Life

He was a native of Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

. He was elected a probationer fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...

, July 1550, being then B.A. In the latter part of Edward VI's reign he went as a voluntary exile to France, staying at Rouen

Rouen

Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...

, to avoid the Protestant reforms in England. On the accession of Queen Mary

Mary I of England

Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...

 he returned to England, and was restored to his place. He took his degree of M.A. 1 June 1554.

He was in favour as domestic chaplain to Stephen Gardiner

Stephen Gardiner

Stephen Gardiner was an English Roman Catholic bishop and politician during the English Reformation period who served as Lord Chancellor during the reign of Queen Mary I of England.-Early life:...

, bishop of Winchester

Bishop of Winchester

The Bishop of Winchester is the head of the Church of England diocese of Winchester, with his cathedra at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire.The bishop is one of five Church of England bishops to be among the Lords Spiritual regardless of their length of service. His diocese is one of the oldest and...

, and rector of Boxwell

Boxwell

Boxwell is a hamlet in Gloucestershire, England, near the village of Leighterton...

 and Withington

Withington

Withington is a suburban area of the City of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies south of Manchester city centre, about south of Fallowfield, north-east of Didsbury, and east of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, near the centre-to-south edges of the Greater Manchester Urban Area; in the...

 in Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

. On the accession of Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I of England

Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...

 he remained Catholic, and lost his livings. He was subsequently appointed by Edmund Grindal

Edmund Grindal

Edmund Grindal was an English church leader who successively held the posts of Bishop of London, Archbishop of York and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of Elizabeth I of England.-Early life to the death of Edward VI:...

 to the prebendal stall of Wenlocks-barn in St Paul's Cathedral

St Paul's Cathedral

St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...

, 1 August 1565, and admitted to the degree of B.D. at Oxford under the new Protestant regime, 8 July 1566. The next year, 27 December 1567, he was appointed archdeacon of Huntingdon by his namesake and probable relation, Nicholas Bullingham

Nicholas Bullingham

Nicholas Bullingham was an English Bishop of Worcester.-Life:Nicholas Bullingham was born in Worcester in around 1520. He was sent to the Royal Grammar School Worcester, after which he entered Oxford University. In 1543, he became a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford...

, bishop of Lincoln

Bishop of Lincoln

The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The Bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral...

. He held the post till 1576. He was created D.D. by his university 12 July 1568, and received from Bishop Bullingham the stall of Louth in Lincoln Cathedral

Lincoln Cathedral

Lincoln Cathedral is a historic Anglican cathedral in Lincoln in England and seat of the Bishop of Lincoln in the Church of England. It was reputedly the tallest building in the world for 249 years . The central spire collapsed in 1549 and was not rebuilt...

 10 September of the same year, and still retaining his other preferments was installed canon of Worcester 13 October 1570. He was incorporated D.D. of Cambridge 7 July 1575. When Grindal in 1576 held a visitation of his province by commission, Bullingham was one of those appointed to visit the diocese of Hereford

Diocese of Hereford

The Diocese of Hereford is a Church of England diocese based in Hereford, covering Herefordshire, southern Shropshire and a few parishes within Worcestershire in England; and a few parishes within Powys and Monmouthshire in Wales....

.

He was raised to the episcopate in 1581, being consecrated in 3 September of that year at Croydon

Croydon

Croydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...

 to the see of Gloucester. He was allowed to hold the recently created bishopric of Bristol in commendam

In Commendam

In canon law, commendam was a form of transferring an ecclesiastical benefice in trust to the custody of a patron...

as well as the prebend of Norton in Hereford Cathedral

Hereford Cathedral

The current Hereford Cathedral, located at Hereford in England, dates from 1079. Its most famous treasure is Mappa Mundi, a mediæval map of the world dating from the 13th century. The cathedral is a Grade I listed building.-Origins:...

, to which he was installed 16 January 1582. He held the see of Bristol till the appointment of Richard Fletcher

Richard Fletcher (bishop)

Richard Fletcher was a Church of England priest and bishop. He was successively bishop of Worcester in 1593–1594 and bishop of London in 1595–1596....

, at whose consecration he assisted, 14 December 1589. The rectory of Kilmington in Somerset

Somerset

The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

 was given him in compensation for the loss of the second bishopric and his Hereford stall. He served as commissioner for the confirmation of Whitgift's election as archbishop, 27 August 1583 and in 1584 was commissioned by the new primate to visit his own diocese of Gloucester. When the see of Oxford fell vacant in 1592, John Aylmer, then bishop of London

Bishop of London

The Bishop of London is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers 458 km² of 17 boroughs of Greater London north of the River Thames and a small part of the County of Surrey...

, at his request unsuccessfully endeavoured to obtain it for Bullingham. Bullingham died at Kensington

Kensington

Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...

 20 May 1598, and was buried in his own cathedral. He was one of the targets of attack for Martin Marprelate

Martin Marprelate

Martin Marprelate was the name used by the anonymous author or authors of the seven Marprelate tracts which circulated illegally in England in the years 1588 and 1589...

.

Works

A letter relating to his friend Julius Palmer is printed in John Foxe

John Foxe

John Foxe was an English historian and martyrologist, the author of what is popularly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, , an account of Christian martyrs throughout Western history but emphasizing the sufferings of English Protestants and proto-Protestants from the fourteenth century through the...

's Acts and Monuments. Palmer had also been a Catholic exile but was a Protestant convert and martyr. The only other work attributed to Bullingham is 'a translation of John Venerus's oration in defence of the Sacrament of the Aultare,' 1554.