The Bishop of Hexham was an
episcopal title which took its name after the
market town
A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...
of
Hexham in Northumberland, England. The title was first used by the
Anglo-Saxons
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
in the 7th and 9th centuries, and then by the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
since the 19th century.
Anglo-Saxon bishops
The first Diocese of Lindisfarne was merged into the
Diocese of York
The Diocese of York is an administrative division of the Church of England, part of the Province of York. It covers the city of York, the eastern part of North Yorkshire, and most of the East Riding of Yorkshire.
The diocese is headed by the ...
in 664. York diocese was then divided in 678 by Archbishop
Theodore of Canterbury, forming a bishopric for the country between the Rivers
Aln and
Tees, with a seat at Hexham. This gradually and erratically merged back into the
bishopric of Lindisfarne. Eleven bishops of Hexham followed St. Eata, of which six were saints.
No successor was appointed in 821, the condition of the country being too unsettled. A period of disorder followed the Danish devastations, after which
Hexham monastery was reconstituted in 1113 as a priory of
Austin Canons, which flourished until its dissolution under Henry VIII. Meantime the bishopric had been merged in that of Lindisfarne, which latter see was removed to Chester-le-Street in 883, and thence to Durham in 995.
Modern Catholic bishops
References
Bibliography
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External links
Episcopal succession in Anglo-Saxon England
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hexham
Religion in Northumberland
Bishops of Hexham