618 L I C H 
the epifcopal feat in this place in 669. He firft retired to 
Lichfield for the purpofe of religious folitude, where he 
led (as legends tell us) an eremetical life, in a cell, by 
the fide of a fpring, near the place upon which the church 
of his name now (lands, and fupported himfelf upon the 
milk of a doe. Here, attended by Ovin, and a few other 
pious men, he was accufiomed to preach and pray. The 
fpot thus chofen by St. Chad for his habitation was well 
adapted to infpire fentiments of devotion. It was in the 
mid ft of a wood, and a little river ran by the fide of it. 
The church was final), according to the age in which it 
was erefted ; and here St. Chad was buried. During the 
epifcopacy of Winfrid, who was the fuccefior of St. Chad, 
and about 67401" 680, this fee, which contained all Mer¬ 
cia, or Mid-England, was, by Theodore archbilhop of 
Canterbury, at a council held at Hatfield, divided into 
five bifhoprics, Cheiler, Worcefter, Lichfield, Leicefter, 
and Hereford; or, according to others, Leicefter, Wor¬ 
cefter, Lichfield, Sidnacefter, and Dorchefter. Winfrid, 
difapproving of this diminution of his authority, was 
deprived of his epifcopal functions for contumacy. In 
the time of Witta, who fucceeded to this fee in 737, it 
was again curtailed. Lichfield enjoyed for a ftiort time 
the dignity of being a metropolitan fee ; for, although 
the primacy was, by the papal authority, from time to 
time confirmed and eftablifhed in the church of Canter¬ 
bury, yet it was not without meeting with ftrong oppo- 
fition. An attempt againft the dignity of that fee was 
made by Offa king of the Mercians, about the year 790, 
who contra&ed the limits of the archbifhop’s province, by 
procuring a pall from pope Adrian for Adulph biftiop of 
Lichfield, and with it alfo the title of archbijhop. He 
obtained likewife a decree, that the four bidiops of the 
kingdom of Mercia, and two bidiops of Eaft Anglia, 
which were the diocefes of Worcefter, Leicefter, Sidna¬ 
cefter, Hereford, Helmham, and Dunwich, fiiould be¬ 
come fuffragans, and be fubjefl to the new metropolitan. 
This acceftion of honour to the fee of Lichfield, Lambert, 
then archbilhop of Canterbury, was not able to oppofe ; 
but his fucceflbr archbilhop Athelard, after the death of 
king Offa, foon regained his whole jurifdiflion ; and the 
new pope, Leo, pronounced all that Offa had done null 
and void ; for which the faid pope received a large fum 
of money from the archbilhop of Canterbury. 
In 1067, Peter its bilhop removed the epifcopal feat to 
Chefter; and it was not reftored to Lichfield till the year 
1128, when Roger de Clinton fucceeded to the fee. He 
is faid to have appointed the firft canons in this church, 
and to have increafed the number of prebendaries ; to 
have fortified the caltle, to have made a rampart round 
the village, and to have enrolled and muftered the fol- 
diers. In 1296, Walter de Langton fucceeded to this fee. 
He enjoyed at different times the higheft offices of the 
.ftate, and was highly favoured by Edward I. but felt the 
yefentment of the prince, who meanly revenged on him a 
ffiort imprifonment he had fuffered in the time of his fa¬ 
ther, for viotoufly deltroying his deer. After a confine¬ 
ment of above two years, Langton was reinftated in his 
-paftoral duties ; and may well be called another founder 
©f this church. He cleaned the ditch around the Clofe, 
and furrounded it with a ftone wall; he built the cloif- 
ters, and laid the foundation of St. Mary’s chapel, 
in the cathedral, an edifice of uncommon beauty, in 
which he was interred; but, dying before it was finilhed, 
lie bequeathed a fufficient fum of money in his will to 
complete it. He built bridges over the Minder pool, 
which made an eafy communication with the city. He 
obtained a grant from the crown to lay an import, for 
twenty-one years, upon the inhabitants to pave the Itreets. 
He improved the condition of the vicars choral, by aug¬ 
menting their income, and by conferring upon them great 
privileges. He gave his own palace at the weft end of 
the Clofe to them, and erefted a new epifcopal palace at 
the north-eaft end- This palace was fpacious and Iplen- 
did ; the great hall of which was an hundred feet long, 
and fifty-fix broad, painted with -the 'coronation, nur- 
F I E L D. 
ridges, wars, and funeral, of his patron, king Edward l r 
and thefe collly decorations were remaining fo late as the 
time of Erdefwicke, in 1603, He preiented to the church 
large quantities of plate, and many valuable veftments. 
He erefted that noble gate at the weft entrance into tins 
Clofe, a beautiful ftruflure, worthy of its munificent 
tounder ; and which, in April 1800, was, with a barba¬ 
rous tafte, pulled down, and the materials applied to lay 
the foundation of a pile of new buildings, for the refi- 
dence of neceffitous widows of clergymen. He alfo built 
another beautiful gate at the fouth entrance, which waf 
removed about fifty years ago. In 1541, Henry VIIT* 
erefted a bilhopric, in the city of Chefter; and, in fixing 
its boundaries, leffened thofe of this diocefe. He took 
away from the church the archdeaconry of Chefter, 
united with the prebend of Bolton, and added it to Chef¬ 
ter. This archdeacon was heretofore deemed the chief of 
that order in the diocefe of Lichfield ; by ancient right, 
he had a flail in the choir of Lichfield, a vote in the chap¬ 
ter, and a good houfe in this city. In the fame year, 
when the images and (brines of faints were removed from 
the churches, with all the jewels and valuable ornaments, 
and conveyed into the king’s treafury ; at the requelt of 
bilhop Lee, the king gave the llirine of St. Chad for the 
neceffary ufes of the cathedral-church. But the fame bi« 
(hop had not fufficient influence to preferve the cathedral- 
church of Coventry, far exceeding the church of Lich¬ 
field in magnificence, and fumptuous ornaments, from 
deftrutftion. During the minority of Edward VI. and the 
protectorate of the duke of Somerfet, Beaudefert, and the 
lpacious fareft of Cannock, on which there is now a tree 
fcarcely to be feen, and which was given to this fee by 
Edward I. were alienated from it. This extenfive manor 
was the property of the fee in the time of the Saxons, and 
in the 20th of William the Conqueror. Bilhop Sampfon, 
by a deed, enrolled in chancery, dated Sept. 29, 38th of 
Henry VIII. furrendered into the king’s hands his ma, 
nors of Longdon and Hey wood, and accepted certain im¬ 
propriations of inadequate value, as a compenfation for 
them. On the 26th of Ofiober, in the fame year, the 
king, by letters patent, granted the fame to William Pa¬ 
get, knight, an anceftor of the prefent earl of Uxbridge; 
in the poffeffion of whole family it yet remains. 
Property to the amount of 29,180k 6s. 9d. belonging, 
to this fee, was alienated during the common-wealth. 
Under queen Mary, Bayne, the bilhop of this diocefe,. 
adjudged two perfons to be guilty of herefy ; and they 
were committed to the fecular power, and fuffered death 
in the flames at Coventry on the 25th of September, 1555. 
The city of Lichfield has ft nee been difgraced by a limi- 
lar horrid inftance of perfecution, under a proteftans 
prince: In 1611, 9James I. Edward Wightman, ofBur- 
ton-upon-Trent, was tried in the coniiflory-court of 
Lichfield, upon lixteen charges of herefy, and condemned. 
An account of the charges, with the writ for his execu¬ 
tion, under the great feal of England, to the flierift’ of 
this city, was publiflied in a curious trad, intituled, 
“ Truth brought to Light, and difeovered by Time, or 
a Difcourfe and hiftorical Narrative of the firft xiiij yeares 
of King James’ Reign,” 1651. The determination of 
this caufe of herefy againft Edward Wightman was, 
“concerning the wicked herefies of the Ebionites, Co¬ 
rinthians, Valentinians, Arrians, Macedonians, of Si¬ 
mon Magus, of Manes, Manicbees, of Photinus, and 
Anabaptifts, and of other heretical, execrable, and un¬ 
heard-of, opinions ;” in which he maintained “ the faid 
moft perilous and dangerous opinions,” as appeared by 
ljis own confeffion, and from a book written and fub- 
feribed by him. For which he was, “ by divine fentence , 
declared by the faid reverend father, the bilhop of Co¬ 
ventry and Lichfield, with the advice and confent of 
learned divines, and others learned in the laws affilting 
him in judgment, jultly adjudged, pronounced, and de¬ 
clared, to be an obftinate and incorrigible heretic, and 
was left by them under the fentence ol the great excom¬ 
munication,” and to be punilbed by the fecular power.as 
a heretic. 
