Clement of Dunblane

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Clement
Roman Catholic Church
SeeDunblane
In office1233–1258
PredecessorOsbert
SuccessorRobert de Prebenda
Orders
Consecration1233
Personal details
Bornunknown
Probably Scotland
Died1258
Dunblane, Scotland

Clement (died 1258) was a 13th-century

court in Rome. While not achieving all of his aims, Clement succeeded in saving the bishopric from relocation to Inchaffray Abbey. He also regained enough revenue to begin work on the new Dunblane Cathedral
.

He faced a similar challenge with the impoverished

Edmund of Abingdon and Queen Margaret to sainthood. After his death, he received veneration as a saint himself, although he was never formally canonised
.

Early years and background

Effigy of bishop of Dunblane, identified as Clement[1]

The Analecta Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum claims that he was "a Scot by birth", and that he was admitted into the Dominican Order of Paris in 1219.[2] The latter source, however, is often highly unreliable, and cannot be fully trusted.[3] The historian Archie Duncan was cautious about a date as firm and early as 1221, and wrote that Clement "had entered the Dominican order by the later 1220s".[4] Although "Clement" is neither a Scottish nor an English name, the large number of French-speakers in both Scotland and England during this period means that this consideration carries limited weight;[5] indeed "Clement" need not even have been his birth-name.[6] The diocese of Dunblane was entirely Gaelic-speaking in Clement's day, and in this era it was often frowned upon for a bishop to be ignorant of the language of his diocese.[7] If this had been a consideration in Clement's later appointment, then this would strongly suggest that Clement was in fact a Scot. Clement was later noted for his skill in languages.[8] Clement received his university education at either the University of Oxford or the University of Paris, perhaps at both of these institutions.[9] There is a possibility that he can be identified more fully as "Clement Rocha". A "Father Clement Rocha" was the owner of a manuscript from the period now held in Edinburgh. This, however, says nothing more about his background.[4]

The Dominican Order had its origins in the reformist ideology of Dominic de Guzmán, later

Bishop of St Andrews. However, the earliest certain date for the foundation of a Dominican house in Scotland is 1234.[12]

These details form the context for Clement's appearance in Scotland and his selection as the new

Wedale on 4 September 1233, by William de Malveisin, Bishop of St Andrews.[15] His consecration meant that he was the first Dominican in the British Isles to obtain a bishopric. This has prompted the historian Archie Duncan to comment that "the choice of the first friar-bishop ... can only be called daring".[16]

Bishopric of Dunblane

The bishopric of Dunblane was a small

Céli Dé at Muthill until at least the end of the 13th century, and the base for the archdeaconry of the diocese appears to have varied between there and Dunblane until the time of Bishop Clement.[20] The bishopric itself appears to have been without a single base, although it was probably associated with both locations.[21]
Clement visited the papal court to present his difficult situation. In spring 1237, the Pope wrote to the Bishop of Dunkeld that:

Bishop Clement ... found the Church so desolated that there was no place in the Cathedral Church where he could lay his head; it had no college of clergy; the divine offices were celebrated in a roofless church and by a rural chaplain only; and the episcopal revenues were so slender, and had been alienated to such a degree, that they scarcely sufficed to support him for half a year.[22]

In response to Clement's visit, moreover, the Pope had empowered the Bishops of Dunkeld, Brechin and St Andrews to take action to rescue the bishopric. He told these bishops that,

Since the continual care of all the churches is our daily burden, we grant to the said Church [Dunblane], so far as we personally can, and authorise you, if you find the situation to be as described, to assign to the said Bishop, if it can be done without scandal, a quarter of the

Canons Regular of St. John in the Diocese [i.e. to Inchaffray Abbey], who shall have power to elect a Bishop in any vacancy.[22]

So the Pope's help was two-sided. It made Clement's task vis-à-vis these institutions easier, but on the other hand the possibility had emerged that Dunblane could disappear as an episcopal centre.[23]

Recovery and rebuilding

Modern artist's depiction of the building of Dunblane Cathedral, supervised by Bishop Clement

In the three or four years after his visit to the papacy, agreements were made with the various institutions who were drawing income from Clement's diocese – namely

Walter Comyn, Earl of Menteith, had decided to found a monastery in his earldom and take up the income of Menteith's churches to do it; the whole of Menteith constituted nearly half of the diocese. Despite the Pope's previously helpful behaviour towards Clement's cause, he granted the earl permission to found the new monastery. The earl established Inchmahome Priory in the Lake of Menteith in 1238.[25] Walter and Clement came to conflict over the new priory's rights, but in the same year an agreement was drawn up in a meeting of churchmen at Perth. The agreement placed most of Menteith's churches under the control of the earl; however, Clement obtained several concessions, including the right to receive episcopal dues from the new priory.[26] Overall, Clement's successes were considerable considering the opposition which he faced, but even after his death, only 12 of the 26 parish churches in the diocese were under the bishop's direct control.[27]

Although his successor Robert de Prebenda claimed that the income of the see was still inadequate, it was nevertheless enough for Clement to begin building a new cathedral.[28] This was despite the virtual hostility of the earl of Menteith and what Cynthia Neville has noted as the lack of interest by the earls of Strathearn, evidenced by their reluctance to bestow patronage on the bishopric. Neville's explanation for this is that "the bishops' ambition represented a challenge to their proprietary interests".[29] It has been suggested that Clement dismantled the small church building which had served Dunblane previously, before beginning work.[30] The cathedral was constructed in the Gothic manner, beginning with the "Lady Chapel"; the Lady Chapel was used while the rest of the cathedral was being built. It is possible that the cathedral of Dunblane was completed during Clement's episcopate, and it is almost certain that most of it was.[31]

On the wider stage

Figure of Bishop Clement in Dunblane Cathedral

Clement's position as Bishop of Dunblane provided the opportunity to participate on the larger national and international stage. In 1241, the

Western Christendom.[34]

Perhaps Clement's most significant activities were, however, in relation to the

Kingdom of Norway, to renounce his allegiance to the King of Norway. Eóghan told Alexander that he was unable to do this.[38] The contemporary historian Matthew Paris wrote that:

The king therefore declared Eóghan unfaithful and pursued him hostilely by ship near Argyll; urged, as is said, by the vehement promptings of a certain indiscreet bishop of Strathearn, a friar to wit of the order of the Preachers.[39]

(Modern) Dunblane Cathedral, the seat (cathedra) of Bishop Clement, which he was responsible for rebuilding

This "indiscreet bishop ... friar" was, of course, Clement. Alexander died from ill-health on this expedition, with Clement by his side at his deathbed. Alexander's last act was to make a grant to the bishopric of Argyll. Despite the king's death, the expedition was a success for Clement. There was a new Bishop of Argyll by 27 September 1250; in the longer term, the see continued to be ruled by bishops with no long vacancies until the

Reformation.[40] Moreover, by 1255 Eóghan had given his full allegiance to the Scottish crown, albeit because of lack of favour given to him by the King of Norway.[41]

Clement's close association with the late King Alexander II and his reputation as a successful bishop made him a key political figure during the minority of Alexander III. Clement was on the Council of Guardians, the small group of nobles and clerics who were to "govern" Scotland until the end of Alexander III's boyhood.[42] The governing Council broke down around two rival factions, one centred on Walter Comyn and the other around Alan Durward. There is little evidence about Clement's activities in regard to the Council, but he was associated with the Comyn faction, who enjoyed the ascendency after Walter gained control of government in 1251.[43] In 1255, the Durwards staged a coup at Roxburgh and ousted the "Comyn faction" from effective power.[44] Unfortunately for Alan Durward, Comyn's supporter Gamelin, who had been placed in the bishopric of St Andrews and excluded from his diocese by Durward, had fled to the papal court and convinced the Pope to excommunicate Alan. The sentence was delivered by Bishop Clement and the abbots of Melrose and Jedburgh.[45] This is Clement's last known act.[46]

Death and legacy

A chalk lithographic sketch of Dunblane Cathedral published in 1821, a half century before the reconstruction of the cathedral

The

canonries.[49]

Such flattering sentiments had even been expressed during Clement's lifetime. In 1250, the General Chapter of the Dominican Order met in London, and decreed that:

we grant to Friar Clement of our Order, a bishop of Scotland, after his death, one mass throughout the Order by every friar whomsoever is a priest.[50]

Clement was credited with being a prolific translator and writing four books (including a hagiography of St Dominic), all of which are now lost; a sermon almost certainly written by him survives.[47]

Some historians have been ambiguous about Clement's episcopate. For instance, Cynthia Neville, despite acknowledging that "the successful reform of the see was, in fact, accomplished almost exclusively as a consequence of the efforts of Clement and his successors",

native rulers of Strathearn.[52] Others have been more enthusiastic. The ecclesiastical historian and former minister of Dunblane Cathedral, James Hutchison Cockburn, agreed with Bower's eulogy and declared that the "title" of sainthood "would have been worthily bestowed".[47] Archie Duncan, more recently, stated that Clement "clearly enjoyed a reputation far wider than his domestic accomplishments alone would explain" and concluded that Clement "represents the occasional triumph of the ideal of reform of church life over the careerism which generally motivated thirteenth-century clergy".[4]

Notes

  1. ^ Robert Brydall, "Monumental Effigies of Scotland, from the Thirteenth Century to the Fifteenth Century", in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 29 (1894–95), figure 21, p. 358.
  2. ^ James Hutchison Cockburn, The Medieval Bishops of Dunblane and Their Church, (Edinburgh, 1959), pp. 46, 63, n. 3.
  3. ^ James Hutchison, "Friar Clement, OP", in The Society of Friends of Dunblane Cathedral, 7 (1956), pp. 86–93.
  4. ^ a b c d See A. A. M. Duncan, "Clement (d. 1258)", in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 , accessed 30 Nov 2006
  5. ^ French-speakers in Scotland and England are well known, and perhaps the most famous characteristic of this period in both countries; they are discussed in almost every relevant history of both countries; but for instance, French culture and language in Scotland are explored in D. D. R. Owen's The Reign of William the Lion: Kingship and Culture, 1143–1214, (East Linton, 1997); see also G. W. S. Barrow, "French after the Style of Petithachengon", in Barbara Crawford (ed.), Church, Chronicle and Learning in Medieval and Early Renaissance Scotland; (Edinburgh, 1999), pp. 187–93.
  6. ^ For examples of name-changing in England (to French names) later in life, see Ian Short, "Tam Angli Quam Franci: Self-Definition in Anglo-Norman England", in Anglo-Norman Studies, XVIII (Proceedings of the Battle Conference, 1995), pp. 160–61.
  7. ^ E.g., see Robert Bartlett, The Making of Europe, Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change: 950–1350, (London, 1993), pp. 222–23.
  8. ^ Cockburn, Medieval Bishops of Dunblane, pp. 46, 63.
  9. ^ Cockburn, Medieval Bishops of Dunblane, p. 47.
  10. ^ Malcolm Barber, The Two Cities: Medieval Europe, 1050–1320, (London, 1992), pp. 161–64.
  11. ^ Barber, The Two Cities, p. 165.
  12. ^ Ian B. Cowan, & David E. Easson, Medieval Religious Houses: Scotland With an Appendix on the Houses in the Isle of Man, Second Edition, (London, 1976), pp. 114–21; Duncan, "Clement (d. 1258)"
  13. ^ Augustin Theiner, Vetera monumenta Hibernorum et Scotorum historiam illustrantia, quae ex Vaticani Neapolis ac Florentiae, (Rome, 1864), no. 91; Cockburn, Medieval Bishops of Dunblane, p. 46.
  14. ^ Bower, Scotichronicon, ix.63, in Simon Taylor, D. E. R. Watt and Brian Scott (eds.), Scotichronicon by Walter Bower in Latin and English, vol. 5, (Aberdeen, 1990), p. 192–93.
  15. ^ John Dowden, The Bishops of Scotland, ed. J. Maitland Thomson, (Glasgow, 1912), p. 197.
  16. ^ Duncan, "Clement (d. 1258)".
  17. ^ Walter Bower, Scotichronicon, viii.72, in David J. Corner et al., Scotichronicon by Walter Bower in English and Latin, vol. 4, (Aberdeen, 1994), p. 459.
  18. ^ Cynthia Neville, Native Lordship in Medieval Scotland: The Earldoms of Strathearn and Lennox, c. 1140–1365, (Dublin, 2005), pp. 150–51.
  19. ^ G. Donaldson, "Scottish Bishops' See before the Reign of David I", in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 87 (1952–53), p. 115.
  20. ^ See D.E.R. Watt, Fasti Ecclesiae Scotinanae Medii Aevi ad annum 1638, 2nd Draft, (St Andrews, 1969), p. 88.
  21. ^ See quote above; see also, Cowan, & Easson, Medieval Religious Houses, p. 204.
  22. ^ a b c Passages from Augustin Theiner, Vetera monumenta, no. 91, and translated in Cockburn, Medieval Bishops of Dunblane, p. 49.
  23. ^ Cockburn, Medieval Bishops of Dunblane, p. 55.
  24. ^ Cockburn, Medieval Bishops of Dunblane, pp. 50–56.
  25. ^ Cowan, & Easson, Medieval Religious Houses, p. 91.
  26. ^ See Cockburn, Medieval Bishops of Dunblane, p. 52.
  27. ^ Cynthia Neville, Native Lordship, p. 154.
  28. ^ Cockburn, Medieval Bishops of Dunblane, pp. 55–56.
  29. ^ Neville, Native Lordship, p. 152.
  30. ^ 'Cockburn, Medieval Bishops of Dunblane, p. 56.
  31. ^ Cockburn, Medieval Bishops of Dunblane, p. 57; Duncan, "Clement (d. 1258)".
  32. ^ See Lawrence, "Edmund of Abingdon [St Edmund of Abingdon, Edmund Rich] (c.1174–1240)" and Duncan, "Clement (d. 1258)".
  33. ^ See G. W. S. Barrow, "Margaret [St Margaret] (d. 1093)", in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 , accessed 30 Nov 2006 and Duncan, "Clement (d. 1258)"
  34. ^ Cockburn, Medieval Bishops of Dunblane, pp. 59–60.
  35. ^ William Alexander Lindsay, John Dowden, and John Maitland Thomson (eds.), Charters, Bulls and Other Documents relating to the Abbey of Inchaffray Chiefly from the Originals in the Charter Chest of the Earl of Kinnoull, (Publications of the Scottish History Society, vol. 56, 1908), no. 74, on p. 65, i.e. the charter, dated to that year, to Inchaffray Abbey, recording a grant by one Gilla Chríst son of Maol Choluim mac Nechtain; Bishop Clement is recorded as "C. dei gracia Dunblanensis episcopi tempore huius collacionis curam episcopatus Argadie optinentis."
  36. ^ Cockburn, Medieval Bishops of Dunblane, p. 58.
  37. ^ Dennis Turner, "The Bishops of Argyll and the Castle of Achanduin", in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 128 (1998), p. 648; this move, incidentally, never took place.
  38. Marjorie Anderson
    (ed.) (Stamford, 1991), pp. 360–61.
  39. ^ Anderson, Scottish Annals, p. 361.
  40. ^ Turner, "Bishops of Argyll", p. 648.
  41. ^ G. W. S. Barrow, Kingship and Unity: Scotland, 1000–1306, (Edinburgh, 1981), p. 116.
  42. ^ See A. O. Anderson, Early Sources of Scottish History: AD 500–1286, 2 Vols, (Edinburgh, 1922), vol. ii, p. 583, n. 2.
  43. ^ Alan Young, "The Political Role of Walter Comyn, Earl of Menteith During the Minority of Alexander III of Scotland", in K. J. Stringer (ed.), Essays on the nobility of medieval Scotland, (Edinburgh, 1985), p. 136; Duncan, "Clement (d. 1258)".
  44. ^ D. E. R. Watt, "The minority of Alexander III of Scotland", in the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th series, 21 (1971), pp. 1–23; Matthew H. Hammond, "The Durward Family in the Thirteenth Century", in The Exercise of Power in Medieval Scotland, c. 1200–1500, (Dublin, 2003), pp. 130–33.
  45. ^ A. O. Anderson, Early Sources, p. 588.
  46. ^ Cockburn, Medieval Bishops of Dunblane, p. 62.
  47. ^ a b c Cockburn, Medieval Bishops of Dunblane, p. 63.
  48. ^ D. E. R. Watt, A Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Graduates to AD 1410, (Oxford, 1977), p. 103.
  49. ^ Bower, Scotichronicon, x.11, in Simon Taylor, et al., Scotichronicon by Walter Bower, vol. 5, pp. 320–23.
  50. ^ Cockburn, Medieval Bishops of Dunblane, pp. 62–63.
  51. ^ Neville, Native Lordship, p. 151.
  52. ^ Neville, Native Lordship, pp. 152–55.

References

  • Anderson, Alan Orr, Early Sources of Scottish History: AD 500–1286, 2 Vols, (Edinburgh, 1922), vol. ii
  • Anderson, Alan Orr, Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers: AD 500–1286, (London, 1908), republished,
    Marjorie Anderson
    (ed.) (Stamford, 1991)
  • Barber, Malcolm, The Two Cities: Medieval Europe, 1050–1320, (London, 1992)
  • Barrow, G. W. S., "French after the Style of Petithachengon", in Barbara Crawford (ed.), Church, Chronicle and Learning in Medieval and Early Renaissance Scotland, (Edinburgh, 1999), pp. 187–93
  • Barrow, G. W. S., Kingship and Unity: Scotland, 1000–1306, (Edinburgh, 1981)
  • Barrow, G. W. S., "Margaret [St Margaret] (d. 1093)", in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 , accessed 30 Nov 2006
  • Bartlett, Robert, The Making of Europe, Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change: 950–1350, (London, 1993)
  • Brydall, Robert, "Monumental Effigies of Scotland, from the Thirteenth Century to the Fifteenth Century", in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 29 (1894–95), pp. 329–410
  • Cockburn, James Hutchison
    , "Friar Clement, OP", in The Society of Friends of Dunblane Cathedral, 7 (1956), pp. 86–93
  • Cockburn, James Hutchison, The Medieval Bishops of Dunblane and Their Church, (Edinburgh, 1959)
  • Corner, David J., Scott, A. B., Scott, William W. & Watt, D. E. R., (eds.), Scotichronicon by Walter Bower in English and Latin, vol. 4, (Aberdeen, 1994)
  • Cowan, Ian B. & Easson, David E., Medieval Religious Houses: Scotland With an Appendix on the Houses in the Isle of Man, Second Edition, (London, 1976)
  • Donaldson, G., "Scottish Bishops' See before the Reign of David I", in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 87 (1952–53), pp. 106–77
  • Dowden, John, The Bishops of Scotland, ed. J. Maitland Thomson, (Glasgow, 1912)
  • Duncan, A. A. M., "Clement (d. 1258)", in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 , accessed 30 Nov 2006
  • Hammond, Matthew H., "The Durward Family in the Thirteenth Century", in The Exercise of Power in Medieval Scotland, c. 1200–1500, (Dublin, 2003), pp. 118–38
  • Lawrence, C. H., "Edmund of Abingdon [St Edmund of Abingdon, Edmund Rich] (c.1174–1240)", in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2005 , accessed 30 Nov 2006
  • Lindsay, William Alexander, Dowden, John, and Thomson, John Maitland, (eds.), Charters, Bulls and Other Documents relating to the Abbey of Inchaffray Chiefly from the Originals in the Charter Chest of the Earl of Kinnoull, (Publications of the Scottish History Society, vol. 56, 1908)
  • Neville, Cynthia J., Native Lordship in Medieval Scotland: The Earldoms of Strathearn and Lennox, c. 1140–1365, (Dublin, 2005).
  • Owen, D. D. R., The Reign of William the Lion: Kingship and Culture, 1143–1214, (East Linton, 1997)
  • Short, Ian, "Tam Angli Quam Franci: Self-Definition in Anglo-Norman England", in Anglo-Norman Studies, XVIII (Proceedings of the Battle Conference, 1995), pp. 153–75
  • Taylor, Simon, Watt, D. E. R., and Scott, Brian, (eds.), Scotichronicon by Walter Bower in Latin and English, vol. 5, (Aberdeen, 1990)
  • Theiner, Augustin, Vetera monumenta Hibernorum et Scotorum historiam illustrantia, quae ex Vaticani Neapolis ac Florentiae, (Rome, 1864)
  • Turner, Dennis, "The Bishops of Argyll and the Castle of Achanduin", in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 128 (1998), pp. 645–52
  • Watt, D. E. R., A Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Graduates to AD 1410, (Oxford, 1977), pp. 99–103
  • Watt, D. E. R., Fasti Ecclesiae Scotinanae Medii Aevi ad annum 1638, 2nd Draft, (St Andrews, 1969)
  • Watt, D. E. R. & Shead, N.F. (eds.), The Heads of Religious Houses in Scotland from the 12th to the 16th Centuries, The Scottish Records Society, New Series, Volume 24, (Edinburgh, 2001)
  • Watt, D. E. R., "The minority of Alexander III of Scotland", in the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th series, 21 (1971), pp. 1–23
  • Young, Alan, "The Political Role of Walter Comyn, Earl of Menteith During the Minority of Alexander III of Scotland", in K. J. Stringer (ed.), Essays on the Nobility of Medieval Scotland, (Edinburgh, 1985), pp. 131–49

External links

Religious titles
Preceded by Bishop of Dunblane
1233–1258 		Succeeded by
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