1

Mary, however, he was restored to his former dignity. He is justly censured for having joined in a Commission with Gardiner, Bonner, and others to deprive Holgate, Archbishop of York, and three other Bishops, on account of their marriage but he was totally averse from the sanguinary measures of that disastrous period. When he was urged to proceed with severity against a Protestant preacher, he replied in words, which deserve to be engraven in golden characters: "Hitherto, we have had a good report among our neighbours; I pray you, bring not this man's blood upon my head." Hence, in his diocese, the horrors of persecution were unknown.

In a letter to Erasmus, however, he calls Luther a Proteus' and an Atheist;' and in his permission to Sir Thomas More to read heretical books with a view to refute them, he uses 'many expressions of severe reproach against the fol-· lowers of Wickliffe and the German Reformer.

His conduct with regard to the King's Supremacy,* also, has exposed him to heavy animad

* This he firmly opposed, asserting also the lawfulness of the King's first marriage. Burnet has preserved his arguments for the divine institution of Auricular Confession, with a Letter written by Henry VIII. in answer to those arguments.

In Burnet's Collection of Records annexed to his History of the Reformation, III. 3. No. 56. is a consolatory and not inelegant letter addressed to Henry VIII. on the death of his Queen Jane Seymour by Tunstal, who was then at York.

It

version. But it should be remarked, that the question had not at that time been discussed dispassionately; and, therefore, indulgence is due to inveterate prepossessions.

On the accession of Elizabeth, from whom he had no reason to expect harsh treatment, he was deprived for his refusal to take the Oath of Supremacy, and consigned to the courteous care of Archbishop Parker. In fact, he became truly sensible of many of the errors of Popery. Having spent the short remainder of his life in his Grace's Palace at Lambeth, he died November 18, 1559, aged 85.

It runs, as the Historian remarks, upon the common topics of affliction, with many good applications of passages of Scripture, and seems chiefly meant to calm and cheer the King's spirits. But "the truth is," adds Burnet, "King Henry had so many gross faults about him, that it had been more for Tunstal's honour and better suited to his character, if he had given hints to awaken the King's conscience, and to call upon him to examine his ways while he had that load upon his mind. Either Tunstal did not think him so faulty as certainly he was, or he was very faulty himself in being so wanting to his duty upon so great an occasion." Burnet did not, in this respect, idly recommend what he shrunk from practising. Letter to Charles II. in the British Plutarch, V. 71.)

(See his

In II. i. 106. we find, also, the transcript of a Letter from Tunstal to Edward VI., the Lord Protector, and the Lords of the King's Council, containing the result of his researches inte the old register and other records belonging to the See of Durham; whence it appears, that the Kings of Scotland did homage to the Kings of England. This Letter is dated from Aukland, October 15, 1547.

His Work, entitled De Arte Supputandi Libri quatuor, was first printed in 1522. A dispute

with some silversmiths, on adjusting their suspicious accounts, was the occasion of his composing this arithmetical tract, the first of it's kind published in England. Prefixed is an elegant dedication to his friend Sir Thomas More, whom he had formerly accompanied in a joint embassy to the Emperor Charles V. He was, about this time, appointed Bishop of London; and, though he thenceforward devoted himself to Divinity, he was resolved to carry the work which he had in hand to a conclusion. It was reprinted at Paris, by Robert Stephens, in 1538.

His other works are enumerated by the writer of his Life in the Biographia Britannica.(Fuller's Worthies, II. 502.)

128. TUNSTAL JAMES,

Vicar of Rochdale, the son of James Tunstal an attorney, was born at Aysgarth in WensleyDale. (See Whitaker's History of Whalley, p. 430.)

129. WAKEFIELD ROBERT,

A learned Hebræan, was born at Wakefield, in 1536. Primus omnium in Angliam Chaldæum, Hebræum, Arabicumque invexit, et illa publicè in

utrâque Academiâ docuit.-(Wakefield de se in Orat. de Laudibus et Utilitate Trium Linguarum.' Leigh's Treatise, Ox. p. 57.)

130. WALKER OBADIAH.

The statue of King Alfred was placed over the gate of University College, Oxford, toward the street. Mr. Obadiah Walker having procured at his own cost, or that of some other Roman Catholics, the statue of St. Cuthbert (to whom the College-Chapel is dedicated) to be placed over the Chapel-door, caused that of Alfred to be transferred from it's place to the Hall-door. The statue of King James II. was presented by a Roman Catholic, and placed over the inside of the Gate-House, when Mr. Walker was Master. -(Gutch's Appendix to the Hist. of Oxford, p. 23.)

Obadiah Walker was born at Worsborough, near Barnsley, in 1716, and educated at University-College in Oxford, of which he became Master.* In the beginning of the new reign, he

* He had declined the appointment on the death of his name sake, Dr. Thomas Walker, in 1665, but accepted it in 1676 on the death of Mr. W's successor. In the interim, he was assistant to Mr. Woodhead, who kept a Popish seminary at Hoxton.

He entertained his Sovereign however and many of his guards, during a visit to Oxford in 1687, with vespers in his

private

openly avowed himself a Roman Catholic, which exposed him to numerous insults in the University. In 1687, by virtue of Letters Patent from King James, he set up a press for the avowed purpose of printing books against the Reformed Religion. The patent specifies the names of the books (many of which were written by his deceased tutor and friend, Abraham Woodhead) and exempts him from any penalties, to which he might be subject by the statutes against Popery. The number of copies to be published of each work is limited to 20,000 within the year. He procured, also, other letters patent, by which he and some Fellows of his College were excused from attending the public service of the Church. Upon the arrival of William III., he attempted to fly the kingdom, but was apprehended at Feversham, and committed to the Tower. His headship, also, was declared vacant. The latter end of his life he passed in London, chiefly supported by the celebrated Dr. Radcliffe, one of his old scholars. He died January 21, 1699.

private Chapel in the Lodge. And he is said to have availed himself of his power over the MSS. of the College, in his capacity of Master, in surreptitiously taking out of Sir John Cheke's Latin Discourse on Superstition (which was subsequently translated by Mr. Elstob, and printed at the end of Strype's Life of Cheke) several pages containing that author's arguments against Popish superstitions; "the papists," as Mr. E. remarks in the Dedication, "being remarkable for their clean conveyances that way."