ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



come, and for his lavish expenditure at Auckland, where he built a new hall."' 

 When, in 15 12, rumour came that James IV of Scotland was being urged by 

 the French king to attack England whilst Henry was busy in France, Ruthall 

 superintended the fortification of Norham. Next year Ruthall was personally 

 prominent in arraying the bishopric against the Scots.^"" Mass was said in 

 Durham Cathedral, and the sacred banner of St. Cuthbert was for the last 

 time borne into battle. After the victory the bishop himself described it to 

 Wolsey, and attributed the result to the intercession of St. Cuthbert, adding 

 that 'the king of Scots' banner and sword and "gwyschys" have been brought 

 to Durham.' The bishop was some time in correspondence with Lord Dacre 

 and others^"^ over a clearing movement, which was intended to sweep away the 

 remains of the Scots in England. The sheriff was ordered to seize the goods 

 of all Scots living in Durham, and a series of cruel reprisals was inflicted on 

 all laggards. This savage appendix to Flodden went on, if not continuously, 

 yet with some energy, until the end of Ruthall's episcopate. But long before 

 that point was reached, the bishop, as Lord Privy Seal from 15 16, had become 

 so immersed in state affairs that his direct control of the Palatinate cannot be 

 traced. His name, however, was held in grateful remembrance by those who 

 regarded him as the restorer of order in the Palatinate.""' Occupied in his 

 last years with the negotiations of the Field of the Cloth of Gold and the trial 

 of Buckingham, Ruthall's only prominent action in the north at that time 

 concerns the rally of the north against the feared Scottish invasion of 1522.^°^ 

 Two years of pestilence, however, had so thinned the population that it was 

 hard to get a sufhcient levy. A proposal was made to take the banner of 

 St. Cuthbert on the expedition, but general protest was effectual to keep it in 

 Durham.""* 



Ruthall died in the spring of 1523. His episcopate coincides with 

 critical times in the religious history of the country at large, but there is no single 

 proof in extant documents, so far as is known, that the New Learning touched 

 Northumbria at present. Ruthall's own sympathies were clearly on the side 

 of the old order, as his presence at the burning of Lutheran books in London -"' 

 proves. Wolsey was transferred from Bath and Wells to Durham, but no 

 record survives of his enthronement, and there is no solid proof that he ever 

 came to his more northern diocese at all. He was fortunate in having an 

 excellent representative in Frankleyne, temporal chancellor and archdeacon of 

 Durham, who was ready to serve him in every way, and to bring to London 

 all receipts and accounts both of Durham and of York, so that the cardinal 

 might be ' substantially, truly, and well served.' ^°^ Constant letters passed 

 from this vicegerent, who informed his master of the condition of affairs, 

 and kept him well acquainted with the steps taken in repressing a Scotch raid 

 in the spring of i525.°"'' At one juncture some of the palatinate ofBcers 

 even journeyed to London to seek the advice of Wolsey as to the condition of 



"' Tres Scriptores, 153 ; cf. Cott. MSS. (Brit. Mus.), Cal. B. vi, 40. 



™' L. and P. Hen. Fill, i, 3412, 5759, and 4-457-6z ; cf. Jrch. Ael. v, 175. 



™' L. and P. Hen. Vlll, i, 4518, 4522, 4523, iii (i), 573 ; Cursitor R. Ruthall, i d. m. 12. 



-''-' L. and P. Hen. Fill, n, (2), 4258. *" Harl. MSS. 422 ; cf. Add. MSS. 24695, fol. 172. 



"" L. and P. Hen. Fill, iii (2), 2531. 



"Mbid.(i), 1274. 



'" For some account of him, and extracts from his correspondence, cf. Hutchinson, op. cit. i, 500. 



'"" L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv (l), I 289, 1482. 



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