The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1883-06-21
Lambeth Palace.


ward of seven centuries the home and
the official seat of the Archbishops of
Canterbury, is not only the story of the
English church in it's antilles and emni-
ties of the church of Rome; of the arch
iepiscopates Of more than fifty primates
during highlands most contentious
period of civil, political and religious
evolution, and in its motley structure
record of the art and architectural
changes of the ages that have produced
it; but it is romance of court and
cloister as strange in its tragic verities.in
the crimes and virtues of its actors, the
splendor and the shadow of its scenes,
rs the most improbable of modern tales.
Its Saxon name, originally spelled
Lamhethe, or Lamehithe, signitied
dirty station" which it must have been
before the present Thames Embanbment
was built. One spelling, Lambhyd. "or
lambs harbor," had apparently no other
foundation than that of an aesthetic
impulse shrinking from the former
meaning.
In very early times Lambeth was a
royal manor-the Saxon kings lived
there, and it was part of the estate of the
Countess Coda, Sister of Edward the
Confessor. 1t changed hands during
the Saxon Danish wars, but later came
to its own again. There is no certain
account of what Gods's palace was like,
but discussion and deeds of conveyance
show that it stood on the present site of
Lambeth.
As a home for the Archbishops, Lam
beth-in those days out of the see Of
Canterbury-was q kind of protest on
the part of the English church against
the church of Rome, and the initiative
in this secession was taben by Arch
bishop Baldwin, who could not ''get on"
with the monks Of Canterbury, and
chose, with the countenance of Henry
H., site at Hackington, where he could
bring around him q chapter of canons
apart from them. This scheme had the
favor of a papal bull, but jealousy
quickly got that revoked, and at Bald
wins death the monks pulled down his
chapel.
Some years later Lambeth-"there be-
ing reserved only small piece of land
sufficient TO erect q mansion for the
Bishops of Rochester whenever they
came to rliament"-became by legal
process of exchange the sole property of
the see of Canterbury and successor of
Archbishop Baldwin, about 1897, began
to rebuild thereon. Once more the fro
ward cowls of Canterbury drew down on
this design three successive papal anath-
emas, but though his work was de-
stroyed, the archbishop staid on at Lam
beth without his college and canons; and
that, after its final transfer to the see of
Canterbury, Lambeth was the fixed
dwelling OF the primates is plain from
the consecutive record of their activities.
It is believed that the conservation of
Thomas a'Becket took place here. and
that as many as five hundred consecra-
tons occurred between the archiepisco-
pates of Warham and Sumner and
though these ceremonies now more fire.
Quently occur in the Abbey, st. Paul's
and elsewhere, Lambeth Palace is not
less the Original center of Anglican
church lfe." Among accounts of many
feasts and assemblies are details of two
very large conventions of church, state,
university and law dignitaries banquet
ing most luxuriously at 'ye Arch
bishops lime" ut Lambeth in 140S and
1446; for in spite of the struggle between
Rome and the English episcopate, 1T had
its cardinals, and because they were
leaned men in times when few were so.
they often held state and judicial offices,
and there we're Lord Chancellors among
them during the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries. OF course the prestige OF the
great influence this gave them With both
church and state still attaches to the
primacy. In 1901, Catherine of Aragon
rested here with her ladies on her first
coming to England; and here, on the
18th of May, 1888. while this most
vomanly wife and queen was still living,
the marriage of her faithless husband
with the Lady Anne Boleyn was con-
frmed by Cranmer-that same Cranmer
who gave to the clergy the oath assign.
ing the royal succession to her heirs. yet
only two years later, when seated judi
cially in the under chapel (crypt) of the
palace, annulled the marriage itself.
having artfully tempted the captive and
already sentenced queen to avow ''some
Just and lawful impediment to her mar
riage with the king" in the hope of
avoiding the stake for herself and her
adhereuts. From that dark crypt the
miserable young queen, dishonored by
the king, betrayed by her highest earthly
spiritual adviser, and forced to affirm in
her own disgrace the disinheritance OF
her offspring. vert forth only to the
scahold, and the third day after her be
heading, her maid, Jane Seymour.
took her place as the wife of Henry
VII.
It is strange reading that in the very
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