Chronicles of Strathearn

by Unknown

The source and reference of the name given to the parish has never been satisfactorily determined. Some have attempted to connect it with the dedication of Inchaffray. Now, whatever truth there might be in the view that part of the dedication—"to the Virgin"—was suggested by the name of the parish (Maderty being the English for the Celtic "mother of God"), there is certainly nothing whatever to support the opinion that the district took its style from the Abbey. Maderty was Maderty long before Inchaffray was Inchaffray.

Earl Gilbert died in 1223. Robert, his successor, maintained the like generous attitude which his father had borne toward the Church. We may, no doubt, feel disposed to conjecture some proof of estrangement having marred the hitherto peaceful relations between patron and clergy. But if such did arise, it can have been only temporary, for the very record which excites the suspicion assures us of even more devoted loyalty on his part. "In the Church of Strogeath, and in the presence of Abraham, Bishop of Dunblane, and others, Robert, Earl of Strathearn, bound himself toward the Abbot of Inchaffray that he would never in his life vex the said abbot or his convent unjustly—nay, would love and everywhere honour them as his most especial friends, and would add to the possessions of their house whatsoever he might by the counsel of his friends. He particularly confirmed to them the Churches at Gask and Strogeath."

The year 1240 witnessed Inchaffray narrowly becoming Chapter of the Diocese. "Clement, Bishop of Dunblane, went to Rome, and represented to Pope Gregory IX. how of old time his bishopric had been vacant upwards of a hundred years, during which period almost all the revenues had been seized by the seculars; and although in process of time there had been several bishops instituted, yet, by their simplicity or negligence, the former dilapidations were not recovered, but, on the contrary, the remainder were almost quite alienated; so that for ten years a proper person could not be found to accept of the charge; that the case having been laid before the Pope, he had committed the trust of supplying that vacancy to the Bishops of St. Andrews, Dunkeld, and Brechin, who made choice of this Clement; but he found his church so desolate that he had not where to lay his head in his cathedral. There was no college there, only a rural chaplain performed divine service in the church that had its roof uncovered; and the revenues of the See were so small that they could hardly afford him maintenance for one half of the year. To remedy these evils the Pope appointed William and Geoffrey, the Bishops of Glasgow and Dunkeld, to visit the Church of Dunblane, and if they should find these things to be as represented, he authorised them to cause the fourth part of the tithes of all the parish churches within that diocy to be assigned to the bishop thereof, who, after reserving out of these tithes so much as should be proper for his own sustenance, was by the advice of these two bishops and other expert persons to assign the rest to a dean and canons whom the Pope enjoined to be settled there, if these matters could be brought about without great offence; or, if otherwise, he ordered that the fourth of the tithes of all such churches of the diocy as were in the hands of seculars should be assigned to the bishop, and that the bishop's seat should be translated to St. John's Monastery of Canons-regular, (i.e., Inchaffray), within that diocy, and appointed that these canons should have the election of the bishop when a vacancy should happen thereafter." Either "these things were found to be not so," or else the former part of the alternative was duly carried out, as the bishop's seat remained at Dunblane, and Inchaffray was denied its only opportunity of elevation to cathedral rank.

Inchaffray

The next event of interest connected with the Abbey is the pilgrimage of the Abbot Maurice to Bannockburn. Every schoolboy can tell the story, for no annals of Scotland omit to record his presence and service when the rival hosts stood face to face for a huge trial of strength and valour. But probably it is not quite so well understood that much of the glorious success which crowned the Scottish arms was popularly attributed to the fact that the monk carried with him the arm of St. Fillan. A legend is that St. Fillan, when Abbot of Pittenweem, transcribed with his own hand the Holy Scriptures, and that his left arm became so luminous that it enabled him to proceed during darkness with his pious work. Lesly asserts that this wonderful limb afterwards came into the possession of Robert Bruce, who enclosed it in a silver shrine, which he commanded should be borne at the head of the army. Previous to the battle, a story has it, the King's chaplain (Maurice), with the view of preserving the treasure from all chance of abstraction by the English, had it removed and deposited in a place of security. While, however, the King, unaware of what had been done, was addressing his prayers to the empty casket, it was observed to open and shut suddenly. On inspection, the Saint was found to have himself returned his luminous member to its place as an assurance of victory. The writers of the Statistical Account of Maderty thus express themselves—"This relic might, indeed, have given some encouragement to the superstitious; but one arm of a brave Scotchman fighting in earnest for the liberty of his country had more effect in obtaining that memorable victory than could have been produced by the innate virtue of all the relics of the dead that could have been collected." If these critical authors had been less anxious to square truth with orthodoxy, and not orthodoxy with truth, they would have known that where the entire force was "superstitious" the influence of the sacred arm would enormously intensify soldierly enthusiasm, and that it is impossible to define its comparative share in the result. Robert Bruce, indeed, appears to have been sensibly impressed by the good offices of the sacred relic, and attested his gratitude in a substantial manner. He founded a priory at Strathfillan, on the Dochart, a stream in the Breadalbane district of Perthshire, and consecrated it to the Saint. At the dissolution of religious houses this priory with all its revenues and superiorities passed, by order of the King, to Campbell of Glenorchy, ancestor of the Lords of Breadalbane. Maurice's conduct on the field attracted the attention of others besides Bruce. Macleod of Scarinche, in Lewis, conceived a strong regard for the Abbot, and induced him to reside for a time at his western home, where he erected a monastery to St. Kattanus, whose bones lay buried there. Strathfillan, Scarinche, and Abernethy were cells of Inchaffray.

The Earls continued successively to be bountiful benefactors of the convent. One of them, Malise, in 1258, presented it with certain of his slaves (nativi)—namely, Gilmory, Gillendes, and John Starnes, the son of Thomas and grandson of Thore. Absolute serfdom was then a Scottish institution, comprising part of the labouring class, who were bought and sold with the land to which they were attached; and gifts of nativi by their masters to the religious establishments of those times are frequently recorded.

After the ancient line of Strathearn had failed in the direct male descent, and when Maurice de Moray, created Earl by David II., had met his death at Durham in 1346, leaving no issue, the King bestowed the Earldom upon his nephew, Robert, the High Steward, afterwards Robert II., who on his accession to the throne (1370) relinquished the Earldom in favour of his son David. Seventy years later the title and estates fell vacant and were merged in the Crown, the bishopric and temporalities being henceforth held in free barony of the Sovereign.

The intimate association of Inchaffray Abbey with the national and religious fortunes of Scotland receives further guarantee in 1513. Whether as chaplain or as common soldier, and under what designation, no available narrative declares. But certain it is that the stubborn fight which evoked Scotland's most waefu' dirge, no less than that which occasioned her immortal paean of victory, was graced by an abbot of this monastery. The respective fates of these two divines, however, were widely different. Not even monks, clad though they be in all the panoply of the Church, are safe from sword or arrow. He of Flodden never saw his northern charge again. Unknown, yet not unwept, he fell beneath the spoiler's weapon with the "flowers of the forest."