CANTERBURY, ARCHBISHOP OF

in the Church of England, the primate of all England and archbishop of the ecclesiastical province of Canterbury, which approximately includes the area of England south of the former counties of Cheshire and Yorkshire. In addition to a palace in Canterbury, the archbishop has a seat at Lambeth Palace in London. The first archbishop of Canterbury was St. Augustine of Canterbury (d. 604/605), a Benedictine monk who was sent from Rome by Pope Gregory I to convert the Anglo-Saxons in England. Augustine arrived in 597 and was well received by Aethelberht I, king of Kent, who gave him a place to live in Canterbury and permitted him to preach. The Reformation caused no break in the continuity of the office. Thomas Cranmer (archbishop 153356) accepted the Act of Supremacy (1534) that made the English sovereign, rather than the pope, the head of the Church of England. Although no individual is recognized as being the head of all the churches that constitute the Anglican Communion, the archbishop of Canterbury is considered the senior bishop. He presides, as host and chairman, over the Lambeth Conference, a decennial meeting of the bishops of the Anglican Communion.