SODOR AND MAN, ANCIENT SEE OF

The Ancient See of Sodor and Man is a bishopric formed by the union of the two old Celtic dioceses of the Isles, or Sudreys (Latin, Sodor; Norse, Su[symbol omitted]reyjar, the Southern Isles, as distinct from the northern isles of Orkney, Shetland, and the Faroes), and Man, both of which had been disorganized by the Scandinavian invasions of the 8th and 9th centuries. Its foundation date is uncertain, but it occurred after the conquest of both the Isles and Man by Magnus III of Norway about 1098, and before Eugene III placed it under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Trondheim (Norway) in 1152. Its seat was established at Peel on the Isle of Man, St. German's cathedral being built on the site of an earlier church associated with St. German, the disciple of St. Patrick, who is said to have first brought Christianity to Man. The political hegemony that the early Manx kings exerted over this whole archipelago of islands lying between northeast Ireland, southwest Scotland and northwest England, however, led them and their Norwegian overlords into conflict with the kings of England and Scotland, and on July 2, 1266,

Magnus IV of Norway was forced to cede Man (but not the Southern Isles) to Alexander III of Scotland. Later (1334) Man passed into English hands. These changes in political loyalties are reflected not only in the number of Norwegian, Scottish, and English bishops appointed to the see, but also in the fact that, when under Scottish control, it reverted to its old title of "The Isles," and its bishops rejected the metropolitan claims of york upon them. The matter was settled on July 11, 1458, when Callistus III transferred the see from the jurisdiction of Trondheim to that of York, a decision that was confirmed later by Henry VIII in 1542. The cistercians had an abbey at Rushen (colonized from Furness), Cistercian nuns lived at Douglas, and Franciscan friars were at Becmachen. These houses were dissolved at the time of the Reformation, when St. German's cathedral was abandoned to ruin. The Church of England, however, retained the bishopric with its title of Sodor and Man, although today it includes only the Isle of Man.

Bibliography: Chronica regum Manniae et insularum. The Chronicle of Man and the Sudreys, ed. p. a. munch and a. goss, 2 v. (Douglas, Isle of Man 1874). w. harrison, An Account of the Diocese of Sodor and Man … (Douglas 1879). w. cubbon, A Bibliographical Account of Works Relating to the Isle of Man, 2 v. (London 1933–39); Island Heritage (Manchester 1952). r. h. kinvig, A History of the Isle of Man (2d ed. Liverpool 1950). d. knowles and r. n. hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses: England and Wales (New York 1953), map appendices. f. m. powicke and e. b. fryde, eds., Handbook of British Chronology (2d ed. London 1961) 254–256. a.w. moore, Sodor and Man (London 1893). a. ashley, The Church in the Isle of Man (London 1958).

[l. macfarlane/eds.]