Ancient Diocese of Dorchester

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See also: Episcopal Area of Dorchester

The Diocese of Dorchester was Anglo-Saxon Roman Catholic diocese in south and eastern England.

The Bishop of Dorchester had his seat, or cathedra, at the cathedral in Dorchester-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. The Wessex diocese covered most of Hampshire, Berkshire, parts of Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. The Mercian diocese covered most of the south and eastern Midlands of England.

[edit] History

The cathedral at Dorchester was founded in 634 by the Roman missionary, Saint Birinus. It was the bishop's seat for the Diocese of Wessex, which was moved to Winchester in 660. It again became the seat for a diocese, in around 675, when the Mercian Diocese of Leicester was transferred there and renamed. The diocese of Dorchester merged with that of Lindsey in 971 and it became the Diocese of Lincoln in 1072 when the bishop's seat moved to Lincoln.