The use of heraldry in the Church was a tradition developed by the clergy firstly to mark documents and identify people and dioceses. In English heraldry there are strict rules as to the forms and styles which make up a Coat of Arms. The College of Arms is responsible for the enforcement of standards in England, whereas Lord Lyon is the officer charged with ensuring compliance in Scotland and Ulster King of Arms covers Ireland.
Arms of the Dioceses in the Province of Canterbury
Bath & Wells
Birmingham
Bristol
Canterbury
Chelmsford
Cichester
Coventry
Derby
Ely
Exeter
Gloucester
Guildford
Leicester
Hereford
Lichfield
Lincoln
London
Norwich
Oxford
Peterborough
Portsmouth
Rochester
St.Albans
St Edmundsbury & Ipswich
Salisbury
Southwark
Truro
Winchester
Worcester
Gibraltar in Europe
Arms of the Dioceses in the Province of York
Blackburn
Carlisle
Chester
Durham
Liverpool
Manchester
Newcastle
Sheffield
Sodor & Man
Southwell & Nottingham
York
Arms of an Archbishop
Anglican bishops in England generally place a mitre over their shield. The exception to this rule being the Bishop of Durham who, being a palatinate bishop (bishop in a county whose lord had regal powers) has his mitre in a ducal coronet. That is a coronet decorated with three strawberry leaves.
The arms of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Heraldic description - Azure, an archiepiscopal staff in pale argent ensigned with a cross-pattee or, surmounted of a pall of the second edged.
Here we see the personal arms of an Archbishop impaled with the arms of the See of Canterbury.
In 2014 a new diocese was created by the amalgamation of Bradford, Rippon & Leeds and Wakefield into the Diocese of Leeds also known as the Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales.
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