Academic literature on the topic 'Durham (England : Diocese)'

AbstractThe established view of the Viking-Age Northumbrian Church has never been substantiated with verifiably contemporary evidence but is an inheritance from one strand of ‘historical research’ produced in post-Conquest England. Originating c. 1100, the strand we have come to associate with Symeon of Durham places the relics and see of Cuthbert at Chester-le-Street from the 880s until a move to Durham in the 990s. By contrast, other guidance, including Viking-Age material, can be read to suggest that Cuthbert was at Norham on the river Tweed and did not come to Durham or even Wearside until after 1013. Further, our earliest guidance indicates that the four-see Northumbrian episcopate still lay intact until at least the time of Æthelstan (r. 924–39). The article ends by seeking to understand the origins of the diocese of Durham and its historical relationship with both Chester-le-Street and Norham in a later context than hitherto sought.

Cathedrals are usually thought to have had little role in the English Reformation and the reasons for their very survival in the new Church of England have been questioned. Instead of being an irrelevant and closed-off institution, Durham Cathedral was intellectually close to its Reformation-era bishop, the conservative Cuthbert Tunstall, and was involved in diocesan matters throughout his episcopate. Tunstall's evangelical successors also appreciated its potential for reform and the need to use its staff and resources. Cathedrals thus could be a tool to be used in the reformation of the diocese on both sides of the emerging confessional divide.

The history of the Established Church from the 1740s to the 1830s is viewed as a period of inertia and complacency. Failure to respond to the exigencies of the economic and demographic revolutions resulted in the increasing weakness of the National Church when compared with extra-establishment religion. In the face of increasing pastoral responsibilities, the Church was slow to augment its existing accommodation, or to respond to the challenge of modifying the ancient parochial structure in the face of patron and incumbent interest, and increasing Nonconformist hostility. The resulting decline of the Church from its near monopoly position in 1800, to that of a minority Establishment by 1851, is well documented. Yet while the general pattern of Church extension is known, there have been few studies of the Anglican decline at the diocesan level. Of the twenty-seven dioceses in existence in 1800 one is of particular importance – the diocese of Durham, ‘where the Church was endowed with a splendour and a power unknown in monkish times and in Popish countries’. Here the Church possessed its greatest concentration of resources; here also it was to suffer its greatest reverses.

In the summer of 1615, a newly discovered Catholic conspiracy prompted William James, bishop of Durham, to vigorously correspond with the archbishop of Canterbury. On 3 August, in the midst of the crisis, the bishop incarcerated a professional dancer, Robert Hindmers (b. 1585). Together with his wife Anne, Robert was associated with the Newcastle-based secular priest William Southerne and involved in Catholic evangelising in the diocese of Durham. This article discusses the biography and career of Robert Hindmers, and speculates about the role of dancing within the Durham Catholic community. It also analyses how the activities of the Hindmers were perceived by the ecclesiastical authorities. The case of Robert Hindmers traverses and links many related issues, such as Counter-Reformation culture, traditional festivity, religious politics, and the interconnectedness of elite and popular cultures. But above all, it expands our understanding of Catholic missionary strategies in post-Reformation England by suggesting that dance instruction might have been used by Catholics to access households and assist the mission.

AbstractThis article unearths the forgotten history of the first modern church planting scheme in the Church of England: an attempt to restructure parish ministry in Chester-le-Street, near Durham, in the 1970s and 1980s. This story of rapid growth followed by decline, and of an evangelical church’s strained relations with their liberal bishop, David Jenkins, has pertinence for contemporary Anglican antagonisms over ‘fresh expressions’ and other church planting programmes. A culture of mistrust is arguably apparent both then and now, between liberals and conservatives in ecclesiology, even as the same line divides those of the reverse tendency in broader, doctrinal theology: conservatives from liberals. Developments, decisions and, indeed, debacles in the story of Chester-le-Street parish point to the urgent need for liberals and conservatives in Anglican ecclesiology and theology to overcome their mistrust of each other by recognizing the other as valuable for the mutual strengthening and renewal of the Church.

The monastic cathedrals of England had for centuries led a double life. On the one hand, each was the seat of a bishop, and the centre of a diocesan administration. On the other, it was the home of a cloistered community, usually Benedictine, which was in theory withdrawn from the world. In principle, the community, which actually owned the cathedral and its precincts, should have elected the bishop, in which case he would probably have been one of their own number, and relations could have been expected to be harmonious. However, in practice, bishops were royal servants, and were appointed by the king with papal connivance. There were numerous quarrels between kings and popes over such appointments, but disagreement never resulted in a canonical election, which would almost certainly have produced a candidate acceptable to neither. In consequence, the bishops of monastic cathedrals were almost invariably outsiders, and usually seculars.

It might well appear an excessively abrupt change of pace to turn from Professor Bossy's topic to my own—to move from the most personal of all manifestations of individual Christian worship to the most formidably complex institutional corporations late medieval England has to offer for our contemplation. However, there is little about medieval monasticism, that ambivalent exercise in seeking one's own route to the divine but not in one's own company, which is quite what it seems. For perhaps no audiences in fifteenth-century England would have listened to Professor Bossy's lecture with greater fascination than the monastic communities of Canterbury, Durham, Ely, Norwich, Rochester, Winchester, and Worcester cathedrals. Not only did those Benedictine monks have an obligation to pray as assiduously as any religious in the country but they were also and ipso facto required to do so in the most public and exposed of all possible arenas, the formal prayer houses par excellence as well as the ecclesiae matrices of seven of late medieval England's nineteen dioceses. Precisely how those monks would have explained what they were doing when engaged in acts of communal and private prayer is no easy matter for a modern historian to surmise; but it seems certain that many of them must have been highly concerned about the purpose and quality of their devotions, not least because they could hardly have ignored the priority placed on the oratorium and oratio within the Rule of St Benedict, to chapters of which they listened more or less attentively every day of their professed lives.

Статья посвящена участию Ричарда Фокса, в бытность его епископом Даремским, в управлении англо-шотландским пограничьем. Земли, граничащие с Шотландией, доставляли серьезное беспокойство Лондону. Фокс был одним из наиболее верных сторонников Генриха VII, поэтому его назначение в Даремскую епархию преследовало цель поставить северные земли под более жесткий контроль короны. Даремская епархия всегда играла важную роль в управлении пограничных земель и их обороне. Даремский палатинат служил источником пополнения как для войск, так и для гражданской администрации. За время своего пребывания на севере Фокс проявил себя не только как гражданский, но и военный администратор. Он получил посты в пограничной администрации, должности в местной системе управления. Епископ служил посредником между персоналом пограничной администрации и монархом. Принял Фокс участие и в столкновениях с шотландцами, венцом которых стала оборона замка Норэм. Кроме того, он регулярно принимал участие в переговорах с шотландцами. Фокс сыграл важную роль в успехе переговоров о браке шотландского короля с английской принцессой Маргаритой. Деятельность Ричарда Фокса, епископа Даремского в управлении пограничными землями демонстрирует особенности королевской политики в северных землях при первом Тюдоре. Генрих VII предпочитал в проблемных регионах обращаться к помощи доверенных людей, зачастую не имеющих связей с местными элитами. Представители духовенства в этом плане обладали рядом преимуществ. Они были значительно меньше окружены родственниками и в большей степени зависели от монарха. Высокая степень доверия со стороны короля позволила епископу превратиться в фактического наместника короны в Нортумберленде. Должности в пограничной администрации, равно как и в различных местных комиссиях только легализовали данное положение дел. This article focuses on Richard Fox's involvement as Bishop of Durham in the management of the Anglo-Scottish border. The lands bordering Scotland were a serious worry for London. Fox was one of Henry VII's most loyal supporters, and his appointment to the Diocese of Durham was to bring the north more firmly under Crown control. The Diocese of Durham had always played an important role in administering and defending the borderlands. Durham Palatine served as a source of replenishment for both troops and civil administration. During his time in the north, Fox proved himself not only a civilian but also a military administrator. He secured posts in border administration, posts in local government. The bishop mediated between the staff of the border administration and the monarch. Fox also took part in battles with the Scots, culminating in the defence of Norham Castle. He was also regularly involved in negotiations with the Scots. Fox was instrumental in the successful negotiation of the marriage between the King of Scotland and Princess Margaret of England. The activity of Richard Fox, Bishop of Durham, in administering the borderlands shows the peculiarities of royal policy in the north under the first Tudor. Henry VII preferred to enlist the help of trusted men in troublesome regions, often with no links to local elites. The members of the clergy had many advantages in this regard. They were far less surrounded by relatives and more dependent on the monarch. The high degree of royal confidence allowed the bishop to become the de facto vicar of the Crown in Northumberland. Positions in border administration, as well as in various local commissions, only legitimized this state of affairs.