Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Tunstall, Cuthbert

TUNSTALL, CUTHBERT, an English clergyman; born in Hackforth, Yorkshire, in 1474; brother of the Sir Brian Tunstall who fell at Flodden; was educated at Oxford, Cambridge, and Padua, and became in turn Rector of Stanhope, Archdeacon of Chester, Rector of Harrow-on-the-Hill, Master of the Rolls, Dean of Salisbury (1521), Bishop of London (1522), and of Durham (1530). In 1516 he went on an embassy to Charles V. at Brussels, and there formed a fast friendship with Erasmus. Between 1516 and 1530 he was often employed on embassies to France and Germany, and in 1527 he had accompanied Wolsey on his magnificent embassy to France. He accepted the Royal Supremacy, but took alarm at the sweeping measures of reform under Edward VI., and was at length in 1552 deprived, through the influence of Northumberland, who coveted the wealth of the see. The accession of Mary restored the bishop, but under his mild rule not a single victim died for heresy throughout the diocese. On Elizabeth's accession he refused to take the oath of supremacy and was deprived of his charge, Sept. 29, 1559. He died in Lambeth Palace, Nov. 18, 1559.