Scottish Cathedrals
Scottish CathedralsPREFACEINTRODUCTIONCHAPTER I SCOTTISH CATHEDRALS AND ABBEYSCHAPTER II SKETCH OF SCOTTISH ARCHITECTURECHAPTER IIICHAPTER IV SCOTTISH COLLEGIATE CHURCHESCHAPTER V PARISH CHURCHES ILLUSTRATING THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE NORMAN PERIODCHAPTER VI SCOTTISH MONASTICISMCHAPTER VII GENERAL SURVEY OF SCOTTISH MEDIÆVAL ARCHITECTUREAPPENDIX DEFINITION OF LEADING ARCHITECTURAL TERMS[482]FOOTNOTES:Copyright
Scottish Cathedrals
Dugald Butler
PREFACE
In preparation for this Guild Book I wrote an account
of every pre-Reformation structure in Scotland of which any remains
now survive, but the prescribed limits of the series necessitated a
selection. The Scottish cathedrals are all here treated, with
representative collegiate and monastic buildings. Reference is also
made to parish churches that represent the architecture of the
various periods indicated in Chapter II. A survey of Scottish
mediæval architecture will be found in pp.194-206that may enable readers to
take a comprehensive view of the whole. A study of those treated in
particular will lead to a study of those treated of necessity in
general, and illustrate the idea that the history of the Scottish
Church is the history of the ideality and faith of the Scottish
people, and that the one cannot be separated from the other. A
healthy present must always be bound by a natural piety to the past
that has made it, or at least helped it to be what it is, and this
study may enable readers to realise more that the Church of
Scotland has a great and glorious past that begins with the days of
St. Ninian and St. Columba. The past has much to teach the present,
and the narrative of historical facts is not without suggestiveness
to the varied life and work that characterise the Church of
Scotland to-day.I desire to express my indebtedness to the
investigations of many workers, which I have striven to recognise
in the many references throughout the work, but most of all I am
indebted to Messrs. MacGibbon and Ross in their colossal work,
theEcclesiastical Architecture of
Scotland—a book of national
importance.
INTRODUCTION
This book is designed to render to Scottish Churchmen the
special service of presenting to them, in a brief but comprehensive
survey, the record of their ecclesiastical history which is
engraved in their ecclesiastical architecture. There is no record
so authentic as that which is built in stone. There is none so
sacred as that which attests and illustrates the religion of our
forefathers. Much of that record has perished: enough remains to
engage our reverent study and our dutiful care. Foreign war and
rapine have wasted and destroyed our heritage of sacred places.
Kelso, Jedburgh, Melrose, and Haddington fell before the English
invader. Iona was ravaged by the Dane, while yet the island formed
part of a Scandinavian diocese. Internal lawlessness and tribal
fury have wrought like disasters. Elgin, once "the fair glory of
the land," stands a forlorn monument of the savagery of a Highland
chief. St. Andrews, Lindores, Perth, Paisley, and many others bear
witness to the reckless outrage which cloaked its violence under
the guise of religious zeal. Of all our spoilers this has been the
most destructive. The pretence (for it often was nothing else) of
"cleansing the sanctuary" not only robbed the Church of many a
priceless possession, but begat, in the popular mind, a ruthless
disregard of the sacred associations of places where generation
after generation had worshipped God, and a coarse indifference to
the solemnity of His ordinances, which made it easy for those who
should have been the guardians of the churches to let them fall,
unheeded, into decay.It is not uncommon, even yet, to find people who ought to
know, and perhaps do know, better, blaming Knox and his
co-reformers for the dilapidation and desecration of our ancient
fanes. The blame belongs to the "rascal multitude," and to the
rapacious laymen who were served heirs to the properties of the
despoiled Church. What is the Church the better for their
enrichment? What has religion gained by it? The Reformed Faith
could have flourished none the less graciously if its purified
doctrine had been preached, and its reasonable worship offered,
under the same roofs that had protected priest and people in the
days of Romanist error. Is the cause of pure and undefiled religion
stronger in the land because Melrose and Crossraguel and Pluscarden
are desolate; St. Andrews a roofless ruin; Iona as yet open to the
Atlantic winds? Is the voice of praise and prayer sweeter in the
North because Mortlach is effaced and Fortrose shattered, and the
bells are silent which men on the mainland used to hear when the
north wind blew from Kirkwall? Granted that ignorant superstition
may have tainted the veneration in which our fathers' holy and
beautiful houses were held 400 years ago, the iconoclasm which
devastated them was not the remedy for it. The revived interest in
our old churches, which has asserted its influence in such
restorations as those of St. Giles, Dunblane, Linlithgow, St.
Vigeans, and Arbuthnott, is no revival of superstition. It is the
outcome of a more reverent spirit; of a deeper sense of the honour
due to God; of the conviction that we owe Him, in all that pertains
to His worship, the offering of our very best; and of a deeper
consciousness also of the supreme value of the Church's national
position and character, and of the duty of piously conserving
whatever helps to illustrate the historical continuity which binds
its present to its past. As regards this, nothing is so full of
helpful stimulus as an intelligent study of our ecclesiastical
architecture. In it we can read the lessons of the gradual growth
of the Scottish nation from the loosely connected tribal conditions
of the ninth and tenth centuries onwards to its consolidation under
a settled monarchy; the development of its commercial and
industrial progress; its expanding relations to the peoples of the
Continent; and the vital changes in its political life, and its
religious system and belief, thence resulting. All these have left
their mark in those records which neither time nor revolution,
neglect nor violence, have been able wholly to destroy—the
architecture of our cathedrals, abbeys, and
monasteries.The primitive buildings of the early Celtic period of the
Church have long since disappeared. Their clay and wattles could
not withstand the wear and tear of time; only in a distant glen or
lonely island can we discover scattered traces of the beehive cell
or simple shrine of the anchorite or missionary. Few relics of the
more substantial structures of that time survive.The Roman era of Church organisation superseded the Celtic;
and with the Roman dominance came the architecture of the
Anglo-Normans, whom the presence and policy of Margaret, saint and
queen, attracted to Scotland. It developed itself, always with some
national characteristics of its own, until the War of Independence
broke off all friendly intercourse with England.Later came, in place of alliance with England, the alliance
with France, which lasted till the Reformation, and left its mark
on many of the pages of "The Great Stone Book," which chronicle for
us the vicissitudes of the past, the days of peace and prosperity,
of war and penury, of reviving national health and energy, of new
combinations and ideas in politics and statecraft, of spiritual
decay and carnal pride and ostentation. These annals can be
deciphered by the patient student of the walls and cloisters of the
ancient churches and religious houses.To the founders and the owners of the latter, and chiefly to
the great orders of the Augustinians, the Benedictines, and the
Cistercians, we owe many of our noblest remnants of the past—all of
them unhappily ruined; for the popular violence of the sixteenth
century raged more fiercely against the monasteries than against
the cathedrals. To the Episcopal system of government, introduced
under Margaret, we owe the bishops' churches or
cathedrals.The life and thought of the Church at the present day, move
far enough apart from either prelacy or monasticism to allow us to
look at each with an impartial eye, and to consider whether in its
abolition we have parted with aught that it would have profited the
Church to retain.The monasteries, at first the homes and shelters of
charity and learning, had, before the sixteenth century, waxed fat
with unduly accumulated wealth, become enervated with luxury and
corrupt through bad government. They were swept away, their
possessions secularised, and their communities broken up. But with
them disappeared two things which were of great price: a large and
liberal provision for the poor, and a comprehensive scheme of
Education. The monastery gate was never shut against the suffering
and the needy. The monks were indulgent landlords and kind
neighbours; the sick benefited by their medical skill; the indigent
could always look to them for eleemosynary aid; the houseless
wanderer was never sent empty away. Those great centres of friendly
helpfulness and charity were planted all over the land. No doubt
the gift of indiscriminate alms to every applicant would tend to
abuse and lazy beggary; but a scheme of sympathetic and well
directed aid thoughtfully administered would not.Abusus non tollit usum.The scandals of
the monasteries did not justify the robbery of the destitute for
the benefit of the secular supplanters of the monks. The
Kirk-sessions of the Reformed Kirk did their best to take the place
of the former guardians and kindly benefactors of the poor, but
their funds were scanty; the old wealth had fallen into tenacious
hands; and schism and sectarianism finally necessitated the
transfer of the care of the poor from the Church to the
State.Could the ancient system have been reformed and not
destroyed, the poverty of the country would have been less grievous
than it is to-day; the Church's relation to the poor more intimate;
and the method of relief pleasanter to the recipients than that
which makes them familiar with the grim charity of the Poor's
House, the Inspector, and the Parochial Board.The monasteries were the seats of a general system of higher
education. The burghs had their own independent seminaries; the
"song schools" were more closely connected with the churches in
town and in country; but the highest grade of education was found
in the monasteries. Before the foundation of any of the
universities they supplied the place both of secondary school and
university, and trained the youth, especially of the higher ranks,
until prepared to go out into the world, as they constantly did,
speaking the "lingua-franca" of all scholars, and carrying Scottish
energy, genius, and scholarship into the halls and cloisters of
many a college and many a monastery, from Coimbra to Cracow, from
Salerno to Upsala. These schools all perished with the downfall of
the monasteries; and consequently we cannot, to this day, cope with
the great public schools of England, or adequately supply the blank
in our educational system created by their spoliation and
abolition. Here, too, wise reform might have spared and remodelled
what misguided zeal, allied with unprincipled greed,
destroyed.With the ruination and impoverishment of the
cathedrals, an element in the Church's life inseparable from them,
and most salutary and useful, ceased to be. The bishops'
deprivation of an authority they had too often disgraced and
misused, vested the government of the Church in the presbyterate;
and the national sentiment approved of the change. But there was no
necessity for upsetting the whole cathedral system, and rooting out
the whole cathedral staff, because the bishop was turned adrift.
Had the Canonries been spared, an immense boon would have been
secured for the Reformed Church. Had the stipends attached to them
not been alienated, the Church would have possessed, at all its
most important centres, a staff of clergymen chosen for their
ability and worth, for their learning and power of government and
organisation, aiding the minister in his work, or enriching the
theological literature of their time. With them might have been
associated younger men, either under their supervision as
candidates for the ministry, or as probationers acquiring practical
knowledge of its duties and requirements. The cathedral would have
stood out, in its city, great or small, as the Mother
Church—holding forth the model of devout ritual, of earnest and
learned teaching, of zealous work. How vastly superior its
influence would have been, spiritually, intellectually, socially,
to that of strugglingquoad sacrachurches, with their ill-paid clergy, or "missions" in charge
of worse-paid probationers, it is, I think, needless to point out.
But the possibility of such an institution passed away when the
cathedrals were desecrated, and their revenues were "grippit"—to
use Knox's phrase—by the ungodly robbers of the
Church.I have written these few pages to serve as an introduction to
what follows, from the hand of my friend, Mr. Butler. The Committee
of the Guild asked me to prepare a volume on the most notable of
our ancient churches; and finding that other engagements stood in
the way of my doing so, I recommended that the work should be
entrusted to Mr. Butler, of whose ability to do it well I felt
confident. Having read what he has written, I find my confidence
was not misplaced, and that his treatment of the subject is most
instructive, thorough, and exact. It will add to the reputation he
has already gained by his history of his own parish of Abernethy on
Tay, and his books on Wesley in Scotland, and on Henry Scougal; and
will prove an invaluable guide to all students of our historic
churches, cathedral, collegiate, and monastic.R. H. S.
CHAPTER I SCOTTISH CATHEDRALS AND ABBEYS
RELATION OF CELTIC CHURCH TO ROMAN CATHOLIC
CHURCHThe period begun by the influence of Queen Margaret
(1047-1093), continued by her sons and their successors on the
Scottish throne, and culminating in the Scottish Reformation of
1560, is that with which this book deals.The old Celtic Church of Scotland was brought to an end
by two causes—internal decay and external change. Under the first
head, notice must be taken of the encroachment upon the
ecclesiastic element by the secular, and of the gradual absorption
of the former by the latter. There was a vitality in the old
ecclesiastical organisation, but it was weakened by the
assimilation of the native Church to that of Rome in the seventh
and eighth centuries, which introduced a secular element among the
clergy; and the frequent Danish invasions, which may be described
as the organised power of Paganism against Scottish Christianity,
grievously undermined its native force. The Celtic churches and
monasteries were repeatedly laid waste or destroyed, and the native
clergy were compelled either to fly or take up arms in defence; the
lands, unprotected by the strong arm of law, fell into the hands of
laymen, who made them hereditary in their families, and ultimately
nothing was left but the name of abbacy, applied to the lands, and
that of abbot, borne by a secular lord. Under the second
head—external change—may be noted the policy adopted towards the
Celtic Church by the kings of the race of Queen Margaret. It
consisted (1) in placing the Church upon a territorial in place of
a tribal basis, in substituting the parochial system and a diocesan
episcopacy for the old tribal churches with monastic jurisdiction
and functional episcopacy; (2) in introducing the orders of the
Church of Rome, and founding great monasteries as counter
influences to the Celtic Church; (3) in absorbing the Culdees or
Columban clergy into the Roman system, by first converting them
from secular into regular canons, and afterwards by merging them in
the latter order.[1]King David
especially founded bishoprics and established cathedrals, equipped
with the ordinary cathedral staff of deans, canons, and other
functionaries, and monasteries equipped with representatives of the
monastic orders. Thus the native Celtic Church, undermined by
internal decay, was extinguished by external change and a course of
aggression which rolled from St. Andrews until it reached the
far-off shores of Iona. All that remained to speak of its vitality
and beneficence to the people of Scotland consisted of the roofless
walls of an early church, or an old churchyard with its Celtic
cross; the names of the early pastors by whom the churches were
founded, or the neighbouring wells at the old foundations,
dedicated to their memory; the village fairs, stretching back to a
remote antiquity, and held on the saint's day in the Scottish
calendar; here and there a few lay families possessing the church
lands as the custodiers of the pastoral staff or other relics of
the founder of the church, and exercising a jurisdiction over the
ancient "girth" or sanctuary boundary such as the early
missionaries instituted in the days when might was right, and they
nobly witnessed to the right against the might.The new policy was connected with the introduction of the
orders of the Roman Catholic Church, and with the building of
cathedrals and abbeys. This movement commenced with the close of
the eleventh century, and continued to the middle of the sixteenth;
it embraced all the time when the Church of Scotland was guided by
the regime of Rome, although it is to be recalled that the Scottish
Church never ceased to maintain a native independence—its heirloom
from the ancient Celtic Church. This independence, manifested on
important historical occasions throughout mediæval times, at last
found its national embodiment in the Reformed Church of
1560.Scotland was divided into thirteen dioceses—St. Andrews,
Glasgow, Dunkeld, Aberdeen, Moray, Brechin, Dunblane, Ross,
Caithness, Galloway, Lismore or Argyll, the Isles, and Orkney; but
before sketching the history and architecture of each of the
thirteen cathedrals, it will be necessary to indicate the general
features of the various periods of Scottish architecture itself, as
it is of this movement the structures themselves are all an
expression.
CHAPTER II SKETCH OF SCOTTISH ARCHITECTURE
Architecture is a great stone book in which nations have
recorded their annals, before the days of the printing-press: have
written their thoughts, expressed their aspirations, and embodied
their feelings as clearly and truly as by any other form of
utterance. We know Egypt as vividly by its pyramids, the age of
Pericles by the Parthenon of Athens, Imperial Rome by the Flavian
Amphitheatre and the Baths of Caracalla, as from the pages of their
respective literature. The mediæval cathedrals, monasteries, and
churches are a living record of the faith and devotion of mediæval
men, who have left besides them but little else whereby we can know
their aspirations and civilisation; we find in them an expression
of the deepest life that characterised the periods to which they
belong, and a record which, though often mutilated, and sometimes
nearly obliterated, never deceives. Wherever these architectural
creations are found, there also a voice ought to be heard, telling
what at that spot and at some previous time men thought and felt;
what their civilisation enabled them to accomplish, and to what
state they had attained in their conception of God. In a very true
sense it can be said that the architecture of a country is the
history of that country, and that the record of the architecture is
the record of its civilisation."Mediæval architecture," said Sir Gilbert Scott, "is
distinguished from all other styles as being the last link of the
mighty chain which had stretched unbroken through nearly 4000
years—the glorious termination of the history of original and
genuine architecture....[2]It has been
more entirely developed under the influence of the Christian
religion, and more thoroughly carried out its tone and sentiment,
than any other style. It ispar
eminenceChristian.... Its greatest glory is the
solemnity of religious character which pervades the interior of its
temples. To this all its other attributes must bend, as it is this
which renders it so pre-eminently suited to the highest uses of the
Christian Church. It was this, probably, which led Romney to
exclaim, that if Grecian architecture was the work of glorious men,
Gothic was the invention of gods."[3]This architecture was perfected by the mediæval builders—the
round arch in the twelfth and the pointed arch in the two
succeeding centuries. Its progress was the realisation of three
great aims, towards which the Romanesque architects were ever
striving—the perfecting of the arcuated and vaulted construction,
the increase of the altitude of their proportion, and the general
adding of refinement and delicacy to their details.[4]Scotland, it has been maintained by those competent to
judge, can show a continuous series of Christian structures,
beginning with the primitive cells and oratories of the early
anchorites, and extending through all the periods of mediæval art.
It exemplifies two distinctive phases of artistic development—the
first comprising the rise and decline of Celtic Art in early
Christian times, and the second allied to the various stages of
general European culture. The Celtic churches, round towers, and
sculptured monuments similar to those found in Ireland, are
followed by primitive examples of Norman work, pointing to the
Saxon and Norman influence of the eleventh century, which produced
a complete revolution in the artistic elements of the country and
led to a full development of the Romanesque or Norman style of
architecture—a style similar to the round arched architecture of
other European countries in the twelfth century. This is manifested
chiefly in small parish churches, but also in large, elaborate
buildings, and one cathedral.[5]The succeeding Gothic styles are also well represented
in Scotland, and exhibit both certain local peculiarities and a
general correspondence with the arts of the different periods in
France and England. The First Pointed style is represented in
Scotland during the thirteenth century, but owing to the disastrous
situation of the country during the fourteenth century, the number
of "decorated" buildings is pronounced to be comparatively small.
On the other hand, it is maintained that during the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, when the "Perpendicular" style prevailed in
England and the "Flamboyant" in France, the architecture of
Scotland was distinguished by a style peculiar to the country, in
which many features derived from both the above styles may be
detected.[6]"While the mediæval
architecture of Scotland thus corresponds on the whole with that of
the rest of Europe, there exists in the ecclesiology of the country
an amount of native development sufficient to give it a special
value as one of the exponents of the art of the Middle Ages. Its
buildings further contribute largely to the illustration of the
history of the country, by showing in their remains the condition
and growth of its religious ideas and observances at different
epochs, and the manner in which its civilisation advanced. We
observe striking evidences of the Irish influence in the relics of
the primitive Celtic Church. The Norman and English influences are
clearly traceable up to the invasion of Edward I., and the
political connection with France and the Netherlands is distinctly
observable in the period of the Jameses."[7]1.Norman
ArchitectureThe Abernethy Round Tower, the Priory of Restennet,
Forfarshire, and St. Regulus' or St. Rule's Church, St. Andrews,
illustrate the transition from Celtic to Norman
architecture.[8]The dates of the Irish
round towers[9]extend from the ninth to
the twelfth century, and the Abernethy Tower is regarded on
historical grounds by Dr. Skene as belonging to the period about
870 A.D.; the upper windows and doorway are either additions of the
twelfth century, or, as this was an early Irish house in Scotland,
may illustrate what has been asserted, that in Ireland a form of
Romanesque was introduced before the Anglo-Saxon Invasion.[10]At any rate, the tower is a combination of
Celtic and Norman work. As to Restennet, the present choir is a
First Pointed structure. David I. founded there an Augustinian
Priory, which Malcolm IV. made a cell of the Abbey of Jedburgh. The
tower is the only one of the square towers which has very marked
features of a pre-Norman character.[11]The building above the second story is probably
fifteenth-century work. St. Regulus' Church is treated pp.17-19.The twelfth century was in Scotland as elsewhere the
great church-building period, and the number of churches in the
south and east that reflect the Norman movement is very large. All
the large ones were conventual. Parish churches of the period are
generally small and aisleless—the most of them being single oblong
chambers, with an eastern chancel, sometimes with an eastern apse,
and occasionally with a western tower.[12]Towards the close of the period, the ornament became very
elaborate, especially in the arched heads of doorways. A common
feature was the arcade running round the walls below the windows,
either in the exterior, interior, or both; the caps and arches are
generally carved elaborately and richly with ornaments, the chevron
or zig-zag enrichment being a characteristic feature. The windows
are always single and simple in detail.[13]Some of the towers connected with such churches are
amongst the earliest instances of Norman work which survive; they
are simple in design, square on plan, and are carried up, without
break or buttress, to the parapet, where they are finished with a
gable roof, forming the saddle-back arrangement still preserved in
the Muthill Tower.[14]The break in the
height is formed by string courses, which mark the unequal stories.
A small wheel-stair usually leads to the top, and the doorway is
occasionally several feet from the ground. Such are the leading
features that can be traced in the buildings connected with the
period.2.Scottish
Transition StyleThe term "transition" is by general agreement reserved
for the architecture of the end of the twelfth century, when the
Norman style gradually gave place to the first pointed Gothic
style. In England this period extends from about 1180 to 1200; in
Scotland it extends considerably into the thirteenth century. The
characteristics of the style are the gradual introduction of the
pointed arch and its use along with some of the decorative features
of the Norman style. "The pointed arch shows the advent of the new
style, but the ornaments of the old style continue to linger for a
time. The first pointed style was not complete till these old
ornaments were abandoned, and the more vigorous enrichments of the
new style were introduced. The other constructive features of the
Norman style gradually changed at the same time as the arch. The
buttresses by degrees assumed the projecting form of the first
pointed style, and the pinnacles and spires of the latter style
were in course of time introduced."[15]3.Scottish First
Pointed Period"The pointed Gothic style which had its origin in the
north of France about the middle of the twelfth century appeared in
England about 1170, but can scarcely be said to have reached
Scotland till after the close of the twelfth century.... The
pointed arch, for example, although generally adopted, did not
entirely displace, as it had done in the south, the round form of
the Normans, a feature which, especially in doorways, continued to
be employed not only in the thirteenth century, but throughout the
whole course of Gothic art in Scotland. In other respects the
thirteenth century style in this country corresponds very closely
with that of England. Its features are however, generally speaking,
plainer and the structures are smaller."[16]"This new departure sprung from the necessity which
arose for the invention of an elastic system of vaulting which
should admit of all the arches, forming vaults over spaces of any
form or plan, being carried to the same height at the ridge. This
requirement led to the introduction of the pointed arch in the
vaulting, and from that departure it soon spread to all the other
arched features of the architecture."[17]Architecture, which had hitherto been confined to the
monasteries, was now undertaken by laymen, and while the great
monasteries were either rebuilt or founded, the cathedrals mostly
belong to this period. To these attention was chiefly devoted, and
the number of parish churches constructed was comparatively small.
This partly arose from the large number of parish churches built
during the Norman period. In Scotland the cathedrals of St.
Andrews, Dunblane, Glasgow (the choir and crypt), Elgin, Brechin,
Dunkeld, Caithness, the choir of St. Magnus in Orkney and Galloway
belong in whole or in part to this epoch.[18]4.Scottish
Middle Pointed or Decorated PeriodThe period from 1214 to 1286 comprised the first
pointed work in Scotland. The country was during the time
prosperous, and is believed to have been more wealthy than at any
time till after the Union with England.[19]The disputed succession after the death of Alexander III.
gave Edward I. the opportunity of asserting his claims to the
Scottish throne; war followed, and with it poverty and barbarism.
"The first note of contest," says Dr. Joseph Robertson, "banished
every English priest, monk, and friar from the northern realm. Its
termination was followed by the departure of those great
Anglo-Norman lords—the flower of the Scottish baronage—who, holding
vast possessions in both countries, had so long maintained among
the rude Scottish hills the generous example of English wealth and
refinement. Then it was that De la Zouche and De Quincy, Ferrars
and Talbot, Beaumont and Umfraville, Percy and Wake, Moubray and
Fitz-Warine, Balliol and Cumyn, Hastings and De Coursi, ceased to
be significant names beyond the Tweed—either perishing in that
terrible revolution or withdrawing to their English domains, there
to perpetuate in scutcheon and pedigree the memory of their
rightful claims to many of the fairest lordships of Albany, and to
much of the reddest blood of the north."[20]This had a twofold consequence to architecture. Comparatively
few buildings arose in the north, and these were in a smaller
scale. And England now becoming an hereditary enemy, no longer
supplied models for the churches north of the Tweed, which received
the impress of France. In England the First Pointed was succeeded
about 1272 by the Middle Pointed or Decorated, which swayed for
about a century, being succeeded by the Third Pointed or
Perpendicular, whose reign, beginning about 1377, ended with the
Reformation.[21]The Decorated style did
not reach Scotland till it had passed away in England, and the
Scottish representatives of the style are scanty in number and late
in date.[22]When the country revived
after the long struggle with England, and building began towards
the close of the fourteenth or the beginning of the fifteenth
century, few new works were undertaken, energy and resources were
concentrated on the rebuilding or completion of the edifices that
had been destroyed or left unfinished. This period, along with the
Third Pointed in Scotland, is regarded as the work of native
architects.[23]5.Scottish Third
or Late Pointed PeriodThe Middle Pointed passed by a gentle gradation into
the Late Pointed style, and it is difficult to say when the one
ceased and the other began. Yet there are some characteristics of
the Third Pointed which are peculiar to it and render it a distinct
epoch. The large churches are nearly all restorations, and no new
churches of great size were undertaken. The Scottish churches are
usually smaller in size than the English ones, and consist of
single compartments without aisles. The east end frequently
terminates with a three-sided apse—a feature which owes its origin
to the Scottish alliance and intercourse with France. The leading
and distinguishing feature is, however, the vaulting—the pointed
barrel vault being almost universally employed. The windows of
these churches are necessarily low, so as to allow the point of the
arch-head to come beneath the spring of the main vault. The
buttresses are generally somewhat stunted. The windows are almost
always pointed, and contain simple tracery derived from the earlier
styles. The doorways are generally of the old round-headed form,
with late foliage and enrichments. Porches are occasionally
introduced, and coats of arms are commonly carved on shields of the
period, and are useful in determining the dates of portions of the
buildings. Towers were generally erected or intended, and are
somewhat stunted, finished with short spires, having small dormer
windows inserted in them. Monuments are of frequent occurrence, and
are frequently placed in arched and canopied recesses. Richly
carved sacrament-houses are occasionally introduced, and perhaps
some of the good carving may be due to the French masons who were
numerous in Scotland during the reigns of James IV. and James V.
The structures of the period were either parish or collegiate
churches.[24]
CHAPTER III
1.Diocese of St.
Andrews
The connection between St. Andrews and the neighbouring
Pictish Church at Abernethy was, during the early period, very
close. Dr. Skene thinks that the first church at Abernethy was
built during the visit of St. Ninian to the Southern Picts, or the
people living between the Forth and the territory south of the
Grampians; it was endowed with lands by King Nectan in 460 A.D.,
and dedicated to St. Bride;[25]and
between 584 and 596, during St. Columba's visit, and as a result of
his mission, a church was rebuilt by Gartnaidh, King of the
Picts.[26]St. Columba is distinctly
stated to have preached among the tribes on the banks of the
Tay,[27]and to have been assisted in this
work by St. Cainnech, who founded a church in the east end of the
province of Fife, near where the Eden pours its waters into the
German Ocean, at a place called Rig-Monadh, or the royal mount,
which afterwards became famous as the site on which the church of
St. Andrews was founded, and as giving to that place the name of
Kilrimont.[28]The earliest Celtic church
at St. Andrews was probably, like that of Iona, constructed with
wattles and turf and roofed with thatch. It was customary to have
caves or places of retirement for the hermits; they were used, too,
as oratories or places of penance, and one such there is at St.
Andrews, known as St. Rule's cave:—
Where good Saint Rule his holy lay,
From midnight to the dawn of day,
Sang to the billows' sound.
[29]
The connection of the place with St. Andrew has no
historical basis till between 736 and 761, when a cathedral was
dedicated to St. Andrew, and a portion of his relics was brought by
Acca, Bishop of Northumbria, who was banished from that country in
732, and founded a church among the Picts. Dr. Skene points to the
similarity of the events which succeeded one another in Northumbria
and Southern Pictland in the eighth century. In the former country
the Columban clergy were expelled, secular clergy were introduced,
dedications were made to St. Peter, and afterwards Hexham was
dedicated to St. Andrew and received the relics of the Apostle,
brought there by one of its bishops; in the latter country, sixty
years later, the Picts expelled the Columban monks, introduced the
secular clergy, placed the kingdom under the patronage of St.
Peter, and then receiving from some unknown quarter the relics of
St. Andrew, founded the church in honour of that Apostle, who
became the national patron-saint.[30]This
"cathedral," dedicated to St. Andrew, was probably of stone, and
was the church intervening between the early Celtic Church and that
of St. Regulus. Angus, King of the Picts, endowed it with
lands.
On the destruction of Iona by the Danes, the bishopric
was first transferred to Dunkeld (850-864); then to Abernethy
(865-908), when the Round Tower was probably
built;[31]and in 908 it was transferred
to St. Andrews, which retained it until the Reformation. St. Adrian
was probably one of the three bishops of
Alban[32]at Abernethy, as chapels and
crosses in the district are all connected with his name; and
Cellach appears as the first Bishop at St. Andrews, and he was
succeeded by eight Culdee bishops, the last of whom was Fothad, who
officiated at the marriage of Malcolm Canmore and Queen Margaret.
The next three bishops all died before consecration, and for about
sixteen years after the death of Malcolm the bishopric would appear
to have been vacant. Turgot, Queen Margaret's friend and confessor,
was the thirteenth bishop, and ruled from 1107-1115—the first
bishop not of native birth.
Prior to 1107 the Culdee community had split up into
two sections, dividing the spiritualities and temporalities between
them, and Bishop Robert (1121-1159), with the object of superseding
the Culdees, founded in 1144 a priory for the regular monks of St.
Augustine, granting to them the Hospital of St. Andrews, with
portions of the altarage. In the same year King David granted a
charter to the prior and canons of St. Andrews, in which he
provided that they shall receive the Keledei of Kilrimont into the
canonry, with all their possessions and revenues, if they were
willing to become canons-regular; but, if they refused, those who
are now alive are to retain the property during their lives, and,
after their death, as many canons-regular are to be instituted in
the church of St. Andrews as there are now Keledei, and all their
possessions are to be appropriated to the use of the canons. There
were thus two rival ecclesiastical bodies in St. Andrews—the old
corporation of secular priests and the new order of Austin-canons;
the former enjoyed the greater part of the old endowments, and the
latter recovered a considerable portion of the secularised property
that had passed into lay hands. Popes, bishops, and kings
endeavoured to end this rivalry, but their efforts were not crowned
with success; although influence was on the side of the
canons-regular, the Keledei clung to their prescriptive right to
take part in the election of a bishop down to 1273, when they were
excluded by protest; in 1332 they were absolutely excluded, and the
formula of their exclusion from taking part in the election was
repeated;[33]we hear of them afterwards
not as Keledei, but as "the provostry of the Church of St. Mary of
the city of St. Andrews," of "the Church of the Blessed Mary of the
Rock," and of "the provostry of Kirkheugh"—the society consisting
of a provost and ten prebendaries.[34]
In the reign of Malcolm IV. the bishopric of St.
Andrews included the counties of Fife, Kinross, Clackmannan, the
three Lothians, Berwickshire, Roxburghshire, parts of Perthshire,
Forfarshire, and Kincardineshire; and, although the see was
lessened by the creation of new bishoprics, the importance of St.
Andrews was always great, for at the Reformation the primate's
ecclesiastical jurisdiction included 2 archdeaconries, 9 rural
deaneries, the patronage of 131 benefices, the administration of
245 parishes. In 1471 or 1472 the see was erected into an
archbishopric by a bull of Pope Sixtus IV. and at this time the
Archbishop of York surrendered his claim to have the Bishop of St.
Andrews as his suffragan—a claim repeatedly made since the time of
Turgot and as frequently resented. The office of bishop or
archbishop involved great spiritual and temporal power; the
primates were lords of regality and ultimate heirs of all
confiscated property within their domains; they levied customs and
at times had the power of coining money; they presided at synods,
controlled the appointment of abbots and priors, were included with
the King in the oath of allegiance, and took precedence next to the
royal family, and before all the Scottish nobility. There were in
all thirty-one bishops and six archbishops, who held the see in
succession from 908 to 1560, and among the more famous of them may
be mentioned Turgot, the friend and biographer of Queen Margaret
(1107-1115); Robert, prior of Scone, who founded the Priory of St.
Andrews, received the gift of the Culdee Monastery of Lochleven,
and built the church and tower of St. Rule (1124-1158); Arnold,
Abbot of Kelso, who started the building of the great cathedral
(1158-1159); William Wishart of Pitarrow, who was lord-chancellor
and bishop (1273-1279), and rebuilt, between 1272 and 1279, the
west front, which was blown down by a tempest of wind; William
Lamberton (1298-1328), who consecrated the cathedral in 1318, in
the presence of King Robert the Bruce; Henry Wardlaw (1404-1440),
who founded in 1411 the University of St. Andrews; James Kennedy
(1440-1466)—the greatest of all the bishops—who founded St.
Salvador's College; James Stewart (1497-1503), second son of James
III., Duke of Ross and Marquis of Ormond, who was made primate at
twenty-one; Alexander Stewart (1506-1513), who was the natural son
of James IV., and fell with his father at Flodden; James Beaton
(1522-1539), who founded St. Mary's College and burnt Patrick
Hamilton; David Beaton, nephew of James Beaton (1539-1546), who
burnt Wishart and was murdered; John Hamilton (1549-1571), who was
the author of the Catechism of 1552.[35]
As to the buildings, St. Regulus' or St. Rule's, standing in
the ancient churchyard at a distance of about 120 feet south-east
of the east end of the Cathedral of St. Andrews, was unquestionably
the earlier Cathedral Church, and occupies probably the site of the
earlier Celtic church.
Bishop Robert (1121-1159) introduced the canons-regular
of St. Augustine in 1144, and these gradually absorbed many of the
Culdees into their community. It was during this time also that St.
Rule's was built. Dr. Joseph Robertson says of it:—"The little
Romanesque church and square tower at St. Andrews, which bear the
name of St. Rule, have, so far as we know, no prototype in the
south.... No one acquainted with the progress of architecture will
have much difficulty in identifying the building with the small
'basilica' reared by Bishop Robert, an English canon-regular of the
order of St. Augustine, between the years 1127 and
1144."[36]The Pictish Chronicle states
that Robert was elected Bishop in the reign of Alexander I., but
was not consecrated till the reign of David I. in 1138; that, after
his consecration by Thurstan, Archbishop of York, he expended on
this work one-seventh of the altar dues which fell to him,
reserving them for his own use. "But inasmuch as the outlay was
small, the building made correspondingly small progress, until, by
the Divine favour, and the influence of the King, offerings flowed
in, and the work went on apace. The basilica was thus founded and
in great part constructed."[37]
What now remains of this building consists of a square
tower, 112 feet high, and an oblong chamber. Discussion has arisen
as to whether there ever was a nave, and in favour of the positive
view it is urged that marks of three successive roofs may be seen
on the tower-wall, and that the seals of the church, dated 1204 and
1214, show a nave and chancel. Eminent authorities take this view.
Sir Gilbert Scott thinks that the large size of the western arch,
and the mark of the roof on the tower, suggest a
nave;[38]while later authorities,
recalling that this church was once a cathedral, as well as the
church of a monastery, and served the purpose of a parish church,
hold it as more than probable that it must have been a larger
building than the simple oblong chamber to the east of the tower
which now survives.[39]
The architecture corresponds with the period of Bishop
Robert,[40]so that there is more than
probability in averring that St. Rule's was the cathedral built by
this bishop, and took the place of an earlier Celtic church,
founded by Bishop Acca. The square tower of St. Regulus was
probably designed to fulfil the same purposes as the Round Towers
of Abernethy and Brechin: (1) to serve as a belfry; (2) to be a
keep or place of strength in which the sacred utensils, books,
relics, and other valuables were deposited, and into which the
ecclesiastics could retire for security in case of sudden predatory
attack; (3) when occasion required, to be a beacon or
watch-tower.[41]
Besides the Church of St. Regulus, there are still to
be seen the ruins of the great Cathedral of St. Andrews, which
consisted of a short aisleless presbytery, and choir of five bays
with side aisles, with an eastern chapel in each aisle; north and
south transepts, each of three bays with eastern aisles; nave of
twelve bays with north and south aisles, and a large central tower
over the crossing. The interior dimensions were—total length, 355
feet; width of nave, 63 feet; length of transepts, 167 feet 6
inches; width, 43 feet 2 inches. The older parts of the Cathedral
exhibit traces of the transition from the Norman architecture, but
the principal parts of the structure have been carried out in the
First Pointed style.[42]
The Cathedral Church was also the Conventual Church of
the Austin-canons, and the Bishop wasex
officioprior of the monastery. Of the conventual
buildings erected by Bishop Robert nothing remains.
The Cathedral was erected from east to west in about
115 years.[43]
