Background
He was born in Somerset, and studied at the University of Oxford, taking his degree of Bachelor of Arts about 1517, by which time he was known as a poet.
He was born in Somerset, and studied at the University of Oxford, taking his degree of Bachelor of Arts about 1517, by which time he was known as a poet.
University of Oxford.
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 Bachelor of Divinity and Doctor of Divinity, 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, Wiltshire.
He held the prebendal stall of Bishopston in Salisbury Cathedral, 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. The following year, 20 March 1554, a commission, of which Stephen Gardiner and Edmund Bonner 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 to Edward VI in 1549. On his resignation Bush retired to the rectory of Winterbourne, 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.