Tunstall, Cuthbert (1474-1559)

English churchman and scholar. Well-educated and widely travelled, he was employed by Thomas Wolsey and Henry VIII on diplomatic missions. His conservative outlook in religious matters did not prevent him accepting Henry VIII as head of the Church in England, but his opposition to the Protestant reforms carried out by Henry's son Edward VI brought his removal as bishop of Durham and imprisonment. Mary I restored him, but he lost his position once more in 1559, when he refused to swear the oath of supremacy under Elizabeth I.

Tunstall studied at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Padua, and was a friend of Erasmus. He held several livings, was Master of the Rolls, dean of Salisbury, bishop of London (1522), keeper of the privy seal (1523), and bishop of Durham (1530). He was the author of numerous religious works.