YORK. – Ancient archdiocese and city in north-eastern England, in the county of the same name.
It is the Roman Eburacum, where the Romans were present from 79 to 427; the Celts called it Caer Ebrauc, and the Saxons Eofervic. A centre of communication between England and Scotland, it was of great importance during the Roman period and thereafter. A Roman colony, it was the station of the Legio IX Hispana and later of the VI Victrix; Septimius Severus assigned it to Britannia inferior; Septimius Severus and Constantius Chlorus died there; Constantine was proclaimed emperor there. In 1666 it was taken by Harald Harada; then reoccupied by the Normans, subsequently reconquered by the Saxons, and finally burned by William the Conqueror. Under the reign of Henry II it received its municipal charter. In the biography of Clement VI (1342–52), the bloody siege by King Edward II of England «in territorio Eboracensi» (Lib. Pont., II, p. 488) and the defeat of the King of Scotland in October 1346 are recorded.
It is not known when Christianity penetrated there, but among those present at the Council of Arles (314) there was an «Eborus episcopus de civitate Eboracens»; at the Councils of Nicaea in 325, Sardica in 343, and Rimini in 359, the bishop of Y. took part. Invaded in the sixth century, it saw its Christians take refuge in Wales, and paganism returned to Y.
The episcopal see was subsequently re-established in the time of St Gregory the Great by the monk Paulinus, who, consecrated bishop in 625, received the pallium in 631 and died in 632. In 676 Bishop Wilfrid founded the cathedral school of Y., which flourished especially under Bishop Egbert (v.) in 735; Alcuin (v.) became its magister scholarum in 778 and, between 780 and 789, composed De Sanctis Eboracensis Ecclesiae, containing the history of the Church of Y. and of its bishops. After the Norman Conquest, the archbishop of Y. had jurisdiction over Worcester, Lindsey, and Lincoln, extending as far as Scotland. The first Norman archbishop was Thomas I of Bayeux (1070–1100). In 1071 Pope Alexander II asserted the precedence of the former. Subsequently, a Synod established that the future archbishop of Y. was to be consecrated in the cathedral of Canterbury. This continued until 1118, when Thurstan, archbishop-elect of Y., refused to make an act of submission to the archbishop of Canterbury, who therefore refused to consecrate him; Thurstan appealed to Pope Callistus II, who consecrated him and established the supremacy of Y. over Canterbury. For this reason the archbishops assumed the title of Primate of England, while the archbishops of Canterbury took the title of Primat totius Angliae. The following archbishops were created cardinals: Christopher Bainbridge (10 March 1511); Thomas Wolsey (10 September 1515); subsequently Edward Lee (1531); Henry De Bruto (1546); Nicholas Heath (1555). The episcopate ceased in 1579.
The Cathedral, built between 1225 and 1247, is in the form of a Latin cross; remains of the crypt survive from the earlier Romanesque building. The stained-glass windows in the interior are a local product of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; but the five monochrome windows of the north transept, in the five Gothic windows known as the «five sisters», belong to the thirteenth century; the great window in the eastern wall of the choir dates from the fifteenth century.
A first Council was held at Y. in 1195, to which Celestine III sent Hubert of Canterbury as his legate, and a second in 1367, presided over by Archbishop John Thoresby.
At the time of the Protestant Reformation, Durham, Carlisle, and Sodor-Man were suffragans of Y. The archdiocese comprised the counties of Y. and Nottingham and was divided into the four archdeaconries of Y., Cleveland, East Riding, and Nottingham; at the time of its suppression it numbered 514 parishes, 28 abbeys, 26 priories, and 23 convents. Among the abbeys were the Benedictine abbeys of Whitby, originally called Streaneshall (Cottineau, II, cols. 2451–52), and Selby (ibid., col. 2997), and the Cistercian abbeys of Fountains (ibid., I, cols. 1205–1206), Kirstall (ibid., col. 1521), Rievaulx (ibid., II, col. 2464), and Sawley (ibid., col. 2939); the Benedictine priories of Bevesly (ibid., I, cols. 371–372) and Ripon (ibid., II, col. 2474), and the Augustinian priories of Bolton (ibid., I, col. 417) and Kirkham (ibid., cols. 1521–22). In 1688 the Holy See established a district dependent on the Apostolic Vicariate of England, to which Gregory XVI gave the title of Districtus Eboracensis in 1840; it was incorporated in 1850 into the diocese of Beverley and then divided in 1878 between the dioceses of Leeds and Middlesborough.
Of the Benedictine abbey of St Mary, substantial remains of the church survive, while part of the monastery has been transformed into an archaeological museum. More than twenty medieval churches still remain in Y., although they have suffered disfigurement; the church of All Saints is also notable for its stained-glass windows.