NOTTINGHAM, DIOCESE of. – City and diocese in England. It comprises the counties of Leicester, Lincoln, Derby, N. and Rutland.
It has a population of 2,653,757 inhabitants (1931 census), of whom 84,035 were Catholics in 1948. It has 116 parishes, served by 135 secular priests and 120 regular priests, 18 male and 37 female communities, a minor seminary (Junior Seminary) at Tollerton Hall (1948), and boys’ secondary schools, including the Jesuits’ Mount St Mary’s College and the Rosminians’ Ratcliffe College; in addition, 19 girls’ secondary schools. In 1948 there were 472 conversions. The patrons of the diocese are Our Lady Immaculate and St. Hugh of Lincoln. The diocese is a suffragan of Westminster.
The first bishop was J. W. Hendren (1851–53), who was succeeded by R. Roskell (1853–74), E. Bagshawe (1874–1901), R. Brindle (1901–15), T. Dunn (1916–31), J. F. McNulty (1932–45), and E. Ellis from 1945.
The diocese includes Lincoln, with a magnificent cathedral (now Protestant), and Southwell, with its beautiful “Minster” (monastery), a Protestant cathedral since 1884, as well as the ruins of Newstead Abbey. Holy Mass was celebrated in the alienated church of All Saints, Derby, in 1745, when Prince Charles Edward attempted to reconquer the crown of Great Britain.
Lincolnshire took part in the “Pilgrimage of Grace” of 1536 in defence of the Catholic religion. Among the English martyrs are the bb. Augustine Webster, prior of Axholme (d. 1535), Thomas Woodhouse (d. 1570), James William Hartley, Robert Sutton (both d. 1588), Roger Dickenson (d. 1591), Eustace White (d. 1591), Mark Barkworth G. S. B. (d. 1601), William Ireland and Anthony Turner (d. 1679), and the venn. Nicholas Garlick and Robert Ludlam (d. 1588), Richard Yaxley (d. 1589), and Thomas Pormort (d. 1592).
In the 19th century the Jesuits founded their Mount St Mary’s College (1842), and the Cistercians Mount St. Bernard’s, which was constituted an abbey by Pius IX in 1848. At the same time the Rosminians carried out extensive missionary work and founded Ratcliffe College in 1844.