A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



the bishopric owing to the robbers of Tynedale and the Scots, who still 

 infested the district."™ Wolsey seems to have kept the appointment to all 

 important posts in his own hands. ^"^ Incidental reference shows that Durham 

 House was kept up, and that some muniments were stored there. It is clear, 

 however, that the cardinal had no real interest in Durham, and in the autumn 

 he wrote to Henry to solicit the bestowal of the somewhat more lucrative see 

 of Winchester, suggesting his old friend the dean of Wells for the vacant 

 promotion at Durham.^'" 



After an interval of one year, during which the revenues of the see are 

 said to have been appropriated to the use of Anne Boleyn, we come to the 

 great and good bishop who was more closely associated with Durham and the 

 north of England than any prelate since Hatfield. Cuthbert Tunstall (1530- 

 1559) was destined to witness the greatest changes that fell within the 

 episcopate of any bishop of Durham — the loss and restoration, and then again 

 the loss of his see, the entire alteration of the church service, the diminu- 

 tion of the palatinate power, and the wave of greed and robbery which 

 deluged the whole country. It is probable that he was papally provided to 

 the see of Durham, because he was thought to be on the side of pope and 

 emperor in the divorce question then embittering the ecclesiastical and 

 political relations of England."^ There can be no doubt that the divorce 

 question and the other burning question, soon to emerge, of the royal 

 supremacy were alike extremely distasteful to Tunstall.^'^ As regards the 

 latter, he made a dignified protest, which he committed to writing, and by 

 his example influenced the wavering bishops of the north and his own 

 clergy.^^^ Scottish troubles in 1532 must have proved an almost welcome 

 diversion, as the bishop followed the course of events towards the inevitable 

 declaration of the royal supremacy. He threw himself with characteristic 

 energy into the measures taken for the peace of the Palatinate, and half ruined 

 himself thereby.^^* With the spring of 1533 pressure was brought to bear 

 upon Tunstall to induce him to declare in favour of the king,^^^ but at the 

 convocation of York in June he delivered himself of a strong spoken protest, 

 which would not have been allowed to pass unchallenged, the emperor was 

 told, save for the fact that Henry could find no other man so competent to 

 govern the borders. "° After persistent efforts, however, which we cannot 

 trace, the bishop began to give way. His weight, doubtless, helped onwards 

 the sudden collapse of the northern convocation in June, 1534, in which they 

 anticipated the verdict of the south, and the Supremacy Statute of November. 



The commission issued in 1535 to ascertain the value of all church pro- 

 motions was the beginning of all the pillage that soon followed. The 

 inquisition was minute, and Tunstall wrote to Cromwell, who was really the 

 instigator, to complain of the hardship inflicted upon the clergy by the com- 

 missioners.'^' However, it was carried out during the spring and summer of 



^'" L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv, (i), 893 ; towards the end of the previous year. ™ Ibid. (2), 4201, 471 1. 



™ Winchester is stated in one letter to have been worth 2,000 ducats more than Durham, ibid. (3), 5228, 

 but elsewhere to have been of equal value, ibid. (2), 4898. See Wolsey's letter ibid. (2), 4824. A note from 

 Wolsey's receiver at Durham in 1528 speaks of the great poverty of the district. A commission was issued 

 in 1530 to inquire into Wolsey's possessions in the bishopric. 



"' Ci. L. andP.Hen. mi,\y {i),6-jos. "' Ibid, v, App. 9. "Mbid. 819. 



="' Ibid, vi, 303. "' Ibid. 437. "« Ibid. 653. 



"' Dixon, Hist. Ch. of Engl, i, 248. 



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