Hugh de Benin (Benham or Benhyem) (d. 1282) was bishop of

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

. He succeeded Richard Pottock in the see in 1272.

Name

If his name represents

Benholm Benholm is a small settlement in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK. It is now a conservation area and is home to Benholm Mill. The A92 passes the eastern edge of Benholm. The settlement was served by Birnie Road Halt railway station from 1865 to 1 ...

, then he may have come from an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Anglo-Norman Anglo-Norman may refer to: *Anglo-Normans, the medieval ruling class in England following the Norman conquest of 1066 * Anglo-Norman language **Anglo-Norman literature * Anglo-Norman England, or Norman England, the period in English history from 10 ...

family recently settled in the Mearns (i.e.

Kincardineshire Kincardineshire, also known as the Mearns (from the Scottish Gaelic meaning "the Stewartry"), is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area on the coast of northeast Scotland. It is bounded by Aberdeenshire on the north and ...

),Summerson, "Bennum, Hugh of (d. 1281/2)". as the name is linguistically

, unusual in settlement names for the area in this period; the other possibility is that the name "Benholm" is an anglicized corruption of a

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

name in ''Beinn'', a possibility strengthened by the spellings ''Benne'' and ''Benin'' found in the

cartulary A cartulary or chartulary (; Latin: ''cartularium'' or ''chartularium''), also called ''pancarta'' or ''codex diplomaticus'', is a medieval manuscript volume or roll (''rotulus'') containing transcriptions of original documents relating to the fo ...

Arbroath Abbey Arbroath Abbey, in the Scottish town of Arbroath, was founded in 1178 by King William the Lion for a group of Tironensian Benedictine monks from Kelso Abbey. It was consecrated in 1197 with a dedication to the deceased Saint Thomas Becket, who ...

.Keith, ''Historical Catalogue'', p. 108. He may have been related to the Christiana Benin who married into the Lundie family of Fife.

Career

Hugh chose an ecclesiastical career and by 1266, if not before, he was

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

of the

diocese of Aberdeen Diocese of Aberdeen was one of the 13 (14, after 1633) dioceses of the Scottish church, before the abolition of the episcopacy in 1689. Early history A see was founded in 1063 at Mortlach by Blessed Beyn. The earliest mention of the See of ...

. His career moved forward further in the early 1270s when, after the death of the previous bishop, the chapter and

dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

of Aberdeen elected him as the new

Bishop of Aberdeen The Bishop of Aberdeen (originally Bishop of Mortlach, in Latin Murthlacum) was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Aberdeen, one of Scotland's 13 medieval bishoprics, whose first recorded bishop is an early 12th-century cleric named Nech ...

. The

decree A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state (such as the president of a republic or a monarch), according to certain procedures (usually established in a constitution). It has the force of law. The particular term used for ...

of election was relayed to the pope by Hugh's

proctor Proctor (a variant of ''procurator'') is a person who takes charge of, or acts for, another. The title is used in England and some other English-speaking countries in three principal contexts: * In law, a proctor is a historical class of lawye ...

s Thomas de Benin, a likely brother or relative of Hugh and his successor as Chancellor, and Roger de Castello. Hugh was consecrated at

Orvieto Orvieto () is a city and ''comune'' in the Province of Terni, southwestern Umbria, Italy, situated on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tuff. The city rises dramatically above the almost-vertical faces of tuff cliffs that are compl ...

Pope Gregory X Pope Gregory X ( la, Gregorius X; – 10 January 1276), born Teobaldo Visconti, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1 September 1271 to his death and was a member of the Secular Franciscan Order. He was ...

between 27 March and 23 July 1272. Shortly after his return to Scotland he was made arbiter of a dispute about tithes between the clergy and the laity of the kingdom, and in a provincial council held at Perth was successful in effecting an arrangement of the difference. Bishop Hugh was one of the bishops of Scotland attending the

Council of Lyon The Council of Lyon may refer to a number of synods or councils of the Roman Catholic Church, held in Lyon, France or in nearby Anse. Previous to 1313, a certain Abbé Martin counted twenty-eight synods or councils held at Lyons or at Anse. Some ...

s in 1274. Hugh was a trusted figure with both Pope Gregory and

Pope Nicholas III Pope Nicholas III ( la, Nicolaus III; c. 1225 – 22 August 1280), born Giovanni Gaetano Orsini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 November 1277 to his death on 22 August 1280. He was a Roman nobleman who ...

, and was appointed several times to judge for the Pope the fitness of different Scottish bishops-elect. He was one of the most active of contemporary Scottish bishops, heading a provincial council at

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, enjoying a good relationship with the

Earl of Buchan The Mormaer () or Earl of Buchan () was originally the provincial ruler of the medieval province of Buchan. Buchan was the first Mormaerdom in the High Medieval Kingdom of the Scots to pass into the hands of a non-Scottish family in the male li ...

Alexander Comyn Alexander Comyn, 2nd Earl of Buchan (died 1289) was a Scoto-Norman magnate who was one of the most important figures in the 13th century Kingdom of Scotland. He was the son of William Comyn, jure uxoris Earl of Buchan, and Marjory, Countess o ...

, and commencing new work on St Machar's Cathedral. He died early in 1282 on an island in ''lacus de Gowlis'' (Loch Goul, now called Bishops Loch) in the parish of New Machar), where the bishops had their lodging before the canonry was erected. According to Boethius, the bishop died of the

cold Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

(''catarrho exundate subito interiit''), according to another account he choked (''suffocatus fuit''), and still another by an

ambush An ambush is a long-established military tactics, military tactic in which a combatant uses an advantage of concealment or the element of surprise to attack unsuspecting enemy combatants from concealed positions, such as among dense underbru ...

or to some other kind of treachery (''insidiis occubuit'').Dowden, ''Bishops of Scotland'', pp. 107-8; Summerson, "Bennum, Hugh of (d. 1281/2)"; it may be the loch now called Bishop's Loch, see Dowden and also Keith, ''Historical Catalogue'', p. 108. Hugh de Benin was the author of ''Provincialium Statutorum Sanctiones'' and ''Novæ Episcoporum Prærogativæ.''

Notes

;Attribution

References

* Dowden, John, ''The Bishops of Scotland'', ed. J. Maitland Thomson, (Glasgow, 1912) * Keith, Robert, ''An Historical Catalogue of the Scottish Bishops: Down to the Year 1688'', (London, 1924) * Summerson, Henry, "Bennum, Hugh of (d. 1281/2)", in the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 200
retrieved 21 Feb 2007
* Watt, D.E.R., ''Fasti Ecclesiae Scotinanae Medii Aevi ad annum 1638'', 2nd Draft, (St Andrews, 1969) {{DEFAULTSORT:Benin, Hugh De 13th-century births 1282 deaths Bishops of Aberdeen People from Kincardine and Mearns 13th-century Scottish Roman Catholic bishops Year of birth unknown

Name

Career

See also

Notes

References