Cathedral is an adjective thus all 'Cathedrals' are strictly 'Cathedral Churches' - Manchester was originally Manchester Collegiate Church (the college was dissolved under Edw 6th) and came under the diocese of Chester until 1848 when as part of the great series of reforms dating from the mid 1830's many of the older dioceses were split into several new ones to better reflect the new demography of industrial Britain - Sodor (not Sodar !) & Man was, as part of this set of reforms, to be merged with Carlisle, the necessary act was passed but was later repealed.

The Cathedral Church of St German was virtually unusable from mid 18th century - services (including marriages/baptisms) were almost entirely at St Peter's in the centre of Peel - the new church of St German (now the Cathedral Church) was built as a new parish church as St Peter's was in a poor condition - a pro-Cathedral was established at Bishop's Court mid 19th C and after much politicking (mainly seeing Douglas who wanted it as well as an attempt to restore the old cathedral on St Patrick's Isle) the church at Peel was consecrated as the Cathedral only in 1980.

Patrick & German parishes shared the same church (St Peter's) until 1714 when the precursor to the current Patrick church was built under Bishop Wilson.