Summary. The Mercian diocese started in 656 and then subdivided in 672. The diocese today serves just over 2 million people in an area of 4,516 km2 or 1,744 miles. It has over 540 churches in 424 parishes with around 500 clergy.
The
Mercian diocese started with the appointment of Diuma, the 1st bishop of Mercia
around the year 656. The boundary of this 6th diocese would not have been
determined, but could have been north of what is now Manchester, down a border
in Wales not far from the mountains or along the River Severn and having a
southern border close to the Thames. The eastern boundary might have been the
coast and extended to the River Humber. This was a huge diocese and the
majority was uncolonized.
The first cathedral-church was probably built
immediately prior to Chad becoming the 5th bishop of Mercia by King Wulfere and
Bishop Wilfrid of Ripon or when Chad arrived in Licetfelda in 669.
At
the time of the Council of Hertford, 672, there were 7 sees. Canterbury and
Rochester were small, London medium and Dunwich a little larger. Winchester,
York and Lichfield were large and the new Archbishop, Theodore of Tarsus,
wanted a subdivision.[1] He
failed to divide Winchester, but managed to split Dunwich into north and south
Elmham. He succeeded in reducing Mercia by allowing Lindsey (Lincolnshire) to
move to York, 674. In 680, the area of Worcestershire became the diocese of
Worcester and Herefordshire had a new centre at Hereford. There is evidence
that new bishoprics were attempted to be formed from the southern part of
Mercia. New bishoprics in Leicestershire appeared and a see was finally formed
in 737. Leicester diocese became the see for the Middle Angles according to
documents at the Council of Clofeshoh in 803. A new bishop of Dorchester
appears to rule over Mercian territory in the Oxfordshire region, 675-85.[2] Around 674, Theodore deprived Winfrith, bishop
of Lichfield, of his see and, perhaps, this was a consequence of the diocese
being split in 4 ways.
The subdivision of Mercia into at least 7 dioceses by late 8th-century
and the reign of King Offa. The see of Lichfield remained the same until
Reformation and 1541. Thanks to M. Christie, Wikipedia, in Public Domain.
From 1228 until the dissolution of the Cathedral Priory of Coventry in 1539, Lichfield Cathedral and the Benedictine priory church of Coventry managed a diocese stretching from the Ribble in Lancashire to Edgehill in south-east Warwickshire. It was called 'Coventry and Lichfield' until the mid 17th-century and then 'Lichfield and Coventry' until 1836. It extended from the mouth of the River Ribble in Lancashire and along the river to the Yorkshire border. It then covered Lancashire, Cheshire and Derbyshire southwards to the Derbyshire-Nottinghamshire border. It then followed the eastern and southern area of Derbyshire and the eastern side of Staffordshire and Warwickshire as far as Ratley in south Warwickshire. The boundary then moved north-westwards through Warwickshire including Leamington, Kenilworth and Solihull, but not Warwick. The boundary with Hereford diocese roughly followed the course of the River Severn through Shropshire, with island parishes (Clent, Broom, Rowley Regis, Amblecote, Old Swinford) out of the diocese. The diocese included detached parts of Flintshire, Chester and Denbighshire (Hanmer, Overton, Bangor, Iscoed, Worthenbury, Penley, Holt and Hawarden). To summarise, from 1541 until 1836, the diocese covered Staffordshire (except Brome and Clent), Derbyshire, northern Shropshire and northern and eastern Warwickshire. In 1806, Harwood[4] wrote the Diocese consisted of 557 parishes with four archdeaconries of Stafford, Coventry, Derby, and Salop.
In 1541, the diocese of Chester was created. Parishes in south Lancashire, Cheshire, Denbighshire and Flintshire were transferred to this new diocese.
In 1837, the archdeaconry of
Coventry was transferred to the diocese of Worcester. Tamworth stayed with
Lichfield. In 1918, a new diocese of Coventry was created.
In 1846, the Bridgnorth deanery
transferred to the diocese of Hereford.
In 1884, the archdeaconry of Derby
left the Lichfield diocese and transferred to the new diocese of Southwell.
In 1905, on the creation of the
diocese of Birmingham, the rural deanery of Handsworth, including the ancient
parishes of Handsworth and Harborne (Staffs, later Warks), was transferred to
the new diocese.
Early in the 20th-century parts of
Shropshire were transferred to Hereford and St Asaph.
Diocesan coat-of-arms and flag.
Today the diocese serves a population of just over 2
million people in an area of 4,516 km2 or 1,744 miles2. It
has over 540 churches in 424 parishes with around 500 clergy. Neighbouring
parishes are in groups of about a dozen within 28 deaneries. Groups of
deaneries are collected into an archdeaconry, led by an Area Bishop and an
Archdeacon under the care of the Diocesan Bishop.[3]
[1]
F. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, (Oxford: 1971), 134.
[2]
Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, Book 4, chapter 23. J. McClure and R.
Collins, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People. (Oxford:
2008), 211.
[3] Current website, https://www.lichfield.anglican.org/about-us/
[4] T. Harwood, The history and antiquities of the church and city of Lichfield. (London: 1806), 115.
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