Bishop of Dorchester (Roman Catholic).html



See also: Area Bishop of Dorchester

The Bishop of Dorchester was a bishop in the pre-Reformation Church of England in the Anglo-Saxon period, in charge of the Diocese of Dorchester. His seat, or cathedra, at the cathedral in Dorchester-on-Thames in Oxfordshire.

History

A cathedral at Dorchester was founded in 634 by the Roman missionary, Saint Birinus. It was the seat of a Bishop of the West Saxons; the episcopal see for that kingdom was moved to Winchester in 660 and so the Wessex Bishops of Dorchester were succeeded by the Bishops of Winchester.

In the 660's, the seat at Dorchester-on-Thames was abandoned, but briefly in the late 670's it was once more a bishop's seat under Aetla, under Mercian control.¹

The town again became the seat of a bishop in around 875, when the Mercian Bishop of Leicester 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.

List of the Anglo-Saxon Bishops of the Diocese of Dorchester

Notes

References

• Kirby, D. P. (2000). The Earliest English Kings. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-24211-8.