1486 Scottish Church

Did the Archbishop of Canterbury have leadership over all the bishops of the
British Islands...or just England?

In particular, I'd like to know the chief Scot bishop/archbishop.

Gillian White...

The Church of Scotland is presbyterian, which means that it has no bishops
or archbishops. The officers of the Church are called ministers or elders.

The supreme body of the Church is the General Assembly, which meets once a
year. The chairperson of this event is the Moderator of the General
Assembly. He or she serves in this position for one year, and is the public
representative of the Church during that time, but the position grants no
special powers, and does not make the person the leader of the Church.

In 2004, Dr. Alison Elliot became the first woman to be appointed as
Moderator.

Was it a Bishop of Edinburgh?

Stephen Stillwell / Tom Wilding...

With the date of 1486, one presumes you are speaking of the Roman hierarchy
of the day. Scotland was, in fact, divided ecclesiastically until shortly
before that date. According to the online version of the Catholic
Encyclopedia - In 1472 the Diocese of Galloway was stripped from York's
jurisdiction and Orkney & the Isles were taken from Trondheim, St Andrew's
was elevated to an archdiocese and made the metropolitan church for the
realm. The first Archbishop is Graham. His successor, William Sheves,
obtained a Bull from Innocent VIII appointing him Primate of All Scotland
giving him privileges equivalent to those of Canterbury.

David Hewitt...

So it was William Sheves in 1486?...as Archbishop of St. Andrews.

David Hewitt...

Correction...first there was a brother of James that was archbishop and then
the son, Alexander.

Don Aitken...

The first Archbishop of St. Andrews was Patrick Graham:

"James [III], suspicious of his ambitions, forbade him to go to Rome
for his consecration is Bishop of St. Andrews, but in 1471, in
defiance of the King's commands, he went. The Archbishop of York was
at that time pressing his claim to authority over the Scottish
bishoprics, and Graham took the opportunity of persuading Pope Sixtus
IV to create St. Andrews an archbishopric and himself Primate of
Scotland. He returned in 1473 to find that his action ... had aroused
a great deal of resentment among the Scottish bishops, who ... were
reluctant to submit to the authority of a primate".

James III was displeased, and had charges of heresy brought against
the archbishop, who responded by claiming to be the legitimate Pope.
In 1476 he was found insane and deposed, to be replaced by Scheves.

Archbishop Scheves was a favorite of James III, which made him
unpopular with that King's successor. In 1489 James IV raised Bishop
Blacader of Glasgow also to the rank of archbishop, and, after some
difficulties, obtained a bull from the Pope in 1492 erecting the sees
of Glasgow, Dunblane, Dunkeld, Galloway and Lismore into a second
Scottish province.

"The creation of a second archbishopric in Scotland had the unhappy
effect of causing the same kind of unedifying strife between Glasgow
and St Andrews as existed in England between York and Canterbury. The
Archbishop of St Andrews remained primate of Scotland ... "

Stan Brown...

I've always been confused by this.

York is "Primate of England" and Canterbury is "Primate of All
England." What kind of authority does Canterbury have over York? What
kind of authority did Canterbury have over York in the fifteenth
century and earlier, when both were subject to the Pope?

Don Aitken...

I think the answer is that the "unedifying strife" never reached any
definite conclusion. As one stage in the dispute, Canterbury got the
status of "legatus natus" from the Pope, but that only led to more
arguments about what authority over York *that* gave them.

Stan Brown...

Thanks or the reply, Don.

Quotes from Bingham "Stewart Kingdom of Scotland".

I've found links to the St Andrews Castle, but after several minutes of
searching, I can't find his term of office.

Sorry to be such a bother.

Stephen Stillwell / Tom Wilding...

The Archdiocese of St Andrew's and Edinburgh as it is now called has its own
website - maybe the answers you seek are there -- or try Catholic
Encyclopedia or Catholic Forum/