Siward (bishop)

Siward OSB (uncertain: † October 30, 1075 ) was an Anglo-Saxon religious. From 1058 he was the last Anglo-Saxon bishop of Rochester .

Siward was abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of Chertsey when he received the pallium from Pope Benedict X. in 1058 and was then ordained Bishop of the Diocese of Rochester by Archbishop Stigand . Almost nothing is known about his activity as a bishop. The chronicler William of Malmesbury mistook him for Siward of the same name, who was appointed his coadjutor by Archbishop Edsige , but died in 1048.

After the Norman conquest of England , one of the goals of the Norman kings was to reform the old English church based on the Norman model, in order to consolidate their rule. When Archbishop Stigand was deposed as Archbishop of Canterbury at Easter 1070 , Siward was allowed to keep his office as bishop. On August 29, 1070, he took part in the ordination of the new Archbishop Lanfrank , as well as in a council of English bishops in 1072, at which church reforms were decided. He died in 1075, probably on October 30th, the day Rochester celebrates his Memorial Day.

literature

• Colin Flight: The bishops and monks of Rochester, 1076-1214. Kent Archaeological Society, Maidstone 1997

Web links

• Marios Costambeys, Henry Summerson: Siward (d. 1075). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004

predecessor	Office	successor
Godwine	Bishop of Rochester 1058-1075	Arnost