BULL, HENRY (d. 1575?), theological writer, a native of Warwickshire, was a demy of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1535, and full fellow and B.A. in 1540. He was a prominent member of the party in the college that desired religious reformation, and on one occasion, with the help of Thomas Bentham, afterwards bishop of Lichfield, snatched the censer from the hand of the officiating priest. When Mary came to the throne a visitation of the college was held, and on 23 Oct. 1553 the visitors deprived Bull of his fellowship. Wood says that he went into exile. Strype, however, states that he lived quietly at home, continuing steadfast in the reformed faith (Memorials, iii. i. 82). After the accession of Elizabeth he held two or three benefices (Wood). He died probably in 1575, and certainly before the publication of his translation of Luther's ‘Commentary on the Psalms’ in 1577. He edited the ‘Apology’ of Bishop Hooper, with a preface, in 1562, and in the same year Hooper's ‘Exposition of Psalm xxiii.’ Although he also prepared the bishop's commentaries on three other Psalms, these were not published until after his death, when they were printed, together with the work on Psalm xxiii., under the title ‘Certeine comfortable Expositions of … Master John Hooper on Psalms 23, 62, 72, 77, gathered by Mr. H. B.,’ 1580. He was also the editor of ‘Christian Praiers and Holy Meditacions.’ The first copy of this work mentioned by Herbert, Lowndes, and others is that printed by H. Middelton in 1570. This, however, is stated on the title-page to have been ‘lately augmented.’ Its original probably was a book which W. Powell received license to print in 1566, and which took its title, ‘Lidley's Prayers,’ from part of Bull's collection. ‘Christian Praiers’ was reprinted in 1584, 1592, and at other dates. It has also been reprinted in a separate volume by the Parker Society. Bull translated from Luther's Latin ‘A Commentarie on the Fiftene Psalmes called Psalmi Graduum … translated out of Latine into English by Henry Bvll,’ printed by Thomas Vautroullier, 1577, with a preface by Foxe the martyrologist. In this preface Foxe says that Bull, now ‘departed,’ made a vow to do this work, that he received much spiritual consolation from it, and that ‘it pleased the Lord to continue his life till this vowed work was fully finished.’
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), i. 424, Antiquities of Oxford (Gutch), ii. 105, 121; Strype's Annals, i. i. 310, 544, Memorials, iii. i. 82; Bull's Christian Prayers, preface (Parker Soc.); Clay's Private Prayers, preface (Parker Soc.); Hooper's Latin Works, 182, 551 (Parker Soc.); Bull's Commentarie on the Fiftene Psalmes (ed. 1577), Foxe's preface; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. 138.]
BULL, JOHN (1563?–1628), musician, was, as Wood (Bodl. MSS., Wood, 19, D 4) states, 'of the same family, as it seems, with those of his name in Somersetshire.' According to the pedigree of the Bulls of Peglinch or Peylinch in the parish of Wellow (which is to be found in the visitation of Somersetshire held in 1623), he may be identified with the John Bull who is there described as the third son of John Bull of Peylinch, though it must be stated that this surmise is not corroborated by a cursory examination of the parish register. He was one of the children of the Chapel Royal under William Blitheman [q.v.], who 'spared neither time nor labour to advance' his natural talent. On 24 Dec. 1582 he was appointed organist of Hereford Cathedral, where he was subsequently also master of the choristers. In January 1585 he was sworn in as a member of the Chapel Royal in the place of one Bodinghurst, and on 9 July of the following year he took the degree of Mus. Bac. at Oxford. In chronicling this event Wood (Fasti, ed. Bliss, i.) says that he 'had practised the faculty of music for fourteen years,' which fixes the year 1572 as the probable date of his admission to the Chapel Royal as a chorister under Blitheman. On the death of his master, in 1591, Bull succeeded him as organist of the Chapel Royal, and about the same time, or a little later, he is said to have taken the Mus. Doc. degree at Cambridge. On 29 May 1592 some curious entries in the Chapel cheque-book record the appointment, as a gentleman-extraordinary, of Mr. William Phelps of Tewkesbury, the reason being that 'he dyd show a moste rare kyndnes to Mr. Doctor Bull in his great distresse, beinge robbed in those parts.' On 7 July 1592 Bull took the degree of Mus. Doc. at Oxford. The delay is stated by Wood to have been caused by his having met with 'rigid puritans there that could not endure church music.' On the foundation of Gresham College Bull was specially appointed as the first music lecturer, in accordance with a letter addressed to the mayor and aldermen of London by Queen Elizabeth on 30 Nov. 1596 (State Papers, Eliz., Dom. Ser. cclx. 113). As he was unable to lecture in Latin, an exemption from the ordinances of the college was made in his favour. His inaugural address was delivered on 6 Oct. 1597, and was printed by Thomas East (Stationers' Register, ed. Arber, iii. 26), but no copy is known to exist, though Burney seems to have seen one. A passing reference
