John Herspolz

Who is John Herspolz?

John Herspolz [also John Hepburn] was a 15th-century Bishop of Dunblane. On the day of the resignation of the bishopric of Dunblane by Robert Lauder at the papal curia - 12 September 1466 - Pope Paul II provided Herspolz as Lauder's successor.

Herpolz's strange name suggests that he was not Scottish, perhaps being a papal courtier opportunistically rewarded after Lauder's resignation. King James III of Scotland, presumably unaware of the Pope's actions, selected and nominated the Dean of Brechin, John Spalding, as the new bishop sometime in late 1466 or in 1467; this certainly occurred before 19 November 1467. Herspolz was nevertheless consecrated as bishop sometime between 22 June and 28 September 1467.

Herspolz held the bishopric for two decades, dying sometime between his last occurrence in the sources on 3 February 1485 and the first mention of his successor's provision on 31 January 1487; it is extremely likely that he died in 1486. Herspolz's foreign name was rendered as Hepburn by Scottish writers wishing to make the name more comprehensible, and it is possible that Herspolz himself did this.