Clement of Dunblane - Recovery and Rebuilding

Recovery and Rebuilding

In the three or four years after his visit to the papacy, agreements were made with the various institutions who were drawing income from Clement's diocese – namely Coupar Angus Abbey, Lindores Abbey, Cambuskenneth Abbey, Arbroath Abbey, the nunnery of North Berwick and the Hospital of Brackley, Northamptonshire. These agreements did not constitute complete success. Clement was able to recover some revenue, but in fixed payments liable to real decline by way of inflation. Moreover, he had to concede permanent canonries to several of the abbots, concessions which would give them a role in the election of his successors. Another partial set-back took place. Walter Comyn, Earl of Menteith, had decided to found a monastery in his earldom and take up the income of Menteith's churches to do it; the whole of Menteith constituted nearly half of the diocese. Despite the Pope's previously helpful behaviour towards Clement's cause, he granted the earl permission to found the new monastery. The earl established Inchmahome Priory in the Lake of Menteith in 1238. Walter and Clement came to conflict over the new priory's rights, but in the same year an agreement was drawn up in a meeting of churchmen at Perth. The agreement placed most of Menteith's churches under the control of the earl; however, Clement obtained several concessions, including the right to receive episcopal dues from the new priory. Overall, Clement's successes were considerable considering the opposition which he faced, but even after his death, only 12 of the 26 parish churches in the diocese were under the bishop's direct control.

Although his successor Robert de Prebenda claimed that the income of the see was still inadequate, it was nevertheless enough for Clement to begin building a new cathedral. This was despite the virtual hostility of the earl of Menteith and what Cynthia Neville has noted as the lack of interest by the earls of Strathearn, evidenced by their reluctance to bestow patronage on the bishopric. Neville's explanation for this is that "the bishops' ambition represented a challenge to their proprietary interests". It has been suggested that Clement dismantled the small church building which had served Dunblane previously, before beginning work. The cathedral was constructed in the Gothic manner, beginning with the "Lady Chapel"; the Lady Chapel was used while the rest of the cathedral was being built. It is possible that the cathedral of Dunblane was completed during Clement's episcopate, and it is almost certain that most of it was.