Lambeth Palace Library is the historic library and record office of the Archbishops of Canterbury and the principal repository of the documentary history of the Church of England. Its collections have been freely available for research since 1610.
The records held here date from the 9th century to the present day, and their broad scope reflects the office of Archbishop as head of the Province of Canterbury, his national and international roles in leading the Church of England and the Anglican Communion worldwide, and the wealth and power of Archbishops in past centuries which enabled them to collect books and manuscripts of the highest quality and significance.
James I described the Library as ‘a monument of fame' in his kingdom. Peter the Great, who visited in 1698, is recorded as saying that nothing in England astonished him as much as Lambeth Palace Library; he had never thought there were so many books in all the world.
In 1996 Lambeth Palace Library took into its care all the early collections of Sion College, the historic library of the City of London clergy, which comprise manuscripts, pre-1850 printed books, and pamphlets. Its collection complements that of Lambeth with a key focus on the Church, but a rich diversity of other subject material.
Access to the Library's collections is freely available to the public and appointments are not necessary.
However, on their first visit users must obtain a library ticket. Tickets are valid for two years and allow access to all classes of material with the exception of restricted material, such as illuminated manuscripts. In order to be issued with a ticket, readers should bring two recent passport-style photographs and two forms of ID -one piece of photo ID and one proof of address. Readers should present one piece of ID from each of the following lists:
Photo ID
Proof of address
Please note that if an item appears on both lists it can only be used once.
[NB Members of staff of the National Church Institutions should bring their staff pass, which will be valid for all classes of material with the exception of restricted material such as illuminated manuscripts].
The Library is situated on London's Lambeth Palace Road, near Lambeth Bridge, on the south side of the River Thames. Click here [1] for a map.
The entrance is the door set into the wall (pictured right) and is clearly marked with a brass plate and bell. Please ring once only for admittance, and be patient whilst someone comes to open the door.
The nearest Underground stations are Westminster, Vauxhall, Lambeth North and Waterloo.
Bus routes stopping outside the Palace include number 507 which runs between Victoria and Waterloo stations.
Owing to essential building work the Library will be closed from 5pm on Friday 23rd December 2011 until Friday 17th February 2012. It will reopen at 10am on Monday 20th February 2012. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
The Library is open Monday to Friday, from 10am to 5pm, except for Wednesdays when it opens at 10.30am.
Appointments are not necessary, but please read the page on 'Using the Library' for details of how to obtain a reader's ticket.
The Library is closed on public holidays, for ten days at Christmas beginning on Christmas Eve, for ten days at Easter beginning on Good Friday, and exceptionally at other times.
A small bindery, housed in Morton's Tower was established in the 1950s. It was set up to repair books damaged by bombing during the Blitz of 1941, when the Great Hall received a direct hit. With that work completed in the 1990s, the bindery was refitted to archival standards to become a dedicated conservation studio, where trained conservators carry out work on all aspects of our collections, such as binding conservation, the cleaning and repair of archives, manuscripts and printed books and prints.
**E1440.P2 The Whole Psalter Translated into English Metre. Printed by John Daye 1567. Translated by Archbishop Matthew Parker, bound for Archbishop Parker & given by Margaret Parker to the Countess of Shrewsbury (Bess of Hardwick). 195 x 142mm
Click on the image (right) to enlarge.
This fine volume, bound by Parker's own binder has recently been conserved in the Library's conservation studio. Both boards were almost loose of the text block. The pages were cleaned, the spine rebacked in archival calf and the original spine repositioned on top of the new. The corners were repaired with toned Japanese paper. The inner joints strengthened with aero linen and marbled Japanese paper.
The Church of England Record Centre (CERC) is a sister service and home for records of the Church, in particular, its central bodies. Records at CERC show how the organization and activities of the Church of England have evolved since 1704. These are held at Bermondsey. We work alongside Lambeth Palace Library which holds records relating to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
If you would like to consult material, this is possible by appointment. Please contact us to book a table in the Reading Room at the Record Centre.
Opening Hours:
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10am-4pm, except public holidays. Details of Easter and Christmas closure will be published on this page.
To book an appointment:
email these to us at archives@churchofengland.org [2].
On your first visit, you must register for a reader's ticket.
To obtain it you need to bring:
· 2 recent passport-style photographs and
· 2 forms of ID - one piece of photo ID and one proof of address from each of these lists:
Photo ID
Proof of Address
Recent Utility Bill (Gas, Electricity, Telephone, Water - less than 3 months old);
Any item appearing on both lists can only be used once.
You can also use this card to access
The Church of England Record Centre provides records management advice to the wider church, primarily through a range of guides to Parish, Diocesan and Episcopal record keeping. These guides are designed to help develop a consistent and best practice approach to the treatment of church records whether paper or electronic.
Cherish or Chuck? The Care of Episcopal Records (published December 2009) is designed to support Bishops' offices and staff in managing the records created in the course of the diocesan, national and other work undertaken by their Bishop.
Save or Delete? Care of Diocesan Records (revised December 2008) is designed to support diocesan offices and staff to manage the mass of information that they create and manage in support of the work of the diocese, enabling them to easily identify what needs to be kept and what can safely be destroyed.
Keep or Bin? The Care of Your Parish Records (revised April 2009) is designed to help clergy and parish officers to understand which records need to be kept by the church, which should be sent to the local archive centre, and which can simply be disposed of as confidential waste.
Guidance notes of clergy files (revised March 2009) provides advice on structure and maintenance of these important records.
These guides have been researched and produced by records and archive management specialists at the Church of England Record Centre, drawing on expert advice from The National Archives, local record offices and the wider archive profession.
By clicking on the links to the right you will be able to download copies of the guides. For those unable to download a copy, paper copies are available by post from the Church of England Record Centre, 15 Galleywall Road, South Bermondsey, London SE16 3PB.
The Library houses books and other material dedicated solely to ecclesiastical architecture, art, design and liturgy and is a unique research tool for readers interested in those areas. As well as over 13,000 books, the collection includes detailed files on 16,000 parish churches, many containing guidebooks, postcards and photographs; copies of the records of the contents of over 1,500 individual churches compiled by the NADFAS Church Recorders; and extensive photographic collections.
It is a shared resource of the Church Buildings Council and the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England, but the collection is usually open to the public by appointment on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and enquiries are welcomed.
As yet there is no online catalogue to the collection and therefore all enquiries should be directed to the Honorary Librarian.There are no current vacancies, but those that do arise will be advertised here and in the relevant professional press.
The Library's Reading Room can accommodate up to 15 researchers, and Library staff are always available to assist those using the Library's collections.
Access to the Library's collections is freely available to members of the public, and no appointment is necessary.
However those wishing to use the Library must obtain a Library reader's ticket on their first visit. Details on how to obtain one can be found on the 'Using the Library' page.
Documents are generally produced on demand, however during the lunch time period between 11.45-2pm production of material cannot be guaranteed and will be at the discretion of the Reading Room supervisor. After 4.30pm no material can be fetched for readers. However, it is possible to place advance orders for certain categories of material.
You can if you wish place advance orders for certain categories of material, though on- demand ordering and fetching of material in the Reading Room is always available (though restricted from 11.45am-2pm)
Readers are asked to observe the following guidelines:-
1. Provide an e-mail address in case we need to contact you urgently about the order.
3. Provide specific references in placing an order (e.g. "Davidson vol. 345" not "material on World War I"). Staff will not normally check indexes on your behalf.
4. Place a limited order (e.g. 5 to 10 items depending on size, etc.).
5. Provide a reasonably specific date for your visit and one in the near future (e.g. "Thursday or Friday next week" would be fine, but not "next month sometime"). Readers coming from abroad may notify the Library farther in advance but we would be glad of confirmation shortly before your visit.
6. If you cannot make your appointment, please contact the Library. We will then be happy to keep the material out for a little longer, but if no notification is received then the order will be reshelved as our secure storage is limited.
7. Please allow the Library staff reasonable notice when placing your order (preferably at least 48 hours in advance).
8. Please be aware that although every effort will be made to produce advance orders we cannot guarantee their immediate production.
Main categories of material which may be ordered in advance:-
Archbishops' Papers
Assyrian Mission
Bishop Bell Papers
Bishops' Meetings
Canon Douglas Papers
Carte Miscellanee
Church Society/Association
Church Union
Court of Arches*
Convocation Papers
Doctors' Commons
Faculty Office*
Fulham Papers (Bishops of London)*
Incorporated Church Building Society
Lambeth Conference Papers
Papal Documents
Royal Commission on Ecclesiastical Discipline
Sion College printed collections
Temporalities
Vicar General*
*Some of the material in these collections is available on microform stored close to the Reading Room and does not therefore require advance ordering.
Any orders for material from the papers of the Archbishop's Council on Foreign Relations require two days' notice.
Any orders for material from the Church of England Record Centre should be ordered from CERC in the usual way, allowing five days for transfer.
The Reading Room is equipped with power points for readers to use their own portable computers. Wireless internet access is available, free of charge.
Microfilm and microfiche readers and an ultra-violet lamp are available.
Tea and coffee are available in the Library's refreshment area, where readers are also welcome to eat their own sandwiches.
Please contact the Library in advance concerning facilities for the disabled.
Lambeth Palace Library is pleased to answer routine enquiries and offer advice about sources.
We aim to send a response within 10 working days, but this will depend on the nature of the enquiry, staff availability, and the volume of enquiries received.
However if your enquiry requires detailed research, we will advise you to visit the Library, or suggest that you employ a professional researcher.
The Library does not have facilities for self-service photocopying. Photocopies should be ordered from the Reading Room supervisor whilst visiting the Library or requested by post.
On receipt of a completed order form (attached right), the Library will advise on cost and payment methods.
For preservation reasons, the Library is not able to photocopy bound manuscript material. This includes a substantial proportion of the archive and manuscript collections, including almost all the Archbishops' papers, Fulham papers (of the Bishop of London) and much of the manuscripts sequence (MSS). However digital photographs of this material can normally be provided.
Some of the Library's collections are available on microfilm or microfiche, and the Library has a self-service reader printer in the Reading Room. Alternatively printouts can be ordered by post.
On receipt of the completed order form (attached right), the Library will advise on cost and payment methods.
The Library can provide digital images via ShareFile (a secure online file sharing service), on CD, by e-mail or as printouts.
This service is not available ‘while you wait' but orders should be made with the supervisor in the Reading Room or by post.
On receipt of the completed order form (attached right), the Library will advise on cost and payment methods.
Several of the Library's collections have been published on microfilm. Please see the World Microfilms website [6] for further details.
Microfilming of other collections can be arranged through Academic Microforms [7], subject to preservation considerations. To submit a request, please use the form attached right, and return it to the Library.
The Library does not sell colour transparencies, but may loan transparencies of popular images from its collections to named publishers. Conditions and costs of the loan scheme are available by written request.
A loan form should be completed. On receipt of the completed order form, an invoice will be sent. Please contact the Library for further information.
The Bridgeman Art Library [8] holds transparencies of much Library material, and offers a swift service.
Filming in the Library for broadcasting purposes in relation to our collections may be permitted by arrangement. Please contact the Library for further details and costs.
Please note that no filming at the Library can be accommodated during the period January to September 2012.
If copies are required for publication rather than for research or private study, a reproduction fee may be payable. The giving of permission implies no responsibility on the Librarian's part for any breach of copyright by the publisher.
Permission to make quotations from Library holdings should be sought in writing from the Library, and a request to publish form should be completed (attached right).
An introduction for those engaged in biographical research on individuals who have served as members of the Anglican clergy, concentrating on the 17th century onwards, and including archival, manuscript and printed resources.
And a brief survey covering Lambeth Palace Library sources for the costume of both pre-Reformation English clergy and post-Reformation Anglican clergy. The Library also holds some material relating to the dress of clergy of other denominations and countries.
Click on the attachments, below right, to download these research guides.
Lists of all the Archbishops of Canterbury, including dates of birth and death (where known), dates of periods in office, places of burial, coats of arms, locations of wills (where ascertainable from biographical sources), details of images of the archbishops, and sources of biographical information.
Click on the attachments, below right, to download these research guides. One covers 597-1070, the other 1052 to the present day.
The Library has also produced specific guides to its sources relating to Archbishops Reginald Pole and Thomas Cranmer, links below right.
Information on manuscript and printed sources held at the Library which have particular relevance to the lives of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Mary Tudor and Mary Stuart.
The Library has also produced a guide to the sources it holds on royal coronations, principally of British monarchs, but also from earlier periods and overseas.
Click on the attachments, below right, to download these research guides.
An overview of the sources held at Lambeth Palace Library for family history and genealogy, although the Library is unlikely to be the best starting point for such research.
The Library holds a small amount of marriage records, principally bonds and allegations relating to those married by licence issued under the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Library has produced a separate guide to this material.
Click on the attachments, below right, to download these research guides.
Click on the attachment, below right, to download this research guide.
Guidance for local historians, including sources widely available and sources held at Lambeth Palace Library relating to individual counties.
Click on the attachment, below right, to download this research guide.
Information on sources held at the Church of England Record Centre and Lambeth Palace Library relating to many aspects of the history of church property.
Click on the attachment, below right, to download this research guide.
The Building on History project, a collaboration between Lambeth Palace Library, the Open University and King's College London, and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, has produced an online historical guide for researching the history of the Diocese of London.
Click here [9] to access the guide.
Information on sources held at the Church of England Record Centre and Lambeth Palace Library relating to many aspects of the history of education.
Click on the attachment, below right, to download this research guide.
From 1279 to 1642, the registers are the principal record of the Archbishop's administration. After the Restoration the registers were superseded in importance by the Archbishops' Act Books, part of the Vicar General archive.
The registers include institutions and appointments of clergy, grants of dispensations, ordinations, appointments of bishops, sede vacante administration of suffragan sees, diocesan and metropolitical visitations by the archbishop, visitation of monasteries, records of convocation, and heresy trials.
There are a large number of published finding aids to Archbishops' Registers (details attached right).
A micropublication of the Archbishops' Registers, 1272-1640 is available from World Microfilms Publications [10]. This also includes the cartulary of the see of Canterbury (MS 1212).
The Archbishops' Papers are the official papers of the Archbishop of Canterbury. They are wide-ranging, covering political and social issues as well as ecclesiastical history in Great Britain and more generally throughout the Anglican Communion. Apart from correspondence they includes diaries, sermons, newspaper cuttings, and reports on ordinands.
Although there are small collections for some earlier Archbishops, the papers mainly date from the mid 19th century onwards. They are often very extensive; for example those of Archbishop Davidson run to over 800 volumes.
The Archbishops' Papers are subject to a thirty-year closure rule.
Much of this material is available through our online catalogue, but there are also several published finding aids (see attachment, right).
Minute books of the Bishops' Meetings, a gathering of diocesan and suffragan bishops in England and Wales, chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and held biannually from 1871.
The collection is subject to a fifty-year closure rule.
The Carte Miscellanee or Lambeth Charters date from the 12th century, and include royal charters relating to archiepiscopal estates, patents of appointment of officials, bonds from recusants, returns of diocesan clergy made for Archbishops Grindal in 1576 and Whitgift in 1591, records relating to the London tithes dispute, 1634-9, to the Great Plague and Fire, 1665-6, and to the abbey of St Benet of Holme, Norfolk.
The collection was brought together and numbered as MSS. 889-901 in the early 18th century, but was disbound and renumbered as CM I-XX in the early 1960s.
The series has been continued with the addition of archiepiscopal records, the East Kent deeds of the Langleys and Peytons of Knowlton relating to Knowlton and Sandown, and various acquisitions from the late 12th century to the 20th century. These include a late 13th century roll of Augustinian statutes, 16th century deeds for various monasteries, including St. Augustine's, Canterbury, Christ Church, Canterbury, and Southwark priory, libri cleri for the diocese of Norwich, sede vacante, 1499, and for the diocese of Canterbury, 1610, professions of obedience to Archbishop Warham, 1504-23, and acta of Archbishop Warham, 1507-12.
Further information is available in:
Owen, D.M. A Catalogue of Lambeth Manuscripts 889 to 901 (Carte Antique et Miscellanee), (1968).
Carte Antique et Miscellanee: Supplementary Series (CM 23-55): a Catalogue.
Churchill, I.J. East Kent Records. A Calendar of Some Unpublished Documents and Court Rolls in the Library of Lambeth Palace, (Kent Records, vol. 7, 1922). [Now CM 31-36].
Convocation is the ancient legislative assembly for the province of Canterbury, which since the 15th century met as two houses, the upper house of bishops, presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the lower house (of clergy) who elect their own chairman.
From its prorogation in 1717 until its revival in 1852, Convocation conducted no business whatever, its meetings being purely formal. The records comprise act books of the upper and lower houses, and committee papers mainly from 1865 onwards. Earlier records of Convocation were often recorded in the mediaeval archbishops' registers and were printed in David Wilkins' Concilia (1737). From 1858, proceedings of Convocation were published in The Chronicles of Convocation.
The Court of Arches is the court of appeal of the Archbishop of Canterbury and dates back to the 13th century. With the exception of a dozen volumes, the very extensive archive dates from 1660. In its heyday the court exercised an extensive jurisdiction over marriage, probate and testamentary disputes, defamation, church property (rates, tithes, fabric of churches), and morals of the clergy and laity.
The collection includes over 2000 process books, transcripts of proceedings in the lower court sent up on appeal, and exhibits, including mediaeval title deeds (Fineshade cartulary), court books, probate accounts, churchwardens' accounts, rate books etc.
Further information is available in:
Houston, J. (ed.) Index of Cases in the Records of the Court of Arches at Lambeth Palace Library 1660-1913, (Index Library, vol. 85, 1972).
Several series of Court of Arches records have been published in microformat by Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., The Quorum, Barnwell Road, Cambridge, CB5 8SW.
The Faculty Office was set up under Peter's Pence Act of November 1533 to issue 'licences, dispensations, faculties, compositions, and rescripts, etc.' previously granted by the pope or papal curia.
With the exception of three muniment books or registers, the archive dates from 1660 and comprises records of the grant of a variety of dispensations throughout England and Wales, including dispensations to hold benefices in plurality, marriage licences, of appointment of public notaries in the British Isles and colonies, and the conferment of Lambeth degrees. Also included are a few medical licences, and dispensations for ordination.
There are a number of finding aids to Faculty Office material which do not yet form part of our online catalogue (see attachment, right).
The Papers of the Lambeth Conference, which met first in 1867 and roughly every ten years thereafter, comprise verbatim accounts of the proceedings, committee minutes, correspondence and photographs.
The subjects covered by the Conferences were wide-ranging, spanning social and political issues as well as matters of ecclesiastical and theological significance throughout the world (see the published reports and resolutions, and Davidson, R.T. (ed.), The Six Lambeth Conferences, 1867-1920, 1929).
A collection of papal bulls and rescripts, some of which were addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, but the majority of which relate to monastic houses, which came to Lambeth following the dissolution of the monasteries. The collection was arranged by A.C. Ducarel in the 18th century and bound up as MSS. 643-4. In 1960, the collection was disbound and numbered.
A Micropublication of the papal bulls is available from World Microfilms [11] in "Lambeth Palace Library: the medieval manuscripts" section II (Law MSS.), reel 18.
Further information is available in:
Sayers, J.E. Original Papal Documents in the Lambeth Palace Library. A Catalogue, (Bulletin of I.H.R., special supplement no. 6, 1967).
Records of the administration of the estates of the Archbishops of Canterbury situated principally in Kent, Surrey and Middlesex, but including property in Buckinghamshire, Lancashire, and Sussex. These include accounts, court rolls, leases, maps, plans, rentals, surveys and valuations, correspondence and related papers.
The composition of the temporalities was extensively changed by the Henrician exchanges whereby Archbishop Cranmer received a number of the former monastic estates in Kent and Lancashire in exchange for some of his more valuable properties in Kent and Surrey (see F.R.H. Du Boulay, The Lordship of Canterbury, 1966).
Further information is available in:
Sayers, J.E. Estate Documents at Lambeth Palace Library. A Short Catalogue, (1965). Includes court and account rolls for a few religious houses, including Christ Church, Canterbury, and the convent of St. Benet of Hulme, Norfolk, and for mediaeval bishops of Bath and Wells, Chichester, and Winchester.
The records of the Vicar General of the Archbishop of Canterbury relate to the ecclesiastical administration of the province, diocese and peculiars of Canterbury, mainly from 1660.
The collection includes the Archbishops' Act Books, which supersede the Archbishops' Registers as the principal record of archiepiscopal administration from 1663. They provide the link between the two major aspects of his metropolitical and primatial jurisdiction exercised through the Vicar General and the Faculty Office.
The Act Books record the appointments of bishops, the institution of clergy in the diocese of Canterbury, sede vacante appointments of clergy throughout the province of Canterbury, licences to officiate, to practise medicine, surgery, or midwifery, dispensations to clergy to hold in plurality, and appointments of proctors and advocates of the Court of Arches.
With the exception of the subscription books, diocesan surveys, and visitation returns, and a small collection of visitation act books, 1540-1640, most of the purely diocesan records are held by Canterbury Cathedral Archives.
Several finding aids for Vicar General material are not yet part of our online archive catalogue (see attachment, right).
These 1200 manuscripts include most of the mediaeval manuscripts, the Bacon, Carew, and Shrewsbury papers together with the collections of Archbishops Laud, Tenison, and Secker, and of two Lambeth Librarians, Henry Wharton, and Edmund Gibson.
Several catalogues of this material have been published:
Todd, H.J. A catalogue of the archiepiscopal manuscripts in the library at Lambeth Palace (1812)
James, M.R. A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Lambeth Palace: The mediaeval manuscripts, (Cambridge, 1932).
Ganz, David and Roberts, Jane eds. Lambeth Palace Library and its Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, exhibition mounted for the biennial conference of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists, 3rd August 2007, (London, Taderon Press, 2007).
Pickering, O.S. & O'Mara, V.M. The Index of Middle English Prose: handlist 13. Manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library including those formerly in Sion College Library (Cambridge, 1999).
The mediaeval manuscripts number over 600, and date from the 9th to the 15th century. Their range and quality are impressive, covering illuminated manuscripts, biblical texts, law books, liturgical and patristic collections, devotional works, saints' lives, sermons, chronicles, cartularies, and letters.
These mediaeval manuscripts, together with a few manuscripts acquired since 1932, are available on microfilm from World Microfilms [12] arranged in 8 sections: 1) Old English, French etc., 2) law, 3) illuminated, 4) humanistic, 5) theology, 6) biblical, 7) liturgy, 8) patristic manuscripts.
Photographs of a large number of the illuminations and rubricated initials in the mediaeval manuscripts may be purchased from the Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, London, WC2R 0RN. Permission to purchase copies must first be given by Lambeth Palace Library.
Lambeth manuscripts are included in pp. 1-8 of:
Frere, W.H. Bibliotheca musica-liturgica. A descriptive handlist of the musical and liturgical manuscripts of the middle ages..., (1894).
Researchers interested in musical manuscripts may find the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music (DIAMM) website [13], of use.
These manuscripts were collected by Sir George Carew during his period in Ireland as President of Munster for the purpose of writing the history of the island from the reign of Henry II to that of Queen Elizabeth. The completion of the project was undertaken by his natural son, Sir Thomas Stafford in Pacata Hibernia, 1633.
Microfilms of the Carew Manuscripts are available from World Microfilms [14]. Further information on the papers can be found in:
Brewer, J.S. and Bullen, W. (eds), Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts Preserved in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth, (6 vols, 1867-73).
James, M.R., 'The Carew Manuscripts', English Historical Review, vol.42, 1927, pp.261-267
Report to the right honourable the master of the rolls upon the Carte and Carew Papers in the Bodleian and Lambeth libraries, 1864.
Papers of Anthony Bacon, son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, who entered the service of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and was private secretary for foreign affairs. The papers are primarily concerned with his official duties and family matters and cover the years 1579-98. The collection was used extensively by Thomas Birch in Memoirs of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1754.
A micropublication of the Bacon Papers is available from World Microfilms [15]. Further information on the papers can be found in:
Bill, E.G.W. Index to the Papers of Anthony Bacon (1558-1601) in Lambeth Palace Library (MSS. 647-662), (1974).
Papers of the Earls of Shrewsbury from the 15th century to the death of Gilbert Talbot, 7th earl, in 1616, though they do not survive in any quantity before Francis Talbot who succeeded to the earldom in 1538.
The earls, whose principal family seat was at Sheffield, with large estates radiating into Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire and Herefordshire, were influential figures, both locally and nationally, as lord lieutenants and privy councillors. Francis, 5th earl, was also president of the Council of the North, and Gilbert, 6th earl, was custodian of Mary Queen of Scots. See also the Talbot Papers (MS 3192-3206).
A micropublication of the Shrewsbury papers is available from World Microfilms [16]. Further information on the papers can be found in:
Jamison, C., revised by Bill, E.G.W. A Calendar of the Shrewsbury and Talbot Papers in Lambeth Palace Library and the College of Arms. Volume I: Shrewsbury MSS. in Lambeth Palace Library (MSS. 694-710), (H.M.C., JP6, 1966).
Papers belonging to Edmund Gibson, Lambeth Librarian, and later Bishop of London, comprising correspondence of Archbishop Tenison, papers of Anthony and Francis Bacon, and of Thomas Murray, secretary to Charles I as Prince of Wales, relating to foreign affairs.
A micropublication of the Gibson MSS. is available from Cengage Learning [17].
Parochial returns from fifteen hundred incumbents to an enquiry into the value of benefices in 1705, prepared for a publication on the 'present state of parish churches'.
Correspondence and papers brought together by Archbishop Secker relating to the American and West Indian Plantations, Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG), foreign Protesants overseas, the Sons of the Clergy, the Faculty Office, and the royal family, 1758-1768. For other Secker papers, see MS 2559-98, and Archbishops' Papers.
MS 1123 and MS 1124 are available on film in the micropublication by World Microfilms [18]: Lambeth Palace Library. Miscellaneous American Material 16th-18th Centuries.
Greek manuscripts collected during his visits to the East by J.D. Carlyle, Professor of Arabic, Cambridge, some of which were returned to their rightful owner, the patriarch of Jerusalem, shortly after their acquisition from Carlyle's executors by Archbishop Manners-Sutton.
Further information can be found in:
Todd, H.J. An account of Greek manuscripts, chiefly biblical which had been in the possession of the late Professor Carlyle ... now deposited in the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth Palace, [1823].
The Greek Manuscript Collection of Lambeth Palace Library, An exhibition held on the occasion of the 21st International Byzantine Congress, London, 22-23 August 2006, (London, 2006).
These manuscripts were acquired mainly between 1812 and 1970.
They include the household book of Anne Cranfield, Countess of Middlesex, 1622 (MS 1228), statutes and other records of various hospitals in Surrey and Kent (MS 1354, MS 1410-14) and of the cathedrals of Durham and St. Paul's (MS 1500, MS 1515), papers of Sir Roger Twysden, 2nd bart. (MS 1389-94), of Robert Mylne, surveyor of St. Paul's Cathedral, 1764-1801 (MS 1489), of the Revd. William Beauvoir, 1715-21, especially on relations with the Gallican Church (MS 1552-8), of Francis Lee, M.D., and Dr. John Lee, ecclesiastical lawyer (MS 1559-60), of Joshua Watson, 1802-52 (MS 1562), of Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London, 1699-1737 (MS 1741-3) of Francis Horsley, half-brother of Samuel Horsley, Bishop of St. Asaph, 1785-1818 (MS 1768-9).
19th century papers include the collections of F.A. White concerning Pére Hyacinthe Loyson, rector of the Gallican Catholic Church (MS 1472-82), of Baroness Burdett-Coutts on the colonial Church, 1842-76 (MS 1374-88), of the Revd. Samuel Augustus Barnett, vicar of St. Jude, Whitechapel (MS 1463-6), of the Revd. Charles Pourtales Golightly (MS 1804-11), of Sir Lewis Dibdin, ecclesiastical lawyer (MS 1586-9), and of Christopher Wordsworth, master of Trinity College, Cambridge, Charles Wordsworth, Bishop of St. Andrews, Christopher Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln, and John Wordsworth, Bishop of Salisbury (MS 1396-1401, MS 1822-4).
Also included are diaries of Bishop Williams, 1689 (MS 1774), Archbishop Wake, 1705-25 (MS 1770), Sir Walter Charles James, 1st Baron Northbourne, 1851 (MS 1771), William Ewart Gladstone, 1825-96 (MS 1416-55); collections of Francis Eeles (mainly liturgical) (MS 1501-31), and of Claude Jenkins, former Lambeth Librarian and regius professor of ecclesiastical history, Oxford (MS 1590-679); and records of the suffragan Bishops of Fulham, including transcript registers for the Anglican church at Danzig, 1706-1811 (MS 1847-60), of the Church Congresses, 1864-1932 (MS 1781-2), of the Parochial Mission Women's Association, 1862-1916 (MS 1682-93), and of the Wye Book Club, Kent, 1755-1886 (MS 1694-1700); surveys of schools in Salisbury, 1808, and Derbyshire, 1841 (MS 1732, MS 1799); and registers for Anglican churches in Shanghai and Shantung, 1849-1951 (MS 1564-84, MS 1761-4).
The mediaeval manuscripts (MS 1503-14, MS 1681) are included in the World Microfilms Publications [19] Lambeth Palace Library: the Mediaeval Manuscripts.
Further information can be found in:
Bill, E.G.W. A catalogue of manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library, MSS. 1222-1860, (Oxford, 1972). This includes (pp. 1-51) Neil Ker's 'Archbishop Sancroft's rearrangement of the manuscripts of Lambeth Palace'.
Papers of Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl of Selborne, and members of his family, including the Revd. William Palmer, fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, comprising political, family and personal correspondence, 1865-95.
Further information can be found in:
Bill, E.G.W. Catalogue of the Papers of Roundell Palmer (1812-1895), first Earl of Selborne (1967).
Most of these manuscripts were acquired between 1958 and 1969.
They include a 13th century Syrian new testament (MS 2097), the Ingham roll, c.1366 (MS 2078), letters of Archbishop Arundel, 1413 (MS 1999), a 15th century manuscript of Lionardi de Frescobaldi's journey to the Holy Land in 1384 (MS 1994), the Fairhurst Papers (MS 2000-19) comprising records at one time in Archbishop Laud's study, such as correspondence with continental reformers and English divines, 1529-93, Elizabethan privy council papers, 1589-93, a holograph manuscript of John Bale, bishop of Ossory, 1561, replies to Archbishop Grindal on Puritan prophesyings, 1576-7, papers on the musters of the clergy, 1580-1601, and on the Archpriest controversy, 1602. Further Fairhurst Papers were acquired by the Library in 1988 (MS 3470-3533).
Later manuscripts include papers of Robert Mylne, surveyor of St. Paul's Cathedral, 1752-98 (MS 2027), sermons and other writings of the Revd. Thomas Brett, nonjuror (MS 2179-83, MS 2219-21), diaries and memoranda of Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London, 1777-1809 (MS 2098-2106), papers of William Howley, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1766-1848 (MS 2184-2213), letters and sketches by the Revd. S.R. Maitland on his continental tour, 1828 (MS 1943).
Also included is correspondence of Richard Whately, Archbishop of Dublin, 1810-62 (MS 2164), of G.F.P. Blyth, Bishop in Jerusalem, 1887-1914 (MS 2227-37), of Charles Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln, and of Christopher Wordsworth, master of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1811-85 (MS 2140-51), of T.A. Lacey, canon of Worcester, 1893-1929 (MS 1974-6), of J.J. Willis, Bishop of Uganda, 1900-55 (MS 2245-2320), of E.G.C.F. Atchley, MRCS, mainly on the liturgy, 1880-1933 (MS 1926-42).
Also included are the medical reports on George III during his bouts of 'insanity', 1811-20 (MS 2107-39), papers of the Cambridge Camden Society, 1839-54 (MS 1977-93), of the Jerusalem and the East Mission Fund, 1844-1936 (MS 2327-40), of the Church of England Temperance Society, 1880-1966 (MS 2030-73), of J. Armitage Robinson, dean of Wells, on the Malines Conversations, 1921-6 (MS 2222-4), and of the Mission to London, 1948-52 (MS 1948-60).
Further information can be found in: Bill, E.G.W. A Catalogue of Manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library MSS. 1907-2340, (Oxford,1976).
A micropublication of the Fairhurst Papers (MS 2000-2019) is available from Cengage Learning [20].
With the exception of the Secker Papers (MS 2559-98) and the additional Gladstone Papers (MS 2758-74), all these manuscripts have been acquired since 1968.
These include a late 13th century Greek new testament (MS 2795), records of the divorce of Catherine of Aragon (MS 2341-2), biblical lectures by Theodor Bibliander, 1533-8 (MS 2751-7), papers of Richard Bertie on Marian exiles at Wesel, 1555-6 (MS 2523), an account of the voyages of George, 3rd Earl of Cumberland, early 17th century (MS 2688), a survey of Essex clergy, early 17th century (MS 2442), papers of Laurence Chaderton, master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, mainly early 17th century (MS 2550), correspondence and diaries of the Revd. John Newton, evangelical divine, 1745-1804 (MS 2935-43, MS 3095-6, MS 3098); correspondence of the latter's biographer, the Revd. William Bull, 1773-1831 (MS 3095-8), of Sir George Lee and Dr. John Lee, ecclesiastical lawyers, 1732-1864 (MS 2873-80); fabric accounts of Robert Mylne, surveyor of St. Paul's Cathedral, 1767-1801 (MS 2552-3); papers concerning Marshal August Marmont during the Napoleonic wars (MS 2687), of the Revd. John Mason Neale, ecclesiologist and hymn-writer, 1838-66 (MS 2677-84, MS 3107-18); additional papers of the Palmer family (MS 2452-2502, MS 2800-57), and of Gladstone (MS 2758-74). Also included are Edward Blore's watercolours and plans for the rebuilding of Lambeth Palace, 1829-33 (MS 2949, MS 3104-5).
For the 20th century, the series includes papers of Athelstan Riley, an Anglican layman active in ecclesiastical affairs (MS 2343-2411), of Edwin James Palmer, Bishop of Bombay (MS 2965-3015), of Arthur Cayley Headlam, Bishop of Gloucester (MS 2615-50); letters from Archbishop Lang to Wilfrid Parker, Bishop of Pretoria (MS 2881-4); papers of Bishop Bell on the community of the Holy Cross, Hayward's Heath, 1929-57 (MS 3066-71); diaries of Alan Campbell Don, chaplain of Archbishop Lang (MS 2861-71), of J.R.H. Moorman, Bishop of Ripon, on the Vatican Council (MS 2793), and of H.H.V. de Candole, suffragan Bishop of Knaresborough (MS 3072-93); and papers of the Archbishops' Committee on Ancient Monuments (Churches), 1913-15 (MS 2786-90), and of various Archbishops' Commissions, 1930-68 (MS 2554-6, MS 2859, MS 2994-6, MS 3060-2).
Records of societies include the Anglo-Continental Society, 1853-1932 (MS 2908-25), the Church of England Temperance Society, 1907-67 (MS 2775-82), the Clergy Orphan Corporation, 1808-1952 (MS 3018-59), and the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, 1857-1948 (MS 2889-2907). Also noteworthy are the foreign registers for the Sudan, Mesopotamia, and Iraq, 19th-20th century (MS 2503-7, MS 2660-3, MS 2669-76, MS 2782-4).
Further information can be found in: Bill, E.G.W. A catalogue of manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library MSS. 2341-3199 (1983).
Papers of the Commission for the Building of Fifty New Churches (the Queen Anne Churches) in and around London, appointed by Act of Parliament in 1711. These include minute books, correspondence, financial records and plans, 1711-59. Of the fifty churches, only ten new churches were built and two existing churches were rebuilt.
A micropublication of the Queen Anne Churches records is available from World Microfilms [21].
Further information is available in:
Bill, E.G.W., The Queen Anne Churches. A catalogue of the papers in Lambeth Palace Library of the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches in London and Westminster, 1711-1759, (London,1979). Includes an introduction by Howard Colvin, pp. ix-xxi.
Port, M.H. The Commissions for Building Fifty New Churches. The minute books, 1711-1727. A calendar (London Record Society, vol. 23, 1986). This is available online [22].
Most of these manuscripts have been acquired since 1980, and date mainly from 1660 onwards.
They include the Audley psalter, and a book of hours, 15th century (MS 3285, MS 3338), letters of Matthew Hutton, Archbishop of York, 1565-1600 (MS 3408), churchwardens' accounts for Holy Trinity, Minories, 1566-1686 (MS 3390), a household book of Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex, 1622 (MS 3361), a funeral account of Archbishop Abbot, 1633 (MS 3153), and exhortation of the Family of Love, c.1650 (MS 3191), an autobiography of Sir George Wheler written in 1701 (MS 3286), a transcript of papers of George Hickes, nonjuror (MS 3171), papers of the Revd. Charles Simeon, evangelical divine, 1824-36 (MS 3170), of Archbishop Manners-Sutton, 1794-1827 (MS 3274), of Michael Solomon Alexander, 1st Bishop in Jerusalem (MS 3393-7); notebooks of Richard Whately, Archbishop of Dublin, 1814-48 (MS 3163-4); and papers of Robert Beloe, lay secretary to successive Archbishops of Canterbury, 1959-69, and of his ancestors, the Bramstons and Hales (MS 3256-73, MS 3391).
The 20th century is represented by numerous churchmen and bishops, including Canon John Collins, president of Christian Action and chairman of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (MS 3287-3319), the Revd. St. John Beverley Groser, master of St. Katharine's Foundation (MS 3428-35), Arthur Cayley Headlam, Bishop of Gloucester, and his niece, P.L. Wingfield (MS 3132-7), Neil Ripley Ker on parish libraries (MS 3221-4), Edmund Robert Morgan, Bishop of Truro (MS 3229-55), Canon Sidney Leslie Ollard (MS 3386-9), Canon A.W. Robinson and J.A. Robinson, Dean of Westminster (MS 3356-8), Robert Wright Stopford, Bishop of London (MS 3421-7), Oliver Stratford Tomkins, Bishop of Bristol (MS 3409-11), and Arthur Foley Winnington-Ingram, Bishop of London (MS 3406). Also included are sermons (15th-20th century) of the Revd. Thomas Bennett, George Hooper, Bishop of Bath and Wells, Edward Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester and others (MS 3167, MS 3169, MS 3190, MS 3219, MS 3236-51, MS 3344-5, MS 3357, MS 3461-2); papers on Lambeth Palace, its heirlooms and paintings (MS 3346-9); fees and precedents for ecclesiastical courts (MS 3403-6, MS 3416); journals and photograph albums of Athelstan Riley on Russia, Kurdistan and Persia (MS 3398-401); constitutions and rules of Anglican religious communities (MS 3180, MS 3213-4); minutes and papers of the Bishops' Board for Service Chaplains, 1945-63 (MS 3183-4), the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, 20th century (MS 3320-37), the Church of England Men's Society, 1899-1986 (MS 3364-84), the Churches' Council on Gambling (MS 3155-8), the Deaconess Institution, Gilmore House, 1887-1970 (MS 3463-6), the Friends of Reunion, 1933-70 (MS 3225-8), the Girls' Diocesan Association, 1910-61 (MS 3140-5), the Sword of the Spirit, 1940-1 (MS 3418), the Paul Report on the deployment of clergy, 1960-4 (MS 3444-58), and reports from overseas dioceses (Africa, Australia, Canada, India, Japan, etc.) to the Missionary Council of the Church Assembly, 1929-55 (MS 3121-8).
Fifteen volumes of papers of the Earls of Shrewsbury, which complement the Shrewsbury Papers (MS 694-710), were purchased from the College of Arms by Lambeth Palace Library in 1983.
Further information is available in:
Batho, G.R. A Calendar of the Shrewsbury and Talbot Papers in Lambeth Palace Library and the College of Arms. Volume II: Talbot Papers in the College of Arms, (H.M.C. JP7, 1971).
A micropublication of the Talbot Papers is available from Cengage Learning [23].
The Fairhurst Papers acquired in 1988 supplement those purchased in 1963 (MS 2000-19), comprising correspondence originally in Archbishop Laud's study at the time of his imprisonment, including Elizabethan privy council correspondence and papers of Archbishops Grindal and Whitgift on prophesying, a few papers of John Selden who was responsible for rescuing the material from Lambeth and papers of Sir Matthew Hale to whom the Lambeth material descended.
All these manuscripts were acquired between 1988 and 1991.
They range in date from the Mirror of St. Edmund of Abingdon, Archbishop of Canterbury, 13th century (MS 3597), the book of hours illuminated by Peter Meghen, c.1516 (MS 3561), the register of the Dutch Church in London, 1575-1621 (MS 3586), to a variety of 20th century papers, including those of Albert Augustus David, Bishop of Liverpool (MS 3578-81), of the Revd. St. John Beverley Groser (MS 3562), of Bishop Eric Waldram Kemp on Anglican-Methodist unity, 1956-72 (MS 3555-60), of the Revd. Lancelot Mason, chaplain to Bishop Bell (MS 3589-93), of J.A.T. Robinson, former suffragan Bishop of Woolwich (MS 3537-44), of Eric Treacy, Bishop of Wakefield (MS 3566-75), of the Revd. Reginald Somerset Ward (MS 3587, MS 3584), and of the Revd. N.P. Williams, 1883-1943 (MS 3545-54).
Manuscripts acquired and catalogued since 1991 including: a 13th century book of hours (MS 3599), a Syon Abbey prayerbook and requiem office book, late mediaeval (MS 3600, MS 3774), the surrender deeds for Hitchin priory, 1538 (MS 4202), theological and devotional works of Bishop Lancelot Andrewes, including Preces privatae (1555-1625) (MS 3707-8), the act book of the Archbishop's Court of Audience, 1615-16 (MS 3711), prayer book of Sir Edward Hoby, early 17th century (MS 3998), letters of Bishop William Lloyd, especially to Archbishop Sancroft (MS 3694-3700), further papers of the Revd. John Newton and the Revd William Bull, 1750-1804 (MS 3970-5), and papers of the Revd. Charles Wellington Furse, 1829-98 (MS 4096-4133).
More recent material includes further diaries of Bishop Moorman, 1921-88 (MS 3616-76), letters of Louise Creighton, wife of Mandell Creighton, Bishop of London, 1872-1927 (MS 3677-80), notes of Archbishop Benson and Bishop Wordsworth on the trial of Bishop King, 1888-9 (MS 3764-70), a minute book on continental chaplaincies, 1872-1900 (MS 3981); papers of Brother Edward of the Village Evangelists movement (MS 3828-60), of the Revd. St. John Beverley Groser (MS 3771-3), of the Revd. H.R.L. (Dick) Sheppard, 1892-1937 (MS 3741-50), of Reginald Somerset Ward (MS 4134-83), and of Mervyn Stockwood, Bishop of Southwark, 1913-89 (MS 4187-91).
The late 19th and 20th century collections of various societies include records of the Band of Hope, 1855-1990 (MS 3712-40), Church Moral Aid Association, 1852-92 (MS 3681-3706), of the Churches Council on Alcohol and Drugs, formerly the Temperance Council of the Christian Churches (MS 3751-63), of the Church Penitentiary Association, 1852-1951 (MS 3681-3706), of the Industrial Christian Fellowship, formerly the Navvy Mission Society (MS 4003-95), of the Church of England Council for Social Aid (MS 3775-8), of the Council for Promoting Catholic Unity (MS 3995).
Records of Anglican communities include those of the Community of the Holy Rood, 1869-1992 (MS 3917-69), and of the Order of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, 1904-90 (MS 3862-93). Also included are a drawing by Jan Griffier of Lambeth Palace (MS 4196), two sketches by A.W.N. Pugin of the palace and deanery at Wells, 1832 (MS 4201), sketches and photograph album of Archbishop Benson (MS 3977, MS 4184, MS 4199), and photographic collections of Richard and Charles Barrow Keene and James Willoughby Harrison (MS 3601-15).
Correspondence and sermons of Revd. Isaac Williams, 1802-1865, a leading Tractarian.
Correspondence and diaries of the Rt Revd George Bell (1883-1958), successively student of Christ Church, chaplain to Archbishop Randall Davidson, Dean of Canterbury, and from 1929 Bishop of Chichester.
This extensive collection includes material on the German churches before and after the Second World War, the allies' war policy, relief work among refugees, the atomic bomb, the ecumenical movement and Churches overseas, South Africa, religious drama and art, liturgy, and church and state relations.
The Christian Faith Society originated in 1691 in a bequest of Robert Boyle for advancing religion among infidels, and was renamed in 1794 the Society for the Conversion and Religious Education of the Negro Slaves in the British West-India Islands and in 1836 the Society for Advancing the Christian Faith in the British West-India Islands.
The papers comprise minutes, correspondence and accounts, 1642-1956.
A micropublication of the Christian Faith Society is available from World Microfilms [24]
The Church Society was founded in 1950 by the merger of the Church Association (f.1865) and the National Protestant League (f.1906), which was itself an amalgamation of the National Protestant Church Union (f.1893) and the Church of England League (f.1904), formerly the Ladies League (f.1899).
The collection comprises minutes of the Church Association and its committees from 1867, and the National Protestant Church League, 1919-49.
The English Church Union was founded in 1860 by the merger of the Church of England Protection Society (f.1859) with a number of local church societies with the similar object of defending and propagating high church principles. In 1934 the ECU united with the Anglo-Catholic Congress to form the Church Union.
The collection comprises minutes of the ECU and CU, Anglo-Catholic Congresses, Bristol Church Union, and parochial returns on reservation, 1954.
Records of ecclesiastical administration during the Commonwealth period, including parochial surveys, and surveys of the former episcopal and capitular estates, records of appointment of clergy and augmentation of benefices. Originally numbered in the manuscript sequence as 902-22, 944-50, 966-1021, these were renumbered in the 1960s as a separate collection.
A micropublication of the Commonwealth Records is available from World Microfilms [25]
Further information is available in:
Houston, J. Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Records of the Commonwealth 1643-1660 in the Lambeth Palace Library (1968).
Doctors' Commons, the association or college of ecclesiastical lawyers founded in 1511 and situated in Knightrider Street, London, was dissolved following the Court of Probate Act, 1857.
Its records were dispersed, but most of those that survive are in the Library. These comprise the register, 1511-1855, a 19th century minute book, and financial and estate papers. For further details and a calendar of the register of Doctors' Commons (DC 1), see G.D. Squibb, Doctors' Commons. A history of the College of advocates and doctors of law, (1977).
Correspondence of Canon J.A. Douglas, vicar of St. Luke, Camberwell, and from 1933 Hon. General Secretary of the Church of England Council on Foreign Relations, concerning relations between the Church of England and the Eastern Orthodox Churches during the first half of the 20th century.
The Library holds the official papers of several Bishops of London, known as the Fulham Papers as they were were transferred from Fulham Palace, the former Bishops' residence.
The majority of the collection dates from the 18th-19th centuries and includes correspondence on the administration of the diocese of London, and on the churches, particularly in America and the West Indies, which came under the bishop's jurisdiction at the time.
It also includes a series of visitation returns, 1763-1900, the earlier volumes being in the Guildhall Library [26], which houses the majority of records of the diocese. Further diocesan records are held at London Metropolitan Archives (ref: DL).
There are a number of finding aids to Faculty Office material which do not yet form part of our online catalogue (see attachment, right).
A micropublication of the colonial sections of the papers is available in several American libraries and may also be purchased from World Microfilms Limited [27], who also publish micropublications of the letterbooks of Bishop Blomfield and the London visitation returns 1763-1815.
The records of the Incorporated Church Building Society (ICBS) comprise the minute books and some 16,000 files relating to applications for grants for the building and restoration of churches thoughout England and Wales, from the foundation of the Society in 1818 until 1982. Applications were made on a standard form which included data on the population and character of the parish, as well as information on the church building.
The church plans relating to the files have been digitised and are now available through the Church Plans Online [28] website. The site also includes a list of the files, and identifies the churches, reasons for the grants, and the names of surveyors, architects or other professionals responsible for the buildings, and indicates the existence of plans and photographs.
Also of use is "List of I.C.B.S. grants, 1818-1927" (from The Incorporated Church Building Society annual report for ... 1927).
Correspondence and papers of the Revd. John Keble and various relatives, including Thomas Keble, vicar of Bisley, 1778-1894.
This collection is on deposit and the Library is unable to provide copies in any form.
The Lord Wharton Charity was founded in 1692 by Philip Wharton, 4th Baron Wharton, for the purchase of bibles, catechisms and other books for poor children in Buckinghamshire, Cumberland, Westmorland, and Yorkshire. The collection includes accounts, minutes and papers, mainly 19th-20th century.
Records created by the headquarters of the Mothers' Union (MU), Mary Sumner House, Westminster. Founded to promote the sanctity of marriage and Christian family life, the MU was primarily interested in the morality of society, and its activity ranged from petitioning parliament to running family fun days. By the early 20th century, the MU had established itself in dioceses overseas, undertaking a mix of missionary and development work.
The archive comprises minutes, correspondence, accounts, pamphlets, architectural plans, photographs and slides. The majority of the archive dates from the 1890s onwards, as it was not until then that the Mothers' Union established a centralised structure. The papers also contain a few series of documents originating from members who, although not always based at Mary Sumner House, played important roles within the organisation.
Correspondence and papers of the Royal Commission on Ecclesiastical Discipline, which was appointed in 1904 and reported in 1906: Report of the Royal Commission on Discipline, together with Minutes of evidence taken before the Royal Commission.
The papers comprise 25 volumes, including minute books, surveys of churches where ritualist practices had been introduced, 1901-5, and newspaper cuttings, 1904-6.
Copy of 48 sermons preached between 1672 and 1689. They are attributed to John Kettlewell (1653-1695), but the authorship is uncertain.
This collection is on deposit and the Library is unable to provide copies in any form.
Correspondence and papers of SPG, comprising the papers of John Chamberlayne, first secretary of SPG, 1702-11, later given to the Archbishop of Canterbury, minutes, 1701-50, financial records, 1702-96, and some late 18th century correspondence of the Archbishops of Canterbury relating to the church overseas and the establishment of episcopacy in America.
For other correspondence, 1702-14, see the Tenison volume in Archbishops Papers and for minutes of SPG, 1758-66, see MS 1124. within the manuscripts series.
Micropublication of the SPG Papers is available in a number of American Libraries and may be purchased from World Microfilms Limited [29]
Further information is available in:
Manross, W.W. S.P.G. Papers in the Lambeth Palace Library. Calendar and Indexes, (Oxford, 1974).
The archives of SPG records are held at the Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House [30].
The Society was instituted in 1788 for the relief of country clergy, 'the tenor of whose preaching is according to the doctrinal articles of the Church of England'. The records comprise minute books and registers, 1788-1864.
A miscellaneous collection of material on the history of the Library, including obsolete catalogues, ranging from the earliest, which provides a catalogue of the books and manuscripts of the Library's founder, Archbishop Bancroft, in 1612 and includes an account of the Library's foundation (F1), to those of previous Librarians (Paul Colomiès, David Wilkins, A.C. Ducarel, S.R. Maitland and S.W. Kershaw).
Also included are letter-books of Claude Jenkins, Lambeth Librarian, correspondence, mainly 20th century, a few visitors' books, and annual reports. Refer also to the source guide on the history of the Library.
The Lambeth Palace Library collections (excluding Sion College collections) contain some 120,000 books, 40,000 pamphlets, and over 100 current periodicals relating in the main, but not exclusively, to the history of the Church of England and its relations with other Churches both in Great Britain and overseas.
The Lambeth Palace Library collections (excluding Sion College collections) contain some 120,000 books, 40,000 pamphlets, and over 100 current periodicals relating in the main, but not exclusively, to the history of the Church of England and its relations with other Churches both in Great Britain and overseas.
The core of the collection of early printed books was bequeathed by the Library's founder, Archbishop Bancroft, in 1610 and includes books belonging to some of his predecessors, namely Cranmer, Grindal and Whitgift.
The collections have been enlarged by gifts from successive archbishops, especially Abbot, Sheldon, Tenison, Secker, and Davidson, by the acquisition of the libraries of the Dutch Church and Church House, and by a judicious policy of purchase by recent librarians. Many of the books and pamphlets relate to or amplify the archives and manuscripts.
The catalogue of printed books held by the Library is complete and available online, and can be accessed through the ‘Search Collections' section of the website.
Information about the collections can also be found online via the COPAC [31] academic and national library catalogue, the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) [32] and the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue (ISTC) [33] catalogue.
Some closed sequences of Lambeth Palace Library's periodicals are stored at the Church of England Record Centre. They will be available for use in the Record Centre's Reading Room, not at Lambeth Palace Library.
If you wish to use periodicals stored at the Record Centre, please contact the Record Centre to request them at least five working days in advance, as the Reading Room is open by appointment only.
Periodicals stored at the Record Centre are shown in the online printed books catalogue with a classmark of the form "CERC Box", and a list of the periodicals affected is available from Reading Room staff.
Lambeth Palace Library's function as a library of printed books, serving not only the Archbishop but also the Church and nation, dates from its foundation in 1610. It now serves as the principal library for the history of the Church of England, and continues to collect current scholarship in the following categories:
(a) Material relating to the history and administration of the Church of England (pre- and post-Reformation), or providing necessary background sources for research in this field.
(b) Material supporting, or stemming from, the study of the historic collection of archives, manuscripts and early printed books in the care of the Library.
Recently acquired items include:
The origins of feasts, fasts and seasons in early Christianity. Paul F. Bradshaw and Maxwell E. Johnson (Alcuin Club Collections 86, 2011)
The devil in disguise: deception, delusion and fanaticism in the Early English enlightenment. Mark Knights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011)
Mary I. England's Catholic Queen. John Edwards (London: Yale University Press, 2011)
Godly reading: print, manuscript and puritanism in England, 1580 - 1720. Andrew Chambers (Cambridge: Cambridge Univerity Press, 2011)
Last updated December 2011.
On the closure of Sion College Library in June 1996, the manuscripts, the pre-1850 printed books, and the entire pamphlet collection were transferred to Lambeth Palace Library. The post-1850 collections were removed to King's College London.
Printed Books
A card catalogue of the items printed before 1850 is available in the Library.
The catalogue of the post-1850 holdings at King's College London is available online.
Manuscripts
Sion College manuscripts card index, available in the Library.
C.J. Kitching, 'Summary list of the Latin and English manuscripts in Sion College Library London' (typescript, Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, 1990)
[Compiled before the manuscripts were transferred to Lambeth Palace Library. Does not include manuscripts in languages other than Latin and English.]
Ker, N.R. Medieval manuscripts in British Libraries vol.1: London, (Oxford, 1969: pp. 263-91).
Includes manuscripts sold by the College in 1977 - see below.
Pickering, O.S. & O'Mara, V.M. The Index of Middle English Prose: handlist 13. Manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library including those formerly in Sion College Library (Cambridge, 1999).
The following manuscripts did not come to Lambeth Palace Library when the collection was transferred :
English MSS
E 15 (Thomas Bray) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 76)
E 21 (Joye's school minute book) - at Guildhall Library c.1953
E 23 (Chaucer) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 73)
E 41 (Bennet & Clements booksellers memorandum book) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 75)
E 76 (Langland Piers Plowman) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 74)
Latin MSS
L8 (Syon Abbey processional) - missing in 1932. Now Syon Abbey, South Brent, Devon: MS 1
L9 (Suetonius) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 71)
L21 (Suetonius) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 70)
L28 (Hugo Folieto & the Bestiary of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 72) - now Getty Museum
L34 (Merchant Taylor's School admissions register 1644-1662) - at Merchant Taylor's since 1930
Finding aids:
Sion College manuscripts card index, available in the Library
C.J. Kitching, 'Summary list of the Latin and English manuscripts in Sion College Library London' (typescript, Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, 1990)
[Compiled before the manuscripts were transferred to Lambeth Palace Library. Does not include manuscripts in languages other than Latin and English.]
Ker, N.R. Medieval manuscripts in British Libraries vol.1: London, (Oxford, 1969: pp. 263-91).
Includes manuscripts sold by the College in 1977 - see below.
Pickering, O.S. & O'Mara, V.M. The Index of Middle English Prose: handlist 13. Manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library including those formerly in Sion College Library (Cambridge, 1999).
The following manuscripts did not come to Lambeth Palace Library when the collection was transferred :
English MSS
E 15 (Thomas Bray) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 76)
E 21 (Joye's school minute book) - at Guildhall Library c.1953
E 23 (Chaucer) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 73)
E 41 (Bennet & Clements booksellers memorandum book) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 75)
E 76 (Langland Piers Plowman) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 74)
Latin MSS
L8 (Syon Abbey processional) - missing in 1932. Now Syon Abbey, South Brent, Devon: MS 1
L9 (Suetonius) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 71)
L21 (Suetonius) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 70)
L28 (Hugo Folieto & the Bestiary of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 72) - now Getty Museum
L34 (Merchant Taylor's School admissions register 1644-1662) - at Merchant Taylor's since 1930
The extensive pamphlet collection includes some 3,700 items belonging to Edmund Gibson, bishop of London (1669-1748), 5,800 to John Russell, headmaster of the Charterhouse, and rector of St. Botolph without Bishopsgate (1787-1863), 1,600 to William Goode, dean of Ripon (1762-1816), and 7,100 to William Scott, vicar of St. Olave, Jewry, London, (1801-68).
The Church of England Record Centre holds the archives of the central institutions of the Church of England and their predecessor organisations relating to the functions and activities of the Anglican Church in England, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
Topics covered by the archival collections include the following:
Buildings including chancel repairs to parish churches, construction of new churches particularly with the assistance of the Church Buildings Commission (1818-1856), parsonage houses, bishops' residences, estate properties and the archives of the Council for the Care of Churches;
Church legislation and policy making since 1919 through the Church Assembly, its boards and councils and since 1970 the General Synod;
Church property including the management of the corporate estates of the Church Commissioners formerly belonging to Bishops, Cathedrals and other church preferments;
Commissions of enquiry into various aspects of the Church of England including Royal Commissions and Church Assembly Commissions after 1919;
Development of parish ministry through the creation and amalgamation of benefices; submission of statistical returns by incumbents and the regulation of fees and sales of property;
Education including the financial assistance and advice given to Church of England schools in England and Wales by the National Society (established 1811);
Financial assistance given to the parish clergy including endowments to benefice capital and loans for parsonage houses by the Queen Anne's Bounty (1704-1948), the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (1836-1948) and the Church Commissioners since 1948;
Work of Christian organisations including the former British Council of Churches (established 1942),Churches Together in Britain and Ireland and the Christian Evidence Society.
Lambeth Palace Library has separate online catalogues for its collections of printed books, and archives and manuscripts.
The online printed books catalogue [34] includes over 130,000 items held by the Library, including the entire collections of printed books, prints and periodicals. It does not generally contain records for the Sion College collections, for which card catalogues are available. Printed books in the Library are also included in COPAC [35].
We have recently moved to a new catalogue system which will provide improved access to printed books holdings. If you have any problems with or queries about the new catalogue, please contact us [36].
The online catalogue of archives and manuscripts [37] includes descriptions of original records held at the Library and at the Church of England Record Centre, although it is not complete, with new entries being added on a regular basis.
The Church Plans Online [38] website gives online access to the catalogue database and digitised images of the 13,000 plans in the archive of the Incorporated Church Building Society (ICBS).
Monarchy and the Book of Common Prayer
1 May - 14 July 2012 Tuesday - Saturday & Bank Holiday Mondays 7 May & 4 June.
This exhibition traces the close relationship between royalty and religion from medieval to modern times. It tells the story of the Book of Common Prayer and its importance in national life. This story is illustrated with books, manuscripts and objects, many of which have royal or other important provenances. The centrepiece of the exhibition will be the 1662 revision of the Book of Common Prayer. Other highlights of the exhibition include:
Opening Times
Tuesday - Friday 11.00 - 13.30 and 14.00 - 17.00 (last entry 16.00)
Saturdays and Bank Holidays 11.00 - 16.00 (last entry 15.00).
Tickets are issued with timed entry slots. The time you select is the earliest time you can enter the exhibition.
£12 Adults, £10 Concessions (over-60s & students & unemployed), under-17s free.
Price includes printed exhibition guide. Tickets on sale from 15 February. During the opening celebration week (1 - 5 May) all tickets are £6 (no further concessions).
To buy tickets call 0844 847 1698.
Following the success of the Library's 400th anniversary exhibition in 2010, a selection of items which were displayed can now be viewed on a new iPhone app, providing a virtual tour of a selection of the exhibition's content.
Based on the audioguide which accompanied the exhibition, and developed in association with ATS Heritage, the app includes digitised images of a range of material, audio commentaries, and a selection of interviews, including with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Currently available on iPhones, it is hoped that an android version will be launched in the coming months.
The app costs £2.39 to download. To do so, visit the App Store and search for 'Lambeth Palace Library'.
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' 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:
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 [42] for a list of forthcoming events.
For all enquiries please contact Dr John Maiden:
building-on-history-project@open.ac.uk [43]
tel: 020 7556 6143
The records representing the Library's printed book collection are now available on Copac [45], 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.
The Library has launched a newsletter with information about its collections and recent activities.
Click on the attachment, right, to download the latest issue.
This broadside ballad depicts through image and verse the failed assassination plot against James I of England in 1605. Broadside ballads were a widespread form of printed material that contained a ballad or popular song on a single sheet of paper that normally described a notable event.
This broadside ballad describes how a group of English Catholic conspirators failed in their attempt to blow up the House of Lords during the Opening of Parliament on 5th November 1605. As the ballad verse describes the conspirators planned, "with gunpowder to blow up all the state".
The plot was led by Robert Catesby and the explosives were left in the charge of the experienced solider Guy Fawkes. However, the plot was revealed by a letter sent to William Parker 4th Baron Monteagle and in the search at midnight on the 4th November Fawkes was discovered and arrested with 36 barrels of gunpowder. This is attested in the ballad when it states, "The masked Fawkes with his blind sconce appears, whose powder flasks, swift Nemesis reveales".
Robert Catesby and many of the conspirators fled London after the discovery of the plot, however Catesby and many others were shot and killed in a battle at Holbeche House. Those who were captured, including Guy Fawkes, were put on trial on 27 January 1606 and were sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. The ballad describes the thwarting of the plot as a Protestant victory over Catholicism. As the ballad states, "Gods goodness sits above and doth beloved, How Justice her even chariot wheels are round".
The discovery of the plot has evolved into Bonfire Night celebrated on 5th of November today.
This pen and ink sketch was produced by Sir Bernard Partridge to comment on the Prayer Book Controversy of 1927, and appeared in Punch, a popular British magazine of humour and satire. The image shows Randall Thomas Davidson, the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, wearing traditional Bishop's Choir Dress and holding a pastoral staff firmly aloft. With ‘The New Prayer Book' beneath his feet acting as a raft, he stares resolutely ahead, while the sea of ‘controversy' rages all around him.
As a staunch supporter of the revised edition of the Prayer Book, and also the spiritual leader of the Church of England throughout the revision process, Davidson was at the centre of this crisis, as this image suggests.
Increasing pressure in the 19th Century for changes to be made to the 1662 Prayer Book had led to a new Prayer Book being proposed in 1927. Approval was granted by the Church of England authorities as well as by the House of Lords but was later rejected by the House of Commons, with MPs William Joynson-Hicks and Rosslyn Mitchell claiming the proposed book was ‘papistical'. Davidson was said to be inconsolable. The Prayer Book controversy continued into 1928 when finally the Church took matters into its own hands and declared that the Bishops' approval was sufficient without Parliamentary authority. After this crisis, a different process was used, whereby alternative prayer books were produced, rather than attempts being made to change the earlier edition.
This drawing, which is now bound with the Library's manuscript sequence, complements other records in the Library, most notably Davidson's papers as Archbishop of Canterbury. One of our largest collections of Archbishop's papers, running to over 800 volumes, it covers a vast range of topics, including the First World War and Davidson's visits to the Western Front.
The formidable stare of William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898) features in a portrait by Millais from 1885, this replica of which hangs near the entrance to the Great Hall of Lambeth Palace. It is the stare of a man who was both a leading protagonist and observer of the Victorian age, a man who served as Prime Minister four times, resigning for the last time aged 84. The presence of this painting near to the Library relates to the presence of Gladstone's diaries and papers (ref: MS 1416-1455, 2578-2774) within the Library's collections.
Gladstone's journals, which span over 70 years of his life, include poignant reflections and self examinations. It was whilst Gladstone was at Eton in 1825 that the entries were begun, and as Gladstone proclaimed, they are ‘an account book of the all-precious gift of Time'. There are over 25,000 entries covering topics such as religion, rules of conduct, sexual temptation and also mundane and factual matters such as lists of reading and correspondence. The diaries were also a canvas for Gladstone's secret thoughts and desires, often being written in foreign language code, and they divulge such matters as his morally ambiguous ‘rescue work' with prostitutes.
It was in 1928 that the Archbishop of Canterbury was entrusted with guardianship of the collection and in 1938 a later donation was given to Lambeth Palace Library. Between 1968-1994 they were painstakingly edited for publication by M.R.D.Foot and the late H.C.G.Matthew.
This depiction of Christ's resurrection is taken from a fifteenth century breviary which was commissioned by Henry Chichele (c.1364-1443), Bishop of St. David's from 1408-1414 and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1414-1443. The breviary is a prayer book setting out the psalms, readings and liturgical texts which formed part of the ‘Offices' or services of prayer prescribed to be recited by clergy, monks and nuns at particular hours of each day.
The image is taken from the office of Matins, a service of psalms and readings, celebrated during the night hours or the early morning. The illustrated initial ‘A', which forms the first letter of the word ‘Angelus', portrays Christ majestically rising from the tomb. He is clothed in blue, a colour which a medieval audience would have interpreted as suggesting heavenly grace as well as the virtue of hope, both themes which are inextricably linked with the Christian's faith in Christ's resurrection. Our Lord is also presented as holding a sceptre in the shape of a cross, suggesting the regal authority which he has gained over the power of sin and death by means of his cross and passion.
The Chichele Breviary was the work of Herman Scheerre, one of the most prominent illustrators of the fifteenth century. Born in Germany, it is believed that Scheere moved to England in 1405 and worked in London for ten years. This breviary, which now forms part of the Library's collection of manuscripts, was the first manuscript in which Scheerre's name was found to be written. According to Kathleen L. Scott, the Chichele Breviary contains a greater number and quality of images than any other breviary from the same period.
In Victorian Britain, local and national groups were founded to tackle the problem of excessive drinking in society. These organisations, with the backing of the Church of England, worked hard to highlight the destructive effects of alcohol on the body and mind of the drinker, on the individual's family and dependants, and on society as a whole in the form of drunken behaviour, crime and poverty. Reduced productivity, which campaigners argued was the inevitable result of drinking whilst working, was another concern and, with this in mind, the UK Band of Hope Union produced this image in 1893.
Portraying prosperity and productivity, the picture shows how life could be for reapers who ‘sign the pledge'. The men, surrounded by large bundles of wheat, bask in the bright sunshine of a summer's day looking healthy, happy and well-dressed. They drink cocoa, milk, oatmeal and water which ‘experience proves' is the best for supporting strength rather than beer or cider. This charming scene, promoting the benefits of teetotalism, is in stark contrast to the grim black and white illustrations produced by societies to show the negative consequences of drinking.
The workers are notable since the different positions of the men, one standing, one seated and one on the floor, are reminiscent of a pub scene, and also hints at the various stages of intoxication. However, while other images show men falling off chairs and sprawled on the ground, this scene is pleasant, calm and controlled, demonstrating that men are still able to enjoy the camaraderie and satisfaction of drinking without the alcohol itself.
This image, together with eleven similar diagrams aimed at workers of other professions, such as coal-mining and printing, forms just a small part of Lambeth's rich collection on the temperance movement. The wide range of material includes pledge books, badges, prizes, illustrated journals and an embroidered tablecloth, and provides a fascinating insight into a significant and widespread social movement in our history.
The Jesse Tree is one of the most famous prophecies of the coming of Christ. It was recorded in Chapter XI of Isaiah and metaphorically describes the descent of the Messiah from Jesse. The representation of the Jesse Tree was very popular in mediaeval art and this distinguished and elegant image of the Jesse Tree appears in the Lambeth Bible.
The tree represents the genealogy of Christ in accordance with Isaiah's prophecy. The figure of Jesse lies recumbent at the border of the page. A vine-like tree springing from his side begins the genealogical line. At the centre of the image, standing tall and poised in classical blue robes to signify her virginity, is the Blessed Virgin Mary. From her head spring tendril-like vines that form a circle which enclose the bust of Jesus. Surrounding him are winged doves that represent the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Jesse Tree is a unique compilation of visual traditions which make a larger iconographical and theological point, every part of the image has its own unique biblical story to tell.
Master Hugo, a secular artist who worked for Bury St. Edmunds and who was known as the ‘Lambeth Master', was responsible for all the illuminations in the first volume. A versatile artist, he also cast the doors of the Abbey Church and later carved a crucifix with the figures of Mary and John for the choir. Thus the ‘Lambeth Master' created images that were rich and majestic, from the use of colour in the initial headings to the movement in the drapery of the figures' clothes.
Sets of enormous Bibles in Latin were produced for many monasteries throughout Western Europe, including the Lambeth Bible (c.1150-70). Although other works of art of the twelfth century are more monumental in style and breathtaking in impact, none better represents the assimilation of English tastes and traditions of a style that is ultimately Byzantine.
The Bible entered Lambeth Palace Library in the foundation bequest in 1610 and has remained one of the treasures from the collection of the Archbishop of Canterbury ever since.
This prayer book, as well as the first prayer book of Queen Elizabeth I's reign dating from 1559, are among the treasures on display in the Library's 400th Anniversary Exhibition, open until 23rd July.
Elizabeth I, who ruled for 44 years, is a figure of enduring fascination and this treasured possession acts as a tangible link with the great Queen. This is her personal prayer book, as we can see from this amazing frontispiece which portrays her kneeling in prayer. It is effectively a Protestant Book of Hours, printed by John Day in 1569, and its beautiful decoration including woodcuts is unrivalled by any other prayer book of the age.
Most of the prayers were taken from Henry Bull's Christian Prayers and Holie Meditations (1568), however some are original. Although she may not have written them herself she would certainly have approved and used them. In one, she asks for the same wisdom as Solomon: ‘how much lesse shall I thy handmaide, being by kinde a weake woma[n], have sufficient abilitie to rule these thy kingdomes of England and Ireland, an innumerable & warlike nation'. The words seem to have inspired her when she needed to give a heroic message: her Armada speech in which she contrasted her ‘body but of a weak and feeble woman' with her ‘heart and stomach of a king'.
The pink and green palette indicates that the book was hand-coloured by artists in the workshop of Archbishop Matthew Parker at Lambeth Palace. Inscriptions on flyleaves enable us to chart it being passed between family and friends until it was gifted to the Library by Archbishop Thomas Tenison.
This image shows one of the beautiful volumes from Lambeth Palace Library's set of the Aldine Aristotle, which belonged to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, a collector of books and patron to several bookbinders.
The five volumes, bound as six and containing tracts by Theophrastus, Philo and others, were printed in Venice between 1495-8, by Aldus Manutius (with the assistance of Alexander Bondini). The superbly decorative bindings were made for Dudley, by a shop that bore his name. The brown calf boards are tooled in gold and feature Dudley's large badge of a bear holding a ragged staff, between his large set of golden initials.
The title pages of these volumes contain a manuscript cipher which is thought to have been used by Dudley and Queen Elizabeth I, as the two were rumoured to have been lovers. This, as well as many other remarkable manuscripts, archives and books, can be viewed as part of the Library's upcoming exhibition, "Treasures of Lambeth Palace Library", which celebrates the Library's 400th anniversary and runs from 17th May - 23rd July 2010.
The summer of 1910 saw one of the most significant religious events in the former Russian Empire: the translation of the relics of St Euphrosyne (1110-1173) from Kiev to her native Polotsk. Euphrosyne is the only East Slav virgin saint, and is especially venerated in her native Belarus. The translation attracted crowds of pilgrims from all parts of the then Russian Empire.
The event is documented by a series of glass slides, which forms part of a wider collection presented to Lambeth Palace Library in 2008 by the Anglican and Eastern Churches Association. Some of the photographs may have been taken or collected by the Revd. H.J. Fynes-Clinton, founder of the Anglican and Eastern Orthodox Churches Union, when he was in Russia before the 1917 revolution, serving as a tutor to a Russian noble family.
The photographs of the Imperial Family may have been provided by his friend Sidney Gibbes, later Archimandryte Nicholas Gibbes, who was English language tutor to the Tsesarevich Alexei and the Grand Princesses. However, most of the collection features images of churches, monasteries and other examples of Russian secular and church architecture. There are also scenes of everyday life and religious practice, creating an interesting and often captivating insight into the last days of pre-revolutionary Russia, a state which at the time stretched from present day central Poland in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east.
The register of Cardinal Reginald Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1556 to 1558, opens with a large initial R, beginning the word Registrum. The scribe-artist has decorated the letter with strapwork, and within and around it he has illustrated a scene which appears to show the deaths of two lovers. The significance of this secular image, and its appearance in so prominent a position in an ecclesiastical register, have long been puzzling. The scene has now been identified by Elizabeth Danbury and proves to be a representation of the legend of Pyramus and Thisbe.
This legend, recounted in Ovid's Metamorphoses, transmitted to medieval Europe by Boccaccio and translated into English by Chaucer, was a popular subject in art and literature for many decades before its use by Shakespeare. The dead Pyramus, the dying Thisbe, the lion and the mulberry tree with the berries which, according to legend, were turned from white to red by the lovers' blood, all figure in the decoration of the letter ‘R'.
The reason for the inclusion of the image is not immediately apparent. It may have been an acknowledgement of Cardinal Pole's patronage of Renaissance learning, an allegory representing the blood of Catholic martyrs under Edward VI, or simply the caprice of the artist. Decoration of administrative records, for whatever reason, could provide pleasurable diversion both for the artist and for the reader.
Lambeth Palace Library's 2011 public exhibition celebrated the 400th anniversary of the King James Version. The exhibition set in historical context the translation of the sacred texts of the Bible into the languages of everyday life. Comments from visitors included:
Frank from Surrey: "A wonderful display tracing the history of the book which has contributed so much to English language, literature and culture"
Richard from Dallas, USA: "A privilege to see this work - very well explained"
Carrie from Malaysia: "Impressive collection and excellent interpretation"
Kerry from Surrey: "Another excellent exhibition provided by Lambeth Palace Library"
Loraine from Canada: "Breathtaking! A touching exhibition"
On display were a wide range of important manuscripts and books offering a glimpse into the practical processes involved, as well as the motives behind these great achievements. At the centre of the exhibition was the 1611 edition of the King James Version, set in the context of the scholarship which created it.
Other highlights of the exhibition included:
Lambeth Palace Library is one of the earliest public libraries in England, founded in 1610 under the will of Archbishop Richard Bancroft. In celebration of its 400th anniversary in 2010, the Library organised a fascinating public exhibition in the Great Hall of Lambeth Palace. Comments from visitors included:
Susan from St. Louis, USA: "Truly a treasure"
George from Nottingham: "A first class exhibition. Thank you"
Mr and Mrs Brooks from Devon: "Wonderful thought provoking history. Beautiful."
Malcolm from London: "A privilege to see such remarkable manuscripts"
Elizabeth from Kent: "A wonderful, eye-opening exhibition"
The exhibition drew upon the Library's incomparably rich and diverse collections of manuscripts, archives and books, some of which were displayed for the first time. It revealed how the collections developed since 1610 and explored the history surrounding the people who owned, studied or used them as aids to prayer and devotion.
Highlights of the exhibition included:
The book 'Lambeth Palace Library: Treasures from the Collection of the Archbishops of Canterbury' was published by Scala Publishers in 2010 to coincide with the 400th anniversary exhibition, and featured sixty items from the Library's collections.
Included are illuminated manuscripts from the Middle Ages; manuscripts from the Tudor and Stuart eras, including the execution warrant for Mary, Queen of Scots; early printed books, among them a Gutenberg bible with English illumination, possibly the first printed book to come to England; Elizabeth I's own prayer book showing her portrait; medical reports on the madness of George III and the Golden Cockerel Press Four Gospels, one of the masterpieces of Eric Gill.
For hardback copies (£35), please contact Jenny McKinley, Scala Publishers, Northburgh House, 10 Northburgh Street, London, EC1V 0AT, jmckinley@scalapublishers.com [46], 020 7490 9900
For softback copies (£17.95 + £4.10 for UK p&p), please telephone the orders department at Norwich Books and Music on 01603 785924, or post orders to: Norwich Books and Music, 13a Hellesdon Park Road, Norwich, NR6 5DR. Payment can be made by card or cheque.
The Library's Annual Review, which includes the Annual Report of the Friends of the Library provides a comprehensive account of the Library's work throughout the year, as well as details of new accessions.
Click on the attachments, below right, to download recent Library Annual Reviews.
Lambeth Palace Library receives no public or university funding, so please do consider joining the Friends of the Library or participating in our Back-a-Book Scheme to support the Library's work.
The Friends of Lambeth Palace Library was founded in 1964 as a focus of support for the Library, and to help in adding to its collections for the benefit of present and future generations. The Friends brings together like-minded people with an interest in the Library's history and collections, and provides invaluable assistance in the acquisition of rare books and manuscripts.
The annual meeting of the Friends is held in the Great Hall of Lambeth Palace each summer, and is followed by a lecture by a well-known scholar, to which all Friends are invited. Other events are arranged throughout the year. Friends also receive a copy of the Library's annual report, which includes information on all the Library's activities, as well as details of books and manuscripts acquired during the year.
Please join the Friends so that, with your help, the Library may continue to develop and flourish. Click on the link to the right for a membership form.
Printed books presented by the Friends have included the famous indulgence of Leo X issued in 1516 on the eve of the Reformation, a presentation copy of Luther's tract against Henry VIII printed in 1522, the very rare Book of Common Prayer of 1559, the first prayer book of Elizabeth I, and the first English edition of Foxe's Book of Martyrs of 1563.
Manuscripts have included letters and papers of Archbishops Arundel, Sancroft, Manners Sutton and Howley, papers relating to the divorce of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, and an important series of documents removed from the study of Archbishop Laud after his arrest and recovered with the help of the Friends more than 300 years later.
A list of items presented by the Friends is attached to the right.
Friends of Lambeth Palace Library
Lambeth Palace Road
London
SE1 7JU
tel: +44 (0)20 7898 1263
The Library contains one of the most important collections of early printed books in any of the great national libraries. The Back-a-Book scheme asks for your help in preserving the Library's heritage for future generations.
Please sponsor the vital conservation and repair of a book and play a part in the Library's future. Sponsorship can be by individuals or organisations, and can be made on behalf of others, or in someone's memory. Following repair, each book will have a bookplate placed inside which will include an appropriate message of acknowledgement.
As well as suffering from general wear and tear, the libraries of both Lambeth Palace and Sion College were bombed during World War II and many thousands of the Sion books still have unrepaired bomb damage. There is therefore a need for an extensive programme of specialist repair.
We welcome all donations, but as a guide:
£30 will rebind a small volume in buckram
£150 will restore a leather binding
£250 helps conserve a volume requiring paper and binding conservation
To Back-a-Book, please complete an application form (attached, right) and return it to the Library.
The Library sells a range of postcards, displaying images of Lambeth Palace and items from the Library's collections.
Please contact the Library for further details.
The Library is always grateful for donations, which can be made by clicking on the button below.
We are pleased to answer routine enquiries and aim to send a response within 10 working days. In order to enable us to deal with your enquiry more efficiently please use one of the options below or to the left.
If your enquiry requires detailed research, we may advise you to visit the Library, or suggest that you employ a researcher. The Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives [47], the Federation of Family History Societies [48], or the National Archives [49] may be able to assist in providing contact details for record agents and other freelance researchers. The Library is unable to recommend individuals.
The Library has produced a guide to resources for information on Anglican clergy (below, right), held at the Library and elsewhere.
E-mail: archives@churchofengland.org
[50]Please use the subject line: Clergy Enquiry
Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 1400
Fax: +44 (0)20 7898 1043
Post: Clergy Enquiry, Lambeth Palace Library, London, SE1 7JU, UK.
The Library holds a small selection of wills, primarily those proved in the Archbishop's peculiar court. The Library's guide to family history resources (below, right) provides more information.
The Library's catalogue of archives and manuscripts, available through ‘Search Collections' left, includes the names of individuals for which the Library holds wills.
E-mail: archives@churchofengland.org
[52]Please use the subject line: Wills Enquiry
Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 1400
Fax: +44 (0)20 7898 1043
Post: Wills Enquiry, Lambeth Palace Library, London, SE1 7JU, UK.
Descriptions of the Archbishops' official papers are available on the Library's online catalogue of archives and manuscripts (available through ‘search collections', left). They do not survive in great quantity prior to the mid 19th century, and a thirty year closure rule applies.
E-mail: archives@churchofengland.org [53]
Please use the subject line: Archbishops' Papers Enquiry
Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 1400
Fax: +44 (0)20 7898 1043
Post: Archbishops' Papers Enquiry, Lambeth Palace Library, London, SE1 7JU, UK.
The catalogue of the Library's printed books is available online (available through ‘search collections', left).
E-mail: archives@churchofengland.org [54]
Please use the subject line: Printed Books Enquiry
Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 1400
Fax: +44 (0)20 7898 1043
Post: Printed Books Enquiry, Lambeth Palace Library, London, SE1 7JU, UK.
Please give the date when you expect to visit (preferably giving 48 hours notice) and the references of the material which you wish to consult. Please note that some material cannot be ordered in advance, but is fetched on arrival. For further information click on ‘advance orders', right.
E-mail: archives@churchofengland.org
[58]Please use the subject line: Advance Order (Lambeth)
Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 1400
Fax: +44 (0)20 7898 1043
Post: Advance Order (Lambeth), Lambeth Palace Library, London, SE1 7JU, UK.
E-mail: archives@churchofengland.org
[59]Please use the subject line: Advance Order (CERC)
Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 1030
Fax: +44 (0)20 7898 1043
Post: Advance Order (CERC), Church of England Record Centre, 15 Galleywall Road, South Bermondsey, London, SE16 3PB.
The form for joining the Friends is available online (link, right).
E-mail: archives@churchofengland.org
[61]Please use the subject line: Friends Enquiry
Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 1263
Fax: +44 (0)20 7898 1043
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[62]Please use the subject line: Accounts Queries
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Please note that we are not currently accepting requests to film in the Library during 2012.
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[63]Please use the subject line: Filming Request
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Contact details [67] for Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop of Canterbury and his staff.
Contact details [68] for Church House, and the National Church Institutions.
Links:
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[4] mailto:archives@churchofengland.org
[5] mailto:enquiries.ccb@c-of-e.org.uk
[6] http://www.microworld.uk.com/
[7] http://www.academicmicroforms.com/
[8] http://www.bridgeman.co.uk/
[9] http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/building-on-history-project/
[10] http://www.microworld.uk.com/
[11] http://www.microworld.uk.com
[12] http://www.microworld.uk.com/
[13] http://www.diamm.ac.uk/
[14] http://www.microworld.uk.com/
[15] http://www.microworld.uk.com/
[16] http://www.microworld.uk.com/
[17] http://gale.cengage.co.uk/
[18] http://www.microworld.uk.com/
[19] http://www.microworld.uk.com/
[20] http://gale.cengage.co.uk/
[21] http://www.microworld.uk.com/
[22] http://www.british-history.ac.uk/source.aspx?pubid=235
[23] http://gale.cengage.co.uk/
[24] http://www.microworld.uk.com/
[25] http://www.microworld.uk.com/
[26] http://ihr.sas.ac.uk/gh/
[27] http://www.microworld.uk.com/
[28] http://www.churchplansonline.org
[29] http://www.microworld.uk.com/
[30] http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/rhodes
[31] http://www.copac.ac.uk
[32] http://estc.bl.uk
[33] http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/istc/
[34] http://bookscat.lambethpalacelibrary.org.uk
[35] http://copac.ac.uk/
[36] http://lambethpalacelibrary.org/content/contact
[37] http://archives.lambethpalacelibrary.org.uk:8080/archives
[38] http://www.churchplansonline.org/
[39] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8687308.stm
[40] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYm4f5oeGaU
[41] http://www.cofe.anglican.org/podcast/previouspodcasts.html
[42] http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/building-on-history-project/index.html
[43] mailto:building-on-history-project@open.ac.uk
[44] http://journal.ccedb.org.uk/archive/cce_n2.html
[45] http://copac.ac.uk/
[46] mailto:jmckinley@scalapublishers.com
[47] http://www.agra.org.uk/
[48] http://www.ffhs.org.uk/
[49] http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/irlist
[50] mailto:archives@churchofengland.org?subject=Clergy Enquiry
[51] mailto:archives@churchofengland.org?subject=Marriage Enquiry
[52] mailto:archives@churchofengland.org?subject=Wills Enquiry
[53] mailto:archives@churchofengland.org?subject=Archbishops' Papers Enquiry
[54] mailto:archives@churchofengland.org?subject=Printed Books Enquiry
[55] http://www.churchofengland.org
[56] mailto:archives@churchofengland.org?subject=Church History Enquiry
[57] mailto:archives@churchofengland.org?subject=Local School/Church Enquiry
[58] mailto:archives@churchofengland.org?subject=Advance Order (Lambeth)
[59] mailto:archives@churchofengland.org?subject=Advance Order (CERC)
[60] mailto:archives@churchofengland.org?subject=Copying Services (Lambeth)
[61] mailto:archives@churchofengland.org?subject=Friends Enquiry
[62] mailto:archives@churchofengland.org?subject=Accounts Queries
[63] mailto:archives@churchofengland.org?subject=Filming Request
[64] http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/pages/visit-lambeth-palace.html
[65] mailto:archives@churchofengland.org?subject=Group Visit Enquiry
[66] mailto:archives@churchofengland.org?subject=Conservation
[67] http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/pages/contact.html
[68] http://www.churchofengland.org/contact-us.aspx
[69] mailto:archives@churchofengland.org