The Bishop of Lincoln is the

ordinary Ordinary or The Ordinary often refer to: Music * ''Ordinary'' (EP) (2015), by South Korean group Beast * ''Ordinary'' (Every Little Thing album) (2011) * "Ordinary" (Two Door Cinema Club song) (2016) * "Ordinary" (Wayne Brady song) (2008) * ...

(diocesan bishop) of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

Diocese of Lincoln The Diocese of Lincoln forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England. The present diocese covers the ceremonial county of Lincolnshire. History The diocese traces its roots in an unbroken line to the Pre-Reformation Diocese of Leices ...

in the

Province of Canterbury The Province of Canterbury, or less formally the Southern Province, is one of two ecclesiastical provinces which constitute the Church of England. The other is the Province of York (which consists of 12 dioceses). Overview The Province consist ...

. The present diocese covers the county of

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershir ...

and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The bishop's seat ('' cathedra'') is located in the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the city of Lincoln. The

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

was originally a minster church founded around 653 and refounded as a cathedral in 1072. Until the 1530s the bishops were in full communion with 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 ...

. The historic medieval Bishop's Palace lies immediately to the south of the cathedral in Palace Yard; managed by English Heritage, it is open to visitors. A later residence (first used by Bishop Edward King in 1885) on the same site was converted from office accommodation to reopen in 2009 as a 16-bedroom conference centre and wedding venue. It is now known as Edward King House and provides offices for the bishops, archdeacons and diocesan staff. A 14-bedroom house (Bishop's House) on Eastgate was the official residence in use from 1948 until 2011, when the bishop's office staff and home were separated, allowing the incoming bishop,

Christopher Lowson Christopher "Chris" Lowson (born 3 February 1953) is a retired British Anglican bishop. He served as Bishop of Lincoln, 2011–2021. Education and ordination Lowson was educated at Newcastle Cathedral School, Consett Grammar School and King' ...

, to live in a modern five-bedroom house. A further residence of the mediaeval Bishops of Lincoln was

Banbury Castle Banbury Castle was a medieval castle that stood near the centre of the town of Banbury, Oxfordshire. Historian John Kenyon notes that the castle is "remarkable for its early concentric shape".Kenyon, p. 68. History Banbury Castle was built in 1 ...

, built in 1135 by Alexander of Lincoln, Bishop of Lincoln and retained by the see until 1547.

History

The

Anglo-Saxon 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- ...

dioceses of Lindsey and Leicester were established when the large Diocese of Mercia was divided in the late 7th century into the bishoprics of

Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west ...

and Leicester (for

Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era= Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , ...

itself), Worcester (for the

Hwicce Hwicce () was a tribal kingdom in Anglo-Saxon England. According to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', the kingdom was established in 577, after the Battle of Deorham. After 628, the kingdom became a client or sub-kingdom of Mercia as a result of t ...

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a populatio ...

(for the Magonsæte) and Lindsey (for the Lindisfaras). The historic Bishop of Dorchester was a

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pref ...

who administered the Diocese of Dorchester in the

period. The bishop's seat, or cathedra, was at the cathedral in Dorchester-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. In the 660s the seat at Dorchester-on-Thames was abandoned, but briefly in the late 670s it was once more a bishop's seat under Ætla, under Mercian control.Kirby ''Earliest English Kings'' p. 48-49 The town of Dorchester again became the seat of a bishop in around 875, when the

Bishop of Leicester The Bishop of Leicester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Leicester in the Province of Canterbury. Through reorganisation within the Church of England, the Diocese of Leicester was refounded in 1927, and St Martin's Church be ...

transferred his seat there. The diocese merged with that of Lindsey in 971; the bishop's seat was moved to Lincoln in 1072 and thus the Mercian Bishops of Dorchester were succeeded by the Bishops of Lincoln. The first bishops of Leicester were originally prelates who administered an Anglo-Saxon

diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associat ...

between the 7th and 9th centuries. The bishopric fell victim to the invasion by the

Danes Danes ( da, danskere, ) are a North Germanic ethnic group and nationality native to Denmark and a modern nation identified with the country of Denmark. This connection may be ancestral, legal, historical, or cultural. Danes generally regard ...

and the episcopal see was transferred to Dorchester-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. The dioceses of Lindsey and Leicester continued until the Danish

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and s ...

invasions and establishment of the

Danelaw The Danelaw (, also known as the Danelagh; ang, Dena lagu; da, Danelagen) was the part of England in which the laws of the Danes held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. The Danelaw contrasts with the West Saxon law and the Mercia ...

in the 9th century. The see of Leicester was transferred to Dorchester, now in Oxfordshire, sometime between 869 and 888. After an interruption, the see of Lindsey was resumed until it was united with the bishopric of Dorchester in the early 11th century. The diocese was the largest in England, extending from the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the ...

to the

Humber Estuary The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between ...

. In 1072, Remigius de Fécamp moved the see of Dorchester to Lincoln, but the bishops of Lincoln retained significant landholdings within Oxfordshire. Because of this historic link, for a long time

Banbury Banbury is a historic market town on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. It had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding area of north Oxfordshire ...

remained a " peculiar" of the Bishop of Lincoln. Until the 1530s the bishops were in full communion with the

. During the English Reformation they changed their allegiance back and forth between the

crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...

and the

papacy The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

. Under

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagr ...

and

Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour ...

, the bishops conformed to the

, but under

Mary I Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She ...

they adhered to the Roman Catholic Church. Since the English Reformation, the bishops and diocese of Lincoln have been part of the reformed Church of England, and the

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and oth ...

. The dioceses of

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

and

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

were created in 1541, out of parts of the

. The county of Leicestershire was transferred from Lincoln to Peterborough in 1837.

List of bishops of Lincoln

Pre-Reformation bishops

Bishops during the Reformation

Post-Reformation bishops

Assistant bishops

Among those who have served as assistant bishops of the diocese have been: *19301934 (d.): John Hine,

Archdeacon of Lincoln The Archdeacon of Lincoln is a senior ecclesiastical officer in the Diocese of Lincoln – he or she has responsibilities within his archdeaconry (the ancient Archdeaconry of Lincoln) including oversight of church buildings and some supervision, d ...

(until 1933) and former Bishop of Likoma, of Zanzibar, of Northern Rhodesia and of Grantham *19501964 (ret.): Colin Dunlop,

Dean of Lincoln The Dean of Lincoln is the head of the Chapter of Lincoln Cathedral in the city of Lincoln, England in the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln. Christine Wilson was installed as Dean on 22 October 2016.

and former Bishop suffragan of Jarrow

Honorary assistant bishop An assistant bishop in the Anglican Communion is a bishop appointed to assist a diocesan bishop. Church of England In the established Church of England, assistant bishops are usually retired (diocesan or suffragan) bishops – in which case they ...

s, serving after their retirements, have included: *19681977 (d.): George Clarkson, retired

Dean of Guildford The Dean of Guildford is the head (''primus inter pares'' – first among equals) and chair of the chapter of canons, the ruling body of Guildford Cathedral. The dean and chapter are based at the ''Cathedral Church of the Holy Spirit'' in Guildfo ...

and former Bishop suffragan- Archdeacon of Pontefract *19952016 (d.):

Donald Snelgrove Donald George Snelgrove (21 April 1925 – 19 May 2016) was the Suffragan Bishop of Hull from 1981 until 1994. He was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge. After World War II service with the RNVR and a period of study at Ridley Hall, Cambridge ...

, retired Bishop of Hull *19952011 (d.): John Brown, retired Bishop in Cyprus and the Gulf *2001–present: David Tustin, retired Bishop of Grimsby

References

Sources

* {{Anglican Bishops & Archbishops - Great Britain Lincoln Bishops of Lincoln Bishops of Lincoln Diocese of Lincoln Religion in Lincolnshire History of Oxfordshire