Norman Doe and Archbishop Rowan

The Archbishop of Canterbury awarded eight Lambeth Degrees this summer, one of them a DCL to St Edward's organist, Professor Norman Doe, in recognition of pioneering and sustaining the LLM in Canon Law at the University of Wales and for writing groundbreaking leading works, including ‘The Legal Framework of the Church of England’. The Lambeth Degree is a real academic award. The candidates are exempted from the requirement to sit an examination: the awards are made on merit in recognition of their contribution to religious, academic and public life. Archbishop Rowan presided over a ceremony at Lambeth Palace on Mon 6 June when the degrees were awarded. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s right to grant degrees is derived from Peter’s Pence Act of 1533 which empowered the Archbishop to grant dispensations previously granted by the Pope. The practice began during the time when attendance at Oxford and Cambridge, the only universities at that time in England, was frequently disrupted by the difficulty of travel or outbreaks of the plague. The Archbishop was empowered to grant exemption from the residential requirements necessary for a degree.