The registers of the Archbishops of Canterbury survive from 1279 with a gap for the period 1327 to 1349. The earlier registers are said to have been taken to Rome by Archbishop Kilwardby (1272 – 1278) when he resigned the see. MS. 1212 is a different kind of register from the remainder in the series, being concerned with the archiepiscopal estates. It is included because of its importance and early date (from Saxon times).
The registers are ‘out-letter books’ containing copies of documents issued by or directly concerning the Archbishops in their capacities as ordinary, metropolitan, and, until the Reformation, papal legates. In the see of Canterbury the Archbishop was ordinary and the registers contain his institutions and ordinations. In addition he exercised direct jurisdiction in the Peculiars which lay territorially in other dioceses. As metropolitan the Archbishop had jurisdiction in his Province, and as such conducted visitations, administered sees during vacancies, and took part in the election and consecration of bishops. He also held provincial ecclesiastical courts, including the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, which explains the presence of the important series of medieval wills in the registers. As head of the Province he presided over Convocation, and a substantial part of the registers contains the records of this body. Finally, until the Reformation, the Archbishop was papal legate, in which capacity he exercised jurisdiction over religious houses and, until the reign of Queen Mary, in Calais and the neighbouring parts of Picardy in the diocese of Thérouanne.
The main types of documents contained in the registers are thus institutions, records of ordinations, of the appointment of archbishops, bishops, and officers of the archbishops, of Convocation, of visitations, of the administration of vacant sees, and occasional records of ecclesiastical courts, of which wills are the most important. In addition there are records of the archbishops as great territorial magnates. For the history of England in the middle ages and for the century following the Reformation the registers are one of the most important of all sources, indispensable for the student of church history and of social, economic, political, legal, and genealogical history.
20 reels
Reference: ABR
Contents
| Reel | Contents |
| 1 | MS. 1212: Thirteenth century Cartulary of the Archbishopric of Canterbury (c. 615 – 1290) |
| 2 | John Peckham 1279 – 1292 Robert Winchelsey 1294 – 1313 |
| 3 | Walter Reynolds 1313 – 1327 Simon Inslip 1349 – 1366 |
| 4 | Simon Langham 1366 – 1368 William Whittlesey 1368 – 1374 Simon Sudbury 1375 – 1381 |
| 5 | William Courtenay 1381 – 1396 |
| 6 | Thomas Arundel 1396 – 1414 |
| 7 | Henry Chichele 1414 – 1443 Volume I |
| 8 | Henry Chichele 1414 – 1443 Volume II |
| 9 | John Stafford 1443 – 1452 John Kempe 1452 – 1454 Thomas Bourchier 1454 – 1486 |
| 10 | John Morton 1486 – 1500 Henry Deane 1501 – 1503 |
| 11 | William Warham 1503 – 1532 |
| 12 | Thomas Cranmer 1532 – 1555 Reginald Pole 1555 – 1558 |
| 13 | Matthew Parker 1559 – 1575 |
| 14 | Edmund Grindal 1576 – 1583 |
| 15 | John Whitgift 1583 – 1604 Volume I |
| 16 | John Whitgift 1583 – 1604 Volumes II & III |
| 17 | Richard Bancroft 1604 – 1610 |
| 18 | George Abbott 1611 – 1633 Volume I |
| 19 | George Abbott 1611 – 1633 Volumes II & III |
| 20 | William Laud 1633 – 1645 |