Roger de Balnebrich

infobox bishopbiog
name = Roger de Balnebrich


religion=Roman Catholic Church
See = Diocese of Dunblane
Title = "Bishop of Dunblane"
Period = 1319 × 1322 (elect only)
consecration = failed
Predecessor = Nicholas de Balmyle
Successor = Maurice
post = | ordination =
bishops =
date of birth = unknown
place of birth = unknown
date of death = unknown
place of death =

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.Watt, "Dictionary", p. 23.] His name derives either from Ballinbreich in Fife or Balnabriech, in Brechin, Angus.

Biography

Canon lawyer

Roger was an active canon lawyer in the diocese of St Andrews. He was holding the parish church at Blairgowrie in the diocese of St Andrews, a church in the gift of the Bishop of St Andrews, on November 13, 1313. It was on that date that he was granted a pension by Arbroath Abbey for the services he had provided them.

He can be found on August 3, 1313, acting as a proctor for Henry Man, Abbot of Scone, before a hearing of two commissarries at St Andrews. He is found among a number of appointed arbiters settlings a dispute between Dunfermline Abbey and two residents of the Fithkil barony in Fife, though when that hearing met on March 13, 1320, Roger was not recorded as being present.

Elect of Dunblane

Sometime between February 8, 1319, the date at which Bishop Nicholas de Balmyle is last attested, and March 5, 1322, Roger was one of two different candidates elected by that cathedral chapter to succeed Nicholas as Bishop of Dunblane. [Dowden, "Bishops", p. 202; Watt, "Fasti Ecclesiae", p. 76.]

Litigation took place at the papal curia, in which Roger's rival Maurice, Abbot of Inchaffray, emerged victorious; Roger did not received provision or consecration, and had resigned his claims before March 5, when Maurice received papal provision. The sources say that by this point in time Roger was rector of Forteviot. [Cockburn, "Medieval Bishops", pp. 90-1; Dowden, "Bishops", p. 202; Watt, "Dictionary", p. 23; Watt, "Fasti Ecclesiae", p. 76.]

= Roger, Bishop of Ross=

Roger may have disappeared from the records after that, though this is now doubtful. Professor Donald Watt has argued that Roger de Balnebrich is the same as Roger, Bishop of Ross from 1325 until 1350, and who Watt suggests had remained at the papal curia for three years until provided to Ross.Watt, "Dictionary", pp. 23, 470.]

This Roger was said to have been a canon of Abernethy, which did lie in the diocese of Dunblane.Watt, "Dictionary", p. 23.] Unfortunately, as Professor Watt acknowledged, because the scarce evidence has not as yet given Roger, as Bishop of Ross, a surname, and because it has not yielded any direct statement on the matter, it cannot be proven that Roger de Balnebrich and Roger (Bishop of Ross) were one and the same person.

Notes

References

* Cockburn, James Hutchison, "The Medieval Bishops of Dunblane and Their Church", (Edinburgh, 1959)
* Dowden, John, "The Bishops of Scotland", ed. J. Maitland Thomson, (Glasgow, 1912)
* Watt, D. E. R., "A Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Graduates to A. D. 1410", (Oxford, 1977)
* Watt, D. E. R., "Fasti Ecclesiae Scotinanae Medii Aevi ad annum 1638", 2nd Draft, (St Andrews, 1969)