XI.—On an Inventory of the Vestry in Westminster Abbey, taken in 1388

Abstract

All documents which bear upon the history of Westminster Abbey must have a considerable interest for Englishmen. A church in which so many of the English kings since the Conquest have been crowned and anointed will always be venerable in the eyes of the more thoughtful portion of our countrymen, just as Aken and Rhemes must be honoured by Germans and Frenchmen. But, unlike Rhemes, Westminster is not an episcopal church. It became cathedral only for a moment, after its suppression as a monastery, in the reign of Henry VIII. as Aken became cathedral for a few years at the beginning of this century, also a time of much confusion. When we cross the Alps we find again a like case in a church which is not episcopal but collegiate, the church of St. Ambrose at Milan, where the kings of Italy took the iron crown; and a still greater instance in the Vatican Basilica, only a collegiate church, where the golden crown of the world was bestowed upon the Roman emperor. There is a further likeness in the history of St. Peter's at Westminster and of St. Peter's across the Tiber. In both cases the bishop who bestowed the crown has left his seat close to his own metropolitan church and come to live hard by the church where he should crown and anoint his sovereign. The successor of St. Anselm, papa alterius orbis, has left Christchurch, Canterbury, for his manor of Lambeth; just as the pope has left his patriarchal church of St. John Lateran for his palace on the Vatican.

Two Panels from an Orphrey Showing Scenes from the Life of St Thomas of Canterbury

“…The mitre in Munich shows St Thomas on one side being attacked by three knights (this is a frequent depiction, although there were in fact four assailants), and St Stephen on the other (Fig. 5) 18 What appears to be the same frontal is also listed in the 1540 Inventory. It has been suggested that this may have been the frontal given by Henry is also represented on the Bologna cope (mentioned above) which is embroidered principally with scenes from the Life of Christ.…”