Matthew (bishop of Ross)

Matthew (died 1274) was a 13th-century cleric based in the Kingdom of Scotland. Walter Bower called him Macchabeus,[1] a Latinization (literature) of the Gaelic name Mac Bethad or Mac Beathadh, previously held by a 12th-century bishop.[2] Either Bower is confused or Matthew changed his name or took a pseudonym more appropriate to the environment of the "international" church, a practise not unusual in the period.[3]

He was given the title of Magister ("Master") by Bower, indicating the completion of a university education and more particularly of a Masters' degree at some stage in his life, but details of this have not survived and the title may be spurious.[4] He is found as succentor of the cathedral of Ross in a Moray document dating between 1255 and 1271; he is the first person known to have held this position, and probably the first to have held this new position under the new cathedral constitution of 1256.[5]

After the death of Robert, Bishop of Ross, Matthew was part of the team of five compromissarii (delegated electors) who voted for the new bishop; as it happened, it was Matthew who was elected.[6] He travelled to the papal court at Orvieto, along with the archdeacon Robert de Fyvie, and without waiting very long, was consecrated by Pope Gregory X personally (per nos ipsos) by 28 December 1272, on which date a mandate was issued authorising him to proceed to his bishopric.[7]

Presumably after returning to Ross, he travelled back to continental Europe to attend the Second Council of Lyon in France, held in the summer of 1274.[4] There, according to Bower, he died (of unspecified causes); Bower on this occasion calls him Magister Matthaeus episcopus Rossensis, "Master Matthew Bishop of Ross" rather than Macchabeus.[8] Whether or not Bower's claim about his death at Lyons is true, the bishopric was certainly vacant by the following Christmas.[9]