Golden Crown on A Coffin Leads the Way to Discovery of Five ‘Lost’ Archbishops of Canterbury

Ancient Origins

Construction workers have stumbled across the tombs of five archbishops of Canterbury, dating back to the 17th century during Garden museum’s refurbishment. The museum is located in a deconsecrated medieval parish church next to Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s official London residence. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury.

 Use of Mobile Phone Leads to the Lucky Discovery
Last year, during the refurbishment of the Garden Museum, construction builders working in the site made an incredible discovery, finding a cache of thirty lead coffins that were hiding underground for centuries. Closer examination uncovered metal plates bearing the names of five former Archbishops of Canterbury, going back to the early 1600s. Building site managers, Karl Patten and Craig Dick, discovered the coffins accidentally as the former chancel at St Mary-at-Lambeth was being converted into an exhibition space. With the use of a mobile phone on a stick to film a flight of stairs leading down to a hidden vault, they spotted the coffins lying on top of each other alongside an archbishop's mitre. Karl Patten told BBC News: "We discovered numerous coffins - and one of them had a gold crown on top of it.”

The Garden Museum at St Mary-at-Lambeth (CC by SA 3.0)

Some Coffins Include Nameplates and Reveal Valuable Information
 Two coffins had nameplates, which belonged to Richard Bancroft, who served as archbishop from 1604 to 1610, and John Moore, archbishop from 1783 to 1805. Additionally, Moore’s wife, Catherine Moore, has a coffin plate as well. It’s important to mention here that Richard Bancroft was the lead supervisor of the publication of a new English translation of the Bible, known as the “King James Bible”, which was first published in 1611.

Also identified from his coffin plate is John Bettesworth (1677-1751), the Dean of Arches, the judge who sits at the ecclesiastical court of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Archbishop Richard Bancroft (public domain)

According to Harry Mount, a Sunday Telegraph's journalist and the first person who wasn’t involved directly to the discovery but was granted access, St Mary-at-Lambeth’s records suggest that three more archbishops were most likely buried in the secret vault: Thomas Tenison, archbishop from 1695 to 1715, Matthew Hutton, archbishop from 1757 to 1758, and Frederick Cornwallis, who served as archbishop from 1768 to 1783. A sixth archbishop (1758 to 1768), named Thomas Secker had his viscera buried in a canister in the churchyard. “It was amazing seeing the coffins. We’ve come across lots of bones on this job. But we knew this was different when we saw the Archbishop’s crown,” an excited Patten tells The Sunday Telegraph.

The archbishops' lead coffins in the hidden crypt CREDIT: HEATHCLIFF O'MALLEY

 Mystery Surrounds the Identify of the Rest Bodies
Garden Museum Director Christopher Woodward confesses that when he first received the call from the builders he worried that something was wrong with the project and couldn’t imagine that such an important discovery would’ve taken place. “I didn’t know what to expect,” Woodward tells The Sunday Telegraph and continues, “I knew there had been 20,000 bodies buried in the churchyard. But I thought the burial places had been cleared from the nave and aisles, and the vaults under the church had been filled with earth.”

The good news though, made him more than happy, “Wow, it was the crown - it's the mitre of an archbishop, glowing in the dark,” he told BBC News. However, he suggests that there are many more things we don’t know about the church’s history, “Still, we don't know who else is down there,” he said. And continues, "This church had two lives: it was the parish church of Lambeth, this little village by the river…but it was also a kind of annex to Lambeth Palace itself. And over the centuries a significant number of the archbishops' families and archbishops themselves chose to worship here, and chose to be buried here."

 Deconsecrated back in the early seventies, St Mary's was due to be wrecked before becoming the Garden Museum. In October 2015, the museum closed for nearly a year and half to go through a € 8,8 million redevelopment project and is due to reopen in May 2017.

Top image: Archbishops were buried with painted, gilded, funerary mitres placed on their coffins CREDIT: GARDEN MUSEUM

By Theodoros Karasavvas

History Trivia - St Augustine dies

May 26

604 St Augustine died.  The Benedictine monk became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597. He is considered the "Apostle to the English" and a founder of the English Church.
 

History Trivia - Stephen Langton named Archbishop of Canterbury

May 15

1213 King John named Stephen Langton Archbishop of Canterbury after submitting to the Pope's authority and offering to make England and Ireland papal fiefs, which resulted in Pope Innocent III lifting the interdict of 1208.
 

History Trivia - Viking raiders kill Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury

April 19

1012 Viking raiders killed Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury before being bought off with a huge bribe

History Trivia - Edmund Rich becomes Archbishop of Canterbury

April 2

1234 Edmund Rich became Archbishop of Canterbury. Raised to the Archbishopric by Pope Gregory IX, Edmund was an outspoken figure who clashed with King Henry III of England and preached for the Sixth Crusade.

History Trivia - Thomas Becket canonized

February 21

1173 Thomas Becket was canonized. The Archbishop of Canterbury, one-time friend and opponent to King Henry II of England, had been murdered less than three years earlier, and the swift canonization by Pope Alexander III was a clear message of rebuke to the king.
 

History Trivia - Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, murdered

December 29

1170 Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered while at vespers in Canterbury Cathedral by four knights of King Henry II. Acting on the frustrated outburst of King Henry II, four knights entered the Cathedral and struck down the Archbishop. The knights fled.  Henry would later do public penance for his ill-considered words that ultimately ended the quarrel between one-time friends.

History Trivia - Festival of Juno

December 1

The Festival of Juno occurred on this day.

1135 Henry I of England died and the crown was passed to his nephew Stephen of Blois instead of his daughter Matilda , which resulted in civil war (the Anarchy). The dispute was settled when Stephen named Matilda's son Henry Plantagenet as his heir.

1170 Becket returned to Canterbury. After establishing an uneasy reconciliation with Henry II, the Archbishop returned to his See, ending a six-year-long self-imposed exile.

History Trivia - Michelangelo's David unveiled in Florence.

Sept 8

1011 St. Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, was captured by marauding Danes, held prisoner for months, and eventually murdered. He refused to allow himself to be ransomed because the money would have had to be raised by taxing the people. After his death he was venerated as a martyr, and the parish church of Greenwich is dedicated to him. 

1504 Michelangelo's David was unveiled in Florence.

History Trivia - Thomas À Becket consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury

June 3

350 Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, proclaimed himself Roman Emperor, entering Rome at the head of a group of gladiators.

1083 Henry IV of Germany stormed Rome, capturing St Peter's Cathedral.

1162 Thomas À Becket consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury.

History Trivia - Viking raiders killed Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury

April 19

1012 Viking raiders killed Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury before being bought off with a huge bribe.

1054 Pope Leo IX died.  He was able to transform the papacy from a local power in Rome to a major influence in Europe.

History Trivia - The Brevairum drafted

April 2

 506  The Brevairum, a code of laws for the subjects of Alaric II, King of the Goths, was drafted at Toulouse.

1234 Edmund Rich became Archbishop of Canterbury. Raised to the Archbishopric by Pope Gregory IX, Edmund was an outspoken figure who clashed with King Henry III of England and preached for the Sixth Crusade.

1285 Honorius IV elected pope. Honorius was old and crippled when elected but in his brief two years as pope he worked toward reuniting the Western and Eastern churches and supported the mendicant orders.

History Trivia - The Battle of Varna - Turkish victory

November 10

 461 St Leo I ended his reign as Catholic Pope.

627 Saint Justus died. The fourth archbishop of Canterbury, Justus had a role in converting Northumbria to Christianity.

1444 The Battle of Varna: The Turkish victory over a Hungarian force ended the efforts of European powers to save Constantinople from Turkish conquest.

1619 René Descartes had the dreams that inspired his Meditations on First Philosophy.

History Trivia - Roman Emperor Theodosius prohibits all pagan worship in the empire

November 8

392 Roman Emperor Theodosius passed legislation prohibiting all pagan worship in the empire.

911 Duke Koenraad I was chosen German king.

1097 Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, went into exile after a breach with William II over papal supremacy.

1308 John Duns Scotus died. He was an influential Franciscan philosopher and theologian who pioneered the theory of the Immaculate Conception.

1520 Stockholm Bloodbath began: A successful invasion of Sweden by Danish forces resulted in the execution of around 100 people.

'Witch Marks' Carved Into 17th-Century Estate

Rossella Lorenzi

 

 

 

English archaeologists have discovered "demon traps" under the floorboards of Knole, one of Britain's most important historic houses. The estate is shown here in the year 1800.
Acquired by the Archbishops of Canterbury in the 15th century, gifted to Henry VIII and remodeled in the 17th century by the Sackville family, the house was the birthplace of poet and gardener Vita Sackville-West and the setting for Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando.

The so called witch marks emerged on beams and joists as archaeologists took up floorboards in the bed chamber prepared for King James I but also around the fireplace, considered a weak spot in the fight against witches and demons.
According to archaeologists from the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA), the witch marks "illustrate how fear governed the everyday lives of people living through the tumultuous years of the early 17th century."

The marks date to early 1606 and the reign of King James I, a period when superstition and paranoia gripped England just after the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
At that time, a handful of English Roman Catholic dissenters planned to blow up King James I of England and both Houses of Parliament.
Government propaganda, orchestrated by James I, blamed the Catholic conspirators as being in service to Satan, paving the way to widespread accusations of demonic forces and witches at work.

The researchers believe that craftsmen working for Thomas Sackville, who at that time owned Knole, carved the marks in anticipation of a visit from the King James I, with the intention of protecting him from evil spirits.
James himself had a keen interest in witchcraft and passed a witchcraft law, making it an offense punishable by death.
King Richard III Feasted on Wine and Swans

The carvings included criss-crossed lines, interlocking V-shapes to invoke the protection of the Virgin Mary, and scorch marks made by directly burning the timber with a candle.
They were intended to trap demons and witches at work.

Discovery News


 

History Trivia - Henry IV of Germany storms Rome, capturing St Peter's Cathedral.

June 3

350 Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, proclaimed himself Roman Emperor, entering Rome at the head of a group of gladiators.

1083 Henry IV of Germany stormed Rome, capturing St Peter's Cathedral.

1098 First Crusade: Antioch fell to the crusaders after an eight-month siege.

1162 Thomas À Becket consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury.

 

History Trivia - Germanicus returns to Rome as a conquering hero

May 26

 17 Germanicus returned to Rome as a conquering hero; he celebrated a triumph for his victories over the Cherusci, Chatti and other German tribes west of the Elbe.

451 Battle of Avarayr between Armenian rebels and the Sassanid Empire took place. The Empire defeated the Armenians militarily but guaranteed them freedom to openly practice Christianity.

604 St Augustine died.  The Benedictine monk became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597. He is considered the "Apostle to the English" and a founder of the English Church.

961 German King Otto II was crowned.