Adam de Lanark

Who was Adam de Lanark?

Adam de Lanark, O.P. was a 14th-century Scottish Dominican friar and prelate. Possibly from a Lanark burghess family, he was a Dominican and a priest by 1356, and by 1364 was styled Magister, indicating the completion of a long university education. He first appears in the sources, c. 1355/6 as a confessor of King David II of Scotland; he retained this royal position through the 1350s and into the 1360s; Adam received a number of English safe-conducts to visit King David, who for a time was a prisoner in England.

Adam spent a great deal of time at the papal court in Avignon, France. He was there on 29 January 1359, as a proctor for Patrick Leuchars, Bishop of Brechin. He was sent there again at some point by the crown, receiving payment for this trip sometime between August 1362 and November 1364; he is not styled "bishop elect", meaning that this trip must have occurred before 1363. In 1363, Adam de Lanark was elected Bishop of Galloway and received papal provision to the vacant bishopric on 17 November 1363. He was consecrated by 2 January 1364. While seeking confirmation at the papal court, he probably presented a roll of petitions on behalf of King David II and did receive a number of faculties in order to grant dispensations in the bishopric of Galloway.