Editing James Ussher (section)

==Wars of the Three Kingdoms==
[[File:James Ussher portrait.jpg|thumb|left|In the years leading up to the [[Wars of the Three Kingdoms]], Ussher's reputation as a scholar and moderate Calvinism meant that his opinion was sought by both King and Parliament]]

In 1640, Ussher left Ireland for England for what turned out to be the last time.<ref>{{cite book |last=De Breffny |first=Brian |author-link= |date=1983 |title=Ireland: A Cultural Encyclopedia |url= |location=London |publisher=Thames and Hudson |page=245|isbn=}}</ref> In the years before the [[Wars of the Three Kingdoms]], 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 Rebellion of 1641|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 their occasional differences, he remained a loyal friend to [[Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford]], and when the latter was sentenced to death by Parliament, pleaded with the King not to allow the execution of the verdict: unlike some of his episcopal colleagues, he insisted that the King was absolutely bound in conscience by his promise to Strafford that whatever happened his life would be spared. The King did not take his advice, but clearly afterwards regretted not doing so, as is shown by his reference on the scaffold to Strafford's death as "that unjust sentence which I suffered to take effect".

In early 1641 Ussher developed a mediatory position on church government, which sought to bridge the gap between the Laudians, who believed in an episcopalian church hierarchy (bishops), and the Presbyterians, who wanted to abolish episcopacy entirely. His proposals, not published until 1656, after his death, as The Reduction of Episcopacy, proposed a compromise where bishops operated in a Presbyterian [[synodal]] system, were initially designed to support a rapprochement between Charles and the parliamentarian leadership in 1641, but were rejected by the King. They did, however, have an afterlife, being published in England and Scotland well into the eighteenth century. In all, he wrote or edited five books relating to episcopacy.

As the middle ground between King and Parliament vanished in 1641–1642, Ussher was forced, reluctantly, to choose between his Calvinist allies in parliament and his instinctive loyalty to the monarchy. Eventually, in January 1642 (having asked parliament's permission), he moved to Oxford, a royalist stronghold. Though Charles severely tested Ussher's loyalty by negotiating with the Catholic Irish, the Primate remained committed to the royal cause, though as the king's fortunes waned Ussher had to move on to [[Bristol]], [[Cardiff]], and then to [[St Donat's Castle|St Donat's]].

In June 1646, he returned to London under the protection of his friend, [[John Mordaunt, 1st Earl of Peterborough|Elizabeth, Dowager Countess of Peterborough]], in whose houses he stayed from then on. He was deprived of the See of Carlisle by Parliament on 9 October 1646, as the English episcopacy was abolished for the duration of the [[Commonwealth of England|Commonwealth]] and the [[The Protectorate|Protectorate]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Plant |first=David |year=2002 |url=http://bcw-project.org/church-and-state/sects-and-factions/episcopalians |title=Episcopalians |publisher=BCW Project |access-date=25 April 2021 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=King |first=Peter |date=July 1968 |title=The Episcopate during the Civil Wars, 1642–1649 |journal=[[The English Historical Review]] |volume= 83 |issue= 328 |pages=523–537 |publisher=Oxford University Press |jstor=564164 |doi=10.1093/ehr/lxxxiii.cccxxviii.523}}</ref> 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 home in London but fainted before the axe fell.

===Scholarship on Ignatius===
Ussher wrote two treatises on the epistles of [[Ignatius of Antioch]] while doing his work on church hierarchy. They were scholarly achievements that modern experts largely concur with. In Ussher's time, the only collection of Ignatius's writing easily available was the Long Recension, a set of 16 epistles. Ussher closely examined it and found problems that had gone uncommented on for centuries: differences in tone, theology, and apparent anachronistic references to theological disputes and structures that did not exist during Ignatius's time. Additionally, medieval authors commenting on Ignatius did not appear to be reading the same letters of the Long Recension. Ussher researched and found a shorter set, usually called the Middle Recension, and argued that only the letters contained in it were authentically Ignatius's. The unknown compiler of the Long Recension edited Ignatius's work and included some of his own, and seems to have had [[Arian]] tendencies. He published this Latin edition of the genuine Ignatian works in 1644. The only major difference between Ussher's stance and modern scholars is that Ussher thought that the [[Epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp]] was also inauthentic; most modern scholars believe it to be a genuine production of Ignatius, however.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lightfoot |first1=Joseph Barber |title=The Apostolic Fathers: Revised Texts with Introductions, Notes, Dissertations and Translations. S. Ignatius, S. Polycarp |date=1889 |publisher=Macmillan |pages=413–414 |edition=Second |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Glff5uXQPDMC}}</ref><ref name="ehrman">{{cite book |last=Ehrman |first=Bart |author-link=Bart Ehrman |date=2012 |title=Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics |publisher= Oxford University Press |pages=472–474 |isbn=9780199928033 }}.</ref>