Bishop of Norwich

“ The Mayor and magistrates have encouraged me to apply to everyone that has a heart to feel for the miseries of a fellow-creature. I earnestly solicit the sympathy and charity of an enlightened public to enable me to live day by day and to defend myself by law from the tyranny and persecution of the Bishop of Norwich.—Henry Herring, late curate of North Pickenham, Norfolk. Norwich Streets, September 9th. ”

“ Thomas le Bygod, late monk of Walden, having obtained license of his abbot to leave that house, was confirmed prior here Dec. 31, 1304, in the monastery of Munge or Mountjoy, in Heveringlond, by the Bishop of Norwich, who was then at that house, being elected prior by the sub-prior and monks, according to ancient custom. He was the first that was ever confirmed by the Bishop of Norwich, for which reason we have so small an account of them, for they feared if they were often admitted by their diocesan, that he would in time extend his episcopal jurisdiction to their house. ”

“ On the 17th His Grace preached his farewell sermon in the Cathedral.
February 24th. The clergy of Norwich having intimated an intention of applying to Parliament for an increase of their incomes, then very small, by assessment, the council, at a quarterly assembly, resolved to oppose the application; the citizens, in vestry meetings, being unanimous against the measure, which was never carried out.
March 18th. Dr. Henry Bathurst (one of the prebendaries of Durham) was elected bishop of Norwich by the dean and chapter. He soon made himself universally beloved by the clergy and the p. ”

“ The lives of many men can lay a better claim to be recognised by Norwich than Borrow, through virtue of their birthright. In the fourteenth century William Bateman, one time Bishop of Norwich, founded the great college of Trinity Hall at Cambridge. His great example was followed by another native of Norwich, Dr. Kaye or Caius, who established the beautiful college of Gonville and Caius at the same university. Matthew Parker, second Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury, as chaplain attended Queen Anne Boleyn to the scaffold; Robert Green became a popular writer in the reign of Elizabeth. ”

“ Herbert de Losinga was the first bishop of Norwich, to which town the see was transferred in compliance with a decree of Lanfranc's Synod, held in 1075, that all sees should be fixed at the principal towns in their dioceses.
Felix was the first bishop of East Anglia, and fixed his see at Dunwich in 630.
The see was divided by Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 669 into those of Elmham and Dunwich; and these again were united under Wildred in 870, and the see fixed at [6] Elmham, and where it remained till 1070, when Herfast, a chaplain of William the Conqueror's, moved his see to Thetford. ”

“ His position and tastes introduced him to the highly-cultivated society, for which Norwich was at the time remarkable, at the house of his cousin Hudson Gurney, where he was accustomed to meet many persons who were eminent for their parts and learning. He had early become a favourite with Dr. Bathurst, then Bishop of Norwich, and their intercourse gradually ripened into a warm friendship, which was maintained unbroken till that prelate’s decease, in 1837, at the very advanced age of ninety-three. ”

“ They are agricultural villages, possessing separate churches, both dedicated to St. Andrew. The Earl of Roseberry is lord of the manor. The land belongs to several owners, of whom G. B. Leak Knight, Esq., W. Jecks, Esq., and G. H. Christie, Esq., are the largest. The living of Framingham Pigot is in the gift of the Bishop of Norwich, and the incumbent is the Rev. William Henry Plume, B.A. Framingham Earl is a rectory, annexed to that of Bixley, joint annual value £608, in the gift of the incumbent, the Rev. Charles David Brereton, M.A.; his curate is the Rev. Godfrey John Bird. ”

“ William Rede succeeded, he was buried in the convent church of Waborne priory; in 1373, William Godfrey succeeded. Afterwards John Clerk and Robert Miller; but for some centuries past there have been no vicars instituted, the lords of the manor holding the impropriation by lease from the church of Norwich, receive the whole tithes, and pay a stipend to the serving curate. The church is in the peculiar jurisdiction of the dean and chapter of Norwich, and pays no procurations, and only 8d. synodals to the Bishop. It is dedicated to all the Saints, stands in a field, no house near to it. ”

“ SUFFELD or SUTHFELD, WALTER (d. 1257) , who is also called Walter Calthorp, bishop of Norwich, was a native of Norfolk, and studied at the university of Paris, where he was ‘regens in decretis.’ He was elected bishop of Norwich towards the end of 1243, but Henry III withheld his assent till 9 July 1244, hoping to prevent the translation of the former Bishop William de Raleigh [q. v.] He was confirmed by Boniface, the elect of Canterbury, at St. Albans the same year, and consecrated at Norwich by Fulk Basset, bishop of London on 19 Feb. ”

“ Augustine’s parish, just outside the city walls, was probably founded by a bishop of Norwich, as an hospital for lepers, but is now occupied by ancient poor of both sexes, who are past labor, and not fit to be put into common workhouses; they are in wards from 8 to 12 in each ward, and have every necessary, both of food and raiment; the number entertained here is 103, and as soon as one dies, the vacancy is filled up by election of the committee of the court of guardians for the poor. ”

“ Our Anthony being doctor of divinity of Oxford, Dean of Lincoln, and an old courtier and retainer at the court of Rome, having been some years a clerk there, was by the Pope's mandate made Bishop of Norwich, April 7, 1337, and had his temporalities restored by the King July 9. ”

“ Annual meetings are held every year on the second Thursday after Easter, when reports are read, and the officers and committee elected. This society comprises 800 members, one half of whom are laymen.
The Norwich Diocesan Church Building Association was established on October 20th, 1836. It is in union with the Incorporated Society for promoting the enlargement, building, and repairing of churches and chapels in England and Wales. The patron is the Earl of Leicester, and the president the Lord Bishop of the diocese. Grants have been made to many parishes in this county. ”

“ The church is dedicated to St. Andrew the Apostle, and had a gild kept in it to his honour; it was a rectory till 1204, and then John de Grey Bishop of Norwich, after the decease of Roger Luvel, then rector, appropriated it to the sacrist of the cathedral, reserving a pension of 2s. per annum to the celerer, and the patronage of the vicarage to the prior and convent, and all episcopal and parochial jurisdiction, to himself and successours, so that it became exempt from all archidiaconal jurisdiction, and paid neither synodals, procurations, nor Peter pence; and only 3d. ”

“ Many of the peasants were still in arms. Those of St. Albans were emulated by those of St. Edmondsbury, where fifty thousand men broke their way into the abbey precincts, and forced the monks to grant a charter of freedom to the town. In Norwich a dyer, Littester by name, calling himself the King of the Commons, forced the nobles captured by his followers to act as his meat-tasters, and serve him on their knees during his repasts. His reign did not last long. The Bishop of Norwich, with a following of knights and men-at-arms, fell on his camp and made short work of his majesty. ”

“ Wren, Mainwaring, Corbet, Montague, and other like-minded bishops set themselves vigorously to enforce the Archbishop’s plans, esteeming the discipline and doctrine of the Church more valuable than the popularity which their firmness forfeited. Norwich presented an especial difficulty to the Bishop in the great number of weavers and other workmen who had taken refuge there from the Low Countries in times of persecution, and who still kept up their schismatic services. ”

“ At the death of Bishop Browne, the King got him chosen Bishop of Norwich, but he was never consecrated, because William de la Pole Earl of Suffolk had sufficient interest with the Pope, to get his chaplain, Walter Hart, promoted to this see ”

“ In 1608, John Ward was patron, who suffering a lapse, was by the bishop collated to it; and entry being made that the bishop had collated him in full right, it has ever since been supposed to be in the bishop’s patronage, and held by sequestration or license at the bishop’s nomination. During the cleaning of this Church in 1834, an ancient portrait of Edward the Confessor, painted on a panel, was found beneath one of the seats, where it is supposed to have been placed during the civil wars. The altar piece contains portraits of Moses and Aaron, and the church has an ancient font. ”

“ In the walling of the semicircle of the cathedral apse at Norwich there still remains the bishop's throne and portions of the seats of his clergy. And since Norwich cathedral is not orientated to the west, but to the east, it follows that the people faced east and the bishop and clergy west; it is hardly conceivable, however, that the celebrant can have faced west. Such a disposition can never have been but rare. ”

“ He had a son (I think Vincent) that went to schoole at Westminster, with Ned Bagshawe; a very handsome youth, but he is run out of all, and goes begging up and downe to gentlemen.
He was made bishop of Norwich, Anno Domini <1632>. He dyed <28 July, 1635>. The last words he sayd were, 'Good night, Lushington.' He lyes buried in the upper end of the choire at Norwich, [on the south side of the monument of bishop Herbert, the founder, under a faire gravestone of free-stone, from whence the inscription [CU] and scutcheon of brasse are stollen [694] ] . ”

“ This arose from its being the capital of East Anglia, and the residence of so many of the clergy and gentry. Mr. Woodward pointed out the sites of some of the old monasteries in this period. The Bishop’s palace was then within the precincts of the close. Besides the monastery there, and that of St. Leonard’s, there were then several others in Norwich. In King Street, to the south of St. Faith’s Lane, were the Austin Friars, and to the north of Rose Lane the Grey Friars. ”

“ Bishop Nykke died in 1535-6, and was succeeded by William Rupgg or Repes, who was the last bishop elected by the chapter of the monks of the Benedictine monastery of Norwich. Monasticism was doomed; Wolsey had fallen, and his property had been confiscated in 1529. The smaller monasteries were dissolved in 1536, and in 1538 the greater shared the same fate, among them Norwich. ”

“ Cromwell, your servant,’ to explain that the writer is ill and cannot come up as commanded. ‘This bringer’ was afterwards lord privy seal and earl of Essex. As part of a scheme for redeeming first-fruits in Norwich diocese, St. Benet's Abbey was by bull, dated 31 May 1528, of Pope Clement VII (Rymer, xiv. 244) , and by private act of parliament (Tanner, Notitia Monast. p. 333) , made directly subject to the bishops of Norwich who were to be ex officio abbots there; but Capon continued abbot and was succeeded by Repps, afterwards bishop of Norwich. ”

“ Broad in his sympathies, courageous in his outspeaking, and impetuous in his temperament, he oftentimes brought himself in conflict with those who were content with things as they had been, and in the earlier years of his episcopate he found his diocese anything but a bed of roses, for during the closing years of the long rule of his predecessor, Bishop Bathurst, Norwich had been a byword for laxity among the sees of [Pg 95] the English Church, a condition of things the new prelate could not endure. ”

“ Though we, in this part, are following up the history of the cathedral structure, yet it may be interesting to note that it was during the episcopate of Bishop Eborard that the boy saint, St. William of Norwich, was said to have been martyred. He was the son of country folk who gained a living by agriculture. During his life he worked many miracles, and by his death gave Norwich a share of his glory. It is related that he was tortured by the Jews, and on the spot where they were discovered secretly burying him, in Thorpe Wood, a chapel was erected called the Chapel of St. ”

“ The Bishops of Norwich, by immemorial custom, always have, and still do enjoy, as an ecclesiastical emolument or advantage, belonging to the spiritualities of the see, the power of union, or uniting any two cures with institution, any where within the limits of their own diocese, whether they be rectories or vicarages of any value whatever; and this power hath been exercised by every bishop without interruption, to this present day, and that in a double capacity, viz. ”

“ Both churches are dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and the arms of abbey and diocese (three mitres) are identical.
The monastery at Norwich (of which important remains still exist) was built at the same time to accommodate upwards of sixty monks of the Benedictine order, who were under the rule of a prior, the first called to that office being one Ingulfus. A charter of William II granted to Herbert certain ‘lands at Norwich Castle,’ and he ratified the bishop's transfer of his Syleham manor, including church, water-mill, fishery, &c., to Roger Bigod in exchange for the church of St. ”

“ The commencement of a new period of prosperity was soon realised after the establishment of a see at Norwich, though not until the time of William Rufus. One of his followers from Normandy was Herbert de Lozinga, or Lorraine, who having been made Bishop of East Anglia, decided to remove the See from Thetford to Norwich. In addition to the Cathedral, he established an episcopal palace and a monastery to maintain sixty monks, all in the year 1094. It had the desired effect; the city rapidly improved, the number of inhabitants greatly increased, and trade extended. ”