News from the Library
Treasures Exhibition in the News
The Library's 400
th anniversary exhibition recently featured on
BBC News .
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams recently
opened the exhibition .
The Church of England has produced a
podcast giving an introduction to the exhibition.
Library Newsletter
The Library has launched a newsletter with information about its collections and recent activities.
Click on the attachment, right, to download the latest issue.
David Dimbleby
The third episode of the BBC series ‘Seven Ages of Britain' entitled ‘Age of Power' saw David Dimbleby viewing a Great Bible from the Library's collection, in the Great Hall of Lambeth Palace.
The Great Bible was the first authorised version of the Bible in English, and was authorised by Henry VIII to be read aloud in the services of the Church of England. The first edition was published in 1539, and Lambeth's version dates from 1541.
Building on History: The Church in London
'Building on History' is an AHRC-funded Knowledge Transfer project involving The Open University, King's College London, the Diocese of London (Church of England) and Lambeth Palace Library. Our aim is to contribute to the self-understanding of the church in London by transferring the insights of historical research and stimulating fresh historical enquiry amongst participants. It will make the religious history of the Diocese available to the wider public through:
- Seminars and consultative workshops throughout the diocese.
- A project website.
- Producing guides to archival material - particularly that of Lambeth Palace Library.
The project aims to draw on modern religious history to inform contemporary discussion and activity: it focuses especially on how Anglicans in the current area of the Diocese of London responded to social changes and pastoral challenges in the period between the Napoleonic Wars and the outbreak of the Second World War, a period in which there are striking parallels with the present situation in London.
During this time churches were obliged to respond, at a leadership level and in the parishes to rapid urbanisation and heavy migration both within and to the London region. The Church of England sought to adapt to the changing face of the metropolis by building and extending places of worship and through what is now called church planting. Building on History will transfer historical insights on these themes, providing a long-term perspective on contemporary concerns. As the project develops we plan also to share insights and develop engagement with other Christian churches in the London area, and with other Church of England dioceses.
We encourage you to visit our website for a list of forthcoming events.
For all enquiries please contact Dr John Maiden:
building-on-history-project@open.ac.uk
tel: 020 7556 6143
Robert Pullen Sermons
Robert Pullen (d.1146) was one of the outstanding English churchmen of the twelfth century, and the Library has acquired a series of 26 of his sermons on the communal of saints, preached in a monastic context. One of three principal surviving manuscripts of Pullen sermons, this may be the earliest, dating from the late twelfth century, and was formerly in the collection of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Southwark.
Pullen was one of the first recorded lecturers at Oxford. He taught afterwards in Paris and became the first English Cardinal. His role in Rome as Chancellor of the Roman Church increased the English presence there, which included his pupil John of Salisbury and Nicholas Breakspear, afterwards Pope Adrian IV.
Pullen was the subject of a full biographical study by Francis Courtney, and his principal theological work, the Sentences, has long been available in print. His sermons however have remained largely unpublished and unexplored. Two series survive, the first comprising 19 sermons preached before young students engaged in study. The Library has held the earlier of the two surviving manuscripts of this first series since its foundation in 1610 (MS 458).
The second series of sermons is that which has been acquired. Its attribution to Robert Pullen has sometimes been questioned, despite Courtney's emphasis on resemblances of thought and style in the two series and the presence of one sermon in both collections. The Library's new acquisition provides further evidence. At the head of folio one a very early owner attributed the sermons to ‘Magister Robertus Pu .....' [remainder cropped away]. This is a significant early witness to the authorship of the text and in this respect too the manuscript has special importance.
Pullen was a friend of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and the Library's new acquisition is almost certainly of Cistercian provenance, its limited decoration being consistent with the austere requirements for manuscripts within the order. It is now accessible in the Library for public use as Lambeth Palace Library MS. 4776.
Who Do You Think You Are?
Patsy Kensit's visit to the Library in search of her clerical ancestor James Mayne featured in the television programme
Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC 1, 13
August 2008).
From 1823 to 1842 James Mayne was the hard-working curate of Bethnal Green, one of the most populous and socially deprived parishes in England. Working for an absentee rector, Mayne was responsible for a parish of over 62,000 souls, officiating at some 800 christenings, 180 marriages and 670 funerals each year, and taking a leading part in efforts to relieve destitution.
At Bethnal Green Mayne witnessed the collapse of the Spitalfields silk industry on which the parish depended. In 1832 mass unemployment, the arrival of cholera and agitation for the Reform Bill made Bethnal Green a powder keg, focusing attention on Mayne as the local representative of the Church of England. Archbishop William Howley chose this moment to affirm Mayne's ministry at Bethnal Green with the award of a Lambeth degree, Master of Arts.
An article on ‘James Mayne, Curate of Bethnal Green', by Richard Palmer, the Lambeth Librarian, has been published in the online journal of the
Clergy of the Church of England database .
Mary Queen of Scots Execution Warrant
Lambeth Palace Library has acquired a document intimately involved with one of Britain's most dramatic historical events, a copy of the warrant for the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. Benefactors of the Library have provided funds to keep this historic document in the U.K.
In November 2007 Culture Minister Margaret Hodge placed a temporary export bar on the document, and the Library took up the challenge of raising sufficient funds to save the document for the nation. It has purchased it for £72,485.50, thanks to the combined generosity of the Friends of the National Libraries, the Friends and Trustees of Lambeth Palace Library, the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, and the National Heritage Memorial Fund. All of the funding has come from bodies concerned with heritage, without depleting resources available for the Church.
Dr. Richard Palmer, the Lambeth Librarian, said: "The Library is delighted to have played its part in saving this document for the nation. The warrant is now reunited with the papers with which it belongs and accessible for the benefit of all".
The original warrant disappeared in the recriminations which followed Mary's execution. This copy was delivered to Robert Beale, principal clerk to the Privy Council by Henry Grey, 6th Earl of Kent, one of the two commissioners tasked with organising the execution. It was accompanied by a covering letter to the Earl from the Privy Council which has long been part of the Library's collections. These two documents are now reunited in the Library's care.
The copy of the warrant will now be available for research and exhibition, including loans for exhibitions on both sides of the Scottish border.
Copac
The records representing the Library's printed book collection are now available on Copac , a freely-available catalogue of the merged holdings of the major research libraries in the UK.
This has been made possible through the Library's successful application to the Copac Challenge Fund, an initiative funded by the Consortium of Research Libraries (CURL), the Research Information Network (RIN) and the British Library.
The aim of the Challenge Fund is to expose more of the wealth of UK library holdings for the benefit of researchers of all types in the UK and beyond.
