2.1 The Palace
Lambeth Palace has served as the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury since about 1200, apart from a brief interruption during the Civil War and Commonwealth (1640-1660) when it was used first as a prison and then occupied as living quarters by the regicide Thomas
Scot and others.
It has, of course, been added to and changed, and parts of it have been destroyed and rebuilt during the course of the centuries, and if it looks like a castle or fortress to you, this is no accident. London has seen rampaging mobs of the dispossessed at various times,
and, after
The Prison Room in the Lollards’ Tower.
Hare
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the execution in 1381 of Archbishop Simon
Sudbury at the hands of the peasants led by Wat
Tyler, subsequent archbishops looked to secure themselves against a similar fate.
The form of buildings also reflects the Church’s preoccupation from the late fourteenth century with enforcing uniformity of belief. In 1401 Henry IV allowed the passing of a statute called
De Heretico Comburendo, or Concerning the Burning of
Heretics, which provided that heretics, generally called Lollards at the time, could be tried by Ecclesiastical courts. If the heretic refused to recant, he could be handed over to officers of the King’s court and burned at the stake. The suppression of the Lollards from the late fourteenth century provided many martyrs, and
Foxe’s
Actes and Monuments (Book of Martyrs) contains graphic descriptions of the proceedings taken against ordinary citizens who stood up for common sense and justice against the superstitions and venal abuses of the priesthood. The suppressive spirit of the Church during these times is well expressed in The Water Tower, which has obstinately retained the name of Lollards’ Tower. It was erected in the early 15th century under the direction of Archbishop
Chicheley (archbishop from 1414-1443) after the Church had been given extended powers against heretics in the parliament of 1414 at Leicester. The prison room, located at the top of the tower, was used to house and sometimes torture these unfortunates.
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