Life

He was born in London and took his B.A. degree at 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...

, on 15 July 1528. In 1529 he became a fellow of his college, M.A. on 6 June 1632, B.D. on 17 June 1539. On 26 March 1565 he supplicated the university for a D.D. degree, but was not admitted.

He was a Protestant and a Marian exile of 1553. But he was in England again in 1555, when, 17 May, on the presentation of Ralph Henslow, he was appointed prebendary

Prebendary

A prebendary is a post connected to an Anglican or Catholic cathedral or collegiate church and is a type of canon. Prebendaries have a role in the administration of the cathedral...

 of Lyme and Halstock, Sarum. He was also a canon of Chichester, and in 1561 a dispensation was granted him on account of this as regarded part of his term of residence at Salisbury. He subscribed the articles of 1562 as a member of the lower house of convocation, and when the puritanical Six Articles of the same year were debated in that assembly, in common with other exiles, he signed them, but was outvoted by a majority of one. He also subscribed the articles of 1571.

Bradbridge was collated to be chancellor of Chichester on 28 April 1562, and was allowed to hold the chancellorship in commendam

In Commendam

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

with his bishopric. On Low Sunday 1563 he gave the annual Spittal sermon, and on 23 June of the same year, allowing himself conformable to the discipline which was then being established, was elected dean of Salisbury

Dean of Salisbury

The Dean of Salisbury is the Head of the Chapter of Salisbury Cathedral in the Church of England. The current Dean is The Very Revd June Osborne, who was installed in 2004.-Selected office-holders:*Walter 1102*Osbert 1105*Robert 1111*Serlo 1122...

 by letters from Queen Elizabeth, in the place of the Italian Peter Vannes

Peter Vannes

Peter Vannes was an Italian Catholic churchman who became a royal official in England, and Dean of Salisbury.-Life:Born at Lucca in northern Italy, he was son of Stephen de Vannes of that city. In one of his letters Erasmus calls him Peter Ammonius; and he was related to Andrea Ammonio...

. Here he was a contemporary of 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...

 and Thomas Harding

Thomas Harding (1516-1572)

Thomas Harding was an English Roman Catholic priest and controversialist.-Life:...

. On 26 February 1571 the queen issued her significavit in his favour to the archbishop, and he was duly elected bishop of Exeter on 1 March. After a declaration of the queen's supremacy and doing homage, the temporalities of the see were restored to him on Ihe 14th. His election was confirmed the next day, and he was consecrated at Lambeth

Lambeth

Lambeth is a district of south London, England, and part of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is situated southeast of Charing Cross.-Toponymy:...

 on the 18th by Archbishop Matthew Parker

Matthew Parker

Matthew Parker was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1559 until his death in 1575. He was also an influential theologian and arguably the co-founder of Anglican theological thought....

 and Bishops Robert Horne

Robert Horne (bishop)

Robert Horne was an English churchman, and a leading reforming Protestant. One of the Marian exiles, he was subsequently bishop of Winchester from 1560 to 1580....

 and 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...

.

More of a scholar than an administrator, he was given the Pentateuch to translate in 1572 for the new edition of the Bishop's Bible, according to John Strype

John Strype

John Strype was an English historian and biographer. He was a cousin of Robert Knox, a famous sailor.Born in Houndsditch, London, he was the son of John Strype, or van Stryp, a member of a Huguenot family whom, in order to escape religious persecution within Brabant, had settled in East London...

. He had trouble with Catholics and dissenters, and sent three Cornishmen how refused to attend church to the London authorities. His commissary Dr. Tremayn headed a party against him, but the bishop withstood him, and had Lord Burghley block a proposed commission in the diocese. He also asked Cecil in 1578 if he could return to Salisbury. He resided mostly at Newton Ferrers

Newton Ferrers

Newton Ferrers is a village in the civil parish of Newton and Noss in the English county of Devon, located about south-east of Plymouth on the River Yealm estuary. It lies within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.-History:...

, and died suddenly there alone, at noon on 27 June 1578, aged 77. He was indebted to the queen in the amount of £1,400 for tenths and subsidies received in her behalf from the clergy, so that immediately after his death she seized all his goods. He was buried in Exeter Cathedral

Exeter Cathedral

Exeter Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter at Exeter, is an Anglican cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter, in the city of Exeter, Devon in South West England....

, on the north side of the choir near the altar, under a plain altar tomb.