The Bishop of Ely is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Ely in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese roughly covers the county of Cambridgeshire (with the exception of the Soke of Peterborough), together with a section of north-west Norfolk and has its see in the City of Ely, Cambridgeshire, where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity. The current bishop is the Rt Revd Stephen Conway, the 69th Lord Bishop of Ely, who signs +Stephen Elien:. The Bishops of Ely now reside in the Bishop's House, Ely, the former Cathedral Deanery. Bishop Conway became Bishop of Ely in 2010, translated from the Diocese of Salisbury, where he was Bishop of Ramsbury.[1]
The roots of the diocese of Ely are ancient and the area of Ely was part of the patrimony of Saint Etheldreda. Prior to the elevation of Ely Cathedral as the seat of the diocese, it existed as first as a convent of religious sisters and later as a monastery. It was led by first by an abbess and later by an abbot. The convent was founded in the city in 673. After St Etheldreda's death in 679 she was buried outside the church. Her remains were later translated inside, the foundress being commemorated as a great Anglican saint. The monastery, and much of the city of Ely, were destroyed in the Danish invasions that began in 869 or 870. A new Benedictine monastery was built and endowed on the site by Saint Athelwold, Bishop of Winchester, in 970, in a wave of monastic refoundations which also included Peterborough and Ramsey.[2] In the Domesday Book in 1086, the Bishop of Ely is referenced as a landholder of Foxehola. This became a cathedral in 1109, after a new Diocese of Ely was created out of land taken from the Diocese of Lincoln. From that time, the line of bishops begins.
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The earliest historical notice of Ely is given by the Venerable Bede who writes (Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, IV, xix):
This district was assigned in 649 to saint Æthelthryth, daughter of Anna, king of the East Angles, as a dowry in her marriage with Tonbert of the South Girvii. After her second marriage to Ecgfrith of Northumbria, she became a nun, and in 673 returned to Ely and founded a monastery on the site of the present cathedral. As endowment she gave it her entire principality of the isle, from which subsequent Bishops of Ely derived their temporal power. Æthelthryth died in 679, and her shrine became a place of pilgrimage. In 870 the monastery was destroyed by the Danes, having already given to the Church four sainted abbesses, Saints Æthelthryth, her sister Seaxburgh, the latter's daughter Ermenilda, and Ermenilda's daughter Werburgh. Probably under their rule there was a community of monks as well as a convent of nuns, but when in 970 the monastery was restored by King Edgar and Bishop Ethelwold it was a foundation for monks only.
For more than a century the monastery flourished, and about the year 1105 Abbot Richard suggested the creation of the See of Ely, to relieve the enormous Diocese of Lincoln. The pope's brief erecting the new bishopric was issued 21 November 1108, and on 17 October 1109 King Henry I granted his charter, the first bishop being Hervé le Breton, or Harvey (1109–1131), former Bishop of Bangor. The monastery church thus became one of the "conventual" cathedrals. Of this building the transepts and two bays of the nave already existed, and in 1170 the nave as it stands to-day (a complete and perfect specimen of late Norman work) was finished. As the bishops succeeded to the principality of St Etheldreda they enjoyed palatine power and great resources.
The Bishops of Ely frequently held high office in the State and the roll includes many names of famous statesmen, including eight Lord Chancellors and six Lord Treasurers. The Bishops of Ely spent much of their wealth on their cathedral, with the result that Ely can show examples of gothic architecture of many periods. They also had a London residence called Ely Place.
Among the bishops Geoffry Riddell (1174–1189) built the nave and began the west tower, Eustace (1198–1215) the West Porch, while Hugh de Northwold (1229–1254) rebuilt the Norman choir and John Hotham (1316–1337) rebuilt the collapsed central tower – the famous Octagon. Bishop Hugh (or Hugo) de Balsham (1258–1286) founded Peterhouse, the first college at the University of Cambridge, while Bishop John Alcock (1486–1500) was the founder of Jesus College.
Bishop Goodrich was a reformer and during his episcopate the monastery was dissolved. The last bishop in communion with the see of Rome was Thomas Thirlby. Since the Reformation, notable bishops have included Lancelot Andrewes, Matthew Wren, Peter Gunning and Simon Patrick.
From then on, Ely was under the bishop of Ely.
| Tenure | Incumbent | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1109 to 1131 | Hervey le Breton | Translated from Bangor |
| 1133 to 1169 | Nigel | |
| 1174 to 1189 | Geoffrey Ridel | Died in office |
| 1189 to 1197 | William Longchamp | |
| 1198 to 1215 | Eustace | |
| 1215 to 1219 | Robert of York | election quashed 1219 |
| 1220 to 1225 | John of Fountains | |
| 1225 to 1228 | Geoffrey de Burgh | |
| 1229 to 1254 | Hugh of Northwold | |
| 1255 to 1256 | William of Kilkenny | |
| 1258 to 1286 | Hugh de Balsham | |
| 1286 to 1290 | John Kirkby | |
| 1290 to 1298 | William of Louth | |
| 1298 to 1299 | John Salmon | Monks' candidate; opposed Langton; election quashed |
| 1298 to 1299 | John Langton | King's candidate; opposed Salmon; election quashed |
| 1299 to 1302 | Ralph Walpole | Translated from Bishop of Norwich |
| 1302 to 1310 | Robert Orford | |
| 1310 to 1316 | John Ketton | |
| 1316 to 1337 | John Hotham | |
| 1337 to 1345 | Simon Montacute | translated from Bishop of Worcester |
| 1345 to 1361 | Thomas de Lisle | |
| 1362 to 1366 | Simon Langham | |
| 1367 to 1373 | John Barnet | |
| 1374 to 1388 | Thomas Arundel (Thomas FitzAlan) |
Translated to York |
| 1388 to 1425 | John Fordham | |
| 1426 to 1435 | Philip Morgan | Translated from Bishop of Worcester |
| 1438 to 1443 | Lewis of Luxembourg | |
| 1444 to 1454 | Thomas Bourchier (Thomas Bourgchier) |
Translated to Canterbury |
| 1454 to 1478 | William Grey | |
| 1479 to 1486 | John Morton | Translated to Canterbury |
| 1486 to 1500 | John Alcock | Translated from Worcester |
| 26 September 1501 to 24 August 1505 | Richard Redman | Translated from Exeter; died in office |
| 17 July 1506 to 1515 | James Stanley | Constituted by Papal Bull |
| 1515 to 1534 | Nicholas West | |
| 1534 to 10 May 1554 | Thomas Goodrich (Thomas Goodricke) |
Died in office |
| 1554 to 5 July 1559 | Thomas Thirlby | Translated from Norwich; deprived |
| 1559 to 22 July 1581 | Richard Cox | Died in office |
| 1600 to 1609 | Martin Heton | |
| 1609 to 1619 | Lancelot Andrewes | Translated from Chichester; translated to Winchester |
| 1619 to 1628 | Nicholas Felton | |
| 1628 to 1631 | John Buckeridge | |
| 1631 to 1638 | Francis White | |
| 1638 to 1667 | Matthew Wren | Translated from Norwich |
| 1667 to 1675 | Benjamin Lany | |
| 1675 to 6 July 1684 | Peter Gunning | Translated from Chichester; died in office |
| 1684 to 1691 | Francis Turner | |
| 1691 to 1707 | Simon Patrick | |
| 1707 to 1714 | John Moore | |
| 1714 to 4 August 1723 | William Fleetwood | Translated from St Asaph; died in office |
| 1723 to 1738 | Thomas Green | |
| 1738 to 1748 | Robert Butts | |
| 1748 to 1754 | Thomas Gooch | |
| 1754 to 1771 | Matthias Mawson | |
| 1771 to 1781 | Edmund Keene | |
| 1781 to 1808 | James Yorke | |
| 1808 to 1812 | Thomas Dampier | |
| 1812 to 1836 | Bowyer Sparke | |
| 1836 to 1845 | Joseph Allen | Translated from Bristol |
| 1845 to 1864 | Thomas Turton | |
| 1864 to 1873 | Harold Browne | |
| 1873 to 1886 | James Woodford | |
| 1886 to 1905 | Lord Alwyne Compton | |
| 1905 to 1924 | Frederic Chase | |
| 1924 to 1933 | Leonard White-Thomson | |
| 1934 to 1941 | Bernard Heywood | |
| 1941 to 1957 | Edward Wynn | |
| 1957 to 1964 | Noel Hudson | |
| 1964 to 1977 | Edward Roberts | |
| 1977 to 1990 | Peter Walker | |
| 1990 to 2000 | Stephen Sykes | Resigned |
| 2000 to 2010 | Anthony Russell | previously Area Bishop of Dorchester |
| 2010 onwards | Stephen Conway | previously Bishop of Ramsbury |
Peter Meadows, ed., Ely: Diocese and Bishops, 1109-2009 (The Boydell Press, 2010).