The
Anglo-Saxon dioceses of
Lindsey and
Leicester were established when the large
Diocese of Mercia was divided in the late 7th century into the bishoprics of
Lichfield and
Leicester (for
Mercia itself),
Worcester (for the
Hwicce),
Hereford (for the
Magonsæte) and
Lindsey (for the
Lindisfaras). The historic Bishop of Dorchester was a
prelate who administered the Diocese of Dorchester in the
Anglo-Saxon period. The bishop's seat, or
cathedra, was at
the cathedral in
Dorchester-on-Thames in
Oxfordshire. In the 660s the seat at Dorchester-on-Thames was abandoned, but briefly in the late 670s it was once more a bishop's seat under
Ætla, under Mercian control. The town of Dorchester again became the seat of a bishop in around 875, when the
Mercian
Bishop of Leicester transferred his seat there. The diocese merged with that of
Lindsey in 971; the bishop's seat was moved to
Lincoln in 1072 and thus the Mercian Bishops of Dorchester were succeeded by the Bishops of Lincoln. The first bishops of Leicester were originally prelates who administered an Anglo-Saxon
diocese between the 7th and 9th centuries. The bishopric fell victim to the invasion by the
Danes and the
episcopal see was transferred to
Dorchester-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. The dioceses of Lindsey and Leicester continued until the
Danish Viking invasions and establishment of the
Danelaw in the 9th century. The
see of Leicester was transferred to Dorchester, now in Oxfordshire, sometime between 869 and 888. After an interruption, the see of Lindsey was resumed until it was united with the bishopric of Dorchester in the early 11th century. The diocese was the largest in England, extending from the
River Thames to the
Humber Estuary. In 1072,
Remigius de Fécamp moved the see of Dorchester to Lincoln, but the bishops of Lincoln retained significant landholdings within Oxfordshire. Because of this historic link, for a long time
Banbury remained a "
peculiar" of the Bishop of Lincoln. Until the 1530s the bishops were in full communion with the
Roman Catholic Church. During the
English Reformation they changed their allegiance back and forth between the
crown and the
papacy. Under
Henry VIII and
Edward VI, the bishops conformed to the
Church of England, but under
Mary I they adhered to the Roman Catholic Church. Since the
English Reformation, the bishops and diocese of Lincoln have been part of the reformed Church of England, and the
Anglican Communion. The dioceses of
Oxford and
Peterborough were created in 1541, out of parts of the
Diocese of Lincoln. The county of
Leicestershire was transferred from Lincoln to Peterborough in 1837. ==List of bishops of Lincoln==