The New Territory

territories_01.jpg

The Diocese of Charleston territory, 1828-1835

In July 1820, Pope Pius VIII established the Diocese of Charleston. The Diocese encompassed 140,000 square miles and consisted of three states: North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia; with Charleston, South Carolina, as the see city.

Accessed at http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ncmaps/id/185

Bulla_01.jpg

Copy of Bulla erecting the Diocese of Charleston, 1820 [First page.]

Bull

For the Erection of the Episcopal See of Charleston

And of the Naming of the First Bishop

The Most Reverend Doctor John England

________________________________

Pope Pius VII,

Beloved Brother, Greetings and Apostolic Benediction

Among the numerous and very important concerns of our apostolic office, not the least of them is care for the conditions of the dioceses throughout the world; indeed of our ultimate responsibility and right to govern them, to establish or change their boundaries; as well be, by reason of times or circumstances, to make changes conducive to the advantage of the faithful.  What with the vast size of the Diocese of Baltimore, we have approved the separation of the Provinces of Carolina and Georgia taken together, in the United States, from the Diocese [of Baltimore] so that the Archbishop of Baltimore will no longer have the burden of caring for them.  The Diocese shall have given its own advice and consent beforehand, so that the aforementioned provinces, separated from the Diocese of Baltimore, might be erected into a new Episcopal Suffragan See of Baltimore.  We, with the agreement of His Most Reverend and Eminent Cardinal for matters of the Propagation of the Faith concerning the proposal, determine and decree that, with the aforementioned dismembration from the Baltimore Diocese, a new Church with a Bishop be erected in the City of Carolopolis, in English, Charlestown, which embraces both Carolina and Georgia.  Accordingly, mindful of present circumstances and filled with apostolic enthusiasm, We erect the new Church with a Bishop, a Suffragan Church of Baltimore, with its having all the rights and privileges accorded by the sacred canons to such approved churches.