Co-cathedral is the name given to a cathedral church which shares the honour of being a bishop's seat with another cathedral. Instances of this occurred in England before the Protestant Reformation in the dioceses of Bath and Wells, and of Coventry and Lichfield, hence the names of these dioceses. In Ireland, an example occurs at Dublin, where Christchurch and St. Patrick's are jointly the cathedral churches of that diocese. In France the bishop of Couserans (a see suppressed at the Revolution) had two co-cathedral churches at St Lizier, and the bishop of Sisteron (a see also suppressed) had a second throne in the church of Forcalquier which is still called La Con-cathédrale. Today in the United States, the Roman Catholic diocese that encompasses most of the state of West Virginia is officially known as the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston after its two cathedral cities. Other instances might be named.
In the case of York the collegiate churches of Beverley, Ripon and Southwell were almost in the same position, but although the archbishop had a stall in each he had no diocesan cathedra in them, and the chapters were not united with that of the metropolitan church in the direct government of the diocese, or the election of the archbishop, nor had they those other rights which were held to denote the cathedral character of a church.
