THE Bishop of Durham, the Rt Revd Paul Butler, has backed a call for a rare tapestry made for King Henry VIII to be returned to Britain.
The huge, 20 by 12 ft, Saint Paul Directing the Burning of the Heathen Books was commissioned by the king in 1535 from the Flemish artist Pieter Coecke van Aelst. Woven in wool, it is sumptuously decorated with gold and silver thread, and was regarded at the time as the most valuable piece in the Tudor monarch’s extensive art collection.
King Henry regarded it as a propaganda tool, as an allegory of him as the new — but still Catholic — head of the English Church, burning the Protestant Tyndale Bible, which he had recently outlawed.
The campaign to bring the tapestry home from a private collection in Spain is led by the financier and philanthropist Jonathan Ruffer, who wants to show it at Auckland Castle, the former residence of Bishops of Durham, which he has converted into a cultural centre (Arts, 14 April 2022).
Bishop Butler said: “The tapestry is a great treasure that has a special place in our nation’s Tudor heritage. It was commissioned at an extraordinary time in our nation’s history. Alongside believing that it belongs in this country, it would find a splendid home in Auckland Castle.
“The remarkable transformation that has been undertaken in Bishop Auckland over recent years would offer a wonderful setting for the tapestry. It would fit both within the artistic heritage and the exciting Faith Museum opening later this year.”
The tapestry has had a chequered history. It is the only survivor from a set of nine known as “The Life of Saint Paul”, commissioned for Hampton Court.
King Charles II installed them at Windsor Castle in the 1670s, and they were last recorded there in 1770, but then vanished from the public record. Recent research suggests, however, that the tapestry was acquired by a Barcelona dealer in the 1960s. It is now for sale, including tax, at £4.55 million.
“There are two reasons why objects form the fabric of a nation,” Mr Ruffer said. “One is they are exceptional pieces of art; the other is because they have a particular resonance in the story of the nation. This fits both. Besides being the ‘Holy Grail of Tudor tapestry’, it is effectively the birth certificate of the Church of England.”
In The Spectator last week, he explained: “The piece was a crucial element in the mosaic of Henry’s jettisoning of Catherine of Aragon, his first wife. When the Pope refused to grant a divorce, Henry sacked him, and declared himself head of the Church of England — an action that transformed the shape of our national church.
“But he was at pains to make it clear that it was still a Catholic Church — unchanged, except for the headship. In St Paul, he found a fierce and pious biblical counterpart in his Defence of the Faith. The burning of the heathen books referred to Paul’s actions in Ephesus, and, in the propaganda of the tapestry, was echoed by Henry’s 1529 and 1534 proclamations against the protestant Tyndale Bible, which were publicly incinerated.”
Mr Ruffer hopes that the National Heritage Memorial Fund can provide a substantial grant of about £3.55 million, saying that “we will make ourselves responsible for the last million.” To that end, he has launched a webpage for public donations.
“While you can have a baptism in an Anglican church for free, if you want a certificate it costs £18,” he said. “I have a quixotic thought that if people of good will were to subscribe £20 — the cost of the certificate plus P&P — to help buy this original woven certificate of baptism, we’d raise the last £1 million.” The total currently stands at more than £343,000.
Donations can be made at: justgiving.com/campaign/tapestry