James Ussher was the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland between 1625 and 1656. He was a prolific Irish scholar and church leader, who today is most famous for his identification of the genuine letters of the church father, Ignatius of Antioch, and for his chronology that sought to establish the time and date of the creation as "the entrance of the night preceding the 23rd day of October... the year before Christ 4004"; that is, around 6 pm on 22 October 4004 BC, per the proleptic Julian calendar.
James Ussher
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
Title page of his Annals of the World
James Ussher's reported last words were "O Lord forgive me, especially my sins of omission"
The Church of Ireland is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second-largest Christian church on the island after the Roman Catholic Church. Like other Anglican churches, it has retained elements of pre-Reformation practice, notably its episcopal polity, while rejecting the primacy of the pope.
Holmpatrick St Patrick Church in Skerries, County Dublin
Pope Adrian IV, who claimed Ireland for the Papacy in 1155
Henry II with Thomas Becket; the 1155 intervention was the start of efforts to Anglicise the Irish church
James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh
