Archbishop of Glasgow
The Archbishop of Glasgow is an archiepiscopal title that takes its name after the city of Glasgow in Scotland. The position and title were abolished by the Church of Scotland in 1689; and, in the Catholic Church, the title was restored by Pope Leo XIII in 1878. In the Scottish Episcopal Church, it is now part of the Episcopal bishopric of Glasgow and Galloway.
The present Catholic archbishop is William Nolan, who was installed on 26 February 2022.
History
The Diocese of Glasgow originates in the period of the reign of David I, Prince of the Cumbrians, but the earliest attested bishops come from the 11th century, appointees of the Archbishop of York. The episcopal seat was located at Glasgow Cathedral. In 1492, the diocese was elevated to an archdiocese by Pope Innocent VIII. After the Scottish church broke its links with Rome in 1560, the archbishopric continued under the independent Scottish church until 1689 when Episcopacy in the established Church of Scotland was finally abolished in favour of Presbyterianism, requiring bishopric continuity to occur in the disestablished Scottish Episcopal Church.In the following centuries Catholicism slowly began a process of re-introduction, culminating in the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829. A new papally-appointed archbishopric in the Catholic Church was introduced when the Vicariate Apostolic of the Western District was elevated to archdiocese status on 4 March 1878 on the restoration of the Scottish hierarchy, and then to metropolitan archdiocese status on 25 May 1947.