Andrew Magnus

Who was Andrew Magnus?

Andrew Magnus was a 14th-century Scottish prelate. Of unknown background, he is recorded for the first time in a document dating to 28 November 1365, holding the position of Archdeacon of Dunblane. Having merely been collated to this position by an ordinary, perhaps the Bishop of Dunblane Walter de Coventre, he received a fresh papal provision on 6 January 1367.

Following the death of Bishop Walter de Coventre sometime in the year after 21 March 1371, Andrew was elected as Bishop of Dunblane by the cathedral chapter of the diocese; he was provided to the see by Pope Gregory XI on 27 April 1372. On 1 July 1372 he and all the other bishops of Scotland were ordered by the papacy to collect one tenth of their annual revenue "in aid of the defence of the Pope and the Roman Church in Italy".

Few other things are known of his episcopate or his life. Pope Gregory XI wrote to Bishop Andrew in 1375 requesting that the Bishop furnish Thomas Stewart and his brother James Stewart, illegitimate sons of King Robert II of Scotland, with benefices and to issue a dispensation for their legitimacy.