John Bramhall

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Bramhall, John (1594–1663), a dominant force amongst the Church of Ireland bishops in the 1630s and again in the early 1660s. Born in Yorkshire, Bramhall was educated at Cambridge (BA 1612, MA 1616, BD 1623, DD 1630), was ordained, and came to the notice of Archbishop Laud, who recommended him to Wentworth when the latter was appointed lord deputy in 1633. Appointed bishop of Derry in 1634, he was entrusted by Wentworth and Laud with the task of bringing the Church of Ireland into closer conformity with the Church of England, and gradually took over the day‐to‐day running of the Irish church. Bramhall helped secure the passage of the English Thirty‐Nine Articles and a set of ecclesiastical canons in the Irish convocation in 1634, and took a personal hand in driving out nonconformist Presbyterian ministers from Down and Connor in 1634–6. He also devoted much energy to regaining from the laity much of the alienated property and endowments of the Irish church, creating considerable resentment amongst Protestant and Catholic landholders alike. The fall of Wentworth led in 1641 to Bramhall's imprisonment by the Irish parliament, but after the rising of 1641 he fled to England. As a strong supporter of the king, he spent much of the 1640s and 1650s in exile on the Continent, returning briefly to Ireland in 1648–9. He devoted much of his time to writing, attacking Thomas Hobbes and defending the high‐church cause. Bramhall returned to Ireland after the Restoration, and was appointed archbishop of Armagh in 1661. As primate he sought to ensure that the new church was properly endowed and that its clergy conformed strictly to its beliefs and canons.

Alan Ford

Bramhall, John (1594–1663), Abp. of Armagh from 1661. He went to Ireland as Strafford's chaplain in 1633, becoming Bp. of Derry in 1634. He retired to England in 1642 and to the Continent in 1644. He devoted his exile to defending the English Church against attacks, writing against the Puritans, against the philosophical materialism and determinism of T. Hobbes, and against the RC Church. As Archbishop, he exercised moderation in enforcing the Conformity Laws.