Bishop of Exeter
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The Bishop of Exeter is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Exeter in the Province of Canterbury. During the Middle Ages and the Tudor period, the holder of the office was Roman Catholic.
[edit] History
The history of Christianity in the South West of England remains to some degree obscure. At a certain point the historical county of Devon formed part of the diocese of Wessex. About 703 Devon and Cornwall were formed into the separate diocese of Sherborne and in 900 this was again divided into two, the Devon bishop having from 905 his seat at Tawton (now Bishop's Tawton) and from 912 at Crediton, birthplace of St Boniface. Lyfing became Bishop of Crediton in 1027 and shortly afterwards became Bishop of St. Germans.
The two dioceses of Crediton and St Germans, covering Devon and Cornwall, were permanently united under Edward the Confessor by Lyfing's successor Bishop Leofric, hitherto Bishop of Crediton, who became first Bishop of Exeter under Edward the Confessor, which was established as his cathedral city in 1050. At first the abbey church of St Mary and St Peter, founded by Athelstan in 932 and rebuilt in 1019, served as the cathedral.
The present cathedral was begun by Bishop William de Warelhurst in 1112, the transept towers he built being the only surviving part of the Norman building, which was completed by Bishop Marshall at the close of the twelfth century. As it now stands the cathedral is in the decorated style. It was begun by Bishop Quivil (1280-1291), continued by Bishops Bytton and Stapeldon, and brought to completion much as it has since remained by the great Bishop Grandisson during his long pontificate of forty-two years. In many respects Exeter cathedral resembles those of France rather than others found in England. Its special features are the transept towers and the choir, containing much early stained-glass. There is also a magnificent episcopal throne, is separated from the nave by a choir-screen of singular beauty (1324) and a stately West front. In a comparison with certain other English cathedrals, it is perhaps disadvantaged by the absence of a central tower and a general lack of elevation, but it is undoubtedly very fine.
The Bishops of Exeter, like the population of which they had spiritual charge, always enjoyed considerable independence and the see was one of the largest and richest in England. The remoteness of the see from London prevented it from being bestowed on statesmen or courtiers, so that the roll of bishops is more distinguished for scholars and administrators than the ecclesiastical servants of the crown found in many other sees over the centuries. The result was a long and stable line of excellent bishops, with corresponding good health of the Christian life of the area. The diocese contained six hundred and four parishes grouped in four archdeaconries: Cornwall, Barnstaple, Exeter, and Totton. There were Benedictine, Augustinian, Premonstratensian, Franciscan and Dominican houses, and four Cistercian abbeys. The cathedral was dedicated to St. Peter.
This wealthy diocese did not escape the rapacious notice of the plunders during the reign of Henry VIII, when Bishop Vesey was forced to surrender fourteen out of twenty-two manors, and the value of the see was reduced to a third. Vesey, though a Catholic at heart, held the see until 1551, when he was finally forced to resign and replaced by the Reformer Miles Coverdale, who proved most unpopular. After the accession of Mary, in 1553, Vesey was restored but died in 1554. He was succeeded by James Turberville, a man of integrity, beloved by Catholics and Protestants alike. Inevitably Turberville was deprived of the see by Elizabeth I in 1559 and died in prison, probably in or about 1570, the last Catholic Bishop of Exeter.
The diocese was redivided in 1877 along the Devon-Cornwall border by Henry Phillpotts, creating the Diocese of Truro.
[edit] Today
The diocese covers the County of Devon. The see is in the City of Exeter where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter which was founded as an abbey possibly before 690.
The current bishop is the Right Reverend Michael Laurence Langrish, the 70th Lord Bishop of Exeter, who signs Michael Exon.
| Anglican Hierarchy in Great Britain | |
|---|---|
| Church of England | Archbishop of Canterbury: Bath & Wells | Birmingham | Bristol | Chelmsford | Chichester | Coventry | Derby | Ely | Exeter | Gibraltar in Europe | Gloucester | Guildford | Hereford | Leicester | Lichfield | Lincoln | London | Norwich | Oxford | Peterborough | Portsmouth | Rochester | Saint Albans | St Edmundsbury & Ipswich | Salisbury | Southwark | Truro | Winchester | Worcester Archbishop of York: Blackburn | Bradford | Carlisle | Chester | Durham | Liverpool | Manchester | Newcastle | Ripon and Leeds | Sheffield | Sodor & Man | Southwell | Wakefield |
| Church in Wales | Archbishop of Wales: Bangor | Llandaff | Monmouth | Saint Asaph | Saint David's | Swansea & Brecon |
| Scottish Episcopal Church | Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church: Aberdeen and Orkney | Argyll & the Isles | Brechin | Edinburgh | Glasgow & Galloway | Moray, Ross & Caithness | Saint Andrews, Dunkeld & Dunblane |
[edit] Sources
- Some text adapted from Catholic Encyclopaedia, 1908.
