ページの画像
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

There are few buildings in which the Norman and the early English are so closely blended, and the transition so gentle. The great western door has the Norman arch, with an approach to the later types in some of its rather peculiar mouldings, while the broad and equally peculiar gallery above it—the only interior portion of the church remaining in a state of preservation-shows the pointed arch, with all the simplicity of the Norman pillar and capital. All the material fragments of the church now remaining are represented in the four accompanying plates, from which as full an idea of the shape and character of the remains may be derived as the visitor could acquire on the spot. It will be seen that over the gallery, at the western end of the nave, there widens the lower are of a circular window, which must have been of great size. The only portions of the aisle windows still existing are on the south side of the nave. None of the central pillars remain, but their bases have been carefully laid bare: and it is supposed, from the greater size of those at the meeting of the cross, that here there had been a great central tower.

Among the tombs of more modern date, in the grave-yard near the church, there are many which bear sculptural marks of a very remote antiquity; and among the ornaments they present, the primitive form of the cross is conspicuous. During the operations for cleaning out the ruins, which were conducted under the authority of the Exchequer in 1815,* some pieces of monumental sculpture were discovered, two of which are curious and remarkable. The one is the mutilated figure of a dignified churchman-probably an abbot. The head, the hands-which appear to have been clasped and the feet, are broken off and lost; but the fragment thus truncated has much appearance of grace in the folds of the drapery and the disposition of the limbs, while a series of rich ceremonial ornaments appear to have been brought out with great force and minuteness. The other figure, still more mutilated, is simpler in the ordinary details, but has attached to it some adjuncts which have perplexed the learned. The feet appear to have rested on the effigy of a beast, the remains of which indicate it to have represented a lion. It has, from this circumstance, been inferred that the statue was that of William the Lion, the founder of the abbey. The figure has, however, been attired in flowing robes, and a purse hangs from the girdle. But the portions of this fragment which chiefly contributed to rouse curiosity, are some incrustations, which had at first the appearance of the effigies of lizards crawling along the main figure. It was supposed that these reptiles were intended to embody the idea of malevolent spirits, and that the piece of sculpture might have been designed to represent a myth, probably in reference to the machinations of the infernal world. But, upon a closer inspection, it was found that these tiny figures represented pigmy knights in armour, scrambling, as it were, up the massive figure. One appears to be struggling with the drapery below; another has reached the waist; and the fracture, which is across the shoulder, leaves dangling the mailed heels of two others, which must have reached the neck. Is it possible that there can be here any reference to the slaughter of Becket, to whom the abbey was dedicated?

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

The historical circumstances connected with the foundation of this monastic institution are remarkable. It was founded and endowed by William the Lion, King of Scots, in the year 1178, and dedicated to St Thomas à Becket, the martyr of the principle of ecclesiastical supremacy, whose slaughter at the high altar of Canterbury cathedral occurred in 1170, and who was canonised in 1173. This great establishment, richly endowed, was thus a magnificent piece of homage by the Scottish King to a principle which, especially under the bold and uncompromising guidance of its great advocate, had sorely perplexed and baffled his royal neighbour on the English throne, and boded future trouble and humiliation to all thrones and temporal dignities. Much antiquarian speculation has been exerted, but without very obvious success, to fathom the motives for this act of munificence. William had invaded those parts of the north of England which were previously held in a species of feudality by the Kings of Scotland, and was disgracefully defeated at Alnwick, and committed to captivity, just at the time when the English monarch, whose forces accomplished the victory and capture, was enduring his humiliating penance at the tomb of the canonised archbishop. Lord Hailes, who says that " William was personally acquainted with Becket, when there was little probability of his ever becoming a confessor, martyr, and saint," endeavouring to discover a motive for the munificence of the Scottish King, continues to say-" Perhaps it was meant as a public declaration that he did not ascribe his disaster at Alnwick to the ill-will of his old friend. He may, perhaps, have been hurried by the torrent of popular prejudices into the belief that his disaster proceeded from the partiality of Becket towards the penitent Henry; and he might imagine that if equal honours were done in Scotland to the new saint as in England he might, on future occasions, observe a neutrality." It is remarkable that several of the early chroniclers allude to this friendship between the Scottish monarch, who was a resolute champion of temporal authority, and the representative of ecclesiastical supremacy. On this subject the learned editor of the muniments of the Abbey says:

"Was this the cause, or was it the natural propensity to extol him who, living and dead, had humbled the crown of England, that led William to take Saint Thomas as his patron saint, and to entreat his intercession when he was in greatest trouble? Or may we consider the dedication of his new Abbey, and his invocation of the martyr of Canterbury, as nothing more than signs of the rapid spreading of the veneration for the new saint of the high church party, from which his old opponent himself was not exempt?"†

Princes may be induced, by personal circumstances, to change their views, and in the times when they were not controlled by responsible ministers, they gave effect to their alterations of opinion. It is quite possible that at the time when he founded the Abbey, William was partial to church ascendency, for his celebrated contest with the ecclesiastical power arose out of subsequent events. This King's disputes with the church have a somewhat complex shape. The clergy of his own dominions had a spiritual war against the English hierarchy, who asserted a claim to exercise metropolitan authority over them; and it might have been supposed that William, if he sought to

* Annals, 1178.

+ Preface to Registrum de Aber-Brothoc, edited for the Bannatyne Club, by Cosmo Innes, Esq.

[blocks in formation]

humble his own clergy, would have found it politic to favour the pretensions of those of England. But the interests of the two clerical bodies became in the end united. Thus the war which had so long raged in England, passed towards the north, with this difference, that the King of Scots had to encounter not only his own native hierarchy, but the victorious church of England, just elated by its triumph over Henry. The Chapter of St Andrews had elected a person to be their bishop, not acceptable to William, who desired to give the chair to his own chaplain. The King seized the temporalities, and prevailed on the other bishops to countenance his favourite. The bishop-elect appealed to Rome. Pope Alexander III. issued legatine powers over Scotland to the Archbishop of York, who, along with the Bishop of Durham, after an ineffectual war of minor threats and inflictions, excommunicated the King, and laid the kingdom under interdict. At this point Alexander III. died, and the new pope thought it wise to make concessions to an uncompromising adversary in a rude and distant land, who had shown himself possessed of an extent of temporal power sufficient to counteract the power of Rome, even among the ecclesiastics themselves.

It was before this great feud commenced that the Abbey was founded; but during its continuance the institution received, from whatever motives, many tokens of royal favour, as well as precious gifts from the great barons. Among the list of benefactors we find many of those old Norman names, which cease to be associated with Scottish history after the war of independence. It is a still more striking instance of the community of interest between the two kingdoms anterior to this war, that while we find a Scottish king devoting a great monastic establishment to the memory of an English prelate, we should find an English king conferring special privileges and immunities within his realm on the Scottish brotherhood. The Charter of Privileges, of which the following is a translation, was granted by King John in 1204. It will be seen that it has been drawn so as carefully to evade the vexed question of the independence of Scotland.

"John, by the grace of God King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Aquitaine and of Anjou, to the Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Earls, Barons, Justiciares, Sheriffs, Magistrates, Officers of the Law, and all faithful subjects in our realm-happiness. Wit ye us, by the grace of God, and on the application of the Lord William, King of Scotland, to have granted, and by this our charter to have confirmed, to the abbots, monks, and citizens of Aberbrothock, that they may sell their proper goods, and buy for their own proper uses, what they please, throughout our whole territories, quit of all tax or any other custom which pertains to us, saving the privileges of the city of London. Wherefore our will is, and we strictly command that the foresaid abbots, monks, and citizens, may sell their own proper goods, and buy for their own proper use what they please, through our whole territories, as aforesaid, freely and without molestation. Given at Carlisle the 19th day of February, and of our reign the seventh year." *

The abbey was founded for Tyronesian monks, and the parent stock whence it received its first inmates was the old abbey of Kelso. In the year of the foundation, Reginald, elected "Abbot of the Church of St Thomas," was, with his convent, released of all subjection and obedience to the abbot and convent of Kelso. The church was completed and consecrated under the abbacy of Ralph de Lamley, in 1233. Aberbrothock was one of those ecclesiastical institutions immediately connected with the spread of the Roman hierarchy, which gradually sucked up the curious pristine establishment of the Culdees; and the muniments of the Abbey thus afford some traces of the character and history of this religious body, at least towards the period of their

* Registrum, p. 330.

[blocks in formation]

extinction. Thus, while the church of Abernethy, an ancient seat of the Culdees, is granted by King William to his new foundation, Orme of Abernethy, who is also styled Abbot of Abernethy, grants the half of the tithes of the property of himself and his heirs, the other half of which belongs to the Culdees of Abernethy, while some disposals of a strictly ecclesiastical character are made by the same document. Thus we find an abbot who makes disposal for his heirs-a counterpart to those references to the legitimate progeny of churchmen, which frequently puzzle the antiquary in his researches through early Scottish ecclesiastical history. In reference to this the editor of the Cartulary says

"These charter evidences help out the obscure indications in our older chroniclers, of a race of church nobles, hereditary heads of religious houses, and taking rank among the highest of lay magnates. When we read that the ancient dynasty of our kings (before the wars of the Succession) sprang from the marriage of Bethoc, a daughter of Malcolm II. with Crinan, abbot of the Columbite family of Dunkeld—that Ethelred, a son of Malcolm Canmore, Abbot of Dunkeld, was also Earl of Fife, our best historians have evaded the embarrassment by questioning the authority of the chronicler, and it has not hitherto been suspected that there were proofs of another house of Culdees, even surviving St David's church revolution, having its hereditary abbot, and styling himself and acting as Lord of the Abbey territory.”

The Abbot of Aberbrothock possessed a peculiar privilege, the origin of which is in some measure associated with the Culdees, the custody of the Brecbennach, or consecrated banner of St Columba. The lands of Forglen, the church of which was dedicated to Adomnan the biographer of Columba, were gifted for the maintenance of the banner. The privilege was conferred on the Abbey by King William, but as it inferred the warlike service of following the banner to the King's host, the actual custody was held by laymen, the Abbey enjoying the pecuniary advantages attached to the privilege, as religious houses drew the temporalities of churches served by vicars.

It will readily be believed that this, one of the richest and most magnificent monastic institutions in Scotland, numbered many eminent men among its abbots, who from time to time connect it with the early history of Scotland. It is even associated with a literature that has survived to the present day, in having been presided over by Gavin Douglas, the translator of Virgil. The two Beatons, Cardinal David and Archbishop James, also successively its abbots, give it a more ambiguous reputation. At the Reformation, the wealth of the Abbey was converted into a temporal lordship, in favour of Lord Claude Hamilton, third son of the Duke of Chatelherault, and the greater part of the temporalities came, in the seventeenth century, into the hands of the Panmure family.

In a tradition immortalised by a fine ballad of Southey's, it is said that the abbots of Aberbrothock, in their munificent humanity, preserved a beacon on that dangerous reef of rock in the German Ocean, which is supposed to have received its name of the "Bell Rock" from the peculiar character of the warning machinery of which the abbot made use.

"The Abbot of Aberbrothock

Had placed that bell on the Inchcape rock,
On a buoy in the storm it floated and swung,
And over the waves its warning rung.

When the rock was hid by the surge's swell,

The mariners heard the warning bell;
And then they knew the perilous rock,

And bless'd the Abbot of Aberbrothock."

[blocks in formation]

The tradition represents a rover, in the recklessness of prosperity and sunshine, cutting the bellrope, and afterwards returning in foul weather to be shipwrecked on the rock from which he had impiously removed the warning beacon. No evidence of the existence of the bell is found in the records of the Abbey; and on the subject of its wanton removal, the sagacious engineer of the Northern Lights says, "It in no measure accords with the respect and veneration entertained by seamen of all classes for landmarks; more especially as there seems to be no difficulty in accounting for the disappearance of such an apparatus, unprotected, as it must have been, from the raging element of the sea."*

[merged small][graphic][subsumed]
« 前へ次へ »