Page "Archbishop of Canterbury" Paragraph 1

The current archbishop is the Most Reverend Rowan Williams.

He is the 104th in a line which goes back more than 1400 years to St Augustine of Canterbury, the " Apostle to the English ", in the year 597.

From the time of St Augustine until the 16th century, the Archbishops of Canterbury were in full communion with the See of Rome and thus received the pallium.

During the English Reformation the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church, at first temporarily under Henry VIII and Edward VI and later permanently during the reign of Elizabeth I.