Gavin Dunbar, Archbishop of Glasgow and Chancellor of Scotland

Abstract

The name of Gavin Dunbar is chiefly remembered for the part he is said to have played in the foundation of the College of Justice; and while modern investigation has corrected this view and indicated that he devoted himself to the reorganization of the "Session ", before the College was as much as mooted, his reputation as a judicial reformer is sufficiently justified and the opinion is not wide of the mark that it was in this sphere that his most fruitful and enduring work was done. It is an ironical fact regarding the more prominent clergy of the late medieval Church in Scotland that their work as churchmen proved ephemeral in its influence, while their work extrinsic to the Church, as statesmen and administrators, was of lasting quality and to this fact no exception is provided by the career of Archbishop Gavin Dunbar.