The Bishop of Galloway, also called the Bishop of Whithorn, is the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Galloway, said to have been founded by Saint Ninian in the mid-5th century. The subsequent Anglo-Saxon bishopric was founded in the late 7th century or early 8th century, and the first known bishop was one Pehthelm, "shield of the Picts". According to Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical tradition, the bishopric was founded by Saint Ninian, a later corruption of the British name Uinniau or Irish Finian; although there is no contemporary evidence, it is quite likely that there had been a British or Hiberno-British bishopric before the Anglo-Saxon takeover. After Heathored (fl. 833), no bishop is known until the apparent resurrection of the diocese in the reign of King Fergus of Galloway. The bishops remained, uniquely for Scottish bishops, the suffragans of the Archbishop of York until 1359 when the pope released the bishopric from requiring metropolitan assent. James I formalised the admission of the diocese into the Scottish church on 26 August 1430 and just as all Scottish sees, Whithorn was to be accountable directly to the pope. The diocese was placed under the metropolitan jurisdiction of St Andrews on 17 August 1472 and then moved to the province of Glasgow on 9 January 1492.
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Heathored is described as the successor to Beadwulf by some accounts. His inclusion on the list as a Bishop of Whithorn is not credible.
List of known bishops of Galloway/Whithorn
{| class="wikitable"
|- align=left
! width="25%"|Tenure (an "x" between two years indicates a range of possible starting or ending dates)
! width="35%"|Incumbent
! width="40%"|Notes
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1128–1154</small>||Gille Aldan||
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1154–1186</small>||Christian of Whithorn||
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1189–1209</small>||John of Whithorn||
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1209–1235</small>||Walter of Whithorn||
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1235–1253</small>||Gilbert of Glenluce||
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1235</small>||Odo Ydonc (bishop-elect)||<small>Elected in opposition to Gilbert, lost litigation and therefore was never consecrated, and never took possession of see.</small>
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1253–1293</small>||Henry of Holyrood||
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1294–1324 x 1326</small>||Thomas de Kirkcudbright||<small>Also called Thomas de Dalton and Thomas de Galloway.</small>
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1326–1355</small>||Simon de Wedale||<small>Previously Abbot of Holyrood.</small>
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1355–1358 x 1359</small>||Michael MacKenlagh||
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1358 x 1359–1362 x 1363</small>||Thomas MacDowell (bishop-elect)||
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1363–1378</small>||Adam de Lanark||
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>el. 1378x1379; cons. 1379</small>||Oswald of Glenluce||<small>Anti-Bishop of the Western Schism. Consecrated with the support of the Archbishop of York and Pope Urban VI, in opposition to the other Galloway bishops, who were supporter of the Avignon Pope. Never took possession of see.</small>
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1378 x 1379</small>||Ingram de Ketenis||<small>Received papal provision, but refused to accept the position.</small>
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1379–1393 x 1394</small>||Thomas de Rossy||
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1409–1412 x 1415</small>||Elisaeus Adougan||
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1412 x 1415</small>||Gilbert Cavan (bishop-elect)||<small>Antipope Benedict XIII rejected his election in favour of Thomas de Buittle.</small>
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1415–1422 x 1422</small>||Thomas de Buittle||
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1422–1450</small>||Alexander Vaus||<small>Previously Bishop of Caithness.</small>
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1450–1457/8</small>||Thomas Spens||<small>Translated to the Bishopric of Aberdeen in 1457.</small>
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1457</small>||Thomas Vaus||<small>Dean of Glasgow, provided to bishopric on translation of Spens to Aberdeen in 1457; as this translation was not effective, and had to be repeated in 1458, but Vaus' provision was not repeated.</small>
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1458–1480 x 1482</small>||Ninian Spot||
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1482–1508</small>||George Vaus||
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1508–1509</small>||James Beaton||<small>Became Archbishop of Glasgow.</small>
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1509–1526</small>||David Arnot||
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1526–1541</small>||Henry Wemyss||
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1541–1558</small>||Andrew Durie||
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|<small>1559–1560</small>||Alexander Gordon||<small>Formerly Archbishop of Glasgow (1550–51), titular Archbishop of Athens (1551–53) and Bishop of the Isles (1553–59); appointed Bishop of Galloway by the Holy See in 1559; he became a Protestant when the Church of Scotland broke links with the Roman Catholic Church in 1560.</small>
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|align=center colspan=3| Source(s):
|- valign=top bgcolor="#ffffec"
|align=center colspan=3| Source(s):
|}
See also
- Prior of Whithorn
Notes
References
- Clancy, T. O. "The real St Ninian," in The Innes Review, 52 (2001)
- Dowden, John, The Bishops of Scotland, ed. J. Maitland Thomson, (Glasgow, 1912)
- Hudson, Benjamin T., "Kings and Church in Early Scotland", in The Scottish Historical Review, Vol. 73, (October, 1994), pp. 145–70
- Oram, Richard, The Lordship of Galloway, (Edinburgh, 2000)