Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T11:08:53.493Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

John Bramhall’s other island: a Laudian solution to an Irish problem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Jack P. Cunningham
Jack P. Cunningham*
Affiliation:
Bishop Grosseteste University College, Lincoln
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

When John Bramhall arrived on the shores of Ireland in 1633 to begin his new job as chaplain to the (also newly appointed) lord deputy, Thomas Wentworth, he was probably not yet forty years old. He immediately set about his role with the type of energy and ruthless devotion that came to characterise the Laudian regime that sent him. As John Morrill has indicated, nothing in the previous reign had prepared the Irish Protestant establishment ‘for the onslaught on their church to be mounted by William Laud.’ Historically, one of the problems with the Laudians is that while it is clear what they did, it is less clear why they did it. Typically, and shrewdly, they did not tend to be verbose concerning their motives.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 36 , Issue 141 , May 2008 , pp. 1 - 15
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Morrill, John, ‘A very British patriarchy? Ecclesiastical imperialism under the early Stuarts’ in Fletcher, Anthony and Roberts, Philip (eds), Religion, culture and society in early modern Britain (Cambridge, 1994), p. 222.Google Scholar

2 Eliot, T. S., ‘John Bramhall’ in Selected essays (London, 1951), p. 354.Google Scholar

3 Hugh Trevor-Roper, Archbishop Laud (London, 1940), p. 241.Google Scholar

4 Burghclere, Lady, Strafford (2 vols, London, 1931), i, 236.Google Scholar

5 McCafferty, John, ‘John Bramhall and the Church of Ireland in the 1630s’ in Ford, Alan, McGuire, J. I. and Milne, Kenneth (eds), As by law established: the Church of Ireland since the Reformation (Dublin, 1995), pp 100-11;Google Scholar idem, ‘“God bless your free Church of Ireland”: Wentworth, Laud and the Irish convocation of 1634’ in J. F. Merritt (ed.), The political world of Thomas Wentworth, earl of Strafford, 1621–1641 (Cambridge, 1996), pp 187–208.

6 Russell, Conrad, ‘The British problem and the English Civil War’ in History, lxxii (1987), p. 399.Google Scholar

7 Davies, Julian, The Caroline captivity of the Church: Charles I and the remoulding of Anglicanism, 1625–1641 (Oxford, 1992).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 Morrill, ‘British patriarchy?’, pp 223–7.

9 Kenneth Fincham, ‘The ecclesiastical policies of James I and Charles I’ in idem (ed.), The early Stuart Church, 1603–1642 (London, 1993), p. 49.

10 Ford, Alan, ‘Dependent or independent? The Church of Ireland and its colonial context, 1536–1649’ in The seventeenth century, x, no. 2 (Aug. 1995), p. 174.Google Scholar

11 Scott, William and Bliss, James (eds), The works of the most reverend father in God William Laud… (7 vols, Oxford, 1847-60), vii, 66.Google Scholar

12 Hadden, A. (ed.), The works of John Bramhall … (5 vols, Oxford, 1842-45), i, pp lxxx–lxxxii.Google Scholar

13 Ford, Alan, The Protestant Reformation in Ireland (Dublin, 1997), pp 214-15.Google Scholar

14 Hadden, , Works of Bramhall, ii, 124.Google Scholar

15 Cal. S.P. Ire., 1633–47, pp 31–2.

16 Otto, Rudolf, The idea of the holy : an inquiry into the non-rational factor in the idea of the divine and its relation to the rational, trans. Harvey, J.W. (Oxford, 1925).Google Scholar

17 Hadden, , Works of Bramhall, i, p. v.Google Scholar

18 Ibid.

19 Ibid.

20 Bickley, F., H.M.C. Hastings (London, 1947), iv, 55.Google Scholar

21 Bramhall, to Laud, , 20 Dec. 1634 (T.C.D. MS 1697, paper vi).Google Scholar

22 Lockyer, Roger, The early Stuart Church: a political history, 1603–42 (London, 1989), p. 316.Google Scholar

23 Philips, W.A., The history of the Church of Ireland (3 vols, Oxford, 1933-34), iii, 32.Google Scholar

24 Bramhall, , Works, i, p. vii.Google Scholar

25 Vesey, John, Athanasius Hibernicus (London, 1676), p. 15.Google Scholar

26 Bramhall, , Works, i, p. vii.Google Scholar

27 Vesey, Athanasius Hibernicus, p. 16.

28 McCafferty, John, ‘John Bramhall and the reconstruction of the Church of Ireland, 1633–1641’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Cambridge, 1996).Google Scholar

29 W. E. Collins, ‘John Bramhall’ in idem (ed.), Typical English churchmen from Parker to Maurice (London, 1902 ), p. 91.

30 Vesey, Athanasius Hibernicus, p. 18.

31 McCafferty, ‘Bramhall’, p. 101.

32 The passage of these canons has been well documented elsewhere; see McCafferty, ‘“God bless your free Church of Ireland”’.

33 Capern, Amanda, ‘The Caroline Church: James Ussher and the Irish dimension’ in Historical Journal, xxxix (1996), p. 64.Google Scholar

34 Ussher, to Bramhall, , 27 Oct. 1635 (Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif, MS HA 15950).Google Scholar

35 Some controversy surrounds Ussher’s attitude to the Irish articles after convocation. A. J. Stephens shows that this argument centres on the evidence of Peter Heylin and John Vesey. Both claimed that Ussher and several other Irish bishops required of their ordinands double subscription. However, as Stephens indicates, both authors are relying on Nicholas Bernard, who maintained in his Judgement of James Ussher that this was the case. Bernard’s evidence is often doubtful, and with regard to this rather sensational text must be considered even more untrustworthy. Stephens, A. J., Ms. Book of common prayer (3 vols, London, 1849-50), iii, p. cix.Google Scholar

36 Hardwick, Charles, A history of the articles of religion (London, 1890), p. 186.Google Scholar

37 Margaret, , duchess of Newcastle, The life of William Cavendish, duke of Newcastle (London, 1667), p. 43.Google Scholar

38 Bramhall, , Works, i, p. xGoogle Scholar; Aylmer, G. E., The king’s servants: the civil service of Charles I, 1625–42 (London, 1974), p. 103.Google Scholar

39 Vesey, Athanasius Hibernicus, p. 27.

40 Bramhall, , Works, iii, 529.Google Scholar

41 Morrill, ‘British patriarchy?’, p. 224.

42 Vesey, Athanasius Hibernicus, p. 10.

43 Monili, ‘British patriarchy?’, p. 226.

44 McCafferty, ‘Bramhall’,p. 111.

45 Bramhall, , Works, ii, 295.Google Scholar

46 Ibid., pp 98–9.

47 Ibid., i, 577.

48 Ibid., ii, 43.

49 Ibid., pp 47–8.

50 Ibid., p. 48.

51 Ibid., i, 295.

52 Ibid., p. 199.

53 Ibid., ii, 453.

54 Ibid., p. 299.

55 Ibid., i, 100; iii, 557; v, 187.

56 Baillie, Robert, A review of the seditious pamphlet lately published in Holland by Dr. Bramhell pretended bishop of Londonderry (London, 1649), p. 5.Google Scholar

57 R. C., A brief survey of the lord of Derry (Paris, 1655), pp 141-2.Google Scholar

58 Bramhall, , Works, i, 96.Google Scholar

59 Ibid., p. 100.

60 George, C. H. and George, Katherine, The Protestant mind of the English Reformation, 1570–1640 (London, 1961), p. 387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

61 Aveling, J. C. H., Loades, D. M. and McAdoo, H. R., Rome and the Anglicans (Berlin, 1982), p. 166.Google Scholar

62 Hadden, , Works of Bramhall, iii, 545.Google Scholar

63 Ibid., p. 556.

64 Ibid., p. 557.

65 Bettenson, Henry(ed.), Documents of the Christian Church (2nd ed., Oxford, 1963), p. 135.Google Scholar

66 Hay, Denys, Europe in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (London, 1989), p. 309.Google Scholar

67 Bettenson (ed.), Documents, p. 136.

68 Hillerbrand, H. J., The Oxford encyclopedia of the Reformation (4 vols, Oxford, 1996) i, 394-7Google Scholar. In fact, Rome still felt it necessary to deal with conciliarism as a living issue in 1870 at the First Vatican Council. Interestingly, it resurfaced at the Second Vatican Council, after Hans Kiing had published his book, Strukturen der Kirche (1962).

69 Oakley, Francis, ‘“Anxieties of influence”: Skinner, Figgis, conciliarism and early modern constitutionalism’ in Past and Present, no. 151 (May 1996), p. 81.Google Scholar

70 Hillerbrand, , Encylopedia, ii, 197-8.Google Scholar

71 Butler, Charles, The life of Hugo Grotius (London, 1826), p. 151.Google Scholar

72 Mackenzie, I. M., God’s order and natural law: the works of the Laudian divines (Aldershot, 2002).Google Scholar

73 Hadden, , Works of Bramhall, iii.Google Scholar

74 Ibid.

75 Ibid., pp 548–9.

76 Ibid., i, 101.

77 Ibid., p. 109.

78 Ibid.

79 Aveling, Loades and McAdoo, Rome and Anglicans, p. 275.

80 Milton, Anthony, Catholic and Reformed: the Roman and Protestant Churches in English Protestant thought, 1600–1640 (Cambridge, 1994), p. 371.Google Scholar

81 Bramhall, , Works, iii, 568-9.Google Scholar

82 Ibid.

83 Ibid., i, 100.

84 Ibid., iii, 545.

85 Ibid., p. 546.

86 Ibid., p. 539.

87 Ibid.

88 Morrill, John, The nature of the English revolution (London, 1993), p. 9.Google Scholar

89 Laud, , Works, vi, 262.Google Scholar

90 Ibid., p. 52.

91 Cal. S.P. Ire., 1625–33, p. 622.

92 Morrill, ‘British patriarchy?’, p. 209; B.L., Add. MS 34600, ff 172, 173, 179–80, 186. and cf. f. 133.

93 Morrill, ‘British patriarchy?’, p. 236.

94 Bramhall, , Works, i, 97.Google Scholar

95 Scott, and Bliss, , Works of Laud, vii, 291-3.Google Scholar

97 McCafferty, ‘“God bless your free Church of Ireland”’, p. 189.