Scottish Cathedrals and Abbeys Part 8

The oldest portions of the structure are those forming the eastern range; they are of Transitional date or about the beginning of the thirteenth century.[330] The sacristy has a stone bench round the walls and three steps in the floor. It has a door from the transept and an outer semicircular-headed doorway of Transition character from the cloister. Access is also obtained by a small door in the north side to a wheel-stair leading to the upper floors, and visible as a projecting turret at the S.E. angle of the transept. The east window of the sacristy is p.r.o.nounced remarkable, having two round-headed windows surmounted by a visica-formed aperture. It has a piscina in the south wall near the east end. The apartment next the sacristy may originally have been a parlour, but is now appropriated as a mausoleum. There is an ambry in the south wall near the east end, and the doorway is semicircular and of Norman character. The floor of the chapter-house is several feet below the level of the cloister walk; the ordinary central doorway and side windows opening from the cloister are placed in their usual position on the level of the cloister walk. The side openings were unglazed, and were used for seeing and hearing what was proceeding in the chapter-house below. The doorway is large and deeply recessed; the outer arches of the windows on each side of the doorway are plain semicircles, filled in with two pointed lights having a central shaft.

The chapter-house retains its round barrel vault, and has three pointed windows in the east end and two similar ones in the side walls, where the chapter-house projects beyond the general line of the buildings. In the interior a round arched arcade runs along the east side, supported on single shafts, and there are traces of a similar arcade running round the side walls. There is an entrance doorway in the south wall; the east gable wall over the chapter-house still exists, possessing flat b.u.t.tresses of a Norman type at the angles and between the windows, but the pointed arches indicate Transition work. There is a lovely fragment of carved work still preserved in the chapter-house, representing the pascal lamb slain and surrounded by a wreath of foliage, above which are the letters I.H.S. The vine leaves flowing from the lamb may symbolise the branches springing from the true vine.

South of the chapter-house was probably the fratery or monks' day room. It has been vaulted at a late period--probably third pointed.

There is a fire-place in the centre of the west wall, and an outer doorway at the south end of the same wall. The apartment was lighted by three plain round arched windows in the east wall, one of which has had tracery inserted in after times. At the N.W. angle, opening from the level of the cloister, is a round-headed doorway, and traces of a staircase which served as the day access to the dormitory. South of the fratery is the slype or pa.s.sage, with arched openings to the east and west. It has also a doorway to the fratery, and another to the apartment on the south side, the latter of which now only exists in part, the south end of the range having been destroyed. The range of these buildings still retains its eastern wall to the full height of two stories--the upper story being doubtless the dormitory.

On the south side of the cloister, where the refectory once stood, there are now only the ruins of the vaulted bas.e.m.e.nt on which it stood. At the east end of this range there is a doorway from the cloister giving access to a staircase which led down to the lower level of the fratery, and the remainder of the south side was probably all occupied by the refectory. The west wall is almost all that survives; it is now ivy-clad, and contains a picturesque circular window, with radiating tracery. Adjoining this wall in the S.W. angle of the cloister there is an arched recess, apparently intended for a tomb and monument, but now empty. Over the doorway in this angle is a large s.h.i.+eld, containing the arms of John Stewart, who was commendator in 1555. On the s.h.i.+eld are the initials J.S., with the crozier in the centre. He was brother to the Earl of Lennox, and uncle to Lord Darnley, who married Queen Mary. The arms are those of the Stewarts of Lennox.

The cloister occupies a s.p.a.ce of 93 feet by 91 feet, and was surrounded by a vaulted walk which has entirely disappeared. It is evident that the cloister walk was at least partly vaulted, from the small remains of the springing of the vaults which are visible in the eastern wall on each side of the doorway to the chapter-house.

The south wall of the nave of the church extends along the north side of the cloister, and at the N.E. angle is the doorway which led from the cloister into the nave--a handsome specimen of the Transition style. The nave of the church is entered through this handsome doorway by ten steps up from the cloister, and presents a scene of terrible destruction. The west end wall partly remains, "and shows by the responds attached to it the form of the nave piers, with their caps and bases. The position of the piers along the nave is now roughly indicated by a collection of fragments arranged as nearly as possible in the original position and form.

The mouldings indicate a late date, and were, doubtless, restorations; but the responds, which were not so liable to destruction, are of first pointed date. The responds which form part of the west wall show that there was a central nave 28 feet wide and side aisles, each about 13 feet 6 inches wide, making a total width of 55 feet. There have been side chapels in the nave, apparently divided by walls, some portions of which remain, with ambries in the chapels. The western doorway has a round arched head, but its details show that it is of late design. This part of the edifice has apparently been restored in the fifteenth century, after the destruction of the abbey by Richard II. in the end of the fourteenth century."[331]

The transept has a slight projection to the north and south; this part of the building and all to the east of it are evidently of thirteenth century work, but only a few detached portions remain.

The south transept gable has a large window filled with simple pointed tracery, rising in steps above the roof of the dormitory.

The arch through which the stair to the dormitory pa.s.sed is visible in this wall. To the east of the transept is a choir of two bays, with aisles, and beyond which is an aisleless presbytery. The portions left are p.r.o.nounced to be of a very beautiful design, both internally and externally. The exterior is simple but elegant, and of first pointed work; the interior shows evidence of more advanced design. The clerestory is of beautiful design; "each bay contains an arcade of three arches, the central one, which is opposite the window, being larger than the side arches. The arches are supported on detached piers, behind which runs a gallery. These piers each consist of two shafts, with central fillet. They have first pointed round caps, over which a round block receives the arch mouldings as they descend. A small portion of the north end of the transept adjoins the above, which shows that the structure has been carried up in two stories of richly moulded windows, all in the same style as the adjoining portions of the choir. The remaining portion of the aisle is vaulted with moulded ribs springing from responds and corbels corresponding in style with the choir."[332]

Here rests the dust of Sir Walter Scott and his kinsfolk, and of it Alexander Smith wrote that "when the swollen Tweed raves as it sweeps, red and broad, round the ruins of Dryburgh, you think of him who rests there--the magician asleep in the lap of legends old, the sorcerer buried in the heart of the land he has made enchanted."

_Dunfermline Abbey (Fife)._--Dunfermline was from a very early period the residence of the kings of Scotland and here Malcolm Canmore had his tower; here he entertained the royal fugitives from England, and married the Princess Margaret in 1068. The Glen of Pittencrieff contains the remains of the Tower of Malcolm Canmore, and of a subsequent royal palace, and they were in 1871 p.r.o.nounced by the House of Lords to be Crown property. Malcolm's Tower is believed to have been built between 1057 and 1070, and the royal palace may have been founded as early as 1100, although more likely it was not built till after the departure of Edward I. of England, in February 1304. The kings of Scotland, from Robert Bruce onward, appear to have frequently resided in the palace.

According to Turgot, Queen Margaret, after her marriage, founded a church "in that place where her nuptials were celebrated," and it was dedicated to the Holy Trinity in 1074. It became the place of royal sepulture, and Queen Margaret was buried within it. There are frequent references from this time onwards of grants to the church of the Holy Trinity, and to interments of royal personages therein. "The original church of Canmore," says Professor Innes, "perhaps not of stone, must have been replaced by a new edifice when it was dedicated in the reign of David I.,"[333] and Messrs. MacGibbon and Ross add

"As no notice has been preserved of the erection of any new church till the building of the choir in the first quarter of the thirteenth century, it has been supposed that the nave of the existing structure (which is in the Norman style) may have been the church founded and erected by Queen Margaret. But the style of the building forbids this supposition. None of the English cathedrals were founded till the end of the eleventh century, and few were carried out till the expiry of the first quarter of the twelfth century. Scotland would certainly not be in advance of England in its style of architecture, and we know that little, if any, Norman work was executed in this country till the days of David I.... The style of the structure is early Norman, and would naturally follow the erection of Durham Cathedral, which took place about twenty-five years earlier."[334]

The same authorities think that the original church of Malcolm stood where the new choir was afterwards erected, and that David I. added the Norman nave to it.

"The nature of the site seems to favour this view, as the ground to the west slopes rapidly away, and scarcely allows room for the west end of the nave; while the conventual buildings, for want of suitable s.p.a.ce, have had to be carried with an archway over a public street."[335]

Alexander I. seems to have contemplated its erection into an abbey, and in the year of his succession David I. remodelled it as a Benedictine Abbey, and placed in it an abbot and twelve brethren brought from Canterbury. By the close of the thirteenth century it had become one of the most magnificent inst.i.tutions in Scotland.

David I., after introducing the Benedictine order, probably added the Norman nave to the then existing church erected by his royal parents, and it was evidently resolved at no distant time from this to rebuild the early church and form a new choir and transept worthy of the new settlement. This was done, and between 1216 and 1226 the choir, aisles, transept, and presbytery were erected, and Abbot Patrick, formerly Dean and Prior of Canterbury, presided at Dunfermline during the whole of the above time. Appeals were made to the Popes Honorius III. and Gregory IX.

on account of the expenses incurred by church erection and the increase of the number of canons from thirty to fifty.

In the dispute of 1249 regarding the consecration of the new choir, Pope Honorious IV. decided that a new consecration was not necessary, as the consecrated walls of the oldest part (the nave) continued in use. In that year Queen Margaret was canonised, and in 1250 her body was transferred from the old church to the new lady chapel in presence of all the chief men of the kingdom. "The translation of the saintly foundress," says Professor Innes, "was probably arranged to give solemnity to the opening of the new church."[336] This is known in history as the "Translation of S. Margaret," and the "grate companie" of king, n.o.bles, bishops, abbots, and dignitaries in procession kept time "to the sound of the organ and the melodious notes of the choir singing in parts." Soon after this, describing what it had become towards the close of the thirteenth century, Matthew of Westminster wrote: "Its boundaries were so ample, containing within its precincts three carrucates of land, and having so many princely buildings, that three potent sovereigns, with their retinues, might have been accommodated with lodgings here at the same time without incommoding one another." In 1244 it had become a mitred abbey, Pope Innocent IV. having, at the request of Alexander II., empowered and authorised the abbot to a.s.sume the mitre, the ring, and other pontifical ornaments; and in the same year, in consideration of the excessive coldness of the climate, he granted to the monks the privilege of wearing caps suitable to their order; but they were, notwithstanding, enjoined to show proper reverence at the Elevation of the Host and other ceremonies.[337]

"This sumptuous pile," says Professor Innes, "was destroyed and levelled with the ground by the soldiers of Edward in 1303, excepting only the church and a few dwellings for the monks[338]--Edward I. of England having occupied it from 6th November 1303 to 10th February 1304. It was restored, probably in much less than its former magnificence, after Bruce was settled on the Scottish throne, and it evidently remained in that condition until 28th March 1560, when the choir, transepts, and belfry were, with the monastic buildings, "cast down.""

It was a very wealthy abbey, and the greater part of the lands in the western, southern, and eastern districts of Fife, as well as in other counties, belonged to it. The abbey also possessed many rights, and the abbot was Superior of lands--the property of others--and received the resignation of his va.s.sals sitting on their bended knees, and testifying all due humility. The abbot and convent were invested with the power of enforcing their rights by excommunication, and they exercised it on several occasions. The abbey possessed the right of a free regality, with civil jurisdiction equivalent to that of a sheriff over the occupiers of the lands belonging to it, and with a criminal jurisdiction equivalent to that of the Crown, wielding the power of life and death. A bailie of regality, appointed by the abbot, and officiating in his name, resided in an edifice called the Bailie House, near the Queen's House, and presided in the regality courts.

The abbey church succeeded Iona as a place of royal sepulture, and kings, queens, and princes were buried within it. Gordon gives the list of eight kings, five queens, seven princes, and two princesses, besides other notable persons,[339] so that it may well be called the "Scottish Westminster."

The abbey church, when complete, was cruciform, and comprised a seven-bayed nave, with side aisles, a transept, a choir with a lady chapel, and three towers, two western ones terminating the aisles and flanking the gable of the nave, and the great central tower rising from the crossing. The monastic buildings were also on a magnificent scale, but of the church and monastic structures there only now remain the Norman nave, the base of the Lady Chapel, and part of the refectory and kitchen.

The nave is well preserved and the piers are circular. The plan of these with that of the wall responds shows that the original intention was to groin the aisles. The two eastern bays between the eastern pillars are built up with solid masonry, and only a portion of the arches is visible. The two western bays and the triforium arches above them have also been filled up with solid building to strengthen the western towers.[340] "The pillars which support the west towers are of greater size than the others, and are of a different section. One of the pillars and the corresponding arch of the north arcade are of late Gothic work, and may be part of the repairs ordered by the Privy Council in 1563, or of the work done in 1594 under the direction of William Schaw, Master of Works, who at that time built the north-west tower and steeple, as well as the porch on the north side of the nave. At the same time, also, certain great b.u.t.tresses were built against the outer walls, which are now conspicuous features of the structure."[341]

The great western doorway, a good example of Norman work, remains unaltered, and consists of five orders, having alternately round and octagonal shafts, chiefly with cus.h.i.+on caps, but some are ornamented with scrolls. The abacus is heavy, and is carved with sunk diapers.

The orders are continued round the arches, and contain chevron ornaments (much decayed), rosettes, and diapers.[342] The outer order contains large heads and geometric figures in the alternate voussoirs--an arrangement similar to that of Whithorn and Dalmeny, where the geometric figures also resemble those adopted here.[343]

The _original_ north doorway, partly concealed by Schaw's porch, is similar in design, with the addition of an arcade above the arch, resembling but still plainer than that over the doorway of Dalmeny Church. The south doorway of the church is of late work, and there appears to have been another south doorway at the east end of the nave, but it is now built up.[344] The whole of the aisle walls are arcaded in the interior up to the height of the window sills, but the arcade has been partly cut away for monuments. The general design of the nave recalls that of Durham Cathedral, and Dr. Joseph Robertson remarks, "Though not of great size, the sombre ma.s.ses of the (nave) interior are impressive. The English visitor will remark more than one point of resemblance to Durham and Lindisfarne; and there is no violence in the conjecture that the same head may have planned, or the same hands have hewn, part of all the three. We know that when the foundations of Durham were laid in 1093 by the confessor and biographer of St. Margaret, her husband Malcolm was present; and when the new church received the relics of St.

Cuthbert in 1104, her son Alexander witnessed the rites."[345] Both at Durham and Dunfermline there are the same circular piers with zig-zag ornaments, and ma.s.sive cus.h.i.+on caps and cl.u.s.tered piers occur in each. The small circular bases, resting on great square plinths, are also common to both. The triforium and clerestory are simple in design, and the aisles are vaulted and groined. The windows of the aisles are single round-headed lights, having plain sconsions, with one recessed shaft on each side, and the arch enriched with chevron mouldings.[346] Internally and externally they are of similar design.

From the existence of the large west end pillars, it was evidently intended from the first to have two western towers. The northern one, along with the upper part of the adjoining gable, was destroyed to a considerable extent at the Reformation, and in its present state it was designed and built up by William Schaw. The bold corbelling at the top recalls the similar treatment of the towers of St. Machar's, Aberdeen, and other examples derived from domestic architecture.[347] The south-west tower seems to have remained intact, although in a ruinous condition, till 1807, when it fell, having been struck with lightning. Three years later the present top was put on the old walls.[348] The Lady Chapel at the east end was built to receive Queen Margaret's shrine, and is now reduced to a small fragment, consisting of part of the south and east walls, which remain to the height of about 2 or 3 feet. "It has been a small structure of about 26 feet 9 inches by 22 feet, of delicate and refined pointed work, as is apparent from the bases of the wall arcading and the edge of the surrounding seat, enriched with nail-head ornaments, which still exist. The Lady Chapel appears from an old view to have been a low structure, reaching only to the sill of the great east window of the choir, and it was evidently vaulted in two compartments."[349]

No stones now remain of the thirteenth century choir, as they were all removed to make room for the modern church, begun in 1818; before this, however, considerable remains of the choir and the whole of the foundations were standing.[350] The choir was a prolongation of the present nave, having transepts and a great aisle on the north side. There was a lofty central tower of two stories, with three windows in each storey facing the four sides, and it was this part of the structure which suffered on the 28th March 1560, when "the wholl lordis and barnis that were on thys syde of Forth pa.s.sed to Stirling, and be the way kest doun the Abbey of Dunfermling."[351] The nave was used as a parish church till 1821, when the new choir was opened. In the south transept of it are three much-admired white marble monuments: General Bruce's by Foley (1868), the Hon. Dashwood Preston Bruce's by n.o.ble (1870), and Lady Augusta Stanley's by Miss Grant of Kilgraston (1876). The remains of King Robert the Bruce were discovered in 1818 at the digging for the foundation of the new parish church. They were found wrapped in a pall of cloth of gold, thrown apparently over two coverings of sheet lead, in which the body was encased, all being enclosed in a stone coffin. "There was strong internal evidence of the remains being those of Robert Bruce, and after a cast of the skull had been taken, they were replaced in the coffin, immersed in melted pitch, and reinterred under mason work in front of the _pulpit_ of the new parish church. An inlaid monumental bra.s.s was in 1889 inserted in the floor over his tomb." Near the east end of the church is a square tower, with terminals showing an open hewn stone-work, in place of a Gothic bal.u.s.trade, having in capitals on the four sides of the tower's summit the words "King Robert the Bruce," and at each corner of the tower there is a lofty pinnacle.

The church occupies a commanding situation, from which the ground falls away on the west and south sides. The monastic buildings were on the south side of the nave, but on a lower level. Of these structures considerable remains still exist. "The ground between the dark walls and the church has, in recent years, been levelled up, the outer portions of the monastic buildings serving as retaining walls. With the exception of these outer walls, the site of the monastery is thus buried."[352]

The refectory stood on the south side of the cloister, and the whole length and height of its south and west walls still exist. The south wall was divided into seven bays, and in six of them there are lofty two-light windows. The eastern bay has a reading desk, from which one of the monks read aloud during meals. It is lighted from the outside by two windows. On the side next the hall there are two lofty openings.[353]

Adjoining the refectory on the south-west is a large tower, beneath which runs St. Catherine's Wynd, through a "pend" or archway, whence it is called the "Pend Tower." "The outside of the refectory and 'Pend Tower' is very imposing, with a simple row of lofty b.u.t.tresses and windows along the top. The west gable wall of the refectory is still entire, and has a large window of seven lights. The tracery of this window is in good preservation, and is one of the most favourable examples of a kind of tracery developed in Scotland during the fifteenth century. At the north-west corner of the refectory is the staircase tower, which leads down to the offices below, and upwards to the refectory roof, over which access was obtained to the upper story of the 'Pend Tower.' In the north wall of the refectory, near the west end, are the remains of a flue, which may have belonged to a fire-place. The 'Pend Tower' is still entire, wanting only the cape house and roof. It served as a connecting pa.s.sage between the abbey buildings and the royal palace beyond. A door led from the refectory by a pa.s.sage into a groined chamber, and from thence into a room in the palace situated over the kitchen. The kitchen is a lofty room, now roofless, having remains of large fire-places and some curious recesses. Below the kitchen, but entering from another part of the palace, there is a large vaulted apartment with central pillars. These pillars were continued up through the kitchen, and probably to the room, now gone, which stood over the kitchen. Another arched pa.s.sage led from this apartment through below St. Catherine's Wynd and up to the monastery. The building known as the palace was doubtless intimately connected with the monastery, and the kitchen may have been used in connection with both."[354] Within the "Pend Tower" on the first floor is a five-sided room with a fire-place, and it appears to have been a sort of guard room. It is vaulted and has irregularly placed ribs. Over this, and entering from the circular stair adjoining, is another groin-vaulted room, which had a fire-place of good design.

The pa.s.sage and staircase are additions made at the time when the tower was built, and the arches were thrown between the already existing b.u.t.tresses of the refectory, and in the second bay the arch is at a low level to permit of the descending stair, while the builders have just managed to save a very beautiful doorway belonging to the earlier building, and now hardly seen in the shadow of the overhanging addition.[355] To the east of the refectory is a narrow chamber with the remains of a two-light window in the south wall, and projecting southwards from this is the lower part of the wall of the fratery, reaching as high as the floor of the refectory.

On the east side of the fratery extends the south wall of a building called the Baillery Prison.[356] These fragmentary structures exhaust the remains of the monastic buildings. The chapter-house was on the east side of the cloister garth. The monastery was burned by Edward I. in 1303-4, but Tytler says the church escaped.[357]

Froissart states that in 1385 Richard II. burned the abbey and town, and it is doubted if any of the existing monastic buildings belong to an earlier date than that last mentioned.[358] "William Schaw, Master of Works, besides the buildings already referred to,[359]

erected in 1594 certain of the immense b.u.t.tresses which form such conspicuous features in all the views of the abbey. He likewise built, and doubtless designed, the Queen's House and the Bailie and Constabulary House. In connection with the latter houses there are considerable remains of buildings still existing to the north-west of the abbey, and there seems every probability that they formed part of the structures of the abbey and of the Queen's House. They are extremely picturesque as seen from the low ground to the west.

The lofty house on the right hand dates probably from the end of the seventeenth century, and is a fine example of the period. The adjoining buildings are considerably earlier, and in the lower parts, where they are b.u.t.tressed, they are probably of pre-Reformation times. The upper portions are somewhat later, and are very likely part of the work of Schaw. The porch to the latter buildings is on the other side, and is quaint and well known from being seen from the church. William Schaw died in 1602, and was buried in the nave, when the monument to his memory was erected by order of Queen Anne."[360]

_Paisley Abbey (Renfrews.h.i.+re)._--In his history of this great abbey, the Very Rev. Dr. Cameron Lees thus describes its situation:--

"In the heart of the busy town of Paisley stands the Abbey, its venerable appearance contrasting most strangely with its surroundings. Many chimneys--so many that it seems impossible to count them--pour forth their smoke on every side of it; crowds of operatives jostle past it; heavily laden carts cause its old walls to tremble; the whirr of machinery and the whistle of the railway engine break in upon its repose; while within a stone's throw of it flows the River Cart, the manifold defilements of which have pa.s.sed into a proverb. But it is not difficult, even without being imaginative, to see how beautiful for situation was once the spot where the Abbey rose in all its unimpaired and stately grace. It stood on a fertile and perfectly level piece of ground, close by the Cart, then a pure mountain stream, which, after falling over some bold and picturesque rocks in the middle of its channel, moved quietly by the Abbey walls on its course to the Clyde. Divided from the Abbey by this stream, rose wooded slopes, undulating like waves of the sea till they reached the lofty ridge called the Braes of Gleniffer, from the summit of which the lay brother, as he herded his cattle or swine, could get views of the Argyles.h.i.+re hills, the sharp peaks of Arran, and the huge form of Ben Lomond. To the north, on the other side of the Clyde, were the fertile glades of Kilpatrick, and beyond, the Campsie range. Gardens and deer parks girdled the Abbey round; few houses were near except the little village of dependants on the other side of the stream; and no sound beyond the precincts broke the solitude, save the wind as it roared through the beech forest, the bell of a distant chapel, or, on a calm evening, the chimes of the Cathedral of Saint Mungo, seven miles away. It was a well-chosen spot, answering in every way the requirements of the Benedictines, who, we are told, "preferred to build in an open position at the back of a wooded chain of hills.""[361]

Paisley ill.u.s.trates what was said by Dr. Cosmo Innes regarding the country as a whole.

"Scotland of the twelfth century had no cause to regret the endowment of a church.... Repose was the one thing most wanted, and people found it under the protection of the crozier."[362]

The Church became the great factor in the development of civilisation throughout the district. Had not the monastic system been good, it would not have lasted so long; had it not had within it the elements of weakness, it would not have come to such an untimely end. And even while we criticise it is well to recall the words of Newman: "Not a man in Europe who talks bravely against the Church, but owes it to the Church that he can talk at all."[363]

The great abbey of Paisley was much to its neighbourhood, and its history is the history of its district. It is a memorial of the coming to Scotland of the great family of Stewart, which has left such a deep impress on Scottish history. Walter, son of Alan of Shrops.h.i.+re, joined David I. at the siege of Winchester, and the king showed to him great favour, taking him into his household, and conferring on him the t.i.tle of Lord High Steward of Scotland. King Malcolm was even more generous, ratified the t.i.tle to Walter and his heirs, and bestowed on him a wide territory, chiefly in Renfrews.h.i.+re.[364] The Steward soon colonised after the fas.h.i.+on of the time, built a castle for himself in the neighbourhood of Renfrew, and gave holdings to his followers throughout the wide territory of Strathgyff, as his Renfrews.h.i.+re property was called. But in those days no colonisation was complete without a monastery, and this the Lord High Steward proceeded to found, entering into an agreement with Humbold, Prior of Wenlock Abbey in the native county of his family, to establish at "Pa.s.selay" a house of the Cluniac Order of Benedictines, being the same order as the house at Wenlock.

Humbold in 1169 brought thirteen monks from the parent house, and, having settled them at Renfrews.h.i.+re in an island of the Clyde called the King's Inch, returned to Wenlock. There was at this time in Paisley an early church, dedicated to St. Mirinus, an Irish saint of the sixth century, and a disciple of the great school of St. Congal at Bangor.

St. Mirin was a contemporary of St. Columba, and must have been a friend of the great apostle of Scotland. He was probably the founder of the early Celtic church at Paisley, and seems to have been an itinerant preacher round the district, regarding Paisley as his centre, where at last, "full of miracles and holiness, he slept in the Lord." It matters little whether these legends regarding miracles are historically correct, for the value lies in the moral of them. "The falsehood would not have been invented unless it had started in a truth, and in all these legends there is set forth the victory of a good and beneficent man over evil, whether it be of matter or of spirit."[365]

When the monks had founded their church at Paisley they dedicated it to the Virgin Mary, to St. James, St. Milburga, and St. Mirinus. St. James was the patron saint of the Stewarts, and to him the church on the Inch of Renfrew, where the monks first took up their abode, was dedicated.

St. Milburga was the patron saint of Wenlock, and it was natural that the Shrops.h.i.+re monks should place their new home at Paisley under the patronage of a saint whom they held in reverence, and who was a link between Paisley and the scene of former days. St. Mirinus was the Celtic saint of the neighbourhood, and by calling the new monastery after his name they reconciled the sympathies of the people to themselves, and connected their church with the old historic church of Scotland. The monastery was at first in the second rank of religious houses, and was ruled by a prior. The abbey of Clugny was very jealous of raising any of its subordinate houses to the rank of an abbey, but it was very inconvenient for the monastery of Paisley to be in subjection to one so far away as the French abbot, and commissioners appointed by a papal bull in 1219 decreed that the monks of Paisley might proceed to the canonical election of an abbot, the patron of Paisley, the Lord High Stewart, also giving his permission. Twenty-six years later, the abbot of Clugny surrendered his rights, which had been reserved by the papal bull,--the monks, through the Bishop of Glasgow, promising prompt payment of the two marks for the future, and undertaking that the abbot of Paisley should personally or by proxy visit Clugny every seven years to make obeisance and render an account to his superior.[366]

William was probably the first abbot of Paisley, and he presided from 1225 to 1248. He established and consolidated the prosperity of the convent, and obtained from the Popes several bulls conferring privileges on the monastery.[367]

The following picture, drawn by a master-hand, has been applied by Dr.

Lees to the monastic life at Paisley during the prosperous reigns of Alexander II. and III.

"In black tunics, the mementoes of death, and in leathern girdles, the emblems of chast.i.ty, might then be seen carters silently yoking their bullocks to the team, and driving them in silence to the field, or shepherds interchanging some inevitable whispers while they watched their flocks; or wheelwrights, carpenters, and masons plying their trades like the inmates of some dumb asylum, and all pausing from their labours as the convent bell, sounding the hours of prime, nones, or vespers, summoned them to join in spirit where they could not repair in person, to those sacred offices. Around the monastic buildings might be seen the belt of cultivated land continually encroaching on the adjoining forest, and the pa.s.ser-by might trace to the toil of these mute workmen the opening of roads, the draining of marshes, the herds grazing, and the harvests waving in security under the shelter of ecclesiastical privileges which even the Estergoth and Vandal regarded with respect. If we exchange for the 'Estergoth and Vandal' the marauding baron and Highland chief, the picture is a true one of the surroundings of Paisley Abbey in those peaceful years."[368]

"During the prosperous reigns of Kings Alexander II. and III. the church was erected, but of the work of that period (the thirteenth century) there remain only a portion of the west front and part of the south wall of the nave, including the south-east doorway to the cloister and three windows. The structure appears to have suffered severely during the War of Independence. It stood in the vicinity of Elderslie, the land of Sir William Wallace, and doubtless met with a similar savage treatment to that allotted to the patriot leader. It is stated to have been burnt by the English in 1307, and the burning would appear to have led to a very complete destruction of the edifice, as the portions of the original work which survive are very small."[369]

The abbey church was a parish church, within the territory of which the house of Elderslie was situated, and the connection of the family of Elderslie with the monks of Paisley would naturally be very close.

Wallace himself was probably educated at the school of the Paisley Clunaics,[370] and the influence of the abbey may have helped to mould within him the character which Fordun thus describes:--

"He (Wallace) venerated the church and respected the clergy; his greatest abhorrence was for falsehood and lying; his uttermost loathing for treason, and therefore the Lord was with him, through whom he was a man whose every work prospered in his hand."[371]

The monks of Paisley during the times of Wallace and Bruce were on the patriotic side. After Bruce had murdered the Red Comyn before the altar of the Franciscan friars at Dumfries, the deed lay heavy on his conscience, and the Steward used his influence with the Pope to procure absolution. A commission was issued to the abbot of Paisley by Berengarius, the penitentiary of the Pope, to absolve the Bruce and appoint him proper penance for his crime.