John Bramhall - Archbishop of Armagh

Archbishop of Armagh

After the Restoration, in October 1660, he returned to England. He then went to Ireland, and on 18 January 1661 he became Archbishop of Armagh. As archbishop, Bramhall was responsible for ensuring that the Acts of religious conformity were prosecuted with moderation in Ireland. On 27 January 1661 he presided at the consecration in St Patrick's Cathedral of two archbishops and ten bishops for Ireland. Bramhall was ex officio president of convocation, and on 8 May 1661 he was chosen speaker of the Irish House of Lords. Both houses erased from their records the old charges against Bramhall.

Although Parliament passed declarations requiring conformity to episcopacy and the liturgy, and ordering the burning of the Covenant, Bramhall could not carry his bills for a uniform tithe system, and for extending episcopal leases. Until 1667 there was no Irish act of uniformity, just the old statute of 1560 on the use of Edward VI's second prayer-book. The ejection of Irish nonconformists was carried out by episcopal activity, some time before the passing of the English Act of Uniformity of 1662. Armagh was not a specially presbyterian diocese, and Bramhall used moderation.

Bramhall was defending his rights in a court of law at Omagh against Sir Audley Mervyn when a third paralytic stroke deprived him of consciousness. He died on 25 June 1663.