Bishop of Ramsbury (ancient)

The Bishop of Ramsbury was an episcopal title used by medieval English-Catholic diocesan bishops in the Anglo-Saxon English church. The title takes its name from the village of Ramsbury in Wiltshire, and was first used between the 10th and 11th centuries by the Anglo-Saxon Bishops of Ramsbury. In Saxon times, Ramsbury was an important location for the Church, and several of the early bishops went on to become Archbishops of Canterbury.

The ancient bishopric of Ramsbury was created in 909 as part of a division of the two West Saxon bishoprics into five smaller ones. Wiltshire and Berkshire were taken from the bishopric of Winchester to form the new diocese of Ramsbury. It was occasionally referred to as the bishopric of Ramsbury and Sonning. In 1058 it was joined with the bishopric of Sherborne to form the diocese of Sarum (Salisbury), and the see was translated to Old Sarum in 1075.

Medieval bishops diocesan

Bishops of Ramsbury
From	Until	Incumbent	Notes
909	927	Aethelstan
927	942	Oda of Canterbury	Translated to Canterbury in 942.
942	949	Ælfric
952	970	Oswulf
970	981	Ælfstan
981	985	Wulfgar
985	990	Sigeric the Serious	Translated to Canterbury in 990.
990	995	Ælfric of Abingdon	Translated to Canterbury in 995.
995	1045	Saint Bertwald
1045	1075	Herman	In exile from 1055–1058 (when the see was administered by Ealdred, Bishop of Worcester.) Also Bishop of Sherborne from 1058.
Herman removed both of his sees to Old Sarum in 1075; for later bishops of that merged diocese, see Bishop of Salisbury.

Further reading

• Powicke, F. Maurice and E. B. Fryde Handbook of British Chronology 2nd. ed. London:Royal Historical Society 1961