Archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656)

James Ussher (sometimes spelled Usher) (4 January 1581–21 March 1656) was Anglican Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland between 1625–1656 and a prolific religious scholar who most famously published a chronology which calculated the date of Creation as 4004 BC. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (534x681, 30 KB) The Ussher picture is from the 17th century and thus out of copyright http://www. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (534x681, 30 KB) The Ussher picture is from the 17th century and thus out of copyright http://www. ... January 4 is the 4th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events January 16 - English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism April 4 - Francis Drake completes a circumnavigation of the world and is knighted by Elizabeth I. July 26 - The Northern Netherlands proclaim their independence from Spain in the Oath of Abjuration. ... March 21 is the 80th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (81st in leap years). ... // Events Mehmed Köprülü becomes Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire. ... The term Anglican describes those people and churches following the religious traditions of the Church of England, especially following the Reformation. ... In Christianity, an archbishop is an elevated bishop. ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 54. ... Primate of All Ireland is the title held by the Archbishop of Armagh. ... The Ussher chronology is a 17th-century chronology of the history of the world formulated from an interpretative reading of the Bible by James Ussher, the Anglican Archbishop of Armagh (in what is now Northern Ireland). ... Creation (theology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

Education

Ussher was born in Dublin, Ireland into a well-to-do Old English family of Norman descent. His grandfather, James Stanihurst, had been speaker of the Irish parliament, and his father was a clerk in chancery. Ussher's younger, and only surviving, brother, Ambrose, became a distinguished scholar of Arabic and Hebrew. According to his chaplain and biographer, Nicholas Bernard, the elder brother was taught to read by two blind, spinster aunts. WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 53. ... The Old English were a wave of early medieval Norman, French, Welsh, English, Breton and Flemish settlers who went to Ireland to claim territory and lands in the wake of the Norman invasion. ... Arabic can mean: From or related to Arabia From or related to the Arabs The Arabic language; see also Arabic grammar The Arabic alphabet, used for expressing the languages of Arabic, Persian, Malay ( Jawi), Kurdish, Panjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Urdu, among others. ... Hebrew language most commonly refers to Modern Hebrew; in historical contexts, it commonly refers to the Biblical Hebrew language. ...

Ussher was a gifted linguist, entering Dublin Free School and then the newly founded (1591) Trinity College, Dublin on 9 January, 1594, at the age of thirteen. He had received his Bachelor of Arts degree by 1598, and was a fellow and MA by 1600 (though Nicholas Bernard, his first biographer, claims he did not gain his MA till 1601). In May 1602 he was ordained in the Trinity College Chapel as deacon in the protestant, established Church of Ireland (and possibly priest on the same day) by his uncle Henry Ussher, the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland. Trinity College, Dublin, corporately designated as the Provost, Fellows and Scholars of the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I, and is the only constituent college of the University of Dublin, Irelands oldest university. ... Bachelor of Arts (B.A., BA or A.B.), from the Latin Artium Baccalaureus is an undergraduate bachelors degree awarded for either a course or a program in the liberal arts or the sciences, or both. ... Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... A state religion (also called an official religion, established church or state church) is a religious body or creed officially endorsed by the state. ... Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland (Irish: Eaglais na hÉireann) is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion, operating seamlessly across the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. ...

Ussher went on to become chancellor of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin in 1605 and Prebend of Finglas. He became Professor of Theological Controversies at Trinity College and a Bachelor of Divinity in 1607, Doctor of Divinity in 1612 and then vice chancellor in 1615 and vice-provost in 1616. In 1613 he had married Phoebe, daughter of a previous vice-provost, Luke Challoner, and published his first work. In 1615 he was closely involved with the drawing up of the first confession of faith of the Church of Ireland. In some Christian churches, the Chancellor of a diocese is a lawyer who represents the church in legal matters. ... St. ... Finglas is a residential suburb on the North side of Dublin City, Ireland. ... // Universities A Vice-Chancellor (commonly called the VC) of a university in the United Kingdom, other Commonwealth countries, and some universities in Hong Kong, is the de facto head of the university. ...

Early career

In 1619 Ussher travelled to England, where he stayed for two years. His only child, Elizabeth, was born in London in 1619. He became prominent after meeting James I. In 1621 James nominated him Bishop of Meath. He also became a national figure in Ireland, becoming privy councillor in 1623, and an increasingly substantial scholar. From 1623 until 1626 he was again in England and was excused from his episcopal duties in order to study church history and was nominated to become Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh in 1625, where he succeeded his uncle. Elizabeth Tyrrell, daughter of James Ussher, Anglican Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, and Phoebe Ussher (née Challoner) was born in London in 1619. ... James VI and I (James Stuart) (June 19, 1566 – March 27, 1625) was King of Scots, King of England, and King of Ireland and was the first to style himself King of Great Britain. ... Meath (An Mhí in Irish) is a county in the Republic of Ireland, the county is often informally called The Royal County. ...

Primate of All Ireland

After his consecration in 1626, Ussher found himself in turbulent political times. Tension was rising between England and Spain, and so to secure Ireland Charles I offered Irish Catholics a series of concessions, including religious toleration, known as the Graces, in exchange for money for the upkeep of the army. Ussher was a convinced Calvinist and viewed with dismay the possibility of people he regarded as anti-Christian papists being able to achieve any sort of power. He called a secret meeting of the Irish bishops in his house in November 1626, which drew up "Judgement of the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of Ireland". This begins: Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, King of Ireland, and King of Scots from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. ... Calvinism is a system of Christian theology and an approach to Christian life and thought within the Protestant tradition articulated by John Calvin, a Protestant Reformer in the 16th century, and subsequently by successors, associates, followers and admirers of Calvin, his interpretation of Scripture, and perspective on Christian life and...

The religion of the papists is superstitious and idolatrous; their faith and doctrine erroneous and heretical; their church in respect of both, apostatical; to give them therefore a toleration, or to consent that they may freely exercise their religion, and profess their faith and doctrine, is a grievous sin.

This was not published until it was read out at the end of a series of sermons against the Graces given at Dublin in April 1627. In the end, the Graces were not confirmed by the Irish parliament.

During a four year interregnum between lord deputies from 1629, there was an increase in the efforts to impose religious conformity within Ireland. In 1633 Ussher wrote to the new Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud to gain support for the imposition of recusancy fines on Irish Catholics. Thomas Wentworth, who arrived as the new Lord Deputy in Ireland in 1633 deflected the pressure for conformity by stating that firstly, the Church of Ireland would have to be properly resourced, and set about its re-endowment. He also settled the long-running dispute about primacy between the sees of Armagh and Dublin in Armagh's favour. Arms of the see of Canterbury The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior clergyman of the established Church of England and symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion. ... William Laud (October 7, 1573 – January 10, 1645) was Archbishop of Canterbury and a fervent supporter of Charles I of England whom he encouraged to believe in the Divine Right of Kings. ... Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (April 13, 1593 - May 12, 1641) was an English statesman, a major figure in the period leading up to the English Civil War. ...

However, Ussher soon found himself at odds with the rise of Arminianism and Wentworth and Laud's desire for conformity between the Church of England and the more Calvinistic Church of Ireland. Ussher resisted this pressure at a convocation in 1634, ensuring that the English Articles of Religion were adopted as well as the Irish articles, not instead of them, and that the Irish canons had to be redrafted based on the English ones rather than replaced by them. // For the Armenian nationality, see Armenia or the Armenian language. ... The Church of England is the officially established Christian church[1] in England, and acts as the mother and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion. ... A Convocation is a group of people formally assembled for a special purpose. ... The Thirty-Nine Articles are the defining statements of Anglican doctrine. ... Canon law is the term used for the internal ecclesiastical law which governs various churches, most notably the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Anglican Communion of churches. ...

In 1634 Ussher lost a battle to block the appointment of an Arminian as provost of Trinity College, by 1635 it was apparent that Ussher had lost de facto control of the church to John Bramhall, Bishop of Derry, in everyday matters and to Laud in matters of policy. John Bramhall (1594 - 1663) was an Archbishop of Armagh and a noted Anglican theologian, apologist, and controversialist who doggedly defended the English Church from both Puritan and Roman Catholic accusations, as well as the materialism of Thomas Hobbes. ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 54. ...

A traditional portrait of Ussher is of a slightly unworldly scholar who was at best a mediocre politician and administrator: in fact he was an effective bishop and archbishop, and politically important;^[1] however, he was reactive and sought conciliation rather than confrontation.^[2] The story that he successfully opposed attempts to reintroduce the Irish language for use in church services by Willaim Bedell, the Bishop of Kilmore, has been refuted ^[3][4]. Irish (), a Goidelic language spoken in Ireland, is constitutionally recognised as the first official language of the Republic of Ireland, and has official recognition in Northern Ireland as well. ... Kilmore is a town in the Australian state of Victoria. ...

Out of preference Ussher was a scholar when he could be. He also engaged in extensive disputations with Roman Catholic theologians. Even as a student he had challenged a Jesuit relative, Henry Fitzsimon (Ussher's mother was Roman Catholic) to publicly dispute the identification of the Pope with the Antichrist. However, Ussher also wrote extensively on theology and ecclesiastical history, and these subjects gradually displaced the anti-Catholic work. As well as his learning, he was also distinguished by his charity and good temper. The current Pope is Benedict XVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger), who was elected at the age of 78 on 19 April 2005. ... // The English word Antichrist is taken from the Greek αντίχριστος antíkhristos, which literally means instead of Christ. In the Bible, the term itself appears only in 1 John and 2 John. ...

Ussher left Dublin for his episcopal residence at Drogheda, where he concentrated on his archdiocese and his research. In 1632 he published a ground-breaking study of the Irish mediaeval church, Veterum epistolarum Hibernicarum sylloge, which among other things showed that the early Irish church differed with Rome over Easter and documented the growth of papal control (implying that the Irish church was historically distinct from the Roman one). In 1639 he published the most substantial history of Christianity in Britain up to that date, Britannicarum ecclesiarum antiquitates. This account of the early Celtic church in Britain and Ireland was respected into the twentieth century. WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 54. ...

English Civil War

In 1640 Ussher left Ireland for England for what turned out to be the last time. In the years before the English Civil War, his reputation as a scholar and his moderate Calvinism meant that his opinion was sought by both King and Parliament. After Ussher lost his home and income through the Irish uprising of 1641, Parliament voted him a pension of £400 while the King awarded him the income and property of the vacant see of Carlisle. Despite his Calvinism, Ussher was a royalist, who supported the King and Wentworth (now Earl of Strafford) in the events leading up to the latter's execution, and a defender of the episcopacy. In the face of attacks on the institution of bishops by puritans, he wrote or edited five books to demonstrate their existence since the earliest days of the church. The last two, treatises on the Ignatian epistles were particular scholarly achievements that have largely survived modern scrutiny. The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians (known as Roundheads) and Royalists (known as Cavaliers) from 1642 until 1651. ... The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup détat by Irish Catholic gentry, but rapidly degenerated into bloody intercommunal violence between native Irish Catholics and English and Scottish Protestant settlers. ... Carlisle is a city in the extreme northwest of England, some 16 km from the border with Scotland. ... Icon of Ignatius being eaten by lions St. ...

During the Civil War Ussher committed himself to the King and remained loyal, turning down an invitation to join the Westminster Assembly in 1643. He moved to Oxford, then Bristol, Cardiff, and then to St Donat's. In June 1646 he returned to London under the protection of his friend, the Countess of Peterborough, in whose houses he stayed from then on. He became a preacher at Lincoln's Inn early in 1647, and despite his royalist loyalties was protected by his friends in Parliament. He watched the execution of Charles I from the roof of the Countess of Peterborough's London house, but fainted before the axe fell. Westminster Assembly The Westminster Assembly of Divines 1643 was appointed by the Long Parliament to restructure the Church of England. ... Oxford is a city and local government district in Oxfordshire, England, with a population of 134,248 (2001 census). ... Bristol (IPA: ) is a city, unitary authority and ceremonial county in South West England, 115 miles (185 km) west of London and located at With a population of 400,000, and metropolitan area of 550,000, it is Englands sixth, and the United Kingdoms ninth, most populous city... Cardiff (English:  Welsh: ) is the capital of Wales and its largest city. ... St Donats Castle is a medieval castle in South Wales, overlooking the Bristol Channel in the village of St Donats near Llantwit Major, and about 25km west of Cardiff. ... Part of Lincolns Inn drawn by Thomas Shepherd c. ...

Ussher's Chronology

Ussher now concentrated on his research and writing, and returned to the study of chronology and the church fathers. After a 1647 work on the origin of the creeds in 1648 Ussher published a treatise on the calendar. This was a warm-up for his most famous work, the Annales veteris testamenti, a prima mundi origine deducti ("Annals of the Old Testament, deduced from the first origins of the world"), which appeared in 1650 and its continuation, Annalium pars postierior in 1654. In this work, he calculated the date of creation to be nightfall preceding 23 October, 4004 BC. Other scholars calculated their own dates for Creation, such as that by the Cambridge academic, John Lightfoot. The time is frequently misquoted as being 9 a.m., noon or 9 p.m. on 23 October. See the related article on the Ussher chronology for a discussion of its claims and methodology. The (Early) Church Fathers or Fathers of the Church are the early and influential theologians and writers in the Christian Church, particularly those of the first five centuries of Christian history. ... A creed is a statement or confession of belief — usually religious belief — or faith. ... (6th millennium BC – 5th millennium BC – 4th millennium BC – other millennia) Events 4713 BC – The epoch (origin) of the Julian Period described by Joseph Justus Scaliger occurred on January 1, the astronomical Julian day number zero. ... The University of Cambridge, located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... John Lightfoot (March 29, 1602 - December 6, 1675) was an English churchman and rabbinical scholar. ... The Ussher chronology is a 17th-century chronology of the history of the world formulated from an interpretative reading of the Bible by James Ussher, the Anglican Archbishop of Armagh (in what is now Northern Ireland). ...

Ussher's work is sometimes, and often mockingly, associated with Young Earth Creationism, that holds that the universe was created only a few millenia ago. Adam and Eve, the first human beings according to Genesis Young Earth creationism is a religious doctrine which teaches that the Earth and life on Earth were created by a direct action of God relatively recently (about 6,000 to 10,000 years ago). ...

In fact, calculating the year of creation may seem a trivial and slightly eccentric activity to some nowadays with the benefit of geology and palaeontology - the Earth now being dated by the scientific community at around four billion years old, with the universe nine billion years older than that - but at the time it was an important and difficult task which many Renaissance scholars, such as Joseph Justus Scaliger had attempted. World geologic provinces Oceanic crust  0-20 Ma  20-65 Ma  >65 Ma Geologic provinces  Shield  Platform  Orogen  Basin  Large igneous province  Extended crust Geology (from Greek γη- (ge-, the earth) and λογος (logos, word, reason))[1] is the science and study of the solid matter of a celestial body, its composition... A paleontologist carefully chips rock from a column of dinosaur vertebrae. ... Raphael was famous for depicting illustrious figures of the Classical past with the features of his Renaissance contemporaries. ... Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540-1609) was the tenth child and third son of Julius Caesar Scaliger and Andiette de Roques Lobejac. ...

Ussher's chronology represents a considerable feat of scholarship. It required the Bible to be firmly anchored in history, which needed a huge depth of learning in ancient history, including the rise of the Persians, Greeks and Romans. Then constructing a biblical chronology required expertise in biblical languages, and in-depth knowledge of the Bible. His account of historical events for which he had multiple sources other than the Bible is usually in close agreement with modern accounts; for example, he places the death of Alexander in 323 BC and that of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. The period of time between the Flood and the Creation depended on the version of the Old Testament that was used: Hebrew (1656 years), Samaritan Pentateuch (1307 years), or the Ethiopic text (2262 years). Ussher favoured the Hebrew version. Annals has recently been republished in modern English. The word Bible refers to the canonical collections of sacred writings of Judaism and Christianity. ... Alexander the Great (Greek: ,[1] Megas Alexandros; July 356 BC–June 11, 323 BC), also known as Alexander III, king of Macedon (336–323 BC), was one of the most successful military commanders in history. ... Gāius Jūlius Caesar (IPA: ;[1]), July 12 or July 13, 100 BC – March 15, 44 BC) was a Roman military and political leader and one of the most influential men in world history. ... Noahs Ark, Französischer Meister (The French Master), Magyar Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, Budapest. ... Creation (theology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Note: Judaism commonly uses the term Tanakh. ... Tanakh ‎ (also Tanach, IPA: or , or Tenak, is an acronym that identifies the Hebrew Bible. ... The Israelite Samaritans [Updated: November 2006] Written by: Benyamim Tsedaka HISTORY & UNIQUENESS The Samaritan Israelites are the remnant of an ancient people, descended from the ancient Kingdom of Israel , whose attempts to achieve peace among the people of Israel was rejected by the leaders of the descendants of the Kingdom... Look up Pentateuch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Geez (also transliterated Giiz, , and pronounced IPA: ; ISO 639-2 gez) is an ancient South Semitic language that had developed in the current region of Eritrea and northern Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa, as the language of the peasantry. ...

Death

In 1655 Ussher published his last book, De Graeca Septuaginta Interpretum Verisone, the first serious examination of the Septuagint, discussing its accuracy compared with the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. In 1656 he went to stay in the Countess of Peterborough's house in Reigate, Surrey. On 19 March he felt a sharp pain in his side after supper and took to his bed. He died at one o'clock on 21 March at the age of 75. His last words were reported as O Lord forgive me, especially my sins of omission. His body was embalmed and was to have been buried in Reigate, but at Cromwell's insistence he was given a state funeral on 17 April and buried in the chapel of St Erasmus in Westminster Abbey. The Septuagint: A page from Codex vaticanus, the basis of Sir Launcelot Lee Brentons English translation. ... Reigate is a historic market town in Surrey, England at the foot of the North Downs. ... Surrey is a county in southern England, part of the South East England region and one of the Home Counties. ... Oliver Cromwell (April 25, 1599–September 3, 1658) was an English military and political leader best known for making England a republic and leading the Commonwealth of England. ... The Abbeys western façade The Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster, which is almost always referred to as Westminster Abbey, is a mainly Gothic church, on the scale of a cathedral (and indeed often considered one), in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. ...

Footnotes

See also

• Dating Creation
• Ussher chronology
• Anglicanism

Cultures throughout history have believed the world formed or was formed at some time in the past, so methods of dating Creation have involved analysing scriptures and physical data. ... The Ussher chronology is a 17th-century chronology of the history of the world formulated from an interpretative reading of the Bible by James Ussher, the Anglican Archbishop of Armagh (in what is now Northern Ireland). ... The term Anglican (from medieval Latin ecclesia Anglicana meaning the English church) is used to describe the people, institutions, and churches as well as the liturgical traditions and theological concepts developed by the established Church of England, the Anglican Communion and the Continuing Anglican Churches (a loosely affiliated group of...

Bibliography

• Alan Ford, Ussher, James (1581-1656), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press (2004)

External links and references

• Ussher bibliography and list of secondary sources
• Knox, R. Buck (1967). James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh. University of Wales Press.
• Gould, Stephen Jay (1996). "Fall in the House of Ussher". Eight Little Piggies.
• Pierce, L. (1998). "The Forgotten Archbishop". Creation 20 (2): 42-43.
• Ussher, James (2003). Annals of the World: James Ussher's Classic Survey of World History. Green Forest, AR: Master Books. A modern English republication, edited by Larry and Marion Pierce.
• Sarfati, Jonathan (2003). "Archbishop’s achievement: James Ussher’s great work Annals of the World is now available in English". Creation 26 (1): 24-27. An interview with editors of above.
• Gribben, Crawford (2003). The Irish Puritans: James Ussher and the Reformation of the Church. Evangelical Press. ISBN 0-85234-536-4.
• Bishop Ussher Dates the World: 4004 BC