Worcester, Ancient Diocese of (Wigorniensis), England, created in 680 when, at the Synod of Hatfield under St. Theodore, Archbishop of Canteroury, the great Mercian diocese was divided into five sees. Tatfrith, a monk of Whitby, was nominated first bishop, but he died before consecration, and Bosel, one of his fellow monks, was consecrated in his stead. The history of the diocese was singularly uneventful, and it was specially fortunate in the fact that it never was long vacant, as so many other sees frequently were. The line of its bishops from 680 to 1565 was unbroken.
The Mercian kings were profuse in the endowments which they lavished on the cathedral church, which was originally dedicated to St. Peter but afterwards to Our Lady. It was originally served by secular canons, but in the tenth century St. Oswald replaced them by Benedictines. He also rebuilt the cathedral, finishing the work in 983, but in 1041 the Danes burned the city and ruined the cathedral, and it was reserved for another saint, St. Wulstan, to rebuild it (1084-89). This new building frequently suffered from fire (1113, 1180, 1202). In 1216 King John was buried there, between the shrines of the two Worcester saints, Oswald and Wulstan; and two years later the cathedral, once more restored, was consecrated at a great gathering at which the king and many prelates and nobles were present. At various times modifications were made in the structure, which gradually assumed the Early Gothic character it now bears. Probably the Worcester nave is among the earliest instances of English Gothic, dating from the later part of the twelfth century. The transepts are a mixture of Norman and Perpendicular work; the choir, Lady chapel, and east transepts are Early English (1224). The crypt alone remains of St. Wulstan’s work. The monastic buildings, of which only the cloister, chapter-house, and refectory remain, were on the south and west of the cathedral.
From the time of Henry VII the see was filled by Italian prelates, who represented the king’s interests at Rome. Among these was the future Pope Clement VII. It was the special prerogative of the bishop to act as chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and thus to celebrate Mass at all assemblies of the clergy at which the primate was present. The following is the complete list of bishops:—
Bosel: 680
Oftfor: 691
St. Ecgwine: 693
Wilfrith I: 718
Mildred: about 743
Wærmund: 775
Tilhere: 777
Heathured (Æthelred): 781
Denebeorht: 798
Heahbeorht (Eadbert): 822
Ealhhun (Alwin): about 845
Wærfrith: 873
Æthelhun: 915
Wilfrith II: 922
Coenweald: 929
St. Dunstan: 957
St. Oswald: 961
Ealdwulf: 992
Wulfstan: 1003
Leofsige: 1016
Beorhtheah: 1033
Lyfing: 1038
Ælfric Puttoc: 1040
Lyfing (restored): 1041
Ealdred: 1046
St. Wulfstan II: 1062
Samson: 1096
Theulf: 1113
Simon: 1125
John de Pageham: 1151
Alured: 1158
Roger: 1163
Baldwin: 1180
William de Narhale: 1185
Robert Fitz-Ralph: 1191
Henry de Soilli: 1193
John de Constantiis: 1195
Mauger: 1198
Walter de Grey: 1214
Silvester de Evesham: 1216
William de Blois: 1218
Walter de Cantelupe: 1237
Nicholas: 1266
Godfrey de Giffard: 1268
William de Gainsborough: 1301
Walter Reynold: 1307
Walter de Maydenston: 1313
Thomas Cobham: 1317
Adam de Orlton: 1327
Simon de Montecute: 1333
Thomas Hemenhale: 1337
Wolstan de Braunsford: 1339
John de Thoresby: 1349
Reginald Brian: 1352
John Barnet: 1362
William Wittlesey: 1363
William Lynn: 1368
Henry Wakefield: 1375
Tideman de Winchcomb: 1394
Richard Clifford: 1401
Thomas Peverell: 1407
Philip Morgan: 1419
Thomas Polton: 1425
Thomas Bourchier: 1434
John Carpenter: 1443
John Alcock: 1476
Robert Morton: 1486
Giovanni Gigli (de Liliis; Gigles): 1497
Sylvestro Gigli (de Liliis; Gigles): 1498
Giulio de' Medici (afterwards Pope Clement VII): 1521
Girolamo Ghinucci (de Ghinucciis): 1522
(In 1535 Hugh Latimer was schismatically intruded into the see and was followed by John Bell (1539-43), Nicholas Heath (1543-1550), and John Hooper (1552-53))
Nicholas Heath: 1553
Richard Pates 1555-1565, the last Catholic Bishop of Worcester, d. at Louvain, 22 Nov., 1565.
The diocese included the County of Worcester and part of Warwickshire, and being of no very great extent only one archdeaconry was necessary, under which all the parishes, 241 in number, were included. The arms of the see were argent, ten torteaux.
Britton, History and Antiquities of Worcester (London, 1835); WINKLES, Cathedral Churches in England and Wales (London, 1851); Registrum Prioratus B. arte Wigorniensis (London, 1865); KING, The Three Choirs (London, 1866); NOAKE, The Monastery and Cathedral of Worcester (London, 1866); LUARD, Annales Monastici, IV (London, 1869); SMITH aND ONSLOW, Worcester in Diocesan Series (London, 1883); STRANGE, Worces‘ter: the Cathedral and See (London, 1900); CREIGHTON, Italian Bishops of Worcester in Historical Essays (London, 1902); Graves AND Harne, Hemingi chartularium Eccl. Wigorniensis (Oxford, 1723); GREEN, History and Antiquities of Worcester (2 vols., London, 1796); Hist. MSS. Comm., 8, 14; FLtorrer, Caiande of MSS. in Chapter Library of Worcester Cathedral (Oxford, 1906).
Edwin Burton.