William Russell

William Russell (died 1374) was a Cistercian prelate who appears to have been a monk at Rushen Abbey on the Isle of Man (Mann), ascending to the rank of abbot there, before his election as Bishop of Mann and Bishop of the Isles (Sodor). After traveling to Continental Europe for confirmation and consecration, avoiding a trip to the metropolitan in Norway, he returned to the Irish Sea as a legal bishop. During his episcopate, he was active in England and oversaw the promulgation of several provincial statutes.

Abbot of Rushen and election A native of Mann, an island in the Irish Sea south of Galloway in Scotland, for 18 years Russell was the abbot of Rushen Abbey. In either 1348 or 1349 he was elected Bishop of Mann and the Isles. Papal letters reveal that the see had recently been made vacant by the death of Thomas de Rossy, and that the clergy of the diocese had elected William unanimously as the new bishop; they also reveal that Russell had had to obtain permission from the abbot at Rushen Abbey's mother-house, Furness Abbey.

Provision and consecration For notice of the election, the Manx Chronicle related the following:William Russell, a Manxman, abbot of the monastery of St. Mary of Rushen, was elected pastor of the Sodor diocese, by the clergy of the island of Mann, in the cathedral church of St. German, in Holm of Mann, and was consecrated at Avignon by Pope Clement VI. He was the first Sodor bishop-elect consecrated and confirmed by the Apostolic see; for all his predecessors had been wont to be confirmed and consecrated by the Archbishop of Trondheim, that is the metropolitan. Although the Chronicle says 1348, it is thought by some to refer to 1349. Pope Clement VI provided him on 27 April 1349 and he was consecrated by May 6, by Bertrand du Pouget, Cardinal-bishop of Ostia. He was neither, as the Chronicle claimed the first Bishop of the Isles to be provided by the Pope himself, nor was he consecrated by the pope directly.

Pope Clement wrote letters informing of Russell's appointment to Arne, Archbishop of Trondheim, William de Monteacuto, Lord of Mann, Robert Stewart, Lord of Bute and Steward (senescallus) of Scotland, and John of Islay, Lord of the Isles, and it was from these that the details of the election are known. The pope granted him exemption from any trip to Trondheim to pay obedience to the Archbishop of Trondheim. Russell was also granted a loan of 1200 gold florins to cover his expenses, as the diocese was one of the poorest in the Catholic Church. A number of provincial statutes are attributed to this synod, including a requirement to teach the laity the apostolic creed in the Gaelic language. On 7 December 1367 Pope Urban wrote to the bishop regarding the wish of William de Monteacuto, Earl of Salisbury and Lord of Mann, to found a Franciscan house on Mann.