Tower, and subsequently in the king's bench prison, and on 21 Sept. 1552 the chief justice and other laymen were commissioned to try him. He was tried at the Whitefriars on Tower Hill on 4 and 5 Oct., and deprived on the 14th of his bishopric, which was dissolved by act of parliament in March 1552–3.
Queen Mary's accession was followed on 6 Aug. 1553 by Tunstall's release from the king's bench; an act of parliament was passed in April 1554 re-establishing the bishopric of Durham, and declaring that its suppression had been brought about by ‘the sinister labour, great malice, and corrupt means of certain ambitious persons being then in authority.’ Tunstall was restored to it, and was himself placed on commissions for depriving Holgate, Ferrar, Taylor, Hooper, Harley, and other bishops. He also sought to convert various prisoners in the Tower condemned to death for heresy, but he refused the request of Cranmer, who had studied Tunstall's book, ‘De Veritate Corporis,’ in prison, to confer with him, saying that Cranmer was more likely to shake him than be convinced by him. He took part in the reception of Cardinal Pole on 24 Nov. 1554, but he refrained as far as possible from persecuting the protestants, and condemned none of them to death. Immediately after her accession Elizabeth wrote to Tunstall on 19 Dec. 1558, dispensing with his services in parliament and at her coronation. He refused to take the oath of supremacy, and was summoned to London, where he arrived on 20 July 1559, lodging ‘with one Dolman, a tallow chandler in Southwark’ (Machyn, p. 204). On 19 Aug. he wrote to Cecil, saying he could not consent to the visitation of his diocese if it extended to pulling down altars, defacing churches, and taking away crucifixes; but on 9 Sept. he was ordered to consecrate Matthew Parker as archbishop of Canterbury. He refused, and on the 28th he was deprived, in order, says Machyn, that ‘he should not reseyff the rentes for that quarter’ (Diary, p. 214). He was committed to the custody of Parker, who treated him with every consideration at Lambeth Palace. He died there on 18 Nov., and was buried in the palace chapel on the following day. A memorial inscription, composed by Walter Haddon [q. v.] is printed in Stow's ‘Survey’ (ed. Strype, App. i. 85) and in Ducarel's ‘Lambeth’ (App., p. 40). A portrait of Tunstall was lent in 1868 by Mr. J. Darcy Hutton to the National Art Exhibition at Leeds (Thornbury, Yorkshire Worthies, p. 4). An engraving by Fourdrinier is given in Fiddes's ‘Life of Wolsey.’
Tunstall's long career of eighty-five years, for thirty-seven of which he was a bishop, is one of the most consistent and honourable in the sixteenth century. The extent of the religious revolution under Edward VI caused him to reverse his views on the royal supremacy, and he refused to change them again under Elizabeth. His dislike of persecution is illustrated by his conduct in 1527, when he put himself to considerable expense to buy up and burn all available copies of Tyndale's Testament, in order to avoid the necessity of burning heretics. In Mary's reign he dismissed a protestant preacher with the words, ‘Hitherto we have had a good report among our neighbours; I pray you bring not this poor man's blood upon my head.’
Besides the works already mentioned, Tunstall wrote: 1. ‘De Arte Supputandi libri quattuor,’ London, R. Pynson, 1522, 4to; other editions, Paris, 1529, 4to; Paris, 1538, 4to; and Strasburg, 1551, 8vo. 2. ‘Contra Blasphematores Dei Prædestinationis opus,’ Antwerp, 1555, 8vo. 3. ‘Certaine Godly and Devout Prayers made in Latin by … Cuthbert Tunstall,’ London, 1558, 12mo [cf. art. Paynell, Thomas]. He also wrote a preface to Saint Ambrose's ‘Expositio super Apocalypsim,’ London, 1554, 4to. [For his epistle to Pole, written in conjunction with Stokesley, see art. Stokesley, John.]
