HISTORY OF THE SEE
The West Saxon kingdom, of which S. Birinus became the first bishop,
included the counties of Surrey, Berkshire, Sussex, Hampshire, Dorset,
Devon, and Somerset. When Birinus was consecrated by the Bishop of
Milan, he was not assigned any exact territorial jurisdiction, as was
only natural, seeing that he was a missionary to a little-known land. He
met, however, with a rapid success, and in 635 performed the baptism of
Cynegils, king of the West Saxons, on the day of his marriage to the
daughter of the Northumbrian king. The town of Dorchester on the borders
of Mercia was immediately assigned to Birinus as a bishop's seat. But
when Aegelberht had succeeded him, the next king, Cenwalh, made a
division of the kingdom into two distinct dioceses of Dorchester and
Winchester, the new creation being assigned in 661 to Wina; who,
however, succeeded to the whole of the original diocese, as Aegelberht
appears to have left England in disgust. Eleutherius, Wina's successor,
continued to hold the still united offices at Dorchester, and it was not
until Hedda became bishop, about 679 A.D., that Winchester was really
made the seat of a diocese. Even Hedda continued to rule all from
Winchester, and not before his death was a permanent division of sees
carried out. Winchester retained Surrey, Sussex, and the Southampton
district; while the other counties were assigned to Sherborne--Dorchester,
which belonged more properly to Mercia, having been taken away, as there
was no longer the same need of an inland centre to the see, with four
bishops now in Mercia. Sussex was also taken from the Winchester diocese
during the episcopacy of Daniel, Hedda's successor, and by way of
compensation he was only able to add the Isle of Wight, hitherto
unattached to any see. When the West Saxon kingdom became, in the ninth
century, practically the kingdom of England, Winchester, of course,
assumed a very important position. S. Swithun, who was chosen as bishop
in 852, had great influence with King Ethelwulf, and his cathedral
correspondingly became an object of veneration. The see suffered,
however, from the Danish raids which occurred during the next two
reigns; but with Bishop Athelwold its prestige was quite restored. To
him is due the establishment of a Benedictine monastery at Winchester,
the previous convent having been one of secular (and non-celibate)
canons. With the supremacy of the Danes, we find Cnut both elected king
and subsequently buried at Winchester. Edward the Confessor, moreover,
was crowned in the cathedral on Easter Day, 1043, so that Winchester
maintained its position well up to this date. Further invasions of the
Northmen then very much wasted the south coast, and gradually Winchester
began to yield its pride of place to Westminster.
However, the town remained a place of considerable importance, for, as
Mr H. Hall says in his "Antiquities of the Exchequer," "although
Westminster possessed an irresistible attraction to a pious sovereign
through the vicinity of a favoured church, Norman kings, engrossed in
the pleasure of the chase and constantly embroiled in Continental wars,
found the ancient capital of Winchester better adapted for the pursuit
of sport, as well as for the maintenance of their foreign communications
through the proximity of the great mediæval seaport, Southampton." This
traffic between London and the two Hampshire towns passed through
Southwark, which always had a close connection with Winchester,
remaining even to this day in a modified degree. The Norman bishops, if
they found Winchester no longer the chief town of England, certainly
added to the glory of the church by the erection and beautifying of a
new cathedral. Immediately after the death of Walkelin, the first bishop
of the conquering race, there was a vacancy in the see which lasted for
nine years, owing to the vexed question of investiture. When Giffard was
finally installed, he displayed considerable activity. Among his other
works, he built the town residence of the bishops of Winchester at
Southwark. Bishop's Waltham remained the principal residence until its
destruction by Waller in 1644, after which Farnham Castle took its
place.
Rumour says that there was a suggestion made of raising the see of
Winchester to the rank of an archbishopric during its tenure by that
foremost of fighting churchmen, Henry de Blois, who certainly desired
the elevation. At any rate, Fuller says of Henry that he "outshined
Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury." The Pope's consent, however, was
not secured. Henry paid considerable attention to the temporal affairs
of his see, rebuilding the castles at Farnham and Wolvesey, and founding
the Hospital of St Cross. He translated also the bodies of the old kings
and bishops from the site of the Saxon crypt, the remains without
inscriptions being placed in leaden sarcophagi, mixed in hopeless
confusion. After Henry's death there occurred another vacancy in the
see, ended at last by the admittance of Toclive in 1174 A.D.
With De Lucy's accession in 1189 we reach another epoch of building
activity, for not only was this bishop busy himself, but also under his
guidance there was instituted in 1202, as the Winchester annalist
records, a confraternity, to last for five years, for repairing the
cathedral. De Lucy's work at the eastern end of the building is
described elsewhere. We should not omit to notice, when considering the
position of Winchester, that Richard, on his return from captivity in
1194, was re-crowned here on the octave of Easter Day.
Bishop de Rupibus, De Lucy's successor, introduced preaching friars into
England, and set up at Winchester in 1225 a Dominican establishment,
while a few years later the Franciscans were also established here. Both
institutions have since vanished.
The middle of the thirteenth century was marked at Winchester by
continual struggles between king, monks, and Pope, as to the right of
electing the bishop of Winchester. Some record of these struggles will
be found in the list of bishops of the see. The contest about the
election of De Raleigh lasted five years, and the king only finally
accepted the monks' choice after the Pope and the king of France had
also lent their influence on his behalf. In 1264-7 the town rose up
against the prior and convent, burning and murdering under pretext of
assisting the king, the bishop being a partisan of De Montfort. After
the battle of Evesham the cathedral was laid under an interdict by the
Papal legate, Ottoboni, and this was not removed until August 1267.
With Wykeham's importance in the story of Winchester we have dealt
elsewhere. His successor, Beaufort, greatly enlarged the foundation of
St Cross, adding to it his "Almshouse of Noble Poverty." It is a
remarkable fact that these two bishops and Waynflete, the founder of
Magdalen College, Oxford, between them occupied the see for no less than
120 years. The history of this period, as far as the cathedral is
concerned, is mainly architectural and therefore uneventful in
comparison with that of the earlier times. The intervals whose history
is less stirring, however, fortunately leave far better marks on the
actual buildings than do the more eventful epochs; and the fact that
Cardinal Wolsey once was Bishop of Winchester could not be gathered from
the cathedral itself. Indeed, he never visited the town at all during
the course of his episcopate--a circumstance which is, perhaps, hardly
to be regretted.
In 1500 Pope Alexander issued a Bull separating the Channel Islands from
their former see of Coutances, which was now no longer English
territory, and attaching them to the see of Salisbury. "This was
afterwards altered to Winchester," says Canon Benham, "but from some
cause which does not appear, the transfer was never made until 1568,
after the Reformed Liturgy has been established in the islands." The
cathedral itself received architectural additions during this period
from Bishops Courtenay and Langton, their priors, and Bishop Fox. When
in Henry VIII.'s reign the former town of Southwark had either been
conveyed to the city or had become the king's property (the latter being
such parts as had previously been the holding of Canterbury), the
"Clink," or the Bishop of Winchester's Liberty, was not interfered with.
The result of this was that the Clink became the home of the early
play-houses--the Globe, Hope, Rose, and Swan--since within the city
bounds actors were not allowed to carry on their profession. In Mr T.
Fairman Ordish's "Early London Theatres" the extent to which the first
theatres flourished in the Winchester Liberty may be clearly seen.
The early Reformation period at Winchester led to a great impoverishment
of the see: so much so that the second William of Wickham (1594-5)
ventured, in a sermon preached before the queen, to say that, should the
see continue to suffer such rapine as it had already undergone in her
reign, there would soon be no means to keep the roof on the cathedral
building. We do not know that this remonstrance produced much effect,
for the cathedral and its revenues underwent many losses after this. The
ravages of the Parliamentarians, however, which were the most serious,
have been alluded to elsewhere.
It appears from "the old Valor printed 1685," which was quoted by Browne
Willis in his "Survey of the Cathedrals" of 1742, that some dioceses
about Calais used once to belong to Winchester. We learn also from
Browne Willis that in his time the see of Winchester contained "the
whole County of Southampton, with the Isle of Wight, and one parish in
Wiltshire, viz. Wiltesbury: It has also all Surrey, except 11 churches
in Croyden Deanry which are peculiars of the See of Canterbury. Here are
two Archdeacons, viz. 1. Winchester, valued at 61l. 15s. 2d. for
First-Fruits, which has all the Deanries in the County of Southampton
and the Isle of Wight. 2. Surrey, which has all the Deanries in the
County of Surrey, the corps of which is the Rectory of Farnham; and it
is rated for First-Fruits at 91l. 3s. 6d."
The subsequent history of the see is mainly bound up with political and
theological questions which need not be touched on here. It may,
however, be mentioned that the Ecclesiastical Commission of 1836-7
re-adjusted the boundaries of the diocese; while in 1846 there were
transferred to London the following districts:--Battersea, Bermondsey,
Camberwell, Clapham, Graveney, Lambeth, Merton, Rotherhithe, Southwark,
Streatham, Tooting, and Wandsworth. This re-arrangement still left
Winchester the largest rural diocese in England.