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 sapientiæ (non tamen malæ, ut videtur, indolis) juvenis,’ and says he refused to continue the discussion unless Ussher's party would adopt him as their champion. Ussher affirms that Fitzsimon did not fulfil a promise to supply the points for controversy in writing. To meet the argument from antiquity presented in ‘A Fortresse of the Faith’ (1565), by Thomas Stapleton [q. v.], Ussher now began a systematic reading of the fathers, a labour which it took him eighteen years to accomplish. He was made fellow in 1599 (, p. 25), graduated M.A. on 24 Feb. 1600–1 (ib. p. 17), was appointed catechist of his college and the first proctor, and in the same year was chosen one of three preachers at Christ Church. These three preachers were then all laymen; but Ussher, whose duty was to discourse on the Romish controversy on Sunday afternoons, soon felt scruples about his position, and by special dispensation was ordained deacon and priest (in his twenty-first year) on 20 Dec. 1601 by Henry Ussher [q. v.], his uncle. On 24 Dec. he preached before the state on a day of supplication for success against the Spaniards; their defeat at Kinsale occurred on that same day. Out of the booty then gained the officers of the English army advanced 1,800l. to buy books for Trinity College Library. To select them, Ussher was sent on his first journey to England, in company with his connection, Luke Challoner, D.D. (1550–1613). At Chester he visited Christopher Goodman [q. v.], the puritan, who was then bedridden and died the next year (4 June 1603). In London he met Sir Thomas Bodley [q. v.], then collecting books for his munificent foundation at Oxford. On his return (1602) he was appointed to a catechetical lecture on the Roman controversy on Sunday afternoons at St. Catherine's Church. This lecture was stopped in pursuance of the government order (February 1603) for the free exercise of the Roman catholic religion. It was in consequence of this order that Ussher preached his famous sermon at Christ Church, predicting (Ezek. iv. 6) a judgment after forty years. This was thought to be fulfilled by the massacre of 1641. His biographers (before Elrington) have antedated the sermon to 1601, making the prediction more exact.

The charter (1591) of Trinity College has no limitation of religion. Roman catholics contributed to the funds for its erection. It was treated, however, as a protestant stronghold. After the nominal provostship of Adam Loftus (1533?–1605) [q. v.], its early provosts were English puritans, whose opinions had interfered with their preferment at home. They were men of learning and character rather than of administrative gifts. Ussher imbibed their theology, and respected without sharing their ceremonial scruples. Walter Travers [q. v.], provost till 1598, was strong in Oriental learning. Ussher never lost sight of him, and in later life offered him substantial proofs of his esteem. Travers was succeeded, after an interregnum, by Henry Alvey (d. 1627), under whom Ussher was made fellow. During Alvey's absences, from ill-health (March to October 1603) and from fear of the plague (June 1604 to June 1605), the management of the college was in the hands of Challoner and Ussher. Shortly before his death (1 April 1605) Loftus preferred Ussher to the chancellorship of St. Patrick's and the rectory of Finglas, co. Dublin, held with it in commendam; hence he resigned his fellowship (the presentation, owing to the commenda, had legally devolved to the crown; the error was rectified by a crown presentation on 12 July 1611). In 1606 he again visited England in search of books, and made the acquaintance of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton [q. v.] and William Camden [q. v.], to whom he furnished information on Irish antiquities, acknowledged in the description of Dublin in the sixth edition (1607) of the ‘Britannia.’ From this time he paid a triennial visit to Oxford, Cambridge, and London, staying a month at each place. He graduated B.D. in 1607, and was at once appointed the first professor of divinity at Dublin on the foundation (worth 8l. a year) of James Cottrell, who died at York in 1595. On Alvey's resignation (1609) the provostship was offered to Ussher, who declined it and promoted the appointment of Sir William Temple (d. 1627) [q. v.], a good organiser. The scope of Ussher's office was now defined as ‘professor of theological controversies’ (the title ‘regius professor of divinity’ dates from 1674). His acquaintance with Henry Briggs [q. v.], John Davenant [q. v.], Sir Henry Savile [q. v.], and John Selden [q. v.] began in a visit to London in 1609. He brought back with him to Dublin Thomas Lydiat [q. v.], who gave him aid in his chronological studies. At this time he preached every Sunday at Finglas, where he endowed a vicarage as a separate benefice. From about 1611 he held also the rectory of Assey, co. Meath.

His first work, ‘De … Ecclesiarum … Successione,’ the publication of which took him to London in 1613, was designed to carry on the argument of Jewel's ‘Apologia’ (1562). Jewel had vindicated Anglican doctrine as the doctrine of the first six cen-