Cuthbert Tonstall

a singular ornament to his native Country, and a person (notwithstanding the baseness of his birth, being begotten (a)(a) Will. Harrison in his Historical Descript. of the Island of Britaine, lib. 1. cap. 24. by one Tonstall, upon a Daughter of the Commers, as Leland saith) of great learning and judgment, received his first breath at Hatchford in Richmondshire, in the year 1476. or thereabouts, became a Student in the University of Oxon. about 1491, particulary, as some (b)(b) Brian. Twyne in Antiq. Acad. Oxon. Apol. lib. 3. sect 242, & Mil. Windsore Alumnus Coll. Ball. in initio Mariae Reginae, in Collectaneis suis, MS. will have it, in Balliol College, and whether he took a degree, or degrees, we have no Register of that time to shew it. Afterwards, as ’tis farther added, he was forc’d to leave Oxon. because of a Plague that hapned in his time, and went to Cambridge, but making no long stay there, he travelled to the University of Padoüa in Italy, then most flourishing in Literature; where he became noted to all ingenious men for his forward and pregnant parts. After his return, being then, as it seems, Doctor of the Lawes, but not of Cambridge, he had divers dignities and places of trust confer’d upon him successively: Among which I find the Archdeaconry of Chester to be one, a Prebendship in the Church of York another, the Vicarship General to Dr. Warham Archbishop of Canterbury a third. Afterwards he was Master of the Rolles, keeper of the Privy Seal; was employed in one or more Embasies, made Dean of Salisbury in the place of Dr. Joh. Longland, in the Month of June 1521, and at length Bishop of London, to which See he was consecrated 19. Octob. 1522. Whereupon his Deanery was bestowed on one Reymund Pade, in January following. Two years after, he, with Sir Rich. Wingfield Knight of the Garter and Chancellour of the Duchy of Lanc. were sent Embassadors into Spayne, and in 1530. he was translated to Durham. From which See being ejected for his Religion in the time of K. Ed. 6. was restored by Queen Mary in the beginning of her Reign, but thrust out thence again in 1559. when Qu. Elizabeth was settled in her Throne. He was a Man passing well seen in all kind of more polished literature, a Person very rare and admirable, and in whom, no Man in his time did reprehend any thing, but his Religion, except foul-mouth’d Bale, who calls him (d)(d) In lib. De illust. script. cent. 9. nu. 34. Melancholicus & Saturninus somniator atque excogitator omnium malorum, and another (e)(e) Mich. Wood in his Epist. to the Reader before his translation of Steph. Gardiner’s Oration, De vera obedientia, Printed at Roan, 1553. in oct. as bad as he, who run’s upon the same strain—a still dreaming Saturn—a plotter of Mischief, and I know not what. There was scarce any kind of good literature, in which he was not excellent. He was a very good Grecian and Ebritian, an eloquent Rhetorician, a skilful Mathematician, a noted Civilian and Canonist, and a profound Divine. But that which maketh for his greatest commendation, is, that Erasmus was his friend, and he a fast friend to Erasmus, in an Epistle to whom from Sir Thom. More, I find this character of Tonstall, that As there was no Man more adorned with knowledge and good literature, no Man more severe and of greater integrity for his life and manners; so there was no Man a more sweet and pleasant companion, with whom a Man would rather choose to converse. He hath written and published,

De arte supputandi, lib. 4. Lond. 1522. qu. dedic. to Sir Tho. More. Afterwards it was printed at several places beyond the Seas. I find honorable mention of it in the Preface of Sim. Grynaeus to Euclid in Greek, with the Scholia of Theon on it. Which Book was published by the said Grynaeus and dedicated to Tonstall.

In laudem matrimonii. Oratio habita in sponsalibus Mariae filiae Hen. 8. & Francisci Francorum Regis primogeniti. Lond. 1518. qu.

Sermon on Palm-Sunday before K. Hen. 8. on Philippians 2. from ver. 5. to 12. Lond. 1539. and 1633. qu.

De veritate corporis & sanguinis Domini in Eucharistiâ, lib. 2. Lutet. 1554. in qu. Concerning the printing, and authenticalness of the said Book, you may see at large in Dr. George Carleton’s Life of Bern. Gilpin, printed at Lond. 1628. p. 12. 13. 33.

Compendium in decem libros Ethicorum Aristotelis. Par. 1554. oct.

Contra impios Blasphematores dei predestinationis opus. Antw. 1555. qu.

Godly and devout prayers in English and Lat.—Printed 1558. in oct.

His and the Letter of Joh. Stokesley B. of Lond. to Cardinal Reginald Pole. Lond. 1560. and 79. qu. The beginning is, For the good will we have born to you, &c. It shews the Bishop of Rome to have no special superiority over other Bishops. He hath also made two thousand faults and noted many corruptions in William Tyndales translation of the New Testament, and hath written several Epistles to Budeus, and a Book against the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome, as Bale saith; which, as I conceive, is his Letter to Card. Pole before-mentioned. But that, or his faults on Tyndale, or Epistles, I have not yet seen. At length being deprived of his Bishoprick of Durham (as I have before told you) about Midsomer, in 1559. was then, as ’tis said, committed to free custody at Lambeth with Mathew Archb. of Canterbury, but how that can be, seeing that the said Mathew was not consecrated Archbishop till 17. Dec. 1559. I cannot yet perceive. With him also, ’tis farther said, that he continued four Months, and that dying on the 18. 1559 of Nov. in Fifteen hundred fifty and nine (which was a full month before Dr. Mathew Parker was consecrated) was buried at the charges of the said Mathew in the Chancel of the Parochial Church of Lambeth in Surrey. Over his grave was a fair Marble stone soon after laid, with an Epitaph engraven thereon, made by Dr. Walter Haddon an admirer of his learning and virtues. Joh. Leland who calls him Dunostallus hath bestow’d a collation (not without desert) upon him, as also upon his Friend Budaeus before-mention’d, which you may see in his Encomia, Trophaea, &c. p. 45.