TheEireniconand the ‘Primitive Episcopacy’ of James Ussher: An Irish Panacea For Britannia's Ailment

Abstract

James Ussher, Primate of the Church of Ireland (as Archbishop of Armagh), arrived in England in the early 1640s, a time when the country was in political turmoil. Scots and significant sections of English society were campaigning for the abolition of the episcopacy. During this turmoil Ussher proposed a scheme of limited episcopacy that came to be known by the keyword: the Eirenicon. This scheme offered to keep the bishops but in a form that made them answerable to a team of Presbyters. The Eirenicon failed and Ussher embarked on a literary campaign that defended the divine institution of episcopacy. This move has long been regarded as a U-turn. This paper will argue that rather than there being a change of mind, the Eirenicon and the pro-episcopal writings of Ussher should be seen as a whole, offering a compromise form of 'primitive episcopacy'.