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Sent in accordance with the will of the Rt. Rev.
Charles R. Hale, D.D., LL.D., Late Bishop of
Cairo, (111.) and Coadjutor of Springfield.
Please kindly acknowledge receipt to HALE
MEMORIAL FUND, care The Young Churchman
Co., Milwaukee, Wis., U. S. A.

Series of 1913-4
THE HALE LECTURES
WESTERN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
CHICAGO, ILL.

BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY

STATUE OF ST. COLUMBA
At end of chape], lona

THE HALE LECTURES 1913-4
Biographical Studies in
Scottish Church
History

By
ANTHONY MITCHELL, D.D.
Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney

Delivered in St. Paul's Church, Chicago, Illinois
May 7 to 14, 1914

Milwaukee
The Young Churchman Company
London :
A. R. Mowbray & Co.
1914

COPYBIGHT BT
THE YOUNG CHUBCHMAN CO.,
1914.

I.

\f.tn

EXTRACTS
Feom the Will of the Et. Rev. Charles Reuben
Hale, D.D., LL.D., Bishop Coadjutor op Spring
field, born 1837; consecrated July 26, 1892; died
December 25, 1900.

*

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost. Amen.

I, Charles Reuben Hale, Bishop of Cairo, Bishop
Coadjutor of Springfield, of the City of Cairo, Illinois,
do make, publish, and declare this, as and for my Last Will
and Testament, hereby revoking all former wills by me
made. First. First of all, I commit myself, soul and body,
into the hands of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Saviour, in
Whose Merits alone I trust, looking for the Resurrection
of the Body and the Life of the World to come.

Fourteenth. All the rest and residue of my Estate,
personal and real, not in this my Will otherwise spe
cifically devised, wheresoever situate, and whether legal
or equitable, I give, devise, and bequeath to "The West
ern Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois," above
mentioned, but nevertheless In Trust, provided it shall
accept the trust by an instrument in writing so stating,
filed with this Will in the Court where probated, within
six months after the probate of this Will — for the general
purpose of promoting the Catholic Faith, in its purity
and integrity, as taught in Holy Scripture, held by the
Primitive Church, summed up in the Creeds and affirmed

vi BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES
by the undisputed General Councils, and, in particular, to
be used only and exclusively for the purposes following,
to-wit: —

(2) The establishment, endowment, publication, and
due circulation of Courses of Lectures, to be delivered an
nually forever, to be called "The Hale Lectures."
The Lectures shall treat of one of the following sub
jects: (a) Liturgies and Liturgies.
(6) Church Hymns and Church Music.
(c) The History of the Eastern Churches.
(d) The History of National Churches.
(e) Contemporaneous Church History: i.e., treat
ing of events happening since the beginning
of what is called "The Oxford Movement," in
1833.
It is the aim of the Seminary, through the Hale
Lectures, to make from time to time some valuable
contributions to certain of the Church's problems,
without thereby committing itself to agreement with
the utterances of its own selected Preachers.

TO
©Iff Wlzv. iSffnttatt Pagp, E.1.
his cleeical colleagues, and the congbega-
tion of st. Paul's chuech, Chicago,
this volume is dedicated, in
memoey of many kind
nesses eeceived.

CONTENTS PAGE
I. — The Celtic Period. St. Columba . . 1
II. — The Transition from Celtic to Roman
Influence. St. Margaret .... 34
ILL — The Mediaeval Period. Bishop Elphin-
stone of Aberdeen  70
IV. — The Reformation Period. John Erskine
of Dun  114
V. — The Covenanting Period. Robert Leigh-
ton  162
VI. — The Days of the Penal Laws. John
Skinner of Linshart  213
VII. — Modern Times. John Dowden, Bishop of
Edinburgh  258
Appendix A. — Hymns Attributed to St. Columba 289
Appendix B. — Date and Authorship of St. Mar
garet's Life  293
Appendix C. — Lanfranc's Letter to Margaret . 295
Appendix D. — Assythment  297
Appendix E. — Seat Rents under the Penal Laws 300
Appendix F. — The Modern Scottish Cathedrals 302

ILLUSTRATIONS
Statue of St. Columba at end of Chapel,
Iona  Frontispiece Opposite
St. Columba's Chapel, Iona  1
Iona. Reilig Odhrain and Cathedral ... 16
St. Margaret and Malcolm Canmore .... 34
Bishop Elphinstone  70
Kjng's College Chapel, Arebdeen. Crown Tower. 72
King's College Chapel, Aberdeen. Interior . 82
St. Machar's Cathedral, Aberdeen .... 88
Robert Leighton, D.D., Archbishop of Glas
gow, 1654  162
Statue of Bishop John Skinner in St. An
drew's Cathedral, Aberdeen  212
Samuel Seabury, D.D., First Bishop of Connec
ticut  248
Bishop Seabury's Mitre. Preserved at Trinity
College, Hartford  250
The Longacre, Aberdeen, 1884  252
Seabury Memorial Tablet, Aberdeen University 256
John Dowden, D.D., Late Bishop of Edinburgh 258

I-THE CELTIC PERIOD
Saint Columba
Abbot of Iona from 563 to 597 A.D.
The noble and commanding figure of Co
lumba, the founder of the famous monastery of
Iona in the sixth century, stands more clearly
outlined than any other against the dim back
ground of early Scottish Christianity. Xot that
the great Irish saint was even amongst the earliest
of those missionaries who laboured with varying
success to bring the fierce inhabitants of ancient
Caledonia under the gentle yoke of Christ, nor
that in his own day and generation he toiled alone
in that part of the Lord's vineyard. But he was
more fortunate than either his predecessors or his
contemporaries both in the lasting effect of his
work, and in the trustworthiness of those records
of it and of himself which have come down to us.
For Columba's character and achievements
were of that splendid quality which leaves an in
delible mark upon the worker's own time, as well
as upon the life of successive generations. And
we are treading on solid historical ground, how
ever slippery our footing may sometimes be, when
we read the pages written by Adamnan, the kins-

2 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
man and biographer of Columba.1 Our saint is
no shadowy creation of sickly brains, but a real
being of flesh and blood. Whatever deductions it
may be necessary to make in dealing with a nar
rative written for an age whose point of view and
whose mental furniture were very different from
ours, we have abundant reason to be grateful to
Adamnan for information which is priceless.
"To Adamnan," says Dr. Keeves,2 "is, indeed,
owing the historic precision, and the intelligible
operation, which characterize the second stage of
the ancient Irish Church. In the absence of
his memoir, the Life of St. Columba would de
generate into the foggy, unreal species of narra
tive which belongs to the Lives of his contempo
raries, and we should be entirely in the dark on
many points of discipline and belief, concerning
which we have now a considerable amount of
satisfactory information."
Adamnan's conception of his task was indeed
very different from that of a modern biographer.
The common everyday things which we would
give much to know — the things that illustrate
character, and make bygone life and ancient cus
toms clear to us — did not seem to him to be worthy
of special notice. We can only glean such details
incidentally. And on the other hand everything
1 Adamnan was Columba's eighth and most outstanding
successor in office as Abbot of Iona.
2 Historians of Scotland. Vol. VI, p. xxx.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 3
that seemed uncommon and of the supernatural
order of things, was exceedingly precious in his
sight. In this, of course, Adamnan was merely
the child of his age. The public which read lives
of saints expected to find eminent saintship at
tested by outstanding miracles, and the much
wider public which could not read was more cred
ulous still. Adamnan shews his sense of what
his audience will expect of him by the plan of
his work." He places in the forefront a brief
account of some of Columba's miracles, which, he
informs the eager sort of his readers, is meant as
a sort of appetizer for them (quasi legentibus
avide praegustanda) , from which they may judge
of the still more luscious courses (dulciores quas-
dam dapes), which are to follow.4 Doubtless such
readers felt a gratification which we of a later
age find it difficult to share, at the author's assur
ance that the miracles which he has to relate are
so much greater than those which popular fame
has already published abroad regarding the saint.5
At a later stage I shall say what I think of

8 The Life is divided into three books, the first relating
the saint's prophetical revelations, the second his miracles,
while the third gives the visions of angels seen by, or in
connection with, him. Each chapter is as a rule devoted
to one supernatural occurrence. There is hardly any at
tempt at chronological order, but at the end of the third
book we find a full account of Columba's last days and of
his death.
'Life: 2nd Preface. "Life: 1st Preface.

4 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
these stories of the miraculous. We need now
only to remember that they are not deliberate
fictions. Adamnan thoroughly believed in them,
and he was evidently satisfied as to his authority
for relating them. He had been born, like the
saint, in County Donegal, twenty-seven years after
Columba's death, and from his earliest years he
would have heard tales about his illustrious kins
man. He had spoken in his youth with an aged
Columban monk, who, on the night that the saint
died, saw a strange illumination in County Done
gal,6 and he had conversed with others who had
listened to the words of one who had been with
Columba in Iona.' Thus even if it was a century
after Columba's death before Adamnan wrote the
famous Life" his links with the past were of a
real character.
Besides, at the date of writing he had beeu
a member of the Iona brotherhood for probably
at least forty-five years," and its Abbot for sixteen.
Thus he must have been steeped in the local tradi
tions relating to Columba, to which must be added
the advantage of writing amidst all the sights and
sounds of Iona itself. He had also at his disposal
a memoir of Columba" written by a former Abbot,

8 Life III, c. 24. ' II. c. 35.
8 Peeves. Historians of Scotland, VI, p. civ.
'Ibid. p. el.
10 This memoir he incorporated into his own compilation,
almost verbatim.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 5
Cummene the Fair, as well as other written
sources of information.
The story of Columba's life, as gathered from
Adamnan's work and other ancient sources, re
veals the saint to us as a devoted son of the Irish
Church from his early years to the day of his
death. His removal to Iona made no real break
in his connection with the land of his birth. He
continued to superintend his monastic founda
tions in Ireland as long as he lived, and on sev
eral occasions after his headquarters had been
established in North Britain we find him exer
cising a potent influence on Irish affairs. What
is now the County of Argyll was in Columba's
day simply a part of Ireland across the sea, and
even the name Scotland belonged to Ireland until
the tenth century." It is important to remember
these facts when we study such peculiar features
of Columban Christianity in Scotland as its ex
clusively monastic organization, the irregular
position of its Bishops, its obsolete method of
dating Easter, and the unusual shape of the ton
sure of its monks. These were part and parcel
of the Church system of Ireland in Columba's
day. It was a system which exhibited the free
G-allican spirit, of Western Christianity in per
haps its most luxuriant form, with an unrivalled

11 What is now called Scotland was known in early times
as Caledonia, or Alban.

6 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
personal devotion and enthusiasm on the one
hand, and a characteristic carelessness about ster
eotyped fashions and rigid organization on the
other. Columba was born in County Donegal in the
year 521, at Gartan, a scene of wild loveliness
on the lower slopes of the Derryveigh Hills.
There are several ancient ecclesiastical ruins in
the vicinity, and a small heap of stones not far
from Loch Gartan is pointed out as the saint's
actual birthplace. The simple folk of the country
side still believe that whoever sleeps a night upon
ColumMlle's stone before emigrating will be free
from "thinking long," or home-sickness, and leg
ends of Columba still linger in the district. His
father, ~Fedh.iTm._ri (Phelimj, was a member of
the clan of the O'Donnels, and a descendant of
Xiall of the Xine Hostages, king of Ireland from
A. D. 379 to 405. Columba was thus nearly re
lated to the reigning families in Ireland and in
Argyll, and according to Beeves was himself
"eligible to the sovereignty" of Ireland." His
mother, Eithne of Leinster. was also of royal
descent. Columba's royal birth was, it is easy to im
agine, a very important factor in his ecclesiastical
career, and made many things possible to him that
would have been beyond the reach of other men.

'Historians, p. 245.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 7
While he was by character and attainments a
born leader of men, his exalted relationships
opened many a door to him, and smoothed away
many a difficulty. When Adamnan tells us of
his intimacy with various royal personages, he is
not romancing, but simply illustrating the excep
tional position which Columba's birth secured to
him wherever he went. Thus we learn that Brude,
the king of the Picts, after his conversion at In
verness, held Columba in peculiar reverence (valde
magna honoravit, ut decuit, honorificentia) ,13 that
King Roderick, who reigned at Dunbarton over
the Britons of Strathclyde, was his friend," that
the Irish King Dermit came to see him during
one of his journeys in Ireland,1" that he stayed
on occasion with his kinsman Conall, king of the
Scots in Argyll,18 and that on Conall's death he
ordained Aidan as successor to the kingdom."
According to local tradition, the infant prince
ling was baptized at Temple Douglas, a few miles
distant from Gartan, where the ruins of an ancient
church still exist. He is said to have been given
two baptismal names, Crimthann, a wolf, and Co-
lum, a dove." If that be so, his naming was very
prophetic of the strange blending in his character,
of the passionate feelings inherited from warlike
ancestors, and the gentle disposition of a servant
of Christ.

"Life, II, 36. "1,8. "1,8. "1,7.
" III, 6. " Dowden. Celtic Scotland, p. 86.

8 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
The name Columkille, or Colum of the
Church, by which he was afterwards known, may
be taken as an indication of the saint's youthful
bent of mind. He appears from the first to have
been distinguished for piety and the love of
learning. As a young man he attended the mon
astic school of the famous Bishop St. Finnian or
Findbarr of Moville, at the head of Strangford
Lough. There he was ordained deacon, and, ac
cording to Adamnan, it was there also where he
gave the first proof of his miraculous power, by
changing water into wine.19 While still in dea
con's orders Columba went to Leinster, his
mother's county, to study divine wisdom (divi-
nam addiscens sapientian) under the aged bard
Gemman." Doubtless these studies were of a more
secular character than Adamnan's words would
suggest. Columba was in all probability a com
poser of poems21 both in Latin and in Irish, and
he became in later days the patron and protector
of the Irish bards. We are indebted for our in
formation as to this period of secular study to the
fact that Adamnan relates an instance of the
saint's terrible punishments of his enemies (de
adversariorum terrificis ultionibus) , in which the
murderer of a young girl drops dead in the pres-

"Life, II, Chap. 1. M II, 26.
21 See Appendix A. Hymns Attributed to St. Columba.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 9
ence of Gemman and his pupil, on the latter pro
nouncing sentence upon the criminal.22
After this interlude our youthful cleric moved
back to a more ecclesiastical atmosphere, at the
monastery of Clonard, where another St. Finnian
presided over what was the most famous school
of ecclesiastical learning in Ireland at that time.
Here he met a number of students who afterwards
became, like himself, famous in the Irish Church,
amongst them being SS. Comgall, Kenneth, and
Kiaran. At this time he was admitted to the
priesthood. According to a legend of later days
he was ordained by Etchen, Bishop of Clonfad,
who through some mistake failed to advance the
young monk to the episcopate at the same time,
as he should have done.
After some years Columba removed to another
monastery, at Glasnevin, near Dublin, from which
he emerged as a leader himself in a work of
Church extension, which probably occupied the
next fifteen years of his life. At the end of this
period we find him in the prime of life, and at
the full tide of his fame as a father and founder
of churches and monasteries in Ireland (monas-
teriorum pater et fundator).2' Dr. Beeves gives
a list, which is not exhaustive, of thirty-seven
churches in Ireland which were either founded
by him, or in which his memory was specially

' Life, II, 26. " Life, 2nd Preface.

10 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
venerated. Among these were the monastery of
Durrow, often mentioned in the Life, one of the
earliest and most important of his foundations,
the Black Church of Deny, and the monastery
which produced the superbly decorated Book of
Kells. It was now that the impulse came to Columba,
which turned his energies into a new channel,
and which was fraught with so much blessing for
Scotland. In the year 563 he sailed northward
with twelve companions, and founded on the little
island of Iona the famous monastery which was
to be for centuries the most important centre of
Scottish Christianity.
A glance at the political and ecclesiastical
state of _STorth Britain at this period will show
the situation which awaited the band of mission
aries. The withdrawal of the legions, which ter
minated the Roman occupation of Britain,24 had
been followed at first by a period of turbulence
and anarchy. In the course of a century or more,
however, a number of petty kingdoms had
emerged. By Columba's time the Britons of
Strathclyde had been consolidated under King
Roderick, in a territory stretching from Dunbar-
ton on the Clyde to the river Derwent in Cumber
land, while the Picts of the North owed allegiance
to King Brude whose seat was at Inverness. The

M This lasted roughly from 43 to 410 A. D.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 11
eastern coast south of the Forth was occupied by
Angles who had sailed in their galleys across the
North sea from Schleswig, and formed the king
dom of Bernicia. In the west a similar invasion
had begun more than twenty years before Colum
ba's birth. The Dalriadic Scots of Ireland in the
days of Fergus Macerc had begun to establish
themselves in what is now the county of Argyll,
and at the date of Columba's arrival they were
firmly established in the country to which they
were to give a name, under King Conall, a kins
man of the saint.
Of these different races two were at least
nominally Christian, the Scots and the Britons,
while the Picts and the Angles were still heathen.
Amongst the Britons, the famous Bishop Kenti-
gern or Mungo," the patron saint of Glasgow, was
still labouring, under the protection of King Rod
erick, and scattered here and there throughout the
country were those Christian settlements which had
survived the deluge of barbarism that swept away
so much of the work of St. Ninian and his con
temporaries. Of these early missionaries we know

™ Jocelin, the biographer of St. Kentigern, relates that
Columba once visited the British Bishop at Glasgow. The two
saints met with stately ceremony, their attendants singing
psalms and spiritual songs, on the banks of the Molendinar
burn, where St. Mungo's Cathedral still stands. They em
braced and kissed on meeting, and when the time for parting
came, they exchanged their pastoral staves, as a pledge of
mutual love in Christ. {Vita Kentigerni, c. c. 39 and 40.)

12 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
little that is certain. Ninian's biography was
written some seven hundred years after his death
and cannot be relied upon. A Briton born on the
shores of the Solway, he was consecrated to the
Episcopal office by the Bishop of Rome towards
the end of the fourth century, and on his return
home he founded the famous church and mon
astery of Candida Casa at Whithorn in Wigton-
shire. Of Palladius, Ternan, and Serf, we know
even less. Their names are still preserved in dif
ferent localities in Aberdeenshire and Kincar
dineshire, and we may presume that they shared
or continued Ninian's work amongst the Picts in
that part of the country.28
It was inevitable that the settlement of the
Scots in Argyll should awaken into fervour the
latent missionary spirit of Irish monks and cler
ics. Unless their kinsmen in New Scotland were
to be lost to Christianity, they must be followed
and shepherded and built up in the faith. There
was also the great mission field of Pictland, lying
white unto the harvest across the dorsal ridge of
Britain,27 with its clear challenge to the soldiers
of Christ, and its bristling array of difficulties and

26 See Dowden, Celtic Church vn Scotland, for an excel
lent and brief account of pre-Columban Christianity in
Scotland. * The range of mountains, later known as the Mounth,
which stretches across Scotland from Fort William to the
neighbourhood of Aberdeen.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 13
dangers to try their mettle. In Columba's day
the romance of Irish Christianity lay in the ad
ventures and triumphs which the new colony
offered. Doubtless many an unknown and unrecorded
missionary responded to this great appeal. We
know at any rate the names of some who did re
spond, either by settling permanently as Columba
did, or by paying frequent visits to the land of
promise. Of the former class were Donnan of
Eigg, Moluag, Bishop of Lismore, and Maelrubba
of Applecross in Ross-shire.28 Amongst the latter
were Finbarr, Comgall, Brendan, Ronan, and
many others.20 Thus it is clear that to one of
Columba's character and zeal the call of New Scot
land must sooner or later have made itself heard.
Possibly, however, there were other reasons
for Columba's departure from Ireland. His
proud and passionate spirit was apt at times to
break out disastrously. Two years before he came
to Iona a bloody battle had been fought at Cool-
drevny, near Sligo, in which he is supposed to
have been implicated. The cause is said to have
been a dispute between Columba and his former
teacher, Finnian of Moville, over the ownership
of a manuscript of one of the books of Holy
Scripture which the former had copied. These
were wild times, and the story is not improbable.

28 A. D. 673. 28 Historians, p. xxxvi.

14 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
It was customary for monks and even for women
in Ireland to take part in war, and Columba
seems, even after he became Abbot of Iona, to
have been more or less directly connected with
two other Irish battles."" After the slaughter of
Cooldrevny he is said to have consulted his "soul-
friend" or confessor, Molaise, who enjoined exile
from Ireland as a penance, and directed the peni
tent to win as many souls among the heathen Picts
as he had brought to death upon the battlefield."1
From these legends we may at least extract
the probability that Columba had got into some
serious trouble, although, as we have seen, he did
not become a complete exile from Ireland. Adam
nan represents his removal as voluntary (pro
Christo peregrinari volens)," but on the other hand
he tells us that Columba was for some reason ex
communicated by a synod in Ireland.
Whatever the reason or reasons may have been
for Columba's adventure, he was now entering
upon the crowning work of his life. He landed
first, according to the pathetic legend, on the island
of Oronsay, and climbed its highest point to see
whether Ireland was still visible. Finding that
he could still discern the home coast-line in the
distance, he embarked again with his companions

M Historians, xlvii.
"Dowden, Celtic Church in Scotland, p. 95.
"Life, 2nd Preface.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 15
in their frail coracle, made of wicker work and
hide, and when they landed at Iona, no trace of
Ireland was to be seen.
The small island of Iona, three miles and a
quarter long and a mile across the middle, lies
just beyond its big neighbour, Mull, from which
it is separated by a sound a mile broad.33 Bare
in aspect, and lacking features of picturesqueness
or grandeur, it yet attracts, year by year, thou
sands of visitors to whom its sacred memories are
living and real. The frail buildings of clay and
wattles built by the hands of Columba and his
monks in the central part of the island have long
since disappeared, and the structures which now
remain belong to later times. Yet the old mill-
stream which drove the Columban mill is prob
ably the same as the burn which now trickles past
the north side of the mediaeval Cathedral, and
to the north of that again it is believed that the
original monastery stood.54 A great glacial boulder
in the vicinity may have been the stone table of
the refectory, referred to in old documents,*5 and

n The most recent account of Iona is to be found in
Trenholme's Story of Iona (David Douglas. Edinburgh,
1909). "Trenholme, pp. 99 and 101: It should, however, be
mentioned that as the result of recent excavations the
architect who carried through the restoration of the Cathe
dral maintains that the monastery stood on the Cathedral
site. ** Ibid., p. 103.

16 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
some existing remains of earthworks may have
been part of the original wall (vallum) of the
monastery.8" The famous cemetery to the south
of the Cathedral, Reilig Odhrain (the burial place
of Oran), is probably the place where Columba
and his monks were buried,87 for Oran was a dis
ciple and a kinsman of the saint.88 Two miles
distant, at the southern extremity of the island
is Port-na-churraich (the port of the coracle),
where tradition relates that the missionaries first
landed. The name of the island was not origi
nally that which is familiar to us. Adamnan
calls it Ioua Insula,8' which points to a name like
Iou (Yeo). The ordinary name in Gaelic at the
present day is Y (ee), which in early records
appears as la, Hya, or Hy." The erroneous title
Iona obviously arose through a misreading of
Adamnan's Ioua Insula, fostered by his dwelling
upon the fact that Iona (the Prophet Jonah) and
Columba both bore the same name, meaning a
dove. Iona seems to have occupied a position on the
border between Pictland and the southern colony,
very suitable for the twofold direction of Colum
ba's work, and we are told that the island was
granted to Columba first by his kinsman Conall,
prince of Scottish Dalriada, and subsequently by

"Ibid., p. 101. " Ibid., p. 123 38 Ibid., ]
"Ibid., p. 1. "Dowden, Celtic Church, p. 126

38 Ibid., p. 37.

IONA. lflCILKJ OIHJUAJN AMI I'ATII KOKAL

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 17
Brude, king of the Picts. There is some reason
to believe that the island was occupied by a Chris
tian community before Columba's arrival.
The materials for a detailed history of Colum
ba's labours amongst the Scots and the Picts do
not exist, but we can plainly make out a career
full of unremitting toil and manifold danger, with
interludes of study and devotion, and quiet but
strenuous routine in Iona or some neighbouring
island.41 Incessant occupation was a feature of
his life. "He could not pass the space of even one
hour without being engaged in prayer (orationi)
or study (lectioni) or else some work (etiam alicui
operationi). He was so occupied, day and night,
with unwearied and ceaseless tasks of fastings
and watchings, that the weight of his particular
work seems beyond any human possibility." "2
So speaks Adamnan of Columba's monastic
life in Iona, and we have many glimpses besides
of his doings beyond the Island. We meet him in
the isle of Skye, now facing a wild boar in a thick
wood which he has entered in order to pray,48 now
preaching through an interpreter to an aged Pict-
ish chief, whom he baptizes in a river.44 Now he
is in danger of being drowned in a storm at sea,
and takes his manful share with the sailors in the

"¦ Tiree, twenty miles to the northwest, was a dependency
of Iona, and contains many ecclesiastical remains. Hinba
(probably Ei-lan-na-Naoimh ) is also often mentioned.
"Life, 2nd Preface. "Life, II, 17. "I, 27.

18 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
task of baling out the boat,40 and again he is with
great common sense persuading a married woman
in one of the islands not to forsake her home duties
for life in a convent.4" Often he is amongst the
Picts across the dorsal ridge of Britain, at Inver
ness, or in Lochaber, where he enjoys for a night
the hospitality of a poor man and blesses his
family and his herds,4' or at an unnamed fountain,
bewitched by demons, whose waters he heals,48 or
near a village which is burnt in the darkness of
the night by a malicious enemy (aemulo perse-
cut ore)."1 The figure that we discern through the
supernatural haze is of one who is very strong and
brave, very human, and entirely devoted to his
high calling.
Columba's great achievement was in connec
tion with the conversion of the Picts. °° Soon after
his settlement in Iona, the intrepid missionary,
with some faithful followers, penetrated into the
very heart of the hostile country, and reached the
residence of King Brude, at or near Inverness.
Numbered in the little band were two famous
Irish ecclesiastics, Comgall and Kenneth, both
Columba's friends and both Picts by race. It is
obvious that they would have been most helpful

"11,11 4SII, 27. <7II, 20. "11,10. "1,28.
m There is, however, a growing opinion that Columba's
influence on the Picts has been exaggerated, and that most
Pictish mission work was done by Irish Pictish saints.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 19
in such a mission as this, both by their influence
among their fellow Picts and by their capacity as
interpreters. The fact that Columba enlisted
them in his enterprise indicates the thoroughness
of his methods, to which rather than to the mir
aculous stories which Adamnan tells, his success
was probably due. Brude was converted and bap
tized, and his people, as a matter of course, fol
lowed him.
The religion which was thus overthrown
seems to have consisted mainly of the worship of
demons, who dwelt "in the heavens or the earth,
the sea, the river, the mountain or the valley." "
The Druids may perhaps be compared to the
"medicine-men" of Africa.52 They were Colum
ba's great opponents, and were believed to be in
league with the demons, whose power, according
to Adamnan, they often invoked against the saint.
They held sway over the people by means of spells
and incantations, through which they exercised
mysterious powers. Columba is represented, not
as denying those powers, but as doing still greater
wonders by the power of Christ.
Both in Pictland and in the land of the Scots
many Columban monasteries were founded as a
result of his labours, but we cannot distinguish
between those which belong to Columba's life-time

01 Skene, Celtic Scotland, II, p. 109.
52 Dowden, Celtic Church, p. 99.

20 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
and those of a subsequent date. All these, to
gether with the Columban foundations in Ireland
formed one great family, with Iona as its spiritual
centre. The rest of Columba's life was spent in
superintending the widely scattered branches of
the brotherhood in both countries.
We must pass over the full and touching ac
count which Adamnan gives of the saint's last
days, and his death at Iona in the year 597. The
story is an oft-told one. It was at midnight, be
tween Saturday the eighth and Sunday the ninth
of June, that this great servant of God died in
the church, immediately after blessing the assem
bled monks. Truly he had fought the good fight
of faith, and it was with gladness that he entered
into his longed-for rest.
Columba's character contained a strange blend
of opposing qualities. He had a tender heart, for
"both man and bird and beast." He loved the
caresses of children,58 and he would not allow the
white pack-horse of the monastery to be driven
away when it was trying to shew in rude fashion its
affection for him."4 He caused an exhausted crane
which visited the island to be fed and tended,
and was once horrified to find that he had blessed
a knife which was meant to be used in killing
cattle."" Once he sent food to an evildoer who
had been detected in an attempt to raid the island

•Life, I, 12. "Ibid., Ill, 24. "II, 30.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 21
where the young seals of the monastery were
brought forth and nurtured. On the other hand
we have those "terrific avengements on his ene
mies" mentioned by Adamnan,68 the battles and
bloodshed with which he is credited, pointing to
a fierce and passionate temperament, which was
too apt to boil over on occasion. He once, for in
stance, prophesied that a certain rich but stingy
man, who had shewed contempt for the saint and
shewed him no hospitality, would become a beggar
along with his son,57 while others who offended him
in other ways were the subjects of still more evil
prophecies. Whether his words were fulfilled, as
we are assured that they were, is of little conse
quence. The important thing is that Adamnan
was well aware that Columba was not always a
"dove-like" person.
Again we see in him a man of affairs, taking an
important share in the political affairs of his day,
an intrepid and capable missionary, and a ruler
of the Church, exercising a wide and potent spir
itual influence. At Iona we behold the ascetic, with
his bed and pillow of stone;"8 the diligent scribe,
now attempting with indifferent success to go on
with his writing and to attend to monastery affairs
at the same moment,89 now a little fidgety about
his inkhorn, lest it be upset, and the ink be spilt ;""

1 n, 26. *' II, c. 21. M III, c. 24.
' II, c. 30. " I, c. 19.

22 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
and best of all the friend of those in need, to
whom men came from all quarters with distresses
of body or of soul.
The hymns which are with high probability
attributed to Columba shew the simplicity and the
directness of his Gospel,"1 and yet he appears to
us with something of the aspect of a wizard.
Often people came to him as to an oracle to en
quire as to their future fortune, and the replies
which they received appear always to have been
definite enough. The truth seems to be that Co
lumba possessed powers which are usually called
uncanny,82 in a very strong degree, and that this
fact lies at the foundation of a good many of
Adamnan's miraculous stories.
Of his personal appearance we find little in
dication. He was, according to Adamnan, angelic
in appearance, with a holy gladness ever shining
on his face, the result of the joy of the Holy Spirit
within him.88 We may assume the athletic bear
ing of an island soldier of Christ (insulanus
miles), and we may, with Dr. Dowden, "perhaps
believe that Columba was tall and dignified in
bearing, and that he had brilliant eyes, as later
authorities aver." "4 His powerful voice is some
times mentioned as carrying to a considerable dis
tance during the services in church, and its pos-

M See Appendix A. Hymns attributed to Saint Columba.
62 See below p. •» 2nd Preface. «* Celtic Church, p. 107.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 23
session must have been of considerable importance
when preaching the Gospel in the open air.
It is not so easy in these days as it was
twenty-five years ago, to brush aside the super
natural. The attitude of many scientific thinkers
towards the borderland of human happenings has
changed in a remarkable way, and the old mate
rialistic conception of the universe has been
greatly spiritualized of recent years. We are not
so sure as we used to be that we are very much
wiser than our forefathers, in spite of all the
strange and wonderful triumphs of modern times.
Yet the reader of Adamnan's Life of Columba,
however sympathetic he may be, will probably
find that he must make considerable deductions
in deference to common sense and the probabilities
of things. In so doing, however, he will be no
loser, for he will find that thereby he comes nearer
to the real Columba than before.
For instance, it seems clear that Columba
possessed in a strong degree that Celtic charac
teristic known as second sight. This gift is still
firmly believed in amongst the highlands and
islands of Scotland, and its chief manifestation is
held to be the vision of a sign that someone is
about to die. Many instances are recorded of
Columba's power in this respect, from which we
may take the following. One day the saint heard
someone shouting across the sound from Mull, as
a sign that he wished to be ferried over to the

24 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
island, and said, "Much to be pitied is that man
who is shouting, who is coming to us to seek some
medicines for his body. It were more fitting that
he should do real penance for his sins to-day, for
at the end of this week he shall die." On his
arrival the stranger was told what the saint had
said, but he made light of it, and on receiving
what he had asked for, quickly departed. Before
the end of that week he died, according to the
true prophecy of the saint.66
It is of course open for anyone to deny the
reality of second sight, but on the other hand it
is not unreasonable to suppose that this civiliza
tion of ours which has robbed us of that keen
ness of sense and those powers of observation still
possessed by savage races, may have also blunted
and atrophied in most of us higher powers still,
powers which belong to the spiritual side of human
nature, and which, in a highly developed spiritual
character like that of Columba, may well have
had extraordinary manifestations.
Allied to this kind of second sight is what we
may call telepathic vision, by which persons, and
events that are happening, are discerned at a con
siderable or even very great distance. However
this strange faculty be explained, there is no doubt
that it exists, and is from time to time exercised
at the present day. Adamnan records many cases

1 Life, I, c. 21.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 25
of this telepathic vision in Columba's life, and
there seems no valid reason for rejecting them.
The following story, for instance, is remarkably
like a strange occurrence which came under the
writer's notice a few years ago.
One very cold wintry day the saint was ob
served by his attendant Diormit to be in great
grief and shedding tears. He explained the cause
of his sadness thus : "With good reason, my little
son, am I sad this hour, seeing my monks, whom
Laisran is troubling to build a large house, al
though they are now wearied with severe labour.
This much displeases me." Laisran, Columba's
cousin, and afterwards Abbot of Iona, was then
at Derry, probably in charge of the monastery
there. The story goes on that at that moment he
felt a sudden compulsion, and a feeling as if a
fire burned within him, so that he stopped the
monks' labour and caused refreshments to be pre
pared for them, ordering them to rest not only
that day, but also whenever the weather was se
vere. All this being perceived by Columba at
Iona, he dried his tears and rejoiced, and blessed
Laisran for his kindness to the monks."
Columba's own explanation of his conscious
experience during these visions is of great psy
chological interest. We are told that on one occa
sion Lugbe Mocublai, a monk to whom he had

lLife, I, c. 23.

26 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
disclosed such a vision, had the boldness to ask
the saint how these revelations were made to him,
"whether through sight, or by hearing, or by other
means unknown to men." Columba, first binding
Lugbe to secrecy during his lifetime (cunttis
diebus vitae meae), gave this reply: "There are
some, though very few, on whom divine grace
has conferred this gift, that they behold, clearly
and most plainly, actually the whole orb of the
whole earth, with the circle of sea and sky, at
one and the same moment, as if under a single
ray of the sun, through the wondrous enlargement
of the mind's capacity''"' (mirabiliter laxaio men
tis sinu). This is an exceptionally clear statement of that
cosmic consciousness which we meet in the lives
and writings of great poets and saints. Here is
an extract from the life of Tennyson, which may
well stand beside Columba's statement to Lugbe:88
"A kind of waking trance I have frequently had,
quite up from boyhood, when I have been all
alone. This has generally come upon me through
repeating my own name two or three times to
myself silently, till all at once, out of the intensity
of the consciousness of individuality, the individ
uality itself seemed to dissolve and fade away
into boundless being, and this not a confused

"Life, I, Chap. XXXV.
"Life of Tennyson., Vol. I, p. 320.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 27
state, but the clearest of the clearest, the surest
of the surest, the weirdest of the weirdest, utterly
beyond words, where death was an almost laugh
able impossibility, the loss of personality (if so
it were) seeming no extinction, but the only true
life." "
With Tennyson's experience we may compare
that of St. Augustine in contemplation with his
mother. "We did pass step by step through all
corporeal things, even heaven itself. Yea we
soared higher still by inward musing. . . . And
we came to our own minds and passed beyond
them that we might touch that region of unfailing
richness. . . . We touched it for a moment . . .
and we sighed and left there bound the first fruits
of the Spirit, and so returned to the sound of our
own mouth." And Dante, in the crowning vision
of the Light Eternal in the Paradiso,70 touches the
same thought of cosmic consciousness.
"In its depth I saw there enters,
Bound with love in one complete whole,
That which is scattered through the universe,
Substance and accidents and their fashion,
As if fused together in such a way
That that which I tell is one single flash of light."
To return to another class of Adamnan's
stories, those in which are related wonderful

•' Compare "The Ancient Sage," by the same poet :
"When thou sendest thy free soul through heaven,
Nor understandest bound nor boundlessness."
¦'"Paradiso, XXXIII, 85.

28 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
cures performed by the saint, there is some ground
for thinking that Columba had medical skill and
knowledge which were remarkable for his time,
the successful exercise of which gave rise to tales
which did not lose in the telling, as time went on.
Without seeking to turn Columba into a medical
missionary, we may well suppose that then, as
now, some knowledge of medicine and surgery
would have been most helpful in forwarding the
sacred cause to which his life was devoted,
amongst a wild and ignorant people, whose only
help in time of sickness was such as the spells and
incantations of the Druids afforded. We are not
without evidence that this was the case, for in
the passage quoted above on page 23 we have the
significant information that a man came to Iona
to ask from Columba medicine for his body
(aliqua ad carnalia medicamenta petiturus per-
tinentia) and that he was medically treated as a
matter of course (acceptis quae poposcerat). This
could hardly have been an isolated instance, and it
points both to Columba's medical skill, and to the
extent of his medical reputation. To this we may
add an account of a cure which has no very
miraculous aspect. One day a young man named
Lugne came to the saint and complained of a
bleeding from the nose from which he had suffered
frequently for several months. When he came
near, Columba squeezed (constringens) both his
nostrils with two fingers of his right hand, and

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 29
blessed him. The happy result, that the nose of
the young man never bled again, is credited by
Adamnan to the blessing (ex qua hora benedic-
tionis), but we may be pardoned for thinking that
something was due to the squeeze, and the physical
shock produced thereby.71
Once again, the well-known story72 of how an
inquisitive monk (callidus explorator) once spied
upon the saint in defiance of his prohibition, and
saw him surrounded by a multitude of angels,
suggests another influence than exaggeration upon
the miraculous fame of Columba, viz., the tend
ency to father local traditions upon a famous
person. The spot where Columba was seen stand
ing is called by Adamnan the Hill of the Angels
(Cnoc Angel) and this name is still locally pre
served, but that by which it is familiarly known
to this day is Sithean Mor, the great fairy hill.
This name comes down from a period anterior to
the appearance of Christianity in Iona, and tells
its own story. There were stories of fairies con
nected with this place long before Columba's day,
and what is more likely than that one of these
should have been transferred, by a process which
we see illustrated any day in our newspapers, to
the name of the illustrious saint, with angels to
take the place of fairies.
To which we may add, ere we leave this point,

1 Life, II, Chap. XVII. « Life, III, Chap. XVII.

30 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
that the best attested of Adamnan's miracles are
the least marvellous, and that some of the events
recorded may with little difficulty be explained in
a natural way. Thus we can well believe that a
wild boar which was being hunted in Skye fell
down dead at Columba's feet, if we make the
simple assumption that it had already been mor
tally wounded, and the sensational feat performed
on Loch Ness of sailing his boat in the teeth of a
gale raised by Broichan the Druid may resolve it
self into an instance of the saint's skilful naviga
tion, by which he sailed "very close to the wind." 7S
It now remains to treat very briefly of the spec-
cial features of the Church system of Columba's
day. In the first place it was monastic in character.
St. Patrick had brought the monastic ideal to
Ireland from Gaul, and it was doubtless the most
stable and efficient means then possible of ex
tending Christianity among the warring tribes and
petty kingdoms of Ireland and Caledonia. Hence
the position of the Columban Bishop was a pe
culiar one. As a rule the head of each monastery
was a connection of the chief of the tribe which
sheltered it, and Columba's example in remain
ing a presbyter was followed by most abbots.
The bishops were, therefore, often monks subject
to the abbot's authority, without anything in the
nature of Church jurisdiction. Yet it is clear

78 Dowden, Celtic Church, p. 101.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 31
from the Life that a Bishop had always special
honour and dignity accorded to him, and that
none but he might perform episcopal acts like
ordination and consecration. The Columban
Church was undeniably "episcopal," presenting a
phase of episcopacy strange and anomalous, but
not unparalleled in history.
The monastic life was, in all probability, on
the same lines as elsewhere in Western Christen
dom, with its daily round of prayer and praise,
its fasts and its festivals,74 its toils and its relaxa
tions. We may doubt whether Columba promul
gated a monastic rule, but it is very likely that
the brethren were bound to obedience, chastity,
and poverty. The Holy Eucharist seems to have
been celebrated on Sundays and festivals and on
special occasions, and some if not all of the canon
ical hours were observed. The season of Lent
was kept, and Wednesdays and Fridays were
usually observed as fasts. Two peculiarities
caused much strife and trouble in later days: the
Irish tonsure (which, according to Dr. Dowden,
was crescent shaped, with an unshorn fringe in
front, leaving also all the hair behind a line drawn
from ear to ear), and the Irish method of calcu
lating Easter according to an obsolete cycle. The
monastery was enclosed by a rampart (vallum),
inside which were the abbot's little hut (tuguri-

" Dowden, Celtic Church, Ch. VII.

32 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
olum) situated on an eminence by itself, and the
dwellings of the monks, as well as the church,
refectory, and guest-chambers. Outside were the
mill and the kiln, the cowshed, the stable, and the
barn. There is no indication of the number of monks
added in Columba's time to his original twelve
companions, beyond the fact that the names of
something less than thirty are mentioned by
Adamnan in different connections. Among these
are two Saxons who, whether converted by Co
lumba or not, may be looked upon as the first-fruits
of the English nation offered to God.75 We often
hear of Diormit, the saint's personal attendant,
and of Baithene, his cousin and successor. The
baker was one of the above-mentioned Saxons, the
gardener was called Laisrean, and the farm over
seer Baithen. Lugaid was the abbot's messen
ger, and Libran of the rush-ground probably had
to provide the ancient substitute for carpets. From
these indications we may gather that there was a
careful and systematic apportionment of duties,
according to each man's capacity. We meet the
brethren coming home tired from the harvest
field, we see them gathering wood for building
purposes, and (in Derry) building a house.
Often they are fishing with the net, often sailing
the day's journey to Ireland. At other times

75 Grub, Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, I, 60.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 33
they are reading or writing or engaged in devo
tion. In Iona it is evident that there was no
room for sluggards.
Outwardly the circumstances of life in Iona
may have seemed humble enough, but its inner
power reached far and wide. Well might Co
lumba, as he looked around him, have burst into
his famous prophecy, so strikingly fulfilled in the
history of Iona: "To this place, cramped though
it be and mean, not only kings of the Scots with
their peoples, but also rulers of barbarous and
foreign nations with their subjects shall bring
great and uncommon honour; by the saints also
of other Churches unusual reverence shall be
paid." 7"

1 Life, III, 24.

II -THE TRANSITION FROM CELTIC
TO ROMAN INFLUENCE
Saint Makgaeet
Queen of Scotland from 1068 to 1093 A.D.
A period of more than four and a half cen
turies intervenes between the death of Columba
and the arrival in Scotland of the Saxon princess
Margaret, with whose coming a new era opens in
the life of the Scottish Church and nation. The
history of this long stretch of time is but dimly
illuminated for us. We can discern figures and
developments here and there, and it is possible to
piece together the fragmentary facts which have
escaped oblivion, into the outline of a story. But
no real and living picture is available until we
come to the biographical sketch of the life of St.
Margaret, which, in the words of Bishop A. P.
Forbes, "supplies us with the first really authentic
history of Scotland after the notices in Adamnan
and Baeda, the Pictish Chronicle and the Book
of Deer." 2
Great changes had assuredly taken place both
in the political and in the ecclesiastical features

1 Kalendars of Scottish Saints, p. 388.

ST. MARGARET AND MALCOLM CAXMORE
Picture by the late Sir Noel Paton

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 35
of Scotland, by the time of the Norman Conquest.
The petty kingdoms of Columba's day had been
gradually welded into something like a nation
under the rule of one sovereign. In the middle
of the ninth century, Kenneth Macalpine of Kin-
tyre, a Scot on his father's side, and on his moth
er's apparently a Pict, had succeeded in uniting
Picts and Scots into one kingdom. His succes
sors in turn enlarged the borders of this Picto-
Scottish dominion in the course of long wars with
Scandinavian settlers in the north and west, and
with Britons and English on the south. The
cession of English Lothian, and a matrimonial
alliance with the ruler of Strathclyde eventually
completed the unifying process, and before the
time that Malcolm Canmore, the son of the mur
dered Duncan, ascended his throne, the kingdom
of Scotland, loosely cemented as it necessarily was,
may be described as at least a nominally accom
plished fact.
The ecclesiastical changes had been equally
striking. The glory of Iona had risen to its su
preme splendour, and then all but passed away.
For more than two centuries Columba's settle
ment at Hy had possessed an unique position and
influence in the Celtic Church. The great family
(muintir) of Columban communities in Scotland
and Ireland looked up to the abbot of Iona as its
spiritual head, for he was the heir (co-arb) of
Columkille. Irish kings lived and died in the

36 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
island as simple monks, and when a second Iona
was founded at the island of Lindisfarne, off the
coast of Northumbria, by St. Aidan and other
devoted missionaries, a great spiritual harvest was
reaped in England. Then came days of waning
influence and of disaster. The Northumbrian
mission ceased after the triumph of Roman prin
ciples at the Synod of Whitby (664), the monas
tery in Iona was ravaged again and again by Dan
ish pirates, the Columban monks were banished
from Pictland as a result of the Easter contro
versy, the chief seat of the Columban order was
transferred to Kells in Ireland for security, and
when Kenneth Macalpine united the Picts and
the Scots, he transferred the chief seat of eccle
siastical influence in Scotland to Dunkeld.
Yet the fame and sanctity of Iona were remem
bered, although its authority had so greatly waned.
The monks clung to the island in spite of ravage
and martyrdom, and Iona became the Westminster
Abbey of Scotland for the next two centuries.
There, according to the ancient chronicles, all the
kings of Scotland except four, from Kenneth
Macalpine until the time of Malcolm Canmore,
were buried. The little cemetery called Reilig
Odhrain is thus one of the most interesting his
torical spots in Scotland. There the dust of
Shakespeare's Duncan mingles with that of his
murderer Macbeth, and the indistinguishable re
mains of many of the makers of Scotland lie

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 37
together without scroll or monument, under the
canopy of the open sky, with the ceaseless sound
of the western waves for their requiem.2
We are groping in the dark when we try to
trace the history of the Church in Scotland gen
erally during this period. A scanty outline is all
that we can discern. Bishops again appear in
their regular position as the rulers of the Church.
The primacy is transferred from Dunkeld, first
perhaps to Abernethy, and finally to St. Andrews.
The order of the Culdees, about which so much
has been written, appears and rises to influence.
The possessions of the Church become considerable
enough to excite the cupidity of laymen, who
usurp not only property but also titles and dig
nities belonging to the spiritual order.8 With the
loss of the old fervour and the noble ideals in
spired by Columba, there gradually sets in a gen
eral decay of religion. Laxity displaces ascetic
discipline as love grows cold, and irregularities of
different kinds abound. Had we more light, this
picture of Celtic Christianity in its final stage
might be a less depressing one.4 But such as it
is, it reveals the Scottish Church at a very low

2 Trenholme, Story of Iona, p. 125.
8 This sacrilege was, therefore, not a mere growth of the
later age, when Stuarts were kings.
' Margaret's biographer, it should be remembered, writes
with the bias of an inveterate Angliciser, who could Bee
nothing good in the Celtic system.

38 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
ebb, awaiting a rescuer to save it from further
degeneration. The saviour whom God, in His providence,
raised up at this critical period was a woman, of
alien birth and training, the descendant of a long
line of Saxon kings, and the flower of English
womanhood. Cast upon the shores of Scotland
like wreckage from the storm of the Conquest,
she found in her new home a great task awaiting
her, from which it was but natural that she should
at first shrink. The seclusion and safety of the
convent seemed more attractive to the exiled and
disinherited princess, than the dubious splendour
of a seat upon the throne of the fierce warrior,
Malcolm of the Big Head, among a people who
must have seemed to her so rude and barbarous.
But when at last she yielded to the wishes of her
ardent suitor, and became the Queen of Scotland,
it was, as the account of her life shews, in the
most lofty spirit of devotion to duty, and with
the most whole-hearted intention of working for
the highest welfare of her husband and of her
adopted country.
Not that one frail woman, however holy and
devoted, could alone have so profoundly affected
the life of Scotland as Margaret is said to have
done. She came on the crest of a wave of new
influence, which was of the most powerful char
acter, and which ultimately changed the whole face
of Scotland. In her temperament and aims were

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 39
epitomized the characteristics of the new Saxon
movement in Scotland, which the Norman Con
quest shaped into being. Until that event the
Celtic element in Scotland reigned supreme, while
English Lothian, between the Forth and the
Tweed, had to be content with a slowly growing
influence. But now settlers from England, great
and small, came pouring over the border to escape
the dominion of the Conqueror, and bringing with
them other customs and ideals than those which
hitherto had held sway in Scotland. During the
joint reign of Malcolm and Margaret we see a de
termined struggle for supremacy being waged be
tween the representatives of Saxon and of Celtic
traditions, a struggle which was not decisively set
tled during their lifetime, as the Celtic reaction
which took place after Malcolm's death clearly
shews. The Life of St. Margaret has been described
above as a biographical sketch, and this it is rather
than a biography in the proper sense of the word.
The author could not have missed feeling that his
task had its delicate features. Writing as he did
at Durham, he was aware that the local memories
of Malcolm were mainly of a gruesome order."
Yet he wrote at the command of an English queen
who would not relish such things being told of her
father. Hence he preferred not to paint in the

* See Symeon of Durham's History.

40 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
historical and political background of his picture.
Not a single date does he give from beginning to
end, and much information that would have been
of great value is carefully withheld. The writer
has been often accused of exaggerating the vir
tues of the saintly queen, but his fault seems one
of omission rather than exaggeration. It was
perhaps natural enough under the circumstances
that he should fail to suggest the existence in
Margaret's character of any of those flaws to which
every son and every daughter of man is subject.
These, however, we can each easily supply accord
ing to our tastes and powers of imagination. And
we need not complain overmuch if a dim, religious
light pervades this narrative, which, as far as it
goes, bears the stamp of truth and simplicity.
It is not quite certain who the author was.
Many authorities accept the testimony of John
of Fordun and others to the effect that he was
Turgot, at one time Prior of Durham, and sub
sequently Bishop of St. Andrews (1109-1115),
but the evidence yielded by the manuscript copies
of the Life is somewhat perplexing." At any rate
he was someone who possessed excellent first-hand
information, and who wrote his narrative within
fourteen years of Margaret's death.
The author describes himself as the servant

"See Appendix B. Date and Authorship of St. Mar
garet's Life.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 41
of the servants of St. Cuthbert, and claims to have
had an intimate knowledge of Margaret's inner
life which no one but her confessor was likely to
have obtained. "You tell me," he says in the
dedication to Queen Matilda, "that I am worthy
of special trust in this task, for you have heard
that I, by reason of great intimacy (familiaritas)
with her, was possessed of a knowledge of her
secrets to a considerable extent (magna ex parte)."
Elsewhere he speaks of his knowledge of her con
science, as revealed to him by herself,7 and tells
how, at the premonition of her approaching death
she told him in secret the history of her whole
life, shedding floods of tears as she spoke.8 In
addition to his other embarrassments, therefore,
our author had in all probability to observe the
reticence imposed by the seal of confession with
respect to matters about which he might otherwise
have written with comparative freedom.
For the rest we learn that he was an old man
at the time of writing,9 that for a considerable
time he had been, by Margaret's orders, the cus
todian of the sacred vessels of the altar in the
royal church at Dunfermline,10 and that he often
had to weary himself in book-hunting expeditions,
to gratify the keen and pious desire of his beloved
mistress, to possess copies of the sacred volumes."
7 Ch. Ill, 17. 9 Ch. IV, 25.
• Procul sit a mea canitie. Prologue 2.
10 Ch. I, 7. u Ch.II, 10.

42 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
He deplores his lack of ability for the task of writ
ing Margaret's life, but his Latin abounds with
ambitious little graces and conceits which shew
that this consideration did not weigh heavily on
his mind.Whoever the author was, he possessed one ex
cellent quality, a sincere love of truth. Unlike
the writer of the Brevis Chronica," some five hun
dred years later, who declares that Margaret
"kythit mony miraclis," this contemporary wit
ness bluntly tells us there were none. It is quite
refreshing to read such sentiments as these, from
an ecclesiastical biographer of the beginning of
the twelfth century: "Let others wonder at the
signs of miracles in other persons, I in Margaret
much rather admire the works of mercy, for signs
are common to the good and the bad, but works of
true piety and charity belong only to the good.
The former sometimes disclose holiness, the latter
also make it. Let us admire, I say — and more
worthily — the deeds in Margaret which made her
a saint, rather than the signs, if she had performed
any,18 which would only shew a saint to men. We
may more worthily wonder at her, in whom, by
her zeal for justice, piety, mercy, and love, we con-

12 Historians of Scotland, Vol. IX, p. 322.
18 Ch. Ill, 24. Signa, si aliqua feeisset. Mr. Forbes
Leith's rendering, "which, had we any record of them," is
slightly misleading. (Life of St. Margaret, p. 66.)

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 43
template the deeds of the ancient fathers rather
than their signs."
One event, indeed, he relates which he thinks
might be described as relevant in the way of proof
of her holy life. A book of the Gospels which she
valued more highly than the other books which she
used to read, was one day dropped into a river
through carelessness by someone while he was
crossing a ford. It was a beautiful book, adorned
with gems and gold, and decorated with gilded
pictures of the four Evangelists, every capital let
ter being brilliant with gold. The bearer proceeded
on his way. and only discovered his loss when he
wished to produce the book. Search was made
for a long time without success, but at last it was
found lying open at the bottom of the river, its
leaves being stirred all the time by the rush of the
water, and the little bits of silk that protected the
gilded letters having been washed away. Yet it
was rescued from its watery bed unharmed, its
leaves white as before, and the form of its letters
unaltered, except in a part of the last leaves, where
hardly any sign of wet could be seen."'
The real interest of this story lies in the recent
discovery of a book which is believed, with good
reason, to be the very one referred to. In July,
1;__T. the authorities of the Bodleian Library of
Oxford purchased for £6 a small manuscript book
14 Ch. m, 23.

44 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
containing the liturgical Gospels, which on exam
ination was found to belong to the eleventh cen
tury, and to contain upon the fly-leaf a poem in
Latin hexameters, describing how this very vol
ume had passed through the same experience as
that above related. The book answers to the de
scription in the Life, and the poem ends with the
words, "May the King and the pious Queen be
saved for ever, whose book was but now saved from
the waves." Thus there is no reasonable doubt
that St. Margaret's Gospel Book is now one of
the treasures of the great Oxford library.15
Margaret was the daughter of the English
_Etheling Edward, whose brave and vigourous
father, Edmund Ironside, had for a short time
succeeded in stemming the tide of Danish aggres
sion, and in dividing the kingship of England
with Canute. When the death of Ironside re
moved Canute's rival after a reign of a few months,
the Danish monarch sent his two sons, the little
iEthelings Edward and Edmund abroad, whether,
as Symeon of Durham asserts,18 that they might
be put to death outside of England, or, as is prob
able, for more humane reasons. The young exiles
spent some time in Sweden, and afterwards were
sent on to be cared for by St. Stephen, King of
Hungary. There they grew up, and in course of

15 Dowden, Celtic Church in Scotland, p. 331.
"Historia Regum, § 130.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 45
time Edmund died, while Edward married a noble
lady named Agatha, as to whose antecedents there
is some mystery. Had she been, as Symeon de
clares, the daughter of Henry, the German Em
peror, we should have expected to find some refer
ence to the fact in Margaret's Life.
The children of this marriage, Margaret,
Christina, and Edgar the iEtheling, thus spent
their young days at the court of Hungary, but
after Edward the Confessor, the half-brother of
Edmund Ironside, succeeded to the throne of his
fathers, the exiled family returned to England.
At Edward's court another exile had found refuge,
the Scottish prince Malcolm, who fled to England
after his father's death. Thus it seems extremely
probable that the future king and queen of Scot
land knew one another long before their lives were
united. Freeman even suggests that they may
have been betrothed in the Confessor's time,1' but
the evidence which he produces is hardly convinc
ing, and Malcolm's first marriage with Ingibiorg
stands somewhat in the way of such a betrothal.
Malcolm in due course left England to fight
for the Scottish crown, and proved his valour by
overthrowing and slaying Macbeth in 1057 at
Lumphanan, in the Deeside district of Aberdeen
shire. His first marriage, which took place a few

' Sorman Conquest, IV, p. 508.

46 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
years" after this event, was in all likelihood an
affair of policy rather than of affection. Curiously
enough it is not in the historical literature of Scot
land or England that this event is recorded, but in
that of Iceland. In the Orkneyinca Saga we
meet the following reference: "Ingibiorg, the
mother of the Earls, was married to Malcolm,
King of Soots, who was called Langhals (Long-
neck), and their son was Duncan, King of Scots,
the father of William, the excellent man : His son
was called William Odling (the noble), whom
all the Scots wished to have for their king."'
Ingibiorg was the widow of Thorfinn, the re
doubtable Earl of Orkney whom his cousin Dim-
can, Canmore's father, had utterly failed to sub
due, and who died in 1064. Ingibiorg, in the
words of the editor of the Saga, must have been
old enough to be Malcolm's mother,30 and her union
with Malcolm was of short duration. Its effect,
however, seems to have been such as the king de
sired, in rendering the northern portion of his king
dom more loyal to his own person than it had
been to any of those who reigned in Scotland
before him.
The offspring of this union, Duncan, reigned
over Scotland for six months during the political
ls Xot less than seven.
18 The Orl-neyinga Saga, Chap. XXITI, p. 45. (Edited by
Joseph Anderson. Edinburgh, Edmonston & Douglas, 1873.)
^Ibid., p. 46.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 47
turmoils that followed the death of Malcolm. He is
represented by the Scottish historians as a bastard,
and this has been considered by some to point to a
divorce on the ground of consanguinity, as the
termination of Malcolm's first marriage. But we
have no information on this point, and it is hardly
likely that a lady of Margaret's scrupulously pious
character would have become Malcolm's second
wife under such circumstances."
When William the Conqueror overthrew Har
old at the battle of Hastings in 1066, Malcolm's
sympathies naturally went out to the dynasty of
the Confessor, who had been his friend and pro
tector of old. Edgar the _Eheling was pro
claimed King of England, and the Scottish King
promised to send an army in support of his cause.
The attempt, however, came to grief before Mal
colm could make his promise good, and eventually
Edgar, with his mother Agatha, his sisters Mar
garet and Christina, and several of the English
nobility, sought refuge at the court of the Scottish
King. The exact date of their flight, and of the
marriage of Margaret, cannot be ascertained, for
the evidence on these points is contradictory. It
is not even clear whether the royal exiles did not
flee to Scotland more than once and return again to

n Yet a declaration of Malcolm's former marriage as
null 06 initio, as would have been the case for consanguinity,
might not have been looked upon as discreditable by Mar
garet's advisers in those days.

48 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
England, before Margaret's final settlement in her
new home.22 Somewhere, however, between the
years 1067 and 1070 it is certain that that settle
ment took place.
Symeon of Durham paints a stern picture of
the circumstances in which Margaret met her fu
ture husband. The exiles were at Wearmouth,
near Durham, waiting with a few ships for a
favourable wind to carry them to Scotland, when
Malcolm approached at the head of a large army,
laying waste the country without mercy. In the
lands of St. Cuthbert every one lost all his posses
sions, and some were slain. At Wearmouth the
Church of St. Peter was burned while Malcolm
looked on, and other churches were consumed with
the unfortunate wretches who had sought safety
within them. Symeon always represents Mal
colm as a monster of cruelty, and we can only hope
that his descriptions are exaggerated. He goes
on to say that Malcolm was riding about the banks
of the river Wear, feasting eyes and mind upon
the sight of the cruelties that his men were inflict
ing on the miserable English, when news was
brought to him that Edgar and his royal sisters
and several others of exalted rank had sailed into
the harbour as exiles. Despite the cruel nature of
his work, the Scottish King received the refugees
kindly. He gave them his right hand, and spoke

22 Freeman, Norman Conquest, IV, pp. 195, 243, and 506.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 49
words of friendship, promising them and theirs a
peaceful dwelling place in his kingdom as long as
they might wish23. So the exiles passed on to Scot
land, leaving Malcolm to harry the country still
more fiercely.
The town of Dunfermline, where the Scottish
court was then situated,24 is perhaps now best
known as a prosperous centre of linen manufac
ture. Yet it has happily escaped the fate of be
coming so modernized as to lose all traces of its
early history. In the beautiful Pittencrieff Glen
one may still wander among scenes that were fa
miliar to Malcolm and Margaret. The remains
of Malcolm's Tower are still visible upon a steep
peninsular crag, overlooking the stream which
flows down the glen, and a hundred yards or so in
front stands the Abbey Church with its venerable
nave, on the site where the royal pair erected the
Church of the Holy Trinity as a memorial of their
marriage. The impressive ruins of the monastery
and of the royal palace, which lie close at hand,
belong to a later date, but the little cave of St.
Margaret, situated about 290 yards up the stream,
may well have been a retreat used by the Queen
for purposes of devotion.
Margaret, as we have seen, was at first un-

23 Historia Regum, A. D. 1070, p. 190.
24 Quite at the south of Celtic Scotland, and within a few
miles of the river Forth, the dividing line between Saxon
and Celt.

50 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
willing to become Malcolm's wife, and it was more
owing to the wishes of her relations than of her
self that at last she consented.1" The marriage was
celebrated at Dunfermline by Fothad, the Celtic
Bishop of St. Andrews,2* and its subsequent happi
ness soon belied the bride's hesitancy. The com
plete and touching devotion of the warrior hus
band, the sweet and uplifting influence of the gen
tle wife, and their thorough union in all good
works furnish to all time a beautiful picture of
what a wedded life may be.
If Malcolm's Tower represented the whole ex
tent of the royal residence at Dunfermline,17 Mar
garet's first establishment as Queen of Scotland
must have been a modest one indeed. Owing to
the nature of the site it is certain that the dimen
sions of this building were exceedingly small,
hardly sufficient indeed for the requirements of
the tiniest of modern shooting boxes. But the
young bride, with her recollections of Hungary
and of England, had her own ideas of what a
king's court should be, and we may feel assured
that she did not long delay in seeing them put into
practice. She rendered, we are told,18 the magnifi-

"Life, Chap. I, 6. Pinkerton's edition.
23 Grub, VoL I, p. 190.
K Malcolm had a hunting seat, of which ruins still
exist, at Castleton of Braemar, in the Deeside Highlands,
and it was in Edinburgh Castle that Margaret died.
"Life, n, 11.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 51
cence of the king's royal splendour much more mag
nificent, and also greatly raised the standard of out
ward dignity among the nobles and their depend
ants. She brought it about that foreign traders came
to Scotland by land and sea, who introduced many
precious wares which till then were unknown in
the land, such as garments of various colours and
ornaments of apparel. These latter, it would
seem, she even took care that the ladies among her
new subjects should purchase,29 so that new fash
ions in dress abounded, with the happiest of re
sults in the appearance of the wearers.
With the same end in view Margaret reconsti
tuted the arrangements for attendance on the King.
Wherever he went, . whether walking or riding,
there now attended to do him honour a large re
tinue, so strictly disciplined that none dared to
rob anyone on the way, nor to oppress or hurt the
country people or the poor. Finally, we are told,
that she greatly increased the embellishments
(ornamenta) of the royal palace. It was bright
with hangings (palliorum) of varied beauty, and
the whole house (domus) shone with gold and
silver. At this point, however, our biographer's
conscience seems to have pricked him, for he goes
on to explain that the last mentioned splendour
was due to the fact that the vessels in which food
and drink were served to the King and his nobles

28 compellente Regina.

52 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
were either of gold or silver, or else gilt or silver-
plated. It is abundantly clear that Margaret's efforts
to improve the character of her surroundings, and
to increase her husband's royal dignity, were not
inspired by any love of worldly display for its
own sake, but resulted from her enlightened sense
of duty. We can easily imagine in how many
respects the rude and half-civilized manners of her
adopted country would grate upon Margaret's
sense of fitness, and how naturally one gifted with
her genius for management would set herself to
improve matters. Yet her personal humility was
profound and sincere. When she walked adorned
with costly raiment, as a queen should, she, like an
other Esther, trod in heart all her trappings under
foot, and remembered that she beneath her gems
and gold was only dust and ashes.30 She continually
kept in her mind some of those solemn words of
Scripture which speak of the frailty and the
shortness of human life,81 and often she would ask
the writer of the Life to rebuke her in private
without hesitation, whenever he noticed anything
blameworthy in her words or actions. She would
even take her spiritual adviser to task on occasion
(importunam se mihi ingerebat) if she thought
that he was performing his duty of censor less fre-

'Life, II, 12.
LLike Job xiv, 1 and 2; St. Jas. iv, 14.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 53
quently and more gently than was necessary, so
keenly was she set upon growth in grace before all
things. Soon after Margaret became Queen she built,
we are told, a noble church in the place where her
marriage had been celebrated, in honour of the
Holy Trinity, and as an eternal monument of her
name and of her piety. The epithets "noble" and
"eternal" suggest a building both beautiful and
substantial, but architectural considerations for
bid us to conclude that the venerable and impres
sive nave of the Abbey Church, which still stands
with its massive columns and its general structure
so reminiscent of Durham Cathedral, is the very
church which Malcolm and Margaret built and in
which they worshipped.82 It probably stood upon
the site which was afterwards occupied by the
choir built in the thirteenth century.
An interesting letter38 of Lanfranc, Archbishop
of Canterbury, to Margaret, which has survived
the ravages of time, may perhaps be connected
with the building of the royal church. Lanfranc
mentions that he is sending, as requested, the monk
Goldewin to perform some service to the royal
pair, and that two other brethren accompany him.

82 MacGibbon & Ross. Ecclesiastical Architecture of
Scotland from the Earliest Christian Times to the Seven
teenth Century. (Edinburgh, Douglas, 1896.) Vol. I, p.
231. 88 Translated in Appendix C.

54 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
The work, whatever it is, has been already begun
"for the sake of God and of your souls." The
absence of the monks from Canterbury is highly
inconvenient, and Lanfranc hopes that they may
soon be sent back, if others can be found to com
plete the work in Scotland. This work is usually
connected with Margaret's efforts to reform the
manners of the Scots and the customs of the
Celtic Church,34 but the above-quoted phrase, "for
the sake of God and of your souls," suggests a con
nection with the statement in the Life" that the
threefold purpose for which the church was built
was the redemption of the souls of Malcolm and
Margaret, and the welfare of their offspring in the
present life and in that which is to come. How
ever this may be, 8" the letter throws a curious light
upon Lanfranc's relations with Scotland. It
seems strange that Margaret had asked the right-
hand man of the Conqueror who had dispossessed
her brother of the throne of England to become her
spiritual father. Such a request was very wel
come to one with the political and ecclesiastical
aims of the great Archbishop, while it reveals the
strength of Margaret's desire to bring Southron
influences to bear upon the Scottish Church.
Margaret's chronicler takes occasion, as the ex-

84 I, 7.
85 Enquiry at the Lambeth library has failed to elicit
any evidence that Goldewin was an architect, or that he
was employed in any of Lanfranc's building schemes.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 55
sacristan of Dunfermline Church might well do,
to record the Queen's gifts of vessels of solid gold
for the sacred service of the altar, as well as a
priceless crucifix covered with gold and silver and
gems, and other decorative gifts. Various other
churches were similarly adorned by her bounty,
as for instance the Church of St. Andrews, where
a very beautiful crucifix at the time when the Life
was written bore witness to Margaret's devotion
and faith. Her chamber was, we are told, like
a workshop of sacred handicraft, for it never
lacked a supply of cantor's copes, chasubles, stoles,
altar coverings, and other priestly vestments and
church ornaments, some in course of being made,
and others already finished for the admiration of
beholders.8' These works were entrusted to noble ladies of
discreet manners, to whom Margaret herself had
doubtless taught the secrets of that exquisite em
broidery, the Opus Anglicum, for which the
ladies of England were so famous. A fitting at
mosphere, we are assured, pervaded the chamber
while the ladies worked. No men were allowed
to enter unless, as sometimes happened, the Queen
brought them with her. There was no unbecom
ing familiarity allowed with men, nor any saucy
levity, for the Queen was as strict as she was
sweet, and inspired fear as well as love. Our
"Life, 1,7.

56 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES /V
worthy clironicler draws a truly monkish picture
of an eleventh century work-party, but after all
he, being a man, would have been but rarely there
to see. Other religious benefactions by the Queen of
a more substantial character are recorded. For
the convenience of devout persons journeying to
the Church of St. Andrews, which, it is interesting
to learn, was a place of pilgrimage in the eleventh
century, she erected hostels on either side of "the
sea which divides Lothian from Scotland." The
names of North and South Queensferry, at either
end of the great railway bridge which now spans
the Forth, still commemorate this act of pious
hospitality, by which the stranger and the poor
found shelter, food, and ferry, without the pay
ment of fee or reward. Ordericus Vitalis also
records tlie fact that Iona benefitted by Margaret's
munificence, for she restored the monastery build
ings there which had fallen into ruin through the
ravages of war and of time, and bestowed upon the
monks sufficient means to enable them to carry on
the Lord's work.31 The tiny chapel Avhich stands on
the summit of Edinburgh Castle rock is popularly
regarded as the oratory which St. Margaret used
when in residence there, and there is something
to be said for the view that parts of it date from

"Grub, I, p. 193.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 57
her time, notwithstanding subsequent alterations.""
Malcolm is associated with his wife in the
record of a grant of lands to the Culdees of Loch-
leven, and it is due to the King's memory to add
that there is some reason to believe that he founded
the bishopric of Mortlach,80 the beginning of the
see of Aberdeen, in the sixth year of his reign, and
therefore before his marriage with Margaret. The
Church of Monymusk in Aberdeenshire is also be
lieved to have been founded by Malcolm, when en
camped there on a warlike expedition.
Of Margaret's public activities there seems to
have been no end. Everything, we are told, which
it was fitting for the prudent queen to order, was
under her control. The laws of the realm were
codified 4° by her counsel, the influence of religion
was extended and the prosperity of the nation in
creased by her labours. Amongst these labours
was the institution of frequent councils, whose
object was the suppression of various Celtic cus
toms which appeared to her to be contrary to the
rule of right faith, and the sacred use of the
Universal Church."

88 Mac Gibbon & Eoss (Vol. I, p. 230) do not think that
the Chapel was erected in the eleventh century.
80 Grub, I, 193. The evidence, however, is of doubtful
authority. 40 Or perhaps even administered. The Latin is dispon-
ebantur. I, 6.
41 By this time people had begun to forget the East, and
the existence of Gallican customs in the West.

58 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
Reasons have been given above for believing
that Lanfranc's letter to Margaret may not refer
to these councils, but there is no reason to doubt
that the English Archbishop was the prime cause
of their being held. Lanfranc, an Italian by birth,
a lawyer of the Empire, and a devotee of the
Papacy.42 was hardly less devoted to the interests
of the Conqueror than to those of the Pope. His
correspondence with Irish kings and Bishops re
veals a policy on his part of bringing Ireland into
closer ecclesiastical touch with England, with a
view doubtless to its peaceful political absorption
by William when the proper time came.4" This
policy could not have failed to embrace Scotland
also, which was bound to England by closer ties
still.44 Lanfranc exhorts his correspondents in
Ireland to reform various abuses, especially with
regard to marriage and divorce, and in a letter to
Terdelvagus or Terence, King of Ireland, he even
urges the holding of a council of Bishops and re
ligious men, at which the king and his nobility
should be present, in order to exterminate the
evil customs to which he refers.45 Had the Arch
bishop's Scottish correspondence been equally well

"Freeman, IV, p. 440. "Ibid., pp. 526-530.
"Malcolm seems to have rendered feudal submission of
some kind to William on two separate occasions, at York
and at Abernethy: /&.<_., pp. 206 and 517.
"Migne, Patr. Lat. Vol. CL, Epistle 38. Cf. also Epistles
33, 36, and 37.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 69
preserved, there is every reason to suppose that
we should find evidence that the idea of Mar
garet's councils came from him.
A description is given of the chief of these
gatherings, which lasted three days. The queen
was assisted in her combat against the upholders
of "perverse" usage only by a very few friends,
but the chair was occupied by her husband, who,
knowing both Gaelic and English perfectly, acted
as interpreter, and who was, we are significantly
told, fully prepared to say and do whatever she
ordered in the matter at issue.48 We can easily
suppose that in such circumstances the queen's
arguments proved irresistible, although there is
reason to believe that the resultant reforms were
not so complete as they are represented to have
been. The first point of discussion was the usage of
beginning Lent not on Ash Wednesday, but on the
Monday following. Margaret may be pardoned
for not knowing that this was simply an ancient
usage of Western Christendom. It is followed to
this day in the Church of St. Ambrose at Milan,
although in the queen's eyes it was "a novel and
foreign institution." A more serious matter was
the non-reception of the Eucharist on Easter Day.
The arguments used on both sides seem to make
it clear that laymen had largely ceased to com-

'IAfe, II, 13.

60 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
municate at all, whether at Easter or at any other
time, except perhaps at the hour of death. A
third point was the celebration of Masses in some
places in Scotland with some barbarous rite or
other, which contravened the usage of the whole
Church. We would nowadays give something to
know wherein these Celtic peculiarities precisely
consisted,4' but details of such a kind had unfor
tunately no interest for Margaret's biographer.
Again, we learn that it was customary to carry
on worldly business upon the Lord's Day as on
other days, and that the queen successfully urged
that Sunday was to be reverenced on account of
our Lord's Resurrection, quoting as she did Pope
Gregory in support of her contention. After this
no one dared either to carry a burden himself on
these days or to compel another to do so.
Last of all, the royal disputant dealt with some
of the moral questions which arose out of the lax
matrimonial customs of Scotland. It had been
customary for a man to marry his stepmother,
and for a surviving brother to take to wife the
widow of his deceased brother. Lanfranc's Irish
correspondence shows that similar divorce customs
obtained in Ireland, but Margaret's passionate
denunciation of such evils resulted in their sup
pression in Scotland. Various other unspecified

47 The "barbarous rite" was probably the old Gallican
Mass, degenerate and badly done.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 61
abuses, contrary to the rule of faith and the in
stitutions and observances of the Church, were
condemned and banished from the realm.
This account of Margaret's activities as Queen
of Scotland reveals a character that was remark
able in many respects. Few departments of pub
lic life seem to have been left untouched by her
energy, and everywhere she left such a mark as
only a very good and very capable woman could.
When we turn to the account of her private life,
the accuracy of which there seems no good reason
to question, a still deeper impression is made upon
the mind.
Her biographer calls her, with reference to
her name, a pearl, precious in faith and works,
now removed from the dunghill of this world to
her place among the jewels of the Eternal King.
From her _youth she had been remarked for the
seriousness of her character, which led her to love
God above all things, and to find delight in the
study of Divine Scripture. She possessed, we are
told, many natural gifts, a keen and subtle intelli
gence, a very retentive memory, and a faculty
of graceful utterance.48 Her conversation was in
stinct with wisdom, her sensitiveness was often
revealed by her tears, her manners were staid and
well-balanced, and her affability and her prudence

"Life, I, 6. Lanfranc, in his letter, compliments the
Queen upon her gifts as a letter-writer.

62 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
were affectionately remembered by her biog
rapher.40 Even when she was joyful she never broke
into laughter, nor when she was angry did she
give way to fury.60 When sometimes she rebuked
the faults of others — her own she always chid —
she followed the precept of the Psalmist, "Be ye
angry and sin not."
Margaret's personal habits of devotion, and
the austerities which she practised seemed even in
the eyes of her confessor to be remarkable. "Be
yond all mortals whom I now know," he says, "she
was zealously devoted to prayers and fastings, to
works of mercy and almsgiving." B1 In church
she was extremely still, so wrapt was she in prayer.
Never would she speak, when in God's house, on
any worldly matter, but her custom was only to
pray, and as she prayed to pour forth her tears.
As to her fasts, she brought on herself a very
severe complaint by excessive abstinence.
Her passion for almsgiving was never satis
fied. She would have given to the poor, we are
told, not only what she possessed, but herself if
she could. Out of doors she was attended by
crowds of poor people, orphans, and widows, who
never went away empty. After she had dis
tributed what she had brought with her for the
needy, she would borrow from her rich compan
ions or her servants, garments or whatever they

'Life, I, 1. "Life, I, 8. ''Life, III, 18.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 63
had, always taking care to repay these loans twice
over. Sometimes she would even pillage the
king's private property for the same purpose, a
proceeding which he regarded with complete
equanimity. Even when he caught her, as he did
sometimes, in the act of robbing the store of
gold coins which were kept ready for the royal
offering on Maundy Thursday and at Mass, he
would joke with his fair culprit on her crime."2
The forty days before Christmas, and the sea
son of Lent were marked in a special way. The
queen's custom during these periods was to rest
for a little in the beginning of the night, after
which she went into the church. There alone she
said the Matins of the Holy Trinity, then the
Matins of the Holy Cross, and lastly those of the
Blessed Mary. After this she went through the
Offices of the Dead, and then she recited the
"Psalter." " When the proper hour came for the
priests to say the morning Lauds (matutinas
Laudes) she meanwhile finished the Psalter which
she had begun, or if she had completed it, began
its recitation a second time. This service ended,
she went to her chamber and along with the king
washed the feet of six poor persons, collected by

"Life, III, 18.
58 The word "Psalterium" sometimes meant the seven
Penitential Psalms. Dowden, Mediaeval Church in Scot
land, p. 84.

64 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
her chamberlain, and gave them alms. Then at
last she went to take some rest and sleep. *
In the morning she rose and betook herself to
prayer and the reading of the Psalms, intermingled
with further works of mercy. Nine destitute orphan
children were brought in at the first hour of the
day, and fed with soft food such as infants like.
The queen would take them on her knees, and
feed them with her own spoon. Three hundred
people were meanwhile assembled in the royal
hall, and seated round it in order. Then the king
and the queen entered with the chaplains and a
few others, and waited upon Christ in the person
of His poor, the king on one side and the queen
upon the other.
The queen then used to return to church for
further devotion. We are told that on holy days,
in addition to the Hours of the Holy Trinity,
the Holy Cross and Holy Mary, she recited the
"Psalter" twice or even thrice in the space of a
day and a night, and that before the celebration
of the public Mass, and she caused five or six pri
vate Masses to be sung in her presence. In con
clusion, before her own repast was served, she
humbly ministered to the wants of twenty-four
poor people, who by her orders lived in the neigh
bourhood, and accompanied her on all her jour
neys. In this meal she hardly allowed herself
"III, 21.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 65
the necessities of life. Her whole life was indeed
marked with self-denial, but at these seasons of
Lent and Advent her abstinence was incredible,
and brought on a painful disorder of the stomach,
from which she suffered until the end of her life.""
It is doubtless easy to criticise Margaret's type of
piety, as many have done, but critics would do well
to ask themselves first whether they possess such
a sense of moral and spiritual superiority over the
good queen, as to make it worth their while.
Like a good mother, Margaret bestowed much
care in the upbringing of her children. She would
not allow their royal birth to shield them from the
due punishment of their faults of conduct, believ
ing as she did that whoso spares the rod hates his
child. As a result of her care, her children grew
up distinguished both for good behaviour and for
reverence in church. In after life they all, with one
exception, did every credit to their mother's lov
ing care. Three of her six sons — Edgar, Alexan
der, and David — became kings of Scotland, whose
influence on the nation and on the Church was all
for good, and of her two daughters one was Ma
tilda, the good Queen Maude of England.
Malcolm's devotion to his saintly wife was most
beautiful, and under her influence his fierce char
acter was greatly softened and elevated. He be
came attentive to works of justice, mercy, and

1 Life, III, 23.

66 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
almsgiving, and other virtues. He learnt to keep
night vigils and to pray to God with heartfelt
groanings and tears. "I was astonished, I con
fess," says the biographer, "at the great miracle
of God's mercy, when I perceived in the king at
times such earnestness in prayer, and in the heart
of a man living in the world such compunction
for sin. There was in him a sort of dread of
offending one whose life was so worthy of venera
tion, for he saw that Christ in very deed dwelt
within her; yea, he hastened to obey in all things
her wishes and wise counsels." °8
In the Town Hall of Dunfermline there hangs
a fine picture, painted by the late Sir Noel Paton,
which illustrates the words of the biography.
Margaret and Malcolm are sitting in a beautiful
nook in the glen, studying together the Scriptures.
Malcolm's head rests upon his hand as he tries to
follow the teaching of his beloved instructor, while
Margaret's hands rest, one upon the sacred volume,
the other upon her husband, as if she would con
nect them by the influence of her own personality.
Although he could not read his wife's books, Mal
colm would turn them over and examine them,
and when she expressed for one a particular affec
tion he would kiss it and often touch it with his
hands. Sometimes he sent for a gold-smith and
commissioned him to ornament the volume hand-

>Ufe, II, 10.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 67
somely with gold and gems. Then when the work
was finished he would carry the book back to the
queen as a loving proof of his devotion.87
Although even Margaret could not persuade
her husband to refrain from his terrible forays
in England, she set herself to alleviate the lot of
the unhappy English captives who had been car
ried away to Scotland by the raiders and reduced
to slavery. She had enquiries made throughout
the provinces of Scotland for cases of special
cruelty and inhumanity to slaves, and had them
ransomed and set at liberty forthwith. In this
connection mention may be made of the queen's
fondness for visiting the anchorites who abounded
in many places throughout Scotland. As she
could not induce them to accept any gift, she would
beg them to enjoin upon her some almsdeed or
work of mercy, which she was careful to perform.
Malcolm's last and fatal excursion into Eng
land took place in 1093. Margaret was in feeble
health, and plead in vain that her husband should
not leave her. On the day that Malcolm was
entrapped in an ambush near the town of Alnwick
and slain along with Edward his son and heir,
Margaret was heard to utter a prediction of griev
ous calamity. On the fourth day the queen, now
dwelling in Edinburgh Castle, rose and went into
her oratory to hear Mass, and to partake of the
"II, ll.

68 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
"holy viaticum of the Body and Blood of our
Lord." Returning to bed, she became much worse,
and the clergy were summoned to recite the psalms
for the commendation of a departing soul. As
she lay, holding the famous cross called the Black
Rood of Scotland before her eyes, and repeating
the Fifty-first Psalm, her son Edgar, who had
escaped from the battlefield, entered the room.
Stricken with this new calamity, he tried to keep
the sad news from his dying mother, but on being
adjured by the sacred cross to tell the truth, he
related exactly what had happened. Then the
end came. The saintly queen praised God for
granting her purification from some of her sins
by this deep sorrow at the last, and uttered the
prayer usually said by a priest before he com
municates: "Lord Jesus Christ, who according to
the Father's will, by the operation of the Holy
Spirit, hast by Thy death given life to the world,
deliver me." As she uttered the words "deliver
me," her soul departed to Christ.
Thus ended a momentous chapter in the his
tory of Scotland. It is true that when Margaret
died, her life work seemed to have gone for little.
The Celtic patriots were in open rebellion, and Ed
inburgh Castle was in a state of siege. Margaret's
body had to be removed by stealth to Dunfermline
for burial, and it was Malcolm's brother, Donald
Bane, who next became King of Scotland, after
whom reigned the son, not of Margaret, but of

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 69
Ingibiorg. In due course, however, the Saxon
influence in Scotland came uppermost, and the
seeds sown by the good queen bore their fruit in
due season. The life and power of the old Celtic
Church passed away, and Margaret's sons built
up upon the old foundations, the framework of
the Mediaeval Church in Scotland. And through
all ecclesiastical changes in Scotland the memory
of Margaret remains green — for it is the memory
of a good woman, a tender and wise wife and
mother, and a true saint of God.

Ill -THE MEDIAEVAL PERIOD
Bishop Elphixststone of Aberdeen
(Born 1431— Died 1514)
The life of William Elphinstone, the greatly
venerated Bishop of Aberdeen, stands out as one of
the few bright spots in the history of the later
Mediaeval Church in Scotland. In an age that
was marked by a grievous decay of religion and
morality, when the forces were slowly but surely
gathering that burst in the cataclysm of the Scot
tish Reformation, he furnished a splendid example
of what a ruler of the Church might still be.
Amidst men who were grasping and selfish, and
who sought to exploit both Church and State for
their own ends, he laboured for his country's good,
a statesman both upright and patriotic, and a
benefactor both generous and far-seeing. When
looseness of Church discipline was an all but ac
cepted fact his strong hand restored the ancient
strictness within the bounds of his diocese. Amidst
the clash of old and new ideas, the Humanities
of the Renaissance, and the Scholasticism which
had reigned for centuries, he founded a university
where both might find a hearing and a home. And

BISHOP ELPHINSTONE
From a contemporary painting

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 71
best of all, in evil days when Popes were wicked
and kings were dissolute, he lived a life of sim
plicity and of saintliness which was admired by
the men of his own day, and which has not lost
its pleasant savour after many centuries, and many
changes of faith and religion. For the Aberdeen
of to-day remembers him as he was remembered in
the years before the Reformation by the name of
"the good Bishop Elphinstone."
In no part of Scotland does there exist at this
day a kindlier feeling on the part of the general
community towards Episcopacy than in the dio
cese over which Elphinstone once ruled, and no
where else did the final triumph of Presbyterian-
ism at the end of the seventeenth century prove
so difficult and so long delayed. This fact is to
be attributed not merely to native Aberdeen stub
bornness, but also in no small degree to the abiding
influence of the gracious memory of this saintly
prelate of the Middle Ages.
His tomb is still to be seen in the College
Chapel which he built in Aberdeen, in front of the
spot where the high altar once stood, now occupied
by the official seat of the principal of the uni
versity. Only a table slab of blue marble now
remains of the once stately monument. In its
upper part rested the Bishop's effigy, robed in
pontificals, with two angels holding candelabra
over his head, and two attendants at his feet bear
ing an epitaph graven in brass, while below there

72 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
were eight figures in brass, representing the three
theological virtues and contemplation, and the four
cardinal virtues.1 All these figures, designed
though they were to remind future ages of the
excellence of this good man's character, were de
stroyed after the Reformation as emblems of idol
atry. We live, however, in happier and wiser
times now, and within a few months, through
the efforts of members of the University which he
founded, the Bishop's tomb will be restored to
something like its original beauty.
A probably contemporary portrait of Elphin
stone, which hangs in the Senatus Room at King's
College, confirms the testimony which the original
tomb was meant to bear. Robed as he is in a
gorgeous embroidered cope and a richly jewelled
mitre, his pastoral staff in his bosom, and his well
beringed hands held in an attitude of prayer, his
face suggests an inner spirit aloof from and above
all mere worldly things. There is something
intensely calm and inflexible in its expression.
The eyes, set wide apart, look out upon the world
and beyond it with something of knowledge and
something of longing. The sensitive nostril re
veals refinement and high ideals, and the strong,
sweet mouth, set slightly forward, bespeaks inner
intensity and keenness. Overshadowed as the
face is by the tall mitre, it suggests the cloistered

1 Fasti Aberdonenses, p. 562.

KINO'S COLLEGE CHAPEL, ABERDEEN
Crown Tower

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 73
ascetic rather than the man of affairs, but when
the ecclesiastical adornments are shut out from
the range of vision, the features become almost
startlingly human.
For the facts of Elphinstone's life we are in the
main indebted to the biography written by his
friend, Hector Boece (Boys), the first Principal
of the University of Aberdeen. Boece, who de
scribes himself as "of Dundee," was an alumnus
of the University of Paris in the springtime of the
Renaissance. At the College of Montague, where
he studied, were great and famous men, Erasmus
of Rotterdam, "the glory and ornament of our
age" ; John Major of Haddingtonshire, "the pro
found theologian, whose writings, like brightest
torches, have shed a glorious light upon the Chris
tian religion," and others 2 who were notable in
their day. Boece tells us that Bishop Elphinstone
induced him by gifts and promises to leave his
philosophical studies in Paris, and undertake the
management of the new University at Aberdeen.
There he proved himself a teacher of great ability,
and an historian of singular unveracity. His His
tory of Scotland, published in 1527, reveals a
credulous and unscientific spirit which has done
much to mar his reputation. Leland's wellknown

2 Lives of the Bishops of Aberdeen. Edited by Dr. Moir.
pp. 88-89.

74 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
Latin lines on the subject have been thus rendered:
"If you should bid me count the lies
Of Hector's history,
I might as well essay to sum
The stars or waves of sea." s
Perhaps this condemnation may be on the se
vere side, but it is true that the writing of history
presented itself to him rather as a branch of
artistic literature than as an exact science, and
that he "has done what an obscure artist has done
for the kings of Scotland in the picture gallery
of Holyrood: he has given us portraits and scenes
that reflect his own imagination."
We need not, however, be unduly apprehensive
as to the general trustworthiness of Boece's biog
raphy of Bishop Elphinstone. The book in which
it appears, The Lives of the Bishops of Murthlac
and Aberdeen, was published in 1522, eight years
after the death of his friend, and there could have
been little temptation for the author to draw upon
his imagination for facts when his materials were
so fresh and so abundant. Here and there we
may discern the touch of the artist, but taking it
as a whole the narrative seems quite worthy of
credit, and although dates are lacking, it is usually
possible to supply these from other sources.
When Elphinstone was born in 1431 the cir-

3 Ibid., p. xiii.
'Studies in the History and Development of the Uni
versity of Aberdeen, p. 29.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 75
cumstances of the Scottish Church were entirely
different from those which St. Margaret had known
and dealt with. Three centuries and more had
passed with a mingled burden of weal and woe
for Scotland. The Celtic character of the Church
had disappeared, with all its peculiarities of organ
ization and of worship, and its insular independ
ence. Scotland was now, from the ecclesiastical
point of view, a province of the Holy See, firmly
welded into the religious confederation of Western
Christendom, and devoted to the spiritual headship
of the Pope.
The transition had been, in some respects, a
rapid one. Margaret's sons, Alexander I. and
David I., had fostered the ecclesiastical develop
ments begun in their parents' lifetime to some pur
pose. The changes which took place in the half
century which included their reigns were greater
than those of any period of Scottish Church his
tory except that of the Reformation." Saxon and
Norman settlers poured into the country, and ec
clesiastics and monastic communities were steadily
introduced from the south. More important still
was the institution of diocesan episcopacy in place
of the old tribal system. By the end of David's
reign all save one of the thirteen sees that existed

' Dowden. Mediaeval Church in Scotland, p. 9.

76 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
at the time of the Reformation had been founded
or restored.6 This assimilation of the Scottish Church to
that of England inevitably led to its closer con
nection with the See of Rome. Disputes with
York as to its alleged supremacy over the Church
in Scotland caused the latter to look to the Pope
for aid, with the result that a papal legate ap
peared in Scotland for the first time during
David's reign. In the reign of William the Lion,
Pope Clement III. took the Scottish Church under
his special protection, and from that time until
the Reformation it shared all the advantages and
all the disadvantages that accrued from the papal
system in the West.
When under that system the state of religion
began to decline, Scotland shared to the full in
the general degeneration. The Scottish wars of
independence which ended at Bannockburn,
wrought much havoc in the life of the Church,
from which she never entirely recovered. The
tragic misfortunes of the Stuart dynasty gave oc
casion for the rise of a lawless and turbulent no
bility, which in the end was so largely responsible

"Argyll was founded fifty years after David's death.
Galloway, or Candida Casa, was under English jurisdiction,
while Orkney and the Isles (later Sodor, i.e., the Southern
Isles, and Man) were under a Scandinavian Metropolitan.
Edinburgh was not the seat of a Bishop until the reign of
Charles I.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 77
for the destructive side of the Reformation in Scot
land. The growth of avarice among popes, kings,
and nobles alike, led to the constant spoliation of
the Church. The Papal provisions, by which the
Popes claimed the right of providing the occupants
of all benefices and sees, must have proved a ver
itable mine of wealth to the papal court, for is a
rule only a golden key could open the door to pro
motion. The right of the Crown to the revenues
of vacant sees and monasteries, too often led to
the prolongation of vacancies for years. And the
system of pluralities,7 by which a Bishop might
hold several benefices in his diocese, or a lesser
dignitary enjoy a canonry in two or three differ
ent Cathedrals, sorely impaired the efficiency of
the Church throughout the country.
Strong and flourishing, therefore, as the eccle
siastical system into which Elphinstone was born
might seem, the canker of decay was spreading
within. Half the wealth of Scotland may have,
as is alleged, belonged to the Church, but in that
fact lay her greatest danger, and the greatest
temptation to those who desired her overthrow.
If by the sixteenth century two-thirds of the par
ish livings were in the hands of the Cathedral
chapters and monasteries, this meant that the

7 Boece declares that Elphinstone never held any abbacy
or other ecclesiastical dignity, in commendam "ut nunc
plerique." (Lives, p. 106.) Dowden, Bishops of Scotland,
p. 131.

78 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
status, and therefore also the efficiency, of the
parish clergy was seriously lowered. The main
portion of the parish revenues went to the non
resident rector, while the whole burden of the care
of souls rested upon his substitute, the poorly paid
vicar. Under such a system it is easy to under
stand how religion languished, when indolence
and luxury crept into monastic and Cathedral life,
and ignorance and laxity reigned among the parish
clergy. Too many there were
"Of such, as for their bellies' sake
Creep and intrude and climb into the fold,"
while "The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,
But swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw
Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread." 8
The circumstances of Elphinstone's own birth
furnish a vivid illustration of the state of morality
amongst mediaeval ecclesiastics. In a letter of
Pope Alexander VI. to the Bishop, written in
1494, we learn that his father was a presbyter and
his mother an unmarried woman.9 The object of
this letter was to secure Elphinstone against any
objection that might be raised, on the ground of
this defect of birth, to his tenure of the see of
Aberdeen, and it relates that a similar precaution
had been taken by Pope Sixtus IV. in the case of

8 Milton, Lycidas.
9 Theiner. Vetera Monumenta Hibernorum et Scotorum
Historiam illustrantia, No. 894.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 79
his previous appointment to the bishopric of Ross.
It may at first sight seem strange that Boece,
who simply relates that the future Bishop was
born "in the famous city of Glasgow, notable for
its University, of the ancient Elphinstone fam
ily," 10 betrays no sense of concern about a fact
which must have been perfectly well known. He
speaks of the anxiety of Elphinstone's parents as
to his bodily health after he had reached man
hood,11 and tells how they recalled him from France
to his native land still later.12 From such refer
ences we are obviously meant to conclude that dur
ing Elphinstone's manhood his father and mother
were living together in the relations of ordinary
family life. Nor should we lightly set aside
Boece's statements as mere romance, for it is clear
that such connections were far from uncommon
both in England and Scotland, and that, how
ever irregular they were from the strict eccle
siastical point of view, they were not regarded by
the general community as disgraceful.
The truth is that the rule of celibacy for the
secular, or non-monastic clergy was a counsel of
perfection, imposed from without, and never either
generally accepted or rigorously enforced. Neither
the thunder of repeated peremptory decrees and
statutes, nor the penalties and other disadvantages
inflicted by ecclesiastical law could alter the situa-

10 Lives, ut supra, p. 58. u Ibid., p. 60. 12 Ibid., p. 64.

80 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
tion. The clergy might be prevented by the
Church from contracting a legal marriage, but
many of them lived, without incurring public op
probrium, in decent and faithful union with
women who were their wives in all but legal name.
It is only fair that this fact should be recognized
before we pass judgment on the morals of the
Mediaeval Church. Without seeking to defend
the irregularity of such connections as have been
described, or to lower our ideals of morality, we
may well admit that under circumstances so differ
ent from those of our day, different standards of
conduct might be held with a good conscience, and
that a certain amount of the so-called immorality
of the Pre-Reformation clergy comes within the
scope of this consideration. It is not, of course, to
be denied that vice and immorality in the ordinary
sense of the word were found among the clergy,
or that the lives of many of the Church's leaders
were a disgrace to Christianity.
The father of the future Bishop of Aberdeen
is believed to have been William Elphinstone, men
tioned as one of the Canons of Glasgow Cathedral
in 1451. He seems also to have been Dean of the
Faculty of Arts, and afterwards Archdeacon of
Teviotdale, as well as rector of Kirkmichael.1"
The family of Elphinstone is of Saxon origin, and

" See Prof. Cowan in Aberdeen Quatercentenary Studies.
No. 19, pp. 1 and 2. Dowden, Bishops of Scotland, p. 130.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 81
can be traced in Scotland from the middle of the
thirteenth century. The Bishop's grandfather
was a landed proprietor in Stirlingshire.
Elphinstone's early days were spent in Glas
gow, which was then a quiet and beautiful little
town, nestling round the Cathedral on the hill,
beside the clear waters of the Clyde. According
to his biographer, he shewed from childhood a
special devotion to Our Lady. When scarcely
four years old he strayed from home, and after
a long search was found in the inner shrine of the
Cathedral kneeling (prostratas) before the image
of the Holy Virgin. It was only with difficulty,
and to the accompaniment of tears and childish
cries, that he could be removed and taken home."
Later in his boyhood he had a dream which made
a great impression on his mind. He thought that
he was kneeling before the Virgin's image, as he
often did when awake, and praying earnestly that
she would keep him from falling into grievous sin,
when she replied: "Apply thyself wholly to vir
tue, and when thou hast attained to the bishopric
which I shall give thee, be zealous for Christ's
religion by restoring my churches." On awaken
ing he told what had happened to his tutor, who
like a wise man bade him say nothing about it,
apply himself to virtue, and not put his trust in
dreams.1"

14 Lives, p. 58. " p. 59.

82 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
At the age of seven he commenced his studies,
whether at school or under private tuition, Boece's
luxurious Latin periods do not clearly specify.
His application to his lessons seemed to his teach
ers beyond his years, and all who came in contact
with him were charmed with his manners and dis
position, as well as his rare beauty. He was such
a favourite with the Bishop of Glasgow that the
prelate could not enjoy his evening meal until he
had sent for William and heard him recite poetry
or something else which he had learnt.
Thus the boy grew to manhood in an eccle
siastical atmosphere, following the usual courses
of study which were afforded by a mediaeval
Cathedral. He spent his early years, Boece in
forms us, in literary studies hardly worthy of his
genius, but the foundation of the University of
Glasgow in 1451 by Bishop Turnbull opened the
door to new opportunities for the eager student.
His name stands eleventh in the roll of entrants,"
and we are told that he soon surpassed all his fel
lows in the study of logic and physics. In his
twenty-fifth year he became Master of Arts and
was ordained to the priesthood. Owing, however,
to his parents' anxiety about his health he did not
enter upon parochial work, but for some years took
charge of his father's estate. In this capacity he
shewed that a studious life had not unfitted him

10 Cowan, ut supra, p. 3.

Kl.NG'S COLLEGE CHAPEL, ABEltDEEN
Interior

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 83
for the management of affairs, for his clearheaded
ness and ability were no less clearly displayed than
his power of winning the good will of those with
whom he came in contact.
Domestic affairs, however, after a time ceased
to interest the mind of the young cleric, and he
returned to Glasgow as a student of Canon Law,
that vast and complicated legal code which gov
erned the life of the Western Church. This was
a study which throughout the Middle Ages ap
pealed to the ablest of Scottish ecclesiastics, both
on account of its practical importance and because
of the remunerative career which it opened up.
That Elphinstone's ambition, however, was no
sordid one became apparent when, after several
years of study, he commenced practice in the law
courts. "Tie never was connected with any one's
hurt, was a most severe censor of injustice, and
patron of justice. So earnest was he in the cause
of the poor, that he might be said to plead their
cause, not for a fee. but for the sake of equity and
justice. The result was that he gained the reputa
tion of being the advocate of the poor and miser
able."17 It would seem, however, that this life did not
prove a satisfactory one either to Elphinstone's
friends or to himself, and he retired to the country
about 1459-60. For four years he discharged the

17 Boece. Lives, p. 61.

S4 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
pastoral duties of the parish of Kirkmichael,
filling up his spare time with ceaseless study.
"In this retreat he was never idle, never sluggish.
No hour, no moment passed in which he was not
writing, or dictating, or making extracts. Lit
erary studies and the repetition of the hour-offices
of the Breviary day and night filled up the -rest
of his time. The routine of his life was such as
every private Christian should observe: reading
succeeding prayer, and prayer reading, in un
broken sequence." 1S
If Elphinstone was persuaded to enter upon
this quiet life by the persuasion of some of his
friends, it was by the benevolent interference of
another friend that he left it. His uncle, Lau
rence Elphinstone, a burgess, it may be, of Edin
burgh,10 and a man of substance, felt that his bril
liant nephew was hiding his light under a bushel,
and set himself energetically to remove him to
a sphere where his talents might find adequate
scope. Sending for Elphinstone to Glasgow, this
worthy man soundly rated him for neglecting to
cultivate his eminent talents for the honour and
profit of his house, and ended by offering to defray
liberally all the expenses of a period of residence
abroad. The result of this word in season was
Elphinstone's departure for Paris about 1463-4
in order to continue his studies in Canon Law.

IS Boece. Lives, p. 62. I9 Cowan, ut supra, p. 3, note 7.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 85
Like many another Scottish student abroad
before and since his time, William soon became
known as one who burned the midnight oil. He
took but a minimum of sleep and of food, spend
ing his days listening to great orators and lec
turers, and his nights reciting what he had heard.
His industry was rewarded by an important ap
pointment as "first reader in Canon Law," which
he held for six years, crowded audiences attending
his lectures. On taking his degree in the Sacred
Decretals, he removed for still more advanced
study to the University of Orleans, where there
were teachers of great reputation. There his own
reputation as an exponent of ecclesiastical law
began to be so great that the Parliament of Paris
more than once sought his advice in connection
with important decisions.20 Among many friends
whom he made in France, the chief was John
de Gana, a great legal luminary, who became
Chancellor of France under Louis XII.
Recalled home by his parents after an absence
of eight years, Elphinstone found that his reputa
tion had preceded him. The Bishop of Glasgow
welcomed him warmly, and soon appointed him
Official of the diocese, on account of his great
learning, his clear intellect, and his powerful elo
quence. This office was one of great dignity, and
carried with it a seat in Parliament. The con-

' Boece, p. 64.

86 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
sistorial court over which the Official presided
dealt with a large and varied range of legal busi
ness.21 All matrimonial suits, and questions con
cerning wills and inheritance were decided at this
tribunal, as well as cases of slander, and of cer
tain kinds of contract. Disputes as to Church
patronage and the like naturally also came under
the Official's jurisdiction, as well as cases of as
saults on ecclesiastical persons, and assaults and
brawling in sacred places.22 In the discharge of
his duties as a judge, Elphinstone shewed the
same passion for strict justice as when he was an
advocate. He observed strict impartiality, restrain
ing litigants from calumnious charges, and never
sparing extortioners or perverters of the law. The
maxim was often on his lips, "He hurts the good
who spares the bad." 28
Elphinstone was now in the prime of life, and
worldly honours began to crowd upon him. In
1474 he was elected rector of the University of
Glasgow,24 and soon afterwards he was promoted
to the very important post of Official of Lothian

21 "At that time the Church courts, besides the load of
properly consistorial cases, monopolized a great part of
civil business. They were, in truth, the only settled and
organized judicatures in Scotland, and were alone presided
over by educated lawyers." (Innes, Sketches of Early
Scotch History, p. 263.)
22 Dowden. Mediaeval Church in Scotland, p. 287.
23 Boece. Lives, p. 65. 24 Cowan, ut supra, p. 4.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 87
in the diocese of St. Andrews.25 Taking up his
residence in Edinburgh, he was at once in close
touch with the court of King James III. In
Parliament he was chosen to serve on its judicial
committees, which formed the supreme civil juris
diction in Scotland.20 The king made him a privy
councillor, and about 1479 appointed him to serve
on an embassy charged with a delicate mission to
Louis XI. of France. In this affair he gained the
good will of Louis and the approval of his own
king." His success led to similar appointments
which need not be detailed. James IV., in a char
ter of 1489, makes suitable acknowledgment of
"all his faithful and gratuitous service, and great
labours and heavy expenses incurred at divers
times in missions to the kings and kingdoms of
France and England, the dukes of Burgundy and
Austria, and to other foreign parts, and in our
service within our commonwealth and the peace
thereof." 28
As a reward for the result of his mission to
France, Elphinstone was appointed Bishop of
Ross in 1481. According to Boece, he refused

2SThen probably the second judicial office in the King
dom. (Innes, Sketches, p. 263.)
26 Ibid.
27 Boece professes to report the actual words of Elphin
stone's speech to Louis, but in all probability it was com
posed by the worthy Principal himself, p. 66.
28 Records of Old Aberdeen, I, p. 6. (New Spalding
Club.)

88 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
the offer with a reference to his boyish dream:
"Ross," he said, "is not to be my see, but where
the Mother of God is patron or guardian saint."
The statement, however, is not accurate as regards
an actual refusal, for Elphinstone was legally
Bishop of Ross for nearly two years. He was
certainly, however, never consecrated as Bishop
of Ross, and this fact may lie at the bottom of
Boece's story. His desire was granted when, in
1483 he was "provided" by the Pope to the bishop
ric of Aberdeen, the Cathedral of which was
dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and St. Machar.™
At this period, however, Elphinstone's opportuni
ties for attending to the proper duties of a Bishop
must have been small indeed, for matters of state
now claimed his best attention. As a member of
the king's privy council he was brought into close
contact with his unwise and unfortunate monarch,
whose affairs sorely needed the guidance of a good
and wise man. Elphinstone's influence over James
was, if his biographer may be trusted, very great.80
29 St. Machar, also known as Mochonna and Dochonna,
was, according to ancient tradition, a disciple of St. Colum
ba, and founder of the Church at Aberdeen. According to
Columba's behest, the site of the church was chosen on the
spot where the river Don in its windings forms the shape of
a. Bishop's crook. "Ubi flumen, praesulis instar baculi, intrat
mare." (Colgan, Trias, Thau. Aberdeen Breviary, 12th Nov.)
30 "It will not lessen the good Bishop in our eyes, if we
abate something of the influence which Boece attributes to
him in the councils of the weak and unfortunate James III."
(Innes, p. 264.)

ST. MACIIAR'S CATHEDRAL, ABERDEEN

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 89
"All his majesty's most important affairs were car
ried out under the Bishop's direction and as he
suggested. As he was thus admitted to greater
familiarity with the king, he advised him to aban
don his licentious and rapacious habits, for these
were the vices most fatal to kings. He exhorted
him to restrain the violence of the caterans, who
wasted and overran the country. . . . He asked
him to remember that his kingly splendour was
sufficiently maintained by his having as his con
sort Margaret, a lady of the chastest life, of royal
lineage, and the mother of his three sons." S1
James took in good part this plain speaking
by his faithful servant, and, as we are told, "de
voted himself more than formerly to religion," as
far at least as its externals were concerned. When
ever he saw an image of Christ or of the Virgin
Mother of God in church, market place, or street,
he would bare his head and pray for his own and
his kingdom's welfare. Large sums too he be
stowed on the poor and on the clergy, and on the
adornment of churches throughout the country.
On one occasion James was on a pilgrimage, with
the Pope's legate in his company, when he met a
nobleman who had been condemned for murder
going to execution. The unfortunate man seiz
ing his opportunity, threw himself at James's
feet and implored for mercy on the ground that

11 Lives, p. 75.

90 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
his crime had been an involuntary one. The king
turned to the legate and asked for his advice.
"Let justice be carried out," was the unfeeling
reply. James next addressed Elphinstone, whose
countenance shewed his disapproval of the legate's
sentence. "Is this the compassion of Italian
Churchmen? You used to give me far different
advice." The Bishop's answer was, "Let mercy
prevail," and so the criminal was discharged.
Had James's advisers been always of the
stamp of Elphinstone, his fate might have been
very different. But the Bishop's influence did not
find full scope until too late. He was appointed
Chancellor of the Kingdom only a short time be
fore the lamentable affair of Sauchieburn in 1488,
and all that he could do in the interests of peace
and of loyalty was in vain. Soon the country was
embroiled in civil war, with the king's own son
in the ranks of the insurgents. Elphinstone left
nothing untried that a good and wise man could
do.82 Up to the last he laboured to negotiate a
compromise between the two parties,33 but without
avail. James perished ingloriously by an assas
sin's dagger after fleeing from the field of battle,
and the Bishop's career as a statesman came, for
the time being, to a sudden end.
At Aberdeen, however, there was work in
plenty for Elphinstone to do. The clergy needed
32 Lives, p. 79.
33 Hume Brown. History of Scotland, I, 286.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 91
to be reformed, and the performance of the ser
vices had fallen into neglect for some years.34
Under the Bishop's firm hand this state of affairs
was soon remedied. The ancient style of chant
ing was restored by his orders, and the conduct of
the sacred rites in the Cathedral was put under
the care of John Malison, "a man deeply skilled
in music and of approved moral character," to
whose efforts, Boece informs us, was justly
ascribed whatever musical skill belonged to Aber
deen, whatever proficiency in chanting the north
ern Church possessed.85
An interesting document, printed in the Regis-
trum Episcopatus Aberdonensis, which contains
Elphinstone's regulations for the office of Cathe
dral sacrist, may be referred to here as illustrat
ing the Bishop's methods of reform. Whether it
belongs to this or to a later stage of his episcopate,
it gives a vivid account of the daily Cathedral
routine, and at the same time illustrates the ex
cellent prelate's capacity for attending to the
smallest details. The document has a colloquial
air about it, with its phonetically spelt Latin
words, and its frequent faults in concord, suggest-

M Lives, p. 79.
35 "The Aberdeen Sang Schule, one of the earliest in Scot
land, was founded in 1370." "Aberdeen has been remark
able at various periods of its history for special attention
given by the Church to the service of praise." See Cowan,
ut supra, p. 8.

92 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
ing the picture of a busy Bishop dictating, and a
nervous scribe in a hurry.88
Every day the whole year through, in winter
as well as in summer, on ordinary (ferial) days
and festivals alike — so the regulations run — the
sacristan is to ring the bells in the accustomed
manner, beginning at five a. m. and ringing for a
quarter of an hour. At five-thirty he rings again,
and at six, when the first of the canonical hour
services begin. The choir vicars having as
sembled "7 with the beadle in their robes, say the
office of Matins, beginning and ending in the name
of the Lord. Then the sacrist rings for another
quarter of an hour, on the little bell (humili cam-
pana), this time for the singing of prime, and
again after prime for the Mass of the Blessed
Virgin Mary. From nine to ten a big bell is rung
as before Matins, and at the latter hour High Mass
is said. From three o'clock till four p. m. the
large bells are rung as before for Vespers when
the Canons are responsible for the office, and lastly
at eight p. m. the little bell is tolled for a quarter

36 Vol. II, p. 102. The "Register" is published by the
Spalding Club.
37 All the clerics on duty for the week had to be in the
choir before the end of the second ringing, and in their
stalls by the final one, under pain of various fines, ranging
from 8d. to a penny. The others had to be in their places
before the end of the Venite at Mattins and before the last
Kyrie Eleeison at Mass. (Reg. Ab. II, p. 106.)

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 93
of an hour, on behalf of the souls of all the faith
ful departed.
Into the minutiae of these rules for bell-ring
ing we need not enter, but when we read that the
sacrist, who was in priest's orders, was also ex
pected to be present, robed in a long cassock and
a surplice, at Matins, Mass, and Vespers, and to
minister at the high altar and in the choir what
ever was fitting and necessary, it is clear that he
must have been assisted by deputies. This be
comes clearer still when we scan the list of his
duties further.
He had to wind up the clock and regulate it,
to take care of the altar hangings, the choir books,
and all other articles in the Cathedral, and after
the services to fold the vestments tidily and put
them away in their appointed places. Every
Saturday he had to clean the church, the choir,
and the chapter house from all rubbish, dust, and
dirt, and to wash the pavement with besom and
water. Four times a year he cleaned the win
dows on both sides, and removed from the walls,
the images, and the base of the sacred cross all
dust, cobwebs, and other disfigurements.
The cemetery too, had to be kept clear of pigs,
horses, and cattle by the construction of sunk
fences, and a sharp eye was to be kept on pedlars,
lest sales or marketings be made in church or
in cemetery, "whether on festivals or ordinary
days, and whether of eatables or not." Moreover,

94 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
he had to prevent the entrance of pigeons, bats,88
crows, and swallows, to keep and clean the roofs
and rain-pipes of the whole building, and pull out
all weeds growing in walls and windows, lest rain
water enter. Every day fresh water was to be
provided when necessary for Mass, holy wa
ter, baptismal font, and the washing of the
hands of the ministers and celebrants, as well as
fire for kindling the candles, and the censers when
needed at the high altar. The lamp before the
venerable Sacrament was to be kept burning day
and night, lit with oil and a floating wick. He
was to light the candles upon and before the high
altar, and in front of the images, and in the hang
ing candelabra of the choir, as well as the bronze
lamps for Matins and Vespers in winter time.
On appropriate occasions he was to hang up the
arras-cloths in the choir and at the high altar and
the Bishop's Seat, both in the choir and in the chap
ter house, and on the regular days to open the
shrines where it had been necessary to shut them,
and to open them both in Lent and at other times.
When processions were made he had to marshall
the choir and precede it, indicating with a rod car
ried in his hand, as the ritual books direct, the way
through church or cemetery. On the Rogation
days he had, among other things, to provide the
feretory or wooden tray for the relics, which the

38 Nodulorum. The Italians say nottola for bat.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 95
deacons carried on their shoulders, and to see to
the hanging of the seal of the indulgences. Pass
ing over a number of the minor additional duties of
this hard-worked sacrist, we find him charged with
the task of seeing that the sacred vessels were not
carried about outside the choir by unordained per
sons such as young laymen or scholars, and of not
ing in a list the names of those vicars of the choir
who failed to celebrate the private Masses pre
scribed by the foundation of their office. Every
Saturday, moreover, he had to subject himself to
the "taxation of faults" along with the choir vicars.
This took place at the weekly chapter, where fines
and other punishments were inflicted for neglect
in the performance of Church duties.80 His salary
amounted to ten pounds a year, together with
"extras" amounting to a few pounds more," and
his share of the common allowance for the support
of the chaplains.
One is tempted to linger over these old records,
for they afford many quaint and interesting
glimpses into Cathedral life in these bygone days.
For instance, we have a list of the Church plate,
jewels, and other valuables, made at a "visitation
of the treasures" by Elphinstone and his chapter

30 Dowden, ut supra, p. 84.
40 For instance, he received 6s. 8d. for keeping out the
birds, 2s. for ringing the bells for each dead person, Sd. from
each Canon celebrating on his accustomed day, and 6s. 8d.
from each Canon on being instituted in Chapter.

96 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
in the year 1496, the interest of which is more
than merely antiquarian." We appreciate the
thoroughgoing nature of the Bishop's inspection
as we read the notes appended to the inventory.
Of the fourteen silver chalices — ten of them gilt —
which should be there, five are stolen, while the
cross hitherto supposed to contain part of the cross
of St. Andrew is found to have lost the precious
relic.42 Other loss and damage is recorded with
similar care. Three pearls have disappeared from
a golden monile, called "in the common tongue a
brooch," a silver ampulla has lost its stopper, two
pieces have been broken off two crowns of gilded
silver for Christ and our Lady, and so on down
the list.
We cannot here dwell upon the varied items
of Cathedral property in the shape of crosses,
rings, censers, mitres, episcopal gloves, buskins
and staves, vessels, ornaments and furniture of
various kinds, but the list of relics may be detailed
in order to illustrate a prominent feature of me
diaeval Church life. Besides the despoiled relic
of St. Andrew, there was a silver cross containing
a piece of our Lord's cross, and an arm of St.
Fergus in silver, with his bones. Two brass
reliquaries contained the bulk of the sacred relics.
In one were the bones of St. Katherine, St.
Helene, St. Margaret, Isaac the patriarch, and St.
aRegistrum Ab., II, 166.
42 Deperditur lignum, is the laconic entry.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 97
Duthac. In the other were the garments of
Blessed Mary the Virgin, the bones of Peter and
Paul, and those of St. Brigid, with the dust of
St. Edmund the Archbishop.
Was it a premonition of evil days to come, one
wonders, or merely a knowledge of the sacrilegious
possibilities of his own days which caused an
earlier Bishop of Aberdeen to have the following
significant legend inscribed upon two silver wash
ing-basins which he had presented? "Henry, by
the grace of God, etc., caused me to be made in the
year of our Lord 1433, and whosoever shall alien
ate us from your altar and from our Lady, may
he be an alien from the Kingdom of God." Pa
thetic too in the light of the coming reformation
of religion is the reading of an entry dated 1499. 43
In that year a pieta, or image of our Lady em
bracing the dead body of her Son, weighing 120
ounces of silver and more, was given by Andrew
Lyell, treasurer of Aberdeen, and offered at the
high altar on the feast of the Visitation. There
upon Bishop Elphinstone ordained that the image
should be carried reverently round the Cathedral
on all the accustomed festivals of the glorious
Virgin, and that an indulgence of forty days
should endure for all time coming to all who
should walk in procession on the aforesaid days,
43 II, 170.

98 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
or who should follow the same with devotion at
these times.
Before we return to trace Elphinstone's per
sonal career, it may be useful to make a brief
survey of the organization and general arrange
ments of the Cathedral of Aberdeen in his time.4'
Like the great majority of the Scottish Cathedrals
this was a secular foundation. Each of its canons,
that is to say, possessed his separate prebend, or
provision for maintenance, and dwelt in a sep
arate house, instead of living in a community,
obeying a "religious" rule, and being provided
for out of the common funds as in the monastic
Cathedrals. The canons' residences, each consist
ing of toft, croft, and manse, were situated within
the Cathedral close, and had to be kept in repair
by the occupants. These dwellings were, to use
a modern term, "furnished houses," as various
lists of the articles handed on from one resident
to his successor testify. There had to be a good
table on trestles, a basin and ewer, towels, one
silver spoon, a drinking cup or goblet, with a lid.
In the bedroom were a bed, a tester, a pair of linen
sheets, and two blankets. In the kitchen there
were a brass pot, the chain called the hetilcruke,

" The following particulars are taken from the valuable
work of the late Dr. Dowden, Bishop of Edinburgh, entitled
The Mediaeval Church in Scotland. This book, exhibiting
all the author's well-known accuracy and thoroughness, was
published after his death by Maclehose of Glasgow, in 1910.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 99
a pestle and mortar, and a variety of dishes. The
clergy evidently brewed their own beer, for every
house had its brasina with its furniture in vats,
barrels, etc., while the apparatus for brewing is
specified with considerable particularity.45
The chapter of canons formed a corporation
holding property for the common good. Each
member had his share in this common fund, as
well as his separate prebend or allowance for main
tenance, derived commonly from the revenues of
some parish church. The vicar to whom the
spiritual care of such churches was entrusted,
drew only a proportion of the income, and the
remainder went to the canon who was rector of
the parish. This custom, as we have seen, ad
mitted of much abuse, and contributed greatly to
the degradation of religion. Sometimes the preb
ends were derived from other sources, such as a
pension paid by the Abbot of Deer, or the tithe
of the fishery of Balgownie.40
The dignitaries of the chapter were the Dean,
in whose hands lay the administration and disci
pline of the Cathedral, the cantor or Precentor,
who regulated all musical affairs, the Chancellor,
who as clerk of the chapter, custodian of the chap
ter seal and the library, and controller of the
grammar school, had important duties to perform,
and the Treasurer, who kept the vessels, vestments,

15 Ibid., p. 94. 48 Ibid., p. 89.

100 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
relics, and other treasures of the church. When
sitting in choir they occupied the four terminal
stalls, possibly for the better oversight of the
clergy and choir-boys during the services. At
Aberdeen the bishop was a canon himself and
in choir he occupied one of the canons' stalls,"
next to that of the Archdeacon.
In Elphinstone's time there were twenty-nine
canons at Aberdeen, but the growing habit of non-
residence, against which successive statutes were
apparently of no avail, must have caused many
of their stalls, as a rule, to be empty. This evil
was a common feature in Cathedrals everywhere,
for many pluralist canons found it more profit
able to draw their incomes and to pay their fines
for absence, than to reside in the Cathedral city
and attend to their proper duties.
Each canon, present or absent, had to provide
a deputy, called a vicar of the choir, to take part
in the Cathedral services. For these there was
no non-residence, and they naturally played an
important part in the daily routine of the church.
In Elphinstone's time there were twenty priest
vicars, two deacons, and two sub-deacons, and one
of the good Bishop's works was to raise their status
by regularizing their stipends, and giving the
priests fixity of tenure, and formal institution by
placing a ring upon their finger.48 Each vicar

47 Ibid., p. 80. 48 pp. 69 and 70.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 101
had to be provided by his Canon with a surplice,
a cope of coarse black cloth,40 and an almuce or
cape of black fur. The latter, which was no need
less protection in an unwarmed Cathedral on a
cold winter's day, is the ancestor of the black
scarf, the use of which has been so largely and so
rightly revived in recent years.
As the singing of the services devolved mainly
upon the vicars, much care was taken as to their
musical efficiency. At Aberdeen they had to be
skilled "at least in Gregorian song," a phrase
which points to the existence of Church music
arranged in harmony for different voices. Apart
from them the choir consisted, according to El
phinstone's foundation, of eleven boys, although
it seems that the actual number was never more
than six.50
Besides attending to the internal reforms
needed in the Cathedral and presenting it with
costly gifts, Elphinstone applied himself with
vigour to the task of completing and improving
the fabric. When he became Bishop, the great
tower begun by Bishop Leighton half a century
earlier was still unfinished. This he completed,
and covered it, as well as the roof of the whole
building, with lead. In the tower, by his efforts

"The use of » black cope by singers in the choir
has survived to the present day in Lincoln Cathedral, where
each of the two senior choir boys wears one.
"Ibid., p. 71.

102 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
and expense, were placed three bells of 12,000"'
pounds weight. He then commenced to rebuild
the choir, which was not worthy in respect either
of its size or its beauty, of so large a church.
With characteristic caution the Bishop would not
allow the old choir to be demolished until he had
gathered all the materials necessary for the com
pletion of the new one. Great heaps of stone and
lime were collected, and the workmen selected by
himself, and set to work. Elphinstone did not
live to see the completion of this work, but no
small part of the choir was built before his death.52
Alas for the uncertainty of man's handiwork!
Practically the whole of Elphinstone's building
has long since disappeared. The tower which he
completed fell in 1688, and in consequence the
choir which he began became a ruin, while the old
nave of pinkish granite still stands, its two west
ern towers a venerable landmark for the country
round, and its interior modified to serve the pur
poses of a Presbyterian parish church.
More abiding was the fruit of the good Bish
op's labours in the sphere of education. The work
of fostering the love of learning, and of bringing
facilities for study within the reach of all who
cared to use them was one which no ecclesiastical

51 So says Boece.
52 Lives, p. 97. Elphinstone also completed the choir of
St. Nicholas' Church in Aberdeen, which furnished his
"prebend." (Cowan, p. 7.)

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 103
changes could ruin ; and it is chiefly as the founder
of the University of Aberdeen and the builder of
King's College53 that Elphinstone's name is grate
fully remembered in the north of Scotland. Many
a poor lad has had abundant reason, after the
Reformation even more than before it, to be grate
ful for the beneficence and labour of this mediaeval
Bishop, through which he was enabled to grasp
the chance of his lifetime. And to Elphinstone's
foundation is to be also largely attributed the high
general standard of education which has for cen
turies characterised the north eastern region of
Scotland. Aberdeen had indeed been, long before its Uni
versity was founded, an educational centre. The
Grammar School existed in 1262 and probably
before that date, and every Cathedral, with its
body of canons, was more or less a home of learn
ing. Doubtless there were always ecclesiastics in
the Aberdeen Chapter who were qualified to teach
in the higher branches of learning, and possibly
to train candidates for Holy Orders.54 Out of
this nucleus there was formed, at Aberdeen as
elsewhere, a studium generate or university, when
the great wave of educational impulse, born of the
53 Originally dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, but after
wards called also, by Elphinstone's wish, King's College,
in recognition of the interest which James IV. shewed
in it. " This seems to be what is meant by the "College of
Canons," referred to by Professor Cowan and others.

104 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
Renaissance, flowed over Europe in the fifteenth
century. Elphinstone, as we have seen, was one
of the earliest students of Glasgow University,
founded by Bishop William Turnbull in 1451,
and earlier still, in 1014, Bishop Henry Wardlaw
had founded the University of St. Andrews.
Now in his turn Elphinstone set himself to work
to establish a similar institution in the north,
having enlisted James IV. as an enthusiastic ally.
The papal bull creating the new University, which
was granted on the 10th February, 1494-5, re
lates that the institution is to be specially for the
benefit of a "remote portion of Scotland cut off
from the rest of the kingdom by arms of the sea
and very lofty mountains, and inhabited by un
lettered, ignorant, and almost barbarous people,
who have scarcely among them men capable of
preaching the Word and administering the Sac
raments." 55
According to the custom of the times the Uni
versity was founded without any buildings of its
own, but Elphinstone's energy and munificence
within a few years had provided its first habita
tion. The chapel was begun earliest of all, in
1500,"° and about five years later the original
buildings were completed, including chapel, tower
and crown, residence and class rooms." The
55 Cowan, ut supra, p. 9.
66 In this year Hector Boece had arrived from Paris.
p. 11. "Ibid., p. 10.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 105
tower still stands bearing its beautiful crown,68
and the chapel, in spite of transformations both
external and internal, remains in substance a ven
erable monument of the founder's liberality. The
"fine carved work, seats for the use of the priests,
and benches for the boys, made with wonderful
art," 50 may still be seen, at least in part. But
gone are "the marble altars and the images of the
saints, the statues and pictures gilt with gold,"
with all the valuable ornaments for church and
ministers, and the "casket of cypress-wood set
with pearls and jewels, and of beautiful work
manship," in which were kept "the venerable
relics of the saints set in gold and silver." Gone
too from the bell-tower are the "thirteen bells,
pleasing the ear with sweet and holy melody,"
the gift of Bishop William.
The constitution of the University was mod
elled upon those of Paris and Bologna, and two
of its provisions are worthy of special notice.
One was the foundation of a chair of medicine,
which no other university in Great Britain then
possessed, and the other was the providing of spe
cial facilities for poor students, a feature for
which Elphinstone's University has always been
notable. Salaries were also provided for the lec
turers, in advance of the other Scottish univer-

58 Repaired in 1620, and rebuilt in 1633. Quater-
centenary Studies, No. 19, p. 370.
59 Lives, p. 94.

106 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
sities. It may also be said that, while the Bishop
succeeded in attracting much financial support
for the promotion of his scheme, his own liberality
was its mainstay. "There can be no reasonable
doubt," says Professor Cowan,00 "that the original
College of St. Mary, of which he is expressly
stated to be the founder, was built by him largely
out of savings from his episcopal income."
If further illustration be required of Elphin
stone's public spirit, and of his close touch with the
important movements of his age, we may find it
in connection with the introduction into Scotland
of that mighty engine, the printing press. In the
year 1507 James IV. granted a charter to Walter
Chepman and Andrew Myllar, burgesses of Edin
burgh, to set up the first press in Scotland, with
special reference to the liturgical and historical
work of the Bishop of Aberdeen. It was directed
that "in time coming mass books, manuals, matin
books, and portuus books, after our ain Scottish
use, with legends of Scottish saints as now gath
ered and eked by our Reverend Father in God
and trusty counsellor, William, Bishop of Aber
deen, be imprinted and provided; and that na
manner of sich books of Salisbury be brought to
be sauld within our realm in all time coming." 61
This reference suggests that it was to some extent
at least through Elphinstone's efforts that this

60 Studies, ut supra, p. 10. n Reg. Sec. Sig., Ill, 129.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 107
notable development took place, and at the same
time reveals his patriotic desire to supplant the
service books of Sarum, which had for long been
in general use in Scotland, by means of others
more distinctly Scottish in character.
Elphinstone had collected a large amount of
material from documentary sources and oral tradi
tion, relating to the lives of the old Scottish
saints,02 which he introduced into his revised edi
tion of the Sarum Breviary, with suitable hymns
and prayers. Thus the Aberdeen Breviary, one
of the earliest productions of Scottish printing,08 if
not actually the first, is a valuable memorial of
the ancient Church, both to the historian and to
the liturgical student. This, however, was the
only instalment of Elphinstone's scheme which
was carried out, and in little more than fifty years,
before the Aberdeen Breviary had superseded that
of Sarum, the flood time of the Reformation had
swept away all the old service books from general
use. To the end of his days the good Bishop had
work of public utility in hand. His last project
of the kind was to build a bridge over the Dee.

62 Boece, p. 99. Bishop Elphinstone's historical collec
tions are now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. "They are
now known to be little more than chronicles or chronologi
cal notices taken from Fordun and his continuator, with
some valuable copies of original papers." (Innes, Preface
to Aberdeen Register, p. 51.)
83 Published 1509-10. Ibid., p. 163.

108 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
He collected for this purpose, we are told,04 an
immense quantity of stones and timber and ce
ment, and secured the services of choice craftsmen,
but death overtook him before his pious task was
more than begun. It was left to his successor,
Bishop Dunbar, to erect the bridge which, after
many an alteration, spans the river Dee at the
present day.
Little space has been left to deal with Elphin
stone's political life under James IV. It would
seem that as soon as the young king was free to
act for himself, he recalled to court the man who
had been so faithful to his father, and appointed
him a privy councillor.65 Restored again to royal
favour, the Bishop devoted himself anew to the
work of peace maker. The feuds between contend
ing nobles and the smouldering fires of discontent
which threatened the welfare of the nation were
quenched by his efforts, and the administration
of justice was facilitated by the institution of
itinerant courts.60 In this reign, as in the pre
vious one, he acted as one of the Lords Auditors
of Complaints,07 and we find him holding office as
keeper of the Privy seal as early as 5th December,
1492.08 His diplomatic gifts also found scope
afresh in several important missions.

64 Boece, p. 98. 85 Boece, p. 79. e6 p. 80.
"Innes. Pref. to Ab. Register, p. xliv.
68 Dowden. Bishops of Scotland, p. 130.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 109
The picture which Boece draws of the Bishop's
private life amidst all those labours and distrac
tions is a fine one.00 "Though he was all but
crushed by endless anxieties, he never neglected
his religious duties. Neither in his youth, nor in
his old age, neither as a public official nor as a
private person did he neglect his studies. In the
leisure of his old age he took great delight in the
Scriptures, the memorials of the prophets, apos
tles, and interpreters of holy writ, sometimes, too,
of the philosophers whose works chiefly conduce to
a holy life. Meanwhile his solitary hours were
spent in peaceful leisure, in a complete tran
quillity where everything afforded him joy. In
this leisure, this solitude, he sometimes talked with
himself, discussing moral questions, questions of
life, and the maxims of noble living. Thus he
spent his leisure, thus his solitary hours. He kept
a splendid table. He hardly ever dined without
noble company, and while the table was always
sumptuous, he himself amid these dainties was ab
stemious, cheerful of countenance and gay in con
versation. He loved the company of learned men,
music and decent merriment, while he detested
all scurrilous talk.™ He had such natural ability
and mental vigour that he never failed to rise to
•"p. ioo.
70 Cf., p. 111. "He detested the word indecency as much
as indecency itself. The company of women he avoided
both in public and in private."

110 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
any occasion either in public or private life. He
was equally at home in civil and religious affairs,
possessing as he did a most versatile genius. Dur
ing all the period of his life none was more skilled
in law, none more able to deal with great affairs;
for in eloquence he vied with the greatest orators,
and no single citizen had more at heart or more
advanced the cause of patriotism, tranquillity,
peace, and order. He seemed to possess almost
an iron constitution and an ability to endure any
labour, since no toil, no exercise, no public or
private duty could exhaust his energy. Even old
age itself, the common and inevitable disease of
man, though it might weaken, could not break his
spirit. For even when past his eighty-third year
he discussed weighty affairs of state with superior
acuteness, his capacity and senses being still un
impaired. He was gifted with a retentive mem
ory, which continued strong to the last. His old
age was happy and venerable, without moroseness
or anxiety, free from peevishness and the usual
melancholy. And, to put the whole matter briefly,
neither did old age change his disposition, which
had always been excellent, nor until his last ill
ness did he suffer anything which might lead him
with justice to complain of old age."
Elphinstone was over eighty years of age when
the war-clouds began to gather which burst with
such awful disaster on the fatal field of Flodden.
True to his pacific nature, the Bishop, knowing as

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 111
he did something about the horrors of war, joined
in the opposition which was offered to the militant
party. His remonstrances, however, were impo
tent in the face of the general fever to take arms
against the "auld enemy," England, and the old
man was insulted as a dotard, forgetful of the
public weal, and the nation's ancestral honour.
From the shock of Flodden, where "the flowers of
the forest were a' wede away" when James and
the better part of the nobility of Scotland per
ished, Elphinstone never recovered. Never again
was he seen to smile, or to take delight in inno
cent mirth. His grief occasioned the disorder
which brought him to his end."
The boy Archbishop of St. Andrews, Alexan
der Stewart, an illegitimate son of the king, had
fallen with his father on the field of battle, and
Elphinstone was marked out as his successor.
Boece says that he "stedfastly refused this crown
ing dignity," n but this statement seems not to
be strictly accurate.73 However this may be, El
phinstone died before any appointment to the Pri
macy could be made. In spite of his poor health,
he had travelled from Aberdeen to Edinburgh
in the hope of settling the dissensions which had
broken out among the nobles, and which raged

"Boece, p. 105. 72p. 106.
73 See the documents quoted by Dowden, Bishops of
Scotland, pp. 129 and 130 n. 1.

112 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
until the time of the Reformation. When he ar
rived at the capital he was in a high fever, be
yond the skill of physicians to cure. Yet such was
his iron constitution that on the day before his
death he attended service in the chapel and
preached, and received the Holy Sacrament. In
the evening he supped with some of the nobles
who had come to comfort him, and next morning74
he died, calling upon the name of Jesus the
Saviour and of His Mother until speech failed
him.75 When asked where he would be buried the
dying prelate had said, "My soul I have long
since given to God. Bury my body where ye
please." It seemed most fitting that Aberdeen
should be his burial place, and after his viscera
had been removed and buried in the Black Friars'
House, Edinburgh,70 his embalmed body was
brought to Aberdeen, and buried before the high
altar of the chapel at King's College, "with a
pomp more mournful than magnificent." " At
the funeral, so Boece relates, the Bishop's pas
toral staff, made of silver, was broken and part
fell into the grave where the body was to be laid.
Thereupon a voice, of uncertain origin (incerta

74 25th Oct., 1514. Dowden, Bishops, p. 130.
75 Boece, p. 108. 70 Dowden, Bishops, p. 130.
"Boece, p. 109.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 113
vox), was heard, "Thy mitre also, William,
should be buried with thee."78
Thus passed away in a ripe old age and at the
post of duty, this saintly Bishop. Many troubles
he had to bear, and many anxious tasks to face, but
he was happily spared from sadder things to come.
His death was the cause of universal grief. The
people of Aberdeen, citizens, women, and clergy
alike, long mourned for him as for a father, saying
sadly that "with him had perished the glory of
Aberdeen, and also all their happiness."70 The
oratorical tribute with which Boece prefaced his
biography has yet in it the touch of real personal
feeling. "We have seen a man whom, on account
of his rare excellence, we congratulate ourselves on
having seen, and we feel and express and shall feel
and express as long as we live, to Almighty God
no ordinary gratitude for this high privilege." 80

78 Boece relates, in his credulous fashion, a number of
prodigies which happened at that time.
79 Boece, p. 111. 80p. 58.

IV-THE REFORMATION PERIOD
John Erskine of Dun, Scottish Reformer
and Superintendent
(Born 1509— Died 1589)
It mat well seem a bold thing to attempt an
account of that confused social, political, and re
ligious revolution which is known as the Scottish
Reformation, without making John Knox its
central figure. The mere idea, indeed, of such
a performance will doubtless present itself to
many minds as an absurdity to be compared with
the famous rendering of Shakespeare's play with
the part of Hamlet left out. And yet there is both
room and need, as will be shown, for such an out
line of the Reformation period in Scotland as shall
exhibit all the elements of the situation, not only
those which Knox was so well qualified to repre
sent, both in his character and in the history
which he wrote, but also those more essential ones
which the Knoxian tradition has tended to ob
scure. It is, of course, impossible to leave Knox
out of any intelligible account of the Reforma
tion, but it is possible, and in the interests of
historical truth desirable, to assign to him the

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 115
position which he really seems to have occupied
in that important movement.
Not that one forgets either the greatness of
Knox's character, or the immense value of the
services which he rendered to his nation. His
character, indeed, presents a somewhat perplex
ing psychological problem to candid minds. To
his multitude of friends and admirers he has ap
peared as an all but flawless apostle of Scottish
Christianity, while his enemies and detractors
have seen in him only the incarnation of all that
was wrong and misguided in his time. Few in
dependent students of his life, however, will ac
cept either conclusion. One is alternately attracted
and repelled by his character. His extraordinary
vigour and intensity, the invincible integrity of
his purpose, and the purity of his aims as a re
former command our admiration. When all men
around him were enriching themselves with the
spoils of the Church, he died a poor man, un
sullied with the "merchandise" of the Reforma
tion.1 His human qualities, too, commend them
selves to us, the pathos and the humour which
so often dignify and illuminate the pages of his
history, the softness of heart which made it diffi
cult for him to punish his own children,2 and
which shewed itself in his tenderness towards a

1 Merchandies haif I not maid." See his last will and
testament. R. Bannatyne's Memorials, p. 370.
2 Knox's Works, II, p. 388.

116 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
somewhat trying mother-in-law. But on the other
hand we are confronted with that side of his
character which made Cranmer class him amongst
those "glorious3 and unquiet spirits which can like
nothing but that is after their own fancy," and
which drew even from John Calvin a private con
demnation of his "reckless arrogance." * Nor is
it merely the violence of his opinions and of his
language which offends,5 for it might with some
truth be contended that his bark was often worse
than his bite. But his unfairness towards those
who differed from him, well exemplified by his
stooping to unworthy slander of Mary of Guise,
the unchristian glee which he shews over such a
case as the murder of Cardinal Beaton,8 the blood-
thirstiness of the counsels which he urged upon
his fellow-citizens at different times, and his occa
sional unscrupulousness as a politician,7 inspire
one with sentiments of another kind than those
of approval.

3 Braggart. Proctor and Frere, History of Prayer Book.
p. S4. 'Zurich Letters. 2nd series, p. 35. (Parker Society.)
Ob inconsideratum unius hominis fastum.
! "His favourite adjectives are "T.loody,' "'beastly,' rot
ten,' and •'stinking.' " Andrew Lang's John Knox and the
Reformation, p. xi.
8 "Other good men rejoiced in the murder of an enemy,
but Knox chuckled.'- Lang, p. 17.
7 See Hume Brown's John Knox, II, 57, where the
author defends the case exemplified as the only lapse of the
kind in Knox's career.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 117
It is, however, when we try to estimate the
true historical value of Knox's History of the
Reformation that our chief difficulty arises.
Knox's character repeats itself on every page of
that work, which has been more than anything
else responsible for the popular idea of the nature
of the Scottish Reformation, and of the part which
Knox played in it. Its striking literary qualities,
its vigour and vivacious clearness, as well as those
frequent touches of pathos and humour already
referred to, have commended it to readers of his
tory for centuries. It is, besides, our sole authority
for a great portion of what we know, both about
the Reformation and about Knox's part in it.
But when we ask how far a violent partizan like
Knox may be trusted on many points of critical
importance, as to wliich he is our only informant,
it is not mere prejudice that causes our hesita
tion to follow him implicitly.
On this point authorities have naturally dif
fered, but in modern times this difficulty has been
pretty well recognized. Thus Professor Hume
Brown, who can in no way be described as a de
tractor of Knox, admits that the Reformer did
not always represent the truth of things. He
maintains, indeed, that "in the actual narrative
we have convincing proof alike of the writer's
good faith, and of his perception of the conditions

118 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
of historic truth," 8 but points out that Knox did
not scruple, when irritated, to misrepresent even
the position of his own friends, the Protestant
nobles. "According to his representation," says
the biographer, "they played into the hands of
Mary for their own selfish interests, and betrayed
the Church to which they had professed their de
votion. How far this was from the whole truth
we have already seen ; and in his later years Knox
may himself have come to see that in his haste
he had done gross injustice to certain men whom
in his heart he regarded with affection and es
teem." *
If Knox could deal thus with his friends, we
may well ask how, good hater as he was, he was
likely to represent the doings of his enemies. Mr.
Andrew Lang has dealt with this aspect of the
situation in his recent work,10 and come to the
conclusion that in his History Knox requires care
ful watching, as one who, both as a politician and
an historian, sailed "as near the wind as he
could." We turn therefore with some feelings of re
lief to the life of John Erskine of Dun as one
which presents us with fewer perplexities, whether
psychological or historical. In him we have a
reformer, of an entirely different type from that

8 Life of John Knox, II, p. 218. 'Ibid, p. 221.
"John Knox and the Reformation, 1905, pp. ix, xi.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 119
of Knox, whose importance in the Reformation
movement has hardly been adequately recognized.
He did not enjoy, as Knox did, the unique privilege
of writing as well as making history, and in con
sequence his historical position has been obscured.
Our information regarding his career has to be
gleaned from two biographies of later date,11 and
from various documents and incidental historical
notices which have come down to us. Yet such
as it is, the material at our disposal throws a light
upon the Scottish Reformation which Knox's
History does not afford us. It will help us to
understand that this momentous event was not a
one-man affair, and that the views of all the re
formers did not by any means coincide with those
which are generally attributed to Knox.
It may seem unkind, in view of Scottish feel
ing on the subject, even to suggest that the Ref
ormation could have taken place without John
Knox, but such is the opinion of the Histori
ographer-Royal of Scotland. Professor Hume
Brown declares that "even had Knox remained
the rest of his days in Geneva, the revolution in

11 The more important is that of the Presbyterian min
ister, the Rev. Robert Wodrow, who in the first quarter of
the 18th century compiled his "Collections upon the lives
of the Reformers and most eminent ministers of the Church
of Scotland," of which the life of Erskine is the first.
(Maitland Club. 1834.) The other is that of Bowick
(1828) who, as a clerk in the office of the Town Clerk of
Montrose, has access to local information.

120 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
Church and State must have come as the result
of many combined forces moving to the same
end." 12 Nay, more, he is even inclined to under
value Knox's influence upon the actual settlement,
such as it was, which was arrived at. "It may be
safely said that had Scotland never seen him
again [in 1560] the eventual direction both of
politics and religion could not have been widely
different from what it has actually been." As
to the second of these propositions something
might be said on the other side, but the first of
them is self-evident to an open mind. And while
it is possible to imagine a Scottish Reformation —
and a much better one — without Knox, it is not so
easy to picture it without such a man as Erskine
of Dun. The truth is that in the womb of the Reforma
tion, in Scotland as elsewhere, there were two prin
ciples, not as yet strongly antagonistic, but des
tined to be set in bitter rivalry in the days to
come, the catholic and the ultra-protestant. We
should indeed be surprised if this were not so,
for these two tendencies, the conservative and the
revolutionary, are inherent in human thought and
character, and their due interaction is necessary
to all true and wise progress. We see them work-

12 Life of Knox, I, 316. At the same time this author
appraises Knox's influence in the highest terms, e.g., on p.
268. "No single man did more than Knox to bring about
these results."

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 121
ing on every side to-day in politics and learning,
in practical affairs as well as theology, and indeed
in every department of life. It would indeed be
strange if so important and striking a period as
that of the Reformation did not exhibit them at
work, and if we set aside the glamour of the
Knoxian tradition we can easily perceive them.
If Knox and his friends stand for the root-and-
branch policy, Erskine and the men who thought
like him stand for moderation. It is true that the
powerful forces arrayed against both classes of
reformers and their sense of common danger
welded them into a united body, and made them
sink their differences for the common good. The
result was, as we shall see, a compromise which
was responsible for many of the subsequent re
ligious troubles of Scotland.
Erskine was both by character and tempera
ment peculiarly fitted to represent the moderate
element in the Scottish Reformation. His gentle
and gracious disposition won in a remarkable
degree the respect and affection of his contem
poraries. Knox, to his credit be it said, appre
ciated to the full the qualities of one who was
so unlike himself in this respect. Erskine was,
he says, "a man most gentle of nature," and "a
man of meek and gentle spirit." 13 He also re
cords an instance of the high estimation in which

13 Works, I, p. 317, and II, 386.

122 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
Queen Mary held his milder colleague. In 1565
she took occasion to assure the superintendents
Willock, Winram, and Spottiswoode of her bene
ficent wishes, saying that she would be content to
hear public preaching from such as pleased her,
and especially that "she would gladly hear the
Superintendent of Angus (for he was a mild and
sweet-natured man) with true honesty and up
rightness, John Erskine of Dun." That these
enconiums were thoroughly deserved, and that
Erskine stands out as the leading conciliatory
figure in the Scottish Reformation, will be made
clear in the following narrative.
Another point deserves prominence. Of Er
skine it may be said that more than any other man
he bore the burden and heat of the Reformation
day. Of all the leaders in that movement he is
by far the earliest on the scene, and when he died
in 1589, the last of the Superintendents, he had
outlived Knox and all the other prominent actors
in the events of 1560. While Knox himself was
a member of what he calls "the synagogue of
Satan," and even before he had become one of
the "rotten priests of Baal," Erskine was already
known as one who was "marvellously illuminated"
by God, and the friend of a protestant martyr.14
And for the long period of fifty-five years we
find him labouring in the cause of religious re-

4 In the year 1534. Knox's Works, I, 59.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 123
form, both as a layman, and as an officebearer in
the new Kirk. He was peculiarly fitted both by
his birth and by his public career to render services
of the highest value to the cause which he had
espoused. His family connections enabled him
to act as the chief connecting link between the
members of the nobility and the general body of
the reformers, while his manysided and practical
experience of public life as a soldier, a statesman,
an administrator of justice, and the head of a
municipality, imparted a special weight and au
thority to his counsels.
The future reformer was born in the year
1509. 15 The mansion of Dun, which now pos
sesses only an old gateway of the house in which
he is said to have first seen the light, is situated
in the north-east of Forfarshire, about four miles
inland from the seaport town of Montrose. If
John Erskine was born at Dun House, his family
must have lived there on the patriarchal system,
as it was his grandfather who was the Laird at
that time. The race to which he belonged was an
ancient and honourable one. The first Erskine of
Dun known to history lived in the reign of David
II. , and was the ancestor of the Lords Erskine
and Earls of Mar.16 The mother of our Erskine

15 5th Report of the Historical M.S.S. Commission, p.
633b. 18 Ibid., p. 633a.

124 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
was Margaret, Lady Ruthven, widow of Alexan
der, the second Earl of Buchan.
When Erskine was only four years of age, and
happily too young to understand the meaning of
his loss, the woeful day of Flodden deprived him
not only of his father, but of almost all his nearest
male relatives. The Lairds of Dun as barons were
bound, according to feudal law, to render military
service to the Crown when called upon, and most
of the able-bodied men of the family seem to
have followed James IV. on his fatal expedi
tion. On the battlefield there fell amongst the
others John the Laird of Dun, with his brother
Thomas, and his two sons, Sir John, the reform
er's father, and Alexander.
Thus bereft of his father's care, the child was
fortunate indeed in having for guardian his uncle,
Sir Thomas Erskine of Brechin, a man of worth
and wisdom, and a prominent and influential figure
in his day, as Secretary to King James V. Under
the charge of his uncle the boy received, beyond
doubt, an education befitting his station. "No
doubt," says Wodrow, "the heir of this family had
all the education Scotland could then afford him,
and I am ready to think some forraigne accessions
also, in France, wher the law and languages wer
now taught in great perfection, upon the late re
vival of learning."17 The University of Aberdeen

17 Collections, p. 4.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 125
claims the reformer as an alumnus, but the manu
script records are not extant for his date. Er-
skine's subsequent appearance as an efficient sold
ier shows that he must also have been carefully
trained in military exercises, and the opportunities
which he must have enjoyed of meeting promi
nent people in his uncle's house, may also be set
down amongst the factors of his education.
Only a few particulars can now be gleaned
as to the Reformer's youth. Among his friends
at this period were two local families which be
came prominent on different sides of the Scottish
Reformation — the Paniters and the Melvilles.
It appears from various documents that Erskine,
while yet a boy, was on close terms with David
Paniter, the Commendator of Cambuskenneth,
and with other members of that influential fam
ily ; while on the other hand the father of Andrew
Melville the famous Presbyterian reformer, was
one of his curators in 1526. Thus his young mind
probably received important impressions from
both sides of the religious movement of his times,
and it may be that in that way he afterwards came
to occupy his position as a moderate reformer."
According to the custom of the period Erskine
was married at an early age. A contract of mar
riage, dated 1522, provides that John Erskine of
Dun is to marry and have to wife Elizabeth Lind-

! Report of M.S.S. V. pp. 633-4.

126 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
say, daughter of David, Earl of Crawford, when
ever he should arrive at the "perfect age of fourteen
years." At this tender age, it appears from the
same document, the young Laird came into the
possession of his lands,10 and he is to bestow upon
his sister Katharine a year's profit of the whole
of his lands for her marriage. The eldest son
of this union, John by name, succeeded his father
at an early age as fiar or possessor of Dun, for
in the year 1534-5 Erskine resigned to him the
fee of the lands and barony, reserving his own
life-rent, and his wife's terce.20 This curious cus
tom seems to have prevailed in the family, no
doubt for some adequate reason, and has caused
no little confusion between the different Lairds
of Dun.21 Besides the fiar there were other sons,
William, James, Thomas, Alexander, and Robert.22
Erskine had hardly reached the age of twenty-
one when a tragic event occurred which must have
cast a terrible gloom over his mind. In some un
explained manner he was responsible for the
death of a priest in Montrose. Our only informa
tion on this sad affair is a document dated 5th

19 Ibid., p. 639b. In 1525 the customs of Montrose were
made over by the Earl of Crawford to his son-in-law. Wod
row. Coll., p. 409, xvii.
20 Wodrow, p. 409. 21 Spalding Club, Misc. IV, x.
22 Wodrow, p. 439. Erskine's first wife must have died
before 1543, for in that year Barbara Beirle is named as
his spouse, and as having borne children, p. 410, xxiii, p.
411, xxvii.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 127
February, 1530, which narrates that, in the pres
ence of a notary-public and witnesses, the worthy
man, James Froster, burger of Montrose, on
behalf of himself, his wife Egidia Ros, and
their heirs, etc., acknowledged having received
from John Erskine of Dun, full and complete
assythment and satisfaction for the killing of
their son, Sir23 William Froster, a chaplain
within the burgh of Montrose, slain in the bell-
tower of the same." No explanation is given how
the tragedy took place, nor is it even said that
Erskine was responsible for the deed, but there
is no question that he was the responsible party.
It has, however, been too easily assumed that
Erskine was guilty of a criminal act.24 While
it is true that in the modern legal practice of
Scotland assythment is held to involve crime, in
earlier times this was not always necessarily the
case.25 A homicide might pay assythment, not
merely in order to procure a "letter of slains" to
produce to the king that he might sue for a royal
pardon for his crime, but also in way of damages
for the result of an act of innocent intention.
We have now the best possible evidence that Er
skine was in the latter case. A very interesting
and important letter of his was discovered

23 A common designation of priests before the Reforma
tion. 21 e.g., Hume Brown, I, 299. Lang, p. 63.
25 See Appendix D. on Assythment.

12S BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
about IS 7 6 in which he gives James VI. an ac
count of his career as it presented itself to him
at the end of his life, hoping, as he says, that ere
a year be passed he "sal be delyverit fra the bond
age of corruptione." In it these remarkable words
occur: "I haif ever bein obedient to your Majes
ties lawes, ordinances, and proelamationes. I haif
usit me sua that my nyehtbouris complenit nocht
on me. I wes never accusit for cry me befoir your
graces justice. I tuik never remissione for ony
offence, in respect of the quhilk your Majestie
aucht the mair to rcgaird me.""'
The references to crime and remission ob
viously refer to Froster's death, and shew that to
the end of his life Erskine's memories of it were
keen, and perhaps bitter. It may well be that
slanderous accounts2' of the affair had been circu
lated by his enemies, to his intense pain. How
ever that may be, the death of Froster was caused
by no guilty act. but was probably either the result
of a sheer accident, or the untimely outcome of
a young man's foolish prank."'
It has been conjectured that immediately after
this untimely event, Erskine travelled abroad for
some time, and thereby came in contact with re-

26 Report M.S.S., V, 636.
27 Compare for slanders of Knox, Hume-Brown, II, 303.
2S Amongst the traditions of Aberdeen University is that
of "Downie's slauchter," in which the death of a college
servant was caused bv fright in the course of a mock trial.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 129
formed opinions on the Continent. Of this we
have no direct proof, but various royal licenses
granted to Erskine at somewhat later dates to
travel on the Continent for lengthened periods,
make the supposition a likely one.2" Had he indeed
availed himself to the full of the permissions
granted, Erskine would have spent at home only
a small portion of the years from 1540 to 1550,
but we shall see that this was not the case.
Before this period, however, the Laird of Dun
was known as a friend of the new opinions. In
the year 1534, David Stratoun, a brother of the
Laird of Lauriston in Kincardineshire, was burnt
in Edinburgh for heresy. Of him it is related
that his conversion had completely changed his
character from stubbornness and carelessness to
wards religion, to piety and gentleness. In this
connection we are told that "he frequented much
the company of the Lard of Dun, whome God, in
those dayis, had marvelouslie illuminated."30
Whether Erskine had imbibed his new religious
views in a previous residence among foreign re
formers, or whether the facilities afforded by the

29 In 1542 two separate licenses were granted to Erskine
and a party of friends to travel into France, Italy, or
any other parts beyond the sea for two years in the one
case, and for three years in the other. In 1545-6 he was
permitted to travel abroad for five years. Hist. M.S.S.
Report, V, 639-640. In the Spalding Miscellany (IV, 30),
the second of these three licenses is dated 1537.
80 Knox's Works, I, 59.

130 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
neighbouring port of Montrose for hearing the news
and acquiring the literature of the reformation
movement on the Continent sufficiently explain his
position, he stands out at the age of twenty-five
as an eminent champion of religious reform. It
may well be, as Wodrow says, that at this time
the house of Dun was "a little sanctuary" to those
who wanted safety and protection, while his con
versation was very useful to such as needed not
shelter.31 One result of Erskine's residence
abroad had a remarkable influence upon the ref
ormation movement, the introduction of a learned
Frenchman, Petrus de Marsiliers, as teacher of
Greek in the school of Montrose. Up to this
period Greek was "nocht heard of before" in Scot
land,32 and amongst the pupils whom the new study
attracted were two who afterwards left their mark
in different ways upon the religious changes of
Scotland. One was George Wishart, whose in
fluence afterwards upon the religious awakening
of John Knox was so great, and the other was
Andrew Melville, the real founder of Presby-
terianism in Scotland.

31 Collections, p. 7.
82 James Melville's diary, p. 31. Dr. Morland Simpson
however points out that in 1540 young scholars of Aberdeen
delivered Greek orations in the presence of King James, a
fact which may presuppose that Greek was taught in
Aberdeen long before 1534. Bon Record, 1906, pp. viii
and ix.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 131
When Wishart, after six years' residence in
England, Germany, and Switzerland, returned to
Scotland in 1544 or 1545, he naturally included
Montrose among the scenes of his ministrations,
and doubtless found a refuge in the house of Dun.
Knox informs us that it was "sore against the
judgment of the Lard of Dime" ra that Wishart
started out on his last preaching campaign. As
we shall see. Erskine was on intimate terms with
Cardinal Beaton at the time, and could foresee
some, if not all, of the consequences which were
to follow. However, his remonstrances were of no
avail, and Wishart proceeded to Lothian. Knox,
inflamed by his preaching, now appeared as an
adherent of the reformed opinions, carrying at
least on one occasion the two-handed sword which
apparently belonged to Wishart." Then the tragic
chain of events took place. Wishart was seized,
tried1, and executed. Beaton was murdered in the
castle of St. Andrews two months later, and Knox
joined the company of the murderers in the castle.
The castle was besieged and taken by the help of
the French, and Knox and his companions were
carried away to the prisons and the galleys of
France. How different all might have been had
Wishart listened to the Laird of Dun! There
might have been one Protestant martyr the less,
Beaton might not have succumbed to the disgrace-

¦ Works, I, 132. Si I, 139.

132 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
ful schemes of England against his life, and for
all that we know, John Knox might have remained
to the end of his days an obscure priest of the
diocese of St. Andrews.
To Erskine the situation must have been pe
culiarly painful. If Wishart's death deprived
him of a dear friend, united to him both by local
ties and religious sympathies, the loss of Beaton,
the last great champion of patriotic resistance to
England, must have also been a severe blow to
him. In a letter to Erskine, written less than
two years before his murder, the Cardinal refers
with appreciation to the loyalty of his "rycht hon
orable and traist cousing," and to his efforts to
procure that of his great friends, promising to
"procure and fortifie" his higher honour and weal,
and those of his house and friends.35 From this, as
well as from the narrative which follows, it is
clear that Erskine still shared in the political
views which then prevailed in Scotland. While
there was a strong party in favour of an alliance
with England,38 the main sentiment of the country
was in favour of the ancient friendship with
France, and against the "auld enemy" across the
border. Later on the tide of feeling turned, with
important results for the success of the Reforma
tion movement, but as yet a man of Erskine's re
ligious sympathies might, from purely patriotic
35 Report M.S.S. Com. V. 635 Spald. Mis. IV, 45.
38 Hume Brown, I, 269 n. 2.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 133
motives, be found on the side of the country whose
influence was the greatest obstacle in the way of
religious reform.
We need not therefore be surprised to find
that while Knox was languishing as a prisoner in
a French galley, Erskine was winning renown as
a soldier in a campaign conducted by French troops
in Scotland. In a letter which has already been
referred to,37 he thus describes his services at this
time: "In the weires we had with Ingland, quhen
the Inglis men possessit Dondie, Bruchtie Craig
and the forth thair, I defendit the contre at my
power fra their invasiones, at the desire of the
queinis grace regent, and Duck of Chatilroy,38
thane gouernor. A biggit ane forth [fort] in
Montrois, tuik up ane gret number of men of weir
for a lang time and furnisit all of my awin
guidis, sua that the sowmes debursit by me ex-
ceidit tuentie thousand markis as the comptis buir,
and yet may be sein." 30
The situation which had arisen was as follows :
An English force of 18,000 men had invaded Scot
land little more than a month after the capture
of the Castle of St. Andrews, in order to force a

37 See page 127.
38 Chatelheralt, formerly Earl of Arran.
39 Report. M.S.S. Com., V, 636. A letter of Mary of
Guise to Erskine, dated 11th Jan., 1547-8, conveys her
sense of the importance of his services, and her thanks for
his having "chosin the best part." Spalding Club Misc., IV,
p. 48. Cf., 49, and 50.

134 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
marriage between the boy King Edward VI. and
the young Scottish Queen Mary. The disastrous
battle of Pinkie had paralysed the Scottish de
fence and enabled the English to occupy Hadding
ton and other strong situations. In this extremity
recourse was had to France, with two important
results. A French army arrived in Scotland, and
the little Queen of Scots was sent for safety to
France, as the Dauphin's destined bride.
In the military events which followed, and
which eventually resulted in the withdrawal of
the English troops,40 Erskine played a gallant part.
His name appears again and again with words of
cordial praise in the chronicle of a Frenchman
who accompanied the expedition,41 and we may
infer that the Scottish Laird was a favourite in
the camp of his Gallic comrades. He seems at
first to have been attached to the intelligence de
partment of the French force,42 but we soon find
him in the thick of the fighting which took place
around the stronghold of Haddington.43 Erskine
and Lord Hume, at the head of the troops which
they had led to the war, distinguished themselves
in several fierce cavalry charges, and, as the chron
icler says, proved themselves Scottish gentlemen
of loyalty and valour. "Very few men," he says

40 After the peace of Boulogne, in April 1550.
41 Historie de la guerre d'Ecosse, 15^8 et 1549, par Jean
de Beaugufi. (Maitland Club publications, 1830.)
43 pp. 11, 15, 35. 43pp. 45, 46.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 135
with true French politeness, "will you find in the
whole world equipped with greater prowess, more
valiant and experienced in war."
It was, however, at his own town of Montrose
that Erskine performed his most signal exploit
against the English. He had been invalided home
at a critical juncture of the campaign. The Eng
lish fleet had taken the opportunity while the land
forces were engaged, of making a raid upon the
northern coasts. Erskine seems, however, to have
had early notice of their intention, and all his way
home he raised the country by causing alarm fires
to be lighted.45 On arriving at Montrose he
promptly took measures to defend the town, and
the fertile "Howe o' the Mearns" behind it. Ill
as he was, he visited the fort nightly, to see that
all was in order, and spared himself in no way
for, as he often said, "Men of honour, being obliged
to fear shame, are also bound not to shun dangers
and troubles." 40 In his double capacity as Pro
vost of Montrose and Constable47 of the fort, he
was the natural leader of the countryside, and the
town of Dundee sent one hundred soldiers to his
assistance, and ordered the burghers to watch and
ward with him as he should direct.48

"p. 56. "Wodrow's Coll., p. 428 n. "Beagug, p. 66.
47 He is mentioned as Provost in Jan. 1451, and in Feb.
of the same year he was appointed by his uncle to the con
stabulary, with its lands, fishing, etc. Wodrow, pp, 409,
410. 48 Wodrow, p. 429.

136 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
Erskine's vigilance was rewarded when, one
night, the lights of the approaching ships
were seen. He promptly made his preparations
in such a way as not to undeceive a foe that ex
pected little or no opposition to their landing.
Dividing his forces into three parties, he adopted
a strategy similar to that of Bruce at Bannock-
burn. The least effective part of his men he posted
behind a neighbouring hill, while a second band
was hidden behind the defences of the fort. Put
ting himself at the head of the main body, the
Constable cleverly drew the invaders within reach
of his reserves in the fort, and then at the proper
moment the hidden band of undisciplined servants
and others shewed themselves. Terrified at the
sight, the English fled to their ships, leaving hun
dreds of their fellows dead, and Dun was left
"with the glory of a victory that was owing not
only to valour and vigilancy, but to a nice piece
of martial cunning." 40
The value of this episode is that it reveals in
a striking way some important qualities of Ers
kine's character. Beneath his gentle manner and
his conciliatory disposition there were other ele
ments which historians of the Reformation have
scarcely perceived. He was certainly not the fa
cile and easily persuaded personage whom Presby
terian writers have sometimes represented him to
49 Beaugue, p. 65. Buchanan Opera Ed. Ruddiman, I,
301, Bowicks Life, pp. 59-67.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 137
have been. His personal courage,50 his dash and
vigour, his vigilance and his resource alike con
demn these suggestions, and give us the right clue
to the nature of his work as a reformer.
Of the details of that work during the next
few years we have no information, but when
Knox 51 visited Scotland in 1555, after a busy and
tumultuous career as a reformer in England and
on the Continent, he was amazed at the change
which had taken place. "If I had not seen it
with my eyes in my own country," he writes, "I
could not have believed it." 52 Not only had the
number of adherents of the new views increased,53
but their fervency far exceeded "all others" that
he had seen. In Edinburgh he lodged at the house
of one James Syme, and began to preach there in
secret. Among his auditors were, he informs us,
the Laird of Dun, who soon took occasion to bring
about a notable conference on an important part
of Knox's teaching. Up to that time many who
were zealous in the cause had not scrupled to at
tend Mass, but Knox denounced this course, as
communication with idolatry. Erskine accord-

50 Spottiswoode remarks on his "singular courage." His
tory, II, 412.
81 Knox is our principal informant as to Dun.
52 Works, IV, 217, 218.
88 A little before Knox's arrival the faithful in Edin
burgh had been formed into one congregation by Erskine's
advice, and he taught them sometimes in private houses.
Wodrow. Collections, p. 12.

138 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
ingly held a supper party to give Knox an oppor
tunity of discussing the matter with David For
rest, Robert Lockhart, John Willock, and Maitland
of Lethington. According to E_nox, he gained his
point, for "the Messe began to be abhorred of such
as befoir used it for the fassioun, and avoiding of
sclander (as then thei termed it).""'
After this momentous decision had been ar
rived at, Knox visited Erskine at his place of Dun,
where he remained a month, daily exercising in
doctrine, to which, he informs us, resorted the
principal men of that part of the country.55 Later
on he paid a second visit to Dun, where he not
only preached in greater liberty, but ministered
"the Table of the Lord Jesus" to the greater part
of the gentlemen of the Mearns.50
By this time, however, Knox's doings had come
to the ears of the Church authorities, and he was
summoned to appear in the Church of the Black
Friars in Edinburgh. The trial, however, was
never held, for Erskine, "with diverse otheris
gentilmen" accompanied their preacher to Edin
burgh, ready to support him before his judges,
and the courage of the Bishops failed them at the
last moment.57 Knox, in spite of this triumph,
considered that his work lay in Geneva, and in
July, 1556, he returned to his flock there. That
Erskine's boldness in sheltering Knox and cham-

• Works, I, 246-8. 53 p. 249. D8p. 250. 87 1, 251.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 139
planing his cause brought him into no disrepute
in high quarters is shewn by his appearance as
Justice-depute at a "JusTiee-aire" held in Elgin
in the month following.** As the holder of a
barony, he had the power of pit and gallows within
his own jurisdiction, but here we see him employed
as a judge in another capacity. The cases with
which he had to deal seem to have been of a trivial
character. As the eurrent of the Reformation begins to
flow more strongly and swiftly, Erskine's position
as a reformer becomes more clearly defined. He
was one of those who in 1557 signed the first bond
of the Lords of the congregation (as the leading
reformers were now called), whereby they pledged
themselves to defend the Reformation with their
substance and their lives."* In 155S he became
an exhorter or lay preacher of the "Trivy Kirk,"
and apparently an elder as weU,™ At the same
time he was one of the commissioners sent to
France to arrange the marriage of Queen Mary in
1557, while two years later he was appointed
factor, "because of his faith, conscience, and piety
towards the poor," of the Blaekfriars5 monastery

BP_teair_i's Criminal trials, I, 389.
"Worts. J, 273. Tlie other signatories mentioned are
the Earls of Argyle, Gleneaim, Morton, and Lord Lome.
"ITorfa, I, 300.

140 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
in Montrose, which had been raided, the property
of which was now to be given to the poor.01
What may be called the first crisis of the Scot
tish Reformation took place in that year and the
following one. A last effort had been made by the
party of Catholic reform, in the shape of certain
articles of reformation drawn up by a number of
influential laymen and submitted to the last Pro-
vincial Council held in Scotland. No drastic
change was demanded, except reform in the lives
and labours of the Bishops and clergy. However,
this last chance of reforming and yet saving the
Church was lost. A number of the familiar in
effective canons were drawn up, and some Protes
tant preachers were banned for administering the
Sacraments. Then it would seem as if Erskine
and the reformers in his district lost patience, or
despaired of a pacific reform. The Protestant
preachers had been summoned to appear before
the Justiciary Court in Stirling on May 10th, and
just as Erskine had some years ago led a band of
Fifeshire gentlemen to Edinburgh in defence of
Knox, so now he seems to have been the leader in
a still more important demonstration. It is not
Knox's way to make anyone but himself the central

81 Letter of Francis and Mary. Hist. M.S.S. Report,
V, 640. The language of the letter itself however, suggests
a later date than Eeb. 1559, but see below.
In 1567 one of the Reformer's sons, Alexander, received
a "tack" of this property. Wodrow, p. 410.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 141
figure of the Reformation, but when he tells us
that the town of Dundee and the gentlemen of
Angus and Mearns02 were the demonstrators, we
can have little doubt as to who was the leader in
the expedition63 to Perth.
Both sides were unwilling to precipitate a con
flict, and Erskine appears prominently in the ne
gotiations which took place. "Zealous, prudent, and
Godly man," as Knox declares him to have been,
he shewed also his personal courage and his desire
for peace by going to the Queen Regent at Stirling
to declare that he and his friends were there for
the purpose only of giving confession with the
preachers, and of assisting them in their just de
fence.34 The Regent, according to Knox, set her
self to "craft" with Erskine, who, as "a man most
gentle of nature, and most addict to please her in
all things not repugnant to God," wrote to his
fellow-reformers in Perth, advising them not to
come to Stirling. When, however, the preachers
were outlawed, Erskine prudently withdrew from
the royal city, and joined his fellows at Perth.
Thus when Knox arrived from abroad and
reached that town, what was practically a state of
civil war was in existence, and Erskine and other

82 1, 317.
63 Knox assures us that they were unarmed, but this is
far from likely.
04 He also wrote a letter of protest to the Regent. See
below page 154.

142 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
leaders were deeply committed to a struggle the
outcome of which no one could foresee. Knox's
main contribution to the situation was the stirring
up of the "rascal multitude" to the rabbling of the
ecclesiastical buildings in Perth. At that period
there was an enormous number of sturdy beggars
in Scotland who wandered over the whole country
and were a standing menace to society. Naturally
they flocked to Perth when the news spread as to
what was going on, and proved themselves most
admirable auditors to Knox's fiery denunciations
of idolatry.65 A riot took place in the Church of
St. John the Baptist after the reformer had
preached, and for two days the mob ravaged and
pillaged at their will. For the time being these
new converts to Protestantism were deeply at
tached to their leader, and wherever Knox went,
he left a trail of destruction behind him. It has
been claimed for Knox that he tried, although in
vain, to prevent the destruction of Scone Abbey,
and doubtless he and "men of greatest estimation"
did, as he says, labour with all diligence for the
safety of it.66 The reason, however, of their un
usual diligence on this occasion was probably not

86 Knox is not quite disingenuous in this connection,
however. While he lays the blame on the "rascal multitude"
in his History, in a private letter written at the time, he
describes the destruction as the work of "the brethren."
Works, VI, 23.
00 1, 362.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 143
unconnected with the fact that no less a person
than Erskine of Dun was the lease-holder of Scone,
and for all that one knows, likely to be a large
loser himself by the reforming zeal of the mob.67
In the negotiations with the Queen Regent
which followed, Erskine took a leading part,68 and
in June we find him at St. Andrews in the com
pany of Knox, to whose efforts the "reformation"
of that town a few days after their arrival may be
set down.69 He attended with other reformers the
"communing at Preston,70 and when the bold step
was taken of disowning allegiance to the Queen
Regent, Erskine signed the document as one of the
Barons.71 The arrival of additional troops from
France in her support made it necessary to appeal
to England for help, and Erskine's name is one
of those appended to the letter of instructions to
the commissioners who went to Berwick to treat
with the representatives of Elizabeth.72 By the
aid of English gold, English arms, and an English

87 See Hist. M.S.S. Com., V, p. 640, no. 61. Lease of
the Abbey of Scone for 19 years to Erskine, by Patrik,
Bishop of Moray and Commendator of Scone, 1546-7.
Erskine seems to have had a lease of the Deanery of Aber
deen in 1564. Wodrow, p. 411.
88 Knox, I, 337, 341. "I, 346. 70I, 369.
71 1, 451. The other signatories were, the Earls of Ar-
ran, Argyle, Glencairn, Lord James Stewart, Lord Ruth-
ven, The Master of Maxwell, the Lairds of Tullibardine
and Pitarrow, the provost of Aberdeen.
72 II, 56.

144 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
fleet, the reformers were now able to contend on
equal terms with Mary of Lorraine's French and
Scottish forces. This strange phase of the Scottish
Reformation was, however, terminated by the Re
gent's death, and the subsequent treaty of Edin
burgh, by which it was agreed that the religious
questions at issue should be settled at a meeting of
Parliament, beginning on the first of August,
1560, subject to the confirmation of Queen Mary
and her husband.
The reformers, representing though they did
only a minority of the people of Scotland, lost no
time in settling matters as far as they could.73
Ministers were appointed to Edinburgh, St. An
drews, Aberdeen, Perth, Jedburgh, Dundee, Dun
fermline, and Perth, Knox being placed in charge
of the faithful in the capital city. Superintend
ents were also appointed to the charge of various
districts, to administer discipline and to further
the spread of the Reformation, Willock to Glas
gow, Erskine to Angus and Mearns,74 Carswell to
Argyle and the Isles, Spottiswoode, father of the
future Archbishop, to Lothian, and Winram to
Fife. As Erskine was a layman when appointed to
this office, and as the superintendents have been

73 They seem even to have published Protestant mani
festoes in the name of Francis and Mary. Wodrow, pp. 18,
321-2. 71 The shires of Forfar and Kincardine.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 145
for centuries a fruitful theme of controversy, it is
of great interest to read our reformer's opinions
on the subject. In the first place he seems to
have distinguished between an ordinary and an
extraordinary ministry in the Church. A letter
which appears to have been written by him to the
Queen Regent at the beginning75 of the struggle
which has been briefly described, contains these
remarkable words: "Howbeit God has appointed
in the Kirk ordinary vocation to continue, yet is
He not Himself so astricted thereunto, but he may
and does send oft times persons called by Himself
extraordinarily, and that happens most commonly
when the ordinary ministers are corrupt." To
such a defence of the preachers, admitting as it
did the position of the unreformed clergy, Knox
would hardly have subscribed, and we may infer
that the letter was despatched before his arrival in
Perth. It throws an important light, however,
upon Erskine's acceptance of this office. He was
not, in his own estimation, a layman masquerading
as a cleric, but one who, like the prophets of old,
had received an extraordinary commission from
God Himself. On the other point, the nature of
the office of superintendent, Erskine's opinions
were expressed with equal clearness, in a letter
of the year 1571 : "To the office of a Bishop per-

75 6th May, 1559. Spalding Club Misc., IV, 88.

146 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
taineth examination and admission to spiritual
cure and office, and also to oversee them that are
admitted, that they walk uprightly, and also
exercise their office faithfully and purely. To
take this power from a Bishop or superintendent,
is to take away the office of a Bishop, that no
Bishop be in the Kirk, which were to alter and
abolish the order that God hath appointed in his
Kirk. ... I understand a Bishop and a superin
tendent to be but one ofiice, and where the one is,
the other is." 70
That this conception differs entirely from the
account of the superintendents given by Knox in
his version of the Book of Discipline is, of course,
incontestable. According to Knox, a difference
was made among the preachers only for a time, to
meet the peculiar difficulties of the situation. Yet
it is remarkable to find that even in the scheme
given by Knox, the superintendents were each
appointed to a "diocese," and that the following
apparently inconsistent provision occurs : "In this
present necessitie, the nomination, examination,

70 Wodrow's Collections, pp. 37 and 39. The worthy
Wodrow makes the following extraordinary deduction from
the letter (p. 42). "It is very plain by this letter, that
in the Superintendent's judgment, Bishops, Superintend
ents, Pastors and Ministers, were one and the same office."
He is not by any means the only Scottish writer who has
faced the facts of history with a veil over his eyes.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 147
and admission of superintendents cannot be so
strait as we require, and as afterward it must
be." Archbishop Sporriswoode, too. in his His
tory, omits in his Tersion of the Book of Discipline
the references which point to the temporary ap
pointment of the superintendents, and as the son
of a superin:endent, he must have had excellent
information. " On the whole, therefore, one is in
clined either to turn against Knox the criticism
which David Laing uttered against Sporriswoode
in this connection, "That implicit reliance should
not be placed on [his] fidelity." ™ or to suppose
that two versions of the Book of Discipline were
eurrent. representing the views respectively of the
moderate men and of the extremists-5*
To complete our account of the superintend
ents, their name may have been suggested by the
German Superattendenien or Suptrintendenten,
who were permanent officials charged with eccle
siastical supervision.'" The number of superin
tendents in Scotland is believed never to have been
extended beyond the original five, and yet one is
perplexed to find in a document of 1569. seven
superintendents mentioned, among whom are Knox

"See Worts- U, pp. 201, 203, 20-5. KVoL I, p. 542.
"Knars Worts. H, 5S9.
w It is to be remembered that tie Book of Discipline
never was aeeepted.
s Hume Brown. Life af Knar, U. 133.

148 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
and three others not of the original number.82 Be
yond the essential fact that they lacked consecra
tion, the superintendents were very different from
Bishops in respect that they were subject to the
discipline of the Kirk, and liable to be removed
from office.
When Parliament met, the knell of the eccle
siastical system which had prevailed in Scotland
for more than four centuries was sounded. A
Calvinistic confession of faith, declaring the Kirk
to be invisible, and known only to God, was ac
cepted,83 the jurisdiction of the Pope was abol
ished, and the celebration of the Mass prohibited
under penalties of confiscation, exile, and death,
for the first, second, and third offence, while the
Bishops and other prelates were forbidden to use
jurisdiction in time to come by the Bishop of
Rome's authority.84 The office of Bishop, be it ob
served, was not abolished, and the door was thus
left open for the episcopate to join the reformers.
A few months later the Book of Discipline, contain
ing the new polity, ecclesiastical, educational, and

82 Hist. M.S.S. Commission, VI, 645-6. The document
is a copy of an assignation of money and oats by the su
perintendents for the Regent's house, and bears to be sub
scribed by the superintendent's hands, ut infra Erskine,
Winram and Spottiswoode, Andrew Hay, John Knox, David
Lindsay. Robert Pont agrees etc.
"Works, II, p. 109. Acts Pari. Scot., Vol. II, 24th
Aug., 1560.
84 II, p. 125.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 149
social, of the invisible Kirk was presented to Par
liament, but although subscribed by many indi
vidual nobles and barons, it did not pass into law.
Its framers seem to have expected that the pos
sessions of the old Church would straightway pass
into the custody of the new establishment, but their
hopes were rudely disappointed. Knox found that
to pull down and destroy was one thing, but to
build up quite another.
In truth the Kirk invisible found at first but
a precarious footing in the chaotic situation
which the Reformation had produced. Of the
Roman Bishops, three joined the reformers,85
while some at least of their fellows remained in
Scotland, sat in Parliament, and probably enjoyed
a considerable share of their former revenues.
When vacancies occurred the Pope continued to
"provide" successors to bishoprics, notwithstand
ing the Act of Parliament.88 And the lot of the
clergy was not what one would have expected. In
spite of all Knox's violent invectives they were
treated with great consideration. Two-thirds of
the free ecclesiastical revenues are said to have
remained in the hands of the clerics, by way of
vested life-interest.87 All Bishops, Abbots, Priors,

85 Bishop Bothwell of Orkney, and the Bishops of Gal
loway and Caithness. The two former seem to have been
consecrated, while the third was a layman. See Dowden,
Scottish Bishops, pp. 250, 268, 349, 375.
86 Dowden, pp. 191, 207, 228, 229.

150 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
and other prelates and beneficed men who pro
fessed adhesion to the new regime, were allowed
to retain the life rent of their benefices on condi
tion that they maintained reformed ministers in
their several parishes and districts.88 Such pro
fessions were doubtless often of a very formal char
acter, if indeed tendered at all. Even the in
mates of the nunneries were provided for. The
prioress of Elcho, for instance, enjoyed until her
death, in 1570, the revenues of the parish kirk
of Dun, under the eye of the superintendent him
self,811 and there are similar cases on record. The
whole situation makes it difficult to accept Knox as
in all respects the representative figure of the
Reformation. He was, in the words of a Presby
terian historian,90 "unquestionably a great instru
ment in effecting the Reformation; but we are in
clined to regard the preacher as an instrument in
the hands of the barons, rather than the barons as
instruments in the hands of the preacher."
As a superintendent Erskine, as may be im-

87 Statutes of the Scottish Church. Dr. Patrick, 1907.
p. CV. 88 Knox, II, 257.
89 Hist. M.S.S. Com., V, p. 634. This is an act of ad
mission by the Superintendent to James Erskine, into the
parsonage of Dun, "vacant through the decease of umwhile
Dame Euphame Leslie, late prioress of Elcho, which par
sonage sometime pertained to the priory of Elcho."
80 Dr. Cunningham, Church History of Scotland, I, 279.
(2nd ed.)

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORT 151
agined, did not give complete satisfaction to the
more violent of his associates. He was accused
before the General Assembly in 1563 of allowing
"discipline" to be neglected in many kirks of
Angus and Mearns. It was also alleged that he
preached not in his visitations; and that being
burdened with the visitation of the north, he could
not attend upon the charge allotted him." On
more than one occasion he sought to be relieved
from his office,™ but the Assembly would not ac
cept his resignation. Instead, he was appointed
Moderator in 1565 and the two following years,
and when young T\iTig James was crowned at Stir
ling in 1567. it was Erskine who, along with Spot-
tiswoode. the superintendent of Lothian, and Both-
well, the Bishop of Orkney, set the crown upon his
head. Whatever the extremists may have thought,
Erskine had no lack of reforming zeaL In 1562
we find him delating before the Assembly one
Robert Cumyn, schoolmaster in Arbroath, "for
infecting the youth committed to his charge with
idolatry," * and seven years later, when he was
commissioned with the task of reforming the TTni-
versitT of Aberdeen, which still clung to the old
religious traditions, he deposed from office the
Principal, Sub-Principal, and three Regents or

'Knox, VI, 387. "Wodrow, p. 21 "Knox, U, 363.

152 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
professors, thus effectually purging "that nursery
of learning."" In the last of Knox's famous interviews with
Queen Mary, Erskine had a characteristic share.
The famous preacher had been summoned to Holy-
rood to give account of a sermon in which he had
inveighed against Mary's rumoured project of mar
riage with Don Carlos of Spain. He attended
with a group of friends, but Erskine of Dun, who
as we have seen was a persona grata with Mary,
was the only one allowed to enter Mary's "cabinet"
with Knox. The interview followed the usual
lines, and the Queen was reduced to "owling" and
tears. At this point Erskine intervened, and, ac
cording to Knox, "entreated what he could to miti
gate her anger, and gave unto her many pleasing
words of her beauty, of her excellence, and how
that all the princes of Europe would be glad to seek
her favours. But all that was to cast oil in the
flaming fire."05 This sounds more like burlesque,
however, than a real account of what Erskine
would have said, and may be put down to Knox's
sense of humour. The really humorous sequel
was not seen in that light by Knox. He was or
dered to leave the Queen's presence, while Erskine
and Lord John of Coldingham spent nearly an
hour attempting to appease the royal wrath. When
Erskine left the cabinet he was doubtless startled

M Wodrow, p. 22, etc. " Works, II, 388.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 153
to find Knox in the ante-chamber, haranguing the
queen's ladies on their gorgeous apparel, for he
carried him off from the dangerous precincts with
out delay.
A curious episode is related by Wodrow60 in
connection with the murder of Regent Moray in
1570. Knox, as is well known, believed himself
possessed of prophetical powers, and it would seem
that Erskine was credited with a similar faculty.
According to a tradition "handed down in that
family as an undoubted truth," the Earl of Moray
was staying at Dun House just before his untimely
death. He and the superintendent were talking
together at "a large window at the end of the old
hall there, which looked out on a pleasant green,"
when Erskine "suddenly looked about him, and
with the greatest sorrow, and tears in his eyes,
after he had been silent for some [time] , at length
interrupted the Regent with these words : Ah !
woes me, my Lord, for what I perceive is to befall
you shortly, for in a fortnight's time you will be
murdered.' "
The removal of Moray, who had been one of
the mainstays of the Reformation movement,07 pro
duced great changes in Church and State. The

Mp. 26.
87 The "Good Regent" of the Protestants was an illegiti
mate son of King James V, and had been, according to the
custom of the times, made Prior of St. Andrews by his
father at the mature age of five years.

154 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
Earl of Morton became the most influential man
of King James's party, and in order to raise money
to enable him to contend with the supporters of
the imprisoned Queen Mary, he directed his atten
tion anew to the Church's wealth. As the un-
reformed Bishops died off,"8 salaried successors
might be appointed by the Crown on conditions
very favourable to the Exchequer, but very un
favourable to the interests of the Kirk invisible.
Thus the whole question of Church government
in Scotland was raised, and Erskine took the lead
in making a protest. His letter to the Regent
Mar, of November 10, 1571,°° was, as has been
already pointed out,100 not a condemnation of the
office of a Bishop, but a defence of the Kirk
against the thrusting in of officials with
out its authority. In a second letter101 he thus
complains: "I perceive the Kirk to be so far
despised, that no wrong can be done to it. It may
appear most justly to all men, that the destruction
of the Kirk and ministry is sought; for benefices
are given and Bishops are made at men's pleas
ure, without consent of the Kirk."
It has been the fashion to represent Erskine
in this connection as at first manfully contending
for the Presbyterian system, and afterwards,
owing to his good nature, weakly agreeing to ac-

08 Archbishop Hamilton was hanged in 1571.
90 Wodrow, p. 36. 10° page 145. 101 Wodrow, p. 43.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 155
cept titular Bishops as part of the government of
the Kirk, but the only foundation for this opinion
seems to be a misreading of words that are quite
plain, and a failure to understand a singularly
strong and consistent character. Many besides
Erskine must have agreed with the Regent's words,
"The default of the whole stands in this, that the
policy of the Kirk of Scotland is not perfect, or
any solid conference among Godly men, that are
well willed and of judgment, how the same may be
helped." 10 Knox himself was no opponent of
Bishops per se,1"3 and his co-reformer, Spottis-
woode, used often to say, in his old age, "the doc
trine we profess is good, but the old policy was
undoubtedly the better." ,M And surely it is at
least credible that Douglas, when he became Arch
bishop of St. Andrews, and Row, when he de
fended the lawfulness of Diocesan Episcopacy in
1575, were otherwise than faithful to their deep
est convictions. The outcome of this struggle was the holding
of the Convention of Leith in 1572, a meeting of
superintendents, commissioners, and ministers,
which was to have "the strength, force, and effect"
of a General Assembly. As a result of their de
liberations the episcopate was restored at least in
name. The old titles and boundaries of the dio-
102 p. 45.
103 See Hume Brown, I, 92, 93, and II, 278.
104 Arch. Spott. Hist., II, 337.

156 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
ceses were to remain as before the Reformation.
A chapter of learned men was to be attached to
each Cathedral. The Bishops and Archbishops
were to have no more authority than superintend
ents, and to be subject to the Assembly. Abbots,
priors, and commendators were to be learned and
suitable for their office, and to be tried and ad
mitted by the Bishops. All deaneries, provostries
of collegiate churches, prebends, and chaplaincies
founded on temporal lands, were to be bestowed
by their patrons on students. The following Gen
eral Assembly, of which Erskine was Moderator,
reluctantly accepted these findings "until further
and more perfect order be obtained."
It may seem strange, to those who regard John
Knox as the founder of Presbyterianism, that the
aged reformer, now nearing his end, wrote a let
ter105 to this Assembly in agreement with their find
ings. He urged "that all bishoprics vacant may
be presented, and qualified persons nominated
thereunto within one year of the vacancy thereof,
according to the order taken in Leith by the com
missioners of the nobility and of the Kirk in the
month of January last." His acquiescence has
been set down to a sordid desire to secure the
Church's patrimony,100 but surely Knox of all men
would have been the last to surrender his princi
ples for the sake of even the Church's gain.
105 Richard Bannatyne's Memorials, p. 250.
100 Cunningham's History, I, p. 345.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 157
The ecclesiastical system thus set up was un
satisfactory from every point of view. The Bish
ops had no valid consecration, and very soon be
came held up to scorn for their subserviency to the
Crown and their financial relations to their pa
trons. The term Tulchan107 bishops, which was
applied to them, indicated the simoniacal condi
tions upon which many of them held their sees.
Thus within twenty years the quasi-episcopal sys
tem gave way before the vigorous assaults of An
drew Melville and his colleagues, and in 1592
Presbyterianism was for the first time established
in Scotland, itself to give place eighteen years
later to a true episcopacy.
These further changes, however, Erskine did
not live to see. Eor seventeen years he worked
along with the titular Bishops as a superin
tendent of the Kirk, although he had offered
to resign office in favour of the Bishop of
Dunkeld and the Archbishop of St. Andrews. In
1575 he was instituted 108 by Winram, superintend
ent of Fife, to the parish of Dun, an indication
that his labours as superintendent were not now so
heavy as they used to be. The trend of Erskine's
sympathies in the struggle between the Pres-

107 A tulchan was a dummy calf stuffed with straw,
placed before a cow to make her give milk.
108 Hist. M.S.S. Report, V, 634. James Erskine was
parson of Dun in 1570, and Thomas Erskine in 1574. Both
were probably sons of the Superintendent. Wodrow, p. 411.

158 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
byterian and, as one may call them, Episcopalian
parties, is seen in a letter written to him by the
Rev. Thomas Smeton "at the command of the
brethren sent in commission," regarding the As
sembly of 1580, at which Episcopacy was con
demned, and Bishops deposed, at least on paper.
He deplores "this horrible confusion, which is like
to wreck the Kirk of God in this country," and
while he regrets the absence of Erskine through
weakness and disease of body, he requests him
from time to time to "let them understand his
godly counsel and judgment concerning the uphold
of these ruinous walls of afflicted Jerusalem." 1M
Wodrow avers that he had a considerable share
in framing the second Book of Discipline,110 but An
drew Melville was the main author of this produc
tion. He seems to have been more active in 1585,
at a time when the progress of Presbyterianism
was for the time being stayed, and Episcopacy had
the upper hand. In that year he shewed great
zeal as a commissioner appointed for the purpose
of getting ministers to subscribe the obligation
imposed by Parliament in 1584, to obey the king,
and "the ordinary bishop or commissioner" of the
diocese.111 In the same year he is described in a
deed of presentation by the constable of Dundee,
as "Bishop and superintendent." lu
"'Ibid., p. 635, No. 9. uo Wodrow, p. 63.
111 Grub. Eccl. Hist, of Scot., II, 328.
112 Hist. M.S.S. Report, V, 635.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 159
An interesting light is thrown upon the sur
vival of Catholic customs in Scotland long after
the Reformation by two licenses113 of King James
VI, dated 1580 and 1584, allowing Erskine to
dispense with fasting. The second of these is
thus worded: "We, understanding that our well-
beloved clerk, John Erskine of Dun, is past the
age of 76 years, and that he is sickly and subject
to divers infirmities and diseases: therefore by
the tenor hereof, with advice of the Lords of our
secret council, gives and grants license to him to
eat flesh so oft as he shall think expedient on the
forbidden days of the week, to-wit, Wednesday,
Friday, and Saturday, and in the time of Lent-
roun, during all the days of his lifetime."
Another license of the same year1" excusing
Erskine of Dun and his people from attending "the
raid appointed towards Stirling" shows that in
theory at least he was liable, parson and superin
tendent as he was,to take up arms at his sovereign's
behest. Four years earlier, in 1580, a commission
was issued to him "or in case of his indisposition
and inability to travel" to his son, Robert Erskine,
younger, of Dun, to proceed with the aid of the

118 Hist. M.S.S. Report, V, p. 640, Nos. 68, 72. See The
Irvines of Drum, by J. F. Leslie (Aberdeen, 1909), p. 80 for
similar licenses to Alexander Irvine, dated 1622-6-7. For
the legislative enactments see Acts of Scot. Pari. Ill, p. 40,
35 (1567), p. 353, 12 (1584), p. 453, 42 (1587).
114 Ibid., no. 70. "'Ibid., no. 11, p. 636.

160 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
lieges of Forfarshire against the house of Red-
castle110 with fire, sword, and all other kind of war
like engines and recover it for the king. Young
Erskine seems to have brought this affair to a
speedy and satisfactory conclusion.117
Erskine died in 1589 118 full of years and of
honour. Like Knox, he left the scene of his la
bours a poor man, for the last letter of his which is
preserved 110 is a pathetic petition to the king for
the continuance of his pension "but for a year,
hoping ere that time be passed, I shall be delivered
from the bondage of corruption." His life had
been a long and varied one, during which there
were five Kings and seven regents of Scotland.
And he had played a part in the thrilling events
of his time which was both worthy and of the
highest importance. James VI. had "as good
opinion" of Erskine "as of any subject in Scot
land," 12° and he is the only prominent reformer of
whom practically all historians121 speak with ad
miration. His ecclesiastical opinions we have
seen, and as to his powers as a preacher, Hume
Brown speaks admirably in connection with three

116 The ruins of this building are prominent to the rail
way traveller passing Lunan Bay in Forfarshire, 4% miles
from Montrose.
117 Ibi d., no. 69, p. 640. ""Ibid., p. 633.
"'Ibid., p. 636. There were four Lairds living on the
estate at the same time, and five wives or widows of Lairds.
p. 633. 120 Ibid., p. 636, no. 13. m Calderwood is an exception.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 161
of his discourses which have come down to us.
"Compared with other contemporary productions
of the same kind they are remarkable for their
clearness and simplicity of style and the directness
with which they go to the mark the preacher set
before him. But more notable than even these
qualities is the mild piety they breathe, and their
comparative freedom from the rancorous spirit of
the time." 122
Archbishop Spottiswoode's appreciation of the
Reformer is also worth recording. "In the end
of the year123 died John Erskine of Dun, superin
tendent of Angus and Mearns, a man famous for
the services performed to his prince and country,
and worthy to be remembered for his travails in
the Church, which out of zeal to the truth he un
dertook, preaching and advancing it by all means.
... A baron, he was of good rank, wise, learned,
liberal, of singular courage, who for divers re
semblances may well be said to have been another
Ambrose. He died the twelfth of March, in the
eighty-second year of his age, leaving behind him
a numerous posterity, and of himself and his vir
tues a memory that shall never be forgotten." 1Z"

122 II, 301.
128 1591, but like other writers Spottiswoode confused
the Superintendent with his grandson of the same name.
124 History, II, 412.

V-THE COVENANTING PERIOD
ROBERT LeIGHTON
Bishop op Dunblane and Aechbishop of
Glasgow
(Born 1611— Died 1684)
The original reformation settlement in Scot
land was, as we have seen, a much milder and
more indefinite arrangement in some important
respects than is generally imagined. Especially
was this true in the matter of Church Government.
Hampered as they were by their theory of an in
visible Kirk, and divided as they were in opinion,1
the reformers seem to have been driven by stress
of circumstances upon the shoals of an unstable
compromise. The strange and hybrid hierarchy
which resulted, of Superintendents, Reformed
Bishops, and Commissioners appointed for limited
periods, has been a subject of much discussion be-

1 Archbishop Spottiswoode, whose father was a superin
tendent and one of the compilers of the first Book of Dis
cipline says that "divers" of those entrusted with this task
wished to retain the ancient polity, cleansed from its cor
ruptions, but Knox, "who then carried the chiefest sway"
studied to conform to the Genevan model. History, Vol I,
lxii.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 163
tween Episcopalian and Presbyterian writers, each
claiming the system as their own. Lacking, how
ever, as it does the distinctive element both of
Episcopacy and of Presbyterian parity, while pos
sessing features that belong to both, it is most
wisely placed in a category by itself. A study of
all the facts of the case suggests that while the first
generation of reformers was largely indifferent to
tho "divine rights" of either Episcopacy or Pres
byterianism,3 different individuals interpreted the
situation each according to his own light.
The outcome of this state of things was what
may be described as a see-saw between Episcopacy
and Presbyterianism for more than a century.
During this period the Kirk oscillated between
the two rival systems according to the political
forces which happened to be in the ascendant. Un
der both dispensations tyranny and compulsion
were freely employed, for religious toleration was
a plant of slow growth in Scotland. And on the
whole the country acquiesced in the successive
changes, with grumblings and protests of varying
bitterness, and rebellious outbreaks on the part of
the irreconcilables. It was not until after 16S9
that this balance of power was shattered, and the
permanent predominance of Presbyterianism se
cured, by the adhesion of the main body of the
Episcopalians to Jacobite principles, a proceeding
2 The supreme power of the General Assembly was the
matter for which they really cared.

164 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
which, however laudable on the score of loyalty, in
volved them, and the cause of Scottish Episcopacy,
in the ruin of the ill-fated Stuart dynasty.
The great strength of Presbyterianism was its
witness for the spiritual independence of the Kirk,
just as the great weakness of the Episcopal system
was the subservience of its Bishops to the crown.
In this lies the true inwardness of the long and
bitter religious struggles of Scotland. Had the
Stuart kings respected the feelings of their sub
jects in religious matters, and refrained from the
policy of appointing as Bishops only men who were
likely to do as they were told, the history both of
the Kirk and the country might have been very
different. Rightly or wrongly, however, they re
garded Presbyterianism as a force inimical to
political sovereignty, and studied to make Episco
pacy a prop to the throne. At the Hampton Court
conference of 1604 James VI. expressed this opin
ion with much vigour. With respect to the demand
of the Puritans for periodical meetings, "his maj
esty was somewhat stirred, and thinking that they
aimed at a Scottish Presbytery, 'which,' saith he,
'as well agreeth with monarchy as God and the
Devil: then Jack and Tom, Will and Dick shall
meet and at their pleasure censure both me and
my council. I remember how they used the poor
lady my mother, and me in my minority.' Then
turning to the Bishops, and touching his hat, he
added: 'My Lords, I may thank you that these

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 165
puritans plead for my supremacy, for once you
are out and they in place, I know what would be
come of my supremacy : for no Bishop, no king.' "
During the period between 1560 and 1689
there were no fewer than six changes of Church
government in Scotland. The superintendent sys
tem was merged in 1572 into the titular Episco
pate, which lasted for twenty years. Then came
the first establishment of Presbyterianism which
after a troubled dominance of eighteen years gave
place to the first valid Episcopate of 1610. The
uprising which brought about the downfall of
Charles I. brought in Presbyterianism for the sec
ond time in 1638, but under Cromwell the prerog
atives of the Kirk were greatly curtailed, especially
after 1653 when the General Assembly was dis
banded by Colonel Cotterel at the head of a mili
tary force. The restoration of Charles II. was fol
lowed by the establishment of the second Episco
pacy of 1661, the brightest ornament of which
was the prelate whose character and career will
form the subject of this chapter.
Amidst the goodly company of holy men whose
lives have adorned Scottish Christianity Robert
Leighton stands as one of the brightest and the
best. Divines of different creeds have united in
paying tribute to his excellence. In his writings
men of diverse characters have found a peculiar
inspiration. His pure and lofty piety, and his
complete unworldliness have deeply impressed

166 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
successive generations. His broad-minded mod
eration and his devoted labours in the cause of
religious concord and charity have impelled both
Presbyterians and Episcopalians to claim him as
their own. A mystic by temperament, it was his
lot to live in the thick of the worst troubles of
Scottish ecclesiastical history, and that not as a
recluse, but as an active participator in the events
of his time. "Leighton," wrote his friend, Dr.
Fall, "was the delight and wonder of all that knew
him."3 "I bless the hour," said Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, "that introduced me to the knowledge of
the evangelical, apostolical Archbishop Leigh
ton."4 To Lord Morley "Leighton was one of
the few wholly attractive characters of those bitter
flavoured times," 5 and the late Cardinal Manning
is credited with this striking testimony: "One of
the most remarkable discoveries of modern science
is the fact that hurricanes revolve around a centre
of perfect calm. Outside the charmed circle the
tempest may rage furiously — within it, all is
peace. A similar phenomenon can be found in
the moral and spiritual world. In seasons of
civil war or theological strife, when 'envy, hatred,
and all uncharitableness' abound, we may find
some tranquil spirits who, undisturbed by the tu
mult around, seem perpetually to hear their master

8 Prefatory Epistle to his Works.
4 Notes on English Divines, Vol. II, p. 120.
' Oliver Cromwell, p. 95.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 167
whispering to them words of peace. Such a man
was Robert Leighton.""
When Leighton was born in 1611 Episcopacy
had just been restored to Scotland by the consecra
tion of three titular Bishops, Spottiswoode, Lamb,
and Hamilton, at the hands of the Bishops of
London, Ely, Rochester, and Worcester. Nothing,
however, was more unlikely than that this infant
would in his turn be consecrated under similar con
ditions sixty years later, for his father, Alexander
Leighton, was a Presbyterian of the narrowest and
bitterest type, and a foe to the whole race of
Bishops. When the time came to send Robert to
the University of Edinburgh, his father entreated
the gentleman to whose care the lad was entrusted,
Sir James Stewart of Goodtrees, "to train him up
in the true Presbyterian form, and Robert was
strictly enjoined with his father's blessing to be
steady in that way." 7
Alexander Leighton belonged to an old family
which had possessed for centuries the estate of
Usan, near Montrose. Among his ancestors is said
to have been Henry de Lichtoun, Bishop succes
sively of Moray and of Aberdeen in the early half
of the fifteenth century. It is not certain whether
his home was in Scotland or in England at the time

6 Butler's Life and Letters of Robert Leighton, p. 538.
See the whole of Chapter XV, "Tributes to Leighton's
Spiritual Genius."
7 Dr. Sprott, in Diet. Nat. Biog., XXXIII, p. 4.

168 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
of Robert's birth, but he was in London before
1617, at which date he went to Leyden to study
medicine. After his return to England he seems
to have been more prominent as a disseminator of
Puritan principles than as a medical practitioner,
and the publication of his violent book, An Appeal
to Parliament, or Zion's plea Against prelacy,
brought him into conflict with the authorities. In
1630 he was brought before the Star Chamber, and
condemned to a cruel punishment. After being
pilloried and whipped at Westminster, one of his
ears was cut off and his nose slit, and he was
branded in the face with S. S. for a sower of
sedition. Besides these inhumane sufferings he
had to endure an imprisonment of ten years, and a
fine of £10,000 was imposed upon him. In 1640
the Long Parliament cancelled the fine, and voted
£6,000 to him in compensation for his sufferings
and losses.
From all this it will be apparent that young
Leighton had no liking for Episcopacy as estab
lished in Scotland, during his career as a student
of Edinburgh University between the years 1627
and 1630. Bred up, as his friend and admirer
Gilbert Burnet says,8 with the greatest aversion
imaginable to the whole frame of the church of
England, the dangers to which his father was ex
posed were a cause of keen anxiety to him. "God
8 History of my own time, I, 240. (Osmund Airy's
edition.)

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 169
frustrate the purpose of wicked men," he wrote to
his stepmother in 1629, with reference to his fath
er's action in sending copies of Zion's plea Against
prelacy to Edinburgh. The books "are like to bring
those that medled with them in some danger, but
I hope God shall appease the matter and limite the
power of wicked men, who, if they could do accord
ing to their desire against God's children, would
make havoc of them in a sudden." * His animos
ity against Laud was only natural, and must have
been increased tenfold when he learned of the
punishment which was meted out to his father.
The few letters of Leighton's student days that
have come down to us reveal a strong spirit of per
sonal piety. "Exhort my brother," he writes in
that which has just been quoted, "walke with God,
and pray for me that the same thing may be my
case," and similar expressions occur in the others.10
Burnet, who was a much younger man than his
hero, writes of this period in the light of later
developments of Leighton's character, but his ac
count is well worth recording.11 After telling how
his father, "a man of violent and ungoverned heat,"
sent Robert to be bred in Scotland, he goes on to
say that he "was accounted a saint from his youth
up. He had great quickness of parts, a lively ap
prehension, with a charming vivacity of thought

9 Notes and Queries : 3rd series, Vol. I, p. 107.
"Butler, pp. 55, 60, 61.
" History of my own time, I, 239.

170 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
and expression. He had the greatest command of
the purest Latin that ever I knew in any man. He
was a master both in Greek and Hebrew, and in
the whole compass of learning, chiefly in the study
of the Scriptures. But that which excelled all the
rest, he came to be possessed of the highest and
noblest sense of divine things that I ever saw in
any man. He had no regard to his person, un
less it was to mortify it by a constant low diet, that
was like a perpetual fast. He had a contempt
both of wealth and reputation. He seemed to
have the lowest thoughts of himself possible, and
to desire that all other persons should think as
meanly of him as he himself did. He bore all
sort of ill usage, and reproach like a man that took
pleasure in it."
The piece of fine portraiture which follows
refers still more clearly to Leighton's char
acter in later life, but it will be convenient
to set it down here.12 "He had so subdued
the natural heat of his temper, that in a great
variety of accidents, and in a course of twenty-two
years' intimate conversation with him, I never ob
served the least sign of passion, but upon one single
occasion. He brought himself into so composed a
gravity that I never saw him laugh, and but seldom
smile. And he kept himself in such a constant
recollection, that I do not remember that ever I
12 1, 240.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 171
heard him say one idle word. There was a visible
tendency in all he said to raise his own mind, and
those he conversed with, to serious reflections. He
seemed to be in perpetual meditation. And, though
the whole course of his life was strict and ascetical,
yet he had nothing of the sourness of temper that
generally possesses men of that sort. He was the
freest of superstition, of censuring others, or of
imposing his own methods on them, possible; so
that he did not so much as recommend them to
others. He said there was a diversity of tempers,
and every man was to watch over his own, and to
turn it in the best manner that he could. When
he spoke of divine matters, which he did almost
perpetually, it was in such an elevating manner,
that I have often reflected on these words, and felt
somewhat like them within myself while I was
with him, Did not our hearts burn within us while
he talked with us by the way? His thoughts were
lively, oft out of the way and surprising, yet just
and genuine. And he had laid together in his
memory the greatest treasure of the best and wis
est of all the ancient sayings of the heathens as
well as Christians, that I have ever known any
man master of, and he used them in the aptest
manner possible."
One amusing incident in Leighton's student
days shows how even in such a nature as his was,
the natural man is apt to crop up unexpectedly.
In the course of a difference of opinion which arose

172 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
during his first session, between the undergradu
ates and one of the university authorities, he wrote
a clever epigram on the red nose of the Provost
of Edinburgh, which resulted in his temporary ex
pulsion from the university. The chief magis
trate, Aikenhead by name, being by virtue of his
office "Rector or Chancellor of the university," 13
had interfered with the liberties of the students in
such a way as to excite their indignation, with the
above mentioned direful result. Leighton tells the
story in a letter to his father." "There was a fight
between our Classe and the Semies, which made
the Provost to restraine us from the play a good
while; the boyes upon that made some verses, one
or two in every classe, mocking the Provost's red
nose. I, sitting beside my Lord Borundell and the
Earl of Ha (dington's) son, speaking about these
verses which the boyes had made, spoke a thing
in prose concerning his nose . . . and presently,
upon their request, turned it into a verse thus:
"That which his name importes is falsely said.
That of the oaken wood his head is made,
For why, if it had bein composed so,
His flaming nose had fir'd it long ago." 1B

13 Coltness Collections, p. 21.
"May 20, 1629. Addressed to Mr. Alexander Leigh
ton, Dr. of Physike, at his house on the top of Pudle Hill,
near Blackfriars gate, over against the King's wardrobe.
15 Butler, p. 55.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 173
This was followed by an apology whose de
licious impudence must have inflamed the magis
terial wrath still more. Beginning in a spirit of
mock humility he urges his Lordship to remember
his own greatness and "despise
Your scorners. For why ? Eagles catch no flyes.
Fooles attribute to you a fyrie nose,
But fyre consumeth paper, I suppose;
Therefore your Lordship would seem voyd of fyre,
If that a paper doe dispell your eyre;
And if that this remeid doe stand in steide,
Then shall the laurell crown your Aiken heid;
Now, since it's thus, your Lordship if it please,
Accept ane triple cure for ane disease." "
Doubtless, as Leighton writes to his father, the
teaching staff and the Principal of the University
were by no means scandalised at his clever ebulli
tion of boyish fun, but discipline had to be main
tained, and the offender was "solemnly extruded."
The period of his expulsion, however, was not of
long duration. Sir James Stewart, his guardian,
had been absent from Edinburgh while these
events were happening, but on his return he inter
ceded for the culprit, and Leighton was "reponed."
It has been claimed17 that Leighton's wit was
occasionally directed, not only at the unfortunate
Provost's nose, but also against the Scottish Bish-

10 Printed in Laing's Fugitive Scottish Poetry of the
Seventeenth Century, 2nd series.
"Butler, p. 57.

174 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
ops, in some of the satirical effusions of the time
which have been preserved.18 While there is no rea
son to question either the youth's ability, or his pos
session of the requisite sentiments, the evidence
for this supposition is of the flimsiest description,
and it seems unlikely that he would have forgotten
so easily the lesson which his escapade had taught
him. The clumsy ill-nature, too, which pervades
many of these verses, seems far removed from the
delicate fun which prompted the academic satire.
One thing, however, is clear. Leighton's keen
8ense of humour, however chastened and kept in
check, remained in later life. His piety was not
of that depressing order which quenches all delight
in an innocent joke. If Burnet "never saw him
laugh, and but seldom smile," there must have
been others who were more fortunate. When he
was Presbyterian minister at Newbattle, it is said
that his brethren in the Synod reprimanded him
for not "preaching up the times," according to
the prevailing custom. Leighton, who cordially
disliked the political harangues which had so
largely displaced the preaching of the Gospel in
the Kirk, replied, "Then if all of you preach up the
times, you may surely allow one poor brother to
preach up Christ and Eternity." " On another
occasion, being asked what he thought was the
1BLaing's Fugitive Scottish Poetry, 2nd series, Preface,
p. vi. "Butler, p. 147.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 175
mark of the beast, he answered, "If I might fancy
what it were, it would be something with a pair
of horns that pusheth his neighbour, and hath been
so much seen and practised in Church and State." "
Of a work entitled "Naked truth whipt and
stript," he remarked, "It might have been better
to clothe it," and it is said that "his frequent
prayer was, 'Deliver me, O Lord, from the errors
of wise men : yea and of good men.' "21
Of the following story one may at least hope
that it is true. When he was Bishop of Dunblane,
a young woman, the widow of a minister in the dio
cese, to whom he had been exceedingly kind, took
it into her head that the Bishop was deeply in love
with her. Finding he was long of breaking his
mind, she went to him in the Haining, a lonely
walk by the water-side, where he used to meditate.
Upon his asking her commands, "Oh, my Lord,"
said she, "I had a revelation last night." "Indeed !"
answered he: "I hardly imagined you would ever
have been so highly honoured: What is it?"
"That your lordship and I were to be married to
gether." "Have a little patience," replied the
Bishop, much abashed, "till I have a revelation
too." 2S Wodrow relates an incident the accuracy
of which is perhaps not beyond suspicion, but it
may be set down here as a final illustration of
20 p. 518. "p. 520.
22 Related by Ramsay Ochtereyre. See Scotland and
Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century, II, 90.

176 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
Leighton's sense of pure fun. "Sir James Stew
art, Provost of Edinburgh told Mr. Muire that
being very bigg with Bishop Leighton, he said
'Sir, I hear that your grandfather was a Papist,
your father a Presbyterian and suffered much for
it in England, and you a Bishop ! What a mix
ture is this.' (Says Leighton) 'It is true, sir, and
my grandfather was the honestest man of the
three. "2S
Leighton took his degree at Edinburgh on
July 23, 1631,21 and for his movements during
the next ten years our information is of the scant
iest. Burnet says: "From Scotland his father
sent him to travel. He spent some years in
France, and spoke that language like one born
there." 2" Wodrow also mentions that he had "re
lations at Douay, in Popish orders,"20 with whom
it is possible that he may have lived. On this
slender foundation a recent biographer27 has man
aged to compile a chapter of over forty pages deal
ing with Leighton's residence abroad, but the rea
sonable inferences from these two statements may
be put into shorter compass. It is likely that his
imprisoned father would have wished him to study
at some seat of Protestant learning; it is pretty
certain that he was greatly interested in and im-

^Analecta, Vol. I, p. 26.
24 Butler, p. 62. 1661 is an evident misprint.
25 1, 240. ™Analecta, III, 452.
27 Butler, Life and Letters of Robert Leighton. 1903.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 177
pressed by the Jansenist movement28 in the Roman
Church, then at its height; and it is clear
that his life in a Roman Catholic country, espe
cially if spent with relations "in Popish orders,"
must have greatly widened his mental outlook and
tended to soften his religious prejudices. It may
well be that it was during these years that he
learnt to love Thomas a. Kempis, whose Imitation
he regarded "as one of the best books that ever
was writ, next to the inspired writers." 20 In after
years, when he was Principal of Edinburgh Uni
versity, he felt the attraction of the Jansenist
movement, and spent some of his vacations study
ing it on the spot. "Sometimes," says Burnet, "he
went over to Flanders, to see what he could find in
the several orders of the church of Rome. There
he found some of Jansenius's followers, who
seemed to be men of extraordinary tempers, and
who studied to bring things, if possible, to the
purity and simplicity of the primitive ages; on
which all his thoughts were much set. He thought
controversies had been too much insisted on, and
had been carried too far." 30
We may, in the absence of contrary evidence,
assume that Leighton was abroad during the
troubled times that heralded the overthrow of
Scottish Episcopacy in 1638. This consumma-
28Ypres, the see city of Bishop Jansen in 1636-8, was
not far from Douai.
20 Wodrow, Analecta, III, 452. 30 History, I, 244.

178 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
tion was brought about largely through the mis
guided policy of the Stuart kings, James I. and his
unfortunate son Charles I. Had they not so per
sistently and in such an autocratic manner inter
fered with the religious affairs of Scotland, we
may well believe that those who were opposed to
prelacy might have come to see the good side of
Episcopal government. For it was, says the Pres
byterian Professor, James Cooper,"1 "a system
which combined on the Ignatian model, presby
ter ial franchises and synodical rights with Episco
pal oversight — the system under which alone, it
has been said, presbyteries performed their ex
ecutive duties — the system which really gave us
our parish schools — the system which certainly
produced the brightest galaxy of theologians that
ever adorned our northern sky." To which it may
be added that it was the system under which the
financial position of established ministers since
that time was greatly improved. Both kings did
much in this respect. James laboured to increase
the ministers' stipends, and purchased back, out
of his own pocket, parts of the alienated church
lands for the support of the Bishops, while it was
Charles who secured for the ministers the teinds
or tithes which the present establishment still en
joys. And it was the latter monarch's quixotic
Revocation Act of 1625, by which he attempted to

81 Introduction to the Scottish Liturgy of 1637, p. xi.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 179
make the nobles restore the lands that had been ac
quired from the Church, which made that order
ready once more to take the lead in a struggle
which ended in political and religious revolution.
But it is impossible to find excuse for the blind
arrogance of both rulers. James flouted the in
dependence of his subjects, bullied his Bishops,
and suppressed by force those who would not bend
to his will. The Five Articles of Perth,82 reason
able as they were in themselves, were passed in
1618 by methods which will not bear inspection.
It was left however to Charles to drive the country
into exasperation by his arbitrary methods. His
visit to Scotland in 1633 involved him in great
unpopularity, and his elevation of Archbishop
Spottiswoode two years later to the Chancellorship
of Scotland was received with great disfavour.
Then came a series of arbitrary acts which brought
matters to a crisis. In 1636 a book of Canons and
an ordinal were imposed upon the Kirk by royal
authority, without any consultation with the Gen
eral Assembly, and in the next year the Scottish
Prayer Book followed. Riots ""took place in many

82 They prescribed ( 1 ) Kneeling at reception of Holy
Communion; (2) Private Communion to the Sick; (3)
Private baptism in cases of necessity; (4) Observance of
the holy days commemorating Our Lord's Birth, Death,
Resurrection, and Ascension, and the Advent of the Holy
Ghost, (5) Confirmation of children.
38 These seem to have been organized affairs. The spon
taneous outbreak of Jenny Geddes is not historical.

180 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
churches when it was used, and the country was
soon in open revolt.
The Prayer Book it is true was not Laud's, in
spite of the title which has clung to it,34 nor was it
"popish," as the enemies of Episcopacy so dili
gently represented. Still less was it an attempt
to introduce a liturgical form of worship as
something new, for since the reformation Scotland
had not been without a Prayer Book.35 Its real
offence was the method of its publication by royal
authority at the market crosses of Scotland, in
stead of by the authorised courts of the Church.
Yet it was the spark that fired the train. Popery,
it was wildly declared, was at the doors. The
nobles, to whom the Revocation Act was a more real
bogey than the Prayer Book, organised and fo
mented the forces of rebellion. Four strong com
mittees of nobles, gentry, ministers, and burgesses,
called The Tables, were formed to consolidate
the popular outbreak. In 1638 the national cove
nant was drawn up and signed at the Greyfriars'
84 "Laud's Liturgy" was compiled by two Scottish
Bishops, Maxwell of Ross and Wedderburn of Dunblane.
Laud certainly made preliminary suggestions, and revised
the work when finished, but both he and Charles would
have preferred the adoption of the English Book of Com
mon Prayer.
85 The English Prayer Book of 1552 was used by the
reformers, until Knox's Book of Common Order displaced
it. The Assemblies of 1601 and 1616 had tried to revise
Knox's book, and in 1634 another Scottish liturgy had been
drafted, but suppressed.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 181
Church of Edinburgh and throughout the country,
and the same year a packed General Assembly30
condemned and deposed the Bishops, and repudi
ated Episcopacy and all that had come in its train.
That Leighton heartily sympathised with these
changes he soon shewed in the clearest possible way,
by becoming a minister under the new regime. He
was ordained as minister of Newbattle by the
Presbytery of Dalkeith, on December 16th, 1641.
Newbattle is an ancient parish in the vicinity of
Edinburgh, where in bygone days a Cistercian
abbey flourished. In Leighton's time the con
gregation numbered about 900 communicants,37
and he found his charge a heavy one. The church
in which he ministered no longer exists, but the
old oak pulpit in which he preached is preserved
in the present building, and although the "town"
of Newbattle itself has now dwindled into a mere
hamlet, "the old path, the old bridge, the old mill,
and the old manse . . . remain very much as
they were in Leighton's time." 38
In some of the new minister's sermons,
preached shortly after his entry into the parish,
there are phrases which shew his enthusiasm for
the new order of things. "The pure light of the
Church is now revived," he says,39 "and the glory

" Episcopacy was introduced by a similar Assembly in
1610. 37 Butler, p. 231. 38p. 143.
30 Leighton's Works, West's Edition, II, 26.

182 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
of the Lord is risen upon you." He points out
how "the Lord brings notable judgments upon the
proud workers of iniquity, and at the same time
confers special mercies on His own people,"40 and
reminds his hearers that "when His appointed
time comes, to make a day of deliverance dawn
upon His Church, after their long night either of
affliction or of defection, or both; they who con
trive against that day-spring are as vain as if they
should sit down to plot how to hinder the sun from
rising in the morning." 41 Yet Leighton was not
an adept at "preaching up the times." His refer
ences to current affairs are few, and couched in
the mildest terms. He speaks strongly now and
then, indeed, against the errors of Rome, but his
main concern is with the spiritual needs of his
hearers. "Were there more repentance and per
sonal reformation amongst us," he declares, "we
might take it as a hopeful forerunner of that pub
lic reformation which so many seem now to de
sire." " He is more concerned with the sins than
with the political opinions of the covenanters.
"What vile uncleanness and wantonness, what
shameful drunkenness and excess prevail! And
some are so far from mourning for others' guilti
ness of this sin, that they glory in making others
guilty of it, and count it a pastime to make others
drunk." 48 The "histrionic weeping" of his hear-
40 p. 2. «'p. 4. 42p. 6. 48p. 83.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 183
ers in Church seems to have grated upon his nerves,
for he contrasts it with that godly sorrow which is
"always serious and sincere."
It soon became apparent that, in rejecting Epis
copacy, Scotland had only exchanged one tyranny
for another, and that, in Milton's phrase, new
presbyter was but old priest writ large. For thir
teen years the Presbyterian leaders busied them
selves in grinding the country into compliance
with their principles. The Marquis of Montrose
was sent with an army to subdue uncovenanted Ab
erdeen, whose famous "doctors" held out against
the new system. Ministers opposed to the cove
nant were deprived, private conventicles, it is in
teresting to remember, were forbidden, and all the
people were compelled to sign the covenant, or to
suffer pains and penalties. Those who were sus
pected of Royalist leanings were treated with spe
cial harshness, as "malignants." But the height of
intolerance was reached in 1643, when the Solemn
League and Covenant was framed with an aim
far more ambitious than the mere defense of Prot
estant liberties in Scotland, which had been the
theme of the National Covenant of 1638. It was
now intended to bring England and Ireland into
line with Scotland, by the extirpation of Popery,
Prelacy, Superstition, Heresy, Schism, and Pro-
faneness, and the establishment of Presbyterianism
in their stead. While this fond dream was never
realised, it reveals an arrogance, and a disregard of

184 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
other men's consciences, which equals those of the
unwisest of the Stuarts. Its political results were
great and far-reaching at the time, but its per
manent effects upon the religious life of Scotland
were far different from what was desired. It
alienated the minds of moderate men from Pres
byterianism, and introduced into it the Puritanic
leaven from England and that Sabbatarianism
which has come to be regarded as an indigenous
feature of Scotland. It also brought about the
substitution of the Westminster Confession of
Faith, the Westminster Directory of Public wor
ship, and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms,"
for the older formularies of the Scottish Kirk.
To one of Leighton's tolerant and peace-loving
disposition the ecclesiastical atmosphere of these
times must have been increasingly trying. Yet
he remained, formally at least, loyal to the Pres
byterian system until the end of his ministry at
Newbattle. He attended the Presbytery meetings
with conscientious regularity, and took his share
in its work.45 "He preached often before the Pres
bytery of Dalkeith, occasionally before the Synod
of Lothian and the Scottish Parliament." He
was a member of the Commission of Assembly in
1642 which nominated the Commissioners for the
Westminster Assembly.40 However he may have

"All drawn up at the Westminster Assembly of 1643-
1648. "Butler, p. 179. 40p. 181.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 185
disliked the Solemn League and Covenant, he
signed it in 1643,47 administered it as late as 1650.
His father was staying with him that year at New-
battle,48and it may be that his influence steadied the
wavering allegiance of his son. Burnet's account
of the matter is, therefore, inaccurate in some de
tails, but it probably indicates the truth in general.
"He soon came to see into the follies of the Pres
byterians, and to hate their covenant, particularly
the imposing it, and their fury against all who
differed from them. He found they were not
capable of large thoughts; theirs were narrow, as
their tempers were sour. So he grew weary of
mixing with them: he scarce ever went to their
meetings, minding only the care of his own parish
at Newbattle near Edinburgh. Yet all the opposi
tion he made to them was that he preached up a
more universal charity, and a silenter but sublimer
way of devotion, and a more exact rule of life than
seemed to them consistent with human nature : but
his own practice did even outshine his doctrine." "
It was the "engagement" made in 1647 be
tween Charles I. and the Scottish Commissioners
which brought out, in a mild way, Leighton's want
of sympathy with the extreme Presbyterians. The
king, now at Carisbrooke Castle, had promised to
confirm the Solemn League and Covenant, and to
establish Presbyterian government in England for

'p. 183. 48p, 195, n. 1. "History, I, p. 241.

186 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
three years, on condition that the Scots should send
an army into England to his support. Thereupon
the Kirk became divided into two parties, the en
gagers and the remonstrants, according as they ap
proved of or condemned this compact. In 1648 a
declaration against the engagement was ordered by
the Presbytery to be read in every Church within
its borders, but Leighton caused his precentor to
perform this duty at Newbattle, because, it was
said, of "the lownesse of his owne voice which
could not be heard throw the whole Kirk."50 For
this offence, and for absence without leave in Eng
land, he was "gravlie admonished by the Presby
tery." Burnet's version of the affair is as follows :
"In the year 1648 he declared himself for the en
gagement for the king. But the earl of Lothian,
who lived in his parish, had so high an esteem for
him that he persuaded the violent men not to
meddle with him." 51 He goes on to say that when
some of his parishioners who had been in the ex
pedition following upon the engagement, which
ended in the defeat of Preston, were ordered to
profess their repentance in public, he urged them
to repent of the injustice and violence, the drunk
enness and other immoralities of which he believed
they had been guilty, without entering into the pros
and cons of the engagement at all.52 Two months
later he was again admonished by his Presbytery,

' Butler, p. 228 and 229 01 Burnet, I, 242. 62 1, p. 242.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 187
this time for declining to act as a commissioner to
the General Assembly,53 and in both cases he prom
ised "by the grace of God to amend."
The death of Charles I. in 1649 was followed
by the accession of his son to the throne of Scotland
the following year. The feud between Engagers
and Protesters was now merged into a new struggle
between the Resolutioners, who approved of the
resolutions of Parliament and Kirk against the Act
of Classes, whereby in 1649 "malignants" had been
debarred from any position of trust or office, and
the Remonstrants who raised their voices against
this defection to ways of toleration. The Resolu
tioners were the body who inherited the moderate
traditions of the Reformation, and who made the
re-introduction of Episcopacy possible in 1660.
As that time drew near, James Sharp appeared as
one of the most able men of this party of moder
ation, and although Leighton was no partisan, he
must now be classed amongst them too.
As late as 1651, however, Leighton was chosen
unanimously by the Synod of Lothian to proceed to
London to negotiate for the "freedom and enlarge
ment" of their brethren who had been carried to
England as Cromwell's prisoners.54 This mark of
confidence was doubtless partly due to the fact that
Leighton had been in years past a frequent visitor
to England.5" On his return towards the end of

88 Butler, p. 231. "Butler, p. 236. Hp. 232.

188 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
1652 he had definitely decided to resign his parish,
apparently with the intention of retiring to Eng
land.60 In December he twice demitted his charge,
but the Presbytery refused to accept the resigna
tion. The following year, however, a third applica
tion was more successful. Intimation was made
that he had received a call to become Principal of
Edinburgh University, and although he had not
yet decided to accept the post, he was loosed from
his ministry, because of his insufficient strength
for so large a congregation, and especially because
of his weak voice which could not reach half of
them when convened.57
The records of his kirk session and of the pres
bytery shew that Leighton was exceedingly strict
in matters of morality,58if not in the strait tenets of
Presbyterianism. Once he appears in the curious
case of a man who had condemned "set prayers,
and the use of the Lord's Prayer," but who now
expressed his sorrow for that error.50 Leighton
and another minister were appointed to confer with
the penitent, in accordance with his desire to be
"cleared from Scripture" on the matter. And this
was only thirteen years later than the glorious day
of the mythical Jenny Geddes !
It was during the Newbattle ministry that the
bulk of Leighton's sermons, and his famous com-

1 p. 219. Letter by the Earl of Lothian.
pp. 239, 240. M pp. 225, 226, 243. M p. 234.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 189
mentary on I. Peter were composed.00 It is impos
sible here to exemplify the beauty of utterance and
the exalted spiritual tone of these writings. Their
appeal has gone home to men of all characters, cir
cumstances, and opinions. Let the noble tribute
of Professor Flint exemplify this fact. "As far
as I can judge, a purer, humbler, holier spirit than
that of Robert Leighton never tabernacled in Scot
tish clay. He was 'like a star which dwelt apart'
while the storm raged below : or like a fair flower
of Paradise dropped amidst the thorn and thistle
on some bleak mountain-side. His character was
of an almost ideal excellence, and so divinely beau
tiful, that men, while attracted by it, were also
awed by it, as beyond what imitation could hope to
reach in the earthly state of being. His works,
owing to the marvellous fulness and perfection of
the spiritual life which pervades them, are worth
many times over all the writings of all his Scottish
contemporaries. There is nothing nearly equal to
them in our devotional literature from its rise until
now. Burnet, who at a later date had many oppor
tunities of hearing Leighton preach, thus describes
his pulpit oratory : "His preaching had a sublimity
both of thought and expression in it; and above
all, the grace and gravity of his pronunciation was

60 West, Vol. VII, of Leighton's Works, pp. 352-4.
61 St. Giles' Lectures, 1st series, p. 204.

190 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
such that few heard him without a very sensible
emotion. I am sure I never did.02 It was so dif
ferent from all others, and indeed from everything
that one could hope to rise up to, that it gave a man
an indignation at himself" and all others. It was
a very sensible humiliation to me, and for some
time after I heard him, I could not bear the
thought of my own performances, and was out of
countenance when I was forced to think of
preaching. His style was rather too fine; but
there was a majesty and a beauty in it that left
so deep an impression, that I cannot yet forget the
sermons I heard him preach thirty years ago.
And yet with all this he seemed to look upon him
self as so ordinary a preacher, that while he had a
cure he was ready to employ all others ; and when
he was a Bishop he chose to preach to small audi
tories, and would never give notice beforehand.
He had indeed a very low voice, and so could not
be heard by a great crowd." "a
Leighton's appointment to the Principalship
was made on 17th of January 1653 at a meeting
of the Town Council and the ministers of Edin
burgh. The latter did not vote at the election,

02 Cf., the Earl of Lothian's "never did I gette soe
much good by any that stoode in a pulpit." Butler, p. 220.
83 History, I, 241. Leighton's contemporaries did not
all approve of his "haranguing way of preaching without
heads," which was a novelty in Scottish pulpits. Butler,
p. 160, n. 2.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 191
"because they were not clear in the manner of the
call," although they were "well content with the
man." This circumstance points to some in
terference on the part of the English authorities,
in favour of Leighton,65 who must have been
known to the Parliamentarians on his father's ac
count if not on his own. The battle of Worcester
in 1651 had left Scotland at Cromwell's mercy,
and his policy of toleration for Independents, of
political union between the two countries, and of
improvement in the administration of justice, al
tered the whole situation both in Kirk and State.
Under these new conditions, and in a somewhat
more congenial environment, Leighton's lot was a
happier one than it had been at Newbattle. He
had been prevailed on, says Burnet, to accept the
Principalship "because in it he was wholly sep
arated from all church matters. He continued
ten years in that post, and was a great blessing in
it : for he talked so to all the youth of any capacity
or distinction that it had a great effect on many of
them. He preached often to them, and if crowds
broke in, which they were apt to do, he would
have gone on in his sermon in Latin, with a
purity and life that charmed all who understood
it." °° As Principal he did not teach theology
proper, but a number of his lectures on the practi-

4 Butler, p. 293-4. °8 See on p. 247, n. 1.
'History, I, 242.

192 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
cal aspects of religion remain, which he is said to
have delivered on Wednesdays, while he preached
to the students on Sundays.67 One of his hearers
tells how amidst the religious disputes and fac
tions which prevailed in the University, the Prin
cipal's voice was still raised on the side of peace.
"The impressions I retained from Mr. Leighton
his discourses desposed me to affect charity for
all good men of any persuasion, and I preferred a
quiet lyfe, wherein I might not be ingaged in
factions of Church or State." 88
In his farewell address to the students Leigh
ton claims that the one aim of these lectures had
been that "the form of sound words — that is of
Christian doctrine — and consequently the fear and
love of God might not only be impressed, but also
graven upon your hearts in lasting and indelible
characters, and that you might not only admit
as a truth, but also hold in the highest regard this
indisputable maxim 'That piety is the one and
only real good among men.' " He goes on to say
that he had endeavoured, with all the earnestness
in his power, to recall them "from those unprofit
able questions and disputes that, like thorns and
briars, have overrun the whole of theology; and
this at a time when most of our divines and pro
fessors, and those of no small reputation, engaging

07 Butler, pp. 250-1. 8S Sibbald's Autobiography, p. 15.

BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN 193
furiously in such controversies, have split into
parties, and unhappily divided the whole land."6'
In his vacations he often paid visits to Lon
don, where he met the prominent men in Crom
well's court, and in the several parties then about
the city of London. But "he never could see any
thing among them that pleased him: they were
men of unquiet and meddling tempers: and their
discourses and sermons were dry and unsavoury,
full of airy cant, or of bombast swellings." 7"
Sometimes too he paid one of those visits to the
Jansenists in Flanders which have been already
mentioned.71 Whether or not Leighton's remarkable treatise
entitled Counsels of Perfection, or rules and in
structions for spiritual exercises was composed dur
ing the Prinicipalship, it may here receive the in
adequate notice which alone is possible. A work of
mystical devotion which strikingly recalls the Imi
tation, and yet "appears to be as original as any
work of the kind can well be,"72 it stands almost
alone as a product of our native theology. Its sum
is according to its author —
"1. Remember always the Presence of God.
2. Rejoice always in the Will of God.
3. Direct all to the Glory of God,"78

" Works, VI, 295. West's edition.
70 Burnet, I, p. 244. 71 Above, page 177.
72 Works, VI, p. 304. 7S p. 331.

194 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
and its aim to teach how man's soul may be "knit
to God" in a union "more fast and joined nearer
to Him than to thine own body."74 "If thou aspire
to attain the perfect knitting or union with God,
know that it requireth a perfect exspoliation, and
denudation, or bare nakedness, and utter for
saking of all sin, yea of all creatures, and of
thyself particularly; even that thy mind and un
derstanding, thy affections and desires, thy mem
ory and fancy, be made bare of all things in the
world, and all sensual pleasures in them, so as
thou wouldst be content that the bread which
thou eatest had no more savour than a stone, and
yet, for his honour and glory who created bread,
thou art pleased that it savoureth well; but yet,
from the delectation thou findest in it turn thy
heart to the praises and love of Him who made
it."75 The Principal's care for the moral well-being
of his students appears in a representation to the
Town Council anent "some suspect houses keipit
near the colledge," and his zeal for educational
efficiency in a proposal to the same body that gram
mar schools should be erected in every presbytery,
and a book of "Rudiments" in English and Latin
be provided for use.70 According to Wodrow he
tried to persuade Dickson, the professor of theol
ogy, to teach, or at least recommend, his "dear

'p. 327. 75p. 324. 76 Butler, p. 296.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 195
a, Kempis" 7T to the students ; but his colleague re
fused on account of its Popish doctrines, and be
cause "neither Christ's satisfaction, nor the doc
trine of grace, but self and merite ran throu it." v
Certainly Leighton himself took occasion to recom
mend it in his farewell address already alluded
X 7»
to. The death of Cromwell in 1658 was soon fol
lowed by the Restoration of Charles II. and the
re-establishment of Episcopacy both in England
and in Scotland. For Leighton this meant the end
of his career as a Presbyterian and a Principal.
He had gone south in consequence of bad health,
and also to look after the interests of the Univer
sity *° amidst the changes which were impending.
On August 20th, 1661, he wrote a letter which
shows that he was seriously contemplating resigna
tion of his office owing to his "crazy and unhealth-
ful" state, and his expectation that he had not
much longer to live. Any prospect or project of
advancement for himself was far from his mind.81
But his brother, Sir Elisha Leighton, who was now
attached to the court of Charles, pressed his name
upon the attention of Lord Aubigny, who in turn
made the king aware of the Principal's rare piety

77 p. 262. ™Analecta, III, 452. '"Works, VI, 298.
80 In 1657 he had been in London securing a grant for
the University of £200 a year from Cromwell. Butler, p.
252. "Letter to the Provost of Edinburgh. Butler, p. 291.

196 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
and "notions."'5 Charles accordingly nominated
Leighton for one of the Scottish Bishoprics, hop
ing, according to Burnet's extreme view, that '"such
a monastic man, who had a great stretch of thought,
and so many other eminent qualities, would be a
mean, at least to prepare the nation for popery, if
not directly to come over to them,"
Leighton was most unwilling to accept this pro
motion, for which he had, to quote his own words,
"the greatest aversion that ever I had to anything
in aD. my life." ** But he had now for many years
been a silent dissentient to the zeal of his co-rehg-
ionisrs in Scotland,85 and he had hopes of helping to
bring about a happier sxaie of things under the
new system, by ""reconciling the devout on different
sides."" Most of aD, he could urge no valid reason
why he should not become a Bishop, and so was
'^forced to capitulate." stipulating only that he
should receive "the indulgence of the lowest sta
tion, and they say the lightest burden of aU the
kind, whereas I was for some days threatened with

53 Sir Tlisba Leighton was. according to Burnet, =a very
immoral man, both lewd, false, and ambraoiis/' as well a3
"a Papist of a form of his own."' History, J, 242.
"I, 244.
«* Letter to Rer. James Aird. Butler, p. 337-8.
** IbuL, "They have misreekoned themselves in taking
my silence and their zeals to have been consent and pait*-
eipation/ "p. 398.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 197
one of the heaviest."8 The unworldliness with
which he thus sought Dunblane, the smallest and
worst paid Scottish diocese, was prominent
throughout his life. When swindled, in spite of
a friend's warning, by an unscrupulous agent, of
the property which his father left him in 1649, his
mild comment was, "I confess it is the wiser way
to trust nobody: but there is so much fool in my
nature as carries me rather to the other extreme, to
trust everybody. . . . That little which was in Mr.
E.'s hands hath failed me: but I shall either have
no need of it or be supplied some other way."88
And, in Burnet's striking phrase, "his provision
and his journey failed him at once," when he died
in 1684. As a Bishop he had been content with
"what his tenants were pleased to pay him,"80 and
after his retirement to England he lived upon such
arrears as were paid to his agent, but the last pay
ment that he could expect had been sent him about
six weeks before his death.00
As Leighton and Sharp had received Presby
terian ordination, they were privately ordained to
the diaconate and the priesthood.91 This had not
87 Letter to Earl of Lothian. Butler, p. 335.
His stipend was £43-19-1, while Sharp's was £1544-6-1,
p. 355. 88 p. 213.
89 Cf., Butler, 397. "If you make it appear . . . rea
sonable that you give nothing, nothing bee it."
90 Burnet, I, 429.
"About Nov. 24, 1661. Butler, p. 306.

198 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
been done in 1610, and Sharp at first held out for
that precedent. Leighton, who certainly cannot
be claimed as an advanced Episcopalian, saw no
difficulty in what he regarded as a mere matter of
Church rule,02 and we have his own testimony that
when he and his brother Bishops returned to Scot
land no attempt was made to force re-ordination
on the Presbyterian ministers.03 The two others,
Fairf oul and Hamilton, had been ordained by Scot
tish Bishops, and all four were consecrated in
Westminster Abbey on December 15, 1661, by the
Bishops of London, Worcester, Carlisle and St.
Asaph.04 The Archbishop of Canterbury was ap
parently present as Commissioner, but did not
take part in the laying on of hands, in order to
preserve the independence of the Scottish Bishops.
Leighton was soon disappointed in his col
leagues. He felt that the "feasting and jollity of
that day" was hardly fitting for so solemn an occa
sion as "the new modelling of a church." And
when he propounded to his brother Bishops his
plans for union with the Presbyterians, for raising
men "to a truer and higher sense of piety, and for
the improvement of public worship with a view to a

ra Burnet, I, 248.
83 Butler, p. 428. They re-ordained ministers who wished
this to be done. Bishop Mitchell of Aberdeen alone in
sisted on re-ordination. Grub., Ill, 218.
91 So in Butler, p. 333. Grub gives Llandaff instead of
St. Asaph. Ill, 196.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 199
liturgical use," he was amazed to find that he was
speaking to deaf ears.08 On the return to Scotland
the four travelled in the same coach, but Leighton
was "very weary" of his companions, and, as he
thought, they of him. Finding on the way that
"they intended to be received in Edinburgh with
some pomp," he left them at Morpeth, and came
on before them, hating as he did "all the appear
ances of vanity." °°
The plan which the good Bishop had formed
for the union of Presbyterianism and Episcopacy
was founded upon the scheme which Archbishop
Usher propounded in the days before the Solemn
League and Covenant shattered for him all hope
of such an amalgamation. Leighton's scheme for a
modified Episcopacy, as he afterwards propounded
it, was in outline as follows: The Kirk should
be governed by the Bishops and Clergy in their
ecclesiastical courts, and in matters both of juris
diction and of ordination the Bishops should be
guided by the majority of their Presbyters. Min
isters who submitted to the Bishops should be re
quired to do so only in the interests of peace, and
without sacrificing principle. Provincial synods
should be held every third year, or oftener at the

"Burnet, I, 249.
"" "He would not have the title of lord given him by his
friends, and was not easy when others forced it on him."
Ibid., p. 251.

200 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
king's summons, and in these synods the Bishops
might be censured for offences proved against
them. It was in the spirit of these proposals that
Leighton performed his own duties as a Bishop,
and well had it been for religion in Scotland if his
example had been followed.
Leighton's name is still prominently associated
with the peaceful and beautiful Cathedral town of
Dunblane, and Dr. Walter Smith's fine poem has
immortalised the "Bishop's Walk" where the good
man was wont to take his exercise.07 Yet in his
quiet retreat he must have many a time found his
prediction come true, that his office would be "a
mortification, and that greater than a cell and hair
cloth.08 His old associates declared that he was
"Popish and Jesuistic,"00 and perverted all his
doings. His old guardian Sir James Stewart be
stowed upon him a welcome which is sufficiently
87 "A pleasant walk, when singing bird
Upon the bending twig is heard,
And rustling leaf that bids you hush!
And hear the slow still waters gush
Far down below unseen,
Beneath the branches green.
*****
How swell the Ochils green: and there
The Cromlex melts in distant air;
Benledi and Ben Lomond far
Front the rude crags of Uam-var:
And by the shady way
Still towers the minster gray."
98 Butler, p. 338. 80p. 360.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 201
described in the words which Leighton is said to
have used on his return, "I have dined at Good-
trees. I wish I had stayed at home and chawed
gravell." 1"" In contemporary satire he was de
scribed in terms that recall the famous Vicar of
Bray.101 And most of all he felt that the hopes
with which he had entered upon the Episcopate
were not likely to be realized. His struggling for
peace and unity even semed in moments of des
pondency "like a fighting against God." loa
Among the Kesolutioners there was a strong
feeling in favour of Episcopacy at the Restora
tion,103 and nearly 600 ministers accepted the new
order of things.10* But the extremists refused
to comply, and Charles's political ministers em
barked upon that policy of severity which produced
the later Covenanters. It is to be remembered
that these men represented only the five western
shires, comprising about a fifth of the population
of the country, and that the liberty for which
they contended was not merely ecclesiastical free
dom for themselves, but also liberty to impose their

100 Butler, p. 361; n. 6.
101 p. 340: "Reporting thy compliancie
With each prevailing partie;
That whatsoever change fell out,
Thou wast to it most heartie."
102 Burnet, I, 249. 1M I, 321. 104p. 351.

202 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
principles upon the consciences of their fellow-
countrymen. A number of acts were passed by parliament
which soon made the cleavage clear. In 1662
every man in public office or place of trust was
called on to abjure the Covenant, and by the Pat
ronage Act all ministers elected between 1649 and
1660 were directed to seek presentation from the
lawful patrons, and collation from the Bishops.
Eventually two or three hundred of the ministers
gave up their benefices rather than comply. Then
came in 1663 the measure which was nicknamed
"the Bishops' drag-net," forbidding the covenant
ing ministers to exercise their ministry, and im
posing fines on all who refused to attend the parish
church. The Mile Act forbade the nonconform
ing ministers to live within twenty miles of their
former parishes, within six miles of Edinburgh
or any other cathedral city, or within three miles
of a royal burgh. The High Court of Commis
sion was revived for a brief period, to deal with
ecclesiastical offences. From 1664 to 1666 the
people in the west were oppressed with fines, and
troops were quartered upon them. Insurrection
followed, and at Rullion Green, on the 28th of
November, 1666, General Dalziel routed the un
disciplined Covenanters. Seventy persons were
banished and more than thirty hanged, two of
these having been tortured to extract a confession.
For this miserable tale no palliation can be

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 203
offered. It was a case of the most terrible mis
management of a difficult situation, and the pity
is that so few Bishops or others raised their voices
in protest. It is true that the Covenanters only
received in added measure what they had dealt
out to others in their day of power, and that if the
Episcopalians in 1638 had been as fanatical as
their opponents were after 1662 there would have
been "killing times" then too, in plenty. But
after all has been said, one can only think of this
aspect of the period with shame and sorrow.
Meanwhile Leighton pursued his own course
in the diocese of Dunblane. "He went round it
constantly every year, preaching and catechising
from parish to parish. He continued in his pri
vate and ascetic course of life,105 and gave all his
income, beyond the small expense on his own per
son, to the poor. He studied to raise in his clergy
a greater sense of spiritual matters, and of the
care of souls, and was in all respects a burning and
a shining light, highly esteemed by the greater part
of his diocese: even the Presbyterians were much
mollified, if not quite overcome, by his mild and
heavenly course of life." 10< In his dealings with
patrons, presbyteries, and synods he shewed the
utmost conciliation, and refrained from acting

106 "I believe for myself I shall live as monastically as
ever I did" he wrote in 1661. Butler, p. 336.
,oa Burnet, I, 382.

204 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
upon his own sole authority as far as possible.107
His addresses in synod were mainly directed to
two points, the raising of the standard of morals
and piety, and the improvement of Church wor
ship. Year by year he urged the same counsels up
on his clergy with remarkable persistence. His suc
cessor Bishop Ramsay, when he examined the
synod register containing Leighton's addresses, de
clared that he looked on it "as beyond some volumes
of the ancient concilles," and remarked upon the
patience with which the same teaching was re
peated, "precept upon precept, line upon line." ""
Leighton's efforts in the direction of a better
system of worship in Church were moderate
enough. He desired that the Lord's Prayer should
be restored to more frequent use,100 together with
the Doxology, the Creed, and the Ten Command
ments; and that Holy Scripture should be more
largely read. He urged his clergy to use longer
texts and shorter sermons,110 and to recall their
people from their "irreverent deportment" in pub-

107 Butler wrongly minimises the part which Leighton
took in the ordination of ministers, and he is of course
quite mistaken in thinking that the joint imposition of
hands by the presbytery was due to a special concession on
Leighton's part. The record which he quotes on p. 581,
runs thus: "The said reverend Bishop did thairafter by
caling upon God most high and impositione of hands with
the presbiterie ordean and admitt the said, etc," see pp.
viii, 558, 572.
108 Butler, 394. 10Bp. 367, 370. 110p. 376.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 205
lie worship, "particularly from their most unde-
cent sitting at prayer." 1U He got the synod to
join with him in enacting that the Holy Commun
ion should be celebrated in every congregation at
least once every year,112 and that the people should
be catechised more frequently and more simply.118
Bare and simple as Church worship in Leighton's
diocese must have been, the standard was no higher
elsewhere in Scotland. The Book of Common
Prayer was not used in public, except by Gilbert
Burnet at Salton, and at least for a short time, in
the Chapel Royal at Holyrood, of which the Bishop
of Dunblane was the Dean.114 The forms in Knox's
Liturgy were sometimes employed, and at the
Cathedral of Aberdeen part of the Prayer Book
was embodied in the form of morning and evening
service. Confirmation seems to have been entirely
neglected, and, speaking generally, there was no
great distinction between the worship of the Es
tablished Church, and that of the non-conforming
Presbyterians. 115
In the wider field of the ecclesiastical politics
of the nation Leighton strove to win respect for his
ideals of moderation. He never indeed attended
parliament except when matters concerning re-

111 p. 377. 112p. 371. 113p. 386.
114 Leighton hoped when he became a Bishop, "that he
might set up the common prayer in the King's chapel: for
the rebuilding of which orders were given." Burnet, I, 245.
nsGrub, III, 217-8.

206 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
ligion or the Church were being discussed,110 nor
did he approve of the new basis on which Episco
pacy was now set, with the Bishops, at least theoret
ically, independent of the Church judicatories.1"
The first time that he attended Parliament, he
pressed for an explanation of the oath of alle
giance and supremacy which was to be imposed,
but the motion was rejected.113 In 1665 he went
to London and tendered his resignation to the king,
on account of the violent measures employed by the
government, for which he felt himself to be "in
some sort accessory."1' Charles was moved with
Leighton's account of the state of the country, and
promising that gentler methods would be employed,
persuaded him to return to his diocese. Later on,
at Lord Tweeddale's instigation,120 he paid another
visit to Charles, and laid his views before him in
two interviews. And when the king was bent
upon measures of "moderation and comprehen
sion," Leighton was, according to Burnet, "the only
person among the Bishops that declared for these
methods." m
His chance for putting his views as to "ac
commodation" 1M with the Presbyterians upon their

"¦Burnet, I, 253. 117I, 253-5. us I, 255.
119 1, 382.
120 Tweeddale's aim was "to bring in a set of Episcopal
men of another stamp, and to set Leighton at their head."
Burnet, I, 443.
121 1, 496. ,22 See above, page 199.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 207
trial came when he was appointed Archbishop of
Glasgow. Wearied out by divisions and conten
tions, and hopeless of their cure, oppressed too
with feeble health, and the "dreadful weight" of
his Episcopal charge, he had decided by 1670 to
resign Dunblane and retire into private life.123 He
was therefore most unwilling to accept charge of
the diocese in which the greater part of the cove
nanting troubles was located. However, he was
persuaded by Lauderdale and Tweeddale to accept
the Archbishopric. For his scheme "all assist
ance" was promised him from the government,121
and Charles, whom Leighton again visited in Lon
don, signified his approval. While retaining the
oversight of Dunblane till 1672, he took charge of
Glasgow in 1670, and was "solemnly invested" at
some date after 3rd October, 1671.125 His un
worldliness was again shewn by his refusal to
accept, at least in 1670, more than a fifth of the
income of Glasgow.120
Leighton entered upon his campaign of con
ciliation with prompt enthusiasm. At a synod in
Glasgow he urged upon his disaffected clergy coun
sels of a spiritual character, which, it would seem,
sent them home bewildered and unedified.127 Then,
with his friend Gilbert Burnet, he went on a tour

123 Butler, p. 435. m Burnet, I, 518-9.
125 Butler, pp. 494, 495; also 435-6.
126 436; n. 3. ,27 Burnet, I, 519-20.

208 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
amongst the most eminent of the indulged clergy
to explain his proposals of peace, and to inform
them that a conference would be held in Edin
burgh for their discussion. Their reception was a
chilling one, and Leighton was discouraged. Yet
he persevered, and a series of conferences took
place between August 1670 and January 1671 in
Edinburgh and elsewhere. Burnet says that "the
far greater part of the nation" approved of Leigh
ton's scheme,128 but those immediately concerned
would have none of it. Sharp viewed the proposal
to abolish the veto of the Bishops as an under
mining of Episcopacy, while the "inferior" clergy
"hated the whole thing." The "bigot Presby
terians" thought it was a snare, and rejected the
offer. The only effect of Leighton's effort was a
temporary lull in the storm. "Ye west sea is at
present pretty calm," he wrote to Lauderdale, "and
wee are in a tolerable degree of quiet."
A similar result attended the Archbishop's plan
of sending six Episcopal divines through the west
ern counties, to preach in vacant churches, and
to assist the Episcopal clergy where the congre
gations were refractory. Their mission was to
commend the accommodation, and to induce the
people to frequent the public ordinances.130 Burnet,
who was one of "Leighton's Evangelists," says131

128 1, 522. 129 Butler, p. 455. 13° Ibid., p. 438.
181 Burnet, I, 524.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 209
that the people came to hear them, though not in
great crowds. They were amazed to find that the
meanest of them, "their cottagers, and their ser
vants" were so able and so ready to argue about
points of government and on the limits to the
spiritual power of princes. They had texts of
scripture and answers at every point, but they were
"vain of their knowledge, much conceited of them
selves, and were full of a much entangled scrupu
losity." Although for a time the conventicles be
came lest frequent, a set of "hot preachers" soon
obliterated any good results that Burnet and his
colleagues may have effected, by going round
wherever they had been, and telling the people
that "the Devil was never so formidable, as when
he was transformed into an angel of light." 13:
Yet something was effected in the way of con
ciliation. An Indulgence had been offered in
1669, by which over forty ejected ministers who
lived "peaceably and orderly" were reinstated in
parishes, and in 1672 by a second Indulgence
about eighty were similarly restored. But to
Leighton the ultimate outlook seemed little better
than before. Kind and tolerant as he was to
wards the irreconcilables, he spoke sharply enough
about their attitude. "I confess I have a doubt,"
he says, "... whether it were wisely done, or to
any purpose at all, to offer a right reason to any
132 1, 525.

210 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
man when it hath come in his head to offer such
scruples as these."13' He was now thoroughly
tired of the "wild and insolent attempts" of "that
forward party,"131 "drunk with opinion of them
selves," 13° and he even seems to have acquiesced in
the opinion that "those coercions and civil re
straints" which had been intermitted would need to
be renewed.138 Doubtless it was partly in order to avoid par
ticipation in such a course that the Archbishop
went to London in 167313' and placed his resigna
tion in the king's hands. His want of sympathy
with the whole trend of Episcopal government
since his consecration, especially with the oppres
sive policy of Lauderdale and the executive, the
difficulty of managing his troublesome diocese, and
his inability to find proper men to fill the vacant
charges in it, together with the failure of his own
"Accommodation," made him utterly weary and
hopeless. All that Charles could do was to com
mand him to stay in his office for another year.
His desire was to live and die in the communion of
the Church of England,138 and accordingly, when
relieved from office in 1674, after staying for a
time in his rooms in Edinburgh University,130 he
retired to live with his sister at Broadhurst, in
Horsted Keynes, Sussex.

3 Butler, p. 462. m p. 467. 13B p. 468.
'Cf., p. 459; n. 2. 137 p. 458. ,3S p. 480. 13B p. 501.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 211
The last ten years of Leighton's life were spent
very quietly in study and good works. He was
continually employed in preaching and taking ser
vice in the parish where he lived and in the vicin
ity; and Burnet, who was his almoner in London,
says that he gave away all that he had in charities.
Yet his thoughts often went back with longing to
Scotland. The Church of England seemed on
closer knowledge "like a fair carcase of a body
without a spirit," and he lamented "the shameful
advances that we seemed to be making towards
popery.140 Indeed there was at one time a pros
pect of his returning to work in Scotland. After
the brutal murder of his late colleague, Archbishop
Sharp, on Magus Muir in 1679, the covenanters
routed Graham of Claverhouse at Drumclog, and
were in turn defeated by the Duke of Monmouth
at Bothwell Brig. Monmouth was in favour of
peaceful measures, and persuaded Charles to write
to Leighton asking him to go to Scotland and use
his influence in persuading the nonconformists to
ways of concord, "till you resolve to serve me in
a stated employment." 141
This however was not to be. Monmouth's in
fluence did not last, and until his death in 1684
Leighton passed his days in peaceful retirement.
The manner of his end was as he had often wished,
to die in an inn. He had come to London, at

""Burnet, II, 428-9. ,J1 Butler, p. 506.

212 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES
Burnet's request, and put up at the Bell Inn142 in
Warwick Lane, under the shadow of St. Paul's
Cathedral. To his friend he seemed to be sur
prisingly fresh and well. "His hair was still
black, and all his motions were lively: he had the
same quickness of thought and strength of mem
ory, but above all the same heat and life of devo
tion, that I had ever seen in him." 143 But Leigh
ton felt that "his work and journey were now al
most done." Next day he was ill with pleurisy,
and on the 25th of June, 1684, his saintly spirit
found the rest for which he had so often longed in
vain. Such a character as Leighton's needs no pane
gyric. He was a man apart from his fellows, both
in holiness and spiritual perception, who strove
faithfully to do his duty to God and man in a
difficult world. And if he failed to accomplish
what he hoped, the story of what he tried to do
is a splendid heritage for Scotland, and one which
may yet help to bring about the happy consumma
tion for which he worked and prayed.

142 Now demolished. "3 Burnet, II, 427.

STATUE OF BISHOP JOHN SKIXXER
Flagman
In St. Andrew's Cathedral, Aberdeen

VI— THE DAYS OF THE PEMAL LAWS
Joject S.__I33es of Lxsaffi__B_r
iPsssBsnss 4SB I*OB_r
(1721— 1807}
-Eire stos&es had. mot passed after tits tfcarth of
tfee grad. AtyWasshiip T,<righfeHit_ wftem the eeelesias-
&al ivfetfeiirL fer wjri«?h ]be Jbad labcrareti so de-
nliit^ sad af whl^h Iris own life and d_a__as_lBF
]aad teal s> pggffwws _w» gdk__Hiii_____t. was, fosr tlie
last fm_% TfgiiMis^Ml fram. rte pmriieggd pngifitm as
t_BB PFfDF.{riTf=lr«=ft TiTi-m wf TreKgww frr. ScotiaCOiL Hie
sbb^jeemul in. Xfe+5 of fee T»«aiB_wB Ca&jlie feing
J_oh_b__^ Seeeiid af England aral gfesrewfrh of Scot-
__a___d, "was -rolfcwKwl bjr a psaod «_c ___d5_rnle whi«»h
HBedfiie enp to the hrim- smr. resulted, in the, dswm-
•raill of tfew iStnart dy___s_sty- la. the end af I3SS
James had! Hed fcQUL hi<s Tkjmgdflgai- anrcd WiTTf anrr of
Org___gp -was infi__e or less setettssfy seated on the
TaesHt tl.i.-.»_«a_ 4 _»_>»_ «*sk all the g__eair ana. _ni-
KT^ft.iis «&areigp; -shitrh -this politieal seralutioii
hemsafot alsoe!,, cue of the most si___________g and im-
psiartaHfc w__s fho >»%t-riihain_i- of Episcopacy in Seot-
IswmI _wirt thi» esSaWT~fc77T(=m. of "Prpgbj. I.i-n arnfsm in
ifs pSaee. Tlris gggsif was ibH of «a__^esd__ii_||; enEsexjuenees

214 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
which could not be realised at the time. The re
ligious equilibrium of Scotland, which since 1560
had resulted in what has been referred to as a see
saw condition of things, now began to disappear
under the stress of new influences and circum
stances, which reduced Scottish Episcopacy to the
"shadow of a shade." The romantic but disas
trous loyalty of the Scottish Bishops and a great
part of their clergy and people to the Stuart cause
was the main reason of this change. The refusal
of the Bishops to acknowledge William of Orange
as their rightful king compelled that monarch to
acquiesce in the disestablishment of Scottish Epis
copacy; and the subsequent share taken by Epis
copalians in the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745
brought down upon their unfortunate Church the
vengeance of the government iu the shape of op
pressive penal laws, whose object was to stamp out
Episcopacy in Scotland. The result of these penal
laws was, as their authors desired, to diminish
sadly the number of those who still clung to their
Church, and the wonder is that any adherents of
the proscribed faith were left. But a faithful
remnant was found, especially in the North-eastern
part of Scotland, whom no persecutions or disas
ters could move from their allegiance, and who
kept the Church's lamp alight in the hour of its
greatest depression and distress. It does not there
fore seem too much to say that, while the present
Presbyterian establishment in all probability

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 215
owes its origin to the political exigencies of Wil
liam of Orange, it derived its present great nu
merical ascendancy from those of George of Han
over and his son.
The story of the efforts which William of
Orange made to secure the support of the adher
ents of Episcopacy in Scotland is a curious one,
and reveals the ecclesiastical possibilities which
for a short time existed. While still in Holland,
William had formed the policy of overthrowing
the established form of religion in Scotland, be
lieving as he did, on the authority of his Presby
terian adviser, William Carstares, that it had little
support in the country. On coming to England,
however, he found out more accurately the state
of affairs, and would seem to have changed his
mind. Bishop Rose of Edinburgh, who had been
commissioned by his brother Bishops in Scotland
at the end of 1688 to repair to London for the
purpose of tendering their duty to King James,
and of conferring with the English prelates on
the state of affairs, found on reaching the capital
that the Revolution had taken place, and that his
aim must now be to labour for the preservation of
the ecclesiastical status quo in Scotland. Such a
task was indeed a difficult and embarrassing one
for an envoy who would not wait on William, nor
congratulate him on the success of his expedition ; '

1 Grub. Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, III, 296, 297.

216 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
and yet William shewed a singular readiness to
come to terms. Dr. Compton, the Bishop of Lon
don, was empowered by the king to inform Rose
that "if you will undertake to serve him to the
purpose that he is served here in England, he will
take you by the hand, support the Church and
order, and throw off the Presbyterians." 2
Even after Rose had rejected this advance
William made a personal appeal to him. In order
to procure a pass for his return to Scotland the
Scottish Bishop at last sought an audience at
Whitehall, when a short but dramat'c interview
took place. "_My Lord," said the king, "are you go
ing for Scotland?" The Bishop answered, "Yes
Sir, if you have any commands for me." The prince
replied, "I hope you will be kind to me, and follow
the example of England." Rose was "something
difficulted how to make a mannerly and discreet
answer without entangling" himself, but replied,
"Sir, I will serve you so far as law, reason, or eon-
science, shall allow me." The prince turned on
his heel without another word, and the Bishop
soon afterwards returned to Scotland.3 jSTor was
this the last chance which William held out to the
Episcopal party. On the eve of the Parliament
ary Convention of 1689, the Duke of Hamilton, its
president, endeavoured to win over the primate and
the Bishop of Edinburgh to the side of William,
2 Grub, III, 297. 'Grub, III, 297-8.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 217
assuring them that he had it in special charge
from William, that nothing should be done to the
prejudice of Episcopacy if the Bishops would sup
port him, and entreating them to follow the ex
ample of the Church of England.
These facts make it difficult to resist the con
clusion that the parliamentary proceedings which
resulted in the overthrow of Episcopacy and the
establishment of Presbyterianism might have been
so engineered as to produce an entirely different re
sult, but for the loyalty of the Bishops to their
Jacobite principles. As it was, however, the Claim
of Right was passed in April, 1869, embodying the
famous declaration that "Prelacy and superiority
of any office in the Church above presbyters is,
and hath been, a great and unsupportable griev
ance and trouble to this nation, and contrary to
the inclinations of the generality of the people
ever since the reformation, they having been re
formed from Popery by presbyters, and therefore
ought to be abolished."4 On July 22nd Prelacy
was abolished, and it was left to the king and
queen, with consent of parliament, to settle that
church government which was most agreeable to
the inclinations of the people." During the next
session of Parliament, which met on 15th April,
1690, the Westminster Confession of Eaith was
approved, the Presbyterian form of Church gov-
4 Grub, III, 299-300. "Ibid., 303.

218 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
ernment and discipline was established, and the
exercise of Church government in Scotland was
entrusted to some sixty ministers who had been
deprived since 1661, and who were now restored
to their benefices, and to such ministers and elders
as they should admit. ° One marked feature of
the new establishment was that the National Cove
nant and the Solemn League and Covenant were
dropped, much to the chagrin of the Cameronians
of the west.
The statement in the Claim of Right which has
been quoted above is doubtless responsible for the
belief which is still shared by many respectable
Presbyterian writers, that the ecclesiastical revo
lution of 1689-90 was accomplished by a wave of
popular indignation on the part of the people of
Scotland against Episcopacy. Yet although that
statement may truly have represented the opinions
of the parliamentary majority who managed to
pass it,7 its accuracy is another question altogether.
It so happens that we have the opinions of un
biased witnesses about the time of the revolution,
as to the strength of Episcopacy in Scotland, which
throw a very different light on the matter. Lord
Tarbet, writing in 1689 says "the Presbyterians
are the more zealous and hotter; the other more
numerous and powerful," while in the following
year the zealous Presbyterian, General Mackay,

' Ibid., 305. ' Grub, III, 299.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 219
declares "let men flatter themselves as they will, I
tell you who know Scotland, and where the
strength and weakness of it doth lie, that if I were
as much an enemy to that interest (i.e., of Presby
terianism) as I am a friend, I would without dif
ficulty engage to form in Scotland a more formid
able party against it, even for their majesties' gov
ernment, than can be formed for it."8 To which
may be added the later testimony of the Presby
terian Carlyle of Inveresk, that in 1689 and later
"more than two-thirds of the people of the country,
and most of the gentry were Episcopals." *
Whatever weight be given to these testimonies,
it is clear that Episcopacy in 1689 was, to say the
least, not "contrary to the inclination of the gen
erality of the people." As the late Principal
Story admits, "the 'Revolution Settlement' was of
all conceivable settlements, the most 'Erastian.' " "'
The voice of the Church was not consulted,
and the request made by the synod of Aberdeen
that the ecclesiastical polity should be settled by a
free General Assembly was rejected by the Parlia
ment of 1689, knowing as it did that the vote of
the majority would have been for Episcopacy."
Dr. Grub's statement as to the religious sympa-

8 See authorities in Grub, III, 317.
9 Autobiography, p. 249.
10 William Carstares, p. 187. The Restoration Settle
ment had been equally Erastian.
"Ibid., p. 186.

220 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
thies of Scotland is as follows. In the south west
ern counties the covenanting Cameronians pre
vailed, and in the south generally Episcopacy was
unpopular. Between the Forth and the Tay the
parties were more equally divided, while north of
the Tay the supporters of Episcopacy were much
superior in number.12
Some modern Episcopalian writers have cen
sured the Scottish Bishops for allowing the church
to be disestablished when submission to William
would have saved it, but such an opinion could only
arise from a defective historical imagination. Had
the Bishops at this point abandoned the Stuart
cause they would, as Grub maintains, have violated
every principle of honour and duty." Besides,
they had good reason to expect a speedy turn of
fortune's wheel, which would undo the work of
1689. And so they went cheerfully out into the
wilderness, little imagining how long and how bit
ter their exile was to be. And although poverty
and persecution was the Church's lot hereafter,
and she never regained her temporal power as she
hoped, her trial was one which purged and puri
fied her, and which brought her spiritual blessings
and a consciousness of her special mission, which
might never otherwise have come to her.
During William's reign no effort was made to
compel the Episcopal laity to conform to Presby-
12 III, 316. » III, 301.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 221
terianism, and it was thus possible for the Bishops
and clergy to maintain without difficulty an eccles
iastical organization distinct and separate from
that of the establishment. This separation be
tween Episcopalians and Presbyterians had been
prepared for by the rise of the Cameronians, to
gether with the Indulgence of Charles and the
Toleration of James, but considering the scale on
which it was effected, it formed a new departure
in the ecclesiastical history of Scotland. It can
not indeed be said that the Bishops rose to the
opportunity which presented itself in this connec
tion. Had they possessed a man of outstanding
genius, to organise the disestablished church, to
devise means for its financial support, and to furn
ish it with a policy, the course of events migni
have been very different. But these good and
worthy prelates, dispossessed of their sees and
their incomes, and hampered by their relations
with "the king across the water," effaced them
selves from public notice and became what Vis
count Dundee described as "the Kirk invisible."
When vacancies were made in their number by
death, they did not venture to fill up the sees with
out Stuart royal authority," but simply conse
crated "non-ruling" Bishops to continue the Epis
copal succession, EuUarton, Sage the scholar,
" Represented by a body of trustees, of which Lockhart
of Carnwarth was the chief member.

222 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
Archibald Campbell, grandson of the covenanting
Marquis of Argyll, and others.
Of the clergy a large number in the west had
been dispossessed on Christmas Day, 1688, by the
Cameronians under circumstances of great vio
lence and hardship, in the course of what was
called the "rabbling of the curates." Many others
in the south had been deprived after the 13th of
April, 1689, for refusing to pray for William and
Mary, while others were removed to make room
for the sixty Presbyterian ministers who were
reinstated to their former charges in April, 1690.
Very many others were ejected from their livings
in the south and elsewhere by the ecclesiastical
courts, but in the northern and central provinces
most of those who took the oaths remained in
possession of their livings, and were even suc
ceeded by Episcopal incumbents.15 Of the deprived
clergy some found ecclesiastical appointments in
England, Ireland, and the colonies, others resided
in the families of Episcopalian gentry and nobil
ity, while others were supported by those attend
ing their meeting-houses. Sums of money were
also collected for the support of distressed and
destitute clergy and their families.16
William's policy of moderation in ecclesiasti
cal matters, and his continual efforts to curb the
10 So late as 1707 there were 165 Episcopal Ministers
in their parishes in spite of all efforts to dislodge them.
"Grub, III, 315.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 223
Presbyterian courts in their harsh treatment of the
Episcopal clergy rendered the lot of the disestab
lished Church a fairly tolerable one, and during the
reign of the good Queen Anne matters became more
prosperous still. The queen had much sympathy
for the struggling Church in Scotland, and did
much to protect it. A Toleration Act was passed
in 1712, declaring the liberty of Episcopal wor
ship under espiscopally ordained pastors, with the
right to use the English Prayer Book. It was dur
ing this time that the use of the Book of Common
Prayer became prevalent in Scotland. Nineteen
thousand copies were sent for distribution by sym
pathisers in England, and the clergy were em
boldened to use the English liturgical forms openly,
both in chapel and by the grave-side.
This happier state of things however was only
the sunshine before the storm. The death of Queen
Anne in 1714 and the accession of George of Han
over ushered in days of dire disaster for the cause
of Scottish Episcopacy. When the Earl of Mar
raised the Stuart standard in 1715, many of his
chief supporters were members of the Episcopal
Church, and the Jacobite clergy took a prominent
part in the movement. It was therefore only nat
ural that when the rash and ill-managed affair
ended in failure after Sheriffmuir and Preston,
the defeated side should suffer for their mistake.
The policy of the Hanoverian government how
ever went beyond the punishment of individuals,

224 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
and a blow was struck at their religion. In Edin
burgh most of the clergy were fined" for not having
registered their letters of orders and for not pray
ing for King George, and in the diocese of Aber
deen thirty-six clergy, of whom two-thirds were
still parochial ministers, were ejected from their
charges, in several cases by the aid of soldiers.
Similar proceedings took place elsewhere.
In 1719 the first Penal Act fell upon the de
voted Church. By this measure no person was
permitted to officiate in any Episcopal meeting
house or congregation where nine or more persons
were present in addition to the members of the
household, without praymg in express words for
King George and the royal family, and without
having taken the oath of abjuration, under the pen
alty of six months' imprisonment, and of having
the meeting-house shut up for the same period.
One result of this act was the formation of "quali
fied" congregations, consisting largely of English
families, who had no objections to its provisions.
These were eventually disowned by the Jacobite
Bishops and a breach was formed between English
and Scottish Episcopalians in Scotland, whose
effects have not yet quite passed away.
One of the most outstanding and representa
tive figures of the Church during the long period
of distress and oppression which was now ushered
17 George wished their meeting-houses to be closed, but
the judicial authorities pled legal difficulties.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 225
in, is that of John Skinner the famous parson of
Longside, in the Buchan district of Aberdeenshire.
Although his lot in life was to minister to a large
country congregation, with a daily round of labor
ious duties, and poverty as his earthly guerdon, his
character and his gifts of head and heart were
such as to render him one of the most distinguished
men of his day in the north of Scotland. As a
poet of real genius he shed no little lustre upon his
native country, and commanded the unfeigned ad
miration of his younger contemporary and corres
pondent Robert Burns. His best songs have long
ago taken their place among the imperishable ele
ments of our national literature, and although the
fruits of his learning were of a less durable na
ture, he was on his own lines one of the best theo
logians and scholars of his day in Scotland. But it
is also as a Churchman that Skinner has a claim
upon the admiration and gratitude of many of his
fellow-countrymen. Not only was he one of those
who suffered in person and in possessions from the
operation of the penal laws, but at the most dis
tressful and critical epoch of the Church's his
tory he stood out pre-eminent among its defend
ers,18 and to him probably more than to any other
man is to be credited the rescue of Scottish Epis-

18 The stamp of his mind is on almost everything that is
sued from the Northern press in the interests of his Church
for three-quarters of a century. Walker, Life and Times
of Dean Skinner, p. 4.

226 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
copacy from the rut into which it had fallen, as a
politico-religious body apparently doomed to
speedy extinction by its adherence to Jacobite
principles. Nor is it to be forgotten that John
Skinner was the progenitor of a long line of dis
tinguished Scottish ecclesiastics which continues to
the present day. Both his son and his grandson
occupied the position of Bishop of Aberdeen and
of Primus,19 while his great-great-grandson, the
present Dean of the Cathedral and Diocese of Ed
inburgh, upholds worthily the ecclesiastical tradi
tions of his family.
It was at Balfour, among the hills of Birse on
Deeside in Aberdeenshire, that Skinner was born.
His father was a distinguished member of the
brotherhood of parish dominies who for centuries
played so valuable and so characteristic a part in
the education of Scotland. He was noted in his
day for the number of country lads whom he pre
pared for the university, and he is described by a
contemporary writer, Ramsay of Ochtertyre, as
"a very learned and worthy man, placed in cir
cumstances nowise adequate to his merit." 2° He
was also, according to the same authority, a zeal
ous whig and Presbyterian, therefore little pre
pared to sympathise with his son's career as an
adherent of Episcopacy. After the latter's de-
" The elective President of the body of Scottish Bishops.
20 Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century.
Edited by A. Allardyce, p. 520.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 227
fection from Presbyterianism he said to him one
day, "John, he who changes once may change
again. When you take that step next whether will
you turn Papist or Quaker ?" The younger John
had at all times the happy gift of turning an awk
ward corner by a witty answer, and on this occa
sion he replied: "Sir, that is like asking a man
to choose between gout and the gravel."21
Skinner lost his mother, who had been the
widow of the Laird of Balfour, Mr. Donald Far-
quharson, at the time of her second marriage, while
he was still an infant, and his father soon after
wards removed to the parish school of Echt, twelve
miles from Aberdeen. There in due course the boy
was prepared for entrance to Marischal college, of
which he became a bursar at the age of thirteen.
During his academic course the young student
shewed great proficiency in the composition of
Latin verse, a pursuit in which he took delight to
the end of his life. According to Ramsay he be
came very intimate at this time with some of the
Aberdeen Episcopal clergy, who induced him to
adopt their views and principles,22 but this is prob
ably to put the case too strongly. He may have
then gained an acquaintance and a sympathy with
Episcopal principles which afterwards bore fruit,
but the definite change seems to have come later.
In an unpublished letter dated Linshart, March
21 Ibid., p. 521. 22 Ibid.

228 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
28, 1797,23 Skinner gives a graphic and short ac
count of his career, which is of considerable bio
graphical interest. "My lot in life," he says, "has
much prevented the improvement of that portion
of talents wch the Divine goodness had bestow'd
upon me, and checked me in many pursuits that
I was fond of and (foolishly perhaps) fancy'd my
self fit for. Brought up a Presbyterian at the feet
of one of the then Gamaliels, sent abroad into the
wide world after my academical courses in the 17th
year of my age wt not a shilling in my pocket,
nor any friend to support me, taught a country
school for 18 months when I gave it up as incon
sistent wt the principles I had then adopted, and
wt one solitary guinea went up to Edinburgh to
push my fortune, engag'd there to go to Shetland
to teach a Gentleman's son, where, after a year's
hard and unsuccessful labour wt a blockhead, I
married when but turn'd of 20 a poor Clergyman's
daughter of much the same age, came back to this
country, where, after half a year's waiting and
wandring, I was ordained by the venerable Bishop
Dunbar beatae memoriae, and settled when just
turn'd of 21 in my present laborious and extensive
charge upon 25£s for many years till it has at
last crept up to near 50, was plunder'd of my few
books and clothes in 46, was imprison'd for 6
months in 53, since when I have put 3 sons to
28 To the Reverend Mr. Johnathan Boucher, Vicar of Ep
som, Surrey.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 229
College, have rigg'd out 3 for America two of whom
are dead, and have married out 4 daughters."
Skinner's dominie days were spent in two Ab
erdeenshire villages, Kemnay and Monymusk. The
latter spot, nestling by the river Don amongst
the hills that culminate in Ben-achie, is one of the
most lovely on Donside. The young man's poetic
qualities found stimulus amidst his beautiful sur
roundings and he threw off a number of poems, "il
lustrative of local scenery and events." 24 The
most famous of these productions was a long poem
in the most Doric Aberdeenshire dialect, entitled
"The Monymusk Christmas Ba'ing," in which the
rough-and-tumble incidents of an annual game of
football 25 played by the village worthies are de
scribed with rare humour and Homeric vigour. Al
though written in imitation of that old and famous
poem of royal authorship, "Chrystis Kirk on the
Green," which Skinner had committed to memory
before he was twelve years old, and which in later
life he translated into Latin verse, the "Ba'ing"
has both originality and individual power, and
still retains its popularity in the North of Scot
land. It was during his sojourn at Monymusk that
Skinner came to the great decision of his life, and

24 Walker, pp. 6-13.
2S This custom was once common in Aberdeenshire, but
is now heard of only in one or two towns in the North of
Scotland, and towards the border.

230 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
accepted the principles of Episcopacy. Of the
reasons which induced the young man to throw
in his lot with a proscribed and impoverished
Church, we have no record. It would seem that
much was due to the influence of the Rev. Alex
ander Lunan, the Episcopal minister of the district.
and perhaps something was owing to Lady Grant
of Monymusk, who was greatly interested in the
poetical productions of the young schoolmaster.
Whatever may be thought of the wisdom of this
step, there can be no doubt of its unselz-shness.
With his eyes open Skinner gave up the career as
a parish minister to which his schoolinasterirLg was
meant to lead, and embraced a life of genteel pov
erty, in which his great talents never received ade
quate scope or recognition.
Proceeding to Edinburgh with his "one solitary
guinea" in his pocket. Skinner found a friend in
the Jacobite parson of Leith, the Rev. Robert
Forbes, afterwards Bishop of Ross and Caithness,
and compiler of The Lyon in llourning/' Forbes
not only re-baptized and presented for confirma
tion the young convert, but found him a situation
as tutor to the only son of Mr. Robert Sinclair, of
Scalloway in Shetland.11 The following entry in
Forbes 's register of baptisms etc. is of interest.

* A famous account of the adventures of Bonnie Prince
Charlie before and after CuUoden.
17 Walker, p. 16; Ramsay (p. 522 / says that it was Mr.
Thomas Ruddiman who sent Skinner to Shetland.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 231
"1740, June 8th (1st Sunday after Trinity).
Mr. John Skinner came to my Room after Ves
pers, and, at his own Desire, received Baptism
from me, after that he had declared, that he was
not satisfied with the springling of a Layman, a
Presbyterian Teacher, he had received in his in
fancy, and had adduc'd several weighty arguments
for this his conduct.29 The young pedagogue's
tutorial experiences in Shetland were, as has been
indicated, of a discouraging character,2" and they
were brought to a close by the death of his pupil's
father. Before that event took place, however,
Skinner had contracted an acquaintance and
formed a life-union which must have brought
abundant compensations for the irksome nature of
his work. At this time the only Episcopal clergy
man in the Shetland Isles was the Rev. John Hun
ter, a devoted and hard-working pastor, who strove
to keep together as best he could his widely scat
tered flock. The young convert naturally became
intimate with Mr. Hunter and his family, and on
the 12th Nov. 1741 an attachment with the eldest
daughter, Grissel, was consummated by the mar
riage of the young pair. If such a union did not
evince much foresight, it was certainly justified by
its success. Although neither wealth nor worldly
prosperity attended them, Skinner and his wife
28 Craven. Bishop R. Forbes' Journals, p. 11.
20 He would seem to have acted as chaplain in Mr. Sin
clair's family as well. Walker p. 23.

232 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
enjoyed for many years true happiness and long-
continued blessings. In The Old Man's Song the
poet sings toward the close of his life with much
tenderness, the beauty of the joys of his married
life. "0! why should old age so much wound us?
There is nothing in it all to confound us;
For how happy now am I
With my auld wife sitting by
And our bairns and our oys 30 all around us.
"We began in the warld wi' naething,
And we've jogg"d on and toil'd for the ae thing,
We made use of what we had,
And our thankful hearts were glad;
When we got the bit meat and the claithing."
When it again became necessary for Skinner to
look about for a livelihood, his thoughts naturally
turned to his native county. In Aberdeenshire
there was a demand for candidates for Holy Or
ders, towards which he may be said to have already
taken a step, by acting as "chaplain" at Scalloway.
Accordingly he left his wife in her father's care,
and betook himself to the small country town of
Old Meldrum, some twenty miles north of Aber
deen. There, in accordance with the stern traditions
of the northern student, he started to prepare for
Orders with a firlot of meal for his food, and a bar-
rowful of peats which he had wheeled home him
self for fuel. His frugal manner of living/1 no less

80 Grandchildren. "Walker, p. 26.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 233
than his brilliant talents/2 recommended him to the
Bishop, who ordained him to the diaconate at
Peterhead on the 22nd Aug. 1742. In November
of that year Skinner was appointed to his life-
charge of Longside, where for 65 years he laboured
faithfully and with success in the service of the
Church of his adoption.
Half a century had now elapsed since the dis
establishment of the Church to whose ministry
Skinner was now admitted, and during that per
iod changes of great importance had taken place
in her character. Besides the inevitable shrink
age in the numbers both of her clergy and her
people, developments had taken place in the sphere
of her Church Government, and in her ceremonial
and liturgical equipment which must now be briefly
touched upon. In the first place, her Bishops
had gradually become diocesan rulers once more.
The foolish and ultra-Erastian system of non-
ruling Bishops had broken down after the death
of Bishop Rose of Edinburgh, the last of the pre-
revolution prelates. Episcopacy in Scotland has
passed through many strange phases, and not the

82 Mr. R. Kilgour, afterwards a Bishop, being suspicious
of new converts, entreated Bishop Dunbar, who was to or
dain young Skinner, to examine him very strictly. The
Bishop who was a primitive, venerable man, answered
mildly, "Robin, that young man is very well qualified. Be
lieve me, he is fit to examine you and me, being learned
and able beyond his years." Scotland and Scotsmen, etc.,
I, 522.

234 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
least strange was that in which the aged Rose held
in his hands the whole government of the Church,
while six other Bishops, consecrated merely to
preserve the Episcopal succession, looked on idly
without power or jurisdiction.33 When Rose died
in 1720 the non-ruling Bishops formed themselves
into an Episcopal College, exercising corporate
jurisdiction over the whole church, with Fullarton
as Primus inter pares. Three of these Bishops
were also elected by the clergy of Edinburgh, An
gus, and Aberdeen, to perform Episcopal acts
within those districts. In 1722 and later years,
mainly on the nomination of the Chevalier through
his trustees, other college Bishops were consecrated
and more of their number were chosen as diocesan
Bishops. This strange distinction of the rulers of
the Church into diocesan and college Bishops lasted
for about twenty years,31 and its disappearance
was one of the results of the ritual controversy
which during that period distracted and divided
the unfortunate Church.
The usages, as the ceremonial customs alluded
to were termed, originated among the English non
jurors as a primitive and eastern revival, and
were heartily adopted in certain parts of Scot
land/5 in reaction from the bare worship which

33 Grub, III, 382.
31 Bishop Ochterlonie, the last College Bishop, died in
1742. 35 Especially in the diocese of Aberdeen.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 235
had characterized the Church since the Restora
tion. The main usages were (1) the express in
vocation of the Holy Spirit at the consecration of
the elements, (2) the prayer of oblation, (3) the
commemoration of the faithful departed, and (4)
the mixed chalice. Other less important usages
were immersion in baptism, and the chrism in
confirmation and in the anointing of the sick.
While the college Bishops resolutely opposed the
innovations, the diocesan Bishops were in favour
of them, and a long and sad controversy ensued.
In the end victory lay with the "usagers," and the
non-ruling Bishops ceased to exist,
Closely bound up with the controversy over
the usages is the development of the great liturgi
cal feature of the Church, the Scottish Commun
ion office. This form of service has passed
through several stages, but its groundwork is the
communion office of the 1637 Scottish Prayer
Book, and, through the influence of an English
non-juring office of 1718, the first Prayer Book of
Edward VI. (1549). The custom had arisen of
celebrating according to the 1637 Prayer Book,
with omissions and transpositions, and in 1724
this office was published by Bishop Gadderar of
Aberdeen, the first of the "wee bookies," as the
copies of the Scottish Communion office were
called. In 1735 two booksellers published, as a
private venture, a "wee bookie" embodying the
changes which took place in actual use, and which

236 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
up to that date the celebrant had marked in the
margin by means of pen and ink. By the date
of Skinner's ordination, this office was almost uni
versally used outside the diocese of Edinburgh/"
and to a certain extent in that district as well.
Scarcely had Skinner become well accustomed
to the duties of his charge, when the country was
convulsed with the Jacobite rising of 1745. That
stirring event formed one of the most romantic
episodes of Scottish history, but when the hopes of
the Stuarts were shattered on the mournful field
of Culloden, the Church which had furnished so
many of the supporters of Prince Charlie entered
upon her severest and darkest trial. Bands of
armed troops from Cumberland's army scoured the
country and burned the chapels or compelled the
congregations to pay workmen to pull them down.
Skinner is said to have donned the garb of a
*° The subsequent stages of development were as fol
lows. In 1743 the booksellers' "wee bookie" was repub
lished, and in 1744 Bishop Rattray published The Ancient
Liturgy of the Church of Jerusalem, which, though used
by very few, was the source of some of the most character
istic features of our present Scottish liturgy. In 1755
Bishop Falconer published a communion office embodying
many of the points in Rattray's book, and in 1764 he and
Bishop Robert Forbes issued what until the year 1912 was
generally regarded as the authorized edition of the Scot
tish liturgy. In the latter year the Scottish Bishops issued
an authoritative edition, which, however, does not super
sede the older forms which are in use. See Dowden's
Annotated Scottish Communion Office.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 237
miller in order to evade the soldiers," but one
night "s on returning home he found a party of
Campbells ransacking and pillaging his humble
abode. Even the apartment in which Mrs. Skin
ner lay in a delicate state of health was not res
pected, and the invaders carried away everything
they could in the way of plunder. Next day the
chapel was burnt, to the great delight of a local lady
of rank who was credited with having brought the
troops to Longside. This worthy person rode
round the blazing chapel urging the destroyers to
make their work complete, by "haudin' in the
Prayerbooks", and later on ascended a hill where
she could also enjoy the sight of the flames of the
chapel of Old Deer, clapping her hands and ex
claiming in words borrowed from Dickson, one of
the Covenanting ministers of the former age, "The
wark o' Guid gangs bonnily on !" 80 Skinner was,
as we shall see, no Jacobite, but he may have in
curred the enmity of his powerful neighbour in
some unrecorded manner. Certainly the two
stinging poetical lampoons which he wrote against
her after the burning of his chapel, must have
made her the laughing-stock of the whole country
side, but could only have kindled in her a fresh
desire to work harm to their clever but injudicious
author. The period of military oppression was bad
"Walker, p. 29. S8July 29, 1746. " Walker, p. 32.

238 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
enough for the suffering Church, but far worse
was now to follow. Although the Episcopal clergy
had been much less openly identified with the ris
ing of '45 than their predecessors were with that
of '15, the Hanoverian government now decided
to put them under more stringent legal disabilities.
In 1746 it was enacted that every Episcopal clergy
man in Scotland should take the oath of abjuration
and of allegiance to King George, register his
letters of orders by the 1st of September, and pray
for the Hanoverian king by name. Those who
failed to do so were prohibited from ministering
to five or more persons except when the service was
held in a house where a family resided, in which
case the household was allowed to attend as well.
The penalties for the clergy were imprisonment for
six months for a first offence, and after that, trans
portation to the plantations in America for life.
The laity also incurred penalties and disabilities
for attending the proscribed services, including a
fine of five pounds for the first offence, and impris
onment for two years in cases of further disobedi
ence. The result was that on the 1st of September
1746 the public worship of the Episcopal Church
practically ceased. The clergy did their best to
minister privately to their flocks under the great
disabilities imposed upon them, and some were
imprisoned for ministering to more than the pre-

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 239
scribed number.40 Five ministers, however, availed
themselves of the provisions of the act, and
seem to have continued their services without
molestation. Amongst them was Skinner of Lin-
shart, who, although loyal to his Church, shared
with many others" an inability to see the necessary
connection between Jacobitism and Church prin
ciples. The prevailing opinion, however, in his
Communion was that such compliance was a sin,
and Skinner with his neighbour of Old Deer had
to bow to it. They are said to have "repented" and
to have been "absolved by their Bishop, Mr. Ge
rard." Skinner's repentance does not, however,
seem to have prevented him from praying for King
George," until the penal act of 1748 made such
compliance useless.
By dint of the toleration thus secured, and with
the help of a little tract entitled "A preservative
against Presbytery" which he wrote in 1746, the
zealous young pastor of twenty-five seems to have
succeeded in keeping his large flock together.
As late as 1792 the Longside chapel was able to
contain over 1000 of a congregation," and there
were usually 800 communicants at Easter."
Only by the most extraordinary exertions on the
"Grub, IV, 37.
41 "He assured me that his opinions were likewise held
by some of the most venerable and respectable clergymen
of his Church." Scotland and Scotsmen, p. 523.
42 Walker, p. 40. 43 Ibid., p. 44.
"Scotland, etc., p. 537. "Ibid., p. 526.

240 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
part of its pastor could such a congregation have
been preserved during the trying period which
now followed. In the year 1748 a new penal act
was passed of a far more stringent character than
that of 1746. It was now decreed that no
Episcopal clergyman in Scottish orders had any
claim for toleration as under the former law, and
that he might only officiate in his own house,
with four fellow worshippers besides his own fam
ily. In other words, clergy whose orders were
neither English nor Irish were denied any rights
of conducting worship beyond those possessed by
every householder in the land.
Under this staggering blow the clergy went
bravely on trying to minister to their congrega
tions. They did their best to keep within the let
ter of the law, but its spirit they could not but
violate, if the Church was to exist any longer.
Sometimes they met their people in a smithy or a
barn or a workshop, sometimes in the open air in
solitary glens and woods and remote mountain
sides. The most common device was to accom
modate the congregation in different apartments
of the priest's house, while he conducted the ser
vice at some point where all could hear him.10 This
was the expedient adopted at Linshart, where
Skinner's house still stands, in the form of a half-
square. The congregation took up their position
partly outside, in snowy or wet weather or dry, and
" See Appendix E, Seat Rents under the penal laws.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 241
partly inside the house, while the pastor read the
service and preached at a window in the angle
formed by the two wings. The discomfort and
inconvenience of such a service may well be im
agined. On one famous occasion a frightened
hen scattered the pages of Skinner's sermon to the
winds, and brought the discourse to an untimely
end. "Never mind them," said the witty and un
daunted cleric, "a fool (fowl) shall never shut my
mouth again," and from that day forward he
preached without the assistance of a manuscript.
It was inevitable that some of the clergy should
be caught within the meshes of the law. In 1748
three non-juring pastors were shut up in Stone
haven Jail/7 and in 1755 the Rev. John Connocher
was sentenced to perpetual banishment from Scot
land, and forbidden to return under pain of
death.48 Skinner's ministrations were abruptly in
terrupted by his arrest in May 1753, on a charge
of ministering to more than the statutory number.
Doubtless his success in keeping so large a con
gregation intact had directed attention to his meth
ods, but in all probability he had also to thank his
own propensity to poetical satire for this misfor
tune. He had written two stinging lampoons in
"The window is still visible through which they un
dauntedly baptized the infants carried to the back of the
prison by fisherwomen in their creels. One of their num
ber used to play lively Jacobite airs on the pipes or fiddle,
to keep up the spirits of his visitors outside.
"Grub, IV, 42.

242 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
1747 upon the lady who caused the burning of his
church, and in 1751 he produced an "epitaph" for
her. Not content with this he wrote, about 1750,
a poetical address, couched in very strong terms, to
no less a person than the Public Prosecutor of the
county of Aberdeen, Mr. David Morice, whose zeal
in carrying out the penal laws displeased him.
One can therefore hardly wonder that Skinner
himself came under the unfriendly notice of the
authorities. Admitting his offence, the poet was sentenced
to six months' imprisonment in the jail of Old
Aberdeen- Hi3 lot however cannot be described as
unhappy.18 He was visited and cheered by many of
the sympathetic inhabitants of Aberdeen, and his
imprisonment was shared by his son John, the
future Bishop of Aberdeen, then a lad of eight
years of age. The health of the boy was so se
riously threatened by the shock of his father's im
prisonment, that he was allowed to become a volun
tary inmate of Skinner's cell, where his presence
must have helped to cheer the dull hours of cap
tivity. Besides, the opportunity of quiet study was
one which the incarcerated lover of books turned
to good account. He had for years been studying
Hebrew according to his opportunities, but now he
laid the foundation of that critical knowledge of
the Old Testament for which he was distinguished
" "I have heard him say that he was never happier
than during his imprisonment." Scotland, etc., I, 525.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 243
till the end of his life. When his term of impris
onment expired, Ramsay of Ochtertyre informs
us, he returned home in triumph, being regarded
as a confessor for Episcopacy.
It was not until the accession of George III. in
1760 that any alleviation of the lot of the suffering
Church took place. The new king vras averse to
a rigorous enforcement of the penal laws, and
gradually the Episcopal congregations began to
build rough and unpretentious buildings to shelter
them from the weather during worship. Such a
rude meeting house was erected near Skinner's
dwelling about this time, and in 1799 this was re
placed by a still rude but more Churchlike struc
ture. Ramsay's description of what he saw at
Linshart in 1792 may here be referred to." The
chapel was primitive and unadorned, having the
appearance of a vast barn shaped like a cross. The
building was thatched, and although too low in the
roof for lofts or galleries, it could contain over
1000 worshippers. The altar was very plain,
"being a square seat (sic) immediately below a
very humble pulpit."
Skinner's life for the next twenty years may
be passed over lightly. It was occupied for the
most part with study and literary work, in addition
to the engrossing duties of a country charge. For
nearly seven years from 175 S he engaged in an un-

'Ibid. 51 Scotland, etc., I, 537.

244 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
successful attempt at farming, at the end of which
he was glad, in his own words, to
"Sell corn and cattle off; pay every man;
Get free of debts and duns as fast's I can;
Give up the farm with all its wants, and then,
Why, take me to the book and pen."
If the poet student made a poor farmer, it was
about this period that he produced his finest songs,
Tullochgorum — the best song, according to Burns,
that Scotland ever saw — and the famous Ewie
wi' the Crookit Horn. Both subjects were sug
gested to the poet by others. The latter is a mas
terpiece of pathos and subtle humour, combined
with sympathy for the lower creation, while Tul
lochgorum is a grand and sunny outburst in praise
of brotherhood and good feeling, in words that are
perfectly wedded to one of Scotland's most witch
ing reels.
"Come, gie's a sang Montgomery °2 cry'd,
And lay your disputes all aside.
What signifies't for folks to chide
For what was done before them;
Let Whig and Tory all agree,
Whig and Tory, Whig and Tory,

82 Mrs. Montgomery was the hostess of a clerical gath
ering at Ellon, where an acrimonious discussion had taken
place. In order to change the conversation she suggested
to Skinner that he should write words to the air of Tul
lochgorum, with the result that the famous song was pro
duced.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 245
Whig and Tory all agree,
To drop their Whig-meg-morum,
Let Whig and Tory all agree,
To spend the night wi' mirth and glee,
And cheerfu' sing alang wi' me
The reel o' Tullochgorum."
Skinner had an extraordinary facility in toss
ing off at a moment's notice a Scots song or a Latin
epigram, and never seems to have taken his
poetical talents seriously. The labour of revision
was irksome to him, and he never attempted any
thing worthy of his genius. Most of his themes
were suggested to him by others, or dictated by
the fancy of the moment. Doubtless he felt that
any fame which might be his in after days would
result from his learned labours in the Hebrew
Scriptures, in connection with a system of inter
pretation which is now as extinct as the dodo. This
was Hutchinsonianism, a method of study which
now seems wild and fanciful, but which appealed to
many minds in the days when there was no science
of philology, when Sanskrit was hardly known,
and when it was universally believed that Hebrew
was the earliest of all languages. Its aim was to
subvert Newton's theory of the universe, and the
Unitarianism which was then prevalent, and it pro
ceeded by discarding the Hebrew vowel points, and
then attaching speculative meanings to what was
left. Skinner's poetical nature was strongly at
tracted to Hutchinson's theories in his prison days,

246 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
and he remained devoted to them until the end of
his life, the subject being one upon which he could
least bear contradiction or raillery.53 During his
lifetime he published A dissertation on Jacob's
prophecy, Gen. xlix. 10 (1757), and after his death
appeared a treatise on the Shekinah, and An expo
sition of the Song of Solomon. The dissertation
brought a commendation from Dr. Sherlock,
Bishop of London, and a handsome present of
Calasio's Hebrew Concordance in four folio vol
umes. Skinner's library was contained in "a closet
of about five feet square," and he makes the par
donable boast to his grandson that "there are few
who have published so much (whether valuable or
not is out of the question) with so few books in
their possession." 01 He was blessed, however,
with a tenacious memory, and like most of the
clergy of his time he kept commonplace books, in
which he wrote down whatever he thought worthy
of notice in the books of others to which he had
access. The light in his study window served as
a landmark to passing wayfarers, and the good
man would never retire to rest so long as there
was a chance of any human being needing the as
sistance of its guiding rays.
The home of Linshart was a famed centre of
hospitality. All who came were sure of a wel-
83 Scotland, etc., I, 531. "Walker, p. 95.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 247
come and a place. If the fare was plain and
homely, and the style of living frugal, the host was
the life and soul of the company. He was an ad
mirable conversationalist, and stories of his wit and
humour yet abound in the district. As his family
grew up, he would compose songs for them to sing
to old Scottish tunes, and by word and example he
promoted that happy social intercourse of which
he sings in Tullochgorum.
"Blythe and cheerie we'll be a'
And make a happy quorum."
Of his family some did well in life, and others
less well. His second son John, the companion of
his imprisonment, was his favourite, and it is easy
to imagine with what joy and pride he saw that
son raised to the Episcopate in 1782, as Bishop of
Aberdeen, after some years of valuable service as a
priest at Ellon and Aberdeen.
It is related ™ that before the younger Skinner
was appointed Bishop, some of the older clergy
waited upon his father and urged him to allow him
self to be nominated for the office. He excused
himself, according to the story, in this way : "You
wish me to be Bishop, do you ? Well then, elect
John. I shall then be Bishop all the same."
Whether the words are authentic or not, they are
not far wide of the mark as an expression of
"Walker, p. 126.

248 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
Skinner's influence upon general Church affairs
in Scotland from this time forward. Able, ener
getic, and sensible as the Bishop was, his father's
gifts were much greater, and it was to the younger
man's credit and advantage that he relied upon
Tullochgorum's learning and advice so much as
he did. "The fact," says the grandson of the elder
Skinner/6 "is well known in Scotland, and his son,
the Bishop, never attempted to conceal it, that in
all his measures for the Church's relief and pros
perity, he was, under God, more indebted to the
head, the heart, and the hand of his own father. .
. . . .than to any other fellow-labourer."
Hardly had the new Bishop entered upon his
duties when a matter of the greatest importance
emerged. An English dignitary who was dwell
ing at St. Andrews, Dr. Berkeley, sub-dean of
Canterbury, and son of the famous Bishop of
Cloyne, wrote to him" urging the Scottish Bishops
to consider a project for sending out an "itinerant"
Bishop to America, now that the end of the war
of Independence was in sight. This proposal the
Scottish Bishops wisely rejected, but, as is well
known, a far happier result followed, when on
Sunday, the 14th of November, 1784, Dr. Sam
uel Seabury was consecrated as first Bishop of
Connecticut and of the American Church, by three
80 Annals of Scottish Episcopacy, pp. 522-3.
87 9th Oct. 1782. Scottish Church Review, p. 36.

SAMUEL SEABURY. D.D.
First Bishop of Connecticut

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 249
Scottish Bishops, Kilgour, Petrie, and Skinner,
in an upper room in Longacre, Aberdeen.
Of this important event the main management
fell upon the shoulders of Bishop Skinner, and but
for his firmness and energy the plan would prob
ably have miscarried. He in his turn was able
to rely upon the counsel and support of his father,
as Dean Skinner of Forfar, his own son, testifies.58
"The proposal to consecrate a Bishop for Connecti
cut was no sooner proposed to Bishop Skinner, and
communicated to his father, than the good man
became its zealous advocate and supporter. The
Bishops, Kilgour and Petrie (men of the greatest
private worth, but alike timid in disposition, as at
that time they had become infirm in body) he
stimulated to compliance by arguments which
eventually proved irresistible, while his own son,
who would modestly have declined the active part
which he was constrained to take, he encouraged
to the work with a zeal equally ardent, but more ac
cording to knowledge, than the zeal exhibited by
the patrons of modern Christian missions."
The Scottish Church is proud of its connec
tion with the great Church of America, and well it
may be. For the consecration of the first American
Bishop was more than the forging of a peculiarly
intimate link between the two Churches.
It proved to be the turning point in the depressed
88 Annals, ut supra.

250 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
fortunes of the Church in Scotland. It brought
a breath of new life and new hope into the minds
of its members, and widened a horizon which had
been narrowing for many years. And it brought
into public prominence the almost forgotten fact
of the Church's existence, and raised up in Eng
land friends whose zeal was afterwards enlisted
in the repeal of the penal laws.
The condition of the Church at the time of
Seabury's consecration was indeed a low one.
Three of the four Bishops58 who presided over it
lived within the diocese of Aberdeen, so greatly
had the area shrunk where a parochial charge could
be found with a moderate stipend for a Bishop's
support. Kilgour, the Primus, dwelt at Peter
head; Skinner his coadjutor had charge of the
Longacre congregation in Aberdeen; while Petrie,
the Bishop of Moray and Ross, ministered to the
congregation of Folia Rule, visiting his Northern
diocese at intervals of two or three years, riding
on "a little Highland pony," and wearing the
"shepherd's grey plaid" which was often his only
canonical robe.™ Under these four prelates there
were about forty clergy, while the laity numbered
probably less than a twentieth of the population
of the country.61

59 A fifth, Falconer of Edinburgh, died just before Sea
bury's consecration.
80 Scottish Church Review, Vol. I, p. 586.
81 Grub, IV, 91.

BISHOP SEABURY'S MITRE
Preserved at Trinity College, Hartford
Front and side views

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 251
The Seabury correspondence enables one to
frame a clear enough idea of the sentiments per
vading the Church at this time. Persecution had
rendered its leaders cautious and timid, although
the penal laws were no longer rigorously enforced.
Skinner's consecration was carried out so quietly
that when Berkeley first wrote to him he was un
aware of the fact that he was addressing a Bishop.62
And nothing could illustrate the Church's obscur
ity and isolation better than Skinner's satisfaction
at the thought that an English Church dignitary,
in the person of Berkeley, had shewed it "the least
mark of respect or sympathy." "3 Berkeley's de
scription of the Scottish Church as "a plant in a
dry ground," 61 only echoes the depressed references
of its own prelates then and for long afterwards
to its apparently sinking state. The older genera
tion was still opposed to the establishment in Eng
land, and in sympathy with the non-jurors there.
Indeed the objection which Bishop Rose of Dun
keld urged against Seabury was "his having got
his orders from the scismatical Church of Eng
land," °5 and Skinner was doubtless much surprised
to learn, in the course of the Seabury negotiations,
that his three colleagues were at the time consider
ing an application to consecrate, and send a Bishop
to the non-juring remnant in England. For this
82 S. C. R., p. 38. 8Spp. 36 and 39. 64p. 36.
05 p. 589. Bishop Falconer "would take no concern in
that proposal," p. 588.

252 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
step precedents could be urged/6 and the action
of English Bishops in ordaining men to take charge
of "qualified" congregations in Scotland was keenly
resented by the Scottish Bishops, but happily, no
doubt through Skinner's firmness, the elder pre
lates did not proceed in the matter.
On the other hand, when after more than a
year's ineffective waiting upon the English
Bishops, Seabury turned to Scotland for aid, his
request for consecration was freely granted. A
concordat between the Scottish Church and that
of Connecticut, drawn up by Bishops Skinner and
Petrie, was agreed to, the main result of which was
the framing of the American Communion office
upon the model of the liturgy of the Scottish
Church. At the historic scene in the Longacre
upper room the youthful Alexander Jolly,
afterwards well known as the saintly bishop of
Moray, was present, to his great joy; and to him
Skinner, whom Sunday duties had prevented from
attending, wrote of his happiness in having "a son
assisting in sending a Bishop to that very country
to which the execution of my office has for these
thirty years past exposed me to the risk of being

88 In 1713, and again in 1716, Bishops Campbell and
Gadderar had assisted Bishop Hickes to consecrate non-
juring Bishops in London, and in 1725 Bishop Doughty
was consecrated in Edinburgh by four Scottish Bishops.
8. C. R., p. 592.

THE LONGACRE, ABERDEEN, 1884
fFrom the Seabury Centenary Report]

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 253
banished as a felon ! What may I not live to see
after this ?" 6T
In the year 178S two events happened which
paved the way for the emancipation of the Church
from the penal laws. Prince Charles Edward
died, and Bishop Skinner became Primus. The
diocese of Aberdeen in a synodical meeting held at
Longside resolved to pray for King George, and
soon practically the whole Church had followed
their lead. In the subsequent labours for the re
peal of the penal laws which occupied the next
four years, the Primus was the leading figure, but
"the letters of the period quite bear out the state
ment that the energetic Bishop received most ef
fective help from his equally energetic father." 6S
At last, in 1792, after many disappointments and
delays, the days of legal oppression were over for
the Disestablished Church.™
To enumerate or describe the numerous writ
ings, controversial, theological, historical and oth
erwise, which the parson of Longside produced
during his long life, would be impossible in the
space at our disposal. Suffice it to say that his
pen was ever at his Church's service, whether for
her defence or her edification. As time went on,
indeed, he so impressed his views and speculations
upon the Northern Church, that, to quote his biog-
87 Ibid., p. 597. °8 Walker, p. 132.
" Not till 1864, however, were the last of the penal
disabilities removed.

254 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
rapher, "at last in the north eastern districts there
was hardly a clergyman that did not think his
thoughts, and speak his language. No Bishop had
nearly the same influence on opinion. Not one
of them, indeed, combined in the same degree the
chief elements of moral influence, — learning, abil
ity, force of character, and opportunity." ™ As a
teacher of candidates for Holy Orders, Skinner
rendered the Church most valuable service. Most
of the clergy of the diocese of Aberdeen towards
the end of the eighteenth century were, according to
his grandson, trained by him.71 As Dean of the
diocese from at least 1789 onwards he wielded an
ecclesiastical influence only second to that of his
son.72 And, as we have seen, his influence on the
views and activities of that son was of a very ex
tensive character.
Despite his great gifts as a writer, Skinner's
literary acquaintances were comparatively few.
One conspicuous exception was the poet Robert
Burns, with whom, although the two bards never
met, he conducted a cordial and interesting corres
pondence. Burns had a very high opinion of
Skinner's poetical work, and indeed induced him
to contribute several songs to Johnson's Museum,
a musical publication in which he was interested.
Another literary acquaintance was John Ramsay
"Walker, p. 153.
"Annals of Scottish Episcopacy, p. 468.
72 Walker, p. 156.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 255
of Ochtertyre, the friend of Scott, and the patron
of Burns, as well as one of the characters from
whom the famous Antiquary, Jonathan Oldbuck,
was drawn. Ramsay has left behind him a most
interesting picture of Skinner and his surround
ings about the years 1792 and 1795, at which dates
he visited Linshart.73
Skinner's home had little charm for the South
ern visitor, being "an ugly place in an ugly coun
try," bare and barren of trees, with a"black and
stagnated" burn passing the door. The house,
one story high, looked mean for its inhabitant.
Its furniture was plain and primitive, and peat
burned on the hearth, there being no chimney in
the house. Skinner, despite his seventy years, and
the fact that he had recently been ill, looked like
a man of fifty. His figure was "portly and pleas
ing," his appearance was fresh, and his hair was
coal-black, except for two grey tufts on his cheeks.
The "originality and brilliancy" of his conversa
tion, coupled with his "courtesy and cordiality"
as a host, more than made up for the plainness of
his surroundings. "I had sometimes been in the
company of men of first-rate wit and genius, but
never saw one whose social hour was more truly
delightful and instructive." Indeed Burns the
poet, whom Ramsay had entertained in 1787, was
the one who came nearest to him "in those unpre-

78 Scotland, etc., I, p. 536 etc.

256 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
meditated flashes of wit and sentiment, the im
pulse of the moment, which bespeak a heart preg
nant with celestial fire."
In the course of his second visit Ramsay, Pres
byterian as he was, attended Sunday service at
Longside. He was struck with the "strongly
marked faces" of the people, which betokened both
sense and sharpness, and a serious frame of mind.
Bonnets and parti-coloured plaids were well in
evidence, and the dress of the congregation seemed
very old fashioned. He was surprised when the
service began with a psalm "taken from the As
sembly's version," and the precentor's tone and
style of singing made him fancy himself in a Pres
byterian Church, till the reading of the Liturgy
dispelled his illusion. Skinner's sermon, "pious,
rational and impressive, calculated to edify peas
ants and philosophers," was conversational in de
livery, and to his Southron hearer, its length
(about forty minutes) and its "want of papers"
seemed equally extraordinary in an Episcopal
Chapel. In the year 1789 Skinner received the freedom
of the city of old Aberdeen, where his imprison
ment had taken place thirty-six years earlier, and
it was in Aberdeen that his life closed. He had
lost the wedded partner of the joys and sorrows of
fifty-eight years in 1799, and the bereavement was
a sore and trying one, from which he never recov
ered. At last, in the spring of 1807 he agreed, at

SEABURY MEMORIAL TABLET
Aberdeen University

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 257
the invitation of his son the Bishop, to leave Long-
side in the charge of his grandson and assistant,
the Rev. John Cumming, and spend the rest of his
days in Aberdeen. His life however was very
near its close. Arriving at his son's house on
June 4th, he suddenly passed away in the Bishop's
arms on the 16th, and his long and faithful service
of the Church militant was over. It was a ser
vice indeed which brought him little earthly re
ward except the joy of performance, but its record
is worthy of an imperishable place in the annals
of the Church which he loved so well.

VH-MODERN TIMES
Joh__t Dowbebt
Bishop of Edetbuegh
(Born 1840— Died 1910)
The modern spirit of change, which we see in
these days operating so powerfully on every side,
has done very much to alter the aspect of religious
life in Scotland. Old customs, old prejudices and
points of view have been, or are being silently
broken up by powerful solvents, while new knowl
edge and new thought have come pouring in likw a
mighty flood. Not only is this true of the general
religious sentiment and standpoint throughout the
land, but most of the religious communities in it
have likewise undergone a definite transformation.
Certainly those old antagonists, Presbytery and
Episcopacy, have altered almost beyond belief. If
the former/ with its organs and not infrequent
liturgic services, its use of ecclesiastical titles
which do not suggest the parity of its presbyters,
its chancels, painted windows and even church
statuary, its dislike of the Westminster Conf es-
1This refers mainly to Pn*Jiyt_*ri_nris_n as established.
The "Wee Frees'-" still seek to walk in the old paths.

JOHN DOWDEN, D.D.
Late Bishop of Edinburgh

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 259
sion, and other departures from old standards,
would with difficulty be recognised, and with still
greater difficulty be acknowledged by the heroes
of the Solemn League and Covenant, it is not to
be forgotten that the changes in the outward and
the inward life of Scottish Episcopacy have also
been very great. It also has been moulded and
developed amidst the play of modern influences.
In the early part of the nineteenth century the
adherents of Episcopal principles were still dimin
ishing in number. The deadly effect of the penal
laws remained long after their removal, and to
men of faith and piety like Bishop Jolly, all that
seemed possible was to keep the dying embers of
the Church as long alight as possible. As the old
clergy in the remote country districts and in the
Highlands died out, whole congregations were lost
owing to the impossibility of finding fresh pastors.
In these cases the old people remained as a rule
staunch to the principles in which they had been
trained, and kept aloof from Presbyterian ordin
ances. Their children, however, were less likely
to maintain this attitude, and when the disruption
of 1843 came, many of them are said to have
joined the Eree Church. Indeed, it is said that
the "Wee Frees" in some Highland districts to
day are largely descended from those shepherdless
Episcopalians, who were caught in the extraordin
ary wave of spiritual feeling which pervaded
Scotland at that crisis, and who doubtless also

260 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
counted it to their credit to share in a great popu
lar movement against the establishment which
their fathers would have none of.
It is difficult to say exactly when this dwind
ling process came to an end, but the Oxford move
ment of 1833 produced a great and stimulating
effect upon the "Catholic remnant" in Scotland.
The English Tractarian leaders were strongly
drawn towards the Scottish Church, with its free
dom from State control and its high ideals of prim
itive truth and Apostolic order. In Scotland too the
teaching of Newman, Pusey and Eeble fell upon
many places like seed upon prepared soil. It is
true indeed, that certain aspects of that teach
ing evoked no less opposition in some quarters than
enthusiastic assent in others. The Eucharistic
Controversy of 1857-60 seemed at one time likely
to shake the little Church to its foundations. A
presbyter, the Rev. Patrick Cheyne of Aberdeen,
was suspended from his sacred functions for the
teaching contained in his Six Sermons on the Most
Holy Eucharist, while the good Bishop A. P.
Forbes of Brechin was censured and admonished
by his brother Bishops for a similar reason.
Other important influences upon the member
ship of the Church were the gradual reconciling of
the "qualified" chapels, with their English or anti-
Jacobite congregations, and the increased facili
ties for communication and travel, which have ad
ded so many English and Irish residents to the

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 261
population of Scotland. To this latter circum
stance, as well as to the use of a Prayer Book which
bears on its title-page the legend, According to
the use of the Church of England, is to be as
cribed the fact that the old Disestablished Kirk
of Scotland is so commonly but so wrongly called
"The English Church." Hence also the ready
credence to the frequent charge, made by those
who ought to know better, that Scottish Episcopacy
is an alien on Scottish soil, an exotic plant from
England. Hard words, however, do not hurt like
penal laws, and in time, doubtless, historic truth
will prevail.
It is of course undeniable that one of the
prominent features in the nineteenth century de
velopment of the Scottish Episcopal Church has
been its closer approximation to the Church of
England. This process has been going on since
the repeal of the penal laws, one of the condi
tions of which was the acceptance of the Thirty-
nine Articles of Religion by the Scottish Church.
This acceptance was not consummated till 1804,
when the convocation of Laurencekirk accepted
the English formulary without qualification. An
other step was taken in 1811, when, mainly
through the influence of the learned Bishop Grleig,
it was enacted that the words of the English lit
urgy should be strictly adhered to at Morning and
Evening Prayer, and that the use of the surplice
should be introduced with prudence and discre-

262 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
tion. Again in 1864 the removal by Parliament
of the disqualification of Scottish Clergy from offi
ciating or holding a benefice in England, drew the
two Churches much more closely together.
It is not easy to realise, in these days of seemly
Churches, surpliced choirs, and musical services,
how great the difference is between the state of
things ecclesiastical in the first half of the nine
teenth century, and that of the second half. So late
as 1830-8 all the six Bishops of the church be
longed to the North East, and three of them lived
within the diocese of Aberdeen. Up to that time
everything indigenously Episcopal in Scotland
bore the Aberdeen hall-mark. And in that dio
cese the Churches were very plain and humble
buildings. Chancels were unknown, and the three-
decker or two-decker was an imposing feature of
the interior. Till the year 1819 the only vest
ment used was the black gown, with a black stole
or scarf, and white linen bands. After the synod
of that year the surplice was used by all the clergy
in the diocese, but the black gown and bands con
tinued to be generally used in the pulpit until
well into the second half of the century. The
services were very plain, the psalms being always
read. The Holy Communion was usually cele
brated four or five times a year until about the
sixties, when monthly celebrations began to be in
troduced. The Scottish Communion Office was of
course the diocesan "use," and to this day there

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 263
are congregations in the diocese where the English
Office has never been heard.2
The figure chosen to illustrate the latest pe
riod of the Church's development, is that of one
who was by birth neither a Scotsman nor an Epis
copalian. John Dowden was an unmistakable
Irishman, with his delicate appreciation of art and
literature, his keen sense of humour, and, let it
not be denied, his thorough joy in a good fight.
And yet no one could have understood and loved
the Scottish Church more than he did. His knowl
edge of her true ideals, and his sympathy with her
real needs rendered his services of particular value,
and today the impress of his influence is visible
upon her life in many directions. Our improved
service book and the widely extended use of the
Scottish Communion Office are largely due to his
efforts. His wide and accurate scholarship, and
the valuable works which he produced in the
spheres of history and liturgiology, have not only
brought credit to the Church of which he was an
ornament, but have also stimulated and guided
study within it, and raised the standard of knowl
edge in these departments. And the effect of his
powerful and winning personality upon those who
knew him well, especially upon his theological stu-

2 See Walker: Reminiscenses Academical and Ecclesias
tical, Chap. XII.

264 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IS
dents now in the ministry, is one that time will not
readily efface.
The future Bishop of Edinburgh was born in
the old and historic city of Cork on St. Peter's
Day, IS 40. His father, John Wheeler Dowden,
was a man of remarkable character and ability.
Closely engaged in business as he was, he found
time both to keep himself abreast with the march
of modern thought, and to attend to the wants of
his poorer neighbours. "Ike most unselfish man
I ever met," "one of the best and wisest men I
ever knew," these are two tributes to his character,
the first by his son, the second by the late Dr.
Salmon, Provost of Trinity College, Dublin. Mrs.
Dowden whose wise and loving care was an im
portant factor in the boy's early training, was at
one with her husband in a lifelong generosity
which many a poor inhabitant of Cork had abund
ant reason to bless. While her husband was a
staunch Presbyterian, she was a devoted member
of the Church of Ireland. Thus it came about
that John learnt both the Shorter Catechism and
the Church Catechism, and that on Sundays he
would attend the Presbyterian service in the morn
ing, and go with his mother to that of the Church
of Ireland in the evening.
The lad's early education was imparted in
Cork, partly at school, and partly by private tu
tors. At the age of sixteen he entered Queen's
College, Cork, with the intention of becoming a

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 265
medical man. Of his studies we know little, ex
cept that he gained a scholarship both in his first
and in his second year. Among his teachers was
Bunnell Lewis, Professor of Latin, a keen antiqua
rian and a lover of books, who may have given a
bent to Dowden's mind. To the class in general
it was amusing to watch the reverence and care
with which the Professor would handle some dingy
old tome, but not so to the future "Vice President
of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries and the ar
dent book collector of later days, well known
among the bookshops and stalls of Edinburgh.
About this time John and his brother Edward,
afterwards Professor of English Literature in
Dublin University, paid their first visit to Scot
land, in the course of which they came to the Scot
tish Capital. Of his sojourn in the scene of his
future Episcopate the Bishop used to recall two
events, his purchase of an old book in Mr. Thin's
well-known shop, and his sitting upon the steps
of a city Church pulpit to listen to a sermon
preached by the famous Dr. Guthrie to a crowded
congregation. The studies at Queen's College were interrupted
by ill-health, which continued to hamper young
Dowden during his University career, and indeed
during the rest of his sojourn in Ireland. His
views as to a career also became modified, and the
ministry of the Church of Ireland began to seem
more attractive than the medical profession. His

266 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
father with characteristic promptitude and open-
mindedness resolved to send him to Trinity Col
lege, Dublin, of which he became an undergradu
ate in October, 1858.
One of the most notable of the fellows of
Trinity at that time was George Salmon, a rela
tion of the young entrant. Dr. Salmon had not
as yet begun his brilliant and remarkable career as
a theologian, nor had the disestablishment of the
Irish Church arrived, to evoke his gifts as a finan
cier and a practical adviser whose "strong com
mon sense amounted at times to genius." Yet he
had achieved an European reputation as a master
in the realm of pure mathematics, and the life of
the University was enriched by the presence of his
splendid intellect, wedded as it was to a nature
lovable and simple, even to quaintness. John
Dowden came at once under the spell of his
attraction, and there is no doubt that Salmon's
personality was a powerful factor in the forma
tion of the younger man's character. A close and
affectionate friendship sprang up between the two,
and continued until the Provost's death in 1904.
Unlike as they were in many respects, there was
much in common between the Bishop's character,
as known in later life, and that of his distinguished
relative. In both there was a supreme determina
tion, which regarded neither time nor trouble, to
get at real facts, and a corresponding hatred of
shams and evasions. In both could be discerned

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 267
a touching humility, and a wide human sympathy.
The man of business who dropped into the Bish
op's study in Edinburgh would remark upon the
kind courtesy and the simple readiness of the
scholar to listen and learn, just as the Dublin stu
dent did when he consulted the Divinity Profes
sor. And if a warm heart and a turn for humour
are not uncommon Irish qualities, in both these
men was a self-restraint which checked their too
exuberant expression. "I always fear," writes
the younger to the elder, "seeming enthusiastical
before you, and cut myself down to what I think
the level of extraordinary common-sense."
Dowden's University life was marked by hard
study and exceptionally wide reading, but his
chance of obtaining a brilliant degree was marred
by frequent ill-health and bodily weakness. Ath
letics were beyond his range, and the amiable
frivolities of student life had little attraction for
him. A ramble with a kindred spirit round
Howth or Donnybrook, or in summer a swim at
Kingstown afforded the exercise which he needed.
His intense love of music found gratification in
the services of the College Chapel, and in attend
ance at concerts and oratorios where famous musi
cians might be heard. The rooms which he and
his brother Edward shared at No. 17 Trinity Col
lege became the resort of brainy men. "No drink
ing or cardplaying", we are told by a contempo
rary, was to be found there. Dowden's chief delight

268 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
was to discuss those everlasting metaphysical and
theological questions which present themselves to
the growing minds of young men at Universities
everywhere. Of his spiritual life at this time
much might be said, but it seems better to imi
tate his own reticence on such a subject. His
diaries reveal simple and deep religious convic
tions, a high ideal of the Christian life, and a
sincere effort to reach it. To cultivate truth in
the inward parts was his great desire. His prayer
on New Year's Day, 1862, was for "a greater
truthfulness of heart, a greater respect for the
truth in everyday conversation." "Let me feel,"
he says on another occasion, "that I have gone some
way to cultivating a truthful habit, before I go
seeking after the truth."
In 1861 Dowden graduated B.A. with first
class honours in Logic and Ethics, gaining at the
same time the second senior moderatorship, with
a gold medal. He now decided to join the Divin
ity Class, much to his father's delight, and he was
confirmed by Archbishop Whately in 1862. The
theological atmosphere was electrical during this
period, and for a time Dowden, like several of his
fellows, came under its influence. He wavered as
to whether he could subscribe to the Thirty-nine
Articles and the Prayer Book, especially the Ath-
anasian Creed, but eventually the trouble passed.
On the 17th July, 1864, he was ordained deacon at
Kilmore Cathedral by Bishop Verschoyle, to the

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 269
curacy of St. John's, Sligo. In the following Sep
tember he was wedded to Miss Louisa Jones, a lady
whom he had first met in Cork, and with whom
renewed acquaintance in Dublin had ripened into
love. The years which were now spent in Sligo and
its suburb Calry3 were very important in the de
velopment of the young cleric's character. His
parochial labours were constant and trying, and
although he was sometimes oppressed with a sense
of unfitness, there is no doubt that his work met
with success. His intellectual gifts were doubtless
more fitted for an educated city congregation than
for the mental environment of a provincial town,
and the impression that he was "a High Church
man" did not tend to help matters. Yet when he
left Sligo his old rector, the Rev. Edward Day,
testified that he had won the respect and esteem
not only of his own parishioners, but of the in
habitants of the town, of all ranks and classes.
Yet the gifts which Dowden had for the service
of the Church and its Master were preeminently
those of a scholar, and all through the Sligo period
we find him hard at work in his study. The en
thusiasm for metaphysics4 which had up till now

8 Dowden became perpetual curate of Calry in 1867.
'His first published work was entitled Observations
on Some Aids to Personal Religion Afforded by Mental
Science, delivered as the Presidential lecture to the Uni
versity Theological Society in 1862.

270 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
determined his bent, began to give place to a taste
for liturgical investigation, and he started also to
lay more securely the foundations of his knowl
edge of theology. Nor was he insensible to the
historical and antiquarian associations of the coun
try around Sligo, as his history of the Celtic Church
in Scotland* afterwards shewed. In 1866 he be
came a contributor of reviews to the newly started
Contemporary Review, of which Dean Alford was
editor, and three years later his first article in that
periodical appeared, on Arthur Hugh Clough.
Dowden's literary interests were kept in full ac
tivity by constant correspondence with his brother
about men and books, and by interchange of son
nets and other poems. As secretary of the Sligo
Choral union he formed an acquaintance which
had a great influence on his future career. The
conductor of the society was the Rev. W. Percy
Robinson, then head of the diocesan school in
Sligo, and afterwards Warden of Glenalmond Col
lege in Scotland, and it was by no mere coincidence
that Dowden a few years later became head of the
Theological Department of the same institution
of the Scottish Church.
Dowden was still in Sligo at the time of the
disestablishment of the Church of Ireland, and
when the resultant movement for the revision of
the Irish Prayer Book began, he was already a
5 See pp. 94, 95.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 271
serious liturgical student. He contributed an
article in 1871 to the Contemporary Review" on
Literary Aspects of Prayerbook revision, which
attracted considerable attention in England and
Ireland. His desire was that doctrinal questions
should be avoided, and that only changes of a lit
erary kind should be undertaken. The following
characteristic passage may be quoted, as illustrat
ing the spirit in which all his own work was done :
"May it be granted to those who in the
Irish Church have been appointed to this most
responsible task to feel that nothing is light
or trivial in the work before them — that the
heading of a collect, the alteration of a letter,
the shifting of a comma, is each a work to be
done in the Name, and to the Glory of God,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."
Dr. Littledale, the well-known liturgical scholar,
recognising "the hand of one who knows what
he is writing about," entered into correspondence
with the author, and Dr. Salmon, the originator of
the Prayer Book Revision Committee, invited him
to send suggestions for reform. "If you will
spoonfeed me," he wrote, "I will spoonfeed their
Lordships, and perhaps some few grains may get
down." Nothing loth Dowden set to work and
furnished a considerable number of suggestions on

"In December 1872 an article on The American Prayer
Book from his pen appeared in the same publication.

272 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
the lines of his article. The temper of the revis
ionists, however, was set in other directions than
that of mere literary improvements, and as far as
Ireland was concerned the Sligo curate's liturgical
labours had no effect. Yet in the year 1911 his
work was quoted by one well qualified to judge as
"a precious mine of information and suggestion"
for the revision of the English Prayer Book.'
In 1870 there came an appointment as chap
lain to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord
Spencer, which entailed an occasional preaching
visit to the Chapel Royal in Dublin, and two years
later Dowden removed to that city as one of the
curates of St. Stephen's Church under his old
Divinity lecturer, Archdeacon Lee. The congre
gation of St. Stephen's was a highly cultivated one,
and Dowden's ministrations were much appreci
ated there. His sojourn of less than two years in
the capital city was, however, anything but a mo
notonous one. Feeling was running high in Dublin
over Prayer Book revision and ritualism, and
Dowden threw himself into the fray with much
zest. He published a sermon on The Saints in the
Calendar and the Irish Synod, attacking with
much vigour the proposal to remove the names of
the black-letter Saints from the Irish calendar,
as "thoroughly and vulgarly provincial," and he
came into conflict with St. Stephen's congregation

' Frere. Some principles of Liturgical reform, p. viii.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 273
by refusing, at Archdeacon Lee's request, to use
the revised lectionary that was issued by the Irish
General Synod in 1873. Although in the end he
gave way on this latter point, it is unlikely that
his further contributions to the difficult ecclesiasti
cal situation would have been of a soothing charac
ter. When therefore on the 7th of May, 1874,
Bishop Forbes of Brechin wrote offering him in
the name of the Scottish Bishops the post of Pan-
tonian Professor of Theology at Glenalmond, to
gether with the Bell Lecturership on Education,
it was probably with a sense of relief that he
grasped the opportunity of escape from the tur
moil of Irish Church affairs. His old colleague in
the Sligo Choral Society, the Rev. Percy Robinson,
had recommended Dowden to the Bishops as a
man of learning and ability, and thus in Septem
ber he entered upon his thirty-six years of service
in the Scottish Episcopal Church.
It was not as a complete stranger that Profes
sor Dowden came to his new sphere of work. His
visit to Scotland as a youth had bred in his mind
an interest in the notable men and affairs of the
country, and his liturgical studies had made him
familiar with the beauty of the Scottish Commun
ion Office. He had besides been a contributor to
the Scottish Guardian, the weekly organ of the
Episcopal Church. Yet he could hardly have
realized how interesting and important was the

274 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
juncture at which he threw in his lot with Scot
tish Episcopacy.
In the early seventies of last century this
Church was entering upon a stage of rich and va
ried development which is still continuous. The
death in 1872 of the genial and famous Dean Ram
say seems, as we look backward, to mark the pass
ing away of an old order of things. The final
removal in 1864 of the legal disabilities which re
mained after the penal laws were repealed, had
lifted from the minds of Scottish Episcopalians
the weight which a sense of injustice and oppres
sion always produces. A spirit of healthy enter
prise soon made itself felt. The development of
the modern cathedral system8 in Scotland received
a new impetus, and more important still, a new
democratic movement in the Church was felt,
which resulted in the gradual widening of the
powers of the laity in Church affairs. The chief
stages of this movement have been the formation
of the Representative Church Council in 1876
for the management of finance, and that of the
Consultative Committee on Church Legislation in
1905. The first of these bodies is composed
equally of clergy and laity, and the existence of
the second ensures that before any fresh legislation
can be passed by the Provincial Synod, the laity
shall be informed of what is proposed, and shall
6 See Appendix F on The Modern Scottish Cathedrals.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 275
have ample opportunity of expressing the lay
mind on the subject, whatever it may be.
At this time too did the Church begin, late
enough in the day, to awaken to a keener sense
of her missionary duty in the evangelization of
the world. Definite responsibilities were under
taken at Chanda, in the Central Provinces of In
dia, and in the diocese of Kaffraria in South
Africa. Dr. Callaway, the first Bishop of Kaffra
ria, was consecrated in St. Paul's Church, Edin
burgh in 1873. And in answer, it would seem, to
the Church's awakening sense of responsibility
came the noble legacy of the Misses Walker, by
which a sum of nearly a quarter of a million
pounds was left in trust for the benefit of the
Church. The fine Cathedral of St. Mary in Edin
burgh stands as the most conspicuous result of
this benefaction, but its general beneficent effect
upon a poor and struggling Communion is equally
visible to all who have eyes to see.
Thus it was given to Mr. Dowden to witness
and to bear his share in a notable work of Church
expansion and consolidation. Insignificant in
point of numbers as the Church was and is, when
we consider the whole population of Scotland, yet
her relative growth has been striking. The
60,000 souls which she shepherded in 1873 * had

9 The Church Society Report for this year gives figures
which amount to 55,000, but there are some gaps in the
lists.

276 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
grown to 140,000 by the time of Bishop Dowden's
death. Her 202 Churches had become in the same
period 388, and her 202 clergy about 332. And
whereas in 1872-3 the total givings through the
Church society amounted to £6792, over £23,000
was contributed in 1909 to the funds of the Rep
resentative Church Council. Small enough these
figures seem alongside of the great things which are
being achieved around us in Scotland, yet to us at
least they are a sign of God's blessing on our handi
work, and a cheering promise for the years to
come. Trinity College, Glenalmond, was opened in
1847, chiefly through the exertions of the late Mr.
W. E. Gladstone and his friend Mr. James Hope.
Beautifully situated on the wooded bank of the
Almond, and surrounded by the Perthshire hills,
it was designed so as to combine the features of a
public school and of a theological seminary. It
was hoped thus to increase the influence of the
Church's theological college, which had existed in
Edinburgh since 1824 and was now transferred
to its new abode, and to foster in the school a
sense of vocation for the ministry. But the ex
periment had not succeeded, associated though it
was with the names of men like Wordsworth, Bar
ry, Bright, Hannah, and Browne. Candidates for
the ministry were not attracted in the hoped-for
numbers, and those who came did not always get
on well with the school boys. The appointment of

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 277
Dowden was part of an effort by the Scottish Bish
ops to infuse new life into the theological depart
ment, although all unconsciously they were intro
ducing into the situation the strong man who was
to cut the difficult knot, and be the chief agent in
restoring the theological college to Edinburgh.
On arriving at Glenalmond the new Professor
found to his disappointment that his class was to
consist of one solitary student. In after days he
used to joke about his "one ewe lamb," who in
due course departed from Trinity College to be
ordained, leaving the Professor for a time without
anyone to instruct. Yet it was with a sense of
dissipated energy that he strove single-handed, then
and afterwards, to impart instruction in all the
branches of theology. "My style and dignity," he
once said to an eminent professor of the Free
Church, "is that of Pantonian10 Professor, so called
from the Greek w«£vtw because I am Professor of
all things."
However, fresh students began to appear, and
the quiet academic life offered opportunities for
study which were entirely congenial to Dowden.
In particular he devoted himself to the study of
the Scotch Communion Office, the knowledge and
appreciation of which he was in after days to do
so much to spread. His duties as Bell Lecturer
on Education also brought him into touch with the
10 The endowment of the professorship was left by Miss
Katherine Panton, an Aberdeenshire Churchwoman, in 1823.

278 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
Church in Edinburgh, where he delivered lectures.
At the end of about twelve months a serious fire
occurred which caused the theological department
to be removed to Edinburgh. This was decided
upon only as a temporary expedient, but Dowden
now raised the question whether it would not be
better that the college should remain in the capi
tal. Besides the arguments which he advanced as
to the benefits of life in a University city, access
to modern libraries, and the possibility of increas
ing the teaching staff, he added an unanswerable
one, culled from the Panton trust deed, which re
quired the Theological Professor to deliver his lec
tures in Edinburgh. "The College," he said, "may
return to Glenalmond, but the Pantonian Professor
remains here!" After a good deal of hot contro
versy Dowden was allowed to have his way. The
students received instruction in various places in
Edinburgh for several years, but the College is now
housed permanently and well at Coates Hall in
Rosebery Crescent. The existence of this fine
pile of buildings, with its full complement of stu
dents in residence, and a fairly adequate staff of
teachers, is the best possible proof of the wisdom
of the stand which Dowden made against return
ing to Glenalmond.
In his work as a teacher, Dr. Dowden's" per
sonality counted for more than anything else. His
11 He became D.D. of Dublin in 1876, and received the
degree of LL.D. from Edinburgh University in 1904.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 279
lectures were apt to be discursive, and his methods
were not those of the crammer. To the average
student too his insistence upon exactness in
minutiae was felt to be something of a trial at ex
amination times. But the sight of the alert figure
moving about the lecture room, the keen face
afire, the eager hands pulling down from the
shelves a volume here and another there, in order
that the students might look at original authorities,
was itself a stimulus and an inspiration. "Verify
your references" was a maxim continually upon
his lips. Slovenly and inaccurate work was his
despair. But when he found that he had struck
fire in any member of his class his joy was great.
No trouble was too great to take when a willing
student wanted guidance. And no one could have
been more sympathetic or patient when help was
sought in intellectual or other difficulties. The
following extract from a letter to a student will
illustrate this, and also shew his opinions upon a
still controverted subject, the use of the Athanas-
ian Creed.
"The point to remember about the Athanasian
Creed is that it is not unbelief or infidelity, how
ever extreme, that is aimed at, but apostasy, —
which means an immoral surrender of the faith,
such as were too common among the orthodox dur
ing the Vandal persecutions of the first half of the
fifth century in the south of France, Spain, and
North Africa.

280 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
"The Vandals were Arians from the date of
their conversion to Christianity; and used brib
ery, persecution of minor kinds, and the sword
to persuade the Catholics to renounce the faith in
which they had been brought up. The case be
fore the mind of Hilary (or whoever it was that
wrote the Athanasian Psalm Quicunque Vult) was
not that of a man really, i. e. conscientiously con
vinced by processes of reasoning that the Catholic
Faith was untrue, but that of a man who, for a
morsel of bread, or, if you will, for life itself
would profess the new faith of the conquering
barbarians. I cannot in a short letter shew you
that such were in all probability the historical con
ditions under which the Creed (or rather battle-
song to brace the courage of the faint-hearted) was
written. But, if you will assume that this is the
case, it will lessen the difficulty of accepting the
Creed: though it leaves perfectly open the ques
tion whether it is desirable that a document so
liable to be misunderstood should be retained in
the Prayerbook.
"There is such a sin as denying Christ, and
there is a punishment attached to it — the being
denied by Christ before His Father — '1 know you
not, depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting
fire/ etc. The Quicunque Vult, I suppose, means
neither more or less than this, whatever the latter
really means."
Nor did his interest in his students cease

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 281
when they left College to enter the ministry of
the Church. It was a sight worth seeing at meet
ings of the Representative Council to watch his
intentness when one of his old pupils rose to speak.
However dull and bored he looked before, he would
now waken up and listen as if some most wise and
important person were speaking. On occasion he
would even rise himself to supplement or enforce
the arguments, perhaps imperfectly advanced, of
such an one. And so it was in many other import
ant directions. Thirty years ago the Scottish
Episcopal Church was suffering from a bad at
tack of gentility. For all important appoint
ments, almost without exception, it was the rule
to choose men of English birth and training, while
to the Scottish clergy, trained in the Church's own
institution, the lot of hewers of wood and drawers
of water — to use Dr. Dowden's indignant phrase —
was usually all that was offered. Irishman though
he was, Dowden made it part of his life's work to
remedy this state of matters, and the great change
which of recent years has taken place in this re
spect is in the main to be ascribed to him.
In the year 1884 came the publication of the
book which first brought Dr. Dowden's gifts as a
liturgical scholar into wide prominence. The An
notated Scottish Communion Office, containing as
it did an historical treatment of the American Of
fice, and dedicated as it was to the American Bish-

282 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
ops/2 was naturally received with great interest in
the Church of America. At home this, the stand
ard work on the subject, marked a new epoch in
the history of the Scottish Office. It turned the
tide of opinion which for long had been setting in
the direction of depreciation, into the opposite di
rection of ever rising appreciation. Since 1884
the intrinsic merits of the national liturgy have
become more widely and intelligently recognised
than they were before, even among Scottish Church
people accustomed to its use.
Two years later the see of Edinburgh became
vacant through the death of Bishop Cotterill, and
Canon Dowden's name was brought forward in
connection with the election of a successor. Learn
ing, however, that Canon Liddon was also to be
proposed, Dowden refused to allow himself to
be voted on. Liddon, however, declined the offer,
and the Pantonian Professor was then elected.
Among the warmest letters of congratulation which
reached him were those from several Bishops and
other friends in America. He was consecrated on
the 21st of September, 1866, by the six other Scot
tish Bishops and Bishop Lightf oot of Durham. The
12 "To the Bishops of the Church of Christ in America,
whose succession may be traced through Samuel Seabury,
consecrated by Scottish Bishops at Aberdeen, fourteenth
November, seventeen hundred and eighty-four, this account
of the Eucharistic Office Books of the Scottish and Am
erican Churches, is with profound respect dedicated by a
presbyter of the Scottish Church."

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 283
sermon was preached by the new Bishop's old
friend, Dr. Salmon of Trinity College, Dublin.
Dr. Dowden's Episcopate may be divided into
two stages, the earlier in which the bent of his
mind was mainly ecclesiastical, the later in which
the prominent characteristics were rather those of
the student. At first he incurred a good deal of
odium among the general public of Edinburgh by
the strict line which he took with regard to An
glican ecclesiastics appearing officially in Presby
terian churches in the city. His adoption of the
signature "J. Edenburgen" also gave great offence
to the many Edinburgh citizens who were un
friendly to prelacy. A fierce newspaper campaign
ensued, which the Bishop treated with calmness
and dignity. The most extraordinary accusations
were made, only to be quietly and effectively re
plied to, and eventually the controversy died down.
As time went on Dr. Dowden's principles were
better understood, and at the same time his emi
nence as a scholar made itself growingly felt in
the community. The contrast is indeed a striking
one, between his early unpopularity in Edinburgh,
and the kindly feeling with which he was later on
regarded as a distinguished citizen of the Scottish
metropolis. It would be beside the purpose of this lecture
to give more than an outline of Bishop Dowden's
scholarly activities. He was one of the founders

284 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
of the Scottish History Society, which under the
presidency of Lord Rosebery has published an
important series of historical works and still con
tinues to issue its publications. The first meet
ing of the society was held in the Theological
College, Rosebery Crescent, and three of its vol
umes13 were edited, partly or entirely, by Dow
den. He was an enthusiastic member of the Scot
tish Ecclesiological Society, and served a term as its
president. He was also a vice-president of the So
ciety of Antiquaries of Scotland, and contributed
to its publications from time to time. In 1901
he was selected to deliver the Rhind lectures in con
nection with this society, and took as his subject
The Constitution, Organization, and Law of the
Mediaeval Church in Scotland. These lectures
were afterwards amplified, and were published
soon after his death." Marked by all the author's
characteristic accuracy and width of knowledge,
this work is of the highest value, and is indeed in
dispensable to students of the period.
An earlier historical publication on The Celtic
Church in Scotland,1' still enjoys popularity as a
compact and reliable summary of the known facts,

13 The Correspondence of the Lauderdale Family with
Archbishop Sharp, 1893. The Chartulary of the Abbey of
Lindores 1903, and The Charters of Inchaffray Abbey 1908.
Of this last Dr. J. Maitland Thomson was co-editor.
14 Glasgow. 1910. The Mediaeval Church in Scotland.
" S. P. C. K., London, 1894.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 285
written with great freshness and charm of style.
Another posthumous publication, The Bishops of
Scotland,1" was written to supplement Bishop
Keith's Catalogue, and illustrates the extraordinary
pains and diligence with which Bishop Dowden
sought to ascertain his dates and other facts from
musty documents in the Register House and else
where. His modest claim is well justified for all
who use the book. "In researches covering so
great a field it can hardly be expected that no
errors will have crept in. But it is confidently al
leged that the following lists are much superior to
any which have preceded them." '
In the region of liturgical study Dr. Dowden
was an acknowledged authority. In 1899 he pub
lished The Workmanship of the Prayer Book, in
which the literary character of the work done by
the Reformers and subsequent revisers was re
viewed, and suggestions were offered in the direc
tion of further revisal. This was followed in 1908
by Further Studies in the Prayer Book, in which,
among other features, special attention was paid to
the influence of German Service-Books on the Eng
lish forms of service. But it was in connection
with the revised Scottish Liturgy of 1912, and the
revision of the English Prayer Book for use in
Scotland/8 that the Bishop's liturgical gifts found
their most practical scope.
"Glasgow 1912. "p. xi.
18 The Book of Common Prayer, etc. . . and the Scot-

286 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
Although the Scottish Church does not yet
possess what can be fairly called a Scottish
Prayer Book, she now has at least a Scottish
Edition of the English Book. And although
Dr. Dowden died two years before this was
published, its existence was due in the main to
his enthusiasm and his knowledge. From 1894
till 1902 a committee of the Edinburgh diocesan
Synod was working, in collaboration with com-
mittes of the other dioceses, at a Revision of the
Canons, which involved a number of suggested re
forms of the Prayer Book. Again in the year
1906 a private committee of diocesan clergy was
appointed by Dr. Dowden to consider with him
more fully the revision of the Prayer Book. The
suggestions of this body formed the bulk of the per
missive additions and deviations which were even
tually approved of by the Provincial Council.
Needless to say the main inspiring and guiding in
fluence in the whole movement came from the
Bishop of Edinburgh, whose moderation in aim,
exhaustive knowledge, and refined delicacy of
touch ensured for the revision a favourable recep
tion throughout the Church. In the additional
prayers for various occasions his hand may be
easily traced. He possessed the rare gift of com
posing a good collect, and some of his prayers are
tish Liturgy, and the permissible additions to and devia
tions from the service books of the Scottish Church, as
canonically sanctioned. Edinburgh. 1912.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 287
of great beauty. Several of the collects inserted
in the revised Prayer Book had been in use in the
Edinburgh diocese for years previously.
As a theologian Dr. Dowden was strongest on
the historical side. His chief publication in this
department was his Outlines of the history of the
Theological Literature of the Church of England
from the reformation to the close of the eighteenth
century.1' These were delivered in America as the
Bishop Paddock Lectures, and they are dedicated
to the Dean, Professors, and Students of the Gen
eral Theological Seminary, New York. Dr. Dow
den had a warm interest in the sister Church of
America, and he was a close student of its Prayer
Book. As may easily be imagined, therefore, his
visit to America in order to deliver these lectures
was to him full of interest and enjoyment. The
impressions which he brought back of men and of
cities, especially of the unbounded hospitality and
kindness which he met everywhere, were of the
most vivid and happy description.
Time fails to speak of his knowledge of books
and his love of literature and music. He was par
ticularly fond of children, and among the learned
tomes in his study it was possible on occasion to
find books with pictures of the kind that appeal to
little visitors. To the end of his life his mind was
as alert as ever, and there seemed little or no dim-

10 London. 1897.

288 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
inution of his bodily strength. At the Lambeth
Conference of 1908, for instance, he took a telling
part in several of the discussions, bringing to bear
on various knotty points his keen intellect, and his
incisive wit. He continued to lecture at the Theo
logical College until a day or two before his death.
The end came very suddenly and unexpectedly on
the 30th of January, 1910. It seemed impossible
to believe that a personality so alive and so power
ful as his had so quickly passed away. And still
the blank caused by his loss is to be felt. For he
was in his day the Church's Scholar-Bishop, a wise
and shrewd adviser, a far-seeing ruler, the most
loyal of friends and the most chivalrous of oppon
ents, a man of simple heart who strove to give of
his best to the Church and the Church's Master.

APPENDIX A
Hymns Attkibuted to St. Columba
In Adamnan's Life we find a story of a book in
Columba's handwriting, which contained hymns
for weekly use, (Hymnorum liber septimaniorum
sanctae Columbae manu descriptus, II, 8.), and
from the same authority we learn that hymns
were sung in the Church at Iona on the day that
the Saint died. (Hymnis matutinalibus terminatis.
III. 23.)
It would be too much to assume that these
hymns were composed by Columba, but it is of
great interest to find certain hymns and verses at
tributed to him in an eleventh century MS. col
lection of hymns and prayers in Latin and Irish,
which were used in the worship of the early Celtic
Church. Whether this Irish Liber Hymnorum was a
hymnbook for actual use, or whether it was a
collection made by some Celtic antiquarian at the
time when Celtic characteristics were disappearing,
there is no doubt that its contents are very ancient.
A part of these were published by Dr. J. H. Todd
under the auspices of the Irish Archaeological and
Celtic Society, while more recently the Henry

290 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
Bradshaw Society has made the whole book easily
accessible in two of its volumes produced under the
care of Dr. Bernard and Professor Atkinson.
Three of the Latin hymns, and one in Irish,
along with various Irish verses, are attributed with
varying degrees of confidence to the authorship of
Columba. The most famous of the Latin hymns
is the Altus, so called from its opening words:
"Altus Prosator Vetustus
Dierum et ingenitus."
A rendering of its twenty two stanzas of rude
Latin, each beginning with a successive letter of
the alphabet, is printed in Dowden's Celtic Church
in Scotland, (p. 321) and, slightly amended, in
Trenholme's Story of Iona (p 156.)
Below is printed a rendering of another hymn
the attribution of which to Columba is perhaps less
certain. "In te Christe credentium miserearis omnium,
tu es deus in saecula saeculorum in gloria."
According to one of the legends, Columba
wrote only the second half of the poem.
The version given below was sung at the Co
lumba commemoration service held in Edinburgh
Cathedral on 9th June, 1897, and also in Ireland
in connection with a similar event.
The third Latin hymn begins thus: —
"Noli pater indulgere tonitrua cum fulgore,
ac frangamur formidine hujus atque uridine,"

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 291
while the Irish hymn sings the praises of St.
Brigid. In te Christe credentium
Christ, have pity on Thy servants,
For we put our trust in Thee.
Thou art God in glory reigning
Unto all eternity.
Stretch Thy mighty arm to help us,
Worn with labours, wearied sore,
Hasten Thee to our assistance,
Heal our anguish evermore.
Father of Thy trusting children,
Life of all our living hours,
Thou art God all gods excelling,
Power supreme above all powers. *
God, the Framer of creation,
Judge of judges, King of kings,
In whose praise the universe's
Elemental chorus rings.
Thine are all the costly treasures
Of Jerusalem on high:
Lord of life, and King of glory,
Light of light eternally.
Thee no words of man can utter.
Highest heaven holds Thy throne.
Yet beyond all price or pleasure
Thou art dear unto Thine own.
Christ, Redeemer of the nations,
Of Thy love the virgins sing;
Thou the Fountain art of wisdom,
Thou the Faith to which we cling.
Armour of Thy valiant soldiers,
By whose hand all things were made,
Christ, Salvation of the living,
Of the dying, Life indeed.

1 Virtus virtutum. Probably the powers which the an
cient Celts believed to reside in the sun, winds, rivers, etc.

292 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES
He has crowned our conquering army,
And the band of martyrs brave,
Christ, who on the Cross was lifted,
Christ, who came the world to save.
Christ, who suffered to redeem us,
Vanquished hell, uprose to heaven;
Christ, to whom His ne'er relinquished
Seat at God's right hand was given.
Glory be to God the Father,
Uncreated, in the height;
Praise to Thee, the Sole-Begotten
Only Son, supreme in might.
To the Holy, Perfect Spirit,
Ever-gracious, honour be,
Amen, Amen never ending,
Rise through all eternity.

APPENDIX B
Date and Authoeship of St. Margaret's Life
We can easily fix within a few years the period
at which this work was written. It is dedicated
to Matilda, Queen of the English, (Prologue) and
her brother Edgar is described as reigning on his
father's throne (Chap. 31). Now Matilda married
Henry I. of England in 1100 and died in 1118,
(Symeon, Historia Regum c. c. 182 and 195,),
while Edgar's reign lasted from 1097 to 1107.
Thus the Life must have been composed between
the years 1100 and 1107, from seven to fourteen
years after the death of Margaret in 1093.
This calculation is quite consistent with Tur-
got's authorship of the work, for he was elected
Bishop of St. Andrews in 1107, and consecrated in
1109. The doubt on this point is caused by the
evidence of the two manuscripts on the Life which
still exist. One of them, which is now in the
British Museum (Cotton, Tiberius, D. Ill), in
dicates the author as T., Servorum Cuthberti ser-
vus, while the other, which is printed in the Acta
Sanctorum, inserts Theodericus for T. The author

1 (Codex Valcellensis, in Hannoniae Monasterio).

294 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES
was, therefore, a monk of Durham, but whether
he was the Prior Turgot, or the monk Theoderic,
whose name appears on the list of monks of Dur
ham, it is not so easy to decide. One difficulty
lies in the question, if the famous Prior was the
author, why the attribution to a comparatively ob
scure monk ? It is easier to explain how the con
verse might have taken place, and to suppose that
Fordun and other early writers may have unwit
tingly given rise to an erroneous tradition.2
Dr. Dowden, however, claims that Turgot's
authorship is accepted by "the almost universal
concurrence of scholars"/ while Professor Hume
Brown says, "it seems almost certain that Turgot
was the author of the book." (History of Scotland
Vol. I, p. 62. University Press, Camb., 1902.)
2 See Surtees Society Publications, Vol. LI p. Ivii.
" Celtic Church in Scotland, p. 271.

APPENDIX C
Lanfranc's Letter to Margaret
(Migne, Patrologia Latina. Vol. CL. p. 550.)
"Lanfranc, the unworthy Bishop of the holy
Church of Canterbury, to Margaret the illustrious
Queen of the Scots, peace and blessing.
"A short letter cannot reveal the greatness of
the joy with which you flooded my heart through
the perfect letter which, O queen beloved by God,
you sent me. How pleasantly the words flow forth,
which proceed from the inspiration of the Divine
Spirit. For I believe that what you wrote was
uttered not by you but for you. Verily by your
mouth He spoke, who says to His disciples "learn
from Me for I am meek and humble of heart." It
is from this teaching of Christ that it has come
about that you, the daughter of a royal line, roy
ally reared, and nobly linked to a noble king,
choose as your father me, a person of foreign birth,
a common man without nobility, encompassed by
sins, and pray that I should regard you as a spirit
ual daughter. I am not what you think, but may
I be because you think it. That you may be no
more mistaken, pray for me that I may be a father

296 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES
worthy to pray to God and to be heard on your
behalf. Let there be a mutual interchange be
tween us of prayers and benefits. Few indeed I
give, but I am sure that I shall receive many more.
Henceforth therefore let me be your father, and be
you my daughter.
"I send to your illustrious husband and to you,
our well beloved brother, Goldewin, in accordance
with your request, and two other brothers also, be
cause he alone by himself could not perform the
service to God and to you which needs to be ren
dered. I also ask, and ask urgently that you strive
to accomplish at once and effectually what you
have begun for the sake of God and of your souls,
and if you could or would fulfil your work through
the agency of others, we would desire with much
longing that these brethren of ours should return
to us, for they are very necessary to our Church in
their duties. Yet let your will be done, because
I am anxious to obey you in all things and by
every means. May God Almighty bless you, and
of His mercy absolve you from all your sins."

APPENDIX D
Assythment
In the modern practice of the Scottish Law
Courts crime is held to be essential to support a
claim for assythment, which is the reparation due
to their relatives of a person who has been killed,
by the person who committed the homicide. Thus
in the year 1870, in a case promoted by the rela
tives of a man who had been killed in a railway
accident, the Lord President declared in the court
of session, "This is not an action of assythment,
and it does not partake in any degree of the nature
of such an action for this among other reasons, that
no crime has been committed by the defenders."
(Scottish Jurist: Vol. XLII. p. 577.)
Older legal authorities however distinguish be
tween two kinds of assythment, viz: assythment
proper which arises out of a criminal act, and
those other cases where, although on criminal prose
cution would lie for the homicide, it has been oc
casioned by some fault on the part of an individ
ual. (See Prof. More's Lectures on the Law of
Scotland, 1864, p. 348). To make this clear the
statement of Lord Karnes on the subject may be

298 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN
quoted. (Select decisions of the Court of Session.
1780 p. 326.)
"The term Assythment bears two significa
tions in our law. In the most common sense it
is the same with the vergelt, that composition in
money which anciently was paid by the criminal
to the person he had injured, or to his relations.
In a sense less common, though far from rare, it
is the same with reparation of the loss I have
sustained by any wrong done me. In the first
sense, assythment is a punishment inflicted upon
the delinquent, and is awarded to the person in
jured, for gratifying his resentment. ... In the
other sense, assythment, being a species of repara
tion, produces a civil action for damages propor
tioned to the extent of the mischief done."
In the year 1649 an act of Parliament was
passed "anent the several degrees of casual homi
cide," which illustrates this statement (Acts of
Parliament of Scotland Vol II, part II p. 173.)
After ordaining that a list of cases of homicide,
which begins with casual homicide, and homicide
in lawful defence, shall not be punished by death,
notwithstanding former laws or practice, it pro
vides that "in the case of homicide casuall and of
homicide in defence, notwithstanding that the man-
slayer is be this act fred from capitall punishment,
yet it shall be lesum to the Cheeff Justice Court
with advice of the counsall to fyne him in his

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 299
meanes to the use of the defunct's wyf e and bairnes
or nearest of kin, or to imprison him."
Reference may also be made to a curious pro
vision in the well known legal compendium called
Regiam Majestatem which, although probably
mainly of English origin, seems to have been of
authority in Scotland after the 12th century. If
a man on horseback ride down any one in front of
him he shall pay cro and galnes as if he had slain
him with his hands: but if a person behind him
is killed by his horse he shall pay the fourth foot
or the fourth part of the value of the horse only.
(Acts of Parliament of Scotland I. 637.)

APPENDIX E
Seat Rents Under the Penal Laws
A curious document is preserved in the Rec
tory of St. Peter's Church, Fraserburgh, in Aber
deenshire, which illustrates the method of accom
modating a congregation in a private house, at a
date when the penal laws were being less rigorous
ly enforced. It is "an account of Seat Rents at
Middleburgh [about a mile outside the town] col
lected from Mr. William Walker's hearers by
Thos. Kilgour" for the years 1760 and 1761. It
appears that the minister's place was in the middle
of the "Trans" or passage, where five or six of his
congregation, including the precentor, sat at hi3
right hand, and a similar number on his left. In
the "East Room" over thirty of the faithful, in
cluding "My Lady Saltoun," were provided for,
while more than forty were contained in the "West
Room." The "Middle Room" accommodated six
teen worshippers, and ten found places in the
"Trans seat leading to West Room." Even the
"Long Sadie Bed" which seems to have been situ
ated in the kitchen was called into requisition,
and provided seats for seven of the congregation.

SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY 301
For these "sittings" sums varying from ten shil
lings to a shilling per annum were paid, a few,
probably on account of their poverty, not contrib
uting at all. The total income from the rents in
1760 amounted to £7-0-9, and was handed over to
the minister.

APPENDIX F
The Modern Scottish Cathedrals
In four of the Scottish dioceses the Cathedrals
were built as such, while in the three remaining
instances parochial churches have been chosen to
hold the Bishops' chairs. The earliest was that
in the island of Cumbrae, dedicated to the Holy
Spirit, built in 1849 and consecrated in 1876 as
Cathedral of the Isles and Pro-Cathedral of Argyll.
Then came St. Ninian's, Perth, partly built and
consecrated in 1850 as Cathedral of St. Andrews,
Dunkeld, and Dunblane: St. Andrew's, Inverness,
built 1869, . consecrated 1874, as Cathedral of
Moray, Ross, and Caithness ; and St. Mary's, Edin
burgh, built and consecrated in 1879. In the dio
cese of Brechin the Church of St. Paul in Dundee
(built 1855, cons. 1865) was constituted the Cathe
dral in 1905 ; in the diocese of Glasgow and Gallo
way, St. Mary's Church, Glasgow (built 1871,
cons. 1884) was similarly dealt with in 1908, the
list being completed in 1914 by the constitution of
St. Andrew's Church, Aberdeen (built 1816, cons.
1864) as Cathedral of the United diocese of Aber
deen and Orkney.

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