one of his chaplains. He appeared as Parker's proxy at his confirmation (Strype, Parker, i. 110), and assisted at his ever-memorable consecration in the chapel of Lambeth House, 17 Dec. 1559, together with his brother chaplain, Edmund Guest, archdeacon of Canterbury (subsequently bishop of Rochester and of Salisbury), both vested in silken copes (Strype, Ann. of Reform. ii. ii. 555). He had received the degree of LL.D. at Cambridge 16 Jan. of that year (Wood, Athenæ, ii. 814). His intimate acquaintance with law caused him to be much consulted by his friend Parker, whose intention to appoint him as judge in one of the leading ecclesiastical courts was prevented by his speedy elevation to the episcopate. On the deprivation of Bishop Watson he was appointed to the see of Lincoln, and was consecrated in the second group of bishops, at Lambeth, 21 Jan. 1559–60 (Strype, Parker, i. 126–7; Rymer, Fœd. xv. 561, 579; Sir John Hayward, Annals of Q. Eliz. (Camden Soc. 1840), pp. 19, 27; Burnet, Hist. of Reform. ii. 494, ed. 1825; appendix, vol. ii. pt. ii.) A royal license was granted to Bullingham to retain his archdeaconry in commendam for three years, in regard of the poverty of the bishopric, which had been stripped bare by Holbeach's weak connivance at the infamous robbery of Edward VI's ministers (Rymer, Fœd. xv. 564). On his resignation of this post in 1562 he was succeeded as archdeacon by Aylmer, afterwards bishop of London. Bullingham's sound learning and familiarity with canon law rendered him an important addition to the company of Elizabethan prelates, among whom his gravity and placable spirit and freedom from polemical bitterness gave him deserved weight. He served on many important commissions for the settlement of the state of the church, and took a prominent part in the memorable convocation in 1562 (Cardwell, Synodalia, ii. 495–527). He was one of the bishops appointed to draw up articles of discipline (ib. p. 511; Wilkins, Concilia, iv. 238; Burnet, Hist. of Reform. iii. 512), and was among those to whom Dean Nowell's catechism was referred for consideration (ib. 522). He took part, with Grindal of London, Horne of Winchester, and Cox of Ely, in drawing up the celebrated ‘advertisements’ prescribing, not, as has been asserted, the maximum of ritual which would be allowed, but the minimum which would be tolerated, laid by Parker before Cecil 3 March 1565 and issued by him without the royal authority in 1566 (Parker Correspondence, Parker Soc. edit., p. 233; Cardwell, Docum. Annals, i. 287–97 (Cardwell's date, 1564, is incorrect); Strype, Parker, i. 315, bk. ii. ch. 20). In December of the same year he signed a letter to the queen, praying her to give her assent to a bill for enforcing subscription to the articles of 1562–3 (Parker Correspondence, pp. 292–294). On 18 Jan. 1570–1, on the promotion of Sandys to the see of London, Bullingham was elected bishop of Worcester (Le Neve, Fasti, iii. 65; Rymer, Fœd. xv. 689). As bishop of Worcester he was one of the episcopal commissioners appointed by the queen, 7 June 1571, for the enforcement of the use of the Book of Common Prayer and the prohibition of unlicensed ministers (Parker Corresp. p. 383; Strype, Parker, iii. 183, No. 62). The same year he signed the forty articles (Strype, Parker, ii. 54, bk. iv. ch. 5) and the ‘canons ecclesiastical’ (ib. p. 60; Cardwell, Synodalia, i. 131). Archbishop Parker commissioned Bullingham to ordain for him (Strype, u. s. i. 129), and, 4 Jan. 1566, forwarded to Cecil his request to be temporarily relieved of the care of Gilbert Bourne [q. v. , the deprived bishop of Bath and Wells, who had been committed to his custody (Parker Correspondence, p. 253; Strype, u. s. i. 279). Parker bequeathed to him his ‘white horse called Hackington with its harness and caparisons, valued at 13l. 6s. 8d.’ (Strype, u. s. iii. 336, 343). While bishop of Lincoln, 28 Feb. 1567–8, he issued a circular letter to the incumbents of his diocese for collections on behalf of the refugees for religion from France and Flanders (Calendar of State Papers, sub ann.). As visitor of King's College, on a complaint of the fellows of King's in 1566, that their provost, Philip Baker, was popishly inclined, he made a visitation of the college, and issued injunctions for the destruction of ‘a great deal of popish stuff,’ which the provost neglected, concealing the condemned articles in ‘a secret corner’ (Cooper, Annals of Cambridge, ii. 225). He died, much respected and beloved, on 18 April 1576, and was succeeded after a year's vacancy of the see by Whitgift. He was buried in the Jesus chapel, on the north side of the nave of his cathedral. The effigy is of singular design, only the upper and lower part of the figure being visible. His quaint epitaph runs:—
Nicolaus Episcopus Wigorn.
Here born, here bishop, buried here,
A Bullyngham by name and stock,
A man twice married in God's fear,
Chief pastor, late of Lyncolne flock,
Whom Oxford trained up in youth,
Whom Cambridge doctor did create,
A painful preacher of the truth,
Who changed this life for happy fate
18 April 1576.
