Thomas Tenison
Thomas Tenison was an English church leader, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1694 until his death. During his primacy, he crowned two British monarchs, he was born at Cottenham, the son and grandson of Anglican clergymen, who were both named John Tenison. He was educated at Norwich School, going on to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, as a scholar on Archbishop Matthew Parker's foundation, he graduated in 1657, was chosen fellow in 1659. For a short time he studied medicine, but in 1659 was ordained; as curate of St Andrew the Great, Cambridge from 1662, he set an example by his devoted attention to the sufferers from the plague. In 1667 he was presented to the living of Holywell-cum-Needingworth, Huntingdonshire, by the Earl of Manchester, to whose son he had been tutor, in 1670 to that of St Peter Mancroft, Norwich. In 1680 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity, was presented by King Charles II to the important London church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Tenison, according to Gilbert Burnet, "endowed schools including Archbishop Tenison's School, founded in 1685 and Archbishop Tenison's School, founded in 1714, set up a public library, kept many curates to assist him in his indefatigable labours".
Being a strenuous opponent of the Church of Rome, "Whitehall lying within that parish, he stood as in the front of the battle all King James's reign". In 1678, in a Discourse of Idolatry, he had condemned the heathenish idolatry practised in the Church of Rome, in a sermon which he published in 1681 on Discretion in Giving Alms was attacked by Andrew Poulton, head of the Jesuits in the Savoy. Tenison's reputation as an enemy of Romanism led the Duke of Monmouth to send for him before his execution in 1685, when Bishops Thomas Ken and Francis Turner refused to administer holy communion. Under King William III, Tenison was in 1689 named a member of the ecclesiastical commission appointed to prepare matters towards a reconciliation of the Dissenters, the revision of the liturgy being specially entrusted to him. A sermon he preached on the commission was published the same year, he supported, at least in public, the Glorious Revolution, though not without some private misgivings concerning the ejection of Archbishop William Sancroft and the other "non-juring" bishops.
Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon in his diary records some frank remarks made by Tenison on this subject at a dinner party in 1691: That there had been irregularities in our settlement. He preached a funeral sermon for Nell Gwyn in 1687, in which he represented her as penitent – a charitable judgment that did not meet with universal approval; the general liberality of Tenison's religious views won him royal favour, after being made Bishop of Lincoln in 1691, he was promoted to Archbishop of Canterbury in December 1694. He preached her funeral sermon in Westminster Abbey; when William in 1695 went to take command of the army in the Netherlands, Tenison was appointed one of the seven lords justices to whom his authority was delegated. After Mary's death, Tenison was one of those who persuaded the King that his long and bitter quarrel with her sister Anne must be ended, as it had weakened the authority of the Crown. Along with Gilbert Burnet he attended the King on his deathbed, he crowned William's successor, Queen Anne, but during her reign was in little favour at court: the Queen thought that he inclined too much to the Low Church, clashed with him over her sole right to appoint bishops.
She ignored his wishes when she appointed Sir Jonathan Trelawny, 3rd Baronet, as Bishop of Winchester: when he tried to remonstrate, the Queen cut him short with the cold remark that "the matter was decided." Only with great difficulty did he persuade her to appoint his nominee William Wake, as Bishop of Lincoln. He lost influence to John Sharp, Archbishop of York, whom the Queen found far more congenial, he was a commissioner for the Union with Scotland in 1706. A strong supporter of the Hanoverian succession, who shocked many by referring to Anne's death as a blessing, he was one of three officers of state to whom, on the death of Anne, was entrusted the duty of appointing a regent till the arrival of George I, whom he crowned on 20 October 1714. For the last time at the coronation of an English monarch, the Archbishop asked if the people accepted their new King: the witty Catherine Sedley, former mistress of James II, remarked "Does the old fool think we will say no?" Tenison died in London a year later.
He was instrumental in the last years of his life in the literary executorship of Sir Thomas Browne's manuscript writings known as Christian Morals. He married daughter of Richard Love. Edward Tenison LL. B, his cousin, became Bishop of Ossory. Another relative, Richard Tennison, became Bishop of Meath. Thomas is said to have advanced Richard in his career: in his will he left legacies to all of Richard's five sons. In appearance he was described as a large, brawny, "hulking" figure strong when young but afflicted with gout in lat
Parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or more curates, who operates from a parish church. A parish covered the same geographical area as a manor, its association with the parish church remains paramount. By extension the term parish refers not only to the territorial entity but to the people of its community or congregation as well as to church property within it. In England this church property was technically in ownership of the parish priest ex-officio, vested in him on his institution to that parish. First attested in English in the late, 13th century, the word parish comes from the Old French paroisse, in turn from Latin: paroecia, the latinisation of the Ancient Greek: παροικία, translit. Paroikia, "sojourning in a foreign land", itself from πάροικος, "dwelling beside, sojourner", a compound of παρά, "beside, by, near" and οἶκος οἶκος, "house".
As an ancient concept, the term "parish" occurs in the long-established Christian denominations: Catholic, Anglican Communion, the Eastern Orthodox Church, Lutheran churches, in some Methodist, Congregationalist and Presbyterian administrations. The eighth Archbishop of Canterbury Theodore of Tarsus appended the parish structure to the Anglo-Saxon township unit, where it existed, where minsters catered to the surrounding district. Broadly speaking, the parish is the standard unit in episcopal polity of church administration, although parts of a parish may be subdivided as a chapelry, with a chapel of ease or filial church serving as the local place of worship in cases of difficulty to access the main parish church. In the wider picture of ecclesiastical polity, a parish see. Parishes within a diocese may be grouped into a deanery or vicariate forane, overseen by a dean or vicar forane, or in some cases by an archpriest; some churches of the Anglican Communion have deaneries as units of an archdeaconry.
The Church of England geographical structure uses the local parish church as its basic unit. The parish system survived the Reformation with the Anglican Church's secession from Rome remaining untouched, thus it shares its roots with the Catholic Church's system described above. Parishes may extend into different counties or hundreds and many parishes comprised extra outlying portions in addition to its principal district being described as'detached' and intermixed with the lands of other parishes. Church of England parishes nowadays all lie within one of 44 dioceses divided between the provinces of Canterbury, 30 and York, 14; each parish has its own parish priest and supported by one or more curates or deacons - although as a result of ecclesiastical pluralism some parish priests might have held more than one parish living, placing a curate in charge of those where they do not reside. Now, however, it is common for a number of neighbouring parishes to be placed under one benefice in the charge of a priest who conducts services by rotation, with additional services being provided by lay readers or other non-ordained members of the church community.
A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England, parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. It had a similar status to a township but was so named as it had a chapel which acted as a subsidiary place of worship to the main parish church. In England civil parishes and their governing parish councils evolved in the 19th century as ecclesiastical parishes began to be relieved of what became considered to be civic responsibilities, thus their boundaries began to diverge. The word "parish" acquired a secular usage. Since 1895, a parish council elected by public vote or a parish meeting administers a civil parish and is formally recognised as the level of local government below a district council; the traditional structure of the Church of England with the parish as the basic unit has been exported to other countries and churches throughout the Anglican Communion and Commonwealth but does not continue to be administered in the same way. The parish is the basic level of church administration in the Church of Scotland.
Spiritual oversight of each parish church in Scotland is responsibility of the congregation's Kirk Session. Patronage was regulated in 1711 and abolished in 1874, with the result that ministers must be elected by members of the congregation. Many parish churches in Scotland today are "linked" with neighbouring parish churches served by a single minister. Since the abolition of parishes as a unit of civil government in Scotland in 1929, Scottish parishes have purely ecclesiastical significance and the boundaries may be adjusted by the local Presbytery; the church in Wales is made up of six dioceses. Parishes were civil administration areas until communities were established in 1974. Although they are more simply called congregations and have no geographic boundaries, in the United Methodist Church congregations are called parishes. A prominent example of this usage comes in The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church, in which the committee of every local congregation that handles staff support is referred to as the committee on Pastor-Parish Relations.
This committee gives recommendations to the bishop on behalf of the parish/congregation since it is the United Methodist Bishop of the episcopal area who appoints a pastor to each congregation. The same is true in the Af
Church of St Mary and All Saints, Chesterfield
Chesterfield Parish Church is an Anglican church dedicated to Saint Mary and All Saints, located in the town of Chesterfield in Derbyshire, England. Predominantly dating back to the 14th century, the church is a Grade I listed building and is most known for its twisted and leaning spire, an architectural phenomenon which has led to the church being given the common byname of the Crooked Spire; the largest church in Derbyshire, it lies within the Diocese of Derby, in which it forms part of the Archdeaconry of Chesterfield. The church is medieval with Early English, Decorated Gothic and Perpendicular Gothic features built of ashlar, it comprises a nave, aisles and south transepts and the chancel, surrounded by four guild chapels. The north transept was rebuilt in 1769 and George Gilbert Scott carried out a restoration in 1843, when a new ceiling was installed and a new east window inserted with stained glass by William Wailes of Newcastle. A new font was donated by Samuel Johnson of Somersal Hall.
The church reopened on 9 May 1843. On 11 March 1861 the church spire was struck by lightning, which snapped the gas lighting pipes in the tower, starting a fire in a beam next to the wooden roof of the chancel; the fire smouldered for three and a half hours until it was discovered by the Sexton on his nightly round to ring the midnight bell. A further restoration was begun in 1896 by Temple Lushington Moore. Moore designed the High Altar reredos, installed in 1898. A fire on 22 December 1961 destroyed many of the interior fittings, including the Snetzler organ. Surviving elements include the south transept screen from c. 1500, the Norman font and a Jacobean pulpit. The spire was added in the 14th-century tower in about 1362.it is 228 feet high. It is both twisted and leaning, twisting 45 degrees and leaning 9 ft 6 in from its true centre; the leaning characteristic was suspected to be the result of the absence of skilled craftsmen, insufficient cross bracing, the use of unseasoned timber. It is now believed.
The lead causes this twisting phenomenon, because when the sun shines during the day the south side of the tower heats up, causing the lead there to expand at a greater rate than that of the north side of the tower, resulting in unequal expansion and contraction. This was compounded by the weight of the lead which the spire's bracing was not designed to bear, it was common practice to use unseasoned timber at the time the spire was built as when the wood was seasoned it was too hard to work with, so as unseasoned wood was used they would have made adjustments as it was seasoning in place. In common folklore, there are numerous explanations as to. One well-established legend goes that a virgin once married in the church, the church was so surprised that the spire turned around to look at the bride, continues that if another virgin marries in the church, the spire will return to true again. Several local legends hold. In one tale, a Bolsover blacksmith mis-shod the Devil, who leapt over the spire in pain, knocking it out of shape.
A similar story has the Devil causing mischief in Chesterfield, seating himself on the spire and wrapping his tail around it. The people of the town rang the church bells and the Devil, frightened by the clamour, tried to jump away with his tail still wound about the spire, causing it to twist. A similar tale argues that the Devil was flying from Nottingham to Sheffield and stopped on top of the spire, he did a violent sneeze that caused the spire to twist. The tower upon which the spire sits contains ten bells; these bells were cast in 1947 by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London. The heaviest weighs 1,270 kg; the place in which the bells are situated once held the builders' windlass, one of the few examples of a medieval crane in existence and is the only example of one that has survived from a parish church. The windlass is now on display at Art Gallery, it is this twisted spire that gives the town's football club, Chesterfield F. C. their nickname,'the Spireites'. A depiction of the spire features on the club's crest.
The spire is open to the public most Saturdays in the winter, most days in the summer and can be climbed partway up. The views from the top of the tower on a clear day stretch for miles; the spire, used as a symbol of Chesterfield, can be seen from the surrounding hill poking out of a sea of mist, on a winter morning. The vast majority of the original John Snetzler organ was destroyed by fire in 1961, it was replaced in 1963 by a redundant T. C. Lewis organ from Glasgow; this is a large four-manual pipe organ with 65 stops. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register. Media related to Church of St Mary and All Saints, Chesterfield at Wikimedia Commons Parish Church of St Mary and All Saints Derbyshire churches — Church of Our Lady and All Saints at Chesterfield
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, sometimes referred to as Britain, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world; the Irish Sea lies between Great Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world, it is the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017. The UK is constitutional monarchy; the current monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 1952, making her the longest-serving current head of state.
The United Kingdom's capital and largest city is London, a global city and financial centre with an urban area population of 10.3 million. Other major urban areas in the UK include Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire conurbations, Greater Glasgow and the Liverpool Built-up Area; the United Kingdom consists of four constituent countries: England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Their capitals are London, Edinburgh and Belfast, respectively. Apart from England, the countries have their own devolved governments, each with varying powers, but such power is delegated by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which may enact laws unilaterally altering or abolishing devolution; the nearby Isle of Man, Bailiwick of Guernsey and Bailiwick of Jersey are not part of the UK, being Crown dependencies with the British Government responsible for defence and international representation. The medieval conquest and subsequent annexation of Wales by the Kingdom of England, followed by the union between England and Scotland in 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, the union in 1801 of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. There are fourteen British Overseas Territories, the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, encompassed a quarter of the world's land mass and was the largest empire in history. British influence can be observed in the language and political systems of many of its former colonies; the United Kingdom is a developed country and has the world's fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It has a high-income economy and has a high Human Development Index rating, ranking 14th in the world, it was the world's first industrialised country and the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The UK remains a great power, with considerable economic, military and political influence internationally, it is sixth in military expenditure in the world. It has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946.
It has been a leading member state of the European Union and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. The United Kingdom is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Council of Europe, the G7, the G20, NATO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Trade Organization; the 1707 Acts of Union declared that the kingdoms of England and Scotland were "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain". The term "United Kingdom" has been used as a description for the former kingdom of Great Britain, although its official name from 1707 to 1800 was "Great Britain"; the Acts of Union 1800 united the kingdom of Great Britain and the kingdom of Ireland in 1801, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Following the partition of Ireland and the independence of the Irish Free State in 1922, which left Northern Ireland as the only part of the island of Ireland within the United Kingdom, the name was changed to the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".
Although the United Kingdom is a sovereign country, Scotland and Northern Ireland are widely referred to as countries. The UK Prime Minister's website has used the phrase "countries within a country" to describe the United Kingdom; some statistical summaries, such as those for the twelve NUTS 1 regions of the United Kingdom refer to Scotland and Northern Ireland as "regions". Northern Ireland is referred to as a "province". With regard to Northern Ireland, the descriptive name used "can be controversial, with the choice revealing one's political preferences"; the term "Great Britain" conventionally refers to the island of Great Britain, or politically to England and Wales in combination. However, it is sometimes used as a loose synonym for the United Kingdom as a whole; the term "Britain" is used both as a synonym for Great Britain, as a synonym for the United Kingdom. Usage is mixed, with the BBC preferring to use Britain as shorthand only for Great Britain and the UK Government, while accepting that both terms refer to the United K
Bath Abbey
Bath Abbey is an Anglican parish church and former Benedictine monastery in Bath, England. Founded in the 7th century, it was reorganised in the 10th century and rebuilt in the 12th and 16th centuries, it is one of the largest examples of Perpendicular Gothic architecture in the West Country. The cathedral was consolidated to Wells Cathedral in 1539 after the abbey was dissolved in the Dissolution of the Monasteries, but the name of the diocese has remained unchanged; the church is cruciform in plan, able to seat 1,200. An active place of worship, it hosts civic ceremonies and lectures. There is a heritage museum in the vaults; the abbey is a Grade I listed building noted for its fan vaulting. It contains war memorials for the local population and monuments to several notable people, in the form of wall and floor plaques and commemorative stained glass; the church has a peal of ten bells. The west front includes sculptures of angels climbing to heaven on two stone ladders. In 675 AD, King of the Hwicce, granted the Abbess Berta 100 hides near Bath for the establishment of a convent.
This religious house became a monastery under the patronage of the Bishop of Worcester. King Offa of Mercia wrested "that most famous monastery at Bath" from the bishop in 781. William of Malmesbury tells that Offa rebuilt the monastic church, which may have occupied the site of an earlier pagan temple, to such a standard that King Eadwig was moved to describe it as being "marvellously built". Monasticism in England had declined by that time, but Eadwig's brother Edgar began its revival on his accession to the throne in 959, he encouraged monks to adopt the Rule of Saint Benedict, introduced at Bath under Abbot Ælfheah. Bath was ravaged in the power struggle between the sons of William the Conqueror following his death in 1087; the victor, William II Rufus, granted the city to a royal physician, John of Tours, who became Bishop of Wells and Abbot of Bath. Shortly after his consecration John bought Bath Abbey's grounds from the king, as well as the city of Bath itself. Whether John paid Rufus for the city or whether he was given it as a gift by the king is unclear.
The abbey had lost its abbot, Ælfsige, according to Domesday Book was the owner of large estates in and near the city. By acquiring Bath, John acquired the mint, in the city. In 1090 he transferred the seat, or administration, of the bishopric to Bath Abbey in an attempt to increase the revenues of his see. Bath was a rich abbey, Wells had always been a poor diocese. By taking over the abbey, John increased his episcopal revenues. William of Malmesbury portrays the moving of the episcopal seat as motivated by a desire for the lands of the abbey, but it was part of a pattern at the time of moving cathedral seats from small villages to larger towns; when John moved his episcopal seat, he took over the abbey of Bath as his cathedral chapter, turning his diocese into a bishopric served by monks instead of the canons at Wells who had served the diocese. John rebuilt the monastic church at Bath, damaged during one of Robert de Mowbray's rebellions. Permission was given to move the see of Somerset from Wells – a comparatively small settlement – to the walled city of Bath.
When this was effected in 1090, John became the first Bishop of Bath, St Peter's was raised to cathedral status. As the roles of bishop and abbot had been combined, the monastery became a priory, run by its prior. With the elevation of the abbey to cathedral status, it was felt that a larger, more up-to-date building was required. John of Tours planned a new cathedral on a grand scale, dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul, but only the ambulatory was complete when he died in December 1122, he was buried in the cathedral. The most renowned scholar monk based in the abbey was Adelard of Bath; the half-finished cathedral was devastated by fire in 1137, but work continued under Godfrey, the new bishop, until about 1156. It was consecrated; the specific date is not known however it was between 1148 and 1161. In 1197, Reginald Fitz Jocelin's successor, Savaric FitzGeldewin, with the approval of Pope Celestine III moved his seat to Glastonbury Abbey, but the monks there would not accept their new Bishop of Glastonbury and the title of Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury was used until the Glastonbury claim was abandoned in 1219.
Savaric's successor, Jocelin of Wells, again moved the bishop's seat to Bath Abbey, with the title Bishop of Bath. Following his death the monks of Bath unsuccessfully attempted to regain authority over Wells. There were 40 monks on the roll in 1206. Joint cathedral status was awarded by Pope Innocent IV to Bath and Wells in 1245. Roger of Salisbury was appointed the first Bishop of Bath and Wells, having been Bishop of Bath for a year previously. Bishops preferred Wells, the canons of which had petitioned various popes down the years for Wells to regain cathedral status. Bath Cathedral fell into disrepair. In 1485 the priory had 22 monks; when Oliver King, Bishop of Bath and Wells 1495–1503, visited Bath in 1499 he was shocked to find this famous church in ruins. He described lax discipline, idleness and a group of monks "all too eager to succumb to the temptations of the flesh". King took a year to consid
Thomas Browne
Sir Thomas Browne was an English polymath and author of varied works which reveal his wide learning in diverse fields including science and medicine and the esoteric. His writings display a deep curiosity towards the natural world, influenced by the scientific revolution of Baconian enquiry. Browne's literary works are permeated by references to Classical and Biblical sources as well as the idiosyncrasies of his own personality. Although described as suffused with melancholia, his writings are characterised by wit and subtle humour, while his literary style is varied, according to genre, resulting in a rich, unique prose which ranges from rough notebook observations to polished Baroque eloquence; the son of Thomas Browne, a silk merchant from Upton and Anne Browne, the daughter of Paul Garraway of Sussex, he was born in the parish of St Michael, Cheapside, in London on 19 October 1605. His father died while he was still young and his mother married Sir Thomas Dutton. Browne was sent to school at Winchester College.
In 1623, he went to Broadgates Hall of Oxford University. Browne was chosen to deliver the undergraduate oration when the hall was incorporated as Pembroke College in August 1624, he graduated from Oxford in January 1627, after which he studied medicine at Padua and Montpellier universities, completing his studies at Leiden, where he received a medical degree in 1633. He settled in Norwich in 1637 and practised medicine there until his death in 1682. In 1641, he married Dorothy Mileham, of Norfolk, she bore him ten children. Browne's first literary work was Religio Medici; this work was circulated as a manuscript among his friends. It surprised him when an unauthorised edition appeared in 1642, since the work included several unorthodox religious speculations. An authorised text appeared with some of the more controversial views removed; the expurgation did not end the controversy: in 1645, Alexander Ross attacked Religio Medici in his Medicus Medicatus and, in common with much Protestant literature, the book was placed upon the Papal Index Librorum Prohibitorum in the same year.
In 1646, Browne published his encyclopaedia, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, or, Enquiries into Very many Received Tenets, Presumed Truths, whose title refers to the prevalence of false beliefs and "vulgar errors". A sceptical work that debunks a number of legends circulating at the time in a methodical and witty manner, it displays the Baconian side of Browne—the side, unafraid of what at the time was still called "the new learning"; the book is significant in the history of science because it promoted an awareness of up-to-date scientific journalism. Browne's last publication during his lifetime were two philosophical Discourses which are related to each other in concept; the first, Urn Burial, or a Brief Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns found in Norfolk inspired by the discovery of some Bronze Age burials in earthenware vessels found in Norfolk, resulted in a literary meditation upon death, the funerary customs of the world and the ephemerality of fame. The other discourse in the diptych is antithetical in subject-matter and imagery.
The Garden of Cyrus, or The Quincuncial Lozenge, or Network Plantations of the Ancients, Artificially and Mystically Considered features the quincunx, used by Browne to demonstrate evidence of the Platonic forms in art and nature. In Religio Medici, Browne confirmed his belief, in accordance with the vast majority of seventeenth century European society, in the existence of angels and witchcraft, he attended the 1662 Bury St Edmunds witch trial, where his citation of a similar trial in Denmark may have influenced the jury's minds of the guilt of two accused women, who were subsequently executed for witchcraft. In 1671 King Charles II, accompanied by the Court, visited Norwich; the courtier John Evelyn, who had corresponded with Browne, took good use of the royal visit to call upon "the learned doctor" of European fame and wrote of his visit, "His whole house and garden is a paradise and Cabinet of rarities and that of the best collection, amongst Medails, Plants, natural things". During his visit, Charles visited Browne's home.
A banquet was held in St Andrew's Hall for the royal visit. Obliged to honour a notable local, the name of the Mayor of Norwich was proposed to the King for knighthood; the Mayor, declined the honour and proposed Browne's name instead. Browne was buried in the chancel of St Peter Mancroft, Norwich, his skull was removed when his lead coffin was accidentally re-opened by workmen in 1840. It was not re-interred in St Peter Mancroft until 4 July 1922 when it was recorded in the burial register as aged 317 years. Browne's coffin plate, stolen the same time as his skull, was eventually recovered, broken into two halves, one of, on display at St Peter Mancroft. Alluding to the commonplace opus of alchemy it reads, Amplissimus Vir Dns. Thomas Browne, Medicinae Dr. Annos Natus 77 Denatus 19 Die mensis Octobris, Anno. Dni. 1682, hoc Loculo indormiens. Corporis Spagyrici pulvere plumbum in aurum Convertit. — translated from Latin as "The esteemed Gentleman Thomas Browne, Doctor of Medicine, 77 years old, died on the 19th of October in the year of Our Lord 1682 and lies sleeping in this coffin.
With the dust of the alchemical body he converts lead into gold". The origin of the invented word spagyrici are from the Greek of: Spao to tear open, + ageiro to collect, a signature neologism coined by Paracelsus to define his medicine-oriented alchemy.
Greater Churches Network
The Greater Churches Network is a self-help organisation within the Church of England. These Greater Churches are defined as "non-cathedral churches which, by virtue of their great age, historical, architectural, or ecclesiastical importance, display many of the characteristics of a cathedral", those which " fulfil a role, additional to that of a normal parish church". Founded in 1991, there are 55 churches within the Greater Churches Network. Several of these buildings are former monastic properties that were converted to parish church use after the English Reformation. Others are large parish churches built at a time of great wealth. What they share in common are the requirements to offer facilities to a large number of visitors, host special services, offer community access and fund the specialist maintenance and repair of these large buildings, most of which are Grade I listed, it aims to provide help and mutual support to its member churches in dealing with the special problems of running a "cathedral-like" church with the organisation and financial structure of a parish church.
The group meets every two years in conference to share ideas. Www.greaterchurches.org
