Paul Bush (bishop)
Encyclopedia
Paul Bush (1490–1558) was an English Augustinian and first bishop of Bristol
Bishop of Bristol
The Bishop of Bristol heads the Church of England Diocese of Bristol in the Province of Canterbury, in England.The present diocese covers parts of the counties of Somerset and Gloucestershire together with a small area of Wiltshire...

 of the new diocese.

Life

He was born 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...

, and studied at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

, taking his degree of B.A. about 1517, by which time he was known as a poet. He subsequently read divinity, studying among the Bonhommes whose house stood on the site of the present Wadham College. He also applied himself to the study of medicine,. He took the degrees of B.D. and D.D., and having become a friar of the order, became a published author.

He rose to be provincial of the Bonhommes, and became provost of the house of this order at Edington, near Westbury
Westbury, Wiltshire
Westbury is a town and civil parish in the west of the English county of Wiltshire, most famous for the Westbury White Horse.-Name:The most likely origin of the West- in Westbury is simply that the town is near the western edge of the county of Wiltshire, the bounds of which have been much the same...

, Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

. He held the prebendal stall of Bishopston in Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England, considered one of the leading examples of Early English architecture....

, about 1539, and became one of the residentiary canons. He obtained royal favour and was made chaplain to Henry VIII, who, on the foundation of the bishopric of Bristol, selected Bush as the first bishop of the new see. Bush's replies to certain questions relative to the abuses of the mass, proposed in 1548, were largely those of an orthodox Catholic.

He married Edith Ashley, who died three months after 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...

, 8 October 1553; proceedings were anyway taken against him as a married priest. The following year, 20 March 1554, a commission, of which 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:...

 and Edmund Bonner
Edmund Bonner
Edmund Bonner , Bishop of London, was an English bishop. Initially an instrumental figure in the schism of Henry VIII from Rome, he was antagonized by the Protestant reforms introduced by Somerset and reconciled himself to Roman Catholicism...

 were the chief members, passed sentence of deprivation on him. He made a voluntary resignation in the following June, when the dean and chapter of Canterbury assumed the spiritual jurisdiction of the see, 21 June 1554. He was accused of having impoverished the see by granting the manor of Leigh Court
Leigh Court
Leigh Court is a country house which is a Grade II* listed building in Abbots Leigh, Somerset, England.The manor of Leigh at the time of the Norman Conquest belonged to the lordship of Bedminster but William the Conqueror awarded it to the Bishop of Coutances...

 to Edward VI
Edward VI of England
Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...

 in 1549. On his resignation Bush retired to the rectory of Winterbourne
Winterbourne, Gloucestershire
Winterbourne is a large village in South Gloucestershire, England. It had a population of 8,623 in the 2001 census. It sits as the centre of the Civil Parish of Winterbourne which encompasses the neighbouring communities of Winterbourne Down, Hambrook and Frenchay...

, near Bristol, which he held till his death, which occurred at the age of 68, a few days before Mary's death, 11 October 1558. He was buried near the grave of his wife, on the north side of the choir of Bristol Cathedral
Bristol Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity is the Church of England cathedral in the city of Bristol, England, and is commonly known as Bristol Cathedral...

, where his mutilated renaissance monument, bearing his effigy as a decaying corpse with a tonsured head, still stands.

Works

Bush was the author of the following works:
  • 'A Lyttell Tretyse in Englyshe called the Exposycyon of Miserere mei Deus.'
  • 'Certayne Gostly Medycynes necessary to be used among well disposed people, to eschew and avoid the comen plage of pestilence' (Redman, no date). This is a small trac containing prayers and conjurations against the plague.
  • 'A Lyttell Treatyse in Englyshe called the Extripacion (sic) of Ignorancy,' (Pynson, no date). This is little poetical tract 'dedicated unto the yong and most hye renouned Lady Mary, prinses and daughter unto the noble progenytour and worthy soverayne Kyng Henry Eight.'
  • 'De laudibus Crucis (no date).
  • 'Dialogus inter Christum et Mariam,' 1525.
  • 'An Exhortacyon to Margaret, wyf of John Burgess, clothier of Kingswood. in the county of Wilts, by Paul Bush, bishop of Bristol' (London, Cawood, 1554).
  • 'Carminum diversorum liber unus.'
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