The extreme measures taken by an angered nobleman show on one hand the outlandish brutality of medieval Scotland and, on the other, the rather contradictory need for penance that wrongdoers seem to have felt.
In the same year [1222] a certain bishop of the kingdom of Scotland, of the diocese of Caithness, sought from his subjects the tithes of hay concerning which both he and the earl of Caithness had made promise to the king of Scotland. And while decreeing as bishop he caused his decree to be fortified by both the royal seal and the seal of the earl.
But afterwards the earl was wroth [angry] about this, and went to the bishop in his country and, moved by rage, asked from him that the charter of the decree should be returned to him.
And because the bishop refused to do this, [the earl] slew [the bishop’s] chaplain, a monk to wit, in his presence; and wounded to death in his sight a nephew of the bishop. And seeing this, the bishop said: ‘Even if thou slay me, I will never resign to thee the instruments of my church.’
Then the earl was roused to anger, and ordered the said bishop to be bound to the door-post in the kitchen; and shutting the [outer] door, ordered the house to be set on fire.
And when it had been wholly fired the bishop’s chains were loosened, and he came to the [outer] door, as if unhurt, to go out; but the earl, waiting outside to see the end, when he saw this caused the bishop to be cast into the fire, and ordered the two bodies of those previously slain to be thrown upon him. And so the three said martyrs for the defence of the right of the church departed to the Lord.
And the most Christian king of the Scots would not leave so great sacrilege unpunished, but set out with an army to take the earl.
But the earl heard this, and fled from the king’s realm; and in the manner of Cain wandering and in exile roamed about among the isles of the sea. And at last he made these terms with the king: – first, that he and his heirs and his men would pay the tithes of hay; and that within six months he would bring to the king’s feet the cut-off heads of all those who had taken part in the said crime. He resigned also the half of his earldom into the king’s hands. He also bestowed certain lands upon that church whose bishop he had slain. Moreover also he promised to go on foot to Rome, and to obey the mandate of the chief pontiff concerning these things.