He adopted High Calvinist opinions, and in 1831 gave a polemic sermon before the university in which he questioned received opinions on free will and salvation, and criticised the university and the Church of England for ignoring the principles of their faith and appointing unsuitable clergy in response to political influence.
[2] Bulteel's ancestors had Huguenot origins and had founded the Naval Bank in nearby Plymouth, Devon, in 1774.
[1] As an undergraduate he gained a reputation for rowdiness, and once started a riot between "town and gown" (paying pupils and King's Scholars) during the disturbances over the attempted divorce of Queen Caroline.
[8] On 5 February 1827 Thomas Byrth (1793–1849), then curate at St Clement's Church, Oxford, wrote that Bulteel "has created a most powerful sensation here, by preaching ultra-Calvinism, and circulating Dr Hawker's tracts.
"[9] Bulteel's evangelical views became so extreme that the university authorities banned students from attending his sermons.
[10] Joseph Charles Philpot, a high Calvinist and fellow of Worcester College, wrote,[7] Bulteel had for some years embraced the doctrines of grace, and preached them with much fervour of mind and strength of expression.
This was a new sound at the learned university, and a thing almost unheard of, that a fellow and tutor of one of the colleges ... should embrace so thoroughly and above all proclaim so boldly, the obnoxious doctrines of the Calvinistic creed.
[4] William Gladstone wrote that he "always remembered among the wonderful sights of his life St Mary's 'crammed in all parts by all orders when Mr Bulteel, an outlying calvinist, preached his accusatory sermon (some of it too true) against the university'".
He said that the thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, which were meant to ensure that only spiritual men joined the ministry, were being ignored.
His friend William Tiptaft wrote, "We shall preach in churches, chapels, barns, rooms, or in the open air.
Christ will not turn us out of His Church for following His steps in preaching the gospel in every city and village.
He adopted some of Irving's ideas, and published a book that told how he had cured the illnesses of three women through prayers and intercession, and restored them to health.
[16] In May 1833 Bulteel became disillusioned with Irvine's teachings, and told John Hill of "his gracious deliverance from the awful delusions concerning supernatural gifts".
[18] A well-written anonymous poem published in 1845 that denounced the Oxford Movement and John Henry Newman was attributed to him[4] but is likely to be by Richard Burdon.