The Bishop of Bath and Wells heads the Church of England

Diocese of Bath and Wells The Diocese of Bath and Wells is a diocese in the Church of England Province of Canterbury in England. The diocese covers the county of Somerset and a small area of Dorset. The Episcopal seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells is located in the ...

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 ...

in England. The present diocese covers the overwhelmingly greater part of the (ceremonial) county of

Somerset Somerset ( , ; Archaism, archaically Somersetshire , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in South West England which borders Gloucestershire and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east and Devon to the so ...

and a small area of Dorset. The Episcopal seat is located in the Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew in the city of Wells in Somerset. The bishop is one of two (the other is the

Bishop of Durham The Bishop of Durham is the Church of England, Anglican bishop responsible for the Diocese of Durham in the Province of York. The diocese is one of the oldest in England and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords. Paul Butler (bishop), Pau ...

) who escort the sovereign at the

coronation A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the presentation of ot ...

. The Bishop's residence is

The Palace ''The Palace'' is a British drama television series that aired on ITV in 2008. Produced by Company Pictures for the ITV network, it was created by Tom Grieves and follows a fictional British Royal Family in the aftermath of the death of King ...

, Wells. In late 2013 the

Church Commissioners The Church Commissioners is a body which administers the property assets of the Church of England. It was established in 1948 and combined the assets of Queen Anne's Bounty, a fund dating from 1704 for the relief of poor clergy, and of the Eccle ...

announced that they were purchasing the Old Rectory, a Grade II-listed building in

Croscombe Croscombe is a village and civil parish west of Shepton Mallet and from Wells, in the Mendip district of Somerset, England. It is situated on the A371 road in the valley of the River Sheppey. Croscombe has a village hall, a shop, a publ ...

for the Bishop's residence. However this decision was widely opposed, including by the Diocese, and in May 2014 was overturned by a committee of the

Archbishops' Council The Archbishops' Council is a part of the governance structures of the Church of England. Its headquarters are at Church House, Great Smith Street, London. The council was created in 1999 to provide a central executive body to co-ordinate and lead ...

History

Somerset originally came under the authority of the

Bishop of Sherborne The Bishop of Sherborne is an episcopal title which takes its name from the market town of Sherborne in Dorset, England. The see of Sherborne was established in around 705 by St Aldhelm, the Abbot of Malmesbury. This see was the mother diocese ...

, but Wells became the seat of its own Bishop of Wells from 909. King William Rufus granted Bath to a royal physician,

John of Tours John of Tours or John de Villula (died 1122) was a medieval Bishop of Wells in England who moved the diocese seat to Bath. He was a native of Tours and was King William I of England's doctor before becoming a bishop. After his consecration ...

, Bishop of Wells and Abbot of Bath, who was permitted to move his episcopal seat for

from Wells to

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

in 1090, thereby becoming the first Bishop of Bath. He planned and began a much larger church as his cathedral, to which was attached a priory, with the bishop's palace beside it. In 1197 Bishop

Savaric FitzGeldewin Savaric fitzGeldewin (died 8 August 1205) was an Englishman who became Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury in England. Related to his predecessor as well as to Emperor Henry VI, he was elected bishop on the insistence of his predecessor, who urged hi ...

officially moved his seat to

Glastonbury Abbey Glastonbury Abbey was a monastery in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. Its ruins, a grade I listed building and scheduled ancient monument, are open as a visitor attraction. The abbey was founded in the 8th century and enlarged in the 10th. It w ...

with the approval of Pope Celestine III. However, the monks there would not accept their new Bishop of Glastonbury and the title of Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury was used until the Glastonbury claim was abandoned in 1219. His successor,

Jocelin of Wells Jocelin of Wells (died 19 November 1242) was a medieval Bishop of Bath (and Glastonbury). He was the brother of Hugh de Wells, who became Bishop of Lincoln. Jocelin became a canon of Wells Cathedral before 1200, and was elected bishop in 120 ...

, then returned to Bath, again under the title, Bishop of Bath. The official episcopal title became Bishop of Bath and Wells under a Papal ruling of 3 January 1245. By the 15th century Bath Abbey was badly dilapidated.

Oliver King Oliver King (29 August 1503) was a Bishop of Exeter and Bishop of Bath and Wells who restored Bath Abbey after 1500. Early life King was educated at Eton, where he was a king's scholar, and King's College, Cambridge, where he graduated Mast ...

, Bishop of Bath and Wells, decided in 1500 to rebuild it on a smaller scale. The new abbey-church was completed just a few years before Bath Priory was dissolved in 1539. Then Henry VIII considered this new church redundant, and it was offered to the people of Bath to form their parish church; but they did not buy it, and it was stripped of its glass and lead. The last bishop in communion with Rome was deprived in 1559 but the succession of bishops has continued to the present day. The diocese and the episcopate are today part of 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 other ...

List of bishops

Pre-Reformation bishops

Bishops during the Reformation

Post-Reformation bishops

Assistant bishops

Among those who have served as assistant bishops of the diocese are: *4 October 185210 May 1853 (res.): George Spencer, commissary during Bagot's illness, and former Bishop in Madras *late 1860s (Eden's illness): James Chapman, Coadjutor-Bishop, Rector of

Wootton Courtenay Wootton Courtenay is a village and civil parish on Exmoor in the Somerset West and Taunton district of Somerset, England. The parish includes the hamlets of Brockwell and Huntscott. The village lies on the route of the Macmillan Way West and the ...

, a Prebendary of Wells and former

Bishop of Colombo Bishop of Colombo may refer to: * Anglican Bishop of Colombo The Anglican Bishop of Colombo is the ecclesiastical head of the Anglican Diocese of Colombo, a diocese in the Church of Ceylon which is part of the Anglican Communion. The Anglica ...

*1891–1900:

Charles Bromby Charles Henry Bromby (11 July 181414 April 1907) was the Anglican Bishop of Tasmania from 1864 to 1882. __NOTOC__ Early life Bromby was the second son of John Healey Bromby (a priest) and brother of John Edward Bromby. He was born in Hull, En ...

, former Bishop of Tasmania (lived at

Clifton Clifton may refer to: People * Clifton (surname) * Clifton (given name) Places Australia *Clifton, Queensland, a town ** Shire of Clifton *Clifton, New South Wales, a suburb of Wollongong * Clifton, Western Australia Canada * Clifton, Nova Sc ...

with his son) *19311942 (d.): Charles de Salis,

Archdeacon of Taunton The Archdeacon of Taunton has been, since the twelfth century, the senior ecclesiastical officer in charge of the archdeaconry of Taunton in the Diocese of Bath and Wells (in the Church of England). The archdeaconry includes seven deaneries. His ...

until 1938, and former

Bishop of Taunton The Bishop of Taunton is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Bath and Wells, in the Province of Canterbury, England. The title was first created under the Suffragan Bishops Act 1534 and takes its na ...

*19401943 (res.):

Edmund Sara Edmund Willoughby Sara (1891–18 September 1965) was an English Anglican clergyman who served as Bishop Coadjutor of Jamaica from 1937 to 1940. Sara was educated at King's College, Taunton; Trinity College, Dublin; and Salisbury Theological Col ...

, former

Coadjutor The term coadjutor (or coadiutor, literally "co-assister" in Latin) is a title qualifier indicating that the holder shares the office with another person, with powers equal to the other in all but formal order of precedence. These include: * Coadj ...

Bishop of Jamaica The Anglican Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands is a diocese of the Church in the Province of the West Indies. It was originally formed as the Diocese of Jamaica, within the Church of England, in 1824. At that time the diocese included the ...

and later

Assistant Bishop of Hereford The Bishop of Hereford is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Hereford in the Province of Canterbury. The episcopal see is centred in the Hereford, City of Hereford where the bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is in t ...

*1950–1967 (ret.): Fabian Jackson, Rector of Batcombe and former

Bishop of Trinidad The Anglican Diocese of Trinidad and Tobago is the administrative structure grouping together Anglicans in the nation of Trinidad and Tobago under a bishop. It is one of eight dioceses of the Church in the Province of the West Indies. As of 2009, ...

*19561973 (ret.): Douglas Wilson, Canon Treasurer of Wells and former

In popular culture

Television

Blackadder ''Blackadder'' is a series of four period British sitcoms, plus several one-off instalments, which originally aired on BBC One from 1983 to 1989. All television episodes starred Rowan Atkinson as the antihero Edmund Blackadder and Tony Robinso ...

,''

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

historical History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

sitcom, features a fictional bishop played by Ronald Lacey of this title in the second series' fourth episode '' Money'', in which the bishop is portrayed as an obese, blasphemous, self-confessed pervert who eats children. '' Monty Python'' features two skits in which the Bishop of this title is mentioned.

Radio

''Absolute Power'', BBC radio comedy features such a Bishop.

Literature

Neil Gaiman's 2008 work '' The Graveyard Book'' features a character named the Bishop of Bath and Wells – he is one of a trio of ghouls who spirit the main character away. Ralph of Shrewsbury, Bishop of Bath and Wells, appears as a character in the 1994 fantasy novel ''The Dragon, The Earl and The Troll'', by Gordon Dickson.

References

Bibliography

External links

Official Diocese of Bath & Wells Website
{{Diocese of Bath and Wells Christianity in Bath, Somerset Wells, Somerset

Bath and Wells The Diocese of Bath and Wells is a diocese in the Church of England Province of Canterbury in England. The diocese covers the county of Somerset and a small area of Dorset. The Episcopal seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells is located in ...

Somerset-related lists