The Henrician Reformation: 5

The passage is from a letter written by Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of Durham, and John Stokesley, Bishop of London, and sent to Cardinal Reginald Pole. The letter is dated ca. 1537. It was sent, but not necessarily printed, at the time: the earliest surviving copy is a text printed at London in 1560, during Elizabeth’s reign. Printing it not only bolstered the case for royal governorship of the Church, but it helped confound Catholic objections, since both Tunstall and Stokesley were prominent opponents of the religious changes of Henry’s reign.