1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sodor and Man

SODOR AND MAN, the name of the bishopric of the Church of England which includes the Isle of Man and adjacent islets. In 1154 the diocese of Sodor was formed to include the Hebrides and other islands west of Scotland (Norse Sudr-eyjar, Sudreys, or southern isles, in distinction from Nordr-eyjar, the northern isles of Orkney and Shetland) and the Isle of Man. It was in the archdiocese of Trondhjem in Norway. (The connexion of the Isle of Man with Norway is considered s.v. Man, Isle of). A Norwegian diocese of Sodor had been in existence previously, but its history is obscure, and the first union of Man with it in 1098 by Magnus Barefoot is only traditional. The Norwegian connexion was broken in 1266, and in 1334 Man was detached from the Scottish islands. The cathedral of Sodor was on St Patrick’s Isle at Peel (q.v.), and it is possible that the name Sodor being lost, its meaning was applied to the isle as the seat of the bishop. The termination “and Man” seems to have been added in the 17th century by a legal draughtsman ignorant of the proper application of the name of Sodor to the bishopric of Man. By the latter part of the 16th century the terms Sodor and Man had become interchangeable, the bishopric being spoken of as that of Sodor or Man. Till 1604 the bishops invariably signed themselves Sodorensis; after that date and till 1684, sometimes Soderensis and sometimes “Sodor and Man,” and after 1684 always “Sodor and Man.” The see, while for some purposes in the archdiocese of York, has its own convocation. The bishop sits in the House of Lords, but has no vote.

See A. W. Moore, History of the Isle of Man (London, 1900).