The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1883-06-09

ward of seven centuries the home ar,
the official seat of the Archbishops 9
Canterbury, is not only the story Of th
English church in its amities and emn;
ties OF the church of Rome; of the arch
iepiscopates of more than fifty primate
| during England's most contentiou
period of civil, political and religion
evolution, and in its motley structure !.
/ record of the art and architecture
changes of the ages that have produced
1t; but it is romance of court ant
cloister as strange in its tragic verities. il
the crimes and virtues of its actors. th,
splendor and the shadow of It's scenes
as the most improbable of modern tales
| Its Saxon ll.sErs, originally spa llei
Lamhethe, or Lamehithe, signifieG
! dirty station, which it must have beer
| before the present Thames EN- banbment
was built. One spelling, Lambhyd, sol
| lambs harbor,' had apparently no other
foundation than that of an aesthetic
impulse shrinking from the former
| meaning.
In very early times Lambeth was o
royal manor-the Saxon kings lived
there, and it was part of the estate of the
Countess Coda, Sister of Edward the
Confessor. It changed hands during
the Saxon Danish wars, but later came
to its own again. There is no certain
account of what Coda palace was like.
but discussion and deeds of conveyance
show that it stood on the present site of
Lambeth.
AS home for the Archbishops, Lam
beth-in those days out of the see of
Canterbury-was 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
L., site at Hackington, where he could
bring around him a chapter of canons
apart from them. This scheme had the
favor of q 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 a mansion for the
Bishops of Rochester whenever they
came to Parliament became by legal
process of exchange the sole property of
the SEQ 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
of fho tosw
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 fre-
quently occur in the Abbey, st. Paul's
and elsewhere, Lambeth Palace is not
less the "original center of Anglican
church life." 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 Inne" at Lambeth in 1408 and
I446; for in spite of the struggle between
Rome and the English episcopate, it had
its cardinals, and because they were
learned men in times when few were SO,
they often held state and judicial offices,
and there were Lord Chancellors emong
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
28th of May, 1888, while this most
womany wife and queen was still living,
the marriage of her faithless husband
with the Lady Anne Boleyn was con-
hrmed 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
clally 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
rlage with the king" in the hope of
avoiding the stake for herself and her
adherents. 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, went forth only to the
scaffold, and the third day after her be.
heading, her maid, Jane Seymour,
took her place as the wife of Henry
VIII.
It is strange reading that in the very
next year (1537) by virtue of the Royal
Commission. various conventions of the
archbishops and bishops were held at
Lambeth to "advise the Cody and Pious
Disposition of a Christian Man." known
to history as the Bishops Book.
And it seems not so inscrutable as
many of the so-called acts of Divine
Providence that these meetings should
have been dispersed by the plague,
.persons dying even at the palace gate"
That strange man, the eighth Henry,
once came in his barge to the foot of the
water Tower" and called his tool
Cranmer down the stairs to tell him of
certain plottings of Bishop Gardiner and
other of Cranmer's enemies, and pnt him
in the way of triumphiIg over them.
Among other royal visitors of the past
have been Queen Mary, who often called
on her favorite Cardinal Pole and is said
to have completely furnished the palace
for him; and Queen Elizabeth. who
frequently visited Archbishop Parker.
whom she warmly liked in spite of his
having wife, a married prelate being
the gravest incongruity in her eyes.
There is funny account Of her be-
hayior when parting from them after one
of these visits. She had been entertained
with much devotion and luxury, and
could not help feeling grateful even to
Mrs. Parker. Madam may not call
you," said the maiden queen, "and mis-
tress must Aot call you; yet, though I