Gavin Dunbar (archbishop)

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For other men named Gavin Dunbar, see Gavin Dunbar (disambiguation).

Gavin Dunbar († 1547) was a 16th century archbishop of Glasgow. He was the son of John Dunbar of Mochrum and Janet Stewart. Gavin Dunbar, bishop of Aberdeen, was his uncle. By 1518 he was a dean of the diocese of Moray and preceptor to king James V. On July 8, 1524 he was provided to the archbishopric of Glasgow by Pope Clement VII, granting at the same time exemption from the primatial and legatine jurisdiction of the Archbishopric of St Andrews, Primate of All Scotland. Nevertheless, Dunbar's rule would see a good deal of conflict with his fellow archbishop, including in 1543 physical attacks by Dunbar on the person of Cardinal and Archbishop David Beaton. Dunbar was made Chancellor of Scotland on July 8, 1528, a position he held until 1543.

Dunbar's archiepiscopate coincided with one of the first tides of Protestantism to enter Scotland. Dunbar played a proactive role persecuting the perceived heretics. In 1539 alone he ordered the burning of seven people, including a youth named Kennedy and a Franciscan friar named Jerome Russell. On February 29, 1528, Dunbar attended the trial and signed the sentence of Patrick Hamilton, who was burned alive for six hours before dying (the faggots were wet), a death which made him one of the Scottish Reformation's most famous martyrs.

Dunbar also is known for his "Monition of Cursing" against the Border Reivers of the Anglo-Scottish Border region. George MacDonald Fraser, in his history of the Reivers, The Steel Bonnets, admiringly calls it a "remarkable burst of invective," and says that it places Dunbar "among the great cursers of all time." The Monition not only curses the Reivers themselves, but their horses, their clothing, their crops, and all who aid them in any way. It was published in Scots.

He died on April 30, 1547.

[edit] Reference

• Dowden, John, The Bishops of Scotland, ed. J. Maitland Thomson, (Glasgow, 1912)

Religious Posts
Preceded by James Beaton	Archbishop of Glasgow 1524/5–47	Succeeded by Alexander Gordon
Political offices
Preceded by Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus	Chancellor of Scotland 1528–43	Succeeded by David Beaton