''M. de Dunblan'' is the way the first known
Bishop of Dunblane
The Bishop of Dunblane or Bishop of Strathearn was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Dunblane or Strathearn, one of medieval Scotland's thirteen bishoprics. It was based at Dunblane Cathedral, now a parish church of the Church of Scotland ...
is written in a copy of a
papal bull of
Pope Adrian IV
Pope Adrian IV ( la, Adrianus IV; born Nicholas Breakspear (or Brekespear); 1 September 1159, also Hadrian IV), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 4 December 1154 to his death in 1159. He is the only Englishman t ...
preserved in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
; the bull dates to 1155.
The papal bull was addressed to the bishops of Scotland ordering them to submit to the metropolitan authority of the
Archbishop of York
The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers th ...
; the copyist made two other mistakes in the initials of bishops, so it is not totally reliable.
Cockburn speculated that ''M.'' might stand for Máel Ísu; it is very unlikely that ''M.'' was a mistake for ''La.'', standing for
Laurence
Laurence is an English and French given name (usually female in French and usually male in English). The English masculine name is a variant of Lawrence and it originates from a French form of the Latin ''Laurentius'', a name meaning "man from ...
the successor of ''M.'' at Dunblane.
[Dowden, ''Bishops'', p. 193, n. 1.]
Notes
References
*
Cockburn, James Hutchison, ''The Medieval Bishops of Dunblane and Their Church'', (Edinburgh, 1959)
*
Dowden, John, ''The Bishops of Scotland'', ed. J. Maitland Thomson, (Glasgow, 1912)
*
Watt, D. E. R., & Murray, A. L., ''Fasti Ecclesiae Scotinanae Medii Aevi ad annum 1638'', Revised Edition, (Edinburgh, 2003)
12th-century deaths
12th-century Scottish Roman Catholic bishops
Bishops of Dunblane
Year of birth unknown
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