Heraldry became an obsession for many in Elizabethan England. Former Master of Corpus Christi College Cambridge, Archbishop Matthew Parker (d. 1575) did not merely participate in this trend but served to heighten and develop it. The Parker Library collection offers up an especially useful window into exactly how he used heraldry and why.

Left: Corpus Christi College’s coat of arms from CCCC MS 582, fol. 4r.
Right: Initial letter 'B' with Matthew Parker’s and the College coat of arms from CCCC MS 575, p. 1.

Corpus Christi College at Cambridge has much to thank Matthew Parker for and that includes its coat of arms, which he commissioned and funded. Granted in 1570, Parker was evidently enormously pleased with the College’s coat of arms as he used them frequently. This included the image he pasted into the College’s statutes, where the coat of arms also appeared across a whole page (above left, from CCCC MS 582) and within the catalogue of his books and manuscripts (above right, from CCCC MS 575). Within the college’s statutes, Parker’s own coat of arms and those of the crown were also elaborately drawn in.

Left: Initial letter ‘D’ with Matthew Parker’s heraldry from CCCC MS 056, f. 1r.
Right: The printed version of this initial letter ‘D’ from Parker Library Y.8.1.

Matthew Parker also decorated manuscripts within his collection using heraldry. We see in CCCC MS 056, a copy of the chronicles of Matthew Paris (d. 1259) written in c. 1567, how Parker has added a decorated initial letter ‘D’ with his personal coat of arms and motto placed within it (above left). When Parker produced a printed edition of this manuscript in 1571, we can see how he decorated the text’s initial page in the same way (above right). Parker frequently used heraldry in both print and manuscript then.

Left: Matthew Parker’s coat of arms from the Bishops’ Bible (1569 ed.), Parker Library Y.8.16, fol. 1r.
Right: The coat of arms of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (d. 1588), from the Bishops’ Bible (1572 ed.), Parker Library A.2.9, sig. P2r.

Matthew Parker chopped and changed between using his personal coat of arms, those of Canterbury, and those of the Archbishopric of Canterbury, as well as that of Canterbury Cathedral. We see this in Parker’s printed edition of the Life of Alfred in which an initial letter uses Parker’s personal coat of arms impaled with those of the Archbishopric of Canterbury. Parker also commissioned a series of heraldic images for his new translation of the Bible into English known as the Bishops’ Bible. Parker’s heraldry appears in many different forms throughout the 1568/9 and 1572 editions, as above left, where his personal arms appear with those of Canterbury Cathedral, which are surrounded by his personal motto, his archepiscopal cross on the top, his initials on the side, and the date of its creation below. Parker liked detail. 

Lest we think Matthew Parker selfish in his use of heraldry, we see throughout his printed editions and manuscript collection the frequent addition of coats of arms belonging to important historic figures, as well as his patrons and contemporaries. The Bishops’ Bible featured numerous heraldic details, such as that of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (d. 1588) (above right). Heraldry was a visual way of creating connections with those whose support you had or wished to acquire. For Parker, the use of coats of arms also lent authority to the texts they surrounded.

The coats of arms of Elizabeth I’s bishops from Matthew Parker’s De antiquitate…, Parker Library Y.8.3, sig. ¶1r.

Matthew Parker spread heraldry across almost all of the printed books he edited but one volume stands out in particular: De antiquitate Britannicæ ecclesiæ (1572, Parker Library Y.8.3). This text is thought to be the first privately printed book in England and exists in just a handful of copies, each different and personalised for its recipient. De antiquitate was a history of the English Church compiled by Parker and his secretaries. It worked through the lives of the seventy archbishops of Canterbury from the first, St Augustine of Canterbury (d. 604), right up to Matthew Parker himself. 

This history contained whole pages of coat of arms (as above) which detailed the bishops working alongside Matthew Parker in Elizabethan England (each impaled with the coat of arms of the diocese they served). Before the biography of each archbishop from the year 1000 onwards, Parker also placed their coat of arms. In the case of Parker’s coat of arms and surrounding inscriptions, which occupy the large central panel in the page above, we see how Parker was celebrating the various aspects of his life and heritage. The arms of Canterbury appear in the bottom left besides the arms of Norwich, the city in which Parker had been born. His personal coat of arms has been impaled with those of the Archbishopric of Canterbury and parts of his motto feature beneath the banners which celebrate Matthew Parker as the seventieth archbishop. Heraldry visually conveyed to the viewer what Parker wanted to be remembered for and as.

Left: Detail showing Parker’s coat of arms with that of Canterbury Cathedral from a stained-glass window at Canterbury Cathedral.
Right: Detail showing Parker’s coat of arms from Parker’s Rose Water Bowl, donated to Corpus Christi College.

Although Matthew Parker most frequently employed his heraldic illustrations in print and manuscript, we also see these designs used within the rosewater basin Parker donated to Corpus Christi College Cambridge (above right) and in a stained-glass window at Canterbury Cathedral (above left). The rosewater basin had originally been made in 1545 whilst Parker was Master of the College, but the heraldry must have been added after, seeing as the template it uses was designed in the later 1560s. The basin was later donated to Corpus Christi College by Parker and so we can surmise that the addition of his coat of arms to the bowl was about ensuring his memory lived on each time the basin was used.

The 1560s was the beginning of a great age of heraldic interest in which some 3,500 grants of arms were made. Under the weight of so many requests the College of Arms even introduced new fees and procedures designed to manage the voluminous interest in acquiring arms. This all speaks to the significance attached to possessing a coat of arms and that Matthew Parker celebrated heraldry in the ways he did is not therefore surprising. However, the sheer quantity of time, resources and money that Parker spent on heraldic woodcuts, engravings, manuscript illuminations and countless other forms, and the places in which Parker used them, illustrate some of the concerns he had about his position as archbishop of Canterbury and the legitimacy of the Church of England. 

In the wake of the break from Rome, in which English monarchs claimed headship of the Church, Matthew Parker found himself the first archbishop of Canterbury to be consecrated by the new Church of England. The innovativeness of such an act eventually led to myths developing that Parker had been consecrated in a pub! This was a period of change and uncertainty and so heraldry, with all its association of legitimacy, history and power, afforded Parker a means of solidifying his position. For instance, it is telling that Parker saw it as a priority that newly created diocese within the Church of England (like Oxford and Westminster) be quickly provided with coats of arms. Heraldry, and all its associations with history and antiquity, helped whitewash over the innovative aspects of the Protestant English Church.

Heraldry had long been a way of celebrating ancestry and legitimacy, but the invention of the printing press allowed for heraldry to be used in new and creative ways. Parker was amongst the earliest and most creative users of printed heraldry; he understood its enormous potential and certainly did not shy away from brandishing it anywhere and everywhere. Alongside the many examples in the Parker Library, you will find plenty more around the College. 

Do keep an eye out for them, just as Matthew Parker would have wanted.

Dr Harry Spillane is a Munby Fellow at the Cambridge University Library

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