Patrick Hepburn - Bishop of Moray and Commendator of Scone

Bishop of Moray and Commendator of Scone

After the death of Alexander Stewart, Bishop of Moray and Commendator of Scone, Patrick was given crown nomination to succeed to both positions on March 1, 1538. He was provided by the Papacy on June 14, on the condition he should resign the commend of St Andrews Cathedral Priory. Hepburn's episcopate is remembered as notorious for the dilapidation with which his dominions suffered. A huge percentage of his diocese was leased out, and in 1547 Scone Abbey itself went on a 19-year lease to one John Erskine of Dun. Meanwhile, Bishop Hepburn enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle. As early as 1529, when Hepburn was Commendator-Prior of St Andrews, Alexander Alesius, a canon of this Hepburn's own priory was preaching against Hepburn's ungodly lifestyle.

Nevertheless, Bishop Hepburn did play an important part in Scottish politics of the 1540s and 1550s. Though he was part of the privy council of the Governor of Scotland, James Hamilton, Earl of Arran (after 1548, Duke of Châtellerault), he nevertheless opposed Arran's wish to have the young Mary, Queen of Scots, put in English custody. In this he was supporting the staunchly anti-Protestant Cardinal David Beaton. The Bishop of Moray was in attendance at the provincial council of the Scottish church in 1549, an attempt to reform the church internally without abandoning links with Rome. He was present at the burnings of Protestant heretics/martyrs in 1550 and 1558.