And, strikingly, the Archbishop, the Most Rev Justin Welby jointly led the service with a female priest, his interim chaplain the Rev Julia Pickles, by his side.

The renewed commitment came in a service rich in symbolism in the church of San Gregorio Magno al Celio, a monastery seen by some as the spiritual home of the English church.

The site’s links to Britain date back to the Sixth Century when it was the home of St Gregory the Great who as Pope dispatched St Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, on a mission to help reconvert the Anglo-Saxons.

In a vivid symbol of reconciliation, Archbishop Welby gave the Pope his own Coventry Cross of Nails – the symbol of international peace-making ministry which grew out of the destruction of Coventry Cathedral in the Second World War.

Pope Francis wore it around his neck and in turn presented Archbishop Welby with a replica of the staff of Pope St Gregory.

The leaders of the two churches, which for centuries viewed each other as heretical, repeatedly spoke of their “common faith” and “common baptism” and described members of the both denominations as “brothers and sisters”.