St Peter’s Anglican Church

St Richard of Chichester - April 3

Bishop

Richard of Chichester was born in 1197, the son of a yeoman farmer. He worked on the family farm for several years, refused to marry, and went as a student first to Oxford, then Paris and Bologna. He became chancellor of the University of Oxford about 1235, and, soon after, chancellor of Canterbury under Archbishop Edmund Rich.

When Henry III forced the archbishop into exile, Richard accompanied him to France. After the archbishop’s death, Richard studied theology and was ordained in 1243. In 1244 he was elected bishop of Chichester. Unfortunately, however, King Henry III refused to accept him, preferring a rival candidate, and Henry confiscated all the properties and revenues of the diocese. He only gave them up when threatened with excommunication by the pope.

At this time England was politically very unstable, and this instability also affected the church. Read more...