The Elevation of the Diocese of Glasgow into an Archbishopric in 1492

Abstract

At eight o'clock in the evening of 18 November 1491, the feast of the dedication of the basilicas of St Peter and St Paul, Robert Blacader bishop of Glasgow arrived at the Viridarium Gate in Rome. He was met by members of the papal household, and escorted to his hospice situated between the White Well and the Flisco Palace by the Governor of the City, the archbishop of Thebes, and the bishop elect of Angers.1 He was no stranger to Rome. Over the past twenty years he had made at least seven visits to the Curia as a royal orator of James III, and in that capacity he had had audiences with Paul II, Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII and concluded much useful business both for the Crown and himself with officials in the papal Chancery and Camera. But for him this was the most important visit of them all, for upon its outcome, as he saw it, would depend his future role as pastor of the diocese of Glasgow and the stability of the Scottish church itself. He carried with him letters patent signed by James IV under the Great Seal, requesting Innocent VIII to elevate the diocese ofGlasgow into an archbishopric with himself as its first archbishop, and that in addition he be granted the status of primate and legatus natus.