Robert Blackadder - Bishop To Archbishop

Bishop To Archbishop

Blackadder's reign as bishop of Glasgow is perhaps most noted for the elevation of the bishopric to archiepiscopal status. In 1472, a papal Bull of Sixtus IV elevated the Bishop of St Andrews to Archbishop. This was the first time any Scottish bishopric had received metropolitan status from the papacy. However, the move was not popular amongst the entire Scottish ecclesiastical establishment. The other bishops of Scotland resented having to do homage to the bishop of St Andrews, especially wealthier sees like Glasgow, Dunkeld and Aberdeen. It was Blackadder's predecessor at Aberdeen, Thomas Spens, who in February 1374 raised the first significant opposition by obtaining life-time exemption from the jurisdiction of St Andrews over either himself or his diocese. Nevertheless, on March 27, 1487 Innocent VIII made the archbishop of St Andrews "Primate of All Scotland". The latter was especially intolerable for the bishops of Glasgow, who would become subject to the visitations, inspections and the rule of St Andrews. The following year however, on March 25, 1488 an exemption was granted to Glasgow from this kind of interference from St Andrews, when this privilege was granted by the pope for Blackadder's own lifetime. However, this was still not enough. Moreover, Blackadder had the sympathy of the king, James IV, who himself was worried about so much power resting in the hands of one bishop. Letters to the pope were sent by the king and the Scottish parliament, requesting that Glasgow be given the same status as the Archbishopric of York. Finally, on January 9, 1492, a Bull of Pope Innocent VIII elevated Glasgow to an archbishopric, holding as suffragans the bishop of Dunkeld, the bishop of Dunblane, the bishop of Argyll, and the bishop of Galloway. Dunblane was reassigned to St Andrews while Blackadder was still archbishop, in 1500; Blackadder may have lost Dunkeld too, for we know that by 1515 Dunkeld is back within the jurisdiction of St Andrews.