John Dongan | |
---|---|
Bishop of Down | |
Church | Roman Catholic Church |
See | Diocese of Down |
In office | 1394–1413 |
Personal details | |
Born | unknown |
Died | 1413 or after |
Previous post(s) | Bishop of Mann and the Isles (1374–1387/1391) Bishop of Derry (1391–1394) |
John Dongan [Donegan, Donnegan, Donkan, Duncan] (died 1413) was a medieval Manx prelate. After holding the position of Archdeacon of Down, he held three successive bishoprics, Mann and the Isles (Sodor), then the see of Derry and lastly, Down.
He resigned his last bishopric in 1413, and died afterwards at an unrecorded date. He was the last bishop of the united diocese of Sodor, which split into the "Scottish" and "Irish" (Manx) parts because of the Western Schism. [1]
According to the Manx Chronicle , he was a native Manxman. [2] Despite this, the earliest major ecclesiastical position he is recorded to have obtained was Irish: in 1368 Pope Urban V appointed him Archdeacon of Down. [3] (Dongan was originally Donnagáin and found in the south-Ulster / north-Leinster area . In the following years Dongan worked as a papal tax-collector and nuncio in Ireland. [3]
This service in Ireland was further rewarded in 1374 when he was appointed Bishop of Mann and the Isles (Sodor), receiving consecration from Simon Langham, Cardinal-Bishop of Palestrina on either 25 or 26 November 1374. [4] He did not immediately make it back to the British Isles, because while returning from Avignon he was kidnapped. [3] After being imprisoned at Boulogne-sur-Mer, he was ransomed for 500 marks. [5]
He is not known to have returned to the Isle of Man until 25 January 1377, when he is said to have celebrated his first Mass at St Germanus' Cathedral, Peel. [6] Charter evidence confirming two Manx churches to Whithorn Priory, reveals that on 5 February he held a "general chapter", which may have involved a general investigation of church landholdings in the diocese in his role as papal nuncio and tax-collector for the diocese, two roles he had received in addition to the bishopric of Sodor in 1374. [6]
In 1380, allegations were lodged against Dongan that revenues he had been collecting – in an official capacity as collector in Ireland for Pope Urban – were illegally retained. [3] These allegations did not turn out to be of great consequence, and he sided with English-backed Urban against the Scottish-backed anti-pope Clement VII. The latter deprived him of bishopric on 15 July 1387, appointing Michael, previously Archbishop of Cashel, to replace him. [7]
Although Dongan retained de facto episcopal authority in the Isle of Man, this marked, in the words of one historian, the "final rift between the Hebrides and the Isle of Man within the diocese". [3] The northern, Scottish-controlled portion of his diocese was lost to the new bishop, and in fact Dongan was to be the last bishop to preside over both the Scottish and English-controlled islands that had until then formed the diocese of Sodor. [8]
These developments meant that Dongan's already poor diocese was minuscule, too small really to necessitate a full-time bishop, and so Dongan's episcopal status was put to use elsewhere by busier prelates. [9] In the early 1390s he is found in England acting as a kind of deputy to various English bishops. On 14 January 1390, for instance, he is found working on the commission of the Bishop of Salisbury. [6]
In 1391 and 1392 he was performing ordinations in the diocese of London on behalf of the Bishop of London, though he was no longer at that stage Bishop of Sodor. [6]
By this point the non-Avignon papacy, under Pope Boniface IX (Urban's successor), decided to move Dongan into an Irish see. Ireland was (as a territory of the King of England) in their allegiance and thus candidates they appointed to Irish bishoprics could actually expect to take physical possession. On 11 July 1391 he was provided to the bishopric of Derry in the province of Armagh. [10] He held this position for only three years, as on 16 September 1394 he was translated to the bishopric of Down, also in the province of Armagh. [11]
As the bishop of Down, his most notable role was his diplomatic interactions on behalf of the English crown with the native Gaelic leaders of Ireland and Scotland. In 1405 he was given this role and appointed "keeper of the liberty of Ulster". [3] In September 1407 he and Janico Dartas, "Admiral of Ireland", were authorised to arrange a peace with Domhnall of Islay, Lord of the Isles. [3]
Such negotiations were still taking place in 1408, and though records for the process vanish afterwards, the two marriages recorded in 1410 between Dartas' children and the family of this Scottish magnate suggests a peaceful accord was reached. [3]
Bishop Dongan resigned his see in 1413. [12] This is the last notice of him, so it is unclear when exactly he died, though it is presumed to be soon afterwards. [3]
Robert Waldby was a native of York and friar of the Order of Saint Augustine who followed Edward, the Black Prince into Aquitaine. After studying at Toulouse, he became professor of theology there.
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Michael Ochiltree [Ouchtre] was a 15th-century Scottish prelate and administrator. A close associate of King James I of Scotland, from the late 1410s he rose in rank from canon to Dean of Dunblane and then Bishop of Dunblane. He was responsible for the coronation of King James II of Scotland, and he obtained a grant from the crown which allowed the comparatively small diocese of Dunblane to attain historically unprecedented viability.
The Chronicles of the Kings of Mann and the Isles or Manx Chronicle is a medieval Latin manuscript relating the early history of the Isle of Man.
Thomas de Buittle [Butil, Butill, Butyll, Butyl, Bucyl] was a Scottish prelate, clerk and papal auditor active in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. Probably originating in Galloway, Scotland, Thomas took a university career in canon law in England and France, before taking up service at the court of Avignon Pope Benedict XIII. He obtained a number of benefices in the meantime, including the position of Archdeacon of Galloway, and is the earliest known and probably first provost of the collegiate church of Maybole. The height of his career came however when the Pope provided him to the bishopric of Galloway, a position he held from 1415 until his death sometime between 1420 and 1422.
Reinald Macer [also called Reginald] was a medieval Cistercian monk and bishop, active in the Kingdom of Scotland during the reign of William the Lion. Originally a monk of Melrose Abbey, he rose to become Bishop of Ross in 1195, and held this position until his death in 1213. He is given the nickname Macer in Roger of Howden's Chronica, a French word that meant "skinny".
Robert Capellanus, was a chaplain of King William I of Scotland and afterwards, Bishop of Ross (1214–1249).
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John Bullock O.S.A. was an Augustinian canon and prelate active in the 15th century Kingdom of Scotland. While earning a university degree between 1409 and 1417, Bullock gained several benefices in Scotland, and claimed the headship of St Andrews Cathedral Priory before becoming Bishop of Ross in 1418. He held the latter position until his death, which occurred in either 1439 or 1440.
Roger was a churchman based in the 14th century Kingdom of Scotland, and active as Bishop of Ross from 1325 until 1350. Before attaining this position, Roger was a canon of Abernethy; it is possible that Roger was an Augustinian, because it is often thought that Abernethy did not become a collegiate church until some time after 1328, after the marriage of the Abernethy heiress to the Earl of Angus; this however is not certain, as the exact details of Abernethy's transition from being an Céli Dé abbey to an Augustinian priory to a secular college are only vaguely understood.
Laurence de Ergadia was a thirteenth-century Scottish bishop. Probably from the MacDougall kindred of Argyll, Laurence had become a Dominican friar and presumably university graduate before being elected Bishop of Argyll, an election which took place sometime between 1262 and 1264. Although the election was quashed by the Pope in 1264, the Pope gave him a fresh provision to the bishopric. Laurence appears intermittently in the records during his three and a half decade episcopate, but his activities in his own diocese are badly recorded. He died as Bishop of Argyll sometime in either 1299 or 1300.
Bernard was a Tironensian abbot, administrator and bishop active in late 13th- and early 14th-century Scotland, during the First War of Scottish Independence. He first appears in the records already established as Abbot of Kilwinning in 1296, disappearing for a decade before re-emerging as Chancellor of Scotland then Abbot of Arbroath.
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The Diocese of the Isles, also known as the Diocese of Suðreyar, or the Diocese of Sodor, was one of the dioceses of medieval Norway. After the mid-13th-century Treaty of Perth, the diocese was accounted as one of the 13 dioceses of Scotland. The original seat of the bishopric appears to have been at Peel, on St Patrick's Isle, where indeed it continued to be under English overlordship; the Bishopric of the Isles as it was after the split was relocated to the north, firstly to Snizort and then Iona.
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