CHAPTER XXVIII

JAMES IV., 1488-1513

Character of James IV.-Glasgow made a metropolitan see-Rivalry between the two archbishops-Suits at Rome forbidden-Bishop Elphinstone of Aberdeen-Founding of Aberdeen UniversityHector Boece its first Principal-Introduction of printing into Scotland-First compulsory Education Act-Marriage of the king-Death of archbishop Scheves of St. Andrews-His two royal successors-The Lollards of Kyle-James Beaton, archbishop of Glasgow-Bishop Brown of Dunkeld-King's death on Flodden Field.

JAMES III. had fallen by the assassin at the age of thirtyfive. His son, James IV., was in his seventeenth year on his coronation at Scone. He is said to have worn through life an iron girdle round his waist in penance for his unnatural rebellion against his father. He made many pilgrimages over Scotland-from the ancient shrine of St. Ninian at Whithorn to the later shrine of St. Duthac at Tain. The canons of Glasgow were also honoured by having the king among their number-a royal canon in St. Mungo's stalls. Some writers credit him with having the hereditary piety of his mother, but history shows him to have been, notwithstanding the pope's title of "protector of the faith," an inconsistent medley of piety and profligacy.1 He had, besides the literary and artistic tastes of his father, more of the masculine energy and political courage which Scotland needed in her king.

1 In proof of this see the contrast in Burton, Hist., iii. 51, 80.

The father's devotion to art seemed a weakness to his illiterate nobles; they were made to feel the iron glove on his son's hand.

An act of the Three Estates was passed in 1489, demanding that Glasgow should be erected into an archbishopric, with privileges corresponding to those of the see of York. It was opposed by archbishop Scheves of St. Andrews, but the king, by repeated letters, importuned the papal court in its favour. In 1490, Scheves was commanded by the pope to appear at Rome on "urgent business." 4 On the 9th January 1492, Innocent VIII. issued a bull erecting Glasgow into an archiepiscopal and metropolitan see, with the bishops of Galloway, Dunkeld, Dunblane, and Argyll as suffragans.5 The right of the cross was conceded to Glasgow, but not the pall nor the envied style of primate and legate natus. The compromise, as was expected, failed to bring peace to the Church, and the contentions between Scheves and Blackader broke out with renewed virulence, until they threatened the peace of the kingdom. Parliament at length interfered and passed an act, January 1493, to terminate the suits at Rome between the rival archbishops. They were commanded to cease from their disputes, and to abide by such judgments as the king and the Three Estates should submit to the pope, failing which, payment of their rents would be at once suspended. This had the desired effect for a season, for both prelates were heavily in debt through the expenses

1 "Hitherto," says Tytler, under date 1493, "there is reason to believe that the great majority of the barons were deplorably ignorant, and careless of all liberal education." Hist. Scot., 2 Acts Parlt., p. 213.

iii. 470.

3 Theiner, p. 505. 4 lbid., p. 504.

5 The bishop of Galloway as chief suffragan was appointed vicar

general of the archiepiscopal see during a vacancy. Galloway, which was always a poor see, had annexed to it the chapel royal of Stirling, and some years afterwards the abbey of Tungland. Bishop Forbes, Life of St. Ninian, lix. Dunkeld and Dunblane were (later) transferred to St. Andrews, and the Isles made suffragan to Glasgow.

XXVIII

BISHOP ELPHINSTONE OF ABERDEEN

485

incurred by processes at the papal court. The Parliament also enacted that all subjects of the king, cleric and laic, who had pleas before the Roman court, should withdraw their litigation from Rome, and bring their legal muniments to Scotland, where justice would be done by the judges of the realm.1

A better type of the episcopal order than the two contentious archbishops was William Elphinstone, bishop of Aberdeen. Pope Sixtus confirmed him in the see of Ross, notwithstanding his illegitimacy (de presbytero natus et soluta), for which he had granted dispensation. The next pope, Alexander VI., writes that concealment had been made as to the bishop's birth on his translation to Aberdeen, and, lest it should hinder him in the administration of his diocese, the pope absolves him from censures, dispenses with the natal defect, and confirms him in the see.2 The bishop's father was a priest, possibly married in breach of canon law, in the diocese of Glasgow, where Elphinstone was born. We hear of him first as one of the earliest students in the new university of Glasgow in 1451, and again in 1460, when he is canon and official of that see. In the interval he had studied both in Paris and Orleans, and returned to Scotland with the reputation of being a learned jurist, to practise as an advocate in the ecclesiastical courts. He was for a few years rector of Kirkmichael in the diocese of Glasgow; in 1474 he became rector of his own university, and four years later he was official of Lothian. Both James III. and his son employed him on frequent embassies to England, France, and elsewhere. In the last year of James III. he was chancellor of Scotland, 2 Theiner, p. 508, 14th December

1 Robertson's Statuta, cxxiii. seq.; Acts Parlt. Scot., ii. 232; Tytler, Hist., iii. 466.

1494.

3 It was not marriage in the eye of the Church.

and under James IV. he held office as keeper of the Privy Seal. The bishop was a man of affairs both before and after his elevation to the episcopate, but he was above all a bishop and a scholar, imbued with the best ideals of his sacred office and with a genuine love of letters. In 1483 he was nominated by the king to the see of Ross, and next year, before his consecration, he was translated to Aberdeen.1

Elphinstone spent a large portion of the revenues of his see upon the cathedral of St. Machar, finishing the central tower, and commencing the choir upon which he was still engaged at the time of his death. He bestowed equal pains in regulating the chapter and improving the musical service of the cathedral, besides remodelling the collegiate church of St. Nicholas in Aberdeen. Elphinstone, like bishop Brown of Dunkeld, was also a literal pontifex, or bridge-maker. The one spanned the Tay and the other the Dee, each with a substantial bridge of stone, much to the convenience of the inhabitants.2 The greatest work, however, of his episcopate was the foundation, in 1494, of the university of Aberdeen for the study of theology, canon and civil law, the liberal arts, and medicine. This was the first chair of medicine in Scotland. Hitherto the art of healing had been in the hands of empirics, untrained medicine-men, barbers, and old wives. Scotland had as yet but two universities, St. Andrews and Glasgow. Aberdeen, though less famous as an ecclesiastical centre than either of these ancient seats, was in other respects more important as a city. For population and commerce

1 It is probable that the bar of illegitimacy postponed for a time his consecration. Pope Alexander VI. says that while Elphinstone was bishopelect of Ross-" munere consecra

tionis tibi minime impenso." Theiner, P. 508.

2 Bishop Elphinstone's bridge is still in use, though widened for modern requirements.

XXVIII ELPHINSTONE, FOUNDER OF ABERDEEN UNIVY. 487

it then ranked second or third among the Scottish royal burghs, and exercised a relatively greater influence as the capital of the north than it did in later times when the trade and population of the country shifted southward. To bishop Elphinstone belongs the honour of founding the northern university. The pope's bull of 1495 sanctioned its erection, and the charter of king James IV., 1497, confirmed its privileges and property; but the prime mover was the bishop. It should not be forgotten that Scotland owes her three ancient universities to three bishops - Wardlaw, Turnbull, and Elphinstone, all of them Scotsmen.1

The first principal of the university of Aberdeen was Hector Boece, a native of Dundee, whom Elphinstone had known as a fellow-student in Paris. Boece was an eminent scholar and rose to be professor of philosophy in Paris. He was the friend of John Major or Mair, afterwards provost of St. Salvator's College, St. Andrews, and of the learned Erasmus with whom he corresponded. Boece was the author of a History of Scotland and of the Lives of the Bishops of Aberdeen. The inaccuracy of his history has already been dealt with in relation to the mission of Palladius. Dr. Grub remarks upon After every allowance has been made for the uncritical spirit of the time when it was composed, and for the author's reliance on the information which he received from others, it is hardly possible to acquit him of wilfully perverting the true history of his country." Boece was more successful as a principal than as a historian, and did much for the revival of classical learning in Scotland. Several of his scholars rose to positions of influence in the Church.

1 The money, eight thousand marks Scots, bequeathed by bishop Reid of Orkney for building a college

it:

at Edinburgh, was the nucleus of its university.

2 Hist., i. 406.