Clement of Dunblane
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.
He was given the job of restoring the viability of the diocese and installing a new bishop; this involved forming a close relationship with King Alexander II of Scotland.
In 1250 Clement had been able to install a new bishop in Argyll and had become one of the Guardians appointed to govern Scotland during the minority of King Alexander III.
The Analecta Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum claims that he was "a Scot by birth", and that he was admitted into the Dominican Order of Paris in 1219.
[3] The historian Archie Duncan was cautious about a date as firm and early as 1221, and wrote that Clement "had entered the Dominican order by the later 1220s".
[4] Later tradition had it that the Dominican Order entered Scotland in 1230, encouraged by King Alexander II and William de Malveisin, Bishop of St Andrews.
Since there was no electoral college for the diocese, Pope Gregory IX charged the bishops of St Andrews, Brechin and Dunkeld, to find and nominate a suitable replacement.
Importantly, perhaps, King Alexander was later noted for "his concern for building churches for the Friars Preacher [Fratrum precipue Predicatorum]".
[19] There was a community of Céli Dé at Muthill until at least the end of the 13th century, and the base for the archdeaconry of the diocese appears to have varied between there and Dunblane until the time of Bishop Clement.
[22] In response to Clement's visit, moreover, the Pope had empowered the Bishops of Dunkeld, Brechin and St Andrews to take action to rescue the bishopric.
It made Clement's task vis-à-vis these institutions easier, but on the other hand the possibility had emerged that Dunblane could disappear as an episcopal centre.
The agreement placed most of Menteith's churches under the control of the earl; however, Clement obtained several concessions, including the right to receive episcopal dues from the new priory.
[26] Overall, Clement's successes were considerable considering the opposition which he faced, but even after his death, only 12 of the 26 parish churches in the diocese were under the bishop's direct control.
[31] Clement's position as Bishop of Dunblane provided the opportunity to participate on the larger national and international stage.
In 1241, the Cistercian general chapter began postulating the Pope about the saintliness of Edmund of Abingdon, formerly Archbishop of Canterbury.
[33] Meanwhile, in 1247, Pope Innocent IV gave Clement the more onerous and demanding appointment of papal tax collector.
The lack of royal authority in Argyll made it difficult for the national and international church to exercise control in the province; at the same time, establishing a strong bishopric in the area was vital to integrating the area fully into the kingdom, an aim cherished by the contemporary king, Alexander II.
[38] The contemporary historian Matthew Paris wrote that: The king therefore declared Eóghan unfaithful and pursued him hostilely by ship near Argyll; urged, as is said, by the vehement promptings of a certain indiscreet bishop of Strathearn, a friar to wit of the order of the Preachers.
Clement was on the Council of Guardians, the small group of nobles and clerics who were to "govern" Scotland until the end of Alexander III's boyhood.
There is little evidence about Clement's activities in regard to the Council, but he was associated with the Comyn faction, who enjoyed the ascendency after Walter gained control of government in 1251.
[48] Clement's death was also noted by Walter Bower, a Lowland Scottish historian writing in the 1440s, who included the following obituary: Clement bishop of Dunblane died, that outstanding member of the Order of Preachers, a man most eloquent in translating various tongues, powerful in speech and action in the sight of God and of men.
He found the cathedral church of his diocese reduced by the neglect of his predecessors to such a state of decay that the divine offices were celebrated in it scarcely three times a week, as if it were some rural chapel.
He built it up to be a hallowed sanctuary, enriched it with lands and possessions, and increased its prestige by adding prebends and canonries.
[50] Clement was credited with being a prolific translator and writing four books (including a hagiography of St Dominic), all of which are now lost; a sermon almost certainly written by him survives.
For instance, Cynthia Neville, despite acknowledging that "the successful reform of the see was, in fact, accomplished almost exclusively as a consequence of the efforts of Clement and his successors",[51] nevertheless expresses some scepticism about his achievements and notices his failure to gain the patronage of the native rulers of Strathearn.
The ecclesiastical historian and former minister of Dunblane Cathedral, James Hutchison Cockburn, agreed with Bower's eulogy and declared that the "title" of sainthood "would have been worthily bestowed".
