ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the current debate on absolutism in light of the politics of James Ussher and John Bramhall. If Archbishop Ussher showed a marked disinclination to become involved in the necessary practicalities of high office in the Church then he displayed even more antipathy to the machinations of the political world. The Archbishop committed his thoughts to paper and dispatched it forthwith; meanwhile, he set out for Dublin. Compared to Ussher's marked reluctance for dirtying his hands with the business of Church and State affairs, Bramhall's approach displayed all the opposite qualities, he was the consummate politician. Bramhall acknowledges the dangers of tyranny that might result from such a focus of power, but he found them far less alarming than the dangers of anarchy that would certainly result from any deprecation of sovereign rule.
