Series 4 > Knights of St John of Jerusalem in Scotland

XXXVM
THE KNIGHTS OF ST JOHN
‘Hildebrand Anglicus’ as having administered the Hospitallers’
possessions in Scotland may relate to Hildebrand Inge, an English
brother active in the 1380s rather than Hildebrand Wotton.1
Binning’s position in all this is not clear, although it has been
suggested that he may have been absent from Scotland on business
of the order. At any rate, he was in Scotland in 1408, for in December
of that year, as ‘guardian of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem
in Scotland’, he had safe-conduct from Henry iv to travel via
England and Calais to France for discussion of matters of religion.2
Probably this concerned the fact that in 1407 the French church
had withdrawn from the allegiance of Benedict xm (to whom
Scotland was to be loyal for another eleven years) and in 1409 was
to go over to the Pisan pope along with England and the Empire.3
Binning was confirmed in his position as preceptor of Torphichen
by the grand master in 1410.4
This was a necessary move, in view of the fact that Scotland and
Rhodes now adhered to different popes, which had not previously
been the case. A layman, Alexander de Leighton (or Lichton)
reported to Benedict xm at Peniscola that John Binning had been
provided to Torphichen by the schismatic Philibert de Naillac,
‘formerly’ grand master, but now deposed by the pope, and in
1411 Benedict appointed mandataries to investigate and deprive
Binning.5 In 1412 David de Seton, vicar of the Hospitallers’
appropriated parish church of Kinbathoch, petitioned Benedict for
the vicarage, although it had already been given to him by Sir
Thomas Erskine, claiming the right of presentation from Hildebrand
Anglicus, ‘calling himself’ preceptor of Torphichen.6 In view of
Scotland’s continuing adherence to Benedict xm, it is unfair to be
excessively censorious of ’Leighton’s activities and the trouble they
provoked’.7 He was, after all, only adhering to the loyalty of his
1 Benedict XIII Letters, 238-9, 250 (‘calling himself Preceptor of St John of Jerusalem
called Priory of Torphichen’); see list of preceptors, below p.196
2 Rot. Scot., ii, 190
3 Cf. R. Nicholson, Scotland: the Later Middle Ages (Edinburgh, 1974), 243-46, on
Scotland’s position during the latter stages of the Great Schism
4 Malta Cod. 336, f. I39r
6 Benedict XIII Letters, 238-9
6 Ibid., 250
7 Tipton, ‘English and Scottish Hospitallers’, 245