The Chronicle of Melrose tells us that "in the same year, four months before his death, he [Alexander] had caused Robert, prior of Scone, to be elected bishop of St Andrews, but his ordination (i.e. consecration) was delayed for some time".
[8] It is relatively clear that he did this with the co-operation of Athelwold, the first prior of St. Oswald's, and Bishop of Carlisle, a fellow Nostell monk who was head of Robert's religious community in the days before the latter moved to Scotland.
His post was that of Summi (Archi)Episcopi Scotorum, called in the contemporary Scottish vernacular "Ardepscop Alban", that is, "High Bishop of Scotland".
[14] Unlike most other incumbents Scottish bishoprics, most of them very new, Robert was a foreigner drawn from the non-Gaelic world, in the words of Oram, "part of 'colonial' establishment which was emerging in the early twelfth century".
In one case, the clergy of the Céli Dé abbey of St. Serfs at Loch Leven were given a large collection of books by the bishop.
The request was prompted by the arrival in Scotland of the Papal Legate John Paparo, on his way to Ireland to create four new archbishoprics there.
However, the proposal appears never to have been made to the Pope by the Cardinal, and the ambitions of Bishop Robert and King David were further subverted in the same year when the Papacy created the Archbishopric of Trondheim (Niðaros), embracing both Orkney and the Isles.