CROSRAGUEL ABBEY. THIS half-baronial half-ecclesiastical ruin, in which the rough square tower, such as those from which the mosstroopers issued to their forays, frowns over the beautiful remains of some rich and airy specimens of the middle period of Gothic work, is distant about two miles from the old village of Maybole in Ayrshire. It was a dependancy of the great Abbey of Paisley, itself an offshoot from the princely establishment of Clunay in France. It was founded by Duncan, the first Earl of Carrick, who died about the year 1240,* and was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Its founder endowed it with the patronage of the church of St Oswald, and other means of revenue. In old writs it occurs under the various names of Crosregal, Crosragwell, Crosragmol, and Crosragmer. A curious discussion appears to have early arisen between this establishment and the parent institution. By a bull of Pope Clement, certain commissioners are appointed, consisting of the Bishop of Dunblane, the Abbot of Dryburgh, and Roger de Derby, precentor of the church of Aberdeen, to settle the dispute. The bull sets forth the foundation by the Earl of Carrick, and seems to indicate that the abbots of Paisley considered the endowments to be destined entirely for their own benefit, and for the establishment of an oratory or dependent cell; while it was asserted, on the other hand, that the founder intended the abbey to erect and maintain a separate fraternity at Crosraguel. The Bishop of Glasgow had decided that there should be an independent abbot and fraternity, subject only to the right of annual visitation on the part of the Abbot of Paisley. He appointed that all the lands held by the Abbey of Paisley in Carrick should be vested in the new fraternity, on which he imposed a sort of feu-duty of ten merks sterling money. This right of visitation seems to have been confirmed to at least as great an extent as it was sanctioned by the bishop. A curious notarial document of the year 1370, shows that John, Abbot of Paisley, having, in the course of his visitations, found many delicts and defects in the administration of the Abbey of Crosraguel, cited the abbot and all the monks, whether living within the walls or elsewhere, to appear before him on a certain day. The instrument is particular in stating that the citation had attached to it two oblong seals of white wax, the one being impressed with the figure of an abbot officiating at the altar, with the legend "Sigillum abbatis monastarii de Passelet," while the other represented a virgin and child, with the legend "Sigillum abbatis monasterii de Crosragmol." It is then stated that the abbot appeared on the day for which he was cited, attended by his monks, and then, without being urged by any force, fraud, or circumvention, so far as it appeared to the notary, but of his own free will, he resigned his power and authority as abbot into the hands of the Abbot of Paisley. He gave as his reason for doing so, that, in consequence of his age and great bodily infirmity, he was unable to attend to either the temporal or the spiritual interests of the establishment; and thus, while he allowed its property to be dilapidated, he could not save his flock from becoming a prey to the wolf. He is then released of his office and of its duties, and the brethren are required to fix a day for the election of a pastor to attend to their spiritual interests.† It does not appear by this instrument that they were to elect an abbot, and the circumstances seem to relate to a bold effort again made to subject Crosraguel to an entire dependence on Paisley. The descendants of the Earl of Carrick increased the wealth of the establishment, and the great King Robert the Bruce was one of its special benefactors. In the year 1404, King Robert the Third conferred on the abbey a right of regality over its several lands, which gave the fraternity a criminal jurisdiction over their vassals, including the four pleas of the crown. Some notice of the nature of these rights of regality, as they were extended to ecclesiastical bodies, will be found in the Account of the Abbey of Dunfermline. No celebrated names appear ecclesiastically conChalmer's Caledonia, iii. 485; Registrum de Pasilet, 422. + Registrum, p. 425 et seq. CROSRAGUEL ABBEY, 1-2. 2 CROSRAGUEL ABBEY. of nected with this institution until it waned before the rising influence of the Reformed church. The last abbot was the celebrated Quintin Kennedy. On his death in 1564, George Buchanan obtained a pension of £500 a-year out of the abbey revenues, a circumstance from which he was christened "Pensioner of Crosraguell." He appears to have found great difficulty in making the grant effective against the Earl of Cassilis. The criminal and genealogical records of the period devolve a horrible instance of rapacious cruelty perpetrated by an Earl of Cassilis, who was popularly called the King of Carrick, on Allan Stewart, commendator of Crosraguel, in 1570. He was determined to compel the commendator to execute in his favour certain deeds over the property of the abbey. Having kidnapped him, unable to succeed by imprisonment, he one day discussed the purpose matter with the commendator in a room where a large fire was seen blazing, for the preparing a feast of roast meat, as the earl facetiously called the execution of his threat. The poor commendator, seeing at once the horrors awaiting him, prayed hard for release, but his persecutor was merciless; and being, as the annalist describes it, skinned, by the removal of his clothes, and Before he yielded he was so severely well basted with grease, he was set before the fire. scorched-or, as the annalist terms it, roasted-that his hand scarcely had muscular power enough to sign the documents. And thus the earl obtained, in the indignant words of the describer of the scene, "a five yeare tack and a 19 year tack, and a charter of feu of all the lands of Croceragual, with all the clauses necessary for the earle to hunte him to hell! for gif adulterie, sacriledge, oppressione, barbarous crueltie, and thift heaped upon thift, deserve hell, the great King of Carrick can no more escape hell for ever, nor the imprudent abbot escaped the fyre for a seasonne."† * Pitcairn's Historical Account of the Family of Kennedy, p. 93. + Ibid. p. 94. |