The first Archbishop of Canterbury was Austin, appointed by King
Ethelbert, on his conversion to Christianity, about the year 598. Before
the coming of the Saxons into England, the Christian Britons had three
Archbishops, viz. of London, York, and Caerleon, an ancient city of
South Wales. The Britons being driven out of these parts, the
Archbishoprick of London became extinct; and when Pope Gregory the Great
had afterwards sent thither Augustine, and his fellow-labourer to preach
the Gospel to the then heathen Saxons, the Archiepiscopal See was
planted at Canterbury, as being the metropolis of the kingdom of Kent,
where King Ethelbert had received the same St. Augustine, and with his
kingdom was baptized, and embraced the doctrines of Christianity before
the rest of the Heptarchy. The other Archbishoprick of Caerleon was
translated to St. David's in Pembrokeshire, and afterwards wholly to the
See of Canterbury; since which, all England and Wales reckon but two
Archbishops, Canterbury and York. The following Archbishops have died at
Lambeth Palace;--Wittlesey, in 1375; Kemp, 1453; Dean, 1504; all buried
in Canterbury Cathedral: Cardinal Pole, 1558, after lying in state here
40 days was buried at Canterbury; Parker, 1575, buried in Lambeth
Chapel; Whitgift, 1604, buried at Croydon; Bancroft, 1610, buried at
Lambeth; Juxon, 1663, buried in the chapel of St. John's College,
Oxford; Sheldon, 1667, buried at Croydon; Tillotson, 1694, buried in the
church of St. Laurence Jewry, London; Tennison, 1715; and Potter, 1747,
both buried at Croydon; Seeker, 1768; Cornwallis, 1783, and Moore,
1805, all buried at Lambeth. In 1381, the Archbishop, Simon of Sudbury,
fell a victim to Wat Tyler and his crew, when they attacked Lambeth
Palace.