Arbroath and its Abbey
Chapter XII - The Abbots of Arbroath

I. - MONASTERIES IN EARLY TIMES.

WITH the exception of Abbot Bernard and Abbot David Betoun, these dignitaries made little figure in our national history, and their memories possess an interest almost entirely local. But, notwithstanding the oblivion into which their names have fallen, it must not be forgotten that "the Lord Abbot of such a house as Arbroath, whether bearing crosier and mitre or buckling on more carnal armour; whether sitting in the high places of Council and Parliament, or taking homage and dispensing law among his vassals and serfs, or following his sovereign to battle, was, in virtue of his social position, his revenues, his followers, and actual power, by far the greatest personage of the shire." (Preface to Chartulary, vol. ii.) It may also be safely added, that in regard to education and intelligence, fairness as judges, mercifulness as feudal superiors, kindness as landlords, bountifulness as alms-givers, liberality as hosts, and general civilisation, the Abbots of Arbroath must have stood for ages many degrees superior to even the highest lay grandees of the district; and that their influential position—intimately connected as it was with the sovereign, the nobility, the clergy, and the neighbouring inhabitants, both urban and rural—was directly calculated to abate and modify the jarrings of these different classes, and to repress that barbarism which so much prevailed.

From a single glance at the magnificent buildings of Arbroath Abbey, with its large endowments of lands, teinds, fishings, tenements in towns, and numerous valuable privileges, it is apparent that it was intended to subserve many other purposes besides the support of twenty-five monks bound to celibacy. It may not perhaps be easy for us to understand all the objects which King William, nearly seven hundred years ago, had in view when he founded this monastery; but we may allude to a few of the then comparative advantages which flowed from such an institution.

The Abbey served as a caravansary or lodging-place for travellers of every rank—from kings and archbishops, judges on their circuits, legates and delegates, down to the poorest scholar who asked hospitality—where shelter and accommodation was to be had far superior to that of any feudal castle (for hotels had at that time no existence), and where sustenance was afforded to man and beast without fee or reward.

The Abbey was a school of letters at a period when, perhaps, the only other school betwixt the Tay and the Grampians was the Culdee College of Brechin. And there are indications that at the period in question the Culdees were becoming secularised in more senses than one. The knowledge of letters was entirely confined to churchmen; and the kings were obliged to employ ecclesiastics as judges and political ministers from the incapacity of the lay nobility through ignorance. We know from incidental notices that the Abbey possessed a library, and took land rents for its support; and that the Convent engaged pedagogues to teach the younger monks various branches of learning; and one of the sub-priors is styled Professor of Sacred Theology, and probably delivered lectures within the Abbey to the monks and clergy of the district. "And although the character of the theology there taught was low and puerile, and the state of the other branches of human learning deformed by superstition and error, yet without the feeble spark preserved in the religious houses, and the arts of life which were there cultivated and improved by the clergy, the state of the country during the period of which we are now writing would have been deplorable indeed." (Tytler's Hist., ii. 356.)

The Abbot and monks were in many cases the historians of the district, and of the kingdom in general. The registers of Paisley and other monasteries have supplied the most authentic accounts of many events in Scottish history; and the Abbey chartularies are almost our sole sources of information as to the social state of the country, and many usages and customs observed during ages preceding the Reformation. That part of the old register of Arbroath which was lately discovered at Ethic House contains many laws passed by King Robert Bruce during the chancellorship of Abbot. Bernard, the authenticity of which historians and jurists had hitherto held as doubtful. The monasteries were at one period almost the sole places where books were composed; and what is perhaps of as much importance before printing was invented, they were the only places where books were transcribed, as many of the monks occupied almost their whole time in transcribing manuscripts. Even the numerous ancient manuscript copies of the Holy Scriptures must to a great degree be placed to the credit of the earlier monks.

The monks of rich Abbeys such as Arbroath were bountiful alms-givers. Each of them had an almory where provisions were weekly or oftener given to the poor with no sparing hand. And the conspicuous place held by the almory of Arbroath in the Abbey writs, and in the names of places in the vicinity of the monastery, spew that this, one of the most merciful and benignant purposes of its establishment, was by no means overlooked.

Convents were benefactors to this country in their promotion of horticulture. In former times gardens and orchards were scarcely to be found except at the monasteries; and those who have witnessed the privations and inconveniences, not to speak of diseases, sustained by the inhabitants of our Highlands and Western Isles, where the cultivation of garden vegetables and fruits was till lately, or is still, either unknown or neglected, will understand the value of those herbs and fruits which were principally introduced by the monks. They were likewise benefactors as intelligent landowners and agriculturists. From what we can glean they were the first landowners in this district who granted leases for a number of years certain, thus giving to their tenants a degree of encouragement and energy which tenants at will could never possess. The earliest leases recorded in the Arbroath register were granted by Abbot Bernard, in the time of Bruce, for periods of five or ten years, or for life. Our ordinary period for the duration of an agricultural lease (nineteen years) was adopted by the Abbots of Arbroath upwards of four centuries ago. And no landed proprietor of the present day guards more carefully than they did against the assignation, subletting, or subdivision of his lands while under lease. They had evidently much more respect to old tenants and their families than is now shewn by many modern landlords; and while they leased many of their farms at easy rents to the widows and sons of former tenants, they guarded themselves against the intrusion of strangers or unknown persons into their grounds by the singular provision that the widows should not marry again without the special license of the Abbot and Convent. Sir Richard Maitland in his "Complaint aganis Oppression of the Commouns," alludes in complimentary terms to the churchmen as landlords, thus:

"Sum cominouns that has been weil stakit
Under kirkmen, are now all wrakit
Sen that the teind and the kirklands
Came in gret temporal mennis hands."

Another very great advantage possessed by tenants of Abbey lands arose from the circumstance that their landlords were not subject to sudden and rapid changes by death, forfeiture, or sale; upon any of which events the tenants of lay proprietors were subject to be turned away by new landlords, and exposed to want or beggary, besides suffering the loss of those advantages which they had expected to reap from improvements made by them.

These are a few traces of that progress in learning, and amelioration of manners, which we believe to have flowed from the monastic establishments of Scotland, before they fell into decrepitude and corruption about the year 1500. And we must add the important fact, that to them and the ecclesiastics in general at an earlier period is to be attributed much of the credit of effecting the emancipation of our rural population from that thraldom in which they were held by the barons previous to the erection of the great monasteries and the burghs.

II.—ANCIENT SCOTTISH ECCLESIASTICS.

Previous to the time of King Macbeth the whole of Scotland, excepting some large moorlands, had been divided into parishes by the old Scottish clergy and their bishops. These parishes were not in all instances conterminous with the modern parishes. Many old parishes, such as Aldbar, Burghill, Dunninald, Ethic, Meathie-Lure, and Kirkbuddo, have been since suppressed, and their lands added to other parishes, while at and after the Reformation, new parishes, such as Carmylie were erected, and disjoined from neighbouring parishes. On the other hand the present churches of Fowlis, Dron, and others, in those early times, bore only the name and rank of chapels. These parish churches were originally served by the ordinary clergy, who came afterwards to be termed secular clergy. The state of the ancient parochial clergy of Scotland is involved in much obscurity. They appear in the early part of the Chartulary under the title of priests or parsons, and some of them had sons honourably mentioned as born in wedlock. Several of the churches came into the hands of the Culdees in the time of Macbeth, Malcolm III., and Edgar. The Culdees were secular canons, educated and trained in their ancient abbeys and colleges, such as those of Iona, Lismore, Dunkeld, Lochleven, Abernethy, St Andrews, Brechin, Scone, Murtlach, and Monimusk, and had the choice of the few bishops and prelates who then presided over the Scottish church. They first appear in Scottish history after 800. Their college at Abernethy was called a "University" in the time of Malcolm III., or shortly afterwards. They, and the old Scottish parochial clergy, held very little subjection to Rome, and many of them were married, and were succeeded in their offices by their children.

At the accession of Malcolm III. the Culdees had in many instances become ignorant and deteriorated, and the heads of their religious houses were rather lay barons than learned ecclesiastics. From their not being bound to any special rules of living and spending their time, these parish priests and Culdees were in course of time termed secular clergy; while the monastic orders, who ultimately supplanted the Culdees entirely, and even the parochial clergy to a large extent, and whose lives, habits, and studies were framed according to the regulations of their founders, and approved of by the Popes, were termed the regular or regulated clergy. These two classes had long contended in more southern countries, —the regulars to gain footing and power, and the seculars to retain their powers. The regular clergy first began to gain favour in Scotland through the patronage of Margaret the queen of Malcolm: and here, as in many other countries in Western Europe, the seculars, possessing neither papal nor regal partiality, had the worst of the contest, and were gradually, after a resistance of nearly two centuries, deprived of their power and influence, and stripped of their possessions; till in the reign of Alexander III., the order of Culdees seems to have become extinct, although their memories were long afterwards held in reverence in many parts of the country.

By the time of Malcolm III. the Normans had begun to erect in England those majestic cathedrals and abbey churches which have never been equalled either at an earlier or subsequent period; and Scotland, poor although it was, having some spare wealth at command, resolved to follow the example set by England. The Abbey Church of Dunfermline, erected in the Norman style, seems to have been one of the earliest of such buildings in Scotland. The simple and antiquated rites of the Culdees being deemed unworthy of these costly erections, it was found necessary to import the new monastic or regular clergy from England or the Continent, whose greater scholastic learning, gorgeous ritual, sanctity of manners, apparent or real, and courtliness of style, fitted them for occupying these buildings.

The various orders of monastic clergy who at different times were settled in Scotland during the five centuries which preceded the Reformation were very numerous. Their conventual establishments nearly amounted to two hundred, not including hospitals. Besides their distinction from the secular clergy they were themselves divided into two great classes, namely, the older or endowed monks, who lived on rents and lands bestowed on them; and the newer and begging friars (brethren) who lived on alms, with few or no endowments. Both these classes were again subdivided into various sections. Thus, the endowed monks were known in Scotland as monks of St Augustine, monks of St Anthony, as Red Friars, Praemonstratenses, Benedictines or Black Monks, Tyronensians, Cluniacenses, Cistertians or Bernardines, monks of Valliscaulium, Carthusians, Gilbertines, &c., from the framers of their regulations, the colours of their robes, or the places where they had first been established. The begging friars were subdivided into Black or Dominican, Grey or Franciscan, White or Carmelites; so termed from the colours of their robes, their founders, or place of formation. Several of the endowed and mendicant classes had corresponding female orders, or nuns, who lived according to rules alleged to have been framed by St Augustine, St Benedict, or St Francis. Besides all these, the two orders of religious knights—viz., the Templars or knights of the Temple, and Knights of St John—held numerous lands and several establishments in Scotland. But the orders of monks who settled in this northern kingdom were few in comparison with those of Italy and the other Continental nations.

The great influx of the monastic clergy into Scotland began to take place in the reign of Alexander I., who reined from 1107 till 1124; and it increased greatly during the reign of his brother and successor David I., when the canons of St Augustine and St Benedict were settled in many richly-endowed Abbeys, often after the expulsion of the Culdees or partial loss of their rights. Among other endowments they obtained from many kings and barons the patronages and teinds of parish churches which had previously been served by the secular clergy, who were in many instances younger sons of families of rank, and who being in right of the whole parochial tithes were termed rectors or parsons. Thus not only did the old monastic or college rents of the Culdees, but even the parish churches pass, from the hands of the secular into those of the regular clergy. And the latter (the monks) having thus obtained right to the parsonage or benefice, deputed one of their own order to serve the cure of the parish as their vicar, and assigned to him a portion (perhaps one-third) of the tithes as stipend or salary, while the remainder helped to endow their monastery. As already stated, the monks of Arbroath held at least about thirty-four parish churches in vicarage. The Chartulary shews that frequent questions arose between the Abbey and the bishops as to these benefices, and the stipends to be paid to the vicars.

The Tyronensian monks were the second or later section of those that followed the rule of St Benedict, a Roman Saint of the early church, born in Italy A.D. 480, and who died in A.D. 542. He founded many monasteries in Italy, and is styled the Patriarch of the Monks in the West. A set of seventy-three rules, sometimes called the Inclosure, is said to have been composed by him for the government of his monks, although some believe their author to have been Pope Gregory III. The monasteries of his order soon became very numerous and immensely rich. The second or reformed section of the monks who bore his name were first established at the Abbey of Tyron, in the diocese of Chartres, in France. They seem to have worn a black habit like the older section. David I. (before his accession) brought them to Selkirk, and then removed them to Roxburgh. After he became king he founded the Abbey of Kelso for them in 1128. They rose in importance, and obtained the small priory of Lesmahago; and the beautiful Abbey of Kilwinning was erected for them about the year 1140; till at last, about forty years afterwards, they reached the summit of their grandeur in Scotland by obtaining possession of the Abbey of Lindores, founded for them by David Earl of Huntingdon, brother of King William, in 1178, and by being installed at the same time in the still richer monastery of Arbroath. The Abbey of Kelso was the parent establishment of this order in Scotland ; and on this account the first company of monks was brought from Kelso to occupy the Abbey of Arbroath at the time of its foundation.

III.—BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE ABBOTS.

1. REGINALD, formerly a monk of the Abbey of Kelso, was the first Abbot of Arbroath. By a deed dated in 1178, John, Abbot, and Convent of Kelso relieved him from all subjection and obedience as elected Abbot of the Church of St Thomas at Arbroath, and declared that the Abbot of Kelso should never claim any authority over the Convent of Arbroath although monks had been taken from Kelso for it; and that mutual charity, friendship, and prayers should exist between the houses, but no dominion or power. This seems to have been done at Arbroath, and in presence of King William and others. Soon afterwards Abbot Reginald and the Bishop of. St Andrews were sent by the king to present his obeisance to Pope Alexander III., and the Pope returned a rose of gold, and gave certain new privileges to the Scottish Church. Abbot Reginald died within a year of his appointment.

2. HENRY, also a monk of Kelso, was his successor. In 1119 John Abbot of Kelso granted in his favour a renlinciation of all authority, in terms similar to that granted to Abbot Reginald, in presence of King William, David his brother, and Joceline Bishop of Glasgow. Henry was Abbot down at least till after the accession of William Malvoisine to the see of St Andrews in 1202, as he is a witness to a charter granted by that bishop relating to the church of Adnachtan (Nachton) in Fife.

3. RALPH or RADULPHUS was, according to the view of the late Mr Chalmers, the third Abbot of Arbroath, in 1202 or 1204. Mr Innes is doubtful whether there is sufficient evidence on the point. There is an agreement (recorded in the Arbroath Chartulary) betwixt William Malvoisine Bishop of St Andrews and the Abbot and Convent of Aberbrothock regarding the kain and rents of Fyvie, Inverugie, and other lands in Aberdeenshire, entered into apparently about 1202 and at least prior to 1211. If the name of the Abbot appearing in this writ as "Rad" be correctly read it would seem to support Mr Chalmers' view. Hugo de Sigillo, who became Bishop of Dunkeld in 1214, is said to have been one of the monks of this Abbey previous to his elevation. Spottiswood says that lie bore the good title of "The poor man's bishop," but did not survive his consecration a year.

4. GILBERT is the name of the next Abbot that occurs. He is mentioned in the chartularies of Moray and Lindores before the year 1214, and down to 1225; and is also alluded to in a charter of Abbot Ralph, his successor, as having perambulated certain lands of Kenny in the shire of Kingoldrum. It was in the year 1219 that the perambulation of the march betwixt the lands of the Monastery and the "Barony of Kynblathmund" took place before an assize or jury, who declared the division betwixt "Kynblathmund and Adynglas and Abirbrothoc" to be "Hathuerbelath unto Sythnekerdun, and so on to the head of Munegungy" (Magoungie), in presence of Hugo de Chambrun Sheriff of Forfar, and about fifteen neighbouring proprietors.

5. RALPH (RADULPHUS DE LAMLEY or LANGLEY) was Abbot on 30th March 1226. We learn from the chronicle of Melrose that in his time, on 18th March 1233, the Abbey Church was completed and dedicated. Abbot Ralph became Bishop of Aberdeen in 1239; when it is to be presumed he resigned the Abbacy, as in that comparatively pure period such benefices were not held in convmendar or in plurality. "He was a man of great prudence, and painful in his calling; for he travelled through all his diocese on foot, preaching and visiting the churches, that he might know their true estate; and is said never to have changed his form of living that. he used in the cloister." (Spottiswood, p. 102.) G. ADAM would seem to have been the next Abbot. In 1.912 he granted the lands of Conveth, Halton, and Scotston, near Laureneekirk, to John Wischard in feu. He gave the Mill of Conveth to the same person in 1245. In 1247 Peter Ramsay, one of the monks of Arbroath, succeeded Ralph as Bishop of Aberdeen. Hector Boyce states that "he was learned and pious, and that he composed a book of canons."

7. WALTER was Abbot in 1250 and 1255, as shown by his writing relating to the chapel of Backboath, and his grants of lands at Banchory-Devenich and Tarves. It was probably this Abbot who, in the Court of King Alexander II. at Forfar, on 17th February 1250, obtained the verdict of John Thane of Monros, and other Angus jurymen, in favour of the Abbey, against Nicholas of Inverpeffer, as to the service and superiority of the lands of Inverpeffer. Peter de Ramsay, then Bishop of Aberdeen, having procured a papal bull for the augmentation of the stipend of each vicar in his diocese to fifteen merks, the Abbots of Arbroath and Lindores, about 1250, convened a meeting of abbots and priors, who appealed to the Pope and obtained a reversal of the bull. During the time of this Abbot the Chartulary bears that, on the day of St Alban the martyr, in 1254, on account of a controversy betwixt the Lord Abbot and Convent of Arbroath on the one part, and Lord Peter de Maul, Lord of Panmure, and Christian his spouse on the other part, concerning the marches of the Convent's lands of Conon and Tulloch, these parties convened on Cairnconon for the mediation of prudent, noble, and discreet men, William de Brechin, G. de Hay, Robert de Montalto, and others, who perambulated the marches of these lands, and decided the points in dispute.

8. ROBERT was Abbot in December 1261. Fordun states that in 1267 his monks expelled him from the Convent, and that he appealed to Rome; but we have no further account of him. About this time (1260) Spottiswood speaks of one Eustace, Abbot of Aberbrothock, who accompanied Edward, a bishop of Brechin, in a pedestrian tour through the kingdom, preaching the gospel; but the monastic writs do not refer to any Abbot of this name.

9. Six us, Abbot of Arbroath, is witness to the foundation charter of the Mason Dieu at Brechin, by William de Brechin, about 1267. He seems to have hold, the abbacy not longer than one year.

10. JOHN was Abbot on the feast of the Assumption 1268, at which time he granted a writ regarding the taxation of the vicarage of the church of Frendraucht, in the diocese of Aberdeen. Fordun says in his Scotichronicon that this Abbot died in 1270.

11. ADAM OF INTVERLOUNANE, according to Fordun, succeeded John in 1270, and died in 1275. The first burning of part of the great church happened during his rule in the year 1272.

12. WILLIAM occurs as Abbot in writings from 1276 to 1288. He granted the lands of Letham, in the shire of Aberbrothock, to Hugo Heem on 26th March 1284, in compensation for Hugo's right to some lands in Alearns. He was confirmed Bishop of Dunblane by Pope Martin IV. in January 1284-5. In a writing dated4. 1285, the Bishop of Aberdeen provided that the monksr of Arbroath and Fyvie should allow to the vicar or chaplain of the church of Fyvie a stipend of a hundred shillings. The canons of the Scottish Church had, in 1242 and 1269, fixed the lowest stipends of vicars at ten merles. From this time till the appointment of Abbot Bernard the Chartulary contains very few notices of the Abbots. The monks had not begun to register the leases and other writings executed in the ordinary management of their lands and benefices, and the war of independence, by the confusion into which it threw the affairs of Scotland, is marked by the barren and meagre state of the register at this period.

13. HENRY was Abbot of Arbroath at the feast of Epiphany 1288 when he feued the Abbey lands in the village of Caral (Craill) to John Chaplain, son of William of Camboc (Cambo). No other writing in the register bears his name, except that he is incidentally alluded to by his successor Nicholas. Henry held his office during the humiliating period of homages to Edward I. of England in 1291, and afterwards became renowned for his courage. Provoked at the thraldom under which Edward was attempting to place the kingdom by means of its deputy king, John Baliol, whom he had appointed over it, the Scottish Parliament framed an instrument in which they made Baliol renounce allegiance to Edward, and refuse to appear in his English courts, on account of the many injuries inflicted by him on Scotland. It was a melancholy time; and Buchanan says that no man of any eminence would carry this message to Edward, because he was not only fierce by nature, but rendered more so by good fortune. Whilst every one was afraid to beard the lion, this dangerous task was at last undertaken by Abbot Henry of Arbroath, who is called by Fordun a bold-spirited man. He was attended on his embassy by three of his monks. Lord Hailes remarks that the instrument bears to have been presented "by a religious man, guardian of the Minorite Friars of Roxburgh, and his socius;" and that this socius was probably the bold Abbot of Arbroath, who may have wished to keep himself concealed in the train of his religious brother. This fact may be also probably connected with the safe conduct under which Henry passed to Edward. Meantime Edward had besieged and taken Berwick-upon-Tweed, and mercilessly butchered its inhabitants without distinction of age or sex, on 30th March 1296. Soon afterwards Abbot Henry presented himself before Edward, who is stated by Hailes and Tytler to have been still at Berwick, but who is said by Wynton and Hollinshed to have been then at London. From what is stated as to Abbot Henry's risk on his return to Scotland, there is reason to believe that his perilous interview with the King of England took place at a much greater distance from Scotland than the camp at Berwick. Abbot Henry faithfully delivered the renunciation to Edward in council, and, together with his companions in the embassage, was treated in a manner unworthy of a king of Edward's pretensions. Various accounts bear that Edward made to Henry this answer in Norman French: "The senseless traitor! of what folly is he guilty? But since he will not come to us, we will go to him." Wynton, the prior of Lochleven, in his description of the embassage of "Abbot Den Henry," says that he was neither asked to meat nor feasting because he was disliked for his surly temper; and that, after delivery of his message, he returned to Scotland without deigning to inquire whether or not his safe conduct had expired. This renunciation exasperated the English, and gave specious grounds for Edward's invasion of Scotland, which immediately followed. Langtoft, an English historian, exclaimed in reference to it, "Scotland whi ne mot I se be sonken to belle ground!"

What is stated will enable the reader to understand the following account which Wynton has given in his "Cronykil" of the character and mission of Abbot Henry:

"The Abbot of Abbyrbrothok than,
Den Henry than callyd, a cunnand man,
Be cownsale he wes chosyn thare,
Of this charge to be berare.
For he wes rwyd, [Rude] of gret lowrdnes, [Great surliness]
Wyth mony men he lathyd wes [He was loathed]
This message thai gert him tak for thi [For thi i.e., thereupon.]
And on he passyt rycht hastyly
Wndyr cwndyt [Safe conduct,] of schort space.

"Quhen he to Lwndyn cumyn wes,
To the Kyng intil presens
Of hys gret cownsal wyth reverens,
Hys charge he delyveryd thare.
The Kyng than made hym this awnsware.
'A / cc fol fclun, tel foly fettis.'
In Frawnkis quhen this he had sayd thare,
In Frawnkis he sayd yhit forthirmare,
`S'il ne volt venir a nos, nos venclrun a ly.'
The fyrst Frawnkis in propyrte
All thus may understandye be;
`Now may yhe se, that a fwle swne
`Here a fwlys deid lies dwne.
`Cum til ws, gyve he na wile,
'But dowt we sail cum hym til.'

"Set [Sith or since] this Abbot wes messyngere
This Kyng made hym bot lowryd chore:
Nowthyr to mete na mawngery
Callyd thai this Abbot Den Henry,
Set he was lathyd for lowrdnes,
A stowt man and a lele he wes;
And in hys cownsale he wes wys,
And did this charge all at dewys.
And, for his cowndyt wes nere gane,
Langar cwndyt he askyd nane;
But fra he this charge had dwne,
In Scotland hame he sped hym swn:
Nevyr-the-les he was in dowt,
Or his cwndyt wer worne out."

In the summer of this year (July 1296) Edward compelled Baliol to resign his mock-monarchy at Stracathro, and after proceeding as far north as Elgin, he came by Arbroath in his progress southward, and lodged at the Abbey on Sunday 5th August. As Abbot Henry's sovereign was by this time deposed, we may safely conclude that his bold ambassador was now displaced by King Edward, and a more complacent churchman appointed in his room.

14. NICHOLAS was Henry's successor. He granted a charter of the lands of Kedloch in 1299. The only other recorded deed of this Abbot is a charter of the Abbey hostilage in Stirling, by which he granted to Richard son of Christian, son of Lochlan, and his heirs, all the lands which the .convent had in the burgh of Stirling for the yearly payment of four shillings and six pennies in silver, and on condition that he should provide for the Abbot for the time and his monks, friends, clerks, bailies, and attorneys when coming on the affairs of the monastery, and for their servants, an honest hall for meals, with tables, trestles, and other furniture; a spence with a buttery; one or more chambers for sleeping; an honest kitchen, and a stable fit to receive at least thirty horses; with sufficient fuel for the hall, chambers, and kitchen; Paris candles for light; straw for bedding; rushes for strewing the hall and bedchamber; and salt for food: he, being bound not to provide fuel, candles, and others beyond three nights at each visit. The above affords a picture of a town lodging in the days of Bruce and Wallace.

15. JOHN of ANGUS was Abbot on the feast of St Stephen 1303, on which day he granted the charter of building ground in the burgh of Arbroath already referred to. Edward I. lodged at the Abbey on 1st August of the same year in his journey to the north. On 21st October in the following year the monks of Arbroath contracted with the Bishop of Brechin that they should not be obliged to pay the vicars of their churches within his diocese higher stipends than ten pounds of sterlings. Soon afterwards this Abbot was carried captive and detained in England as a prisoner of war, and was ultimately loosed from his office by the Bishop of St Andrews on the feast of All Saints 1309, as mentioned in a writing under the hand of his successor.

16. BERNARD DR LINTTON succeeded John of Angus. He had been parson of Mordington, in Berwickshire; and swore fealty to `Edward I. on 24th August 1296. In 1307, the year after Robert Bruce assumed the throne, he made Bernard his Chancellor for Scotland. It is likely that at the same time he entered on possession of the Abbacy of Arbroath, although not formally appointed Abbot till 1309, when his predecessor was loosed. Michael de Monifieth granted an obligation to the Abbot and convent in 1310, when Bernard was Abbot; and his name repeatedly occurs in the succeeding years. On 21st August 1312, he entered into an engagement with Adam Abbot of Kilwinning for the redemption of 11 brother John, late Abbot of the monastery of Arbroath, and now a simple monk," from his captivity in England, and also for the ransom and return of two or three of the monks. In 1315 Abbot Bernard granted a lease of the lands of Dunnichen beyond the Vinney (Vuany), except the lands of Craichie, to David de Manuel, for a rent of 12 chalders oats and 12 chalders barley, to be reduced by arbitration if the lands should be devastated by the common. war; with liberty to construct a mill, and hold a court of the men dwelling on the lands for deciding actions among themselves. David de Manuel was taken bound to attend the three yearly head courts of the Abbot, and if amerced in these courts he was to pay five shillings or one cow: from which we learn that a cow was then sold for fivepence sterling. He was also taken bound to have on the lands a hostilage for the Abbot and his servants and monks, properly provided with fuel, fodder, bedding, and white candles. The deed contains other stipulations about burying the corpse of David Manuel at Arbroath. This writing has been sometimes misrepresented as a charter of the lands of Ethic to an imaginary David do Maxwell.

Abbot Bernard celebrated the battle of Bannockburn in a Latin poem, a fragment of which is still extant. (Fordun.) He continued Abbot and Chancellor till 1328. During these seventeen years the Abbey of Arbroath reached its culminating point of prosperity. It was the meeting place of councils and parliaments during one of the most interesting periods of Scottish history, when Bruce was effecting the deliverance of his kingdom from foreign domination and intestine foes. And the celebrity of the Abbey seems to have been extended to the small town under its walls, the houses of which now began to be erected according to a regular plan.

Among Bruce's many visits to Arbroath he resided at the Abbey in the autumn of 1317, when an interview occurred which is worthy of notice. Pope John XXII., after the battle of Bannockburn, was induced to send two cardinals to England with a bull commanding a. truce for two years, under pain of excommunication of Bruce or whoever should disobey it. They despatched two messengers to Bruce, who, according to Spottiswood, gave them audience at Aberbrothoick, and allowed the Pope's open letters, recommending peace, to be read in his presence with all due respect. But when the sealed letters, addressed to "Robert Bruce, governing in Scotland," were presented, Bruce replied, "Among my barons there are many named Robert Bruce who share in the government of Scotland, these letters may possibly be addressed to them, but they are not addressed to me, who am King of Scotland. I can receive no letters which are not addressed under that title." Notwithstanding all the apologies of the messengers, Bruce not only refused the letters but firmly withheld his consent to the enjoined truce so long as the Pope and his legates, under English influence, withheld from him the title of king. The letter to the Pope from the barons assembled at Arbroath, on 6th April 1320, has been already alluded to.

Amidst Bernard's numerous duties he by no means neglected the Abbey: he executed many repairs on its buildings at considerable expense. In 1317 he feued the Abbey tofts in Peebles and Inverkeithing to burgesses of these burghs, on condition of their upholding halls or hostilages in each of them similar to that at Stirling; the feuar in Inverkeithing being also taken bound to supply vessels and wooden plates for the hall. A similar hostilage was provided at Aberdeen in 1320, and at Dundee in 1327.

Abbot Bernard's letter of 1325, addressed to Sir Albert custodier of the Priory of Fyvie, gives us a view of the corruptions among the monks of Buchan at that time, as well as of his determination to reform them. After alluding to the want of discipline and the disorder which existed at Fyvie, he commanded the custodier to hold within the chancel of the chapel a chapter three times each week—on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays —to reform divine worship on Sabbaths and festivals; to keep the fasts in terms of canonical institution; and if any of the brethren should be found drunken, clamorous, abusive, rebellious, and disobedient, to reclaim him, if possible, by good counsel; and, if otherwise, to punish each monk by silence and bread and water in a place of confinement, beyond access of the seculars; and if he amended not, to transmit him to the monastery of Arbroath, with a statement of the delinquencies of which he stood chargeable.

The monastic writs of Bernard's time afford proofs of the destruction which flowed from the war with England. In March 1323, the official of St Andrews decided an action which had been raised by the Abbot against William, perpetual vicar of the church of Arbirlot, for non-payment of two merks per annum, appointed to be paid by an order of the Bishop of St Andrews in 1249, and which had been in arrear for twenty years, owing to the poverty, sterility, and destruction of the parish and its inhabitants, occasioned by the late war. The official found the vicar entitled to relief from a portion of the arrears. At this period, in obedience to a statute of the Lateran Council, general chapters or meetings of the monasteries of the order of St Benedict in each kingdom or province were held every three years. Abbot Bernard was cited by the Abbot of Dunfermline to compear in such a chapter, to be held at that Abbey on 21st October 1326, with one or two of his convent, most learned and expert in the customs and rules of the order, with procurators, under penalty in case of absence. The monasteries represented at such a chapter were those of Coldingham, Dunfermline, Urquhart, Kelso and Lesma liago, Kilwinninn, Aberbrothock, Fyvie, and Lindores. Of the grants made by King Robert Bruce to the Abbey betwixt 1313 and 1325, four were given at Arbroath, two at Forfar, and two at Fons Scocie or Scotlandwell, a small village and religious house of the Red Friars, beside a spring once famed for its healing powers, in the parish of Portmoak, near Lochleven, to which Bruce had probably resorted for relief from the terrible disease of leprosy, with which he was afflicted in the latter years of his life.

There is little doubt that Bernard was the Abbot of Arbroath who went to Norway on King Robert Bruce's affairs; on which occasion the King issued a special letter of protection to the Abbey, against all injuries or vexations, during the absence of their Abbot. Mr Innes thinks that this may have probably been in connection with the negotiations which ended in the treaty of Inverness 1312. In 1328 Abbot Bernard was elected Bishop of Sodor (th© Isles) ; and on 30th April of that same year, the Bishop of St Andrews, in a visitation of the monastery of Arbroath, assisted by the Abbots and fathers of the monasteries of Kelso, Dunfermline, St Andrews, Jedbur;h, Lindores, and Coupar, taking into consideration Abbot Bernard's long government of the Abbey and services to the Kin;, and in compensation for his expenses in repairing the monastery, and discharging his office of chancellor, granted to him all the teinds of the church of Abernethy, with the chapel of Dron, for seven years after the feast of Pasch 1328.

17. GEOFFRY (styled in the Abbey writs GALFRIDUS) held the Abbacy from 1328 till about 30th December 1342. He was one of those who submitted at first to Edward Baliol in 1332. He feued the lands of Tulloch (Tulloes) to Fergus, the son of Duncan, on 29th March 1329, with liberty to hold a court called " Couthal," of the men residing on the lands, for deciding actions among themselves. We have not observed this term elsewhere. It is probably allied to couth, couthie, couthily, kindly or neighbourly, the reverse of which is uncouth, strange. The feu-duty of five chalders oats and five chalders barley was to be restricted if the lands should be destroyed in the common war betwixt England and Scotland. About the year 1336 Edward III. having resolved to fortify the town of Perth, ordered the same to be done at the expense of six of the richest Abbeys on the north side of Forth, of which Aberbrothock stands first on the list. This Abbot feued out the Abbey tofts in Perth, Auchterarder, Forres, and Colly [Cullen?], for small sums, with obligations to provide hostilages.

18. WILLIAM was Abbot on 17th July 1348, when he vindicated the Abbey's privilege from toll against the bailies of Dundee, who had presumed to levy a penny from his stallinger or stall-keeper at a fair in their burgh. This took place in the Justiciary or Circuit Court at Forfar. About two years after his appointment, notice is taken of the injuries which the Abbey buildings had sustained from the English shipping. This Abbot seems to have been both active and influential. lie obtained various charters from King David Bruce confirming the Abbey's privileges of regality, koket, and great customs. A writ granted by him in March 1366 regarding the priory of Fyvie, is said to have been sealed at Aberbrothock in the cathedral. This term was probably applied to the great church in reference to the pontifical privileges at this time expected, if not possessed, by its Abbots. The last writing executed by Abbot William is dated 18th July 1366.

19. JOHN GEDY was Abbot in 1370, when he entered into an agreement with Andrew Dempster of Caraldston, as to the ancient office of judge or doomster of the regality. As the builder of Arbroath harbour, the memory of this Abbot possesses more interest to the inhabitants of Arbroath than that of almost any other. It was in his time, previous to June 1380, that the Abbey Church was greatly damaged by fire. He lived to see the damage almost repaired. His seal is appended to the Act of Parliament, settling the succession to the Crown in 1371. The Pope's bull conferring the privilege of wearing the mitred crown and pontifical vestments was addressed to him, on 6th July 1396. It is difficult to ascertain how long he held the Abbacy during the next fifteen years.

20. WALTER PANITER or PANTER, of the family of Newrnanswalls in the Alearns (within the regality of Arbroath), was the next abbot. He is named on 11th December 1411. The inquest held at Cairnconon on 4th April 1409, regarding the lands of Kennymykyl near Kingoldrum, was probably held in his time. He obtained from Pope ]Martin the privilege of conferring the minor orders by a bull, dated 5th June 1420; and he granted the first charter of building-ground in the Eleemosynary, near the lane now called Braick's Wynd, on 8th July 1423. He made a claim on one of the burgesses of Edinburgh who possessed the Abbey hostilage in that city; and the rights of the parties were adjusted by an indenture, executed at Edinburgh on 20th November 1428, which forms a good subject for those who love to read old lowland Scotch. After an introduction, the writing bears that "The said Jhon Vernour, moffit of consciens, has grantit the said annuale rent of twa schillingis to the forsaid abbay, in fee and herytagis, for euirmar, to be takyn of a crofft of his, lyand on southt half the town of Edinburgh, betuex the croft of Sanct Lenard on the est parte, and the croft of the hour of Soltre on the west parte: Alsua, the said abbot sal haf ostillary within the forsaidis tenement of John Vernour, that is to say, hal, chawmyr, kechyng, and butre, with swilk vtensele as the said John Vernour vsis, for al the tym of the said abbotis lyffyng, as he repayris at consalis and assembilleis : and the said John Vernour and hys familiaris, als lang as the forsaid abbot beis within hym at innys, sal be on the abbotis cost for reuerencis, honour and courtasy of the forsaid lord abbot. It is accordit alsua, that fray the dissese of the said abbot the said John Vernour and his ayris sal be discharged foreuirmair of all suilk ostillary of his forsaid tenement, and neuir abbot of Abirbrothoc to challange na clam fra thyn furth ostillary within the said tenement. It is accordit alsua, that the said John Vernour sal be brothiryt in the forsaid abbay." This is the second monastic writ expressed in the Scottish dialect. The next is a note of the marches of Dumbarrow, in 1434, bearing the following title:—"Thir ar the merchis devydand Dunberrow on euery syde, that is to say, betwex the landis of Gardyn, Connansyth, the Boch (Boath), the lordship of Eidwy, Auchirmegyty, and the landis of Presthok." It is minute in its details, and interesting to one acquainted with the locality.

The first nineteen years' lease of a portion of the Abbey lands (viz., MTuirdrum, near Kinnaldy) recorded in the Chartulary, was granted by Abbot Walter on 20th January 1434-5. He enters in the register the marches that bounded the Miltonmuir, the Easter Brax, and the "bishop's lands of St Andrews," in these terms, slightly modernised in orthography:—"In the fyist, begynnand at the Ramdenheid, and fra thyne (thence), passand sowth-west to the tod-halls; and sae furth to the aiken bush, and sae on to the blind or the bold stane, ondyr the dikys of the Brakkys; and sae on to the denheid of Gutheryne (Guynd), ondyr the gait, as the induellaris of Gutheryn cummys and gays to Sanct Vigianis Kyrk." At that period the lands of Guynd were included in the parish of St Vigeans. This old march may be identified with the north boundary of Arbirlot parish, from the head of the Ram Den to the Elliot water. On 5th November 1436 King James I. granted a charter in favour of the Abbey, confirming its possessions, privileges of regality, and other rights. On 15th April 1443 the Abbot feued the church lands of Brekko to John Ogilvy of Luntrethyn, Knight, for 8 merks Scots yearly, for which Sir John bound his lands of" Ballyshame (Bolshan), Brekkis, and Kenbrede." The skirmish betwixt the Ogilvics and Lindsays took place in Abbot Panter's time. The last writ granted by him is dated 6th March 1446. Abbot Malcolm Brydy afterwards states that—"Deyn Walter Panter was an auld man, and resignit the Abbacy till ane Deyn Richart Guthre."

21. RICHARD GUTHRIE. the Prior, thus succeeded Abbot Panter, and held the office previous to 2nd October 1450. The writings executed by him are few, and without public interest. He resigned the office on 18th December 1455. His successor, Abbot Malcolm, records of him that he "was nocht active, nor gave intendens for remeid of wrangs dune to the haly place." This statement is made in a long document, which affords a specimen of the Scottish language at the time, being a complaint by Abbot Malcolm to a Parliament held at Perth, relating to the lands of Caulte in the barony of Tarves, in which a smith had been allowed to squat. In this document the Abbot relates that "the wrangus occupatioun of owr said landis of Caute was movyt and begwn on this way: —For service of our landis, and aisiament of the said smyth, our predecessoris overlukit and tholyt the smyth till byg ane smyddy in the moss, because of his colys and fuell that was necessar to his office, to be won in time of yeir: the said smyth was called Ade (Adam) of Caute, and in skorne with the nychtbours was called laird of Caute in derisioun, because he set in the myddis of ane cauld moss, and through that skorne the land was callit Caulty; and because he was callit sac laird of Cauty, howbeit it was bot for derisioun, our predecessoris thynkand it onkyndlye tyll thole ane nominatioun of lairdschipc of sic ane man in the said Caute, without rycht or resoun, thay removit and put the said smyth fra the said place, for dreid that percase the smyth, or ony of his, suld eftyr, be process of tyme, pretend ony clame of rycht till the said landis," &c.

22. MALCOLM BRYDY, formerly prior of the subordinate house of Fyvie, was Abbot on 27th July 1456, when he concluded an agreement with John Stewart, Lord of Lorne, and Baron of Inverkeillor, relating to the mire of Balnamoon recorded in an "Indenture" written in lowland Scotch. This Abbot does not appear to have been liable to the censure of negligence passed by him on his predecessor, so far as the temporalities of the monastery were concerned. In 1461 he obtained from Pope Pius II. a confirmation of the Abbey's exemption from attendance at the yearly synods of the clergy, and a declaration of excommunication against all who should trouble them on that point. He effected perambulations of the marches of Tarves, Dannichen, Ochterlony, Kinboldrum, and Guynd. He vindicated the rights of the Abbey to the almory and the hospital from the claims of the Bishop of Brechin; and at various times obtained bulls in confirmation of the Abbey privileges. He obtained from William of Ochterlony, and Jonet his spouse, a charter empowering the Convent to quarry and win stones at their pleasure in any part of the lands of Ochterlony, called of old Kelly, under the penalty of ten merks Scots to be annually levied from the lands, and ecclesiastical censure, in the event of interruption. This charter is dated in 1466, and is followed by infeftment of the right granted by the baron to the Abbot, at his "mansion of Ovchtirlovny, alias Kelly," on 13th December 1468. In 1470 "Deyn Malcolm" is found in high contention with the Bishop of St Andrews, whom he accused of extortion and oppression, especially in visiting the monastery, not in a pastoral manner, and with lawful number of followers, but with one or two hundred horsemen. The Bishop had by this time proceeded to extremities, and thrown Abbot Malcolm into his dungeon at St Andrews (arctis carceribus). All this and much more is stated in an appeal made by the Abbot to John Bishop of Brechin, on 17th October 1470, within the chapel of Whitefield. This seems to have been Abbot Malcolm's last effort in his own behalf in connection with the monastery, for soon afterwards, on 3rd November of the same year, he is described as deprived of the Abbacy, and his successor was then appointed. The prelate against whom Abbot Malcolm complained so heavily was no other than Patrick Graham, then Bishop, and next year made Archbishop, of St Andrews, whose character, according to the united testimonies of all our historians, was decidedly the reverse of that given by the Abbot. He was Bishop of Brechin during the three years before his promotion to St Andrews in 1466, and, although not specified by name in the inquest regarding the Almory in 1464 procured by Abbot Malcolm, that measure seems to have been directed against him, and was probably an earlier stage of the quarrel between these dignitaries, which thus came to a height about six years afterwards. Spottiswood says, that in worth and learning Graham was inferior to none of his time, and that he was oppressed by the malice and calumny of the clergy, because they dreaded his intentions to reform their abuses. If his treatment of Abbot Malcolm was unjustifiable and cruel, he was soon afterwards subjected to a similar fate, from a combination of enemies; and which resulted in his imprisonment for life successively at St Andrews, Inchcolm, Dunfermline, and lastly at Lochleven Castle, where he died.

23. RICHARD GUTHRIE, Professor of Sacred Theology, and Prior of the Convent, was elected Abbot in room of Malcolm Brydy. It is probable that he is the same person with the Abbot of that name who resigned the Abbacy in favour of Malcolm, as both were styled Priors. He granted on 20th May 1471 a lease of the teinds of the Church of Inverness, already mentioned, for the building of the dormitory. But he died, or demitted, soon afterwards, for,

24. GEORGE was Abbot previous to 29th July 1472, and held the office till his death, in 1482, during which period he seems to have carried on the restoration of the wood work at the Abbey begun by Abbot Malcolm. A law process betwixt him and William Bishop of Moray was submitted to the mediation of Thomas Bishop of Aberdeen, in whose chapter house, at Old Aberdeen, the parties met, at eleven o'clock forenoon, of 4th August 1478, when the Abbot delivered a paper containing these words:—"My lord, we knaw that owr place, and we has kyrkis within your dioce, for the quhylkis we sal do to your lordeschep as we haff down till ony bischopis in Scotland that we haff kyrkys in thar dioce, except my lord of Sanctandros, our ordinar, and the priuilege of our place beand kepit; so help me God."

25. DOMINUS WILLIAM BONKYL, a monk of the Abbey, was elected Abbot on 8th August 1482. Thomas Bet, the sub-prior, in his speech proposing him, stated to the monks that he was "a man come of good family, meek, quiet, and zealous for peace, loving God and the church, humble, pious, sweet-tempered, and of good manners, a great counsellor and defender of the church in its affairs, also charitable and good, of age about fifty, a bountiful almsgiver, very discreet in spiritual and temporal matters, born of lawful wedlock, affable, a good friend, and merciful in the communion of the faithful." After the election the monks sung Te Deum laudam us, and caused ring the bells of the Abbey church. On 6th February 1483-4, Abbot William granted the church and church lands of Forgien to Alexander Irving of Drum for forty shillings yearly, with service to the King under the Brechbannach. This Abbot soon afterwards died, in the summer of 1484.

26. SIR DAVID LICIITONE, clerk of the King's Treasury and Archdeacon of Ross, was the next abbot. On 29th July 1.484 the Convent assembled for the election of Abbot Bonkyl's successor. They divided in opinion as to the fittest person. William Schevez, Archbishop of St Andrews, was present, and by his advice the Convent agreed to a compromise, by nominating Sir Alexander Masoun, Prior of Fyvie, as "compromissar" for choosing the Abbot. The compromissar immediately postulated Sir David Lichtone, who was received "with great joy," and the bells were rung. The Chapter voted a grant of 3000 gold ducats for the purpose of expediting the bulls of his appointment at Rome. This large sum continued to hang as a burden on the Abbey for a long period afterwards. This Abbot seems to have managed the rents and lands of the monastery with great diligence and attention. The record of leases of lands and teinds, presentations to churches, and other documents issued by the Chapter, are in his time recorded in a manner more full and regular than formerly. It was he who put on record those curious memoranda in relation to the offices of the granitor and cellarer. On 5th April 1486 he and the Chapter engaged " a discret clerk, Master Archibald Lame," (Lamy) for three years after Whitsunday, to teach the novices and younger brethren, for which he was to get ten merks Scots as salary (nearly the ordinary stipend of a parish vicar), besides his daily portion with the monks. On 5th July 1500 the lands of Cairnie and pendicles were let to Janet Brydy and her sons, at the following rents, viz., £11, 6s. 8d. Scots (equal to 18s. 10 2/3d. sterling), payable to the monks of the community, for the lands of Cairnie; for the Smiths' lands, near Cairnie, three shillings, to the monks of the library; and for the lands under Lamblaw, "beyond our ward," two bolls oats, with other husbandry charges. They were taken bound to grind their corns at the Wardmill; and Janet Brydy was bound not to marry unless with license of the Abbot and Convent. The last recorded writ granted by Abbot David Lichtone is a lease of the lands of Percie, near Kingoldrum, on 17th December 1502.

27. Previous to Abbot David Lichtone's death the Primate or Archbishop of St Andrews seems to have obtained an interest in the rich benefice of the Abbey. This was JAMES STUART, DUKE OF Ross, second son of King James III., who became Primate in 1497, and held the Abbeys of Dunfermline and Holyrood in commendar. He granted, along with Abbot David, writs of presentation to the churches of Garvock and Nigg on 28th and 31st October 1502. After the death of Lichtone he became also Commendator of Arbroath during the brief period of his survivance, as he died in the year 1503, at the early age of twenty-eight, and was buried in the Cathedral of St Andrews.

This period is marked by the commencement of that open declension in the Romish Church of Scotland which rapidly increased during the next half century, till its further progress was stopped by the Reformation. After 1500 the great benefices were grasped by the king and nobles, as livings for their sons, brothers, and nephews, legitimate or illegitimate. The chapters were virtually deprived of their power of election, the duties of discipline and hospitality were equally neglected, and the consequence was general disorder, immorality and ignorance. According to Spottiswood, this tide of corruption reached the religious institutions, especially the monasteries in Fifeshire and the southern parts of the kingdom, about twenty-five years before Lichtone's death, and at the time of the persecution of Archbishop Graham.

28. GEORGE HEPBURN, of the family of Bothwell, and Provost of the Collegiate Church of Lincluden, in Galloway, succeeded James Stuart as Abbot of Arbroath, by the unanimous election of the Chapter, on 3rd February 1503-4; and on the 20th of the same month they gave 1500 gold ducats to procurators for expeding the papal bull in the new Abbot's favour. He held the Abbacy for ten years. He was appointed Bishop of the Isles in 1510, after which the charters relative to Arbroath were granted by him, under the title of "George Bishop of Sodor and Commendator of Arbroath." He also at this period held the Abbey of Iona in commendam. In the year 1509 Abbot George appointed James Henrison, clerk of the Justice-General, during his life, to the office of "Advocate" of the Abbey, for a pension of twenty merks. This advocate then held the important office of Clerk of Justiciary, whose official successor is now our modern Lord Justice-Clerk. A lease of the lands of Bogfechil, in the barony of Tarves, bearing the date of 12th January 1511-12, contains the name of the Abbot, of Richard Scot, sub-prior, and the whole other twenty-five monks of the Convent. A writing in the register bears that there existed in the parish church of Inverkeillor, about 1511, an altar or chaplainry dedicated to John Baptist, whose patron was then Magister David Gardyne of Cononsyth, and that Sir John Davidson, chaplain of the chapel of Whitefield, endowed it with certain rents, payable from the baronies of Dysart, Panmure, and Inverkeillor, for the benefit of the souls of King James IV., his Queen Margaret, and others. The last recorded charter granted by this Abbot bears the date of 12th August 1513. He followed King James IV. to Flodden, and fell with him on that disastrous field.

The Abbey register in his time consists almost entirely of leases, without those interesting documents which marked the rule of Abbot Lichtone. But alongside of this and other proofs of the careless and secular administration of the ecclesiastical property, the Chartulary affords evidence of the increase of superstitious notions among the people. We refer to those grants to the altars in St Mary's Chapel and St Vigeans Church, which appear during the government of Abbot George, although the more peculiar and superstitious parts of these deeds do not seem to have been encouraged or confirmed by him. These were afterwards confirmed by his successors, James and David Betoun, who had no scruples on that point.

After Hepburn's death a contest took place for possession of the Abbacy. The competitors were-1st, Gawin Douglas, Provost of the Collegiate Church of St Giles, Edinburgh, well known as the translator of Virgil into lowland Scotch,—under the nomination of Queen Margaret, who was then Regent of Scotland, and was shortly thereafter married to the Earl of Angus, Douglas' nephew: 2nd, John Hepburn, then Prior of St Andrews: and 3rd, Andrew Foreman, Bishop of Moray. They were also competitors for the see of St Andrews, which was vacant by the death of Alexander Stuart at Flodden. Foreman had been declared Archbishop of St Andrews, and Abbot of Dunfermline and Aberbrothock, by the Pope's bull published at Edinburgh in January 1515. The disturbances caused by Hepburn and his friends were so great that the Regent Albany prevailed on Foreman to resign his benefices, and he received again the Archbishopric of St Andrews. Gawin Douglas seems to have retired from the contest for Arbroath, and was next year made Bishop of Dunkeld.

29. JAMES BETOUN, youngest son of John Betoun of Balfour, in the parish of Markinch, Fifeshire, obtained the appointment to the Abbacy from the Duke of Albany on his entry to the regency, amid the scramble for great benefices which followed the battle of Flodden. This ecclesiastic was able to secure many of the greatest appointments in Scotland. The list of his preferments is very long. He was educated at St Andrews from 141 to 1493, obtained the Chantry of Caithness in 1497, the Provostry of the Collegiate Church of Bothwell and Priory of Whithorn before 1503, the Abbey of Dunfermline in 1504, at which time also he was a Lord of Session. He was made Lord-Treasurer in 1505, and Bishop of Galloway in 1508. He obtained the Archbishopric of Glasgow in 1509, the office of Lord Chancellor about 1513, the Abbacy of Arbroath in 1515, and the Archbishopric of St Andrews in 1522. He also held the rich Abbey of Kilwinning 'in comnmendam. He was engaged in almost every political intrigue of his time ; and although, during a part of his life, in the enjoyment of great dignity and wealth, yet he experienced considerable reverses. He is described by one writer as " the greatest man, both of lands and experience, within this realme," but "noted to be very subtill and dissymuling." The following character given of him by Knox is, as may be expected, far from favourable, but perhaps not very far from truth :—He was "more careful for the warld than he was to preach Christ, or yet to advance any religion, but for the fashion only; and, as he sought the warld, it fled him not; for it was weill known that at once lie was Archbischop of Sanctandrose, Abbot of Dumfermeling, Aberbroth, Kylwynnyng, and Chancellare of Scotland; for, after the unhappy feild of Flowdoun, in which perished King James the Fourt with the greatest part of the nobilitie of the realme, the said Betoun, with the rest of the prelattis, had the haill regiment of the realme; and by reason thereof held, and travailed to hold, the treuth of God in thraldome and bondage." This statement is made in connection with the trial and death of Patrick Hamilton, whom Betoun brought to the stake on 28th February 1527-8.

When James Betoun succeeded to the Primacy, on the death of Archbishop Foreman, he resigned the Abbacy of Arbroath to David Betoun, reserving, however, the half of its revenues during his life. Shortly after this—his highest elevation—he was obliged to spend some time on a farm among the hills above Leven in Fife, in the disguise of a shepherd, in order to escape the search of his enemies of the house of Douglas, during the feud between that house and the house of Lennox. He erected the buildings of St Mary's College, St Andrews, where the Pedagogium had formerly stood, and got its new constitution as a college confirmed by a Papal bull in 1537. This college is indebted to him and his nephew and successor for the most of its endowments. During part, at least, of the period when James Betoun was Abbot of Arbroath, the Abbey seems to have been practically ruled by Alexander Craill, the sub-prior. In 1539 Betoun, "a man of great age, departed this life, and was buried at St Andrews," before the high altar of the cathedral.

30. DAVID BETOUN was a nephew of his predecessor, and third son of his brother, John Betoun, the proprietor of the estate of Balfour. This Abbot, who figures so prominently in Scottish history, was born in 1494, and was a student of St Andrews in 1509, and of Glasgow in 1511 and he afterwards studied the civil and canon law in France. He became Rector of Campsie in 1519, and about the same time was appointed Resident for Scotland in the Court of France. He obtained, as before stated, the Abbacy of Arbroath, with the half of its income, in 1522 or 1523, and sat as Abbot in the Scottish Parliament of 1525. This beginning of his preferments is alluded to by Sir David Lindesay in the following lines:

"When I was a young gallant gentle-man,
Princes to serve I set my whole intent
First to ascend to Arbroth I began;
An Abbacie of great riches and rent;
Of that estate yet was I not content,
To get more riches, dignitie, and glore.
Mine heart was set, alas, alas, therefore."

Abbot David Betoun first appears in the Arbroath Clzartulary on 18th January 1523-4, as confirming Robert Scot's endowment of the altar of St Dupthacus. On 20th May 1525, he issued a presentation of the parish church of Lunan to Sir David Cristeson, presbyter; so that 'Walter Miln's entry as priest of Lunan must have been of later date. Betoun, on 23rd May 1525, granted warrant to infeft James Lord Ogilvy in the lands of " Brekky, as heir to "John Lord Ogylwy, his gudschyr;" and in 1527, he let the croft near the Dern Yett, with the teinds, to John Barbor, for nineteen years, at a rent of £1, 6s. 8d. Scots. This is probably the true origin of the term Barbers Croft, now applied to that piece of ground. On 9th November 1527, he granted a nineteen years lease of the lands of Cairnie and Smiths lands to Alexander Brown Chaplain and others, for the same rents at which they had been let by Abbot Lichtone. The present feu-duty of 18s. 7½d. sterling paid by Sir John Ogilvy for Cairnie, may probably be traced back to these rents. On 5th December of that year, the Abbot granted to Robert Lesly of Inverpeffer a yearly pension of £10 Scots for life, on condition that he should appear "as procurator for the Abbot and Convent in all causes against all persons, except those by whom he has been previously engaged, before the Lords of Council, Session, and Parliament, and give them his counsel in the same as often as required." This lawyer's pension is equal to sixteen shillings and eightpence of our money; but in market value at that time was perhaps nearly equivalent to x'10 sterling in our time.

The Chartulary contains various proofs of David Betoun's acts of kindness to his chief female favourite, "Maistres Marion Ogilbye," who is said by Knox to have been seen departing from his castle at St Andrews by the private postern that morning on which he was murdered. She was a daughter of Sir James, afterwards Lord Ogilvy of Airlie, and had several children by Betoun, one of whom was ancestor of the Bethunes of Nether Tarvet; and it was her daughter, Margaret Betoun, Whose marriage with the Master of Crawford (afterwards ninth Earl), was celebrated with magnificence at Finhaven castle immediately after the death of George Wishart. One of her sons was styled David Betoun of Melgund. Another son, Alexander Betoun, was Archdeacon of Lothian, and is believed to have become a minister of the Reformed Church. On 22nd May 1528, Abbot David, for a certain sum of money "and other causes," granted a liferent lease to Marion or Mariot Ogylwy of the lands of Burnton of Ethie, and other lands near that place. On 20th July 1530 he granted to her a liferent lease of the Kirkton of St Vigeans, with the Muirfauld and the toft of St Vigeans, and a piece of common land lying to the south of the church. These grants were followed, on 17th February 1533-4, by a nineteen years' lease of the eighth part of the lands of Auchmithie, with the brewhouse there and lands belonging to it. The leases are given in liberal terms, and at low rents. The last recorded grant to this lady is dated 10th March 1534, and seems to be a feu of a piece of land in the "Sandypots," for the construction of a toral or ustrina, lying "beyond and near the Red Wall of the monastery commonly so called." This ground was not far from the site of the present parish church of Arbroath. Marion Ogilvy is styled the " Lady of Melgund" in the record of a plea at her instance before the Bailies of Arbroath, 8th January 1565-6 (Burgh Court-Book) ; at which time, or shortly before, she was proprietrix of Hospitalfield, near Arbroath. Commissary Maule relates that Thomas Maule, younger of Panmure, had been an attendant on the Cardinal, and was contracted in marriage with his daughter, evidently previous to her marriage with the Master of Crawford. But as he was riding out of Arbroath one day, in company with James V., the jolly monarch called him aside, and bade him "Marry never ane preist's gett;" "whereupon (adds the Commissary) that marriage did cease." The Cardinal highly resented the slight; and his resentment ultimately cost Maule 3000 merks. (MS. Account of Panmure Family.)

The leases granted by David Betoun are in much looser and more general terms, and contain fewer restrictions, than those granted by his immediate predecessors; and often contained power to assign and sublet. This was the intermediate step betwixt the former careful management of the monastic possessions, and the subsequent alienation of them in perpetual feu grants for fixed quantities of grain, or certain amounts of Scotch money, the value of which has now fallen to very insignificant sums.

The monastic register, so far as accessible, ends with a writ granted soon after 5th September 1536; and does not contain transcripts of the writings by which the. lands in the more immediate neighbourhood of the Abbey were subfeued. Previous to David Betoun's time the Abbey lands in the shires of Inverness, Banif, Aberdeen, Kincardine, Perth, and Lanark, had been gradually feued away. This was the case also with the lands about Kingoldrum, and the most of those in the parish of Dunnichen. But down to 1536, the Abbey lands in the parishes of St Vigeans, Ethie, and Carmylie, and those of Dumbarrow, were (with the exception perhaps of Letham) retained by the Convent, and were regularly let to tenants in leases of nineteen years. The lands of Ethie were in the hands of the Convent after 1528, as in that year the Abbot let the half of the Mains of Ethie to David Lichton, who had resigned his liferent lease of Burnton of Ethie in favour of Marion Ogilvy; and the "principal place of Athy," with its granary, is incidentally mentioned as being in the Abbot's possession in 1510. It is quite possible that a mansion at Ethie may have been about 1530 the residence of the Cardinal's favourite mistress, who had leases of land on both sides of it. It may be here stated that the last vicar of the Parish Church of Ethie on record was James Ged, who was presented to the perpetual vicarage by David Betoun, on 7th December 1531, after the death of Andrew Chatto, the former vicar.

David Betoun, while in Arbroath, was commencing that career of activity and political influence which has made him the best known if not the worthiest of the Abbots. His general character and his severity toward the Reformers are too familiar to every reader of Scottish history to require any detail in these pages. On 28th February 1527 he formed one of the court at St Andrews which condemned Patrick Hamilton to death. Both previous and subsequent to that event he appears to have been employed on public or state matters in foreign countries. It was probably on that account that he omitted to hold the justice aires of the regality, as alluded to in our notice of the office of bailiery. Sir David Lindesay states that the Cardinal made several voyages to France on public affairs, two of which were regarding the marriages of King James V. with his successive queens, Magdalene, and Mary of Lorraine. He was consecrated Bishop of Mirepoix in Languedoc, France, in December 1537. The following year, through the influence of the King of France, he was made Cardinal, under the title of "Sti Stephani in Monte Coelio." And about the same time he was nominated Coadjutor of St Andrews, and declared future successor to the primate James Betoun, upon whose death in the beginning of the next year he became Archbishop. On 13th December 1543 he was made Lord Chancellor of Scotland, and in 1544 the Pope nominated him legate a latere. By this time he also held the appointment of legate natus, as he is said to bear that title in the feu charter of the lands of Colliston, Ruives, Park of Conon, and Guthrie Hill, which he granted on 25th July 1544, to John Guthrie and Isobel Ogilwy his spouse. The deed was subscribed by the Cardinal and twenty monks of the Abbey, whose names were, Robert Durward (sub-prior), Andrew Bardy, David Teyndar, William Crammy, David Craill, Thomas Ruthirfurde, Thomas Scot, Walter Baldowy, William Wedderburne, John Logye, John Peirson, David Scot, Alexander Gov (Gow), Allan Martyn, Alexander Cwby, Richard Craik, John Renny, Christopher Moncur, George 11loncriefl', John Anderson. This document has at present fallen aside, a loss the more to be regretted on account of the extraordinary character of some of the illuminations on its margin. It was confirmed by another charter dated 16th November 1544, granted by James Strodaquhyne (Strachan), Provost of the collegiate church of the Blessed Virgin of Guthrie, David Pitcairn, Archdeacon of the cathedral church of Brechin, and John bseldrum, canon of Brechin, and rector of the parish church of Buthergill, as papal commissioners. The numerous dignities acquired by Betoun were not forgotten to be enumerated at the trial of George Wishart, in February 1546, by John Lauder, his accuser, according to Knox's account. "Is not my Lord Cardinall the secund persone within this realme, Chancellar of Scotland, Archbischope of Sanctandross, Bischope of Aferopose, Commendatour of Abirbrothok, Legatus Natus, Legatus. a Latere? And so reciting as many titilles of his unworthy honouris as wold have lodin a schip, much sonare ane asse; is not he (quod Johne Lauder) ane equall judge apparently to thee?"

In the year 1541 the. Cardinal underwent a temporary disgrace and imprisonment, during the regency of the Earl of Arran, and at this time the Abbacy of Arbroath was given, or attempted to be given, in corn nendam, to John Hamilton the Regent's second son. Mr Innes is of opinion that Betoun did not hold the Abbacy till his death ; and it has been said by others that he resigned that benefice in March 1545-6, with the intention that James Betoun his nephew (afterwards alluded to) should enjoy it; although his title of Commendator of Aberbrothock was named by John Lauder at Wishart's trial, within three months of his death, which took place at the hands of Norman Leslie's followers on 29th May 1546, as narrated in every history of the period. The Cardinal's bloody and violent death happened in a time of confusion, which it tended to increase; and immediately after its perpetration a competition took place for the affices which he had held, and among others for the Abbacy, notwithstanding his alleged resignation in favour of his nephew. 31. After the Cardinal's death, Knox states that "Laubour is maid for the Abbacy of Abirbrothok;" and in the midst of some uncertainty, GEORGE DOUGLAS, natural son to Archibald Earl of Angus, may be ranked as the next Abbot, although he enjoyed the benefice only for a short period. Leslie the historian says that the governor (Earl of Arran) "gaif ane gift of the Abbay of Arbroith to George Douglas, bastard sone to the Erle of Angus, notwithstanding that Maister James Beatoun, tender cousing to the Cardinall, was lawfullie provydit thairto of befoir, quhilk maid gret troubill in the countrey eftirwart." Knox, in allusion to this appointment of George Douglas, adds, "in memory whairof he is yet called Postulat." Some have believed the grant to Douglas to have been wholly ineffectual. But Hume of Godscroft, in his history of the house of Douglas, referring to this title of Postulate of Aberbrothock, asserts that Douglas did " not only postulate it, but apprehended it also, and used it as his own." The servants and dependents of the Earl of Angus possessed Arbroath in the end of the year 1547, subsequent to the battle of Pinkie. (Tytler, vi. 424.) Long afterwards, in 1570, during the vindictive and bloody war between the King's-men and the Queen's-men, Douglas, who espoused the King's side, took possession of the Abbey, as belonging to him. He was besieged in it by the Earl of Huntly for some time, till the Regent Lennox sent the Earl of Morton with a force to relieve him. Upon this Huntly left the place and went to Brechin, whether Morton followed, and a skirmish took place at the Cathedral; after which Morton hanged forty-four soldiers who had been taken prisoners at the castle. George Douglas became Bishop of Moray in 1571, and retained that see about sixteen years till his death. In the absence of more direct evidence it is supposed that his carrying away the documents of the Abbey and town of Arbroath, as mentioned in King James' charter to the burgle, took place when he left the Abbey, after his short-lived possession of it in 1570.

32. In the confusion that succeeded the death of David Betoun, and notwithstanding the grant of the Abbacy to George Douglas, it seems to have soon fallen into the hands of JAMES BETOUN, a son of John Betoun of Balfarg, and nephew of the Cardinal. He was educated for the church, and was sometimes styled "Maister James Betoun, Postulat of Aberbrothock" According to Chalmers (Caledonia, iii. 623), he had obtained an appointment to the Abbacy at the time of the resignation of his uncle the Cardinal, in March 1545-6. As postulate of Aberbrothock, he was in November 1549, ordered to find security to "underly the lawis for treasonable inter-communing with Sir John Dudley, Englishman, sometime captain of the fort of Brouchty," and persons were sent to Aberbrothock "to require the place thereof to be given oure to my Lord Governouris Grace, because :M aister James Betoune was at the home." In that year (1549) he is said to have granted a charter of the lands of Guynd, now in Carmylie parish, to John Betoun of Balquharry (Balquharg) for services performed by him, and for "the defence of the monastery against the invaders of the liberties of the church in these times when the Lutherans are endeavouring to invade the same." (Stat. Acc. of Carmylie, 1845.) This grant was probably annulled at the Reformation, as the " Charge of the Temporalitie" describes the "lands of Gund" as set in feu to David Strathauchin of Carmylie.

James Betoun retained the Abbacy, although not without contest, till the year 1551, when he was promoted to the Archbishopric of Glasgow. He enjoyed many eminent stations in the church during the few years which then preceded the downfal of the Romish faith in Scotland. After that event he left this country, and was appointed by Queen Mary ambassador to the Court of France. Her son, James VI., continued him in that office till his death, which took place at Paris on 25th April 1603, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. Betoun is said to have settled his property so as to promote the cause of learning. He bequeathed to the Scottish college at Paris many interesting documents, including the correspondence betwixt Quintin Kennedy, Abbot of Crossragwel, and John Willock, one of the Reformers, in 1559, which has since been printed by bishop Keith and others.

33. LORD JOHN HAMILTON, second son of the Earl of Arran, Governor of Scotland, is believed to have obtained an appointment to the Abbacy so early as 1541, but did not obtain possession till 1551, on James Betoun's preferment to Glasgow. He was at that time only about eighteen years old, and was the last Popish Abbot of Arbroath. But in 1559 he, with his father's family, became attached to the Protestant party: and he afterwards acted conspicuously in most of the political and religious movements of the time, some of which were sufficiently dark. He however gave many proofs of the sincerity of his conversion to the reformed faith. Owing to the lunacy of his elder brother, he was, after his father's death, practically the head of the powerful family of Hamilton during the long period of thirty years. It was during his rule that the remaining lands of the monastery were given away as perpetual feus, till nothing was left except the precinct or site of the monastic buildings, to which the Crown laid claim. Among others it appears that about 1555 he feued the lands and barony of Ethie to Sir Robert Carnegie of Kinnaird, one of the Senators of the College of Justice, and afterwards ambassador to England and France, for x'108 Scots yearly. From Sir John these lands descended to John his grandson, who was created Lord Lour in 1639, and Earl of Ethie in 1647. These titles were about 1662 changed to Earl of Northesk and Lord Rosehill.

On 10th May 1560, Abbot John Hamilton subscribed the contract with Queen Elizabeth's lieutenant regarding the siege of Leith. He was one of the assize who, in 1567, pronounced Bothwell not guilty of the murder of Darnley. A letter from him to the General Assembly, excusing his absence on account of the disturbances at the time of Queen Mary's imprisonment at Lochleven, is printed in Keith's History (p. 587). It is dated at Hamilton, 19th July 1567, and concludes, "Zour loving friend at power in all godlines, Arbrothe." He had taken the Queen's part at this period, and afterwards went to France to solicit aid for her deliverance; but does not appear to have been at the battle of Langside after her escape. He appeared publicly on her behalf toward the close of the civil war which soon afterwards ensued, although he did not personally act much the part of a soldier. He was included in the sentence of forfeiture pronounced against the Queen's adherents in the King's Parliament of August 1571. By the treaty of Perth, 23rd February 1571-2, "Lord Johnne Hamiltoun, Commendator of the Abbay of Arbroithe for himself, and takand the burden upon him for Lord Claud Hamiltoun, his brother, and all utheris, the kin, friends, servants, and partakers now depending properly on the Duke His Grace of Chattelarault, thair father, and the hous of Hamiltoun," with the Earl of Huntly and his dependents, submitted to the authority of the Regent of the infant king, and were restored to their possessions. (Historie of King James the Sext, p. 211.)

Like others of his family, Lord John was suspected of participation in contriving the death of the Regent Moray: he cordially received the assassin at Hamilton after the deed. He was also concerned in the death of Johnston of Westerraw, who had killed one of the Hamiltons, and was in his turn slain by another of the same name. The following scenes, so characteristic of that unsettled period, cannot be letter narrated than in the words of the Church historian, Calderwood (iii. 346) "Upon the seventh of March [1515], the Lord Hammiltoun and Claud, Abbot of Pasley, made public sithement [This was an old Scottish form of making assyrhment or satisfaction for bloodshed.] to the Erle of Angus, in the palace of Halyrudhous; comming the whole bounds of the inner court barefootted and bare-headed; and sitting doun on their knees, delivered him the sword by the point, for the slaughter of Westerraw. This reconciliatioun greeved specially William Douglas of Lochlevin, who desisted not from persute of the slaughter of his brother, the Erle of Murrey. He persued the Lord Hammiltoun comming from Arbrothe, so that he was constrained to retire to Arbrothe. Another tyme, when he was rydinb through Fife, he constrained him to flee to Dairsie, and lay about it till the Regent sent and charged them to depart." On the last of these occasions, Douglas was accompanied by the Earl of Buchan, George Douglas (the Postulate), then Bishop of Moray, and about five hundred horsemen. They were determined on the death of Lord John, but he escaped to Dairsie by a stratagem, where he was besieged several days till the Hamiltons, with the Earls of Angus, Rothes, and Errol, had assembled a large force for his relief. Douglas at last was induced to raise the siege, and Lord Hamilton was allowed to proceed on his journey to Arbroath.

Lord John shared in the sudden reverse of his kindred during Morton's regency in the year 1519, on the pretence of accession to Moray's murder, and fled to Flanders in great poverty, having travelled on foot through great part of England disguised as a seaman. He went to Paris, and was very kindly entertained by Archbishop James Betoun, his predecessor in the Abbacy. The powerful house of Guise made great offers to him if he would return to the Romish religion; but his conscientious refusal deprived him of all further favour at the Court of France. Queen Mary, when under sentence of death, took a ring from her finger, and bade her attendants carry it to him, as the only proof she could give of her sense of the fidelity of his family to her, and of their sufferings on her account, requesting that it might be kept as a lasting token of her gratitude. Although Lord John was thus attached to his royal mistress, he had a large share of the confidence of the Reformed Church ; and was generally on the side of those who espoused the cause of civil and religious liberty, so far as understood at the time. The following interview will explain this qualification. The Synod of Fife, in September 1593, had passed sentence of excommunication on the Earls of Huntly, Angus, and Errol, Lord Hume, and two others, for their continued adherence to Popery. King James was much provoked at the measure, and shortly afterwards went to Hamilton and visited Lord John, who was uncle to Huntly. After expressing his esteem for and confidence in Hamilton, the King said: "You see, my Lord, how I am used; and that I have no man in whom I may trust more than in Huntly. If I receive him the ministers will cry out that I am an apostate from the religion; if not, I am left desolate." Hamilton replied, "If he and the rest be not enemies to the religion ye may receive them; otherwise not." "I cannot tell what to make of that," said the King, but the ministers hold them for enemies: at all events I would think it good that they enjoyed liberty of conscience." Upon this Hamilton cried out, "Then, sir, we are all gone? then we are all gone! If there were no more to withstand, I will withstand." Confounded by the earnestness of Lord John's manner, and seeing his servants approaching, James said, with a smile, My lord, I did this to try your mind," and immediately changed the subject. (Cald. v. 269, and others.) Notwithstanding the humiliating scene of the assythment, Lord John's character appears in history as one of dignity and consistency, but marked by a certain want of firmness of purpose. Like his father, the Duke of Chatelherault, he was not only respected but loved, and seems to have avoided as far as possible appeals to the sword, in times when it was too often resorted to as the settler of disputes. He often resided at Arbroath, without doubt in the Abbot's house; and frequently visited Maule of Panmure, for whom he had great respect—called him father, and accompanied him in hunting excursions.

During the period of Lord John's adversity Esme Stuart D'Aubigne, the early favourite of King James, procured the revenues of the Abbacy, and in May 1581 confirmed a deed of sale of Newton of Aherbrothock by John Carnegie of that Ilk to Robert Guthrie of Kinblethmont. He was suddenly advanced to great power, and was on 3rd August 1581 proclaimed Duke of Lennox, Lord Darnley, Lord Tarbolton, Dalkeith and Tantallon, Great Chamberlain of Scotland, and Commendator of Arbroath. His fall was as rapid as his rise. The Scottish barons, enraged at his boundless influence over the young King, carried through the revolution called the raid of Ruthven, and compelled D'Aubigne to leave Scotland in December 1582. He died soon afterwards in France, on 26th May 1583. He was a good-natured, gay, accomplished man, with the manners of France, where he had been educated. During the short period of his power there was a running war betwixt him and the ministers of the Scottish Church, who believed, perhaps unjustly, that he continued to be a papist in disguise. Among innumerable charges brought by them against his public proceedings and those of James Stuart, who at that time took the title of Earl of Arran, they complained that, "he procured the title of the Abbacie of Arbrothe, without any provisioun of the ministrie for everie particular kirk of that prelacie, contrarie to the tenor of the late act of Parliament; and also, that "he purchased the gift of the superplus of the thrids of Arbrothe, as it stood in anuo 1580, not onlie to stay all farther planting of ministers within the kirks of that Abbacie but also to spoile the whole ministers not planted at these kirks of the part of their stipends taken out of that Abbacie." (Cald. iv., 396.) Another charge, of a more personal nature, was that, "Albeit he promised to procure and mainteane on his expenses a minister, he never had so much as one boy to read one chapter or say grace at the table." The commentary on this curious list of grievances also bears that, "In a French passion he rent his beard, and thinking to strike the boord, strike himself in the thigh, crying, 'The devill for John Dune,' which Montbirneau learned for the first lessoun in the Scotish language."

Lord John Hamilton returned to Scotland in 1585 with his brother Claud and the other exiled lordly.and invested Stirling with an army, after which lie, as first in rank, and the other nobles were courteou.ly received by the King. He was, by the Parliament of that year, restored to his possessions and honours, made Captain of the Castle of Dumbarton, and appointed Curator to his eldest brother, James Hamilton, Earl of Arran. After this period he enjoyed much of the friendship and confidence of James VI. The act of annexation of the temporality of benefices to the Crown, passed in 1587, provided that "John Lord Hammiltoun, Commendator of the Abbacie of Aberbrothock, sail bruik the fruites of the said Abbacie during his lifetime, in the same manner as he did before, except the profits of the Lands of Craquhy and Milne, the Lands of Tullois and Corstoun, for the whilk he sail be recompensed according to the general ordour to be taken with the remanent ecclesiastical persones quhais rent is paired be the said annexatioun." Lord John took a prominent part in the reception of Queen Anne (of Denmark), and bore the sceptre at her coronation, on 17th May 1590. He was created first Marquis of Hamilton on 17th April 1599, and resigned the Abbey into the King's hands, who conferred the same on his eldest son, James Hamilton, reserving his father's right to the profits during his lifetime. This last Abbot of Arbroath died on 12th April 1601, aged seventy-one.

His son James, thus second Marquis of Hamilton, procured a Charter of the Abbey in 1600; and the King and Parliament, on 6th July 1606, dissolved the lands, patronages, and teinds of the Abbey from the Crown, and erected them into a temporal lordship in his favour, with the dignity and title of a lay lord of Parliament, but divested of the privileges of regality. This statute declares that the Parliament "lies suppressit and extinguischit the memorie of the said Abbacie of Aberbrothok, that thair sail be na successor provydit thairto, nor Lucfcarder mentioun maid of the samin in ony tymne heirefter." The Marquis of Hamilton was created Lord Aberbrothock on 5th May 1608. He died on 2nd March 1625, and his son James, third Marquis, was served heir to the lands and barony of Aberbrothock on 5th May thereafter, and retained them at least till 1636. Up to Michaelmas of that year his chamberlain, John Hamilton of Almeriecloss, took an active part in the burgh business of Arbroath, and annually nominated one of the bailies.

After that date, according to John Spottiswood (Account of Religious Houses), the lordship, now an ordinary estate, came into possession of William Murray, subsequently created first Earl of Dysart, who retained it but a few years.

Patrick Maule of Panmure seems to have been in terms for a purchase of the estate from the Marquis of Hamilton, and afterwards effected the purchase of it, with the patronage of its churches, from the Earl of Dysart, and obtained a charter in his favour on 26th November 1612. He was Gentleman of the Bed-Chamber to King Charles I., and in 1616 was created first Earl of Panmure. He and the Earl of Dysart did not, down to 1646, nominate any magistrate of Arbroath, but left them to be elected by the council. James, the fourth Earl, lost Arbroath with his other great possessions through his forfeiture after 1715, but they were purchased from the York Buildings Company in 1764 for £40,157, 18s. 4d., by William Maule, Earl of Panmure of Forth, and have since remained in the possession of that eminent family.

IV.—CAUSES OF DISSOLUTION.

The Abbey of Arbroath may be said to have enjoyed about three hundred and twenty years of vitality and usefulness in a greater or less degree, namely, from 1178 till about 1500. During the earlier portion of this period we believe that the institution of monasteries (not of monachism.) was a benefit to the population of Europe. However much the system may have become liable to ridicule and censure, as observed during its more recent, and consequently better known history, which was a time of comparative superannuation and gross abuses, it is to be recollected that at an early period it contributed largely to help forward that improvement in manners, literature, and civil and religious liberty which at last rose up to, and far beyond, its own level. But the system was too artificial, and in some respects too unnatural to enable it to keep pace with the progress of civilisation and enlightenment, so that monasteries instead of being, as they once were, ahead of the age, were found to have stood still, while society around them continued to advance so as to leave them far behind.

The remaining sixty years of the Romish history of this great monastery was, in respect more especially to its higher functionaries, a period of corruption and very visible decay; for about the close of the fifteenth century universal disorder seems to have rushed in like a flood, not only on this, but on almost every monastic establishment in Scotland. This religious house consequently did not fail to share the fate of these other establishments, in regard to which it has been well remarked by an erudite writer (Chalmers' Caledonia, ii. 508), that "when their usefulness was gone their oblivion began." The more apparent, because physical ruin and desolation, which at last overtook this once noble institution, about 1560, may therefore be looked on as the natural and inevitable consequence of the prior moral and mental degradation to. which it had been subjected by the grandees of the period, who overlooked every object which it had been intended to subserve, in their desire for possession of its revenues.

The inordinate ambition and incompetency of the men who at that period became ecclesiastics, not in order to serve the church but their own cupidity, are well described by Gawin Douglas, to whom we have already alluded, and who being himself a dignitary of the Romish Church, cannot be suspected of Protestant pre. judice. In the strange alliterative prologue to. the eighth book of his translation of Virgil's great poem, written in 1513, not long previous to the battle of Flodden, he says:

"Priests [who] suld be patterers, and for the people pray,
To be papes of patrimony and prelatis pretendis;
Ten teinds are ane trump, bot gif he tak may
Ane kinrik of parish kirks, coupled with commendis.
Wha are workers of this war, wha wakeners of wae,
Bot incompetable clergy that Christendom offendis?
Wha rieves, wha are riotous, wha reckless bot thay?
Wha quells the poor commons bot kirkmen weel kend is.
There is nae state of their style that standis content
Knight, clerk, nor common,
Burgess nor baron,
All would have up that is down;
welterit the went."

Douglas' description of the corruptions of the Romish church is substantially the same with that given by Sir David Lindesay a few years afterwards. In his Complaint to the King's Grace, this poet of the Scottish Reformation writes thus:

Thae Iordis tuke na mair regaird,
Bot quha inicht purches best rewaird.
Sum to thair freindis gat beneficeis,
And uther sum gat bischopreis,
For every lord, as he thocht best,
Brocht in ane bird to fill the nest,
To be ane wacheman to his marrow,
They gan to draw at the cat harrow:
The proudest prelatis of the kirk
Was fane to hyde thane in the mirk,
That tyme, so failzeit was thair sicht.
Sen syne they may nocht thole the licht
Of Christis trew Gospell to be sene,
So, blyndit is their corporal ene,
With warldlie lustis sensuall,
Taking in realmes the governall,
Saith gyding court and sessioun,
Contrar to their professioun;
Quhareof I think they sulde have schame,
Of spirituail preistis to tak the name;
For, Esayas into his wark,
Callis thane like doggis that can nocht bark,
That callit are preistis and can nocht preche,
Nor Christis law to the pepill teche.

Before Knox was born the glory had departed from the great school of religion and letters which once existed at Arbroath, so far as purity of doctrine and morals, literature or common decency were concerned. Even the Chartulary shows that after Abbot David Lichtone's death, little remained except fast increasing idolatry and saint worship, with unblushing prostitution of the endowments for the gratification of sensual pleasure and ambition. Knox and his coadjutors the Reformers appeared just in time to inter those now dead and corrupting institutions which had become too offensive to be allowed to remain longer unburied. And while no lover of the grand or beautiful can survey the ruins of Arbroath Abbey without lamenting the gradual destruction of the great church during the last three hundred years, it should be also recollected that desolation did not overtake it until it had for sixty years at least outlived its usefulness and the whole original purposes of its erection.

The most affecting circumstance connected with its downfal was probably the condition of some of the poor monks, who were too destitute of influence to share in the spoliation of the period; and yet in whom alone was to be found any sincere attachment to religion, whether under the outward form of remaining adherence to Rome, or the adoption of the reformed faith. There can belittle doubt that at Arbroath, as well as at Newbottle and other monasteries, there were, after the Reformation, "aged, decrepit, and recanted monks," whose portions were, or ought to have been, reserved to them amid the appropriation of the rents to others. We find a reservation of "monks portions," without any indication of their number, inserted in legislative acts relating to the Abbey of Arbroath thirty years subsequent to the downfal of the Romish religion.

We have not been able to identify any of the monks in David Betoun's time as afterwards holding the offices of ministers or readers in the reformed church, although it is quite probable that some of them may have lived till ] 560, and have been so employed. In the General Assembly of 1562, a complaint against John Erskine of Dun, the Superintendent of Angus, related to "many popish priests admitted to be readers of kirks within his diocese." One of these was Thomas Lyndsay, a monk of Arbroath, and reader at the churches of Arbroath and St Vigeans in 1570-4, whom Lord John Hamilton appointed Almoner of the Abbey in June 1570. (Burgh Records.) From the reservation of their "portions," and other indications, it is clear that some of the older monks continued to linger out their days within the Abbey precinct or its vicinity. The Burgh Records of Arbroath allude to another monk, entitled "Den Thomas Fethy," who lived in the town a year or two after the Reformation, and was styled " Maister of Comoun," apparently from his having had the charge of the common pasture of the town. After his death other two monks, named Den Alexander Gib and Den John Quhit (White), appeared at the burgh court in 1566 as administrators of his affairs, and collectors of debts due to him. The entry in the court book regarding them is in the following terms: (7 December 1566), "The quhilk day thir parsonis fowlowand comperit with Den Alexr. Gib and Den John Quhit, anent the dettis awand to Den Thomas Fethy, wm.gll maister of Cocoon: that is to say, Mathow Morison restis awand xx sh; Johne Ramsay, cordiner, xvj sh vii] d; James Boyis, xl sh; Copyn Guthre, iij sh iiij d; James Pekyman, vi] sh: and the bailyeis commandit the officers to pund for the samin."

These are the latest notices of the ordinary members of this great monastic establishment which we have found. Some remarks on the general condition and employment of recanted Romish priests in Scotland about the same period will be found in Appendix, No. II.

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