Concept
Archbishop of Canterbury
Overview
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and primate of the Church of England. In this capacity, they are the diocesan bishop of the diocese of Canterbury, the metropolitan of the province of Canterbury, and the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Ecclesial functions aside, the archbishop is also one of the 26 Anglican bishops who sit in the House of Lords as a Lord Spiritual. The 106th archbishop is Dame Sarah Mullally, who was confirmed on 28 January 2026 and is the first woman to hold the office.
The first archbishop of Canterbury was Augustine, the "Apostle to the English", who was sent to England by Pope Gregory the Great and arrived in 597. From Augustine until William Warham the archbishops of Canterbury were in full communion with the Catholic Church. During the English Reformation, King Henry VIII broke communion with Rome and proclaimed himself the head of the Church of England. Thomas Cranmer, appointed in 1533, initially with Rome's approval, thereafter became the first Protestant archbishop of Canterbury and would become one of the most important figures in the development of Anglicanism.
The archbishop is appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the prime minister of the United Kingdom and formally elected by the college of canons of Canterbury Cathedral. In practice, however, candidates are chosen by the Crown Nominations Commission, a Church of England body which advises the prime minister.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
This he saith to every of them; and that done, if there be any of his sons of eminent merit and virtue, (so they be not above two,) he calleth for them again; and saith, laying his arm over their shoulders, they standing; Sons, it is well ye are born, give God the praise, and persevere to the end. And withall delivereth to either of them a jewel, made in the figure of an ear of wheat, which they ever after wear in…
Francis Bacon, New Atlantis
States what Archbishop of Canterbury is; the author is tied to Archbishop of Canterbury in the knowledge graph.
Consequent to this claim of the Pope to Vicar Generall of Christ in the present Church, (supposed to be that Kingdom of his, to which we are addressed in the Gospel,) is the Doctrine, that it is necessary for a Christian King, to receive his Crown by a Bishop; as if it were from that Ceremony, that he derives the clause of Dei Gratia in his title; and that then onely he is made King by the favour of God, when he is…
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
States what Archbishop of Canterbury is.
Anselm of Laon was born somewhere about 1040, and is said to have studied under the famous St. Anselm, later archbishop of Canterbury, at the monastery of Bec. About 1070 he began to teach in Paris, where he was notably successful. Subsequently he returned to Laon, where his school of theology and exegetics became the most famous one in Europe.
Peter Abelard, Historia Calamitatum
Opens on Archbishop of Canterbury; names Archbishop of Canterbury.
Philosophers who discussed Archbishop of Canterbury
- R. H. Tawney
- Francis Bacon
- Giordano Bruno
- Joseph Butler
- Henry Sidgwick
- Anselm of Canterbury
- Frank P. Ramsey
- Thomas More
- Robert Grosseteste
- James Martineau
- Robert Kilwardby
- Charles Blount (deist)
Related ideas
- Anglicanism
- Merton College, Oxford
- Latin
- Charterhouse School
- Augustine of Hippo
- Paganism
- Pope John Paul II
- Roman Empire
- Protestantism
- State religion
- Cabinet Office
- Trinity
- Anglo-Saxons
- Western Christianity
- Interfaith dialogue
- Continental Europe
- Church of England
- Catholic Church
Place in the tradition
Part of British philosophy.