John Burgherlin

Who is John Burgherlin?

John Burgherlin was a pre-Reformation cleric who was the Bishop of Sodor and Man in the first half of the 15th-century.

He appears to have been appointed twice. In the first appointment, dated 30 July 1425, he was called John Burgherlin and was a Franciscan friar, but it is uncertain whether he got possession of the see. It may be that Richard Payl was still recognised bishop on the Isle of Man until circa 1429–33. In the second appointment, dated 22 April 1433, he was called John Burwais and was a Cluniac monk. He was granted permission by Pope Eugene IV on 18 October 1433 to be consecrated by any Catholic bishop without prejudice as a suffragan to the Archbishop of York.

Because of the different names and religious orders, it is debatable whether it was the same person appointed in 1425 and again 1433, or there were two different people. According to Dowden's The Bishops of Scotland, it was same person. With Eubel's Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi, it is not so clear. In each volume of the Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi, the last appointee in one volume is shown as the first in the next volume.