The administration of the two successors to Felix lasted twenty-two years, from A.D. 647-69. The East Anglian see was then divided by Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, into two separate administrations, Acci, the fourth successor to Felix, taking Dunwich, while Beadwin was consecrated to the see of Elham.
From this date there were two lines of East Anglian Bishops; ten diocesans followed after Acci at Dunwich, and nine after Beadwin at Elmham.
St. Humbert (828-78) was the last of the Bishops of Elmham; he crowned St. Edmund king of the East Angles, and both were murdered by the Danes under Hinguar in 870.
After Humbert's death the two sees were again united under Wildred, who at this time was Bishop of Dunwich; he, however, preferred Humbert's see at Elham, and removed there, and so the bishopric of Dunwich became extinct.
During the next two hundred years (870-1070), there were thirteen bishops of Elmham, and then Elmham shared a similar fate to Dunwich, and the see was moved to Thetford by Herfast, a chaplain of William the Conqueror. William of Malmesbury records that Herfast had decided to go down to posterity as a man who had done something, and fixed on this removal as an easy solution of the difficulty.
William Galsagus (1086-91) or de Beaufeu succeeded Herfast, and he in turn was succeeded by Herbert de Losinga, who became first Bishop of Norwich.
The history of Herbert's episcopate (1091-1119) is the history of the causes which effected the building of Norwich Cathedral, and, although given previously in the history of the fabric, must needs be briefly recapitulated here. Herbert, if not of Norman birth, had received his education in Normandy and was Prior of Fécamp—where he had first taken his vows—when offered by William Rufus the appointment of Abbot of Ramsey. The see of Thetford fell vacant, and Herbert procured his own appointment from the Red King in consideration of a sum of £1900 which he paid into the royal treasury. The remorse which followed on this sin of simony compelled him to go to Rome and seek the consolation and forgiveness of Pope Urban. This was in 1094. He returned, and as expiation for his sin founded the Priory of Norwich, the first stone of which was laid in 1096, the see being removed from Thetford in accordance with the decree of Lanfranc's Synod, held in 1075, that all bishops should fix their sees in the principal town in their dioceses.
In cathedral monasteries the bishop, who was elected by the monks, appears to have represented the abbot and took precedence of the prior. Before Herbert's time, the chapter was composed of secular canons and not monks.
Herbert, in 1101, placed sixty monks at Norwich, and it may be of interest to quote from Taylor's "Index Monasticus" the establishment of the monastery from Herbert's time up to the dissolution in 1538—
| The Bishop representing the Abbot. | Chaplains. |
| The Lord Prior. | Precentor or chanter. |
| The Sub-Prior. | Sub-chanter. |
| 60 Monks. | Infirmarer. |
| Sacrist. | Choristers. |
| Sub-sacrist. | Keeper of the Shrines. |
| Cellarer or bursar. | Lay Officers. |
| Camerarius or chamberlain. | Butlers. |
| Almoner. | Granarii. |
| Refectorer. | Hostilarii. |
| Pittancier. | Carcerarius or gaoler. |