Coutances Cathedral - late 19th century print, by unknown artist. Symbolising more than 1,000 years of Jersey's links to the Norman Church.

Throughout the Middle Ages the Roman Catholic Church did not concern itself with overly political changes, so in 1204 when the Channel Islands came under English Sovereignty for the first time, they continued to be part of the Norman diocese of Coutances. This meant that while Jersey was politically answerable to the English king, the island's churches were answerable to the French Bishops.

The logic behind Jersey's staunch loyalty to Coutances and its reluctance to come under the wing of the English church is practically rooted. The Channel Islands spoke a language akin to the Normans, traded with the Normans, were subject to Norman customary law and were bound by ties of kinship to families in Normandy. Copies of many of the Norman documents linking Jersey to the Diocese of Coutances can be found at the Jersey Archive.


The Reformation saw the island embrace the French Calvinist form of Protestantism and with it the violent reaction to the symbols of the Catholic Church and its excesses. The island's numerous wayside crosses were destroyed along with religious statues and other symbols.


This broken angel head is all that remains of an early religious statue


In 1568 the Channel Islands were eventually annexed to the English diocese of Winchester. Ironically, by this time the Reformation was over and the Islands were essentially Calvinist - the change of diocese had no immediate meaning, as the Protestant Church did not recognize Bishops. In the 1620s the English Crown imposed Anglicism on the islands and the English Protestant Church became the official religion of Jersey.
The official records for many of the island's parish churches held at the Archive are a tremendous resource for family historians and other researchers.