Scottish Cathedrals and Abbeys Part 2

Glasgow, like Elgin, Aberdeen, and Brechin, possessed originally two western towers, but at Glasgow, grievously and unfortunately, the south-west tower was removed in 1845, and the north-west one in 1848 by the Restoration Committee. They were venerable in their antiquity, and were probably built after the completion of the nave and aisles, if not at the same time. Evidence showed "that probably the north-west tower was part of the original design, or if not, that its erection was resolved on before the north aisle was completed, and it was built before the west window of the north aisle required to be glazed. The south-west tower was probably of the same date."[76] The latter was best known as the consistory house, and was the place where the bishops held their ecclesiastical courts and the diocesan records were kept. The only comfort amid the demolition of the towers is that the proposed new ones were not erected in their place; and better counsel ought to have prevailed, since Mr. Billings described the removal as an act of barbarism. "All who now see the grand old building, shorn of its cathedral features, and made like a large parish church, mock and laugh at the action of the local committee, saying, "These men had two towers, and they went and pulled them both down.""[77]

The higher church had twenty-four altars or chapels;[78] the lower church, commonly but incorrectly called the crypt, had six altars;[79]

the high altar occupied the usual place, was dedicated to St.

Kentigern, had a wooden canopy or tabernacle work over it, and in front of it, on the right-hand side, was the bishop's throne.[80] When it is recalled that the cathedral possessed these thirty altars or chapels (most of them beautiful works of art), thirty-two canons, college of choral vicars, with other a.s.sistants, one can well understand the great, almost dangerous power which the "Spiritual Dukedom" possessed, and the dread, felt even by its own chapter, when it was first proposed to make the bishopric into an archbishopric, for they regarded the movement as conferring too much power on the bishop.[81] A conception of the archbishop's power may be formed by recalling that the archdeaconry of Glasgow contained the following deaneries--Nycht, Nith, or Dumfries, with 31 parishes, besides 2 in Annandale and 8 in Galloway; Annandale, 28 parishes, besides 8 in Eskdale; Kyle, 17 parishes; Cunningham, 15; Carrick, 9; Lennox, 17; Rutherglen, 34; Lanark or Clydesdale, 25; Peebles or Stobo, 19; the archdeaconry of Teviotdale, 36 parishes.[82]

Besides the prelates already mentioned there were, as the direct successors of Blacader, James Beaton (1508-1522), afterwards Archbishop of St. Andrews; Gavin Dunbar (1524-1547); James Beaton, the last Roman Catholic archbishop, who at the Reformation retired to France with the writs of the see, which were deposited, by his directions, partly in the archives of the Scots College, and partly in the Chartreuse of Paris, and have been since published by the Maitland Club.[83] Among the Protestant archbishops s.p.a.ce will only permit us recording the names of John Spottiswood (1612-1615) and Robert Leighton (1671-1674).[84]

Glasgow has pa.s.sed through the various stages of burgh, burgh of barony, burgh of regality, city, royal burgh, and county of a city.[85] But it grew under the protection of the Church, for as David I. granted to Bishop John of St. Andrews the site of the burgh of that name, so William the Lion granted to Bishop Joceline of Glasgow the right to have a burgh in Glasgow, with all the freedoms and customs which any royal burgh in Scotland possessed.[86] Glasgow thus owed its existence to the Church, under whose fostering care it developed for centuries, and the ruling ecclesiastic elected the provost, magistrates, and councillors.

Its motto still is "Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the Word,"

and its seal emblems have been thus interpreted: "The employment of these four emblems (fish, bird, tree, bell) in connection with St.

Kentigern was meant to convey that he was sent as a fisher of men, that his work from small beginnings grew to very large dimensions, 'like to a grain of mustard-seed, ... which is the least indeed of all seeds, but when it is grown up ... becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and dwell in the branches thereof'; and that his name and fame became so great that he was heard of everywhere. 'Verily their sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the whole world.'"[87]

The most beautiful features of the exterior are p.r.o.nounced to be the doorways, especially those of the lower church,[88] the vaulting of which was said by Sir Gilbert Scott to contain nowhere two compartments in juxtaposition which are alike.[89] It has been suggested that the motive of the architect was to reproduce, as nearly as circ.u.mstances permitted, the plan of Solomon's Temple, and the arrangement corresponds exactly.[90] The beauty of the lower church is much obscured by the dark stained gla.s.s in the windows, and it is matter for regret that this masterpiece of design and wonderful variety of effect[91] are not more visible.

"The plan of the cathedral," says Mr. Honeyman, "is remarkably compact, and the exterior is symmetrical and harmonious. The best points of view are from the north-east and the south-east. From either of these points the full height of the structure is seen, and that is sufficiently great to give the building a dignified and impressive effect, the height from the ground-level to the apex of the choir gable being 115 feet. The well-proportioned short transept breaks the monotony of the long clerestory, without unduly hiding it, as transepts with more projections do. The gable of the choir, with its four lancets, rises picturesquely over the double eastern aisles, while the sombre keep-like ma.s.s of the chapter-house adds a romantic element to the effect of the whole composition, which culminates gracefully in the lofty spire. The pervading characteristic is simplicity, and the effect solemnising. Sir Walter Scott, with his usual quick perception of _character_ in buildings, as well as in man, puts an admirable reference to these salient points into the mouth of Andrew Fairservice, who exclaims, 'Ah!

it's a brave kirk; nane o' yer whigmaleeries an' curliwurlies, an'

open-steek hems about it.' It may, indeed, be called severe, but not tame."[92] Internally the cathedral has a nave of eight bays, with side aisles; transepts, not projecting beyond the aisles; a choir of five bays, with side aisles and an aisle at the east end, with chapels beyond it. At the north-east corner of the choir is the sacristy or vestiarium; below it is the chapter-house, with an entrance from the lower church; on the south side of the church, as a continuation of the transept, is another low church or crypt, called "Blacader's Aisle"; on the north side are the foundations of a large chapel. Over the crossing rise the tower and spire, 217 feet high. The church within is 283 feet long by 61 feet broad.[93]

The history of the cathedral is closely connected with many of the stirring events in Scottish history. King Edward prostrated himself before its altar; Robert the Bruce within it received absolution, "while the Red c.u.myn's blood was scarce yet dry upon his dagger"; and within its walls was held the Glasgow a.s.sembly of 1638, when the Episcopate was abolished, and the Presbyterian government was restored. Robert Leighton has preached within its choir, in his low, sweet voice, and with those angelic strains of eloquence and devotion which lingered in the memory of his hearers to their dying day.

3. DIOCESE OF DUNKELD

Dunkeld is situated amid lovely scenery, and was from the earliest times a religious centre. The name means fort of the Culdees. After the destruction of Iona by the Nors.e.m.e.n in the beginning of the ninth century, Dunkeld became the seat of the Columban authority in Scotland, and part of the relics of St. Columba were brought here by King Kenneth Macalpine in 850. Its abbot was named Bishop of Fortreum, but in 865 the primacy was transferred to Abernethy, and thence to St. Andrews in 908.

One of the lay abbots at Dunkeld married a daughter of Malcolm II., and through the influence of their descendants the religious order in Scotland was changed. Emerging as great secular chiefs, these lay abbots weakened, if they did not destroy, the ecclesiastical foundation. The bishopric was revived by Alexander I. in 1107, and prior to the thirteenth century was not confined to Atholl, but extended to the western sea, and included the districts stretching along its sh.o.r.es from the Firth of Clyde to Lochbroom, and forming the province of Argyll.[94]

The western part was separated about 1200, and formed into a new bishopric, termed first that of Argyll, and afterward that of Lismore.[95] Cormac, the Culdee abbot, was the first bishop under the new order, and among his successors may be mentioned Bishop Sinclair (1312-1338), the friend of Bruce, and a "man of courage, the champion of the Church, and the brave defender of the const.i.tution of the kingdom";[96] Bishop Lauder (1452-1476), who filled the see "with unfading honour,"[97] and built a bridge across the Tay, as well as adorned the cathedral; George Brown (1485-1514), who divided the see into four deaneries, procured Gaelic preachers,[98] promoted clerical efficiency, enlarged the palace at Dunkeld, and built the castle of Cluny;[99] Gavin Douglas (1516-1522), "a n.o.ble, learned, worthy bishop,"[100] who translated the _aeneid_ into Scots verse, and thus

in a barbarous age, Gave to rude Scotland Virgil's page.

The diocese had four deaneries: (1) Atholl and Drumalbane, with 47 parishes; (2) Angus, with 5; (3) Fife, Fotherick, and Stratherne, with 7; (4) South Forth, with 7.[101]

Canon Myln's quaint _Lives of the Bishops of Dunkeld_ professes to give an account of the building of the cathedral, and it appears that the existing structure is chiefly of the fifteenth century.[102] It consists of an aisleless choir, a nave with two aisles, a north-west tower, and a chapter-house to the north of the choir. It appears that the different parts of the structure were begun at the dates given by Abbot Myln, but were not completed until some time afterwards.[103] All are Third Pointed in style except the choir, which retains some scanty portions of First Pointed work. The following are given as the approximate dates of the original construction: choir (1318-1400); nave (1406-1465); chapter-house (1457-1465); tower (1469-1501).

The episcopal palace was a little south-west of the cathedral, which contained many valuable ornaments and vessels, a painted reredos, and in its great tower two large bells, named St. George and St. Colm (Columba). At the Reformation in 1560, the cathedral suffered the common fate of most of such structures, although Argyll and Ruthven, in requiring the lairds of Airntully and Kinvaid "to purge the kirk of all kinds of monuments of idolatry," requested them also "to tak good heid that neither the desks, windocks, nor doors be onyways hurt or broken, either gla.s.sin work or iron work." The closing injunction was not observed, and the roofs were also demolished. In 1600 the choir was re-roofed, and is the present parish church. But the ruins still speak of the former grandeur of this old church-town, and perhaps a like day may yet dawn for Dunkeld, as has been seen at Dunblane.

4. DIOCESE OF ABERDEEN

The earliest ecclesiastical history of Aberdeen is connected with St.

Machar (a disciple of St. Columba), who preached the Gospel among the Northern Picts and settled on the banks of the Don, founding there both a Christian colony and a church, which, from its situation, was called the Church of Aberdon. Another band of Columban missionaries established themselves in the sequestered vale of the Fiddich, at Morthlac, and in the beginning of the twelfth century the "Monastery of Morthlach"

possessed five dependent churches.[104] The tradition that there was a bishopric at Murthlack or Morthlach is not founded on reliable evidence, and is discredited by Dr. Cosmo Innes[105] and Dr. Skene.[106] What David I. did was to graft on the Culdee monastery of St. Machar the chapter of a new diocese, and in this manner the bishopric was founded before 1150, and endowed with old Culdee possessions, among others with the "Monastery of Morthlach" and its five churches.[107] The third bishop, Matthew de Kininmond, began to build a cathedral between 1183 and 1199 to supersede the primitive church then existing,[108] "which (new building), because it was not glorious enough, Bishop Cheyne threw down."[109] The second edifice was begun by Bishop Cheyne about 1282, and the work was interrupted by the Scottish war with Edward I. during the bishop's absence in temporary banishment. "The king (Bruce) seeing the new cathedral he had begun, made the church to be built with the revenues of the bishopric."[110] The cathedral thus built was thrown down in turn by Bishop Alexander Kininmond, who succeeded in 1355 and began the present cathedral about 1366. "Of his operations there remain two large piers for the support of the central tower, which form the earliest portion of the structure of St. Machar's now remaining."[111]

The dean and chapter (of which Barbour, the father of Scottish poetry, was a member) taxed themselves for the fabric in sixty pounds annually for ten years; the bishop surrendered revenues worth about twice that sum; the Pope in 1380 made a grant of indulgences to all who should help the work. All these appliances but availed to raise the foundations of the nave a few feet above ground.[112] Forty years elapsed before Bishop Leighton (1422-1440) completed the wall of the nave, founded the northern transept, and reared the two western towers.[113] Bishop Lindsay (1441-1459) paved and roofed the cathedral; it was glazed by Bishop Spens (1459-1480). Bishop Elphinstone (1487-1514), who founded King's College in 1500, and who was "the most distinguished of all who ever filled the episcopal chair," ... and possessed "manners and temperance in his own person, befitting the primitive ages of Christianity,"[114] adorned the cathedral. He built the great central tower and wooden spire, provided the great bells, and covered the roofs of nave, aisles, and transept with lead.[115] This central tower was four storey high, and square, and had two battlements and fourteen bells; it was a noted landmark to mariners at sea.[116] Bishop Gavin Dunbar (1519-1531) built the southern transept, added spires to Leighton's towers, and constructed at his own "pains and expenses" the flat ceiling of oak, which still remains with the heraldries of the Pope, the Emperor, St. Margaret, the kings and princes of Christendom, the bishops and the earls of Scotland. Bishop Elphinstone began to rebuild the choir, but it never seems to have been finished. Alluding to 1560, Orme says, "The glorious structure of said cathedral church, being near nine score years in building, did not remain twenty entire, when it was almost ruined by a crew of sacrilegious church robbers."[117] The ruins of the choir have been entirely removed; of the transepts only the foundations now remain, the architecture being destroyed by the fall of the central tower in 1688. The nave is nearly perfect, and is used as the parish church. The west front, except the spires, is entirely built with granite, and is regarded as one of the most impressive and imposing structures in Scotland,[118] and as stately in the severe symmetry of its simple design.[119] There is a remarkable entrance doorway, the jambs being mere rounds and hollows, with a flat stone laid along at the springing of the round arch. Above the doorway are seven lofty narrow windows, crowned each with a round and cusped arch, and forming a striking feature of the whole. The clerestory windows are narrow and round arched, without any moulding, while the aisle windows are filled with the simplest tracery. East of the cathedral was the bishop's palace (1470), "a large and fair court, having a high tower at each of its four corners";[120] to the south stood the deanery. Aberdeen was created a city or bishop's see by King David,[121] and the diocese contained five deaneries, with 94 parishes.

5. DIOCESE OF MORAY

Previously to Elgin, the see was successively at Birnay, Kinnedor, and Spyny, but without a proper cathedral.[122] Alexander I., shortly after his accession in 1107, founded the bishopric, but it was not till the time of Bricius, the sixth Bishop of Moray, who filled that position from 1203 to 1222, that the bishops had any fixed residence in the diocese.[123] When Bricius became bishop in 1203, he fixed his cathedral at Spyny, founded a chapter of eight secular canons, and gave to his church a const.i.tution founded on the usage of Lincoln, which he ascertained by a mission to England.[124] Andrew de Moravia succeeded him in 1222, and in his time (1224) the transference of the episcopal see and the cathedral of the diocese to Elgin was effected, which had probably been designed and solicited by his predecessor.[125] This bishop probably built the cathedral church, munificently endowed it, increased the number of prebends to twenty-three, of which he held one, and sat as a canon in the chapter.[126] The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity was founded in 1224, on the site of an older church with the same dedication, and the work proceeded under Bishop Andrew's supervision during the eighteen remaining years of his life.[127] The _Register_ of the see shows us "Master Gregory the mason and Richard the glazier" at work in autumn 1237.[128] Of the building itself probably now little is left, for it is recorded by Fordun under the year 1270 that the Cathedral of Elgin and the houses of the canons were burnt, but whether by accident or design he does not add. The ruins now standing probably date from a subsequent period, when there was raised the stately building, of which Bishop Alexander Bur wrote to the king that it was "the pride of the land, the glory of the realm, the delight of wayfarers and strangers, a praise and boast among foreign nations, lofty in its towers without, splendid in its appointments within, its countless jewels and rich vestments, and the mult.i.tude of its priests, serving G.o.d in righteousness."[129] This description is taken from a letter addressed to King Robert III., complaining that on the feast of St. Botolph, in 1390, the king's own brother, the Earl of Buchan, popularly known as the "Wolf of Badenoch," had descended from the hills with a band of wild Scots, and burned a considerable part of the town of Elgin, St. Giles Church, the Maison Dieu, the manses of the clergy, and the cathedral itself. The bishop appealed for aid and reparation, and the "Wolf of Badenoch" was compelled to yield, but, on condition that he should make satisfaction to the bishop and church of Moray and obtain absolution from the Pope, he was absolved by the Bishop of St. Andrews in the Blackfriars Church at Perth. Notwithstanding his age and feebleness, Bishop Bur energetically pressed on the restoration of the cathedral, and it was continued by Bishops Spynie (1397-1406) and Innes (1406-1421), and even then it was not completed. It thus occupied many years, even though it was promoted by grants of the royal favour, by a third part of the whole revenues of the see being devoted to it for a time, and by yearly subsidies being levied on every benefice in a diocese stretching "from the Ness to the Deveron, from the sea to the pa.s.ses of Lochaber and the central mountains that divide Badenoch and Athol."[130] Early in the sixteenth century the central tower showed signs of weakness, and had to be rebuilt in 1538. It fell in 1711, destroying the nave and transepts.[131]

The Cathedral of Elgin was complete in all arrangements, and had a large nave with double aisles, an extended choir and presbytery, north and south transepts, a lady chapel, and a detached octagonal chapter-house.

It had a great tower and spire over the crossing, two beautiful turrets at the east end, and two n.o.ble towers at the west end. Most of the existing portions are p.r.o.nounced to belong to the period when Scottish architecture was at its best.[132] The existing ruins testify to the former splendour of the completed structure, which was said to be a building of Gothic architecture inferior to few in Europe. "Elgin alone," says Dr. Joseph Robertson, "among the Scottish cathedrals of the thirteenth century, had two western towers. They are now shorn of their just height, but still they may be seen from far, lifting their bulk above the pleasant plain of Murray, and suggesting what the pile must have been when the amiable and learned Florence Wilson loved to look upon its magnificence as he meditated his _De Animi Tranquillitate_ on the banks of the Lossie, and when the great central spire soared to twice the alt.i.tude of the loftiest pinnacle of ruin that now grieves the eye."[133] The destruction of the cathedral was hastened by the alienation of Church lands by Bishop Patrick Hepburn, among the worst of the bishops; by the Privy Council in 1568 ordering the removal of lead from the roofs; by wind and weather; by Cromwell's troops; by an irrational zeal, which in 1630 broke down the carved screen and lovely wood-work; and lastly by the falling of the central tower, which destroyed the whole nave and part of the transepts. The pa.s.sing away of such a colossal work of beauty is grievous, and not less so when it is recalled that the cathedral expressed the devoted labour of centuries.

According to the latest authorities, the following are the probable dates. The transept was erected about 1224, and may possibly have formed part of the original Church of the Trinity. The western towers followed soon after; the western portal somewhat later. The west part of the north wall of the choir may have been part of the original church, but the general work of choir, nave, and early chapter-house would appear to have been carried out during the thirteenth century, and before the Scottish War of Independence. The cathedral, thus completed, remained for about a century, when the "Wolf of Badenoch" deformed or destroyed nave and chapter-house. The west front above the portal and the whole of the nave were reconstructed about the time of Bishop Dunbar (1422-1435), and the chapter-house by Bishop David Stewart (1482-1501). The architecture corresponds with their respective periods, and bears their coats of arms, engraved on each department.[134]

Dr. Thomas Chalmers considered the ruins of Elgin to be the finest remains of antiquity in Scotland, and as picturesque in their variety.[135]

6. DIOCESE OF BRECHIN

The two bishoprics of Brechin and Dunblane were formed from the old Pictish bishopric of Abernethy, in so far as its churches were not yet absorbed by the growing bishopric of St. Andrews, which immediately succeeded it.[136] Abernethy was the last of the bishoprics which existed while the kingdom ruled over by the Scottish dynasty was called the kingdom of the Picts; St. Andrews was a.s.sociated with that of the Scots.[137] Abernethy was from the earliest days dedicated to St. Bride, and Panbride in the diocese of Brechin, and Kilbride in that of Dunblane, indicate, in Dr. Skene's view, that the veneration of the patroness of Abernethy had extended to other churches included in these dioceses.[138] From this old Pictish diocese the bishopric of Brechin was formed, towards the end of King David's reign, about 1150.[139] The Church of Brechin has no claim to represent an old Columban monastery:[140] its origin as a church is clearly recorded in the Pictish Chronicle, which states that King Kenneth, son of Malcolm, who reigned from 971 to 995, gave "the great city of Brechin to the Lord,"

founding a church to the Holy Trinity, a monastery apparently after the Irish model, combined with a Culdee college. We hear of it next in two charters of David I. to the Church of Deer, and in the second of these the "abbot" of the first appears as "Bishop of Brechin" (about 1150).

The abbacy pa.s.sed to lay hereditary bishops, and the Culdees were first conjoined with, next distinguished from, and at last superseded by, the cathedral chapter.[141]

The early Church of Brechin emanated from the Irish Church, and was a.s.similated in its character to the Irish monastery. Of the early connection, there still survives at Brechin the famous Round Tower, which now occupies the place of a spire at the south-west angle of the present church. This, with the older one at Abernethy, and the ruined one at Egilshay in Orkney, are the only surviving types in Scotland.

There were said to have been four others, which are no longer existing, viz. Deerness in Orkney; West Burray, Tingwall, and Ireland Head, in Shetland.[142] Dr. Skene gives the date of the Abernethy one as about 870, or between that year and the close of the century, and a.s.serts that the date of the Brechin tower can be placed with some degree of certainty late in the succeeding century.[143] Probably it was erected in the reign of Kenneth (971-995), or about 1012, when Brechin was destroyed by the Danes.[144] Egilshay probably dates about 1098.[145]

The Brechin tower is capped by a conical stone roof. Dr. Joseph Anderson shows that those round towers are outliers of a group of which Ireland is the home;[146] and they were erected during the time when the Celtic Church was much perplexed by the pillaging attacks of the Danes, that the ecclesiastics might protect their valuable illuminated ma.n.u.scripts, and other costly possessions. The Brechin one corresponds with the Irish ones, and is built in sixty irregular courses, of blocks of reddish-grey sandstone, dressed to the curve, but squared at neither top nor bottom; within, string-courses divide it into seven storeys, the topmost lighted by four largish apertures facing the cardinal points. A western doorway, 6-2/3 feet from the ground, has inclined jambs and a semicircular head, all three hewn from single blocks, and the arch being rudely sculptured with a crucifix, each jamb with a bishop bearing a pastoral staff, and each corner of the sill with a nondescript crouching animal.[147] The sculpture on the graceful Tower of Brechin was, there as elsewhere, the repet.i.tion in stone of the illuminated page of the Celtic scribe, who in turn repeated many of the graceful and varied designs of the pre-Christian worker in bronze and gold,[148] adding to them Christian symbols. Dr. Joseph Anderson finds in the figures of the crouching beast and winged griffin at Brechin a close affinity to the figures of nondescript creatures carved on the early sculptured memorial stones.[149]

The cathedral, founded about 1150, and added to at various periods, was originally a cruciform structure, consisting of a five-bayed nave with two aisles, late First Pointed mixed with Second Pointed; a transept formed by an extension of these aisles to the north and south; an aisleless choir (with lancet windows), the ruins of which are a fine example of First Pointed work,[150] and which when complete must have been a very pure and beautiful piece of architecture. The north-west tower was being constructed in the time of Bishop Patrick (1351-1373), but must have been a long time in erection. The western doorway presents the oldest feature of the existing building,[151] and is simple and ma.s.sive. The tower and spire are p.r.o.nounced to be the completest and best remaining example of their kind in Scotland.[152]

By the alteration of 1806 the choir was reduced, the transepts demolished, new and wider aisles built on each side of the nave, while the outer walls of the aisles were carried to such a height that the whole nave could be covered with a roof of one span, "thus totally eclipsing the beautiful windows in the nave, and covering up the handsome carved cornice of the nail-head quatrefoil description which ran under the eaves of the nave."[153] The cathedral was thus sadly deformed, but plans of restoration have been recently adopted, funds are being raised, and the n.o.ble minster will before long be restored to its former grandeur.

The diocese contained thirty parishes, and the bishop sat in the chapter as Rector of Brechin, that being his prebend.[154]

The Maison Dieu formed part of a hospital, and is an interesting part of First Pointed work. The rector of the Grammar School is still "Praeceptor Domus Dei."

7. DIOCESE OF DUNBLANE

Dunblane was an early ecclesiastical centre. Its first church dates back to the seventh century, and seems to have been an offshoot of the Church of Kingarth in Bute, the founder of which was St. Blane, whose name is perpetuated in that of the cathedral town.[155] St. Blane was of the race of the Irish Picts, and "bishop" of the Church of Kingarth which Cathan his uncle had founded. The church at Dunblane seems to have had a chequered history, for the ancient town was burned (844-860) by the Britons of Strathclyde, and in 912 was again ravished by Danish pirates.

Bishop Keith thinks there was a college of Culdees at Dunblane,[156] but we do not hear anything about it in history, and the important college was at Muthill, where the Dean of Dunblane afterwards had his seat.

Centres of the Celtic Church were also at the neighbouring Blackford, Strageath, and Dunning, and they all served their day, until the new order, inaugurated by Queen Margaret and continued by her successors on the Scottish throne, was established in the district. About 1150, King David I. established the bishopric of Dunblane, and about 1198 Earl Gilbert and his countess introduced canons-regular by the foundation of the Priory of Inchaffray. Under the growing importance of these centres, the possession of the Keledei fell into lay hands, and after 1214 the prior and Keledei of Muthill disappear from the records.[157]

The square tower of Dunblane, which still survives, is a relic of the structure erected in the twelfth century,[158] and is one of the group, centred in early Pictavia, revealing characteristics of Norman work, and all connected with the sites of early Culdee establishments. Those north of the Tay are at Brechin and Restennet; those south of it, at St.

Andrews (Regulus), Markinch, and Dunblane; Abernethy, Muthill, and Dunning.[159] The lower four storeys of the Dunblane tower form part of the original structure; the two highest are evidently of a late date;[160] the walls are not parallel with those of the nave, and the tower projects into the south aisle from 6 to 7 feet, and may have been a.s.sociated with an earlier church.

The see seems to have fallen into a forlorn condition, for when the learned Dominican, Clement, was bishop (1233-1258), he made a pilgrimage to Rome, and represented to the Pope among other things that "its rents were barely sufficient to maintain him for six months; there was no place in the cathedral wherein he could lay his head; there was no collegiate establishment, and that in this unroofed church, the divine offices were celebrated by a certain rural chaplain."[161] Evidently the fourth part of the t.i.thes of all the parishes within the diocese were given for the support of the bishop and the building of the cathedral, and he left it "a stately sanctuary, rich in land and heritage, served by prebendary and canon." Bishop Clement built the nave, the most beautiful part of the structure, but later in its architecture than the north aisle of the choir or lady chapel, which was originally separated from the choir by a solid wall, in which there never was any opening into the aisle except the small doorway near the east end, which is of First Pointed date.[162] Above the vault there is an upper storey with small two-lighted windows, which may possibly have been used as a scriptorium.[163] The cathedral consists of a nave of eight bays, with north and south aisles, an aisleless choir of six bays, an eastern aisle unconnected with the choir except by a doorway, and the tower attached to the south aisle of nave. The following is a narrative of the building of the cathedral as given by the most recent authorities. "The greater part of the structure is of First Pointed date. The lady chapel may be the oldest part (after the tower), and next to it is the east portion of the nave. The western half of the nave seems to have followed soon after the eastern portion, and is carried out nearly after the same design.

The transition tracery in the arcade of the clerestory and west end is very interesting, as showing bar tracery in the act of being formed.

This could scarcely have occurred in Scotland before the end of the thirteenth century. The style of the choir is further advanced than the nave, and exhibits some transitional features between First Pointed and Decorated work. The great east window and the large side windows of the choir probably contained tracery more advanced than that of the west end, and may probably date from the fourteenth century. The pinnacles and parapet are of about 1500."[164] The west end, with its doorway, deeply recessed with shafts and mouldings of First Pointed work, with an acutely pointed blind arch on each side with trefoiled head within it; with three lofty pointed windows, each divided into two lights by a central mullion, and with arch-heads filled with cinquefoil and quatrefoils; with north b.u.t.tress so large as to contain a wheel stair--is the finest part of the cathedral. Above the western window is a vesica, set within a bevilled fringe of bay-leaves arranged zigzagwise, with their points in contact. Of this Ruskin said in his lecture,[165] "Do you recollect the west window of your own Dunblane Cathedral? It is acknowledged to be beautiful by the most careless observer. And why beautiful? Simply because in its great contours it has the form of a forest leaf, and because in its decoration it has used nothing but forest leaves. He was no common man who designed that cathedral of Dunblane. I know nothing so perfect in its simplicity, and so beautiful, so far as it reaches, in all the Gothic with which I am acquainted. And just in proportion to his power of mind, that man was content to work under Nature's teaching, and, instead of putting a merely formal dog-tooth, as everybody else did at that time, he went down to the woody bank of the sweet river beneath the rocks on which he was building, and he took up a few of the fallen leaves that lay by it, and he set them in his arch, side by side for ever."

Six of the stalls with, and several others without, canopies still survive, and on one of the misereres are the arms of the Chisholm family, surmounted by a mitre. Three bishops of this name presided in Dunblane,[166] and the stalls were probably provided by the first, Bishop James Chisholm, dating between 1486 and 1534. The stalls were probably brought from Flanders, and the carving is spirited and full of grotesque figures.[167] Other bishops, who ought gratefully to be remembered for building done, are Bishop Dermoch (1400-1419) and Bishop Ochiltree (1429-1447). Maurice, Abbot of Inchaffray and Bishop of Dunblane (1320-1347), is described as a man of fervent spirit, who gave great encouragement at the battle of Bannockburn, and was chosen by King Robert the Bruce as his chaplain and confessor.[168] There are some vestiges of the bishop's palace still left to the south-west of the cathedral; and the Bishop's Walk, leading southward not far from the river, and overshadowed by venerable beech trees, will always be a.s.sociated with Leighton, of whom Burnet wrote, "He had the most heavenly disposition that I ever yet saw in mortal ... and I never once saw him in any other temper but that which I wished to be in, in the last moments of my life."[169] Leighton was Bishop of Dunblane from 1661 to 1670, and chose it as the poorest and smallest of Scotland's sees. At his death he bequeathed to it his library, which is still preserved.

Those who wish to understand his devotion and inner life may be directed to Dr. Walter Smith's beautiful poem _The Bishop's Walk_.

Until recently, only the choir was used as the parish church, but in 1893 the cathedral was reopened after a complete restoration costing 28,000. The restoration was largely due to the munificent generosity of Mrs. Wallace of Gla.s.singall. The town bears witness to the influence of the cathedral--

A quaint old place--a minster grey, And grey old town that winds away Through gardens, down the sloping ridge To river's brim and ancient bridge, Where the still waters flow To the deep pool below.[170]

8. DIOCESE OF ROSS

David I. followed the foundation of the great bishoprics by dividing the country north of the great range of the Mounth into separate sees, and the first of such appears to have been the diocese of Rosemarky or Ross.

Makbeth, the first Bishop of Ross, appears as the witness to a charter between 1128 and 1130.[171] The church was founded as a Columban monastery by Lugadius or Moluoc of Lismore before 577, and Bonifacius refounded it in the eighth century, and dedicated the church to St.