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John Bullingham, (d. 1598), bishop of Gloucester, was probably born in Gloucestershire. He was educated at Oxford and had graduated BA by 1550, when he was elected a probationer fellow of Magdalen College. He left England to live in exile in Rouen, France, shortly thereafter, as a result of the increasingly radical direction being taken by English protestantism during the later years of Edward VI's reign. The accession of Mary and the restoration of Catholicism prompted his return, and he resumed his position and studies at Magdalen. He proceeded MA and was ordained to the priesthood in 1554. That same year he became rector of Boxwell in the diocese of Gloucester on the presentation of the queen, and three years later he was granted the vicarage of Creche in the diocese of Bath and Wells.
By 1562, three years after Elizabeth had succeeded Mary as queen and England had returned to protestantism, Bullingham had apparently reconciled himself to the new religion (or at least wanted the martyrologist John Foxe to think so). In that year he wrote a letter to Foxe lamenting his earlier Catholic allegiance and his rejection of the Marian martyr Julins Palmer (a former Magdalen man like both Foxe and Bullingham himself). Bullingham told Foxe how he had met with Palmer in St Paul's after returning to England early in Mary's reign, and how after arguing with him about the cathedral's recently erected rood, he told Palmer, ‘I will never have to do with you again’. Clearly he now wanted Foxe to believe that he regretted his words, adding that by Palmer's words and deeds ‘it appeareth that God had elected him’ (Acts and Monuments, 8.204–5).
Bullingham seems to have completed the rehabilitation of his ecclesiastical career by the mid-1560s—in 1565 he was collated to the prebend of Wenlocksbarn in St Paul's, London. He also continued his association with Magdalen and received the degrees of BTh and DTh in 1566 and 1567 respectively. In the latter year he was appointed archdeacon of Huntingdon by Nicholas Bullingham, bishop of Lincoln, who may have been a kinsman. In any event, John Bullingham benefited from Nicholas's patronage on several subsequent occasions. He became a canon of Lincoln with the prebend of Louth in 1568, rector of Brington and Bithorne in the diocese of Lincoln in 1569, and a canon of Worcester in 1570, all through the patronage of the bishop of Lincoln. Then in 1571, after Bishop Bullingham was translated to Worcester, he presented John to the living of Withington in the diocese of Gloucester. John was subsequently incorporated DTh of Cambridge in 1575, and the following year was a commissioner to conduct the metropolitical visitation of the diocese of Hereford for Archbishop Grindal. He seems to have held his accumulated positions until 1581, only relinquishing them when he was named bishop of Gloucester and, like his predecessor Richard Cheyney, granted Bristol in commendam. The see of Gloucester was poorly endowed, its annual income being calculated at just over £330 at this time. Bristol's equally slender revenues nevertheless allowed Bullingham to maintain the dignity of a bishop, but it must be doubted whether the archbishop of Canterbury's officials allowed him effective control over Bristol's diocesan affairs, regarding it rather as a vacant see and administering it accordingly. When Richard Fletcher was consecrated bishop of Bristol in 1589 Bullingham complained to Lord Burghley that his lost income from the see had been ‘the onely stay of my living’ and petitioned for a benefice in commendam to make up for it (BL, Lansdowne MS 61, fol. 9r). He received the rectory of Kilmington in the diocese of Bath and Wells, holding it until his death. John Aylmer, bishop of London, who had originally opposed Bullingham's elevation, was by 1592 sufficiently sympathetic to his plight to propose that he be allowed to hold the see of Oxford in commendam following the death of John Underhill.
By the time he was elevated to Gloucester, Bullingham seems to have reconciled himself fully to the new religion. In 1583 he was one of a number of bishops who presented a set of articles to the queen for the government of the church, urging her to execute the laws against recusants, and to promote preaching, reading the Bible, admission to orders, and clerical marriage. He seems to have been active against nonconformity, but most of his energies were devoted to attempts to control the behaviour of his chancellor, William Blackleech, whom he accused of corruption in the execution of his office. Blackleech followed another corrupt diocesan chancellor, Thomas Powell, and, like his predecessor, Cheyney, Bullingham had little success in either reforming or removing the offending official. Like Cheyney, Bullingham was supported more than once by the privy council, obtaining letters and commissions to help him in asserting his episcopal authority, although the effect of such actions was probably negligible. Early in 1589 Bullingham selected Gilbert Bourne to replace Blackleech. Bourne was sworn in and took the oath of supremacy on 13 March 1589; but Blackleech refused to acquiesce in his own removal and presided over the diocesan consistory court on 7 April, having forced Bourne to give way, allegedly at sword-point. Two days later Bullingham issued a decree, declaring that in the interest of maintaining the reputation of the court he would henceforth preside in person.
Bourne disappears from the records at this point but the episcopal decree was no more of a deterrent to Blackleech than Bullingham's previous attempts to gain control of his consistory court. The chancellor continued to preside over the court through the summer of 1590. When on 6 October 1590 the bishop attempted to preside himself, his recalcitrant chancellor challenged his authority by disrupting the proceedings. Blackleech tried to prorogue the session, announcing that it would be reconvened that afternoon in a nearby parish church, and then: departed out of the corte with dyvers clients apparitors and others following them. And walked up and downe in the Cathedral Churche of Gloucester. And the sayd Lord Bushoppe continued his judiciall sittinge … and [later] the same forenoone the same Mr Blackleeche came againe into the consistory place and standing bare headed without the Inner Bar … interrupted the proceedings to announce that he would reconvene the court immediately in the neighbouring parish (rather than waiting until afternoon). The bishop responded by telling those present ‘that they should stay there before his Lordship and appear’. The records show that some stayed and others followed the chancellor to his session (Gloucester diocesan records, vol. 63, 6 Oct 1590).
The battle of wills continued until 11 April 1592, with both Bullingham and Blackleech presiding over simultaneous sessions held in different places within the cathedral. Then a compromise of sorts was reached that left Blackleech as chancellor presiding over the court. Soon afterwards, however, Bullingham accused Blackleech of ignoring injunctions emanating from higher courts (including the court of requests), though apparently to no avail. Once again Blackleech appears to have acted with flagrant disregard for higher authority, and once again the bishop was unable to do anything about it.
Bullingham's ineffectiveness was consistent with other aspects of his performance, first as a priest and then as a bishop. In 1568 Matthew Parker, archbishop of Canterbury, had chosen Bullingham to preach on Good Friday at Paul's Cross in place of the bishop of Winchester, who was ill. Subsequently Parker heard Bullingham preach and concluded that he lacked the rhetorical style and temperament appropriate for a court preacher. He vowed that he would not select him to preach before the queen again, because ‘he would that her Highness had the best’ (Correspondence, 378). Following his elevation to Gloucester, Bullingham was viewed by some as a weak member of the Elizabethan bench. He was one of the bishops selected for particular mention and pointed ridicule in the Marprelate tracts, where he was characterized as ‘unlerned’ and an ‘olde stealecounter masse priest’ (Marprelate, Epistle to the Terrible Priests, 3; Hay any worke for Cooper, 6) . He died on 20 May 1598 at Kensington and was buried in Gloucester Cathedral.
Caroline Litzenberger Sources APC, 1542–98 · CPR, 1553–82 · CSP dom., 1547–1603, with addenda, 1580–1625 · DNB · M. Marprelate, An epistle to the terrible priests [1588]; repr. in
The Marprelate tracts (1588–1589) (1967) · M. Marprelate, Hay any worke for Cooper [1559]; repr. in The Marprelate tracts (1588–1589) (1967) ·
Hockaday Abstracts, Chronological, 1554–8, Gloucester City Library ·
diocesan records, Gloucester, Glos. RO, vols. 2a, 27a · K. Fincham, Prelate as pastor: the episcopate of James I (1990) ·
Foster, Alum. Oxon., 1500–1714, 1.208 ·
The acts and monuments of John Foxe, new edn, ed. G. Townsend, 8 vols. (1843–9)
Fasti Angl., 1541–1857, [St Paul's, London] ·
Fasti Angl., 1541–1857, [Ely] ·
Fasti Angl., 1541–1857, [Bristol] ·
Fasti Angl., 1541–1857, [Lincoln] ·
Correspondence of Matthew Parker, ed. J. Bruce and T. T. Perowne, Parker Society, 42 (1853) · F. D. Price,
‘Bishop Bullingham and chancellor Blackleech: a diocese divided’, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 91 (1973), 175–98 · STC, 1475–1640 · D. M. Smith,
Guide to bishops' registers of England and Wales: a survey from the middle ages to the abolition of the episcopacy in 1646, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 11 (1981) · J. Strype,
Annals of the Reformation and establishment of religion … during Queen Elizabeth's happy reign, new edn, 4 vols. (1824) · J. Strype,
The life and acts of Archbishop Whitgift (1821) · J. Strype,
The history of the life and acts of the most reverend father in God Edmund Grindal, new edn (1821) · J. Strype,
Historical collections of the life and acts of … John Aylmer, new edn (1821) · J. Strype,
The life and acts of Matthew Parker, new edn, 3 vols. (1821) · Wood, Ath. Oxon., new edn, 2.842–3
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)