A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



defective commission, 528 and in Easter week sentence was passed and execu- 

 tions took place. 229 So the rising ended, though seditious talk went on. 830 

 Shortly after this, the Council for the North was formed, and Tunstall was 

 made president. Norfolk left the bishopric now that his special work was 

 done, and Tunstall's time was henceforth much taken up in dealing with the 

 endless business which came before the new body. In view of his necessary 

 absence at York and elsewhere, Tunstall obtained the services of Sparke as 

 suffragan bishop, under the recent Act, who took the title of bishop of Ber- 

 wick. ssl Sparke was one of those present in the year 1537 when the body 

 of St. Cuthbert was exhumed and reburied by the visitors, as is described 

 elsewhere. 233 The year that followed was characterized by spasmodic dis- 

 turbances in the bishopric, 233 and then by an outbreak of plague, which 

 interfered with the administration of justice. 23 * Tunstall was almost con- 

 tinuously absent during this dark sequel to the rebellion, being occupied in 

 London or at York. A casual letter to Cromwell shows how little the design 

 of ' tuning the pulpits ' availed in the distant north : ' Very few preachers in 

 Durham and the other northern counties set forth God's word and the king's 

 supremacy.' 235 



There is apparently no record of the final scenes in the history of the 

 great monastery of Durham. 838 Her eight dependent cells had gone in 1536 

 and 1537, and she alone stood undissolved in 1540. Tunstall was absent in 

 London, and it is possible that he used his influence on behalf of the noble 

 house, whose fall was certain to come, but there is no trace of remonstrance 

 or of suggestion, nor is there a hint of popular feeling in the bishopric. 

 The rebellion and its chastisement, together with the plague of 1538, 

 produced, it is probable, apathy towards the change in progress, and, after the 

 dissolution, the lengthy border wars and the long continuance of plague 

 diverted the thoughts of people in the north. At all events the abbey came 

 to an end on the last day of December, 1540, when Whitehead, the prior, 

 signed the deed of surrender. 237 Was it intended as an act of conciliation 

 that in the same year the king gave 4 towards the building of Barnard 

 Castle Church ? S38 The new year, at any rate, brought a sense of keen alarm 

 to the bishopric. Before January was out musters were held under Norfolk 

 in connexion with a display of force on the part of the Scots. Next year 

 the war was carried across the Tweed into the Lothians, and in 1543 the 

 rout of Solway Moss filled North-Country prisons with captives. It was in 

 the midst of such wars and rumours of wars that Durham Cathedral was 

 established on its new foundation in May, 1541, under the dedication of the 

 Cathedral Church of Christ and Blessed Mary the Virgin, instead of its old 

 designation of the Blessed Virgin and St. Cuthbert. 239 Hugh Whitehead, 

 the amiable prior since 1524, was made the first dean, and from the monks 

 twelve were chosen to be the first prebendaries. Four days later further 



L. and P. Hen. mi, xii (i), 651, 666. " 9 Ibid. 918. >3 Ibid, xii (2), 353. 



31 Ibid. 191. Cf. Hutchinson, Hist. Dur. 520. 



238 See V.C.H. Dur. i, 251 ; also Raine, S/. Cuthbert, 176. ra Surtees, Hist. Dur. i, 352. 



34 L. and P. Hen. nil, xiii (2), 1010. 5 Ibid, xiv (2), App. 7. 



16 Ttje visitation described in Raine, St. Cuthbert, 173-6, seems to belong to 1537 ; cf. ibid. 176, note t 



17 Transcribed from the Patent Rolls, Hutchinson, Hist Dur. ii, 132. 

 33 Harl. MS 433. 



39 Transcribed in Hutchinson, op. cit. ii, 142 



32 



