Radulf (bishop-elect)

Radulf (fl. 1223–1226) is an obscure churchman in early 13th-century Scotland, elected as Bishop of Dunblane some time between 1223 and 1225.^[1] 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.^[2] 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.^[3] There are no clues as to Radulf's career after that. The Cathedral chapter of the diocese elected one Osbert in his place.^[4] 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.^[5]

Notes

1. Watt & Murrary, Fasti Ecclesiae, p. 99.
2. Dowden, Bishops, p. 195; Watt & Murray, Fasti Ecclesiae, p. 99.
3. Cockburn, Medieval Bishops, p. 40; Dowden, Bishops, p. 196; Watt & Murray, Fasti Ecclesiae, p. 99-100.
4. Watt, Fasti Ecclesiae, p. 99.
5. Cockburn, Medieval Bishops, p. 41.

References

• Cockburn, James Hutchison (1959), The Medieval Bishops of Dunblane and their Church, Dunblane: Society of Friends of Dunblane Cathedral
• Dowden, John (1912), Thomson, John Maitland, ed., The Bishops of Scotland : Being Notes on the Lives of All the Bishops, under Each of the Sees, Prior to the Reformation, Glasgow: James Maclehose and Sons
• Watt, D. E. R.; Murray, A. L., eds. (2003), Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae Medii Aevi ad annum 1638, The Scottish Record Society, New Series, Volume 25 (Revised ed.), Edinburgh: The Scottish Record Society, ISBN 0-902054-19-8, ISSN 0143-9448