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SECTION V.
STATE OF THE EARLY SCOTTISH CHURCH.
During the period embraced by the above observations, the Catholic Church, from the fear of encouraging heresy and error, interdicted the un restricted study of the Scriptures to the laity. Her solemn services were performed in a language not under stood by the community at large. The people were dependent not only for religious knowledge, but for the commonest elements of secular in struction, upon their parish priests; printing was unknown, manuscripts rare, and letters generally despised by the higher orders. Under such ob stacles, we are not to be surprised that the common character of the age was that of great darkness and igno rance, and that our Scottish ecclesias tical annals (so far as I am able to judge) present us with few active efforts for their removal. But there is another side upon which the view which they offer is more pleasing : I mean, the civil influence which the Church exerted upon the character of the government and of the people. And here I cannot help observing that the history of her early relations with Rome is calculated to place our clergy in a favourable light as the friends of liberty. The obedience
3 Hailes’ Annals, vol. ii. p. 275. M’Pher- son’s Annals of Commerce, Appendix, vol. iv. No. III., Chronological Table of the Prices of Corn, and other necessary articles.
ANCIENT STATE OF SCOTLAND. 285
which, in common with the other churches in Christendom, they paid to the great temporal head of the Catholic religion, was certainly far from being either servile or unlimited; and it is singular that the same fervid national spirit, the same genuine love of independence which marks the civil, distinguishes also the ecclesiasti cal annals of the country. The first struggles of our infant Church were called forth, not against any direct encroachments of the Papal power, but to repel the attacks of the metro politan sees of York and Canterbury. It was, at an early period, the ambi tion of one or other of these potent spiritual principalities to subject the Scottish primate, the Bishop of St Andrews, to the dominion of the Eng lish Church, by insisting upon his receiving the right of consecration from the hands of one of the arch bishops of England ;1 and nearly the whole reign of Alexander the First was spent in a determined resistance against such an encroachment, which concluded in the complete establish ment of the independence of the Scot tish Church.
To introduce civilisation and im provement amongst his subjects, and to soften the ferocity of manners and cruelty of disposition which charac terised the different races over whom he ruled, was the great object of Alex anders successor, David the First; and he early found that the clergy, undoubtedly the most enlightened and learned class in the community, were his most useful instruments in the prosecution of this great design. Hence sprung those munificent endow ments in favour of the Church, and that generous liberality to the ecclesi astical orders which has been too rashly condemned, and which was perhaps necessary, in another point of view, in providing something like a counterpoise to the extravagant power of the greater nobles. Under this monarch the individual freedom of the Scottish Church was rigidly main tained; while, at the same time, it
1 Eadmer, p. 99. Edition, folio, by Selden. Hailes. vol. i. pp. 54, 55.
declared itself a willing subject of the Papal throne, and received the legate of the supreme pontiff with much humility and veneration. Individual independence, however, was esteemed in no degree incompatible with an acknowledgment of subjection to the chair of St Peter. It is remarkable, too, that at this remote period there are traces of a freedom of discussion and a tincture of heretical opinions which, if we may believe an ancient historian, had for a long time infected the faith of the Scottish clergy.2
After a feeble and ineffectual at tempt, under the reign of Malcolm the Fourth, to renew the attack upon the freedom of the Church, Henry the Second ungenerously availed himself of the captivity of William the Lion to extort an acknowledgment of spiritual, as well as feudal, sub jection; but on this memorable occasion the dexterous diplomacy of the Scottish commissioners, the Bishops of St Andrews and Dunkeld, procured the insertion of a clause in the treaty which left the question of the independence of the national Church open and undecided; 3 and at a council, soon after held at North ampton, in the presence of the Papal legate, the Scottish bishops asserted their liberty, declaring that they never had yielded any subjection to the English Church; and opposing, with a zeal and boldness which, in this instance, proved successful, the unfounded pretensions of the rival sees of York and Canterbury.4
Hitherto engaged in repelling these inferior attacks, the Scottish clergy soon after found themselves involved, by the imperious character of the king, in a serious contention with the popedom itself. On the death of the Bishop of St Andrews, the chapter chose, for his successor, an English monk, in opposition to the wishes of the king, who intended the primacy for Hugh, his own chaplain. With the violence which marked his char acter, William immediately seized the
2 R. Hagulstad. p. 325.
3 Fœdera, vol. i. p. 39.
4 Fordun a Goodal. vol. i. p. 474.
286 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
revenues of the see; procured Hugh to be consecrated; put him in pos session ; and when his rival, who had appealed in person to the Pope, re turned with a decision in his fa vour, he was met by a sentence of banishment, which involved his whole family and connexions in his ruin.
On this information reaching Rome, legatine powers were conferred, by the incensed Pontiff, on the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Durham, with a reserved authority to direct the thunder of excommunication against the king, in the event of his con tumacy ; and the clergy of the diocese of St Andrews were commanded, upon pain of suspension, to acknow ledge the authority of the extruded primate. But nothing could shake the firmness of William. He replied to this new sentence of the Pope by banishing every person that dared to yield obedience to the Papal favourite; upon which the sentence of excom munication was pronounced by the legates, and the kingdom laid under an interdict. At this critical and ter rible moment, when the monarch’s de termination to assert his own right of nomination had, in the sense of those times, plunged the land in spiritual darkness, the Pontiff, Alexander the Third, died, and the King of Scotland lost not a moment in sending his com missioners to Rome, who succeeded in procuring from Lucius, the new Pope, a recall of the sentence of excommuni cation and interdict, and an ultimate decision in favour of the king. The mode in which this was done was ingeniously calculated to gratify Wil liam, without detracting from the supreme authority of the Roman see. The two rival candidates, John and Hugh, came forward, and resigned into the hands of the Pope all right to the contested bishopric; upon which the Pope installed Hugh, the favourite of the king, in the throne of St Andrews, and placed John in the in ferior see of Dunkeld: a remarkable triumph, if we consider that it was achieved at a time when the proudest monarchs in Europe were compelled
to tremble before the terrors of the popedom.1
Not long after, Lucius, in his pater nal anxiety to demonstrate his affec tion for his northern son, sent the golden rose to William, an honour rarely bestowed, and highly prized in that age; and this distinction only led to more important privileges, con: ferred by Clement the Third, the successor of Lucius, upon the Scottish Church.2 It was declared that in consequence of William’s devoted and zealous affection to the Chair of St Peter, (a singular compliment to a prince who had lately opposed it in so determined a manner,) the Scottish Church was adopted as the special and favourite daughter of the apos tolic see, and declared to be subject to no other intermediate power what ever. To the Pope alone, or to his legate a latere, was permitted the power of publishing the sentence of interdict and excommunication against Scotland; upon no one, unless a na tive of Scotland, or at least a person specially deputed by the Holy Father for this purpose, was the office of legate to be conferred; and in the event of any controversies arising re garding benefices, it was enacted that no appeal should be competent to any foreign tribunal, except that of the Roman Church.3
These were high privileges : they at once put an end to the pretended superiority of the English Church, and conferred upon the Scottish pre lates a vantage ground, from which they jealously defended, and eagerly watched the opportunity to extend and improve their rights. This is strikingly exemplified in the reign of the successor of William, Alexander the Second. The Scottish monarch had made war upon John, king of Eng land at the time that he had placed himself and his realm under the pecu liar protection of the Pope—a pro ceeding which drew down a sentence of excommunication and interdict
1 R. Hov. Hist. p. 621.
2 Chron. Melross, p. 92. Gulielm. Neubrig. p. 754.
3 Chronicon. Joan. Brompton. p. 1196.
ANCIENT STATE OF SCOTLAND. 287
against Alexander and his subjects. The temper with which this was re ceived seems to have convinced the Roman court that the terrors of his spiritual thunder were little felt in Scotland; and fearful, perhaps, of losing its influence altogether, it per mitted the Scottish king, without performing the ignominious penance which generally preceded absolution, to be again welcomed into the bosom of the Church. At the same time, the sentence was removed from the whole body of his lay subjects; but the pre lates and the rest of the clergy found that they could only be restored to the exercise of their spiritual func tions upon the payment of large sums of money to the legate and his deputies.1 Against this severity the king, jealous of the rights of his clergy, appealed to Rome, and obtained a judgment in his fa vour, which declared that the legate had exceeded his powers, and con firmed the privileges of the Scottish Church.2
After a short time, this led to a still more important concession. In a mo ment of carelessness or indulgence, Honorius listened to the artful repre sentations of the Scottish clergy. They lamented that, from the want of a metropolitan, they could not hold a provincial council, and that, in con sequence of this misfortune, many enormities had been committed, upon which he authorised them to dispense with this necessary solemnity, and to assemble a General Council of their own authority. This permission, there cannot be the least doubt, was meant to be temporary; but it was loosely expressed, and the Scottish clergy in stantly perceived and availed them selves of its ambiguity. They affected to understand it as of perpetual authority, assembled under its sanc tion, drew up a distinct form of pro ceeding, by which the Scottish pro vincial councils should in future be held, instituted the office of Conser vator Statutorum, and continued to assemble frequent provincial councils,
1 Fordun a Goodal, vol. ii. p. 40, 2 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 42.
without any further application for the consent of the holy see.3
This happened in 1225, and the im portance of the right which had been gained was soon apparent. For a long period Scotland had impatiently sub mitted to the repeated visits of a Papal legate, who, under the pretext of watching over the interests and reforming the abuses of the Church, assembled councils and levied large sums of money in the country. On the meeting of the Scottish king and Henry the Third at York, Otho, a car dinal deacon, and at that time legate in England, took an opportunity to intimate his intention of visiting Scot land, in order to inquire into the ecclesiastical concerns of the kingdom. “I have never seen a legate in my dominions,” replied Alexander, “and as long as I live I will not permit such an innovation. We require no such visitation now, nor have we ever re quired it in times past.” To this firm refusal the king added a hint, that should Otho venture to disregard it and enter Scotland, he could not answer for his life, owing to the ferocious habits of his subjects; and the Italian prudently gave up all idea of the expedition.4 But the zeal of the Papal emissary was checked, not extinguished; and after a few years Otho again attempted to make his way into Scotland. Alexander met him while he was yet in England, and a violent remonstrance took place, which ended in the legate being per mitted to hold a council at Edinburgh, with a stipulation given under his seal that this permission to enter the king dom should not be drawn into a pre cedent. The king, however, refused to countenance by his presence what he affirmed to be an unnecessary inno vation, and retired into the interior of his kingdom; nor would he suffer the
3 Cart, of Moray, MS. Ad. Library, Edin. p. 11. The canons of the Church of Scotland were transcribed by Ruddiman from the Cartulary of Aberdeen, and communicated to Wilkins, who published them in the first volume of the Concilia Magnæ Britanniæ. They were afterwards printed by Lord Hailes, with notes.
4 Math. Paris a Wats., p. 377.
288 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
legate to extend his pecuniary exac tions beyond the Forth.1
In Alexander the Third, who equalled his predecessor in firmness, and surpassed him in sagacity, the Church found a resolute patron and defender. A summons, by a Papal legate, addressed to the clergy of Scot land, commanding them to attend his court at York, was pertinaciously re sisted as being an infringement of their ancient privileges;2 whilst an attempt to levy money upon the cathedrals and parish churches, and to enter the country, was opposed by the king; and in both instances the opposition was successful.3 But this was not all. The Scottish clergy disclaimed obedi ence to the canons for the regulation of the ecclesiastical affairs of the coun try, which were enacted in a council held by the Papal legate in England; and aware of their own strength, as sembled a provincial council at Perth, in which they promulgated canons of their own and asserted their independ ence. In this manner the opposition which the firmness of the second Alexander begun, the resolution of his successor completed; and before the conclusion of his reign the independ ent rights of the Scottish Church may be regarded as firmly established.
Whilst the Scottish monarchs and their clergy were thus amicably united in their resolutions to establish their independence, the internal relations which united the civil and ecclesiasti cal authorities, and the good under standing subsisting between the Crown and the Church, were little uninter rupted by those fierce contentions which disturbed the repose of many other European kingdoms; and the superior information and influence of the clergy were employed by our monarchs as a mean of improving the savage habits of their people, and a counterpoise to the exorbitant power of the great feudal nobles. It was amongst the clergy alone that at this early period we find anything like a progress in the arts and in literature,
1 Math. Paris, p. 422.
2 Fordun a Goodal, vol. ii. p. 96.
3 Ibid. vol. ii. p, 100,
if indeed, the learning of our country during this age deserves so high a name. In their disquisitions in scholastic theo logy ; in an acquaintance with the civil and canon law ; in the studies of alche my and judicial astrology; and, in some rare instances, in a knowledge of the Oriental languages and the mathema tics, the clergy of Scotland were not far behind their brethren of Europe. There were a few individual instances in which the subtle, fervid, and inde fatigable mind which, according to Galileo, marked the Scots at the era of the revival of letters, was to be seen amongst the Scottish scholars and philosophers of this remote age.4 John Duns Scotus, a name which is now as sociated with feelings of unmerited ridicule, the founder of a school which extended its ramifications through every country in Europe, for the en couragement of which princes lavished their treasures, and the most noted universities were ready to devote their exclusive patronage, was undoubtedly a Scotsman, born in the Merse in the latter end of the reign of Alexander the Third. Unable to procure instruc tion in any of the higher branches of knowledge in his own country, he pur sued his studies at Oxford ; and from this university repaired to Paris, where he found an asylum at the time that the arms of Edward the First had gained a temporary triumph over the liberties of his native country. The labours of this indefatigable school man, shut up in twelve folios, once handled with reverential awe, enjoy undisturbed repose upon the shelves of many a conventual library; yet his genius undoubtedly impressed itself strongly and lastingly upon his age ; and the same mind, if fallen on better days, might have achieved less perish able triumphs, and added to the stock of real knowledge.5
It has been already remarked that in those dark days in Scotland, as well as in every other country in Europe,
4 This curious fact will be found mentioned in Sir R. Sibbald, Historia Literaria Gentis Scotorum, p. 30. MS. in the Ad. Library at Edinburgh.
5 Cave, Hist. Literaria,. vol. ii. p. 3 of the Appendix.
ANCIENT STATE OF SCOTLAND. 289
the whole stock of learning and science was shut up in the Church; and as the great body of the Scottish clergy re ceived their education in the universi ties of Oxford or Paris, for as yet no great seminaries of learning had arisen in their own country, we must look for the intellectual acquirements of this influential body in the nature of the studies which were then fashion able in the schools. That period of time which elapsed from the com mencement of the thirteenth to the beginning of the fourteenth century has been distinguished in the history of human knowledge by the title of the scholastic age; and a very slight view must convince us how dark a picture it presents. It is marked by the rise of the second age of the scholastic theology, in which the Aristotelian logic and metaphysics were, for the first time, introduced into the demon strations of divine truth, and employed as an aid in the explanation of the Holy Scriptures.
The compilation of voluminous and intricate systems of divinity which was introduced in the Greek Church, as early as the eighth century, by John of Damascus, and in the Latin by the unfortunate Abelard, seems to have suggested to Peter Lombard the idea of compiling what he termed his “ Four Books of the Sentences,” which he ex tracted from the writings of the fathers, and more especially of St Augustine.1 This work acquired, in a short time, an extensive reputation; and its author, known by the name of the Master of the Sentences, became the founder of the scholastic theology. But this great system continued for a century com paratively pure and unsullied; nor was it till its second age that we meet with the perpetual reference to the dogmas of Aristotle, which, with equal absurd ity and impiety, were quoted as giving authority to the word of God. In pro gress of time the error gained strength, and, poisoning the sources of truth and knowledge, transformed the pure doc trines of the Scriptures, as they are
1 Cave, Hist. Literaria, vol. ii. p. 221. Span- heim, Epitome Isagogica ad Hist. Noyi Test. p. 394.
VOL. I.
found in the Bible, into an unmeaning rhapsody of words. Under both these ages of the scholastic theology, Scot land produced scholars whose reputa tion stood high in the schools. Richard, a prior of St Victor at Paris, and Adam, a canon regular of the Order of Pre- monstratenses, illuminated the middle of the thirteenth century by volumi nous expositions upon the Prophecies, the Apocalypse, and the Trinity; by treatises on the threefold nature of contemplation, and soliloquies on the composition and essence of the soul; while, during the second age of the scholastic theology, John Duns de livered lectures at Oxford to thirty thousand students.2 In the exact sciences, John Holybush, better known by his scholastic appellation, Joannes de Sacrobosco, acquired, during the thirteenth century, a high reputation, from his famous treatise upon the Sphere, as well as by various other mathematical and philosophical lucu brations; and although claimed by three different countries, the arguments in favour of his being a Scotsman are not inferior to those asserted by England and Ireland. Like his other learned brethren, who found little encourage ment for science in their own country, he resided in France; and even at so late and enlightened a period as the sixteenth century, and by no less a scholar than Melancthon, was Sacro- bosco’s work, the “ Computus Eccle- siasticus,” esteemed worthy of the edi torial labours of this reformer.
Another extraordinary person, who figured in those remote times, and over whose life and labours superstition has thrown her romantic and gloomy light, was Michael Scott, the astrologer of the Emperor Frederic the Second, and the great assistant of that monarch in his plan for restoring the works of Aris totle to the learned world of Europe, through the medium of translations from the Arabic. Previous to his re ception at the court of Frederic, Michael had studied at Oxford; and he afterwards visited France, Italy, and Spain, in the unwearied pursuit
2 Cave, Hist. Liter, vol. ii. p. 228. Ibid. Appendix, p. 3.
S
290 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
of such knowledge as the great univer sities of those countries afforded to the students of the thirteenth century. Mathematics, astronomy, and the sister art of astrology, were his favourite pur suits ; and in Spain, then partly in pos session of the Arabians, and assuredly at this time the most enlightened por tion of Europe, he acquired that ac- quaintance with the Arabic which, in the general ignorance of the Greek lan guage, was the only source from whence a knowledge of the Aristotelian philo sophy could be derived. In obedience to the injunctions of the emperor, Michael Scott commenced his labours; and from the manuscripts which he has left, and which have reached our times, it is probable that he did not conclude them until he had translated and commented on the greater part of the works of the Stagyrite.1 From the plan of Frederic, however, or the ver sions of the Scottish philosopher, little real benefit could be derived to science,. for the Arabians had themselves greatly corrupted Aristotle ; and we need not wonder that translations from such sources, and made in utter ignorance of the language of the original, must have retarded rather than accelerated the progress of real knowledge. Accord ingly, Roger Bacon, a man whose genius was far in advance of the age in which he lived, is not unsparing in his cen sure ; and, in no very measured phrase, accuses the wizard of being at once a plagiarist and an impostor.2 As a mathematician and astronomer he is entitled to less dubious praise; and his commentary on the “ Sphere of Sacrobosco” was thought worthy of being presented to the learned world of Italy at so late a period as 1495.3 It may be conjectured, therefore, that Michael owes much of his fame to his assumption of the character of a
1 Jourdain, Recherches Critiques sur l’age des Traductions Latines d’ Aristotle, pp. 132, 133.
2 “ Michael Scotus, ignarus quidem et ver- borum et rerum; fere omnia quæ sub nomine ejus prodierunt ab Andrea quodam Judæo nmtuatus est.”—Roger Bacon apud Jourdain, p. 141. This learned Oriental scholar conjec tures that in the above passage, for Andrea, we should read Avendar Judæo.
3 Panzeri, Annales Typogr. vol. i. p. 231.
prophet and a magician; and that if the greatest of our Scottish minstrels had not embalmed him in his im perishable poem, and the high-wrought superstition of his country interwoven his dreaded predictions into the body of her romantic legends, his name might long ago have sunk into obli vion.4 He was Baron of Balwearie in Fife, and must have been born pre vious to the year 1217.5 The name of John Suisset, whose profound mathe matical attainments are commemorated by Scaliger and Cardan, completes the brief catalogue of those philosophers and men of science whom Scotland, in that remote age, sent out to contest the palm of intellectual superiority with their brethren of Europe; and when we consider that everything which could afford an encouragement to letters or to science was then a de sideratum in our country, it is honour able to find, by the acknowledgment of the scholars of Italy, “that the bar barians were considered not inferior in genius to themselves.” 6
In turning, however, from such rare examples of talent in the Church to the literary attainments of the nobility, or to the means of instruction possessed by the great body of the people, the prospect is little else than a universal blank. During the long period from the accession of Alexander the Third to the death of David the Second, it would be impossible, I believe, to pro duce a single instance of a Scottish baron who could sign his own name. The studies which formed the learning of the times were esteemed unworthy
4 “Michael iste dictus est spirituprophetico claruisse, edidit enim versus, quibus quarun- dam Italiæ urbium ruinam variosque predixit eventus.”—Pipino apud Jourdain, p. 131. See also Benvenuto da Imola’s Commentary on the Inferno, book xx. v. 115.
5 This is evident from a Latin MS. at Paris, which bears to have been translated by Michael Scott at Toledo, anno Christi mccxvii.
6 In speaking of Suisset and John Duns, Cardan, in his Treatise de Subtilitate, p. 470, observes, “Ex quo haud dubium esse reor, quod etiam in libro de Animi Immortalitate scripsi, barbaros ingenio nobis haud esse in feriores, quandoquidem sub brumæ cœlo divisa toto orbe Britannia. duos tam clari ingenii viros emiserit,”—Irving’s Lives of the Scottish Poets, vol. i. p. 31.
ANCIENT STATE OF SCOTLAND. 291
of the warlike and chivalrous spirit of the aristocracy, and universally aban doned to the Church. Yet there is ample evidence in the Cartularies that Scotland, although possessed of no col lege or university, had schools in the principal towns, which were under the superintendence of the clergy, and wherein the youthful candidates for ecclesiastical preferment were in structed in grammar and logic. We find, for example, in the Cartulary of Kelso that the schools in Roxburgh were under the care of the monks of Kelso during the reign of David the First; and that the rector of the schools of this ancient burgh was an established office in 1241.1 Perth and Stirling had their schools in 1173, of which the monks of Dunfermline were the directors; and the same authentic records introduce us to similar semi naries in the towns of Ayr, South Ber wick, and Aberdeen.2
It seems also probable that, within the rich monasteries and convents which at this period were thickly scattered over Scotland, there were generally to be found schools, taught by the monks, who were in the habit of receiving and educating the sons of the nobility.3 It is certain that, at tached to the cathedral church belong ing to the Monastery of St Andrews, there stood a lyceum, where the youth were instructed in the Quodlibets of Scotus;4 and that, so early as 1233, the schools of St Andrews were under the charge of a rector. A remarkable instance of this is to be found in the Cartulary of Kelso, where Matilda, the Lady of Moll, in the year 1260, grants a certain rent to be paid to the abbot and the monks of this religious house, under the condition that they should board and educate her son with the best boys who were intrusted to their care.5
In the Accounts of the Chamberlain
1 Cartulary of Kelso, pp. 1, 258, 343.
2 Sir L. Stewart’s Coll. Ad. Lib. No. 45. Cart, of Paisley, p. 284. Cart, of Aberdeen, pp. 74, 80, 81 Caledonia, vol. i. pp. 767, 768.
3 Ant. Augustini Epitome Juris Pontificii Veteris, vol. ii. p. 34.
4 Martine’s Reliquiæ Divi Andreæ, p. 187.
5 Cart, of Kelso, p. 114.
of Scotland we find an entry of twenty shillings, given by Robert Bruce, in 1329, to the support of the schools at Montrose;6 and the same record re- counts a charitable donation of £13, 6s. 8d. presented by this monarch to Master Gilbert de Benachtyn, for his support in his studies.7 Yet the in stances of eminent Scottish scholars, which have been already noticed, prove convincingly that their own country could, at this period, afford them little else than the bare rudiments of edu cation ; and the consequent resort of students to France led to the founda tion of the Scots College at Paris, in the year 1325, by David, bishop of Moray,—an eminent seminary, which was soon replenished with students from every province in Scotland.8
In addition to the Scholastic Theo logy, both the Civil and the Canon Laws were ardently cultivated during the thirteenth and fourteenth centu ries, an eminence in these branches being considered the certain road to civil and ecclesiastical distinction. The titles of Doctor decretorum, Licen- tiatus in legibus, and Baccalaureus in decretis, are found, not unfrequently, subjoined to the names of our digni taries in the Church; and the Records of the University of Paris afford evi dence that, even at this early period, the Scottish students had not only dis tinguished themselves in the various branches of learning then cultivated, but had risen to some of the highest situations in this eminent seminary.9 From these foreign universities they afterwards repaired to their own coun try, bringing with them the learning, the arts, and the improvements of the
6 Cart, of Dunferm. M’Farlane’s Trans cript, p. 579.
7 Compot. Camerarii Scotiæ, pp. 95, 96. See also p. 413 for this singular entry in the time of David the Second, anno 1364. “Et in victu et vestitu unius pauperis scolaris consanguinei domini nostri regis apud Edin burgh de mandato regis, 4 lbs.”
8 Irving’s Lives of the Scottish Poets, Pre fatory Dissertation, p. 61. Nicholson’s Scot tish Historical Library, p. 77.
9 Bulæus, Hist. Univers. Parisiens, vol. iv. pp. 960, 968, 974, 989. Keith’s Catalogue of Scottish Bishops, pp. 82, 83, 84. Mylne, Vitæ Episcoporum Dunkeldensium, p. 17. Editio Bannatyniana.
292 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
Continent. There is evidence, in the history of the various foundations of our religious houses by our early mo narchs, that the clergy who were edu cated abroad were especially favoured at home; and after their settlement in the Church, a constant intercourse with their continental brethren enabled them to keep pace, in intellect and knowledge, with the great family of the Churchmen of Europe. For such' learning as then existed in the world the monasteries afforded, in Scotland as in other countries, a sacred recep tacle; and although the character of the theology there taught was not of a high order, and the state of other branches of human learning deformed by error, yet, without the feeble spark preserved in the religious houses, and the arts of life which were there culti vated and improved by the clergy, the state of the country, during the period of which we are now writing, would have been deplorable indeed. Much that we know of the authentic circum stances of the times we owe to the monastic annalists, who employed their leisure in the composition of those rude chronicles which, distant as they are from the model of a grave or en lightened history, often convey to us very striking pictures.
In every monastery in Scotland it appears to have been the custom to compile three sorts of register-books; specimens of which having been saved from the wreck of time, enable us to form a pretty correct idea of their nature and contents. The first was a general register, compiled in the shape of a chronicle, or book of annals, con taining the events arranged under the years in which they happened. Such are the fragments entitled, “ Chronica de Origine Antiquorum Pictorum;” the “ Chronicon Sanctæ Crucis;” the “ Chronicle of Melross ;“ the short frag ment of the “ Chronicle of Holyrood;” the “ Liber Pasletensis;" and various other ancient “ chronica,” which were written anterior to the fatal year 1291, when Edward collected and car ried away the historical records of the country.
The second species of monastic re
gister was a bare obituary, in which we find recorded the decease and the interment of the various abbots, priors, and benefactors of the monastery; and the third was the Cartulary, in which the charters of the kings or other great men who favoured the religious house; the bulls of the popes; the revenues of their lands; the leases granted to their vassals or dependants; the history and the proceedings of the various lawsuits in which they were engaged; the taxes which they paid to the crown ; and many other mi nute and interesting particulars are recorded.1 The collection of these last is fortunately much more complete than we should have anticipated, from the lamentable havoc and destruction which occurred at the period of the Reformation. Many of the original Cartularies are preserved in that noble repository of manuscripts which is the property of the Faculty of Advocates; others have been discovered in the libraries of ancient families or of pri vate collectors; and it is in this great storehouse of authentic records that there is to be found, although in a shape somewhat repulsive to the gene ral reader, the most fresh and living pictures of the manners of the times.
This period, however, besides these monkish annalists, produced one writer of original genius : I mean Barbour, the metrical historian of Bruce, of whose work it is difficult to say whe ther it ranks highest as a faithful his tory of this great monarch, and of the manners of his age, or a graphic and spirited poem, full of noble sentiment, and occasionally varied with beautiful descriptions of natural scenery. It is in every respect a remarkable produc tion for so early an age as the middle of the fourteenth century; and con tains many passages, which, in the strength and purity of the language, in the measured fulness of the rhythm, and the richness of the imagery, are not inferior to Chaucer,2 Its author was born about the year 1316 ; and,
1 Nicholson’s Scottish Historical Library, p. 77.
2 Warton’s History of English. Poetry, p. 318.
ANCIENT STATE OF SCOTLAND. 293
after having received the rudiments of his education in his own country, pursued his higher studies at Oxford, and afterwards in France.1 On his return to his native country, he rose to considerable preferment in the Church, and devoted the leisure which he spared from the duties of his arch- deanery to the composition of his great national poem, for which he was re warded by a pension from Robert the Second.2 Another work of this writer was a history or genealogy of the Kings of Scotland, compiled, in all proba bility, from Wace, or Geoffrey of Mon- mouth, and entitled “ The Brute.” It is mentioned in “ Winton’s Chronicle,”3 but has not reached our times. Win- ton himself, and his brother historian, Fordun, both writers of great value, do not properly belong to this period. Considerably prior, in point of time, to Barbour was the celebrated Thomas the Rhymer, or Thomas of Ercildoune, the author of the romance of Sir Tris- trem, a poem which enjoyed the high est celebrity, not only in his own country and in England, but through out Europe. It has been observed as a remarkable circumstance that while, prior to the period of Chaucer, there is to be found no English ro mance which is not a translation from some earlier French original; and at the time when the progress of the English language, in the country which has given it its name, was re tarded by many powerful obstacles, the poets of the south of Scotland appear to have derived their romantic fictions from more original sources, and to have embodied them in a dialect of purer English, than the bards of the sister kingdom. In the romance of Sir Tristrem, written about the middle of the thirteenth century,4 and in two other more ancient Scottish romances, Gawan and
1 Jamieson’s Memoirs of the Life of Bar- bour, p. 6.
2 Ibid. p. 8.
3 Winton’s Chronicle, book iii. chap, iii, v. 139, vol. i. p. 54. Ellis’s Specimens of the Early English Poets, vol. i. p. 228.
4 Introduction to the Romance of Sir Tristrem. by Sir Walter Scott, p. 12. Ibid, p. 57.
Gologras, and Goloran of Galloway, so very scanty are the traces of any thing like a French original, that, according to the conjecture of the great writer to whom we owe the publi cation of the first and most interest ing of these early relics, it is prob able they have been originally ex tracted from that British mine of romantic fiction from which have pro ceeded those immortal legends of Arthur and his knights, which took such a hold on the youthful imagina tion of Milton. The names of all the important personages in the story are of British origin; and it is con jectured, upon data which it would be difficult to controvert, that in Tris- trem himself, however transformed by the poetic colouring of Thomas of Ercildoune, we are to recognise an actual British warrior, who, in the last struggles of the little kingdom of Cornwall against its Saxon invaders, signalised himself by those exploits which have given the groundwork to this poetic romance.5 In England, the Norman conquest, and the consequent prevalency of the Norman-French, which became the language of the court, and the medium in which all legal proceedings were carried on, necessarily corrupted the purity of the Saxon language. “In England,” to use the words of Sir Walter Scott, in his introduction to Sir Tristrem, “it is now generally admitted that after the Norman conquest, while the Saxon language was abandoned to the lowest of the people, and while their conquerors only deigned to employ their native French, the mixed lan guage, now called English, existed only as a kind of lingua Franca, to conduct the necessary intercourse between the victors and the van quished. It was not till the reign of Henry the Third that this dialect had assumed a shape fit for the purposes of the poet; and even then it is most probable that English poetry, if any such existed, was abandoned to the peasants and menials; while all who aspired above the vulgar listened to 5 Introduction to the Romance of Sir Tristrem, by Sir Waiter Scott, pp. 52, 53.
294 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
the lais of Marie, the romances of Chrestien de Troyes, or the interesting fabliaux of the Anglo-Norman trou- veurs. The only persons who ventured to use the native language of the country in literary compositions were certain monkish annalists, who usually think it necessary to inform us that they descended to so degrading a task out of pure charity, lowliness of spirit, and love to the ' lewed men,’ meaning the lower classes, who could not under stand the Latin of the cloister, or the Anglo-Norman of the court.”
Whilst such was the case in Eng land, the formation of the language spoken in the sister country took place under different circumstances; so that, instead of considering the language in which Thomas of Ercil- doune and his successors have written as a daughter of the Anglo-Saxon, it would be more correct to regard it as an independent stream, derived from the great fountain of the ancient Gothic, but coming to us, in Scotland, through purer channels than those wherein it flowed into England. Into the great controversy regarding the origin of the Pictish people it would be entirely out of place to enter at present; al though any examination hitherto made of the original authorities, upon both sides of a question which has been agitated with an asperity peculiarly inimical to the discovery of the truth, rather inclines me to consider them as a race of Gothic origin,—an opin ion supported by the united testimony of Bede, Nennius, Gildas, and the Saxon Chronicle.1 Every hypothesis which has been adopted to account for the introduction of the Saxon lan guage into Scotland from England, by the gradual influx of Saxon and Norman nobles, by the multitude of English captives taken in war, or by the marriage of Malcolm Canmore with a Saxon princess, seems extremely un satisfactory; and it appears a more tenable theory to suppose that in the great kingdom of Strathclyde,—which came at last to be wrested from the
1 Jamieson’s Dissertation on the Origin of the Scottish Language, pp. 2, 4, 26, pre fixed to his Dictionary.
original British tribes by the Saxons, in the large district of the Lothians and of Berwickshire, which was en tirely peopled by Saxons, and in the extensive dominions of the Picts, a race of people descended from the same Gothic stem,—there was formed, in the progress of centuries, a Gothic dialect, which we may call the Scoto- Saxon; similar to the Anglo-Saxon in its essential character, but from the circumstances under which its forma tion took place, more unmixed with any foreign words or idioms. It was this Scoto-Saxon language, called by Robert de Brunne “ strange Inglis,” or “ quaint Inglis,”2 which appears to have been spoken by the Scots from the beginning of the twelfth century, and continued the language of the court and of the people down to the time of Barbour and Winton. It was in this language that the wandering minstrels of those days composed their romantic legends of love or war; and that the higher bards, who, to use the words of the ancient chronicler above quoted, wrote for “ pride and noblye,” and to satisfy their thirst for fame, composed the romances which were then popular in Scotland, and came, through the medium of translations, into Latin and Norman-French, to be famous throughout Europe.3 That the Gaelic was the language of the great body of the Celtic people, who at a remote period overspread the greatest part of Scotland, and that it was understood and spoken by Mal colm Canmore himself, is a fact resting on the most undoubted evidence; but it is equally certain that such is the radical difference in the character and construction of these two tongues, that they have continued, from the earliest period to the present day, totally distinct, refusing to blend or amalga mate with each other. In like man ner, the Norman-French, although un derstood by the Scottish monarchs and their nobility, and frequently em ployed in their diplomatic correspond ence, seems never, as in England, to
2 Introduction to Sir Tristrem, pp. 65, 66.
3 Sir Walter Scott’s Introduction to the Romance of Sir Tristrem, pp. 74, 75, 76.
ANCIENT STATE OF SCOTLAND. 295
have usurped the place of the ancient national dialect of the Scoto-Saxon; whilst the Latin, the language of science, of theology, of all civil and ecclesiastical contracts and legal pro ceedings, was principally understood by the monks and the clergy. It may be conjectured, therefore, on pretty strong grounds, that the mass of the people to the south of the Firth of Tay spoke the Scoto-Saxon, and that this “ quaint Inglis,” as it is called by Robert de Brunne, was a purer stream from the Gothic fountain than the English spoken or written at the same period in the sister country. Of this language very few specimens have reached our times in a genuine and uncorrupted state. The constant al terations which took place in early orthography, and in the gradual intro duction of new idioms, render it im possible to quote any fragment as a correct specimen of the language of the period, if this relic is only pre served in a writer of a later age, and is not itself written at, or at least within, a very short time of its real date. Thus, we cannot say for certain that the little song or monody, which has already been quoted, composed on the death of Alexander the Third, as preserved by Winton, is exactly in its genuine state, as the earliest manu script of Winton, now extant, could not have been written prior to 1420 or 1421; 1 and in the long period of nearly a century and a half a great change must have taken place in the language. The manuscript of Thomas of Ercildoune’s poem is, on the con trary, of great antiquity, and has been pronounced by able antiquaries to belong to the middle of the fourteenth century;2 but it appears to have been transcribed in England, and must, consequently, have undergone many changes from its original purity. It still, however, contains many idioms which are at this day used in Scotland, although they have long ceased to be English; and its language exhibits,
1 M’Pherson’s Preface to Winton’s Chron icle, p. 31.
2 Dr Irving’s MS. History of Scottish Poetry, p. 27. See postea, p. 296.
perhaps, the nearest approach to the genuine Scoto-Saxon which is to be found prior to the time of Barbour and Winton. The description of Ro land Ris, the father of the good Sir Tristrem, is as follows :—
“ He was gode and hende, Stalworth, wise, and wight ; Into this londes ende Y wot non better knight; Trewer non to frende, And Rouland Ris he hight; To batayl gan he wende ; Was wounded in that fight,
Full felle : Blaunche Flower the bright The tale them herd she telle.” 3
The style of the poem is throughout exceedingly abrupt and elliptical; and there is a concentration in the narra tive which, by crowding events into small room, produces an obscurity which renders it difficult to follow the story : but there are some fine touches of nature; and it is valuable for its pictures of ancient manners.
There is every reason to believe that many other romances, written in the ancient Scottish, or Scoto-Saxon, were composed at this period; and that their authors were in high esti mation, encouraged by kingly patron age, and welcomed in the halls and castles of the feudal nobility. It un fortunately happened that the art of printing was not yet discovered; so that the few written copies of such “gests and romances,” which must have thrown such striking lights upon the genius and manners of our ances tors, have long ago perished. The simple names of the authors, or “makars,” with a brief and unsatis fying notice of the subjects of their composition, are all that remain. Amongst these shadows we find a venerable poet commemorated by Win- ton, in his Chronicle, under the name of “ Hucheon of the Awle Ryall,” or “ Hugh of the Royal Court,” whose great work was entitled the “ Gest of Arthure.” He appears, however, to have been a voluminous writer for those early days; as, in addition to “ Arthure,” he composed the “ Geste of the Brute,” the “ Aventures of Sir 3 Sir Tristrem, p. 15.
296 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
Gawyn,” and the “ Pystyl of Swete Susan.”1 Of these works, the last, a short poem, founded on the story of “ Susannah and the Elders,” has reached our times. It is composed in a complicated alliterative stanza, in the use of which the bards of the “ north countrée “ are reputed to have been especially skilful; but it undoubtedly contains no passages which, in any degree, support the high character given of its author by Winton. “ It becomes all men,” says this historian, “to love Hucheon; who was cunning in literature, curious in his style, elo quent and subtle; and who clothed his composition in appropriate metre, so as always to raise delyte and plea sure.” 2 If any reader, with the help of a glossary, will consent to labour through the “ Pystyl of Swete Susan,” he will probably be disposed to come to the conclusion, either that it is not the identical composition of the bard of the “ Awle Ryall,” or that his merits have been infinitely overrated by the partiality of Winton. His great his torical romance, however, or “ Gest Historical,” was, we may presume, a superior composition. In it he treated of subjects which were dear to the feelings and imaginations of our ances tors : of the doughty deeds of Arthur ; of his worship and prowess; his con quests and royal estate; his round table and twelve peers; and it was, probably, in listening to these tales of love and war that the ladies and knights of Winton’s days experienced that “plesans and delyte” which we in vain look for in the only composi tion of his which has reached our days. It has been asserted by Chalmers that in Hucheon of the “ Awle Ryall “ we are to recognise Sir Hugh de Eglinton, whose death is lamented by Dunbar, in his pathetic “ Lament “ for the death of the Scottish poets who had preceded him; but the grounds on which the opinion is founded appear slight and unconvincing.3
1 Winton’s Chronicle, vol. i. p. 121.
2 Ibid. p. 122.
3 “ I think there cannot be any doubt whe ther Sir Hugh de Eglynton were not Hucheon of the ’ Awle Ryale.’ “ Letter of Mr Chal mers to Mr David Laing, and quoted in his
Besides these higher poets of estab lished excellence and fixed habita tion, there can be no doubt that Scot land, from an early period, produced multitudes of errant minstrels, who combined the characters of the bard and the musician ; and wandering with their harp from castle to castle, sang to the assembled lords and dames those romantic ballads of love and war which formed the popular poetry of the day. It was impossible, indeed, that it should be otherwise. The Gothic tribes which at a very early period possessed themselves of the Lowlands; the Saxons and Northumbrians, who dwelt on the Border; the Scandinavians or Norwegians, who for several centuries maintained possession of the islands, and of Ross and Caithness; and the Normans, whose original love for ro mantic fiction was cherished by their residence in France, were all passion ately addicted to poetry. They pos sessed a wild imagination, and a dark and gloomy mythology; they peopled the caves, the woods, the rivers, and the mountains with spirits, elves, giants, and dragons; and are we to wonder that the Scots, a nation in whose veins the blood of all those ancient races is mingled, should, at a remote period, have evinced an enthu siastic admiration for song and poetry; that the harper was to be found amongst the officers who composed the personal state of the sovereign; and that the country maintained a privi leged race of wandering minstrels, who eagerly seized on the prevailing super stitions and romantic legends, and wove them, in rude but sometimes ex pressive versification, into their stories
Introduction to the Pystyl of Swete Susan. It has been acutely observed by Dr Irving, in the third chapter of a History of Scottish Poetry, not yet published, but which it is to be hoped he will not long withhold from the world, “ that when the author of Gawan and Gologras introduces the name of Hugh, he does not exhibit it in the form of Hucheon, but that both he and Winton exhibit it in the form of Hew.” I have great pleasure in ac knowledging the polite and liberal feeling with which Dr Irving communicated to me the three first chapters of his manuscript, and the assistance I have derived, upon this and many other occasions, from his learning and research.
ANCIENT STATE OF SCOTLAND. 297
and ballads; who were welcome guests at the gate of every feudal castle, and beloved by the great body of the people ? We learn from a curi ous passage in Giraldus Cambrensis, which has been quoted by Sir Wal ter Scott, in his Introduction to Sir Tristrem, that the country situated beyond the Humber and the limits of York, in remote times undoubtedly a part of the kingdom of Scotland, ac quired much fame for a peculiar mode of singing in parts, which Giraldus describes with great minuteness, and in terms of admiration. This ancient style appears to have been nothing more than a skilful combination of two voices, a bass and a treble, “ una inferius submurmurante, altera vero superne demulcente pariter et delec- tante.”1
In the reign of David the First, at the battle of the Standard, which was fought in 1138, minstrels, posture makers, and female dancers, accom- panied the army;2 and there can be little doubt that in Scotland, as in France and England, the profession of a minstrel combined the arts of music and recitation, with a proficiency in the lower accomplishments of dancing and tumbling.3 In Giraldus Cam- brensis there is a remarkable testi mony to the excellency of the Scottish music, during the reign of Henry the Second, who was contemporary with William the Lion. “ In Ireland,” says he, “ they use for their delight only two musical instruments, the harp and the tabor. In Scotland we find three— the harp, the tabor, and the bagpipe,4 (choro.) In Wales they have also three—the harp, the pipe, and the horn. The Irish employ strings made of brass wire instead of the gut of
1 Sir Tristrem, Introduction, p. 70.
2 Ethelredus de Bello Standardi, T\vysden, vol. i. p. 342.
3 Bishop Percy’s Essay on the Ancient Minstrels, p. 25, and Notes, p. 62, note F.
4 Camdeni Angliea. Hiber. Normann. p. 739. In the first edition of this history I intro duced cornu for choro in this sentence ; but my friend Mr Dauney, in his learned and excellent dissertation, prefixed to his “ An cient Scottish Melodies,” has completely proved that the word is choro, and means the bagpipe. Dissertation, pp. 122, 123.
animals. It is the opinion of many at this day that Scotland has not only equalled her mistress, Ireland, in musi cal skill, but has far excelled her, so that good judges are accustomed to consider that country as the fountain- head of the art.”
It seems to have been a custom in Scotland, as old, at least, as Alexander the Third, that when the sovereign made his progress through the coun try, minstrels and singers received him on his entrance into the towns, and accompanied him when he took his departure; and we find Edward the First, in his triumphal journey through the land in 1296, paying cer tain Sums of money as a remuneration for the same melodious reception. Whether Bruce was himself a profi cient in music, the favourite accom plishment of many a knight in those days, is not known; but he undoubt edly kept his minstrels : and we have already seen that, upon the marriage of David his son to the Princess Joanna of England, there is an entry in the accounts of the Great Chamber lain which shews that the royal nup tials were cheered by Scottish and English minstrelsy;5 and that the minstrels of the King of England, having accompanied their youthful mistress into her new dominions as far as Dunbar, were there dismissed, with a largesse of four pounds from the king. At the coronation of David the Second, the minstrels again make their appearance; and, from the higher sums which are then given, it may be conjectured that a more numerous band had attended upon this joyous occasion than at the nuptials at Ber wick. They are presented with twenty pounds by the king, and receive ten from his consort.6 There can be no doubt that, in many instances, these minstrels, besides being harpers or musicians, who sang and recited the popular poetry of the country, were themselves poets, who composed ex temporaneous effusions: or, in more frequent instances, altered some well-
5 Chamberlains’ Accounts. Compotus Cam- erarii Scotiæ, p. 90, 6 Ibid. p. 228.
298 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
known ditty of love or war to suit the taste, and, by a skilful change of name, to flatter the family pride of the feudal baron in whose hall they experienced a welcome. It is difficult, unless we admit the existence of some such system of poetic economy, to account for the perpetual recurrence of the same individual stanzas, or at least of the same expressions, in many of our oldest ballads, and the reappearance of the same tale, with only a slight change of incident, and alteration in the names of the actors. We know, from authentic evidence, that there were gests and historic ballads written upon the story of Wallace; and that, upon the occurrence of any great national event, or victory, the genius of the country broke into songs, which the Scottish maidens used to sing. A single stanza of a Scottish ballad, com posed after the defeat of the English at Bannockburn, has been preserved in the St Alban’s Chronicle. “ For he,” says the monkish author, speak ing of Edward the Second, “ was dys- comfited at Banocksborne; therefore the maydens made a song thereof in that countrée, of Kynge Edward, and in this manere they songe :—
“ Maydens of Englonde, sore may ye morne, For ye have lost your lemmans at Banocks- borne,
With hevelogh ; What wenyth the kinge of Englonde To have got Scotland,
With rombelogh.” 1
In Bower’s additions to the Sco- tichronicon, written about 1441, he mentions, with a contempt which is ill concealed, that the vulgar crowd, in his own day, were much delighted with tragedies, comedies, ballads, and romances, founded on the story of Robin Hood and Little John, which the bards and minstrels used to sing, in preference to all others of the same kind of compositions.2 These popular
1 St Alban’s Chronicle, part vii. sig. r. 11, quoted in Dr Jamieson’s Notes on Bruce, p. 457. Winton’s Chronicle, vol. ii. p. 102, speaking of Wallace :—
“Of his gud dedis, and manhad Great gestis I hard say ar made ; Bot sa mony I trow noucht As he in til his dayis wroucht.”
2 Forduni Scotichro. a Goodal, vol. ii. p. 104.
songs and ballads, of which we can merely trace the existence, were, in all probability, written by the min strels and harpers, who not only crowded the castles of the great, but roamed over the country, and were welcome guests at every cottage door. Nor is it difficult to ascertain the cause why nearly every trace and relic of these ancient ballads has now perished. The clergy of those remote clays were the only men who committed any thing to writing; and it is certain that the clergy were the bitter enemies of the minstrels, whom they considered as satirical rivals and intruders, who carried off from the Church the money which might have been devoted to more pious and worthy uses. They talk of them as profligate, low-bred buffoons, who blow up their cheeks, and contort their persons, and play on horns, harps, trumpets, pipes, and Moorish flutes, for the pleasure of their lords, and who moreover flatter them by songs, and tales, and adula tory ballads, for which their masters are not ashamed to repay these ministers of the prince of darkness with large sums of gold and silver, and with rich embroidered robes.3
From this natural antipathy of the clergy to the singers and minstrels, it has unfortunately happened that many a monkish Latin rhyme, composed in the miserable taste of the age, has been preserved with affectionate care ; whilst the historic tales and ballads of this early period of our history have been consigned to what was then deemed a just and merited oblivion. And yet a single ballad on the death of Wallace, or the glory of Bruce, pre served as it then fell from the lips of a Scottish minstrel or a Scottish maiden, were now worth half the proud volumes of those pedantic schoolmen.
It is extremely difficult to collect any authentic information upon the musical instruments, or the character
3 The proofs of this will be found in Du- cange, voce Ministrelli. Rigordus, de rebus G-estis Philippi Agusti, ann. 1185. St August, tract. 100 in Joann. chap. vi. Compotus Hos- pitii Ducis Normanniæ, ann. 1348.
ANCIENT STATE OF SCOTLAND. 299
of the music, of this remote period.1 The only specimens of the musical instruments of the age are to be found upon the rich stone carvings which ornament the pillars of the Gothic churches, and the tracery of the bor ders, windows, and gateways. Amongst these we meet with the figures of musicians, some of them so entire as to give us a pretty correct idea of the shape at least of the instrument they hold in their hands. The flute with six holes; the bagpipe with a single drone ; the viol with four strings, and the sounding holes above the bridge; and the lute, or at least an instrument approaching it in its shape, with six strings, are all discernible in the carv ings of Melrpse Abbey, and some of them appear in the beautiful specimen of the florid Gothic to be seen in Roslin Chapel.2 What was the particular style and character of the music per formed by these instruments, or of the songs which they accompanied, it is now impossible to determine; and although the opinion of Ritson, that none of our present Scottish melodies can be traced upon anything like au thentic evidence further back than the Restoration, appears somewhat too sweeping and positive, it is neverthe less true that, in the total want of authentic documents, it would be idle to hazard a conjecture upon the airs or melodies of Scotland at the remote period of which we now write. The church music, however, was in a dif ferent situation; and owing to the constant intercourse of the great body of our clergy with the continent, the same style of sacred music which had been introduced into the religious ser vice of Italy, France, and England must have been imported into our own country. If we may believe
1 Since the publication of the first edition of this work, Mr Dauney’s Introductory Disserta tion to his “Ancient Scottish Melodies” has communicated a body of interesting and au thentic information upon these subjects.
2 Statistical Account, vol. ix. p. 90. “ On the south-east of this church are a great many musicians, admirably cut, with much pleasant ness and gaiety in their countenances, accom panied with their various instruments.”— Dalzel’s Desultory Reflections on the State of Ancient Scotland, p. 56.
Dempster, a writer of somewhat apo cryphal authority, Simon Taylor, a Scottish Dominican friar, as early as the year 1230, became the great reformer of the church music of Scot land ; and, by his inimitable composi tions, brought this noble art to vie with the music of Rome itself.
In 1250, when the body of St Mar garet was removed with much eccle siastic pomp from the outer church, where she was originally interred, to the choir beside the high altar, the procession of priests and abbots, who carried the precious load upon their shoulders, moved along to the sounds of the organ, and the melodious songs of the choir singing in parts.3 It has been asserted, indeed, by my late venerable grandfather, in his Disserta tion on Scottish Music, that we owe the first introduction of organs and of a choral service into the cathedrals and abbeys of Scotland to James the First ; but this can only be understood as applicable to the improved organs of the days of James the Fourth,4 as we see there is certain evidence of the instrument, in its first rude state, existing in Scotland at a much earlier period. It would have been singular, indeed, if the same invention, which is found in England as early as the reign of Edgar, and in Ireland during the ninth century, should not have made its way into Scotland till the reign of James the First.5 Accordingly, in Fordun’s account of the nuptials of Alexander the Third, there is a minute description of a masque, which proves that in those days the Scottish musical instruments were not only of various sorts, but that some of those instru ments were similar to the organs used in the performance of the tragedies or mysteries which were then fre quently enacted by the clergy for the amusement and edification of the people.6
3 Fordun a Goodal, vol. ii. p. 83.
4 Dissertation on Scottish Music, by William Tytler, Esq. of Woodhouselee. Antiquarian Transactions, vol. i. p. 482. “ Organa qualia nunc sunt,” is Boece’s expression.
5 M’Pherson’s Annals of Commerce, vol. i. p. 252.
6 Fordun a Goodal, vol. ii. p. 128.
200 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
The wise partiality of our early kings to the manners and customs of England; the enthusiasm which David the First evinced for the erec tion of churches and monasteries ; and the introduction of all the magnifi cence and solemnity of the Catholic worship amongst his rude and barbar ous subjects,—entitles us to conjecture, on strong grounds of probability, that the church music of Scotland, during the reign of this monarch, would be a pretty close imitation of that which was then to be found in the sister country. Ethelred, an author of high authority, and a friend and contem porary of David the First, gives us the following minute and curious account of the church music in his own days : —“ Since all types and figures are now ceased, why so many organs and cym bals in our churches ? Why, I say, that terrible blowing of the bellows, which rather imitates the frightsome- ness of thunder than the sweet har mony of the voice ? For what end is this contraction and dilatation of the voice ? One restrains his breath, another breaks his breath, and a third unaccountably dilates his voice; and sometimes, I am ashamed to say, they fall a-quavering like the neighing of horses. Next they lay down their manly vigour, and with their voices endeavour to imitate the softness of women. Then by an artificial circum volution, they have a variety of out- runnings. Sometimes you shall see them with open mouths and their breath restrained, as if they were ex piring and not singing, and by a ridi culous interruption of their breath they appear as if they were altogether silent. At other times they look like persons in the agonies of death ; then, with a variety of gestures, they per sonate comedians ; their lips are con tracted, their eyes roll, their shoulders are shaken upwards and downwards, their fingers move and dance to every note. And this ridiculous behaviour is called religion; and when these things are most frequently clone, then God is said to be most honourably worshipped.”1 From this state of com
1 Ælred, Speculum Caritatis, book ii. chap.
plicated perfection to which the reli gious music of England had arrived at so early a period, we may be permitted to attribute a considerable knowledge, if not an equal excellence, in the same science to our own country; for we know that the Scottish clergy, in the cultivation of the arts which added solemnity and magnificence to their system of religious worship, were, in few respects, behind their brethren of the South ; yet this is conjectural, and not founded upon accurate historic proof.
The churchmen of those remote times did not only monopolise all the learning which then existed, they were the great masters in the necessary and ornamental arts; not only the his torians and the poets, but the painters, the sculptors, the mechanics, and even the jewellers, goldsmiths, and lapi daries of the times. From their pro ficiency in mathematical and mechani cal philosophy, they were in an espe cial manner the architects of the age ; and the royal and baronial castles, with the cathedrals, monasteries, and conventual houses throughout Scot land, were principally the work of ecclesiastics.
Into the numerous and elegant arts then practised by the clergy it is im possible to enter; but no apology will be required for submitting a few re marks upon the last-mentioned sub ject, the domestic and the religious architecture of the times, as the ques tion, In what sort of houses or fort- alices were our ancestors accustomed to live ? is not one of the least in teresting which presents itself in an inquiry into the ancient condition of the country.
At a remote era the fortifications in the Lowland counties of Scotland, in habited by tribes of Gothic origin, were, in all probability, the same as the castles called Anglo-Saxon in Eng land. Their construction partook of the rude simplicity of the times in which they were built. They con sisted of an inner keep or castle, sur rounded by a strong wall, beyond
xx. Duaci, 1631, 4to, quoted in Pinkerton’s Introductory Essay to the Maitland Poems, vol. i. p. 67.
ANCIENT STATE OF SCOTLAND. 301
which was a ditch or deep fosse, some times twenty or thirty yards in breadth; and beyond this again was raised an outer vallum or rampart, of no great height, and apparently composed alone of earth.1 They were generally placed on the brow of a steep hill, on a neck of land running into a river, or some such situation of natural strength; and as the art of war and the attack of fortified places had made then but little progress, the security they con ferred was equal to the exigencies of the times.
In the earliest age of Saxon archi tecture, or at times when a temporary fortification was speedily required, it was common to build the walls round the castles of strong wooden beams. We learn, for instance, from the Scala Chronicle, that “ Ida caused the castle of Bamborow to be walled with stone, that afore was but inclosed with woode;”2 and the castle of Old Bale, in Yorkshire, is described by Camden as being at first fortified with thick planks of wood eighteen feet in length, and afterwards encircled with a wall of stone. These stone walls were con structed in a singular manner. They were faced, both without and within, with large square blocks, and the space between the facings was filled with a deposit of small rough flint stones or pebbles, mixed up with a strong cement of liquid quicklime.3
1 Strutt’s Manners and Customs of the In habitants of England, vol. i. p. 25. “ The groundwork of another of these Saxon castles is yet remaining at Witham, being between the church and the town ; the form and size of it are yet very visible. This castle was likewise built by Edward the Elder, who re sided at the castle of Maldon while this was completing, which was about the year 912 or 914. The middle circle contains the keep or castle, and is about 160 yards in diameter, and 486 yards round ; the ditch is, in its pre sent state, 260 feet in breadth, and beyond the ditch is the external vallum, which is yet in a very perfect condition, full four feet high, and 18 or 20 feet in breadth, the circum ference of the whole being about 1000 yards.”
2 Leland’s Collectanea, vol. i. p. 514.
3 Will. Malmesbury says, speaking oi King Athelstan,—“Urbem igitur illam (Exeter) quarn contaminatæ gentis repurgio defœca- verat, turribus raunivit, muro ex quadrat is lapidibus cinxit.” Willelmi Malmesburiensis Monachi. Gesta Regum Anglorum, vol. i. p. 214, edited, for the English Historical Society,
In the progress of years the Saxons made great improvement in the art of building; and, in point of strength and security, their castles were capa ble of sustaining a creditable siege; but the apartments were low, ill- lighted, and gloomy; and it is not till some time after the Conquest that we find the Norman style of architecture introduced, and a more lofty and mag nificent species of structures begin ning to arise in England, and to make their way, with the arts and the man ners of this great people, into Scot land. Owing, however, to the remote era in which the Scoto-Norman castles were built, time, and, in some in stances, the tasteless and relentless hand of man have, in our own coun try, committed great ravages. The necessary policy, too, of Bruce, who dismantled and destroyed most of the castles which he took has been fatal to the future researches of the anti quary and the historian; and few frag ments remain which can, on satisfac tory grounds, be pronounced older than the reign of this monarch. Yet the records of the Chamberlains’ Ac counts, and the incidental notices of our early historians, furnish us with ample evidence that, in the building of castles and fortalices, and in the erection of those magnificent churches of which little but the ruins are now seen, Scotland had made great pro gress during the thirteenth century.
We have already seen the effectual precautions against attack which were taken by Alexander the Third, when it became certain that Haco, the King of Norway, had determined to invade his kingdom. The castles on the coast of Scotland were carefully inspected ; and from the details regarding their repairs, which are to be found in the few extracts that remain of the Cham berlains’ Accounts under this mon arch, some interesting information may be gathered.
The northern coast of Scotland was defended by a series or chain of strong castles of stone, fortified by towers
and enriched with valuable notes, by my learned friend, Mr Hardy, Principal Keeper of the Records in the Tower.
302 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
and drawbridges, and containing a dungeon, provided with iron fetters for the prisoners, accommodation for the stores and warlike engines, guard rooms for the garrison, and a great hall or state apartment where the baron or castellan resided and enter tained his vassals. Their situation was generally chosen with great skill. If on the coast, advantage was taken of the vicinity of the sea; if in the interior, of some river or hill, or insu lated rock, which rendered the ap proach on one side arduous or impos sible, while care was taken to fortify the remaining sides by a deep fosse, and strong walls, with towers at each angle. Caerlaverock, a strong castle of the Maxwells, is thus described by an eye-witness in the year 1300, when it was besieged and taken by Edward the First:—“ Its shape was like that of a shield, for it had only three sides all round, with a tower on each angle; but one of the towers was a double one, so high, so long, and so large, that under it was the gate with the draw bridge, well made and strong, and a sufficiency of other defences. It had good walls, and good ditches filled to the edge with water; and I believe there never was seen a castle more beautifully situated : for at once could be seen the Irish sea towards the west, and to the north a fine country, sur rounded by an arm of the sea; so that no living man could approach it on two sides without putting himself in danger of the sea. Towards the south the attack was not easy, because there were numerous dangerous defiles of wood and marshes, besides ditches where the sea is on each side, and where the river makes a reach round, so that it was necessary for the host to approach it towards the east where the hill slopes.” 1
This minute description of Caerlave- rock may, with slight alterations, in troduced by the nature of the ground, or suggested by the fancy and inge nuity of the architect, be applied to most of the Scottish castles of the period. Two principles were to be
1 Siege of Caerlaverock. Edited, with notes, by Sir Harris Nicolas, pp. 61, 62.
followed out in their construction: they were to be fitted, in the first place, for strength and resistance; whilst, according to the rank of the feudal baron, provision was to be made for his being comfortably or splendidly accommodated ; and although the first requisite was invariably made to regu late and control the second, yet it is impossible not to admire the skill and ingenuity with which the genius of those ancient architects contrived to combine security and comfort. The earliest specimens of the strong Anglo- Norman castle present us with a single square tower; and it is evident that the lowest storey of the castle, being most exposed to attack, was required to be formed in the strongest manner. We find, accordingly, that the walls in this part of the building, which formed the chambers where the stores were kept, and the dungeons for the prisoners, were invariably the strong est and thickest part of the building. These lower apartments were not lighted by windows, but by small loopholes in the solid stone, so inge niously constructed, that it was nearly impossible from without to discharge into them any arrow or missile, so as to injure the soldiers within. The wall itself, which was here about twelve feet thick, was built in the same way as those of the Saxon castles, being cased within and without with strong large square blocks of hewn stone, and filled up in the middle with flints embedded in fluid mortar; and we know that the same mode of build ing was employed in both countries, not only by an examination of the Scoto-Norman castles which remain, but by the evidence of the entries in the Chamberlain Accounts.2 The en trance or principal door leading into the castle was not in the lower storey;
2 Thus in the Chamberlain Accounts, Temp. Alex. III. p. 64. “Item in conductione cementariorum, et hominum fragentium lapi- des fabrorum, et aliorum operariorum. In pastu et ferrura Equorum cariancium lapides, in calcem et in aliis minutis expensis factis circa construccionem Castri de Strivelin.” 94 lib. 17 d. See Statist. Account, vol. xviii. p. 417 ; Description of Kildrummie Castle, and of Dundargue, vol. xii. p. 578.
ANCIENT STATE OF SCOTLAND. 303
but, for the purpose of security, gene- rally placed pretty far up the wall, and communicating by a drawbridge,1 with a flight of steps or staircase of strong masonry. The door itself was not only secured by a strong gate of thick oak, with iron knobs, but by a portcullis or grating, composed sometimes wholly of iron, sometimes of timber fenced with iron, fur nished at the bottom with sharp spikes, and so constructed as to slide up and down in a groove of solid stone work, made within the body of the wall, in the same way as we see a sash window slide in its frame.2 Within the doorway, and built in the thick ness of the wall, was generally a stone seat, where the warder stationed him self, whose duty it was to keep castle guard, and who could at pleasure pull up the drawbridge and lower the port cullis when he suspected an attack, or wished to have a safe parley with a suspicious guest. On the second floor were the apartments where the soldiers of the garrison had their residence and lodging, and which, as it was much exposed to attack, had generally no windows in the front wall. The rooms were lighted by loopholes in the three remaining sides, which, surrounded by the strong wall enclosing the bal- lium or outer court of the castle, were more secure from the missiles of the enemy. The third floor contained the apartments of state, the hall of the castle where the baron lodged his friends and feasted his vassals. It was lighted by Gothic windows, highly ornamented, and was commonly hung with arras or rich tapestry, and adorned by a roof of carved oak. At each end of the apartment was a large recess in the wall, forming an arched fire- place, highly ornamented with carv ing, and frequently formed so as to have a stone seat all round; and in the middle of the hall was an oaken table, extending nearly the whole
1 See the Description of the Ancient Castle of Dunaverty in Argyle, in which Bruce took refuge. Statistical Account, vol. iii. p. 365.
2 Mr King’s Observations on Ancient Castles, published in the Archæologia, vol. iv. p. 364, containing an acute and ingenious examination of this interesting subject.
length of the apartment, and sup ported on beams or pillars of oak.
One of the finest specimens of the ancient feudal hall is still to be seen at Darnaway, once the seat of the great Randolph. Its roof is supported by diagonal rafters of massive oak; its height must originally have been above thirty feet, and its remaining propor tions are eighty-nine feet in length, by thirty-five in breadth. At one end is a music gallery; and in the middle of this magnificent apartment still stands the baron’s board or table, sup ported on six pillars of oak, curiously bordered and indented with Gothic carving. His ancient oaken chair, in form not unlike the coronation chair at Westminster, and carved with his arms and the insignia of his office,3 is still seen; and although this descrip tion of Randolph’s hall is not to be understood as applicable to the state apartment of all, or even of most, of our feudal castles, yet, making allow ance for the difference in the propor tions, the plan and disposition of the room is the same in all, and was singu larly well adapted for that style of rude and abundant hospitality, when every man, who followed the banner of his lord, found a seat at his table, and every soldier who owned a jack and a spear might have a place at his hearth. The uppermost storey in the castle was composed of rooms of smaller dimensions, which were lighted by windows of considerable size; and in this highest floor, as from the great height there were little precautions to be taken against attack, the architect was at liberty to indulge his fancy in ornamenting the windows and the battlements; so that it is not unfre- quent, in the most ancient feudal castles, to find the windows in the floor next the roof of the largest dimensions, and with the richest carv ing of any in the building. It was in these highest rooms that, during a siege, the catapults, balistæ, war-wolfs, and other instruments of annoyance and destruction were placed; and there was a communication between this highest storey and the roof,
3 Statistical Account, vol. xx. p. 224.
304 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
through which they could be drawn up upon the leads of the castle as the exigencies of the siege required.
Such was the general construction and disposition of the feudal castles of those remote times; and any one fond of antiquities, and interested in the history of the country, may, in the course of a short tour in Scotland, convince himself of the truth of the description. Some, of course, were of larger dimensions, and covered a much greater extent of ground than others; and according to the required strength and importance of the station, and the nature of the ground, to many was added an outer or base court, sur rounded by walls and flanking towers. Besides this, the castle itself was com monly encircled by a strong outer wall, communicating with a tower, the interior of which formed a kind of vestibule to the principal entrance of the castle; whilst, beyond the wall, was a broad breastwork or barbican, and a moat, which encircled the whole building. In 1325, Bruce had com manded the castle of Tarbet to be in spected and repaired; and a minute account of the expense laid out in increasing the breadth of the walls, building a new tower, and fortifying the approach by a fosse, is to be found in the Chamberlains’ Accounts. The repairs appear to have occupied seven months; and, during this period, there was a consumption of seven hundred and sixty chalders of burnt lime, the expense of the whole work being four hundred and thirty pounds ten shil lings and fivepence.1
Besides these stone buildings, adapt ed principally for strength and defence, it was common to construct halls and other apartments of wood within the outer court, and even to build castles and fortifications entirely of that perishable material. In the hall, the wooden framework, composed of strong beams of oak, was covered with a planking of fir, and this again laid over with plaster, which was
1 The items of the accounts will be found printed in the Illustrations. Chamberlains’ Accounts, Compot. Const, de Tarbart, pp.
adorned with painting and gilding,2 whilst the large oak pillars supporting the building rested in an embedment of strong masonwork. When the Earl of Athole was assassinated by the Bissets at the tournament at Hadding- ton, in the early part of the reign of Alexander the Third, the hospitium in which he slept and was murdered seems to have been a wooden build ing; and after the deed, the perpetra tors burnt it, and a manor and palace connected with it, to the ground.3
There is a curious passage quoted by Camden, which, in describing the siege of Bedford castle during the reign of Henry the Third, throws considerable light on the disposition of these an cient buildings; and as the account is written by an eye-witness of the siege, the information is valuable and authen tic :—“ On the east side was one petrary and two mangonells daily playing upon the tower, and on the west were two mangonells battering the old tower; as also one on the south, and another on the north part, which beat down two passages through the walls that were next them. Besides these, there were two machines constructed of wood so as to be higher than the castle, and erected on purpose for the slingers and watchmen; they had also several machines where the slingers and cross-bowmen lay in wait; and another machine called cattus, under which the diggers that were employed to undermine the castle came in and went out. The castle was carried by four assaults. In the first was taken the barbican; in the second they got full possession of the outer ballia ; at the third attack the wall by the old tower was thrown down by the miners,
2 Chamberlains’ Accounts, p. 6. “In servicio duorum carpentariorum arca leva- cionem Aule in Castro ... In servicio portancium et cariancium lutum et sabulo- nem pro parietibus Aule, et servicio diver sorum operariorurn circa easdem, et servicio tauberiorum et coopiencium, cum servicio duorum cimentarionum subponencium postes Aule cum petris et calce 15sh. 8d.” Ibid. p. 38. “Item in VI. petris crete empt. pro pictura nova Cameræ apud Cardross.” See also Strutt’s Manners and Customs of the People of England, vol. ii. p. 95.
3 Fordun a Goodal. vol. ii. p. 72.
ANCIENT STATE OF SCOTLAND. 305
from which, by a vigorous attack, they possessed themselves of the inner bal- lia through a breach. At the fourth assault, the miners set fire to the chief tower on the keep, so that the smoke burst out, and the tower itself was cloven to that degree as to shew visibly some broad rents, whereupon the ene my surrendered. " 1
In the various sieges which occurred in Scotland during the war of liberty, the same mode of attack was invari ably adopted, by mining and battering the walls, and wheeling up to them immense covered machines, divided into different stages, from which the archers and cross-bowmen attacked the soldiers on the battlements of the castle.
With regard to the houses within burgh, which were inhabited by the wealthy merchants and artisans, and to the granges and cottages which formed the residence of the free far mers, the liberi firmarii, and of the unfortunate class of bondmen or vil- leyns, they appear to have been in variably built of wood. In the year 1243, eight of the richest burghs in Scotland were consumed by fire, and reduced to ashes;2 and in the Cham berlains’ Accounts we constantly meet, amongst the items of royal expendi ture, with the sums paid to the car penter, and the moneys laid out in the purchase of wood, for the construction of new granges, sheds, and cottages, upon the various manors possessed by the king. In 1228, Thomas de Thirle- stane, one of those Lowland barons who had made his way into Moray, was attacked and slain in his strong hold by Gillescop, a Celtic chief, who afterwards destroyed several wooden castles in the same country, and con sumed by fire a great part of Inver ness ;3 and we know that the practice of building the houses within burgh of wood continued to a late period, both in England and Scotland. We gene rally connect the ideas of poverty, privation, and discomfort with a man
1 Camden, in Bedfordshire, p. 287, quoted in Strutt’s Manners and Customs, vol. i. pp. 94, 95.
2 Fordun a Goodal, vol. ii. p. 75.
3 ibid. pp. 57, 58. VOL. I.
sion constructed of such a material; but the idea is a modern error. At this day the mansion which Berna- dotte occupied as his palace when he was crowned at Drontheim, a building of noble proportions, and containing splendid apartments, is wholly built of wood, like all the houses in Norway; and from the opulence of the Scottish burghers and merchants, during the reigns of Alexander the Third and David the Second, there seems good reason to believe that their houses were not destitute either of the com forts, or what were then termed the elegancies of life.
I come now to say a few words upon the third, and by far the noblest class of buildings which were to be seen in Scotland during this remote period— the monasteries, cathedrals, and reli gious houses. Few who have seen them will not confess that, in the grandeur of their plan, and the extra ordinary skill and genius shewn in their execution, they are entitled to the highest praise; and if we read the description given in a monastic chronicle in the British Museum, of the earliest church at Glastonbury,4 composed of wooden beams and twisted rods, and turn from this to the cathe dral of St Magnus in Orkney, to the noble pile at Dunfermline, to the more light and beautiful remains of Melrose Abbey, or to the still more imposing examples of ecclesiastical architecture in England,—the strength of original genius in the creation of a new order of architecture, and the progress of mechanical knowledge in mastering the complicated details of its execution, are very remarkable.
There cannot be a doubt that we owe the perfection of this noble style to the monks; and although the exact era of its first appearance, either in England or in our own country, is difficult to be ascertained with preci sion, yet there are some valuable and interesting notices in our early his torians, which make it probable that our first masters in the art of building churches in stone were the Italians.
4 Cotton MS. Tib. A. V. Bede, Hist. Eceles. Gentis Anglorum, p. 160. U
306 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
It may have happened that some of those master-minds which appear in the darkest times, when they had once acquired a degree of skill in the man agement of their materials, struck out the idea of imitating in stone the wooden edifices of the period; and when working from models of twisted willow-rods, the pliable material of which the walls and ornaments of our ancient religious houses were con structed,1 the ideas of the arch, the pillars, the groined roof, and the tracery of the windows, began gradu ally to develop themselves in a man ner shewn by an able and acute writer2 to be perfectly natural and intelligible. Indeed, when the idea was once seized, and it was found that the knowledge of working in stone, and of the mecha nical powers which the age possessed, was sufficient to reduce it to practice, we can easily conceive that its future progress towards perfection may have been tolerably easy and rapid.
The infinity of beautiful Gothic forms which are capable of being wrought, and which almost necessarily suggest themselves to an artist work ing in willow, and the admirable skill in carving and imitating in stone which was acquired by the monkish artists at an early period, produced an action and reaction on each other; and the same writer already mentioned has shewn, by a careful analysis of every portion of a Gothic church, that there is not a single ornament in its struc ture and composition which does not serve to corroborate this idea. As to our earliest Norman builders having been instructed by the Italians, there is historical evidence. In the year 1174, the cathedral church at Canter bury was destroyed by fire, and in a description by Eadmer, a contempor ary writer, it is stated that this ancient edifice was built by the assistance of Roman artists, after the model of the church of St Peter’s at Rome.3
1 Simeon Dunelm. p. 27.
2 Sir James Hall’s Essay on the Origin, History, and Principles of Gothic Architec ture.
3 Chronica Gervasii, Pars Prima, de Com- bustione et Reparatione Durobornenis Ec- clesiæ, 1290. Twysden, vol. ii.
That the most ancient churches in Britain were constructed of pillars and a framework of oak, covered with reeds or twisted rods, we know from authentic evidence ; and it is asserted by Gervas, in his account of the re building of the church of Canterbury, after its destruction by fire, that, whereas in the ancient structure the roof had been composed of wood, and decorated with exquisite painting, in the new church it was constructed of an arch, built of stone, and light tufle- work.4 Nay, even the name of the adventurous artist who first seems to have conceived the bold idea of work ing the ribbed and vaulted ceiling in stone, in the same way in which it had formerly been executed in wood, has been preserved to us: it was William of Sens, a French artist. He invented also, as we learn from the monkish historian who was an eye-witness of his labours, ingenious machines for the loading and unloading the ships which brought the stones from foreign parts, in all probability from Nor mandy, as well as for raising aloft the immense weights of lime and of stone which were required in the building; he furnished the stone-cutters with working plans, or models, which guided them in their nice and difficult opera tions; and he began to form the ribbed arches and vaulted panels upon a framework of timber, to which was attached the scaffolding where the masons stood. As the building pro ceeded, this scaffolding unfortunately gave way, and the adventurous artist was incurably maimed. But he had struck out the idea; and it was more successfully carried into execution by an English architect who succeeded him.5 It is the opinion of the acute writer who has pointed out this first and most important step in the progress of our ecclesiastical architecture, that the idea of ornamenting the great pillars with groups of smaller columns sur rounding them, was introduced at the same period, and by the same artist.6
4 Gervasii Chronica, p. 1298.
5 See Archæologia, vol. ix. p. 115. Gover nor Pownall on Gothic Architecture.
6 Ibid. p. 116.
ANCIENT STATE OF SCOTLAND. 307
The art of executing large and magnificent buildings in timber frame work was carried to high perfection in the northern countries of Europe dur ing the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries. It had made great progress in England, and was there known and practised in the building of churches, under the name of the Teutonic style. Owing, however, to the perishable nature of the materials, and to acci dents by fire, these churches were fre quently either destroyed, or reduced to a state of extreme decay; so that the ruinous state of the ecclesiastical edifices in the northern parts of Europe became a serious subject of inquiry at Rome about the commencement of the thirteenth century; and measures were taken to obviate the grievance. These measures were of a singular nature. The Pope created several cor porations of Roman and Italian archi tects and artisans, with high and ex clusive privileges; especially with a power of settling the rates and prices of their labour by their own authority, and without being controlled by the municipal laws of the country where they worked. To the various northern countries where the churches had fallen into a state of decay, were these artists deputed; and, as the first ap pearances of the Gothic architecture in Europe was nearly coincident with this mission of Roman artists, and, as has already been observed, the new style of imitating the arched frame work of wood by ribbed arches of stone was known by the name of the Roman style, there arises a presump tion that we owe this magnificent style of architecture to these travel ling corporations of artists, who in consequence of the exclusive privileges which they enjoyed assumed to them selves the name of Freemasons, and under this title became famous through out Europe.1 These same corporations, from their first origin, possessed the power of taking apprentices, and ad mitting into their body such masons as they approved of in the countries where their works were carried on;
1 Sir James Hall's Essay on Gothic Archi tecture, pp; 109,114.
so that, although the style may have originated amongst Italian artists, it is quite possible it may have been brought to perfection by other masters, who were natives of the different countries to which these Roman workmen were sent; and this will account for the fact that the church of Canterbury, in which the ribbed arch of stone is sup posed to have been introduced for the first time into England, was originally the work of a Norman, and afterwards completed by an English architect.
In speaking of these corporations of architects of the Middle Ages, Sir Christopher Wren has given, in his Parentalia, the following account of their constitution : — “ The Italians, with some Greek refugees, and with them French, Germans, and Flemings, joined into a fraternity of architects, procuring Papal bulls for their encour agement, and particular privileges: they styled themselves Freemasons, and ranged from one nation to another as they found churches to be built; for very many, in those ages, were every where in building, through piety or emulation. Their government was regular; and where they fixed near the building in hand, they made a camp of huts. A surveyor governed in chief; every tenth man was called a warden, and overlooked each nine; and the gentlemen of the neighbour hood, either out of charity, or commu tation of penance, gave the materials and the carriages. Those,” adds Sir Christopher, “ who have seen the ac counts, in records, of the charge of the fabrics of some of our cathedrals, near four hundred years old, cannot but have a great esteem for their economy, and admire how soon they erected such lofty structures.” 2
This new and noble style of ecclesi astical architecture found its way into Scotland about the beginning of the twelfth century; and, fostered by the increasing wealth of the Church, and by the devotion and munificence of
2 Parentalia, pp. 306, 307. I have in vain looked for the original authorities upon which Sir Christopher Wren and Governor Pownall have founded this description of the travelling corporations of Roman architects.
our early monarchs, soon reached a pitch of excellence not far inferior to that which it had attained in England and in France. Besides fourteen bishops’ sees, to most of which was attached a Gothic cathedral and palace, there existed at the time of the Refor mation a hundred and seventy-eight religious houses, consisting of abbacies, priories, convents, and monasteries, most of which were richly endowed, situated in the midst of noble woods, surrounded by spacious gardens, parks, and orchards; and exhibiting, in the style of their architecture, specimens of the progressive improvement of the art, from the simple and massy Saxon to the most florid Gothic. It is subject of deep regret that some of the strong- minded and strong-handed spirits, who afterwards acted a principal part in the Reformation, adopted the erroneous idea that these noble edifices were in consistent with the purity of the wor ship which they professed; and that they permitted, or, as some authors have asserted, encouraged the populace to destroy them.
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