State of education—medieval
schools of Aberdeen—song-school and grammar-school—monastic schools—Aberdeen
students at oxford—John Barbour : at English and French universities— the
beginning of Scottish literature: 'the Brus'—masters of the grammar-school—a
compulsory education act—bishop Elphinstone — his early career — foundation
of Aberdeen university—comparison with preceding universities—points of
resemblance to and difference from the university of Paris— the royal
charters—the first principal—Boece as scholar, historian, and biographer—his
colleagues—early students and alumni—endowments—Elphinstone's munificence—Elphinstone
as author—the Aberdeen breviary and the introduction of printing into
Scotland—Scottish art—plays and pageants— the reception of queen Margaret
Tudor—Floden—death of Ell'hinstone—bishop Dunbar—his completion of
Elphinstone's works—the bridge of Dee—the cathedral and its heraldic ceiling
— college extension — Alexander Galloway— Dunbar's "new foundation" — early
prosperity and celebrity of the university.
We have now arrived at the
period notable above all others in the intellectual history of the north,
and at the career of the illustrious man who, all things considered, must be
reckoned the most permanently influential benefactor these counties ever
had. It was in 1483 that William Elphmstone was nominated Bishop of
Aberdeen, and on the 10th of February 1494-95 that the papal bull for the
erection of his university was issued at Rome. From the terms of the bull it
appears that it had been preceded by a petition in the name of James IV., no
doubt drawn up by Elphinstone, in which a dark picture is given of the
prevailing ignorance of this outlying province of the Church and kingdom.
The petition had set forth that in the northern parts of Scotland, cut off
from the rest of the country by arms of the sea and high mountains, there
dwelt a people ignorant of letters and almost barbarous, who by reason of
distance were unable to resort to the seats of learning, and that
consequently fit men for the work of the Church in those parts were not to
be found. This description of the north would have been too sweeping if it
had been meant to apply to the urban community, which probably it was not.
Schools had existed in the principal towns of Scotland as early at least as
the reign of David I., and at a still earlier time the teaching of letters
had entered into the organisation of the ancient Celtic Church. When the
Teutonic colonisation and the Norman lords brought in the new ecclesiastical
system, still more were Church and school of necessity linked. together. As
the chorister had to be able to read, the Song-School and the Grammar-School
had their common origin in the Church. The schools attached to the cathedral
in Old Aberdeen are mentioned in the statutes enacted by Bishop Ramsay in
1256, which purport to ratify the ordinances and constitutions of his
predecessors. By these statutes the duty is laid on the chancellor of the
diocese of providing a fit master to have the direction of the schools of
Aberdeen, and to teach the boys in grammar and logic, which included the
entire scope of education in its primary and secondary stages. In 1262 we
find Thomas de Bennam or Benholm, described as rector of the schools of
Aberdeen, witnessing at Inverurie a decree of Bishop Ramsay's successor; and
probably it was the same Thomas de Bennam who was chancellor of the diocese
in 1276-1277 when Hugh de Bennam was bishop. Education was also imparted by
the friars, who seem to have had schools at their monasteries for the
training of recruits for their own ranks, though not to the exclusion of the
children of their patrons; and that there were learned men among the
Aberdeen friars may be inferred from the fact that when Edward I. paid his
second visit to the city in 1303, four of the brethren of the Carmelite
monastery went to England under his protection and received the degree of
Doctor of Divinity at Oxford. Balliol College, which owes its existence to
the family which for a short time held the sovereignty of Scotland, was at
this period the chief resort of Scottish students.
Among the students at Oxford
in the fourteenth century was John Barbour, the contemporary of Chaucer, and
father of Scottish literature. In 1357, when Archdeacon of Aberdeen—an
office which he was still to hold for thirty-eight years—Barbour received a
safe-conduct to pass into England with three scholars for the purpose of
studying at Oxford. One of the lights of Oxford at this time was John Wyclif,
the earliest documentary record of whom bears the date of 1360, when he
occupied the position of Master of Balliol, but who was almost certainly
there when Barbour arrived from Aberdeen three years before. In 1364, by
which time Wycl'f had resigned his academic position, Barbour had a second
safe-conduct for himself and four companions to study at Oxford or
elsewhere; in 1365 he obtained a passport to travel through England with six
companions on horseback on their way to France; and in 1368 another passport
authorised him to journey through England to France with two horses and two
servants. Apart from his ecclesiastical offices, we find Barbour acting as
clerk of audit to the Scottish royal house-hold, and as one of the auditors
of Exchequer. Deeply imbued, as we must believe him to have been, with the
learning of his time, he found out, as Langland and Chaucer did, the
literary power of the English tongue; and instead of composing his national
epic in the medieval Latin of churchmen and scholars, he chose for it the
language spoken by all the Lowland population of Scotland as well as by the
English beyond the Border. As it is the earliest, so is the "Brus" the most
national of all Scottish poems. It is instinct with the spirit of freedom,
of heroism informed by chivalry, of romance arising in the struggles, the
perils, and the hairbreadth escapes of the king. The poet is ever conscious
of the high aim of his work, and the lesson which it reads to the Scottish
people. In style it is simple, vivid, and direct. Seldom are lofty strains
attempted by the author, and the poem has little wealth of imagery, but the
ideas and the deeds of a heroic age are depicted in manful and flowing
verse, the language of which differs but little from that of Chaucer. Thus
was Aberdeen the cradle of Scottish literature in the fourteenth century.
The art of printing had not arrived, but the "Brus" and Barbour's other
poems were evidently written for a wider circle than the learned caste of
churchmen who read and wrote in Latin.
Barbour is thus a pioneer who
stands out prominently in the history of British literature. His successors
in Scottish song—Blind Harry, James I., Henryson, William Dunbar, Gawan
Douglas, and Sir David Lyndsay — followed after intervals of time; and in
the north-east John of Fordun's ' Scotichronicon' was the only other
memorable fruit of the cultivation of letters before the inauguration of
liberal culture by Bishop Elphinstone. Dempster mentions several Latin
authors among the churchmen ; but of these authors or their works nothing is
now known, if we except Ingram de Lindsay, one of the bishops of Aberdeen, a
man of scholarly tastes who wrote on canon law and the Pauline Epistles.
The historic grammar-school
of Aberdeen, which appears to have had an unbroken continuity from the
school for " grammar and logic" presided over by Thomas de Bennam in the
thirteenth century, is frequently mentioned in the burgh records. On the
occurrence of a vacancy in the rectorship in 1418, through the death of
Andrew de Syvas, vicar of Bervie, the magistrates, council, and community
chose John Homyll, a graduate in arts, as his successor; and on the
chancellor granting his letters of collation, in accordance with the old
ecclesiastical regulation, the presentee was enabled to enter on his office.
In 1479 Thomas Strachan was appointed master at a salary of until he should
be provided with a chaplainship in St Nicholas Church.
Education, therefore, was not
wholly neglected in these counties; yet we must believe that the statement
in the letter to the Pope was generally true of the country north of the
Grampians. The troublous two centuries that had elapsed since the death of
the third Alexander had been unfavourable to the nurture of scholars; and
that neglect of education was all but universal except among churchmen is
implied in the passing, in 1496, of the earliest Compulsory Education Act,
whereby all barons and freeholders of substance were required to send their
eldest sons to school at the age of eight or nine years, and to keep them at
the grammar-school " till they be competently founded and have perfect
Latin." After having reached this stage of scholarship the youths were to
remain three years at the schools of art and law in order that the poor
might have the benefit of local administration of justice in minor cases.
Though limited in its scope, and perhaps never enforced, this statute
indicates the direction in which the thoughts of the most enlightened
Scottish legislators were running, and it cannot escape attention that the
man who was taking the lead in matters of educational reform at the time was
Bishop Elphinstone, who in the preceding year had obtained the papal
sanction for the erection of the northern university. The grammar-school had
been attended by the sons of burgesses, and probably by a few boys from the
smaller burghs and the country. It has been pointed out by Mr Cosmo Innes as
an insufficiently considered effect of the scarcity of books before the
invention of printing that it tended to congregate students in masses.1 The
religious houses in the two counties had no great reputation for learning,
being indeed behind the foundations in the south in that respect; but there
is no reason to doubt that to some extent they carried on educational work.
The pursuit of scholarship at the English universities by Scottish students
had for a generation or two been greatly discouraged, if not absolutely
prevented, by the wars between the two countries. England and Scotland,
moreover, were on different sides with respect to the great Schism of the
West, and thus another barrier was raised up against the northern students,
who in more favourable circumstances would have repaired as of old to
Oxford. One result of the schism was to multiply universities in competition
with Paris, and the inauguration of higher education at St Andrews in 1411
was to a certain extent a response to a national demand in which the
north-east had its part.
William Elphinstone,
described by Hector Boece, his biographer, probably with intentional
vagueness, as of the old fami'y of Elphinstone, was one of the students of
the University of Glasgow on its foundation in 1450; and having served for
some time in the Church he proceeded to the University of Paris. Nine years
of his early manhood were spent at Paris and Orleans in pursuit of knowledge
and in lecturing on canon law. Boece, himself a student and teacher of the
University of Paris some thirty years afterwards, tells us that so great was
his reputation for learning and acumen that on more than one occas'on his
advice was sought by the Parliament of Paris. Soon after his return to
Scotland he became Dean of the Faculty of Arts, and then Rector of Glasgow
University; he was Chancellor of the diocese of Glasgow and afterwards
Official of Lothian, the judicial position next in importance to that of
Great Justiciar. He also sat in Parliament, served on its judicial
committees, and was engaged from time to time on embassies to foreign
Courts. No other Scottish diplomatist of the day had such prestige and
experience, or possessed such courtly manners and address. In 1481 he was
nominated to the bishopric of Ross, from which he was translated two years
afterwards to Aberdeen ; but absence on diplomatic service or other causes
led to delay in his entrance on his episcopal functions.
Having served his country as
lawyer, diplomatist, and statesman, Bishop Elphinstone in the latter part of
his life rendered pre-eminent service to his diocese and the north of
Scotland as a great churchman and the sagacious founder of liberal
education. Though still occasionally -employed on diplomatic missions and
affairs of State, his energies were for the most part concentrated upon the
tasks aevolving upon him as bishop. First, Boece tells us, he set himself to
reform the clergy, and his next care was to improve the church services as
regards both ritual and music, to which end he employed John Malinson, a
highly skilled musician, who seems to have brought about a great change for
the better in the musical culture of the Aberdonians. The bishop kept much
company, for whose entertainment he imported, through the agency of Andrew
Halyburton, Conservator of Scots Privileges at Middelburgh, the choicest
produce collected by the merchants of the Netherlands. The whole atmosphere
of his palace and surroundings was that of high-toned cultivation and
refinement. But while not neglecting social life and relaxation, he left
behind him a tradition of personal abstemiousness, weight of character, and
devotion to public and private duty. It is also mentioned to his credit that
he encouraged and helped with money the friar-preachers who were carrying on
a useful work among the poor.
After the erection of the
Universities of St Andrews and Glasgow, but before Elphinstone was able to
proceed with his scheme for Aberdeen, the intellectual ferment of the age
had received the stimulus of the invention of "printing, the spread of Greek
literature, and the new spirit awakened by the teaching of the Humanists.
Elphinstone had a just sense of the virtue of education, and his scheme was
in some respects far in advance of that given effect to in any preexisting
Br.iish university. It not merely provided an education for churchmen, but
was also a response to the public demand for liberal culture. It had a
completeness peculiar to itself, with all the four faculties of Arts,
Theology, Law, and Medicine duly represented. Nearly half a century elapsed
before the English universities had a professorship of medicine, while
Glasgow was to be a century and a-half, Edinburgh two centuries, and St
Andrews still farther behind. Elphinstone was fully acquainted with Glasgow
University, first as student and afterwards as teacher, and he saw that it
was practically a failure,—inefficient in respect of instruction, meagrely
attended by students, and lax in discipline ; and recognising the errors in
its constitution, he was able to avoid them in the consti u-tion and working
of his new university. The two great academic models were Bologna and
Paris—the former having professional education for its aim, while the latter
addressed itself primarily to general mental training. In this latter
object, as in matters of form and organisation, Bishop Elphinstone's
university followed the Paris model; but it is noteworthy that the first of
the endowments of the Aberdeen University is an annual feu-duty from several
estates in Banffshire for the support of a professor of medicine. In one
important respect he improved on Paris. According to the general usage of
universities, the graduates in the several facilities were bound to "read"
or teach for a time after taking their degrees. The system had its obvious
drawbacks, and, together with the lack of power to deal with disorders, is
sufficient to account for the early failure of Glasgow. Eschewing both these
errors, Bishop Elphinstone gave salaries, on what was regarded at the time
as a satisfactory scale, to the teachers in the several faculties, provided
bursaries for students, and, reserving a visitorial power, conferred
authority on the chancellor of the university to deal summarily with any
disorders reported by the visitors.
The organisation of the
University of Paris was followed with regard to the offices of chancellor
and rector, and the four " nations" into which the undergraduates were
divided, and which acted through their procurators or proctors. The still
surviving " bajan," or first-year student, known also at St Andrews, is none
other than the French bejaune or bee jaune, yellowbill or young bird, of
four hundred years ago. The " semi," or student of the second year, is
semibajan ; and the principal, the regent (or professor), grammarian
(professor of Latin), and sacrist, or college servant, as also the bursary
or "burse" and the "session," are all importations from Paris.
In pursuance of his
public-spirited policy, Elphinstone, who in 1489 had obtained a royal
charter erecting Old Aberdeen into a city and free burgh in barony, procured
a second royal charter in 1497 assigning to academic purposes certain
ecclesiastical revenues, conferring upon the staff, students, and members of
the new university all the privileges enjoyed by the universities of Paris,
St Andrews, and Glasgow, appointing the Sheriff of Aberdeenshire, the
Alderman of Aberdeen, and the "bailie" of the bishop, for the city of Old
Aberdeen, conservators of these privileges, providing for the "collegiate
church" to be founded, and empowering the bishop and his successors to
appoint and dismiss the teaching staff. The deed of foundation of the "
collegiate church," or college within the university, is dated 17th
September 1505, and minutely specifies the respective functions of its
thirty-six members, from Principal, Doctors, and Masters of Arts down to the
thirteen scholars or poor clerks fit for instruction in speculative
knowledge, and the cantor, sacrist, organist, and choir-boys. The permanent
teachers were the Master of Theology or Principal, the three Doctors, of
Common Law, Canon Law, and Medicine respectively, the Regent or
Sub-Principal, and the Grammarian—the first five to have stipends of forty,
thirty, and twenty marks, the Grammarian being provided for by the prebend
of the Snow Church.1 All except the Doctor of Medicine were to be
ecclesiastics. This academic body was to be assisted by five newly graduated
Masters of Arts, who as students of theology for three and a half years were
also to act as Regents.
Having obtained the papal
sanction for his university, Bishop Elphinstone's first care was to find
suitable men for the carrying out of his great design. To fill the
responsible office of Principal he had recourse to his old University of
Paris, and fixed upon Hector Boece, who was then teaching philosophy in
Montaigu College, and who records that he was induced by Elphinstone's
"gifts and promises" to return to Scotland for the purpose of inaugurating
the work of the new university. It can easily be understood how Boece should
regret to part from his eminent colleagues, chief of whom was "Erasmus of
Rotterdam," whom he calls "the glory and ornament of our age." But the
change was not altogether for the worse, for the testimony of Erasmus
discloses the fact that life at Montaigu was extremely hard, even the
supplies of food being meagre as well as bad; and on the other hand, the
position of first active head of the northern university cannot have been
unattractive even to an ambitious man, as we are probably justified in
believing Boece to have been. He brought with him his fellow-student William
Hay, who became sub-principal and ultimately succeeded to the higher office
of head of the teaching body. Both were natives of Angus, and they had been
at school together in Dundee as well as fellow-students and fellow-teachers
in Paris.
Boece's faults as a historian
have overshadowed the reputation which his scholarship deserved. His
published works are evidence of the high character of his Latinity, and we
have the testimony of Erasmus and other learned contemporaries as to his
attainments in philosophy, then a very comprehensive term. Buchanan also
speaks of turn as distinguished by a knowledge of the liberal arts, and
mentions his courtesy and sweetness of temper. He possessed a knowledge of
medicine, and had the reputation of being one of the most skilful physicians
of his time. His works are the 'Lives of the Bishops of Mortlach and
Aberdeen,' published in Paris in 1522, and his 'History of Scotland,' the
first edition of which appeared in 1527. The errors which vitiate the
authority of these works spring from the easy credulity with which he
received floating legends and popular traditions, but even as a record of
these his writings are not without value. As a man of letters of European
celebrity his association with the college must have given it a note of
distinction at its commencement. Hay is well spoken of by Boece and by
Ferrerius, the Pied-montese monk of Kinloss : he was an expert in laws and
philosophy, and had eminent success as a teacher.
Boece was appointed Principal
in 1495, an(^ it niay be inferred that he and Hay, with David Guthrie and
James Ogilvie, canons of the cathedral, were at work with students years
before the college buildings were ready for their reception. To these
teachers was soon added John Vaus, as Humanist, who, with other grammatical
works, was author of Latin Rudiments in the vernacular which passed through
several editions in the sixteenth century. Boece proudly commemorates the
names of the more distinguished students who made their mark in the early
days of the university. Among them were Alexander Hay, canon of Aberdeen,
and the first alumnus of the university who taught others in the liberal
arts, and became its rector; James Ogilvie, afterwards a professor in the
university and commendator of Dryburgh Abbey, who was employed on several
embassies to the Continent, and was nominated for the bishopric on the death
of Elphinstone; Arthur Boece, brother of the Principal, afterwards Professor
of Law; Alexander Galloway, rector of Kinkell, the intimate friend and
architectural adviser of Bishops Elphinstone and Dunbar; Henry Spittal, a
relative of Bishop Elphinstone, who taught a junior class under Boece; John
Lyndsay and Alexander Laurence, lawyers, the latter of whom joined the Friar
Preachers or Dominicans ; John Gryson, Robert Lisle, and Alexander Courtney,
also of that order; and John Adam, Professor of Divinity, the first in
Aberdeen to reach in that faculty the crowning honour of "master," who
became Provincial or Principal of the Dominican Order in Scotland, and by
his exertions greatly improved their position and influence. These are the
alumni named by the first Principal as having attained distinction when he
wrote his Lives of the Bishops, and they are a creditable body of
first-fruits of the new seat of learning.
Endowments for the new
university to a slight extent were procured from ecclesiastical sources, and
private benefactions gradually came in, but the great contributory of funds
was the bishop himself. The see was well endowed, and Elphinstone devoted a
large part of its revenues to the noble purpose with which his name is
inseparably connected. From entries in Halyburton's Ledger it appears that
in 1498 there were sent from Holland to Aberdeen to the order of the bishop
a barrel of powder for quarrying stones, as also carts and
wheelbarrows—imports which betoken the start of building operations. It was
also mainly from the revenues under his control that Elphinstone carried out
his various constructive works for the benefit of the public, including the
completion of the great tower of the cathedral, into which he introduced
three massive bells, the rebuilding of the choir on a scale and in a style
in keeping with the magnificence of the edifice, the erection of the Snow
Church for the accommodation of residents near the south end of Old
Aberdeen, and the commencement of what for the time was a very important
engineering enterprise, the seven-arched bridge which for nearly four
hundred years has spanned the Dee at Ruthrieston.
To Bishop Elphinstone we are
indebted for the venerable 'Breviary of Aberdeen'; and even the introduction
of the art of printing into Scotland seems to have been due to his
initiative. The charter granted by James IV. in 1507 to Walter Chepman and
Andrew Myllar of Edinburgh to set up the first printing-press recites that
it was "for imprinting within our realm of the books of our laws, Acts of
Parliament, chronicles, mass-books, and portuus [breviary] after the use of
our realm, with additions and legends of Scottish saints eked thereto, and
all other books that shall be seen necessary." "Books of Salisbury use " are
henceforth to be excluded by the king and Council in favour of " mass-books,
manuals, matin-books, and portuus-books after our own Scots use," and with
"legends of Scots saints now gathered and eked by William, Bishop of
Aberdeen, and others." Though not the first book printed in Scotland, for it
was preceded by the romance of ' Gologras and Gawain' and some poems by
Dunbar and Henryson, the publication of the Breviary was the first great
object for which the printing-press was introduced into Scotland, and
Elphinstone's hand in the establishment of the art of printing in the
country is thus made clear by indisputable evidence. The first volume
appeared in 1509 and the second in 1510. Boece speaks of historical
collections made by the bishop, but these appear to have been chiefly notes
based on Fordun and copies of public documents ; and manuscripts by the
bishop preserved at his own university, at the Bodleian Library, and at the
Royal Library of Paris, are of little intrinsic value.
Aberdeen shared in the
revival of Scottish art, which from small beginnings under James I. was
steadily extending throughout the country, showing itself for the most part
in ecclesiastical buildings and decoration, but also in wood-carving,
painting, and sculpture. The altar ornaments, images, and vestments in St
Nicholas' Church seem to have been rich and costly as well as numerous. We
have several lists of the cathedral treasury during this period which mark
the increase of ecclesiastical art; and a mitre presented by Bishop
Elphinstone, of which a detailed description is given, must have been a
marvel of the work of jeweller and embroiderer. Painted banners are
mentioned in the inventories, at least one portrait-painter was working in
the town, and the portrait of Bishop Elphinstone in King's College belongs
to this period. Of the proficiency in illumination and colouring of the
Aberdeen artists in the fifteenth century we have sufficient evidence in the
manuscripts that have come down to us. The skill in wood-carving, which was
put to the test in the choir stalls of St Nicholas' and the high altar of
the cathedral, considered a piece of the finest wood-work in Europe, and
still seen on the stalls of King's College Chapel, seems to have been
unrivalled in any of the towns of Scotland.
The latter half of
Elphinstone's episcopate of thirty-one years, till almost its close, was
cast in a time of public tranquillity. His influence as a statesman at home
and his action as a diplomatist abroad had been exerted on the side of peace
and goodwill; and circumstances co-operated to impart to this period an
exceptional brightness, as of a gleam of sunshine amid ages of storm and
gloom. The. sixteenth century opened with all the signs of prosperity in the
towns of the north-east, and with much public rejoicing over the marriage of
the popular young king with the Princess Margaret of England. James IV. had
already been a frequent visitor to the city, and on each occasion received a
loyal and hospitable welcome. Aberdeen contributed its quota to the costs of
the marriage, which was attended by the alderman and " the best and
worthiest of the town," accompanied by the common minstrels, who were
provided with silver badges engraved with the town's arms. The spirit of the
time is reflected in the festivities attending the visit of the queen to the
city in 1511, of which visit we have a brilliant poetical description from
the pen of William Dunbar, who seems to have been in the royal suite. Hardly
less worthy of attention, however, is the prose of the burgh records. The
citizens were summoned to meet the municipal authorities, and it was
resolved with one voice that Aberdeen should " receive the queen as
honourably as any burgh of Scotland except Edinburgh alone, and to incur all
necessary expenses for the honour of the town." Stern orders were given for
" cleaning of the town of all middens," clearing away pigsties, and
preventing swine from running at large in the streets under penalty of
banishment of their owners from the town and slaughter and confiscation of
the animals. The outside stone-stairs of the houses were to be covered with
arras-work, and decorations of foliage and flowers provided. The queen,
indeed, seems to have been received and entertained with royal munificence,
if we may judge by Dunbar's description of what took place. After
apostrophising the city as
"Blithe Aberdeen, thou beryl
of all tounis,
The lamp of beauty, bounty, and blitheness,"
the poet commemorates the
splendour of the procession which met the queen at the entrance to the city
and the pageants exhibited along the route. These included the Salutation of
the Virgin, the Three Kings of Cologne, the Angel with the Flaming Sword
driving Adam and Eve from Paradise, Robert the Bruce and the Stewart Kings,
and four-and-twenty maidens all clad in green, of marvellous beauty, with
flowing hair, playing on timbrels, singing, and saluting the queen.
"At her coming great was the
mirth and joy, For at their Cross abundantly ran wine ; Unto her lodging the
town did her convoy;
Her for to treat they set
their whole ingyne; A rich present they did to her propine A costly cup,
that large thing would contain, Covered and full of coined gold right fine ;
Be blithe and blissful, burgh of Aberdeen."
As a return for the loyal
courtesy of the city authorities, the king conferred upon them new powers
and privileges. Two months after the queen's visit the provost received
letters under the great seal confirming and extending their power to escheat
goods exported from the sheriffdom without paying the great custom, while in
the following January came the confirmation of a decree arbitral of the
Lords of Council conferring on the provost and baillies jurisdiction as to
offences committed by burgesses and freemen. But the shadow of coming
trouble was already apparent. Within a few months the local authorities were
devising new measures of defence against the English, purchasing gunpowder,
artillery, spears, and other warlike equipments, ordering trenches to be dug
at various points, and establishing a watch in which every burgess and
freeman was to take his turn. Besides providing for its own defence,
Aberdeen furnished a contingent of twenty spearmen and six horsemen for the
royal army. Huntly had mustered the Gordons and all the strength that his
lieutenancy of the north could bring into the field. Many of the barons of
the two coum <es joined his standard and participated in the gallant but
bootless onslaught which he led at Flodden. In that disastrous battle there
fell of Aberdeenshire men the Earl of Erroll, High Constable of Scotland,
Lord Forbes, and the two sons of the Earl Marischal, Sir William Douglas of
Kemnay, Sir James Abercrombie of Pitmedden, Johnston of Caskieben, George
Ogilvie, younger of Auchleven, Abercrombie of Birkenbog, young Glaster of
Glack, and several of the Gordons.
The aged bishop did not long
survive. His counsel had been against the war, and he was stricken to the
heart by the news of the battle and of the king's death. He died on October
25, 1514, at Edinburgh, whither he had gone with much toil and difficulty in
a vain endeavour to compose the differences between the English and French
parties into which the nobles had divided themselves on the queen's hasty
marriage with Angus. Bishop Elphinstone was buried, as was most fit, before
the high altar in his college. He had been in his day the great light of the
north. During his administration of the see the Roman Catholic Church
reached the summit of its influence in Aberdeenshire; and the higher
learning which he inaugurated was to convert these counties into a prolific
nursery of men of eminence in the service of their country and time.
For the vacant see James
Ogilvie, first Civilist of King's College, who was engaged at the time on a
mission to the King of France, was nominated by the Regent Albany, and
Robert Forman, Dean of Glasgow, and brother of the Archbishop of St Andrews,
was designated from Rome; but while the canons were deliberating over the
matter the Earl of Huntly entered their meeting and demanded that his
kinsman, Alexander Gordon, Chanter of Moray and third son of James Gordon,
Laird of Haddo, should be appointed, and, as Boece records, the canons,
yielding to the evil times lest they should have to submit to harsher
treatment, unanimously conceded the earl's demands. After the uneventful
three years' episcopate of Bishop Gordon succeeded a prelate in zeal and
public service as in high character the worthy successor of Elphinstone.
Gavin Dunbar, of Westfield, had been Dean of Moray and was now Archdeacon of
St Andrews, holding also the public office of Clerk of Register. His
appointment to the bishopric of Aberdeen dates from 1518, and the first
object to which he addressed himself was the completion of Elphinstone's
unfinished works. Chief of these was the Bridge of Dee. The architect of the
bridge was Alexander Galloway, and the contractor Thomas Franche, the king's
master mason and son of a burgess of Linlithgow. For the maintenance of the
bridge Bishop Dunbar gave the lands of Ardlair in the parish of Kennethmont,
and in 1527 " the haill toune, all in ane voice, thankit greatly their lord
and bishop of Aberdeen " for building the bridge and " for his great offer
and promises for upholding the same." To Dunbar's initiative, and largely to
his munificence, were also due the south quarter of the college and the
professors' houses, the south aisle of the cathedral, and the two freestone
spires surmounting Bishop Lichtoun's massive granite towers, the heraldic
ceiling in panelled oak, which likewise is still so notable a feature of the
edifice, the Bede House or hospital in Old Aberdeen for twelve poor men, and
the Greyfriars' Church of New Aberdeen. His additions to the ornaments of
the cathedral came, no doubt, of that love of art which is reflected in the
decorated ceiling with its four dozen shields and coats-of-arms and in his
patronage of architecture.
Alexander Galloway, so
closely connected with the bjshop in all his constructive undertakings, was
Official of the diocese, and on different occasions Rector of the
university. For many years Galloway was the chief designer of architectural
works in the north, and the authorities of Aberdeen consulted him as to the
fortification of the town. It was a fruitful time in the architecture of
Aberdeen, and Galloway left abundant proofs and products of his taste and
ingenuity at the cathedral, the university, his own beautiful church of
Kinkell, and the church of the Grey Friars in Aberdeen. Manifold was the
service he rendered to the Church, as Bishop William Stewart, the successor
of Dunbar, testifies, both in Scotland and Flanders. Being a man of some
wealth, he was in that respect also a benefactor; and he is associated with
the completion of the chartulary. Bishops Elphinstone and Dunbar had no
worthier or more competent assistant in the execution of the undertakings by
which they elevated the standard of taste in the community and worthily
provided for the seat of learning and culture which they established.
The last act of importance in
the career of Bishop Dunbar was his confirmation, in 1531, of the "new
foundation" of the college, carrying out intentions left unexecuted by
Bishop Elphinstone. By this instrument the resident body was increased from
thirty-six to forty-two—by the addition of another student of divinity,
three law students, and two choir-boys. One of the numerous regulations laid
down was that the Rector, with "four worthy masters"—this being the origin
of the Rector's Assessors—was to "visit" the college once a-year and correct
all abuses. Another regulation restricted the bursars in Arts to speaking in
Latin or French. The mother-tongue seems to have been considered unworthy of
the dignity of a seat of learning, and the rules of the Aberdeen
grammar-school in 1553 forbade the boys to talk to each other in the
vernacular, but gave them the choice of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, or
Gaelic. In the early days of the university, if we may judge by the
statements of Boece, and the number of eminent alumni, the attendance of
students cannot have been small; and Ferrerius, who accompanied Abbot Robert
Reid from Paris, and spent five years of academic and literary activity at
Kinloss, speaks in glowing terms of the galaxy of learned men gathered
together in Aberdeen, mentioning the two Boeces, Galloway, William Hay,
Robert Gray, and John Vaus, and affirming that Aberdeen was then the most
celebrated of the Scottish universuies. This was on the eve of a picturesque
event, if not essentially one of the first importance, in the history of the
university— namely, the visit and sojourn, apparently within the college
precincts, of James V. and the queen. Bishop Leslie, a contemporary, and
probably an eyewitness, records how their majesties were received with
diverse triumphs and plays by the town and the university and schools, the
bishop being their host, and how there was exercise and disputation in all
kinds of science, with orations in Greek, Latin, and other languages. The
mention of Greek is interesting. Its introduction into Scotland is supposed
to have taken place in 1534, when Erskine of Dun brought a master from
France who first taught it in Montrose. Within a few years of this date it
had its place in the curricula of the university and grammar-school of
Aberdeen. A period of lassitude and inefficiency in the university set in,
however, and Galloway, who was rector again in 1549, reports a sad
falling-off as compared with the palmy days of Bishops Elphinstone and
Dunbar. There were now no lay teachers, few students who were not
foundationers, and none apparently but such as were preparing either for the
Church or the practice of its courts, while the teachers were negligent in
the discharge of their duties. It was a deplorable change from the
enthusiasm and glory that had pervaded the college halls in days that
Galloway could remember. The university had done a great work during the
half-century of its existence, but a temporary cloud hung over it. A crisis
in its affairs, as in those of the Cnurch, was rapidly approaching. |