Bishop of Oxford
The Bishop of Oxford is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Oxford in the Province of Canterbury.
Early times
The origins of Christianity in this part of England go back at least to the seventh century, when Saint Birinus brought his mission to the West Saxons in 634. The West Saxon King Cynegils was baptised in the River Thames near the present site of Dorchester Abbey, where the original See was established.
The see was transferred in 1092 to Winchester, before being absorbed into the Diocese of Lincoln, the vast area of which covered much of central and eastern England from the Thames to the Humber.
Oxford grew up under the shadow of a convent, said to have been founded by St Frideswide as early as the eighth century. Its authentic history begins in 912, when it was occupied by Edward the Elder, King of the West Saxons. It was strongly fortified against the Danes, and again after the Norman Conquest, and the massive keep of the castle, the tower of St. Michael's Church (at the north gate), and a large portion of the city walls still remain to attest the importance of the city in the eleventh century. West of the town rose the splendid castle, and, in the meadows beneath, the no- less-splendid Augustinian Abbey of Osney: in the fields to the north the last of the Norman kings built the stately palace of Beaumont; the great church of St Frideswide was erected by the canons-regular who succeeded the nuns of St Frideswide; and many fine churches were built by the piety of the Norman earls.
The prestige of Oxford is seen in the fact that it received a charter from King Henry II, granting its citizens the same privileges and exemptions as those enjoyed by the capital of the kingdom; and various important religious houses were founded in or near the city. A grandson of King John established Rewley Abbey for the Cistercian Order; and friars of various orders (Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, Augustinians, and Trinitarians), all had houses at Oxford of varying importance. Parliaments were often held in the city during the thirteenth century, but this period also saw the beginning of the long struggle between the town and the growing university which ended in the subjugation of the former, and the extinction for centuries of the civic importance of Oxford.
Tudor period
King Henry VIII, acting now as head of the Church in England, established by Act of Parliament in 1542 and without papal sanction, six new dioceses, mostly out of the spoils of the suppressed monasteries. These six were Bristol, Chester, Gloucester, Oxford, Peterborough and Westminster. This intervention by Henry VIII saw a new see located at Osney in Oxfordshire in 1542 before finally being moved to its present location in the City of Oxford in 1546.
Subsequent centuries
While the city gained prosperity from the accession of thousands of students, it was never, apart from the university, again prominent in history until the seventeenth century, when it became the headquarters of the Royalist party, and again the meeting-place of Parliament. The city of Oxford showed its Hanoverian sympathies long before the university, and feeling between them ran high in consequence. The area and population of the city remained almost stationary until about 1830, but since then it has grown rapidly.
The modern diocese covers the counties of Oxfordshire, Berkshire, and Buckinghamshire, with parishes also in Bedfordshire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, and Warwickshire. The see is in the City of Oxford where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of Christ which was elevated to cathedral status in 1546, and which (uniquely among English dioceses) is also the chapel of Christ Church College, Oxford. The Oxford diocese at the present day contains the greatest number of parishes of any diocese on England (621) and also the most church buildings (815), of which 475 are grade 1 or 2* listed buildings.
The current bishop is the Right Reverend Richard Douglas Harries, the 41st Lord Bishop of Oxford, who signs Richard Oxon.
The Bishop's residence is Diocesan Church House, Oxford.
List of the Bishops of Oxford, England and its precursor offices
(Dates in italics indicate de facto continuation of office)
| Tenure | Incumbent | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| See at Osney | ||
| 1542 to 1546 | Robert King, Bishop of Oxford | Suffragan Bishop of Lincoln |
| See at Oxford | ||
| 1546 to 1559 | Robert King, Bishop of Oxford | Suffragan Bishop of Lincoln |
| 1559 to 1558 | Thomas Goldwell | Bishop of St Asaph; deprived, fled to Milan, Naples and Rome |
| 1558 to 1567 | vacant | |
| 1567 to October 1568 | Hugh Coren (Hugh Curwen) |
Archbishop of Dublin |
| October 1568 to 1589 | vacant | |
| 1589 to 1592 | John Underhill | Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford |
| 1592 to 1604 | vacant | |
| 1604 to 1618 | John Bridges | Dean of Salisbury |
| 1619 to 1628 | John Howson | Student of Christ Church, Oxford; appointed Bishop of Durham |
| 1628 to 1632 | Richard Corbet | Dean of Christ Church, Oxford; appointed Bishop of Norwich |
| 1632 to 1641 | John Bancroft | Master of University College, Oxford |
| 1641 to 1663 | Robert Skinner | Bishop of Bristol; deprived during the Commonwealth |
| 1660 to 1663 | Robert Skinner | Restored; appointed Bishop of Worcester |
| 1663 to 1665 | William Paul | Dean of Lichfield |
| 1665 to 1671 | Walter Blandford | Warden of Wadham College, Oxford; appointed Bishop of Worcester |
| 1671 to 1674 | Nathanial, Lord Crewe | Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford, and Dean of Chichester; appointed Bishop of Durham |
| 1674 to 1676 | Henry Compton | Canon of Christ Church, Oxford; appointed Bishop of London |
| 1676 to 1686 | John Fell | Dean of Christ Church, Oxford |
| 1686 to 20 March 1687 | Samuel Parker | Archdeacon of Canterbury; died in office |
| 1688 to 1690 | Timothy Hall | Denied installation by the Chapter of Christ Church |
| 1690 to 1699 | John Hough | President of Magdalen College, Oxford; appointed Bishop of Lichfield |
| 1699 to 1715 | William Talbot | Dean of Worcester; appointed Bishop of Salisbury |
| 1715 to 1737 | John Potter | Regius Professor of Divinity, Oxford; appointed Archbisop of Canterbury |
| 1737 to 1758 | Thomas Secker | Bishop of Bristol; appointed Archbishop of Canterbury |
| 1758 to 1766 | John Hume | Bishop of Bristol; appointed Bishop of Salisbury |
| 1766 to 1777 | Robert Lowth | Bishop of St David's; appointed Bishop of London |
| 1777 to 1788 | John Butler | Prebendary of Winchester; appointed Bishop of Hereford |
| 1788 to 1799 | Edward Smallwell | Bishop of St David's |
| 1799 to 1807 | John Randolph | Regius Professor of Divinity, Oxford; appointed Bishop of Bangor |
| 1807 to 1811 | Charles Moss | |
| 1812 to 1815 | William Jackson | Regius Professor of Greek, Oxford |
| 1816 to 1827 | The Honourable Edward Legge | Dean of Windsor |
| 1827 to 1829 | Charles Lloyd | Regius Professor of Divinity, Oxford |
| 1829 to 1845 | Richard Bagot | Dean of Canterbury; appointed Bishop of Bath and Wells |
| 1845 to 1870 | Samuel Wilberforce | Dean of Westminster |
| 1870 to 1889 | John Fielder Mackarness | Prebendary of Exeter |
| 1889 to 1901 | William Stubbs | Bishop of Chester |
| 1901 to 1911 | Francis Paget | Dean of Christ Church, Oxford |
| 1911 to 1919 | Charles Gore | Bishop of Birmingham; resigned |
| 1919 to 1925 | Hubert Murray Burge | Bishop of Southwark |
| 1925 to 1937 | Thomas Banks Strong | Bishop of Ripon; resigned |
| 1937 to 1955 | Kenneth Escott Kirk | Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology, Oxford |
| 1955 to 1970 | Harry James Carpenter | Warden of Keble College, Oxford; resigned |
| 1971 to 1978 | Kenneth John Woollcombe | Principal of Edinburgh Theological College; resigned |
| 1978 to 1986 | Patrick Campbell Rodger | Bishop of Manchester; resigned |
| 1987 to present | Richard Douglas Harries | Dean of King's College, London |
| Anglican Hierarchy in Great Britain | ||
| Provincial metropolitans | Diocesan bishops | |
| The Church of England | ||
| Canterbury | Bath & Wells | Birmingham | Bristol | Saint Edmundsbury & Ipswich | Chelmsford | Chichester | Coventry | Derby | Ely | Exeter | Gibraltar in Europe | Gloucester | Guildford | Hereford | Leicester | Lichfield | Lincoln | London | Norwich | Oxford | Peterborough | Portsmouth | Rochester | Saint Albans | Salisbury | Southwark | Truro | Winchester | Worcester | |
| York | Blackburn | Bradford | Carlisle | Chester | Durham | Liverpool | Manchester | Newcastle | Ripon and Leeds | Sheffield | Sodor & Man | Southwell | Wakefield | |
| The Church in Wales | ||
| Wales | Bangor | Llandaff | Monmouth | Saint Asaph | Saint David's | Swansea & Brecon | |
| The Scottish Episcopal Church | ||
| Primus | Aberdeen and Orkney | Argyll & the Isles | Brechin | Edinburgh | Glasgow & Galloway | Moray, Ross & Caithness | Saint Andrews, Dunkeld & Dunblane | |
Sources
- Oxford Diocesan Year Book
- Haydn's Book of Dignities (1894) Joseph Haydn/Horace Ockerby, reprinted 1969
- Whitaker's Almanack 1883 to 2004, Joseph Whitaker and Sons Ltd/A&C Black, London
The above text is partly drawn from the Catholic Encyclopaedia of 1908.
