Scottish Cathedrals and Abbeys. Dugald Butler

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Название Scottish Cathedrals and Abbeys
Автор произведения Dugald Butler
Жанр Документальная литература
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isbn 4057664613059



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on the rebuilding or completion of the edifices that had been destroyed or left unfinished. This period, along with the Third Pointed in Scotland, is regarded as the work of native architects.[23]

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      The Middle Pointed passed by a gentle gradation into the Late Pointed style, and it is difficult to say when the one ceased and the other began. Yet there are some characteristics of the Third Pointed which are peculiar to it and render it a distinct epoch. The large churches are nearly all restorations, and no new churches of great size were undertaken. The Scottish churches are usually smaller in size than the English ones, and consist of single compartments without aisles. The east end frequently terminates with a three-sided apse—a feature which owes its origin to the Scottish alliance and intercourse with France. The leading and distinguishing feature is, however, the vaulting—the pointed barrel vault being almost universally employed. The windows of these churches are necessarily low, so as to allow the point of the arch-head to come beneath the spring of the main vault. The buttresses are generally somewhat stunted. The windows are almost always pointed, and contain simple tracery derived from the earlier styles. The doorways are generally of the old round-headed form, with late foliage and enrichments. Porches are occasionally introduced, and coats of arms are commonly carved on shields of the period, and are useful in determining the dates of portions of the buildings. Towers were generally erected or intended, and are somewhat stunted, finished with short spires, having small dormer windows inserted in them. Monuments are of frequent occurrence, and are frequently placed in arched and canopied recesses. Richly carved sacrament-houses are occasionally introduced, and perhaps some of the good carving may be due to the French masons who were numerous in Scotland during the reigns of James IV. and James V. The structures of the period were either parish or collegiate churches.[24]

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      The connection between St. Andrews and the neighbouring Pictish Church at Abernethy was, during the early period, very close. Dr. Skene thinks that the first church at Abernethy was built during the visit of St. Ninian to the Southern Picts, or the people living between the Forth and the territory south of the Grampians; it was endowed with lands by King Nectan in 460 A.D., and dedicated to St. Bride;[25] and between 584 and 596, during St. Columba's visit, and as a result of his mission, a church was rebuilt by Gartnaidh, King of the Picts.[26] St. Columba is distinctly stated to have preached among the tribes on the banks of the Tay,[27] and to have been assisted in this work by St. Cainnech, who founded a church in the east end of the province of Fife, near where the Eden pours its waters into the German Ocean, at a place called Rig-Monadh, or the royal mount, which afterwards became famous as the site on which the church of St. Andrews was founded, and as giving to that place the name of Kilrimont.[28] The earliest Celtic church at St. Andrews was probably, like that of Iona, constructed with wattles and turf and roofed with thatch. It was customary to have caves or places of retirement for the hermits; they were used, too, as oratories or places of penance, and one such there is at St. Andrews, known as St. Rule's cave:—

      Where good Saint Rule his holy lay,

       From midnight to the dawn of day,

       Sang to the billows' sound.[29]

      The connection of the place with St. Andrew has no historical basis till between 736 and 761, when a cathedral was dedicated to St. Andrew, and a portion of his relics was brought by Acca, Bishop of Northumbria, who was banished from that country in 732, and founded a church among the Picts. Dr. Skene points to the similarity of the events which succeeded one another in Northumbria and Southern Pictland in the eighth century. In the former country the Columban clergy were expelled, secular clergy were introduced, dedications were made to St. Peter, and afterwards Hexham was dedicated to St. Andrew and received the relics of the Apostle, brought there by one of its bishops; in the latter country, sixty years later, the Picts expelled the Columban monks, introduced the secular clergy, placed the kingdom under the patronage of St. Peter, and then receiving from some unknown quarter the relics of St. Andrew, founded the church in honour of that Apostle, who became the national patron-saint.[30] This "cathedral," dedicated to St. Andrew, was probably of stone, and was the church intervening between the early Celtic Church and that of St. Regulus. Angus, King of the Picts, endowed it with lands.

      On the destruction of Iona by the Danes, the bishopric was first transferred to Dunkeld (850–864); then to Abernethy (865–908), when the Round Tower was probably built;[31] and in 908 it was transferred to St. Andrews, which retained it until the Reformation. St. Adrian was probably one of the three bishops of Alban[32] at Abernethy, as chapels and crosses in the district are all connected with his name; and Cellach appears as the first Bishop at St. Andrews, and he was succeeded by eight Culdee bishops, the last of whom was Fothad, who officiated at the marriage of Malcolm Canmore and Queen Margaret. The next three bishops all died before consecration, and for about sixteen years after the death of Malcolm the bishopric would appear to have been vacant. Turgot, Queen Margaret's friend and confessor, was the thirteenth bishop, and ruled from 1107–1115—the first bishop not of native birth.

      Prior to 1107 the Culdee community had split up into two sections, dividing the spiritualities and temporalities between them, and Bishop Robert (1121–1159), with the object of superseding the Culdees, founded in 1144 a priory for the regular monks of St. Augustine, granting to them the Hospital of St. Andrews, with portions of the altarage. In the same year King David granted a charter to the prior and canons of St. Andrews, in which he provided that they shall receive the Keledei of Kilrimont into the canonry, with all their possessions and revenues, if they were willing to become canons-regular; but, if they refused, those who are now alive are to retain the property during their lives, and, after their death, as many canons-regular are to be instituted in the church of St. Andrews as there are now Keledei, and all their possessions are to be appropriated to the use of the canons. There were thus two rival ecclesiastical bodies in St. Andrews—the old corporation of secular priests and the new order of Austin-canons; the former enjoyed the greater part of the old endowments, and the latter recovered a considerable portion of the secularised property that had passed into lay hands. Popes, bishops, and kings endeavoured to end this rivalry, but their efforts were not crowned with success; although influence was on the side of the canons-regular, the Keledei clung to their prescriptive right to take part in the election of a bishop down to 1273, when they were excluded by protest; in 1332 they were absolutely excluded, and the formula of their exclusion from taking part in the election was repeated;[33] we hear of them afterwards not as Keledei, but as "the provostry of the Church of St. Mary of the city of St. Andrews," of "the Church of the Blessed Mary of the Rock," and of "the provostry of Kirkheugh"—the society consisting of a provost and ten prebendaries.[34]