ined in this manner: Clement, bishop of Dunblane, went to Rome,
and represented to that Pope, how of old time his bishopric had been
vacant upwards of a hundred years, during which period almost all the
revenues were seized by the seculars; and although in process of time
there had been several bishops instituted, yet, by their simplicity or
negligence, the former dilapidations were not recovered, but, on the
contrary, the remainder was almost quite alienated; so that, for near
ten years, a proper person could not be found to accept of the charge;
that the case having been laid before the Pope, he had committed the
trust of supplying that vacancy to the bishops of St. Andrews, Dunkeld,
and Brechin, who made choice of this Clement; but he found his church
so desolate that he had not where to lay his head in his cathedral:
there was no college there, only a rural chaplain performed divine
service in the church that had its roof uncovered; and the revenues of
the See were so small that they could hardly afford him maintenance for
one half of the year.

"To remedy these evils, the Pope appointed William and Geoffry, the
bishops of Glasgow and Dunkeld, to visit the Church of Dunblane; and if
they should find these things to be as represented, he authorised them
to cause the fourth part of the tithes of all the parish churches
within that diocy to be assigned to the bishop thereof; who, after
reserving out of these tithes so much as should be proper for his own
sustenance, was, by the advice of these two bishops and other expert
persons, to assign the rest to a dean and canons, whom the Pope
enjoined to be settled there, if these matters could be brought about
without great offence; or, if otherwise, he ordered that the fourth of
the tithes of all such churches of the diocy as were in the hands of
seculars should be assigned to the bishop, and that the bishop's seat
should be translated to St. John's monastery of canons-regular (_i.e._,
Inchaffray) within that diocy, and appointed that these canons should
have the election of the bishop when a vacancy should happen
thereafter."

As the bishop's seat was not transferred from Dunblane to Inchaffray,
we may infer that the _former_ part of the alternative was carried
out--viz., that dean and canons were found for Dunblane, and the bishop
also provided for out of the fourth of the tithes of all churches in
the diocese. The decay of clerics at Dunblane in Bishop Clement's time
(