. H.M.C., Hastings iv, John Bramhall to William Laud, 21 Aug. 1634, p. 61.
137. Strafford's letters and dispatches, Thomas Wentworth to William Laud, 1 Sept. 1634, 1, 298.
138. Thomas Wentworth to William Laud. William Laud to Thomas Wentworth, 10 Oct. 1634, 1, 329–30.
139. Davies, The Caroline captivity of the church, pp. 10, 13–14, 16, 38.
140. Works of… William Laud, Laud to Thomas Wentworth, 31 Oct. 1634, vii, 94–5.
141. Strafford's letters and dispatches, Thomas Wentworth to William Laud, 16 Dec. 1634, I, 343.
142. Thomas Wentworth to William Laud.
143. Thomas Wentworth to William Laud. p. 344.
144. cf. Knox, James Ussher, pp. 49–52, which plays down any tension between Wentworth and Ussher over the Irish Articles, suggesting instead that Ussher may simply have been fearful of the consequences of disturbing the church (by implication suggesting that Ussher did not act as he did out of a deep commitment to the theology of the Irish Articles) and Wentworth thought Ussher just an inefficient administrator (rather than deliberately concerned to deceive the lord deputy).
145. Strafford's letters and dispatches, Thomas Wentworth to William Laud, 16 Dec. 1634,1, 343–4.
146. Works of… William Laud, William Laud to Thomas Wentworth, 19 Jan. 1634/35, vii, 98.
147. William Laud to Thomas Wentworth. John Bramhall to William Laud, 20 Dec. 1634, vi, 43 (see also Knox, James Ussher, p. 51)
148. an account of the affair written later in Bramhall's life confirms his role as spy against Ussher. ‘ I was the man who acquainted the Earl of Strafford with what the Convocation had done’; John Bramhall, The works of the most reverend father in God, John Bramhall: sometime lord archbishop of Armagh… (Oxford, 1842)
149. ‘Life and defence of Ussher’, 1676 (ironically, this is another defence of Ussher's ‘orthodoxy’ in the face of Heylin's accusations), v, 82.
150. H.M.C., Hastings iv, William Laud to John Bramhall, 16 Jan. 1634/35, p. 66.
151. Strafford's letters and dispatches, William Laud to Thomas Wentworth, 4 Mar. 1634/35, i, 375.
152. William Laud to Thomas Wentworth. Thomas Wentworth to Charles I, 27 Jan. 1634/35, i, 367–8.
153. William Laud to Thomas Wentworth. Thomas Wentworth to William Laud, 10 Mar. 1634/35, i, 381.
154. William Laud to Thomas Wentworth.
155. C.S.P.I. 1625–1632, Ussher to William Laud, 11 July 1631, p. 622.
156. Strafford's letters and dispatches, Thomas Wentworth to William Laud, 9 Mar. 1634/35, 1, 520, 16 Dec. 1634, 1, 344, 10 Mar. 1634/35, 1, 380.
157. Thomas Wentworth to William Laud. William Laud to Thomas Wentworth, 10 Oct. 1634, 1, 331
158. Wentworth to Laud, 10 Mar. 1634/35, i, 378.
159. Thomas Wentworth to William Laud. Thomas Wentworth to William Laud, 10 Mar. 1634/35, i, 379
160. Laud made equally snide remarks about the tomb in his reply, Works of… William Laud, Laud to Wentworth, 27 Mar. 1635, vii, 116.
161. Strafford's letters and dispatches, Thomas Wentworth to William Laud, 10 Mar. 1634/35,i,381.
162. Ussher's letter to Laud does not survive, but it is clear it was written from the reply, W.W., William Laud to Ussher, 10 May 1635, xvi, 7–8.
163. Hugh Kearney, Strafford in Ireland 1633–41: a study in absolutism ([1959] rep. Cambridge, 1989), p. 119
164. citing Strafford MS 6, fo. 296.
165. W.W., Ussher to Samuel Ward, 15 Sept. 1635, xvi, 9.
166. Knox, Janus Ussher, pp. 51–52.
167. Sharpe, The personal rule, p. 359
168. citing Travels in Holland, the United Provinces, England, Scotland and Ireland by Sir William Brereton, E. Hawkins (ed.) (Chetham Society, 1844), i, 139–40.
169. the United Provinces, England, Scotland and Ireland by Sir William Brereton. p. 291.
170. Davies, The Caroline captivity of the church, passim.
171. Strafford's letters and dispatches,Thomas Wentworth to William Laud, 10 Mar. 1634/35,i,381.
172. Michael Perceval-Maxwell, ‘Protestant faction, the impeachment of Strafford and the origins of the Irish civil war’, Canadian Journal of History, xvii (1982), 235–55.
173. Wedgewood, Thomas Wentworth, p. 177
174. citing Camden Miscellany, xi (1895), 54
175. as Ussher retreated from Dublin, it is doubtful he and Wentworth dined often and this incident may have taken place on the one (and only) occasion Wentworth mentions dining with Ussher in a letter to Laud, commenting on the lack of even a communion table at Ussher's house - Strafford's letters and dispatches, Thomas Wentworth to William Laud, 27 Nov. 1638,11, 250
176. Laud to Wentworth, 29 Dec. 1638, ii, 263.
177. Ussher attended Wentworth at his execution - see Parr, Life of…James Usher, p. 47
178. H.M.C., Hastings ii, Lettice, Viscountess Falkland to Lucy, Lady Hastings, no date, May 1641, p. 82
179. Wedgewood, Thomas Wentworth, pp. 383–4, 386.
180. Bernard, Life… of… James Usher, p. 86 has an allusion to Ussher's prophecy of expecting to live in poverty, which lends extra authority to the anecdote about his interchange with Wentworth over dinner.
181. Wedgewood, Thomas Wentworth, pp. 226–227
182. citing Strafford MS vii, Wentworth to Laud, 10 July 1637
183. Works of… William Laud, Laud to Thomas Wentworth, no date, 1637, vii, 368–9.
184. Works of… William Laud, Laud to Thomas Wentworth, 30 Nov. 1634, vii, 212
185. H.M.C., Hastings iv, Ussher to John Bramhall, 27 Oct. 1634, p. 70.
186. W.W., Ussher to Samuel Ward, 10 Mar. 1637/38, xvi, 34.
187. William Lamont has pointed out that Arminian doctrine was basically not properly understood by some, like Richard Baxter; and when it was understood, by the 1640s and 1650s, it was no longer feared by many and Baxter even embraced the doctrine. Lamont argues that the greater spectre behind the ‘ puritan paranoia’ of the 1620s (and for Ussher, in Ireland, this persists into the 1630s) was the Grotian vision of an end to the schism with Rome- ‘Arminianism: the controversy that never was’ in Nicholas Phillipson and Quentin Skinner (eds.), Political discourse in early modem Britain (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 45–66.
188. W.W., Ussher to Samuel Ward, 15 Mar. 1629/30, xv, 480–1.
189. Ussher to Samuel Ward. Samuel Ward to Ussher, 25 May 1630, xv, 500.
190. Ussher to Samuel Ward. Samuel Ward to Ussher, 12 Aug. 1634, xvi, 520.
191. Ussher to Samuel Ward. Ussher to Samuel Ward, 30 Apr. 1634, xv, 578.
192. Ussher to Samuel Ward. Ussher to Samuel Ward, 15 Sept. 1635, xvi, 9
193. Peter Lake, ‘The Laudians and the argument from authority’, Bonnelyn Young Kunze and Dwight D. Brautigam (eds.), in Court, country and culture: essays on early modem British history in honour of Perez Zagorin (New York, 1992) p. 152
194. citing Robert Shelford, Five pious and learned discourses (Cambridge, 1635), p. 11.
195. W.W., John Prideaux to Ussher, 27 Aug. 1638, xv, 419 (W.W. follows Parr in dating this letter 1628, but Trevor-Roper points out that 1628 must be wrong because of the internal evidence of the letter, and suggests it was written 1639–40; ‘James Ussher’ in Catholics, Anglicans and puritans, n. 44 on p. 290. I opt for 1638, suggesting that Parr's dating of 1628 was a misprint of 1638, but make no particular claims for greater accuracy.)
196. The full title of this work was Gotteschalci et prtedestinatiamee controversial ab eo motte historia una cum duplice ejusdem confessione nuncprimum in lucem edita. It is reprinted in W.W., iv, 1–233
197. in 1618 Ussher told Camden a press had been set up but its operations were limited until the 1630s-W.W., Ussher to William Camden, 8 June 1618, xv, 135
198. Reid, History of the presbyterian church in Ireland, p. 29
199. information about the publication of religious controversies through Dublin's press is to be found in Declan Gaffney, ‘The practice of religious controversy in Dublin, 1600–1641’, in W. J. Sheils and Diana Wood (eds.), The churches, Ireland and the Irish, Studies in church history, xxv (Oxford, 1989), 145–58.
200. C.S.P.I. 1625–1632, Ussher to William Laud, 30 June 1631, p. 618.
201. Strafford's letters and dispatches, William Laud to Thomas Wentworth, 9 Sept. 1633, i, 111.
202. Anthony Milton, ‘The church of England, Rome, and the true church: the demise of a Jacobean consensus’, in Kenneth Fincham (ed.), The early Stuart church 1603–1642 (London, 1993), pp. 187–210.
203. H.M.C., Hastings iv, John Bramhall to Ussher, 10 Jan. 1636/37, p. 71.
204. C.U.L. Add. MS 40, Samuel Ward to Ussher, 24 May 1637, fo. 2.
205. H.M.C., Hastings iv, John Bramhall to William Laud, c. June 1637, p. 73.
206. Strafford's letters and dispatches, Thomas Wentworth to William Laud, 18 Oct. 1637, ii, 119.
207. cf. Milton, ‘The church of England, Rome, and the true church’, in Fincham, The early Stuart church, p. 192.
208. Works of… William Laud, Laud to Thomas Wentworth, 30 July 1638, vii, 463–72, 10 Sept. 1638, p. 482
209. Strafford's letters and dispatches, Laud to Wentworth, 29 Dec. 1638, 11, 263.
210. C.S.P.I. 1533–1647, John Bramhall to William Laud, 23 Feb. 1638/39, p. 182.
211. W.W., Ussher to Samuel Ward, 10 Sept. 1639, xvi, 46.
212. Britannicarum ecclesiarum antiquitates, quibus inserta est pestifera adversus Dei gratiam a Pelagio Britanno in ecclesiam inducta hteresesos Historia, rep. W.W., v, vi
213. C.S.P.D. 1639, Joseph Hall to William Laud, 28 Sept. 1639, pp. 526–527
214. C.S.P.D. 1639–1640, Laud to Hall, 12 Oct. 1639, pp. 30–1; the treatise appeared as Certaine brief treatises, written by diverse learned men, concerning the ancient and modeme government of the church (Oxford, 1641), to which Ussher contributed.
215. The crucial importance of the difficulties inherent in ruling three kingdoms on the breakdown of the British state into civil wars in the mid seventeenth century has been recognized in the work of Conrad Russell. See ‘The British background to the Irish rebellion of 1641’ in Unrevolutionary England, 1603–1642 (London, 1990), pp. 263–279
216. (orig. pub. in Historical Research, lxi [1988], 166–82), The causes of the English civil war (Oxford, 1990), The fall of the British monarchies 1637–1642 (Oxford, 1991)
217. J. H. Elliott, ‘A Europe of composite monarchies’, Past and Present, cxxxvii (1992), 52–3, 55–6, 58.
218. Cf. Fitzpatrick, Seventeenth-century Ireland, pp. 74–76.
219. H.M.C., Hastings iv, William Laud to John Bramhall, 2 Sept. 1639, p. 83, and p. 86 n.
220. Cf. Milton, ‘The church of England, Rome, and the true church’, in Fincham, The early Stuart church, p. 210 in which he argues that’ the destruction of the Jacobean consensus was finally accomplished, not by the importation of totally new doctrines, but by the manipulation of inconsistencies which lay at its very hearty’.
221. Cf. Tyacke, Anti-Calvinists, pp. 7–8, 136, 185, 223 - one of Tyacke's major conclusions, that ‘Arminians… transformed the issue of Protestant conformity’ (p. 246) has enormous implications for the study of Ireland in the 1630s.
222. Cf. Lamont, ‘Arminianism: the controversy that never was’, in Phillipson and Skinner (eds.), Political discourse in early modem Britain, passim.
223. B.L. Add. MS 40, Ussher to Lady Mary Vere, 17 Feb. 1624/25, fo. 32.
224. Parr, Life of …James Usher, pp. 94, 40–1.
225. Bernard, Life …of……James Usher, p. 93 calls them ‘ eminent persons’
226. see also Trevor-Roper, ‘James Ussher’ in Catholics, Anglicans and puritans, p. 148
227. citing Rawdon Papers, E. Berwick (ed.) (1819), George Wentworth to John Bramhall, 11 June 1640, pp. 78–79.
228. Bernard, Life… of… James Usher, pp. 93–94
229. The whole proceedings of the siege of Drogheda in Ireland… (London, 1642)