Scottish Cathedrals and Abbeys

by Dugald Butler

"Many of our ancient families went down in the War of Independence, and few of our present aristocracy trace back beyond the revolution of families and property which took place under Bruce. The Earls of Angus, Fife, and Strathearn are little more than mythological personages to the modern genealogist.... It is the common case all over Scotland."[435]

In connection with the monks he has the following interesting note:—

"It is to be remarked that in Scotland, as in other countries, while the secular or parochial clergy were often the younger sons of good families, the convents of monk and friars were recruited wholly from the lower classes; and yet—not to speak of the daily bread, the freedom from daily care, all the vulgar temptations of such a life in hard times—the career of a monk opened no mean path to the ambitious spirit. The offices of the monastery alone might well seem prizes to be contended for by the son of the peasant or burgess, and the highest of these placed its holder on a level with the greatest of the nobility."[436]

The last abbot was Cardinal Beaton, at the same time Archbishop of St. Andrews. The abbey suffered after the Reformation from the revenues having become the property of the Hamiltons, and as they were appropriated to the private use of that family, there were no funds to keep up the buildings, which fell gradually into decay, and were freely used by the magistrates and townspeople as a quarry. The property was converted into a temporal lordship in favour of Lord Claude Hamilton, third son of the Duke of Chatelherault.

In sketching the history of this famous abbey, the "Aberbrothock Manifesto" of 1320 must be recalled, in which it becomes manifest that the Scottish Church was never a complaisant vassal of Rome.[437] There breathes in it a spirit of freedom and natural independence, and a refusal to accept the interference of Rome in the affairs of the State. The Scottish nobles protest against the papal countenance given to the English aggressions, and distinctly tell Pope John XXII. that "not for glory, riches, or honour we fight, but for liberty alone, which no good man loses but with his life."[438]

The abbey church consisted of a choir of three bays, with side aisles and an aisleless presbytery; a nave of nine bays, with aisles and north and south transepts with eastern aisles; two western towers and one large central tower. Considerable portions of these divisions still remain, but the greater part of the north side of the choir, the north transept and nave, and almost all the piers and pillars have been swept away. Beginning at the east end, the eastern wall is entire for nearly half its height, having an arcade below and three lancet windows above, with the lower portions of an upper row of similar windows. Somewhat less of the return wall of the south side of the presbytery, comprising two bays, remains, and adjoining it is the sacristy, a late building fairly well preserved. The end wall of the south transept is almost complete, along with a considerable portion of the west wall of the transept, which gives a good idea of the grandeur of the church. The whole of the nave south wall remains, showing a row of windows and indications of the groining of the aisle. The central aisle was not vaulted, but covered with a wooden roof. Most of the bases of the nave pillars are in position, as are also the foundations of the north transept. The west end fragment and the two towers left standing, are striking and impressive in their vigorous work.[439] Bold, vigorous work, with refinement of detail, is seen in the western doorway. It is round arched, and its outer order, if it may be so called, extends inwards for about five feet, unadorned as a bold and plain tunnel arch, having a pointed arch in each ingoing. It then becomes shafted and richly moulded, after the transition manner. This arrangement, while it gives a fine shadow under the arch, has a feeling of rudeness, which, to a considerable extent, characterises the whole west front. "There is a remarkable resemblance in the decoration of this doorway to that of the doorway in the porch of Lerida Cathedral, Spain, supposing the tunnel arch of Arbroath away, and the moulded part brought forward to the face of the wall, as is the case at Lerida.... A similar ring ornament, on a large scale, is also to be seen in a doorway at Lamington, Lanarkshire, where it is likewise used along with the zig-zag, but there the ringed order is the outer enrichment."[440]

The removal of the outer part of a gallery, which existed over this doorway, has increased the rude appearance of the west front, but the inner part of this gallery still remains. Within the great thickness of the wall a chamber of considerable size was obtained, and it opens into the nave by six pointed arches, and to the outside over the doorway by three arches. It is regarded as obvious that three gablets projected outwards from the wall for a distance of about four feet, supported on two intermediate shafts, and that the gallery was closed in at each end with walls or haffits, both of which still remain in part. We now see the west front robbed of its most unique features; the gallery was reached by a long passage at each end from stairs in the angle-buttresses. It probably was a gallery for an orchestra, and may have also been used as a pulpit to address an open-air audience.[441]

Above this gallery was an immense circular window, a portion of which still survives. "It is probable that this part of the building was erected at two different times, the west doorway and some of the pillars of the gallery being in the early transition style, while the triple windows to the front and the six-light arcade towards the interior are in the first pointed style. When the gallery was completed in the first pointed period, the floor space was enlarged by extending it to the front, hence the necessity for the deep tunnel arch over the west doorway. The pointed arches in the ingoing also indicate this first pointed period."[442]

The western towers opened with arches into the north, south, and central aisles, but only the north tower retains its massive pier and arches, while of the south tower nothing but the foundation of the pier exists. The south wall of the transept is externally plain, the upper part being visible above the dormitory roof. The façade has two plain lancet windows, one shorter than the other, and above them is a large wheel window. The interior of the transept is a very grand design in the early pointed style.[443] Beneath the splayed lancets there is a round arched open arcade, with a passage behind it, and beneath this, two tiers of wall arcades with pointed arches, the central arcade being very acutely pointed, the lower one not so decidedly, and with trefoil cusps in the arches. A staircase in the S.E. angle of the transept gave access to the dormitory by the door, seen built up on the outside.[444] This staircase also leads to the various passages in the thickness of the walls, and the church doorway leading to this stair is round arched and ranges with the lower pointed arcade. The lower arcade of the south end is continued along the west wall, and above this rise two widely-splayed windows. All the lofty south transept windows have passages on two floors, and the transepts had chapels on the east side. "The respond of the great arcade against the south wall is beautiful in detail. Above this there exist fragments of the responds of the triforium story and the clerestory. All the above features of this part of the abbey point plainly to its having some lingering remains of transition style, retaining, as it does, some round arches along with the general features of the design."[445]

The vestry or sacristy was built by Abbot Walter Painter between 1411 and 1433, and is a two-storied building, the ground floor having a groined ceiling, still entire, and the upper room being roofless. Its features are of fifteenth-century work, and the building is in good preservation.