Series 4 > Knights of St John of Jerusalem in Scotland

INTRODUCTION
XXXV11
Grant, layman of the diocese of Moray, who appears to have been
appointed by Juilly’s successor John de Heredia with consent of the
prior of England.1 Grant seems to have been successful in persuad¬
ing the leaseholders of the Hospital’s property in Scotland to pay
responsions to Rhodes; Robert Erskine made payments in 1380 and
1382, and his son and successor Thomas Erskine rendered an account
in 1387.2 In 1383 Grant had a papal warrant to cite David de Mar
to answer for non-payment of the cess of Maryculter, notwith¬
standing that Mar was a papal chaplain.3 All these men were laymen
or secular clerks; and after the last appearance of Thomas de
Lindsay there is no sign of brothers of the order active in Scotland
for more than thirty years.4
Finally in April 1388 there appears one brother John de Binning
(Benying, Benvyng, Bynyng), ‘governor of the lands and goods
of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in Scotland’ who had safe-
conduct to come and go to England on business of the order.5 By
this time the Great Schism had divided the church, and the Hospital¬
lers, with their multinational composition, found themselves in a
difficult situation. France, Scotland and the Hospitallers of Rhodes
supported the Avignon pope after 1388, while England retained the
Roman allegiance. Thus in a sense there was no difficulty in the
Scots’ retaining their loyalty to the master of Rhodes, but rather a
problem for members of the English priory active in England to
remain loyal to their langue at Rhodes.
The assertion that there seems to have been regular intercourse
between Binning and the English priory, ignores this fact;6 there
is no evidence of contact between the English priory and the
Scottish preceptory between 1378 and 1402. In 1404 brother
Hildebrand Wotton was sent to Scotland to obtain sums detained
by Adam Forrester of Corstorphine,7 but a later description of
1 Ibid., 87; Malta Cod., 346 IF. I2ir-v, 236r-v; Rot. Scot., ii, 34; Delaville, Rhodes,
194 and n.2. In 1380 one John Palmer came to the prior of England from Scotland on
business of the order, Rot. Scot., ii, 20
2 Delaville, Rhodes, 194-5, nn.
3 Clement VII Letters, 87
4 Lindsay disappears after January 1356/7. There is no evidence that brother Henry de
St Trend, preceptor of Avalterre (Brabant) ever visited Scotland in person
5 CDS, iv, no. 378
6 Tipton, ‘English and Scottish Hospitallers’, passim
7 Rot. Scot., ii, 167