Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/216

 Bramhall Meantime he was consecrated bishop of Derry in the chapel of Dublin Castle on 16 May 1634, succeeding the puritan, George Downham. Bramhall, in the Irish parliament which met 14 July 1634, procured the passing of three important acts for the preservation of church property. By the Irish convocation which met in November 1634 the thirty-nine articles were received and approved ; not directly in substitution for, but in addition to, the Irish articles of 1615, articles which subsequently formed the basis of the Westminster Confession. The credit of this measure is given to Bramhall by his biographers ; but it appears from Wentworth's letter to Laud that he himself, dissatisfied with what the bishops were proposing, drew the canon, and forced it upon the convocation in the teeth of the primate, without permitting a word of discussion. It passed with a single dissentient vote (in the lower house). 'It seems,' says Collier, 'one Calvinist had looked deeper than the rest into the matter.' What Bramhall did was to try to get the English canons of 1604 adopted in Ireland ; there were 'some heats' between him and the primate Ussher, ending with the passing of distinct canons, in the compiling of which Bramhall had a large share. The ninety-fourth canon, endorsing a part of the wise policy of Bedell, bishop of Kilmore, provided for the use of the bible and prayer-book in the vernacular in an Irish-speaking district. This was opposed by Bramhall, to whom the native tongue was a symbol of barbarism, and who failed to see the necessity of instructing a people through the medium of a language they understood. In 1635 Bramhall was in his diocese, and in August of the following year we find him at Belfast assisting Bishop Henry Leslie in his discussion with, and proceedings against, the five ministers who would not subscribe the new canons [see ]. The presbyterian account does full justice to the harshness of his manner. Visiting England in 1637, a trifling accusation brought him before the Star-chamber at the instance of one Bacon, who charged him with using language disrespectful to the king, while executing at Ripon a commission from the Star-chamber court. This he soon disposed of; the words laid to his charge had been uttered by a fellow-commissioner. Laud presented him to the king, and he received signs of royal favour. Returning to Ireland, he employed 6,000l., the proceeds of his English property, in purchasing and improving an estate at Omagh, co. Tyrone, in the midst of Irish recusants. In the same year he was made receiver-general for the crown of all revenues from the estates of the city of London in his diocese, forfeited through non-fulfilment of some conditions of the holding. Further power, which he was not slow to use, was put into his hands on 21 May 1639, when the 'black oath' abjuring the covenant was directed to be taken by all the Ulster Scots. In 1639 he protected and recommended to Wentworth John Corbet, minister at Bonhill, who had been deposed by the Dumbarton presbytery for refusing to subscribe the assembly's declaration against prelacy. Wentworth used Corbet as a sarcastic writer against the Scottish covenanters, and nominated him to the vicarage of Templemore, in the diocese of Achonry. Archibald Adair, bishop of Killala and Achonry, a man of puritan leanings, could not disguise his aversion to the admission of Corbet, who complained of the bishop's language to the high commission court established by Wentworth at the end of 1634. Adair was tried as a favourer of the covenant. Bedell alone voted for his acquittal ; the loudest in his condemnation were Bramhall and the infamous John Atherton, bishop of Waterford [q. v.] Adair was deposed on 18 May 1640. The proceedings both exasperated the Scottish settlers and shook the stability of the episcopal system. The Irish commons in October 1640 drew up a remonstrance, in the course of which they speak of the Derry plantation as 'almost destroyed' through the policy of which Bramhall was the administrator. No sooner had the English commons impeached Wentworth (now earl of Strafford) of high treason on 11 Nov. 1640, than the presbyterians of Antrim, Down, Derry, Tyrone, &c., drew up a petition to the English parliament (presented by Sir John Clotworthy about the end of April 1641), containing thirty-one charges against the prelates, and praying that their exiled pastors might be reinstated. Of the Ulster bishops, Bramhall, from his closer connection with state affairs, was the most prominent object of attack. The Irish commons, on the motion of Audley Mervyn and others, 4 March 1641, impeached him, with the lord chancellor, the chief justice of the common pleas, and Sir George Radcliffe, as participants in the alleged treason of Strafford. Bramhall acted a manly part in at once leaving Derry for Dublin, and taking his place in the House of Lords. He was imprisoned and accused of unconstitutional acts ; his defence was that he had equitably sought the good of the church, and that his hands were clean from private rapine or family promotions. He wrote, on 26 April, to Ussher in London, through whose exertions with the king Bramhall was liberated without acquittal. He returned to Derry. Vesey states that an