Alabama

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

a diocese of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States coextensive with the state of the same name. In 1859 the diocese counted 32 clergymen and 38 parishes, and the following diocesan institutions: missionary committee, ecclesiastical court, trustees of the bishops' fund, society for the relief of disabled clergymen and of the widows and orphans of the clergy. The first bishop of the diocese was Nicholas Hamner Cobbs (q.v.), consecrated in 1844, and the second, Richard H. Wilmer, consecrated March 6, 1862. Alabama was one of the dioceses which, in 1862, organized "the General Council of the Confederate States of America."