The ancient monuments in the cathedral are comparatively few, those which survive being all of the sixteenth and later centuries. Two of these are seen in Figs. 588 and 590, which show that the design of that period is well represented.
Another of these sixteenth century monuments is shown in Fig. 606, erected in memory of the barons of the House of Mynto. This monument is noteworthy from its possessing one of the few examples of old brasses in Scotland. The brass ([Fig. 607]) represents one of the barons in armour kneeling and looking towards the sun, surrounded with rays in the upper corners.
BRECHIN CATHEDRAL, Forfarshire.
The Bishoprics of Brechin and Dunblane were founded towards the close of the reign of King David I. from the remains of the old Pictish Bishopric of Abernethy. Although a religious establishment had existed at Brechin previously, it had no claim to represent an old Columban monastery. The earliest notice of Brechin is that in the Pictish chronicle which narrates that King Kenneth, son of Malcolm, who reigned from 971 to 995, gave the great town of Brechin to the Lord. The dedication of the church to the Holy Trinity also indicates a comparatively late date. This church, like many others founded after King Kenneth Macalpin’s restoration of the Irish priests in the middle of the ninth century, emanated from the Irish Church, and was assimilated in character to the Irish monasteries. To this connection is, no doubt, attributable the famous round tower which still exists at Brechin.
The next notices of Brechin occur in the reign of David I. In the early part of his reign a charter to the Church of Deer is witnessed by “Leot, Abbot of Brechin,” and a later charter is witnessed by “Samson, Bishop of Brechin.” The abbot had probably, in the interval, become the bishop, while the abbey was secularised and passed into the possession of a lay abbot, and a community of Keledei under a prior. These formed the chapter of the diocese till they were superseded by a regular cathedral chapter. In 1218 the Keledei are distinguished from the chapter, and in 1248 they entirely disappear.[71]
Several of the bishops of the diocese were men of note, and rendered important services during the War of Independence and in connection with the redemption of David II. from captivity, and, in consequence, obtained privileges to the town. The cathedral was also largely benefited by the Earl of Crawford, and received liberal grants from the Stewarts, Earls of Atholl. There is, however, little to be gathered from the accounts of the lives of the bishops regarding the history of the structure of the cathedral. Almost the only statement bearing on the subject is that the vicar of the parish of Lethnot, in fulfilment of his obligation, “delivered to Patrick, Bishop of Brechin (1354-84), a large white horse, and had also given a cart and horse to lead stones to the building of the belfry of the Church of Brechin in the time of Bishop Patrick.”[72]
The gradual declension of the bishopric and the loss of the church property followed the usual course. A precept by James III., in 1463, states that, through the profligacy of the bishop and canons, the revenues of the cathedral had been greatly reduced by frequent alienations of its property, and, in consequence, steps were taken and some of the lands were restored, or an annual feu-duty paid for them.
After the Reformation, Alexander Campbell was bishop from 1566 to 1610. By a grant in his favour he was empowered to sell, for his own benefit, all revenues and properties belonging to the see then vacant, or which might become vacant. Of this power the bishop freely availed himself, both for his own interest and also for the benefit of his powerful patron, the Earl of Argyll. His example was speedily followed by the archdeacon, chancellor, and presbyters, who, on various pretexts, disposed of their houses and lands. By these means the property of the cathedral was lost to the church and passed into the hands of laymen.
The cathedral continued to be used after the Reformation for Protestant worship, and, according to Mr. Black, the edifice was little interfered with till 1806. Before that period he describes it as a handsome Gothic building, consisting of a nave with two aisles, and a transept formed by an extension of these aisles to the north and south. Mr. Black also states that there is no appearance of there ever having been any pillars or arches in the transepts, and questions whether the choir was ever finished, or if there was anything more than a lady chapel. The appearance of the cathedral in the end of last century is shown in Grose’s view.
In 1806 great alterations were made on the edifice. The north and south transepts were removed, new and wider aisles were built on each side of the nave, and 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 ([Fig. 608]), “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.”[73]