Simon de Tosny (Toni, Tonei, Toeni, Toeny, Toney) was a 12th-century

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

and

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pref ...

. Simon was a monk of

Melrose Abbey St Mary's Abbey, Melrose is a partly ruined monastery of the Cistercian order in Melrose, Roxburghshire, in the Scottish Borders. It was founded in 1136 by Cistercian monks at the request of King David I of Scotland and was the chief house of ...

, and served there until he moved to become

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...

Coggeshall Abbey Coggeshall Abbey, situated south of the town of Coggeshall in Essex, was founded in 1140 by King Stephen of England and Matilda of Boulogne, as a Savigniac house but became Cistercian in 1147 upon the absorption of the order. History In 121 ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. He resigned this abbey in 1168, and returned to Melrose. In 1171, he was elected as

Bishop of Moray The Bishop of Moray or Bishop of Elgin was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Moray in northern Scotland, one of Scotland's 13 medieval bishoprics. If the foundation charter of the monastery at Scone is reliable, then the Bishopric of Moray ...

, and was consecrated at

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...

on 23 January 1172. He was a distant cousin of King William who may or may not have played some part in his election. His cathedral was at Birnie, Moray. He witnessed several charters and was present at the Council of Northampton in 1176. He is the first bishop named on the bishop-list in the ''Moray Registrum''. He died on 17 September 1184 and was buried in

Birnie Kirk Birnie Kirk is a 12th century parish church located near Elgin, in Moray, Scotland. It was the first cathedral of the Bishop of Moray and is one of the oldest in Scotland to have been in continuous use. The graveyard, symbol stone and archaeol ...

. Aside from the brief episcopate of Andrew (consecrated 1184, died 1185) he was succeeded as bishop by

Richard de Lincoln Richard de Lincoln was a medieval Anglo-Normans, Anglo-Norman prelate. Although of English origin, he was a royal clerk in the administration of King William I of Scotland, William of Scotland. With royal support, he was elected Bishop of Moray o ...

. Watt, D.E.R., ''Fasti''

Notes

References

* Dowden, John, The Bishops of Scotland, ed. J. Maitland Thomson, (Glasgow, 1912) * Fawcett, Richard & Oram, Richard, ''Elgin Cathedral and the Diocese of Moray'', Historic Scotland (Edinburgh, 2014), * Keith, Robert, ''An Historical Catalogue of the Scottish Bishops: Down to the Year 1688'', (London, 1924) * Pennant, T. "A Tour in Scotland 1769" (London, 1790) * Watt, D.E.R., ''Fasti Ecclesiae Scotinanae Medii Aevi ad annum 1638'', 2nd Draft, (St Andrews, 1969)

External links

Houses of Cistercian monks Abbey of Coggeshall (BHO)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tosny, Simon de 1184 deaths English abbots Bishops of Moray English Cistercians Scoto-Normans 12th-century Scottish Roman Catholic bishops Year of birth unknown 12th-century English people