Bernard of Kilwinning
| Bernard | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of the Isles | |
| Church | Roman Catholic Church |
| See | Diocese of the Isles |
| In office | 1327 x 1328–1331 |
| Predecessor | Gillebrìghde MacGilleFhaolain |
| Successor | Thomas de Rossy |
| Orders | |
| Consecration | 26 June x 12 November 1328 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | unknown uncertain |
| Died | c. 1331 Buried in Kilwinning Abbey |
| Previous post |
Abbot of Kilwinning (x 1296–1296 x 1305) Chancellor of Scotland (1306 x 1308–1328) Abbot of Arbroath (1310–1328) |
Bernard (died c. 1331) was a Tironensian abbot, administrator and bishop active in late 13th- and early 14th-century Scotland, during the First War of Scottish Independence. He first appears in the records already established as Abbot of Kilwinning in 1296, disappearing for a decade before re-emerging as Chancellor of Scotland then Abbot of Arbroath.
A senior figure in the administration of Scotland during the 1310s and 1320s, he is widely said by modern writers to have drafted the Declaration of Arbroath, and although there is no direct evidence for this, he nevertheless probably played a role. By early 1328, his service to the king had earned him a bishopric – the bishopric of the Isles – a position he held for three or four years before his death in 1331.
The name "Bernard abbe de Kilwynin" (abbot of Kilwinning) occurs on the Ragman Rolls, 28 August 1296, and he is recorded again in a document of Melrose Abbey on 25 December. Bernard is unrecorded as abbot of Kilwinning after this year, but it is possible that he was ejected from Kilwinning Abbey by the English king in one of the following years, probably retiring to another Tironensian monastery, Arbroath Abbey. A document dated 1296 x 1305, names one otherwise unknown Roger as Abbot of Kilwinning, meaning that Bernard had ceased to hold this position by 1305 at the latest.
Although once regarded as a historical dead-end, it is now established that this Bernard was the same Tironensian who was later Chancellor of Scotland, Abbot of Arbroath and Bishop of the Isles. Since 1726, Bernard had been erroneously identified with Bernard de Linton, parson of Mordington, a name which occurs only in the Ragman Rolls. Professor A. A. M. Duncan first argued that Bernard of Arbroath was the same as Bernard of Kilwinning, rather than Bernard de Linton, in 1988, and has since been accepted by other historians.
...
Wikipedia