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. The bishopric itself certainly derives from an older Gaelic Christian community. According to legend, the Christian community of Dunblane was derived from the mission of St. Bláán, a saint originally associated with the monastery of Cenn Garath (Kingarth) on the Isle of Bute. Although the bishopric had its origins in the 1150s or before, the cathedral was not built nor was the seat (cathedra) of the diocese fixed at Dunblane until the episcopate of Clement.
Clement was a 13th-century Dominican friar who was the first member of the Dominican Order in Britain and Ireland to become a bishop. In 1233, he was selected to lead the ailing diocese of Dunblane in Scotland, and faced a struggle to bring the bishopric of Dunblane to financial viability. This involved many negotiations with the powerful religious institutions and secular authorities which had acquired control of the revenue that would normally have been the entitlement of Clement's bishopric. The negotiations proved difficult, forcing Clement to visit the papal 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.
Osbert was an early 13th-century cleric who held the position of Bishop of Dunblane (Scotland). A mandate for a new election was issued in January 1226 after the presumed resignation of Osbert's predecessor Radulf. Osbert's name appears in the cartulary of Cambuskenneth Abbey, dating 1227 x 1231, where he is called "Bishop of Strathearn". An unnamed bishop of Dunblane occurs in the Dunfermline Registrum, dating to April 1227, and this was certainly Osbert. He also appears in attendance at a council held in Dundee in 1230. He had become an Augustinian canon at Holyrood Abbey by the time of his recorded death in 1231.
Robert de Prebenda was a 13th-century Anglo-French cleric who was a Bishop of Dunblane, Scotland.
Abraham was an early 13th-century Scottish cleric who held the position of Bishop of Dunblane. He was a chaplain to the Mormaer of Strathearn, Gille Brígte.
Roger de Balnebrich [de Balnebrech, de Balnebriech, de Ballinbreth] was a 14th-century Scottish churchman. Roger received a university education, being styled Magister ("Master") by August 1313, though it is not known where he took his degree; the degree, however, was almost certainly done in canon law. His name derives either from Ballinbreich in Fife or Balnabriech, in Brechin, Angus.
Laurence is the first Bishop of Dunblane to be known by name. A document dating to 27 February 1155, had an M. de Dunblan, but no more is known of this man and it is unlikely that M. is a mistake for La..
M. de Dunblan is the way the first known Bishop of Dunblane is written in a copy of a papal bull of Pope Adrian IV preserved in England; the bull dates to 1155.
Simon is the third known 12th century Bishop of Dunblane. Nothing is known of Simon's background as there are numerous Simons in Scotland in this period, both native and foreign. There is a Symon de Liberatione who witnessed a charter of King William the Lion and whom Watt and Murray suggested may have been the later Bishop of Dunblane, while there was in the same decade a local landholder and ecclesiastical patron in the diocese of Dunblane called Simón son of Mac Bethad.
Nicholas de Balmyle, also called Nicholas of St Andrews, was a Scottish administrator and prelate in the late 13th century and early 14th century. A graduate of an unknown university, he served his earliest years as a clergyman at St Andrews, moving on to hold churches in Lothian as well as deputising to two archdeacons of Lothian.
Nicholas O. Tiron, Abbot of Arbroath and Bishop of Dunblane, was a late 13th-century and early 14th-century churchman in the Kingdom of Scotland. Little is known about Nicholas until he appeared on 21 November 1299, holding the position of Abbot of Arbroath in a charter of that abbey; the last attestation of his predecessor Henry can be dated to 16 October 1296, so that Nicholas must have become abbot sometime in between these two dates.
Andrew Magnus was a 14th-century Scottish prelate. Of unknown background, he is recorded for the first time in a document dating to 28 November 1365, holding the position of Archdeacon of Dunblane. Having merely been collated to this position by an ordinary, perhaps the Bishop of Dunblane Walter de Coventre, he received a fresh papal provision on 6 January 1367.
William de Cambuslang was a 14th-century Scottish churchman, presumably coming from a family based at or originating from Cambuslang near Glasgow.
Radulf is an obscure churchman in early 13th-century Scotland, elected as Bishop of Dunblane some time between 1223 and 1225. The first of only two notices of his existence occurs in an Arbroath Abbey deed where he is styled "Radulf elect of Dunblane"; the document can be dated to 1223–1225. On 12 January 1226 Pope Honorius III instructed the Bishop of St Andrews, the Bishop of Moray and the Bishop of Caithness, to enjoin a new election for the bishopric of Dunblane, as "R. elected Bishop of Dunblane" had resigned in the Pope's presence a short time before. There are no clues as to Radulf's career after that. The Cathedral chapter of the diocese elected one Osbert in his place. Cockburn suggested Radulf was probably a Frenchman who had immigrated to Scotland, who got elected Bishop, but decided he would rather stay in Continental Europe after he travelled there for consecration, perhaps being offered a better post there.
Richard de Pontefract O. P. was an English Dominican friar active during the reign King Edward II. On 25 June 1320, King Edward petitioned the papacy for Richard to fill the see of Dunblane, vacant by the death of Nicholas de Balmyle. Although King Edward probably did not expect to have much luck, because of the circumstances of Wars of Scottish Independence, Edward claimed the right of patronage to Scottish sees. The vacant bishopric was eventually filled by Maurice, the Abbot of Inchaffray.
Walter Stewart was a 15th-century churchman in the Kingdom of Scotland. He was a cousin of King James II of Scotland, being like King James a grandson to King Robert III of Scotland.
William O. Tiron. was a late 13th-century Tironensian abbot and bishop in the Kingdom of Scotland. He appears in the extant sources for the first time on 25 April 1276; he is Abbot of Arbroath. According to the Scotichronicon, the work of the 15th-century historian Walter Bower, William's predecessor Adam de Inverlunan had died in 1275, so William probably became abbot in either that year or in 1276.
Jonathan was a churchman and prelate active in late twelfth- and early thirteenth century Strathearn, in the Kingdom of Scotland. He was the Bishop of Dunblane during the time of Gille Brigte of Strathearn, and it was during Jonathan's episcopate that Gille Brigte founded an Augustinian priory at Inchaffray.
John Spalding was a 15th-century churchman based at Brechin in Angus, Scotland. Spalding became Dean of Brechin in 1456; he was confirmed in this position by the Pope on 5 October 1458.
James Chisholm, Bishop of Dunblane, was the eldest son of Edmund Chisholm, the first Chisholm to own the estate of Cromlix in Dunblane parish, Strathearn, having moved from the Scottish Borders. In his early years as a clergyman, he was a chaplain to King James III of Scotland; the king apparently sent him to Rome for some time.
