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URS and possessed a numerous collection of statues and medals. Died 18th May, 1600. His works are numerous, consisting of Notes on many classic authors, and editions of several of them; "Familiæ Romanæ," edited and enlarged by Patin in 1663; "Imagines et elogia virorum illustrium, e marmoribus, nummis, et gemmis," edited and improved by Faber in 1606.—J. E.  URSINUS,, a famous divine of the Reformed church was born at Breslau, 18th July, 1534. He studied at Wittenberg, Geneva, and Paris. He became an intimate friend of Melancthon, and went with him to the conference of Worms. He taught for some time at Breslau, and he was for a period with Peter Martyr at Zurich. He afterwards went to Heidelberg and became professor of theology—Loci communes. Here he composed the famous Catechism, and a Defence against its Lutheran opponents. He also composed a Confession at the request of the elector. The first of those documents gained great authority, and is the model after which the Westminster Shorter Catechism was framed. Ursinus, being obliged to leave Heidelberg, retired to Neustadt, and taught in its newly-formed university. He was engaged in the preparation of some works when he died, 6th March, 1583. Ursinus was a man of learning and piety, honest and unselfish, of a very ardent soul, and a pure and devoted life.—J. E.  URSULA, daughter of the king of Cornwall, a legendary British saint of the fourth or fifth century, who, along with a number of her companions, suffered death at the hands of the brutal Huns at Cologne, rather than allow their chastity to be violated. It was after Saint Ursula that the society of nuns, founded in the first half of the sixteenth century by the benevolent Angela de Brescia, were called Ursulines.—R. M., A.  URVILLE, J. '. See.  USHER,, uncle of the succeeding, was born in Dublin, but in what year is not known. He received part of his education at Cambridge. He removed, according to Anthony Wood, to University college, Oxford, in 1572. The same writer says he was incorporated B.A. in July of the above year, having already taken that degree at Cambridge; and adds that "he laid a sure foundation in divinity by the aid of Dr. Humphrey, Dr. Holland, and others." His first preferment was the treasurership of Christ church. In 1580 he was admitted into the Charterhouse and installed archdeacon of Dublin, and in 1595 was promoted to be archbishop of Armagh and primate of all Ireland. He died in old age on the 2nd of April, 1613, and was buried in St. Peter's church, Drogheda. Archbishop Usher had been greatly instrumental, along with his friend James Staneyhurst, in prevailing with Queen Elizabeth to found and endow a college and university at Dublin, and he was afterwards made the first fellow of it in recognition of his services. There is an absurd story related by Henry Fitzsimmons, the Irish Jesuit, to the effect that Usher had been long engaged on a work against Bellarmine, but that his wife one day threw the MS. into the fire, saying that the contest was not equal between the father of a family and a man free from all worldly cares.—R. M., A.  USHER or USSHER,, the celebrated scholar and Archbishop of Armagh, was born at Dublin 4th January, 1586. His first lessons were received from two blind aunts, and his early education was for five years effectively conducted by two Scotchmen, resident in Dublin for political purposes. When Trinity college was opened Usher was one of the first three scholars matriculated—his father and uncle being among the prime promoters of the establishment. Usher was soon distinguished by his careful and studious habits, and at the age of sixteen he had laid the foundation of his famous "Annales." His father having died, the generous student handed over the patrimony to his numerous younger brothers and sisters, reserving a little for his own academic maintenance and the purchase of books. At an early period he entered heartily into the catholic controversy, and he retained this polemical ardour through life. In 1601 he was ordained by his uncle, the archbishop of Armagh, was appointed afternoon lecturer at Christ church, and attained immediate popularity as a preacher. In 1603 he became chancellor of St. Patrick's, and in 1607 he took the degree of B.D. Soon after he was elected professor of divinity, and in 1613 he was made D.D. His visits to England were at this time frequent, generally once every three years, as he had to purchase books for the university library which he formed, and to pursue his own learned researches. In 1614 his first publication was issued in London—"De Ecclesiarum Christianarum successione et statu," a treatise against the pretensions to antiquity on the part of the Church of Rome. In 1615 Usher drew up, at the request of the Irish convocation, a body of articles, based on or repeating those drawn up at Lambeth in 1595 by Archbishop Whitgift and others, and which are sharply and decidedly Calvinistic. In 1619 Usher was nominated bishop of Meath by King James. In 1623 he was made a privy councillor, and in the following year he attained the primacy. In 1640 the primate came over to London, never again to return to his diocese. The disputes of the parliament with the king broke into open war, and Usher retired to Oxford. He laboured to prevent the king from sacrificing Strafford, who had been lord-lieutenant of Ireland, frequently visited the fallen earl in his prison, and attended him to the scaffold. But darker days now fell on the archbishop—his property and revenues in Ireland were seized, though his library was spared, and he was obliged to sell his plate to support himself and his family. The see of Carlisle was given him in commendam, but it brought him little emolument. In 1643 he was nominated a member of the Westminster assembly, but he refused to attend, and parliament affronted by his refusal passed a barbarous order to confiscate his library, which was deposited in Chelsea. By the interposition of Selden, however, he was allowed to redeem it, though divers papers, including his extensive correspondence, were lost. As the royal cause declined he retired to Cardiff castle where he spent a year, not without literary toil and preparation; and he met the king after the battle of Naseby at Raglan castle. On the road to the castle of St. Donatts, where he was offered an asylum by Lady Stradling, he was robbed by a band of insurgents, who seized his books and MSS. Many of them were soon returned through the care of the neighbouring gentry, but some were never recovered; and the loss, he said to his daughter, "touched him in a very tender place." The papers included the labour of twenty years. Afterwards he found an asylum with Lady Peterborough. On his arrival in London in 1646, he was cited before the "committee of examination" at Westminster; but not being farther molested he retired to Lady Peterborough's mansion at Reigate, and afterwards became preacher to the Society of Lincoln's inn. He was one of the six divines allowed by parliament to consult with the king, now a prisoner in Carisbrook castle; and his scheme of modified episcopacy, which had been suggested by him also in 1641, pleased none of the contending parties. From the roof of the house of his patroness, which "was over against Charing Cross," he saw, with tearful eyes and fervent prayers, the execution of the king, and fainted away. In 1650 appeared the first part of his "Annales" of the Old Testament, a work of great learning, and the second part came out four years afterwards. Cromwell paid him some attentions, and gave him some political promises, which were never fulfilled. Age was now creeping on him, and in his diary, opposite his seventy-fifth birth-day, are founds the words—"Now aged seventy-five years; my days are full;" and then, in capital letters, "." He died at Reigate 21st March, 1656. Cromwell ordered a funeral for him in Westminster abbey, but left the expense to be defrayed by his relatives. Usher's works are numerous; among them are his Sermon before parliament and on various occasions; "Annales Veteris et Novi Testamenti;" "Answer to a challenge made by a Jesuit;" "Britannicarum ecclesiarum antiquitates et primordia;" "Historia Gotteschalci;" "De Græca Versione;" "Chronologia Sacra," a scheme which has been so widely followed; "Immanuel;" "Polycarpi et Ignatii Epistolæ;" "Reduction of Episcopacy," &c., &c. The "Body of Divinity" that goes under his name was formally disowned by him. Ushor was a man of great erudition and industry, of profound and earnest piety, of unworldly and saintly temper, and a devout and holy life. From conviction he was a royalist, but he had no sympathy with the ritualistic and Arminian schemes and enterprises of Laud, for he was not only an intelligent and very decided Calvinist, but in his theory of ecclesiastical government he held that bishop and presbyter differed not in order, but only in position. The prelate had large and tolerant views, as was seen in the government of his diocese; but he could not tolerate the ancient faith in Ireland. Yet he lacked somewhat of that promptness and firmness which were essential in those days to episcopal jurisdiction. His scholarly dissertations give him his highest renown. He was the means also of procuring from the East six copies of the Samaritan Pentateuch, and also some copies of the ancient Syriac version. Such was his fame that, during his sad reverses, the 