of the 'widowes and bairnes' so bitter, that 'it would have pitied any man to have heard the same.'1 When there was peace, the King and his Parliament enacted many good laws to ameliorate the state of these sufferers. Some of these laws are remarkable. The King was to ride through 'all the realme, incontinent after there be sent word to his Councel, quhair onie rebellion, slauchter, burning, reft, forfalt, or theft happens, and there to call the Scheriff,' an enactment which, if carried out, could have left the unfortunate monarch little leisure time. Na stranger' was to 'bring hame poyson,' sorners were to be punished with death, and that men might have more time for practising archery, 'the fute-ball and golfe' were to be 'utterly cried down.’ An Act was passed about the 'sumptuous claithing, baith of men and women'—only those burghers who were 'persons constitute in dignitie, as alderman, baillie, or uther gude worthy men that are of the Councel of the towne, and their wives weare claithes of silk, nor costly scarlettes in gownes, or furrings with mertriches.' They were to be watchful of the dressing of their wives, and as to their gownes' they were forbidden to wear 'tailes unfit in length nor furred under, but on the halie-daie.' Grey and white were to be worn by labourers 'on the warke day,' and 'on the halie-daie but licht blue, green, redde.' 2 James II., James with the Fiery Face, as he was called from a broad red spot on one of his cheeks, governed well. The Church prospered with excellent bishops, the Wars of the Roses left the English little time for sending armies to Scotland, and his people looked forward to a long and happy reign. But this was not to be. Towards the end of July 1460, when in his thirtieth year, he besieged Roxburgh 1 Lindsay of Pitscottie's Chronicle, vol. i. p. 35. 2 Act. Parl. 6. 32, 45, 64, 70. Castle, which was in the hands of the English. Artillery was the novelty of the day, and, curious to study the strange new machinery of death, the King ventured too near 'ane misframed gun.' It burst, and one of its oaken wedges striking him, he fell to the ground, and 'died hastilie thaireafter.' 1 He left three sons and two daughters. By the presence of the Queen-mother, Marie of Gueldres, and her little son, the lords were encouraged to persevere in the siege. The castle was taken, and levelled with the ground. King James III., who was eight years old, was crowned at the Monastery of Kelso. The first few years of his minority passed peaceably under the guidance of Bishop Kennedy. The Queen-mother, who had ably assisted in the government, died at Edinburgh, on the 16th of November 1463, and was buried there in the Church of Trinity College, which she had founded for the health of the soul of her husband, of her own soul, and of the souls of all her friends and relations, as she intimated to the Bishop of St. Andrews in her letter praying for his confirmation of her foundation. According to our historians, it would have been well for Marie of Gueldres if she had been more careful of her soul's health during the few years of earthly probation that remained to it after her husband's death. In her married life she was 'verrie wyse and vertuous,' but when she became a widow, 'she knowing herself to be Regent, seeing all men to obey her, and none to control her,' tarnished her moral character, and was 'lightlied of all the nobility of Scotland.'2 On the 10th of May 1466 Bishop Kennedy died. 'He was wondrous godlie and wise, and was well learned in divine sciences, and practised the same to the glorie of God and weal of his Church; for he caused 2 Ibid. p. 169. 1 Pitscottie, vol. i. p. 159. all parsons and vicars to remain at their parish kirks, for the instructions and edifying of their flock, and caused them preach the Word of God to the people, and visit them that war sick; and also the said Bishop visited every kirk within the diocese four times in the year, and preached to the said parish himself the Word of God, and inquired of them if they war duly instructed by their parson and vicar, and if the poor war sustained, and the youth brought up and learned, according to the order that was taine in the kirk of God; and where he found not this order keepit, he maid great punishment, to the effect that God's glory might shine in his diocese; leaving guid example to all archbishops and kirkmen to cause the patrimonie of God's Word to be used to His ain glory and to the common weal of the poor.'1 Lindsay of Pitscottie goes on to enlarge on our Bishop's knowledge of the civil law, and on his sage counsel in Parliament, both in times of peace and of revolution. He founded ane triumphant college' in St. Andrews, 'to the praise of God, and the exaltation of the Catholic faith, under the name, and in honour of, the holy SaviourSancti Salvatoris,'" for the maintenance of thirteen members, consisting of a provost, who was to be a master in theology, a licentiate, and a bachelor in theology, four priests, masters of arts, and six poor clerks or scholars. He endowed this college, and presented to it 'not only stoles for the priests, dalmatics, tunics and copes, but chalices, goblets, basins, ewers, candelabras, censers, and crosses, and an image of the Saviour, nearly two cubits long, besides various gold and silver utensils, also large bells, small musical bells, and silk tapestry for adorning the church; in 1 Pitscottie, vol. i. pp. 170, 171. ... 2 Bull of Pius II. confirming the Foundation of St. Salvator's College, 1458. short, there was nothing outside or inside the college which did not evince the piety, taste, and munificence of the founder.'1 The Bishop's other enterprises were: the foundation of the monastery of Franciscan or Grey Friars, in the Market Street of St. Andrews, the erection of his own monument within the chapel of the College of St. Salvator, and the construction of 'a vast ship of great burden,' known either as the 'St. Salvator' or the 'Bishop's Barge.' Of the residence of the brethren of St. Francis no trace is left, but the name, 'Greyfriars' Garden,' which is still given to the site where it stood in the street of the ancient city; some part of the exquisite workmanship of the Bishop's Gothic tomb still survives the most hideous desecration; but the Bishop's barge has long since perished, being wrecked near Bamborough, when returning from a trading voyage to Flanders in 1472. Bishop Kennedy's successor was Patrick Graham, Bishop of Brechin.2 The great event of his episcopate was the erection of the bishopric of St. Andrews into an archiepiscopal and metropolitical see by a Bull of Pope Sixtus IV., dated at Rome the 17th of August 1472. The powers of a metropolitan, when fully exercised, were immense. 'The metropolitan examined, confirmed, and consecrated the bishops of his province; he summoned them to synods, at which each one was bound to appear; to him were to be referred all complaints against a bishop, and all disputes of the bishops amongst themselves; he appointed administrators of Churches that had lost their bishops; no bishop could appeal to Rome against the will of the metropolitan, nor without his permission travel beyond the province, send messengers, or alienate the goods of the 1 Martine; cited in Lyon, vol. i. pp. 222, 223. 2 He was brother-uterine of Bishop Kennedy, being a son of the Lady Mary by her third husband, Lord Graham. Church. Upon the archbishops devolved the care of the entire province; in all ecclesiastical affairs he could be consulted; to him appeals might be made from the judgment of a bishop, and he was empowered, even without convening a synod, of his own authority to correct the errors or the crimes of a bishop.'1 The sudden exaltation of a brother to so mighty an office, for the wide province of St. Andrews comprehended the dioceses of Glasgow, Dunkeld, Aberdeen, Moray, Brechin, Dunblane, Ross, Caithness, Candida Casa, Argyll, the Isles, and Orkney, and the immediate prospect of even the exercise of a part of this vast authority, which the Church of Scotland had never known, was not received with gratitude by the bishops. The first Archbishop of St. Andrews was treated with hatred and jealousy; he was in bad favour at Court; he was universally turned against and calumniated; and eventually Pope Sixtus IV. sent a legate to Scotland, who, professing to find him guilty of simony, schism, etc., stripped him of all his dignities, and condemned him to a perpetual prison. His case is very mysterious. Some think that, on his elevation to the archepiscopate, the poor man went mad.2 He was closely confined in the isle of Inchcolm, and then in Dunfermline. It may be his soul was safer there than if he had reigned from the archiepiscopal throne, for we are told that ‘all these crosses, this innocent bishop sustained most patiently.' His last prison was Lochleven, where he died, in 1478, and was buried in St. Servanus' isle, within the Chapel of Lochleven. Meanwhile those shameful scandals, which were filling with dismay and anxiety every pure and holy heart, were on the increase. 'All things went now in the Church daily from ill to worse, for 1 Döllinger's Hist. of the Church, vol. iii. pp. 180, 181. Spottiswoode's Hist. of the Church of Scotland, p. 118. |