Chronicles of Strathearn Part 11

[1] Blind Harry's _Wallace_. Book iv., l. 309.

For this and other references and much valuable a.s.sistance the writer is indebted to the kindness of A. G. Reid, Esq., Auchterarder.

[2] Ib. Bk. v., l. 293.

[3] Lindsay of Pitscottie's _History of Scotland_. Vol., p. 256.

[4] _Brevarium Aberdonense Pars Hyemalis_. Fol. 164.

[5] _Liber Insule Missarum_, pp. 4, 8, 18, 19.

[6] Nisbet's _Heraldry_. Vol. II., app. 188.

[7] _Chartulary of Cambuskenneth_. Walcot's _Scoto Monasticon_.

[8] _Register of Kirk-Session of S. Andrews_. _Scot. Hist. Society_.

[9] Thomson's _Scots Acts_, IV., 556.

[10] _Liber Insule Missarum_, p. x.x.xiii.

[11] This and the anecdote about Mr Andrew Drummond are given by the kindness of Viscountess Strathallan.

THE ABBEY OF INCHAFFRAY

By Rev. JAMES BROWN, M.A., Maderty

To those who appreciate time and labour expended upon historical and antiquarian research, there can be few--if, indeed, there be any--among our Scottish counties which present scope for their enthusiasm so extensive and so varied as that contained within the borders of Perthshire. Generally speaking, the attractions identify themselves.

The Cathedral at Dunblane, the Round Tower at Abernethy, the Camp at Ardoch--these preserve still many of their original features and characteristic lineaments, and need hardly fail to arrest attention. But what chance traveller by road or by rail would, when midway between Crieff and Methven, dream that the bare, solitary column he sees in the valley below could prove other than the gable-end of a disused barn?

Nay, did he approach and pa.s.s the remnant itself, he would probably wonder to learn that the gloomy, forsaken pile alone marks a spot once the centre of much holy rigour, educational zeal, and industrial activity; that thence sallied forth, six hundred years ago, the monk patriot, with whom the Scottish warriors knelt to pray upon the field before engaging in the memorable conflict whose issue achieved for them their country's independence. A ragged wall, an arched chamber, several solid heaps of fallen mason-work are all that remain of Inchaffray Abbey.

Perthshire owes largely to the ancient Earldom of Strathearn. Little is known concerning the line till Gilbert succeeded in 1171. Unlike his immediate predecessors, he manifested no hostility to the inroad of Norman and Saxon customs and usages. He was the first to adopt the wise precaution of obtaining charters for his lands, and rivalled the most ardent and obsequious followers of David I. in munificent gifts of these to the Church. Although it would be hazardous to accept as altogether faithful the statement of Fordun, the chronicler, that Earl Gilbert apportioned his whole estates--which extended in length from Newburgh to the west end of Balquhidder, and from the Ochils to the Grampians in breadth--equally between the See of Dunblane, the Abbey of Inchaffray, and himself with his heirs, we have yet sufficient reason to consider that his liberality to ecclesiastical settlements was handsome. It certainly reflects upon him high credit that, due to his pious devotion, the family of Strathearn were the only Scottish subjects (excepting possibly the Lords of Galloway) who established a bishopric and inherited its patronage.

About 1189 the King made over to Gilbert the lands of Maderty with all their feudal rights and privileges. In return, the Earl bound himself to contribute half a knight's service, and to secure that no part of these lands should ever be allowed to come again into the hands of their former owner, Gilliecolm Marischall, or any of his heirs. This Gilliecolm--elsewhere described as _arch-tyrannus et latronum princeps_--had incurred his monarch's bitter displeasure by an act of felony, having betrayed the sovereign Castle of Earn to his Majesty's most mortal foes, and taken part with them to do him hurt to his power.

Not long after the transference, the Earl sought to signalise his estimate of the Royal favour by founding a religious house. He chose for a site the swamp-girt island which lay toward the northwestern corner of his lately acquired possession. So frequent were the liturgical celebrations there that the settlement received the name of _Inis Aifreen_ (Celtic), _Insula Missarum_ (Latin), Inchaffray--signifying "Island of Ma.s.ses." He dedicated the monastery to G.o.d, St. Mary, and St.

John Evangelist; deputed Malis, the hermit, to select Augustinian Canons from Scone, and granted his first charter, which bears the signatures of himself, his wife (Matilda), and his six sons. The edifice must have been completed by 1198, as Gilchrist, the heir, who died in that year, was interred within the building. Through this bereavement, the family's affections became more closely united to the place. "We love it so much," the parents are recorded to have said, "that we have chosen it as the place of sepulture for us and our heirs, and have already buried there our eldest son." Further and more extended benefactions followed.

By the great charter, of date 1200, Inchaffray was endowed with the Churches of St. Katta.n.u.s of Abruthven, St. Etherna.n.u.s of Maderty, St.

Patrick of Strogeath, St. Meckessok of Auchterarder, and St. Bea.n.u.s of Kinkell; with t.i.the of the Earl's kain and rents of wheat, meal, malt, cheese, and all provisions throughout the year in his Court; with t.i.the of all fish brought into his kitchen, and of the produce of his hunting; with t.i.the of all the profits of his tribunals of justice and all offerings; with the liberty to its monks of fishing in the Peffer, of fishing and birding over all the Earl's lands, waters, and lakes; of taking timber for building and other uses from his woods, and pannage or mast feeding for pigs, as well as bark and firewood, in whatever places, and as much as they chose. Some years later an additional charter granted also the Church of St. Bea.n.u.s of Foulis, with the dower land of the church and the common pasturage of the parish, and likewise the Church of the Holy Trinity of Gask, with the same privileges. To this doc.u.ment appends a fragment of the donor's knightly seal, which shows on the obverse side a mounted knight with drawn sword, and on the reverse side the inscription--"Secretum G. comitis, de Straderne."

Whatever may have been the demands of spiritual functions upon the time of the monks, they cannot fairly be charged with "agricultural indolence." Their glebe consisted entirely of marsh and bog when the Abbacy was created. By 1218--_i.e._, in about twenty years--it had all been ditch-drained and reclaimed. The beneficial results of their labour are noticeable to-day. Fields immediately adjoining the ruin exhibit quite a different appearance in spring and yield quite an appreciable advantage in autumn compared with those more remote. No stronger evidence need be required than that the rental of the former doubles that of an equal area of the latter.

The detail of the great charter includes, as we said, "the t.i.the of the fines levied at the Earl's Court." Nowhere else throughout Scotland could a subject of the King exercise _jura regalia_. Perth was our only county, and the Earls of Strathearn our only Earls Palatine. When precisely this independent jurisdiction was bestowed and when revoked and abolished we have no clear account. But, according to the trustworthy evidence embodied in the above-mentioned deed of gift, we gather not only that the privilege existed in the thirteenth century, but that it operated favourably for the monks.

The source and reference of the name given to the parish has never been satisfactorily determined. Some have attempted to connect it with the dedication of Inchaffray. Now, whatever truth there might be in the view that part of the dedication--"to the Virgin"--was suggested by the name of the parish (Maderty being the English for the Celtic "mother of G.o.d"), there is certainly nothing whatever to support the opinion that the district took its style from the Abbey. Maderty was Maderty long before Inchaffray was Inchaffray.

Earl Gilbert died in 1223. Robert, his successor, maintained the like generous att.i.tude which his father had borne toward the Church. We may, no doubt, feel disposed to conjecture some proof of estrangement having marred the hitherto peaceful relations between patron and clergy. But if such did arise, it can have been only temporary, for the very record which excites the suspicion a.s.sures us of even more devoted loyalty on his part. "In the Church of Strogeath, and in the presence of Abraham, Bishop of Dunblane, and others, Robert, Earl of Strathearn, bound himself toward the Abbot of Inchaffray that he would never in his life vex the said abbot or his convent unjustly--nay, would love and everywhere honour them as his most especial friends, and would add to the possessions of their house whatsoever he might by the counsel of his friends. He particularly confirmed to them the Churches at Gask and Strogeath."

The year 1240 witnessed Inchaffray narrowly becoming Chapter of the Diocese. "Clement, Bishop of Dunblane, went to Rome, and represented to Pope Gregory IX. how of old time his bishopric had been vacant upwards of a hundred years, during which period almost all the revenues had been seized by the seculars; and although in process of time there had been several bishops inst.i.tuted, yet, by their simplicity or negligence, the former dilapidations were not recovered, but, on the contrary, the remainder were almost quite alienated; so that for ten years a proper person could not be found to accept of the charge; that the case having been laid before the Pope, he had committed the trust of supplying that vacancy to the Bishops of St. Andrews, Dunkeld, and Brechin, who made choice of this Clement; but he found his church so desolate that he had not where to lay his head in his cathedral. There was no college there, only a rural chaplain performed divine service in the church that had its roof uncovered; and the revenues of the See were so small that they could hardly afford him maintenance for one half of the year. To remedy these evils the Pope appointed William and Geoffrey, the Bishops of Glasgow and Dunkeld, to visit the Church of Dunblane, and if they should find these things to be as represented, he authorised them to cause the fourth part of the t.i.thes of all the parish churches within that diocy to be a.s.signed to the bishop thereof, who, after reserving out of these t.i.thes so much as should be proper for his own sustenance, was by the advice of these two bishops and other expert persons to a.s.sign the rest to a dean and canons whom the Pope enjoined to be settled there, if these matters could be brought about without great offence; or, if otherwise, he ordered that the fourth of the t.i.thes of all such churches of the diocy as were in the hands of seculars should be a.s.signed to the bishop, and that the bishop's seat should be translated to St. John's Monastery of Canons-regular, (_i.e._, Inchaffray), within that diocy, and appointed that these canons should have the election of the bishop when a vacancy should happen thereafter." Either "these things were found to be not so," or else the former part of the alternative was duly carried out, as the bishop's seat remained at Dunblane, and Inchaffray was denied its only opportunity of elevation to cathedral rank.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Inchaffray]

The next event of interest connected with the Abbey is the pilgrimage of the Abbot Maurice to Bannockburn. Every schoolboy can tell the story, for no annals of Scotland omit to record his presence and service when the rival hosts stood face to face for a huge trial of strength and valour. But probably it is not quite so well understood that much of the glorious success which crowned the Scottish arms was popularly attributed to the fact that the monk carried with him the arm of St. Fillan. A legend is that St. Fillan, when Abbot of Pittenweem, transcribed with his own hand the Holy Scriptures, and that his left arm became so luminous that it enabled him to proceed during darkness with his pious work.

Lesly a.s.serts that this wonderful limb afterwards came into the possession of Robert Bruce, who enclosed it in a silver shrine, which he commanded should be borne at the head of the army. Previous to the battle, a story has it, the King's chaplain (Maurice), with the view of preserving the treasure from all chance of abstraction by the English, had it removed and deposited in a place of security. While, however, the King, unaware of what had been done, was addressing his prayers to the empty casket, it was observed to open and shut suddenly. On inspection, the Saint was found to have himself returned his luminous member to its place as an a.s.surance of victory. The writers of the Statistical Account of Maderty thus express themselves--"This relic might, indeed, have given some encouragement to the superst.i.tious; but one arm of a brave Scotchman fighting in earnest for the liberty of his country had more effect in obtaining that memorable victory than could have been produced by the innate virtue of all the relics of the dead that could have been collected." If these critical authors had been less anxious to square truth with orthodoxy, and not orthodoxy with truth, they would have known that where the entire force was "superst.i.tious" the influence of the sacred arm would enormously intensify soldierly enthusiasm, and that it is impossible to define its comparative share in the result. Robert Bruce, indeed, appears to have been sensibly impressed by the good offices of the sacred relic, and attested his grat.i.tude in a substantial manner. He founded a priory at Strathfillan, on the Dochart, a stream in the Breadalbane district of Perthshire, and consecrated it to the Saint.

At the dissolution of religious houses this priory with all its revenues and superiorities pa.s.sed, by order of the King, to Campbell of Glenorchy, ancestor of the Lords of Breadalbane. Maurice's conduct on the field attracted the attention of others besides Bruce. Macleod of Scarinche, in Lewis, conceived a strong regard for the Abbot, and induced him to reside for a time at his western home, where he erected a monastery to St. Katta.n.u.s, whose bones lay buried there. Strathfillan, Scarinche, and Abernethy were cells of Inchaffray.

The Earls continued successively to be bountiful benefactors of the convent. One of them, Malise, in 1258, presented it with certain of his slaves (_nativi_)--namely, Gilmory, Gillendes, and John Starnes, the son of Thomas and grandson of Th.o.r.e. Absolute serfdom was then a Scottish inst.i.tution, comprising part of the labouring cla.s.s, who were bought and sold with the land to which they were attached; and gifts of nativi by their masters to the religious establishments of those times are frequently recorded.

After the ancient line of Strathearn had failed in the direct male descent, and when Maurice de Moray, created Earl by David II., had met his death at Durham in 1346, leaving no issue, the King bestowed the Earldom upon his nephew, Robert, the High Steward, afterwards Robert II., who on his accession to the throne (1370) relinquished the Earldom in favour of his son David. Seventy years later the t.i.tle and estates fell vacant and were merged in the Crown, the bishopric and temporalities being henceforth held in free barony of the Sovereign.

The intimate a.s.sociation of Inchaffray Abbey with the national and religious fortunes of Scotland receives further guarantee in 1513.

Whether as chaplain or as common soldier, and under what designation, no available narrative declares. But certain it is that the stubborn fight which evoked Scotland's most waefu' dirge, no less than that which occasioned her immortal paean of victory, was graced by an abbot of this monastery. The respective fates of these two divines, however, were widely different. Not even monks, clad though they be in all the panoply of the Church, are safe from sword or arrow. He of Flodden never saw his northern charge again. Unknown, yet not unwept, he fell beneath the spoiler's weapon with the "flowers of the forest."

It is noteworthy that Abbots of Inchaffray, _ex-officio_ prelates of Parliament, took little to do with public affairs. They do not seem to have shared at all extensively in the transactions which so often brought together the leaders of the various religious houses.

The subjoined list is fragmentary, but authoritative so far as it goes:--

MALIS--The Hermit--was present and acted as the head of the establishment at the beginning. Earl Gilbert must have considered him a person of trust, since he committed to him the important duty of selecting the necessary canons.

INNOCENT--The first Abbot--officiated during the lordship of Robert, 1223-1231.

ALAN--1258-1271.

HUGH--1284.

THOMAS--1296.

MAURICE--The Bannockburn celebrity--was promoted to the See of his own Diocese of Dunblane. Early in his Episcopate a dispute which arose concerning the lands of Airthrey was submitted to arbiters, one of whom was his successor in the Abbacy of Inchaffray, viz.:

CHRISTIAN.

WILLIAM appears to have acted for an unusually long term, or had a successor of the same name. On the Feast of Matthias, 1398, a deed of Janet Moray, wife of Alexander Moray of Abercairny, was witnessed by William the Abbot, John the prior, and the whole Convent of Inchaffray.

On 25th January, 1468,

GEORGE obliged himself to make Lawrence, Lord Oliphant, his bailie for life of the lands of the monastery within twenty days after he should be admitted to the spirituality by the ordinary and by the King to the temporality of the said benefice. The family of Oliphant held this relation during the reign of James V., Mary, and James VI. In 1539,

GAVIN DUNBAR, Archbishop of Glasgow, had the Abbacy _in commendam_. On 15th May of that year he granted Anthony Murray a tack of 4 merk lands of the "Raith" "for furnishing of our bulls"--probably for the expense of his confirmation. Before the tack had run out the tenure was made perpetual by a free charter of the same lands of "Raith" and of the Moor of Maderty, granted by

ALEXANDER, styled Archbishop of Athens, postulate of the Isles, and perpetual commendator of the Monastery of Inchaffray, dated at Inchaffray, December 24th, 1554. This commendator was Alexander Gordon (brother of George, fourth Earl of Huntly), who was defeated in his hopes of the Archbishopric of Glasgow on the death of Gavin Dunbar, and imperfectly consoled by the high-sounding t.i.tle of Archbishop of Athens _in partibus fidelium_, the poor See of the Isles, with, on November 26th, 1553, the Abbacy of Inchaffray _in commendam_, which last he held till 1564. In 1558 he was promoted to the See of Galloway. Nine years later he was accused before the General a.s.sembly of the Kirk, and confessed to the indictment that he had not visited for three years part of the churches within his charge; that he had haunted Court too much; that he had purchased to be one of the Session and Privy Council, which cannot agree with the office of a pastor or a bishop; that he had resigned Inchaffray in favour of a young child, and set diverse lands in feu in prejudice of the Kirk. The young child was James Drummond of Innerpeffray, second son of David, second Lord Drummond. The Abbey was erected into a temporal lordship in his favour, and in 1609 he was created Lord Maderty. From him is descended the n.o.ble family of Strathallan.

And now the old Abbey fell on troublous times. The Reformation--that harbinger of good not unmixed with evil--closed the book of the monastery. It is strange and sad that ecclesiastical changes should partake so largely in the destruction of buildings and the spoliation of belongings. Never yet did religious fanaticism satisfy its own desires without simultaneously and obligingly ministering to the rapacity of the attendant greedy grabber. And so Inchaffray, experiencing the fate of other such establishments, had its walls torn down, its vessels strewn and broken, its canons put to flight or death, its revenues disposed by rude, regardless hands. The Earl of Kinnoull is the proprietor of the ruin and the few acres that surround it. These gave him the patronage of the seven parishes with which, we observed, the convent had been endowed.

Quite a crop of stories are told in connection with the demolition of Inchaffray. It is said, for instance, that long ago the ploughman-tenant of the dwelling contiguous to the convent discovered, while digging, the golden image "of a sow." This relic (for relic it was supposed to be of the abbey practices) he carefully secreted, but latterly converted into current coin, and became himself a very wealthy man. But perhaps the most reliable and authenticated is the following:--A Fowlis widower, lately bereaved, sought to find a grave-stone to honour his spouse's memory. Either he was too fastidious or too ungenerous, but he abstracted from Inchaffray a stone to be utilised for this solemn purpose. The writer quite lately identified the stone as the lid of the coffin of Abbot Maurice. There is the figure of a battle-axe engraved upon the slab.