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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
It is well known that organisation of bishoprics and parishes came late to the greater part of Scotland, beginning probably with the gradual spread of Norman influence in the late eleventh century and becoming marked in the time of David I. Before that time the Celtic church was predominant in the region between Forth and Spey, which was the main seat of the monarchy, and there were strong Celtic influences in the Highlands, Clydesdale and Galloway. The church was mainly monastic and missionary with religious communities serving wide areas; though in addition Skene has hinted at the existence of tribal churches in the north-east lowlands. Lothian, a part of the ancient kingdom of Northumbria, was peculiar, for it resisted Celtic influences and looked, ecclesiastically, towards Durham; but any parochial organisation it may have had was rudimentary. In general it can be said with truth that ecclesiastical Scotland was completely transformed by the coming of the Normans. Owing to lack of sources twelfth-century Scottish history is obscure; but something at least may be discovered from the charters, which have been in print for over a hundred years and still remain unexplored. And it was in the hope that a reconstruction of church organisation during the transition period might help to illuminate the social history of Scotland that this paper was undertaken. I have concentrated on one subject: the structure of parishes and the relation of local lay and ecclesiastical authorities, because it is a crucial one: and one region, southern Scotland, because there Norman influence was strongest. If in the absence of special studies on the subject my conclusions must remain tentative, they may at least indicate the problems and provoke wider discussion from which the truth will emerge.
page 135 note 01 de Fordun, J., Chronica Gentis Scotorum, ed. Skene, W. F. (Edinburgh, 1871–1872), ii. 445–9.Google Scholar
page 135 note 02 Statutes of the Scottish Church, 1223–1559, ed. Patrick, David (Scottish History Society, 1907), pp. xii–xiii.Google Scholar
page 136 note 01 Vetera Monumenta Hibernorum et Scotorum, ed. Theiner, A. (Rome, 1864), no. xlix.Google Scholar
page 136 note 02 Cf. Lemarignier, J. F., Étude sur les privilèges d'exemption et de juridiction des abbayes normandes (Archives de la France monastique, 1937), pp. 72, 107–8.Google Scholar
page 136 note 03 Bibl. Nat., MS. Lat. 5650, fo. 27 v.
page 136 note 04 Lemarignier, , op. cit., p. 117.Google Scholar
page 136 note 05 Early Scottish Charters, ed. SirLawrie, Archibald C. (Glasgow, 1905)Google Scholar, nos. xxiv, xxxiii, xxxiv. Cf. Innes, C., Sketches of Early Scotch History (Edinburgh, 1861), pp. 11–12.Google Scholar
page 136 note 06 Lawrie, , op. cit., nos. lxii, lxxvii, lxxviii and passim.Google Scholar
page 136 note 07 Ibid., no. cxcv.
page 137 note 01 Ibid., nos. xx, xxii, ccxiii.
page 137 note 02 Liber Sancte Marie de Calchou (Bannatyne Club, 1846), pp. 6, 13, 229.Google Scholar
page 137 note 03 Registrum Monasterii de Passelet (Maitland Club, 1877), pp. 1–3.Google Scholar
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page 137 note 05 Lawrie, , op. cit., no. lxxivGoogle Scholar; Registrum de Dunfermelyn (Bannatyne Club, 1842), p. 4.Google Scholar
page 137 note 06 Liber de Calchou, p. 5Google Scholar, ‘et in Sprouistona unam carucatam terre … et ecclesiam eiusdem ville et terram ecclesie pertinentem, domino Johanne episcopo Glasguensi similiter dante et episcopali auctoritate confirmante’.
page 137 note 07 Ibid., pp. 69, 149.
page 137 note 08 Lawrie, , Early Scottish Charters, no. ccxiii.Google Scholar
page 138 note 01 Liber de Calchou, pp. 144–5.Google Scholar
page 138 note 02 For instance, Lawrie, , op. cit., no. ccxxv, p. 182Google Scholar; Liber de Calchou, p. 281.Google Scholar This form of wording persists sometimes into the late twelfth century, especially in reference to churches of recent foundation.
page 138 note 03 For instance, the charters of William the Lion in Antiquities of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff (Spalding Club, 1843–1862), ii. 27, 119.Google Scholar
page 138 note 04 Ibid., ii. 19.
page 138 note 05 Lawrie, , op. cit., no. ccxiv.Google Scholar
page 138 note 06 Registrum Episcopatus Glasguensis (Bannatyne Club, 1843), nos. 32, 51, 57. 62.Google Scholar
page 139 note 01 Ibid., no. 151. The bull of Honorius III (1226) granting the church in proprios usus to Glasgow refers to the bishop's right of collation and reserves the right of the present incumbent during his lifetime. Cf. also the tenure of Rutherglen church by the monks of Paisley (Origines Parochiales Scotiae (Bannatyne Club, 1851–1855), i. 62.Google Scholar
page 139 note 02 Decretum, II, xvi. 7.Google Scholar An important series of papal bulls to bishop Jocelyn of Glasgow (1175–99), answering his questions on points of canon law, show that the Scottish church was closely in touch with the development of ecclesiastical law by at least the last quarter of the twelfth century (Reg. Epis. Glas., nos. 58–61, 63–5, 67, 68).Google Scholar
page 139 note 03 For instance, a charter of Duncan, earl of Mar, granting Braemar church to Monymusk (1214–34) and confirmed by Gilbert, bishop of Aberdeen (1228–39), grants ‘ecclesiam … cum ovencionibus et oblacionibus et omnibus aliis justis pertinenciis suis’ (Antiquities of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff, ii. 86).Google Scholar A confirmation of Wiston church to Kelso c. 1220 (Liber de Calchou, pp. 270–2)Google Scholar repeats a mid-twelfth century formula, which even in 1260 had only been softened into ‘dictam advocacionem et ius presentandi ad ipsam ecclesiam seu vicariam eiusdem, cum terris, decimis, possessionibus et libertatibus ad ipsam ecclesiam spectantibus’. Cf. the conclusions of ProfessorStenton, in Transcripts of Charters relating to Gilbertine Houses (Lincoln Record Society, vol. 18), p. xxiii.Google Scholar
page 140 note 01 See Cartularium de Levenax (Maitland Club, 1833), pp. 19, 30–1, 35–6Google Scholar, for grants of land with the advowson only of churches.
page 140 note 02 Thirteenth-century statutes show that churches were still being built and endowed in places without episcopal consent (Registrum Episcopatus Aberdonensis (Spalding Club, 1845), ii. 6–7).Google Scholar
page 140 note 03 The bulls of Celestine III, 1195 (Antiquities of Aberdeen and Banff, iv. 501–3)Google Scholar, and Honorius III, 1226 (Theiner, , op. cit., no. lviii)Google Scholar, give examples of a common formula.
page 140 note 04 Cf. Page, William, ‘Some remarks on the churches of the Domesday survey’, Archaeologia, lxvi (1914–1915), 61–102.Google Scholar
page 140 note 05 The best short account of this development is in Knowles, D., The Monastic Order in England, pp. 562–8.Google Scholar
page 141 note 01 Origines Parochiales, i. 98–178.Google Scholar
page 141 note 02 Eaglesham, Glasford, Strathhaven, Stonehouse, Carstairs, Carnwath, Dolphington, Walston, Biggar, Liberton, possibly Quothquhan, Covington, Wiston, Douglas, Crawford John, Lamington, Culter; though the churches of Carnwath and Wiston were early granted by their patrons to the see of Glasgow and abbey of Kelso; and Crawford John, originally dependent on the parish of Wiston, only reverted to the manorial lords after it became independent.
page 141 note 03 Hamilton with Dalserf, Lesmahago, Carluke, Lanark, Pettinain, Carmichael.
page 142 note 01 Liber S. Marie de Dryburgh (Bannatyne Club, 1847), no. 46.Google Scholar
page 142 note 02 In recognising that the chapel of Glegern was subject to the mother church of Lanark, he declared ‘si qua autem advocatio vel quod jus aliud mini competiit vel competit ratione domina quod habeo in territorio de Glegern … illud … concessi et quietum clamavi’ (Liber de Dryburgh, no. 233).
page 142 note 03 Page, W., op. cit., pp. 98–101Google Scholar, shows that this was common even in the period just before the Norman conquest.
page 142 note 04 In the gift of Thankerton the wording is as follows: (Symon Lockard) ‘Noveritis me dedisse … ecclesiam que dicitur Wudechirche cum terris et omnibus ad eam iuste pertinentibus … cum pascuis et aisiamentis ville mee communibus aliisque pertinentiis eiusdem ecclesie; (Anneis de Brus) ‘Sciant tam presentes quam futuri me dedisse et concessisse et hac mea carta confirmasse ecclesiam de villa Thancardi scilicet Wudekyrch cum omnibus pertinentibus que ad eandem ecclesiam de iure pertinere debent’ (Liber de Calchou, pp. 227, 272).Google Scholar
page 142 note 05 See Liber de Calchou, p. 233Google Scholar; Liber de Dryburgh, no. 62.
page 143 note 01 Origines Parochiales, i. 65–97.Google Scholar
page 143 note 02 Infra, pp. 17–19.Google Scholar
page 143 note 03 Dumbarton to Kilwinning, Cardross and Campsy to Glasgow, Rosneath to Paisley.
page 143 note 04 Origines Parochiales, i. 20–48.Google Scholar
page 144 note 01 Cartularium de Levenax, pp. 96–8.Google Scholar But, whatever may have been the case in the twelfth century, in the thirteenth the descendants of Maldowen became lay lords of Luss (Ibid., p. 23), whilst the deans appear carrying out their normal ecclesiastical functions (Reg. Epis. Glas., p. 173).Google Scholar
page 144 note 02 Cartularium de Levenax, pp. 12, 27, 53, 85Google Scholar; Reg. Epis. Glas., pp. 120, 146, 159.Google Scholar
page 144 note 03 Origines Parochiales, i. 178.Google Scholar
page 144 note 04 Ibid., i. 196–200, 180–1.
page 144 note 05 The term plebania is not used; and its one occurrence in Scottish records has been dismissed by Bishop Dowden as a late affectation (The Medieval Church in Scotland (Glasgow, 1910), p. 137).Google Scholar But the characteristics of a plebania exist, if the expression does not.
page 145 note 01 Cf. Joliffe, J. E. A., ‘Northumbrian Institutions’, English Historical Review, xli (1926), pp. 1–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
page 145 note 02 Reg. Epis. Glas., no. 1.
page 145 note 03 Early Scottish Charters, pp. vi, 299.Google Scholar
page 146 note 01 For instance, as Lawrie points out, Kinclaith (Conclud) was granted to Glasgow by Malcolm IV. Although this grant may have been intended to supplement a defective title for land traditionally belonging to the see, the wording of the charter certainly suggests a new gift; moreover the bishops of Glasgow successfully retained many of their possessions without, as far as the Register indicates, troubling to secure any new charters for them.
page 146 note 02 Registrum de Passelet, pp. 158 ff.Google Scholar A similar example is the gift (c. 1160) of Holy Trinity Church, Dunkeld, which carried extensive territory with it, to Dunfermline by Andrew, bishop of Caithness. Dunkeld was an ancient Culdee monastery, and it seems probable that these lands represent Culdee territory that had been acquired with the church as the hereditary possession of a noble family (Lawrie, , op. cit., no. cclxiiGoogle Scholar; date amended in the annotated copy in H.M. Register House, Edinburgh).
page 147 note 01 ‘Nullum aliud servitium faciendo pro dicta terra nisi tantummodo recipiendo et pascendo hospites illic venientes’ (Registrum de Passelet, p. 166).Google Scholar
page 147 note 02 Reeves, William, The Culdees of the British Islands (Dublin, 1864), pp. 37–8.Google Scholar
page 147 note 03 Registrum de Passeiet, pp. 164, 167.Google Scholar
page 148 note 01 Registrum de Passelet, pp. 255–7.Google Scholar
page 148 note 02 See Reeves, W., The Culdees, pp. 28 ff.Google Scholar, Dowden, J., The Medieval Church in Scotland, pp. 111–12Google Scholar; Skene, W. F., Celtic Scotland (Edinburgh, 1876–1880), ii. 365–6.Google Scholar
page 148 note 03 Eadmer, , Historia NovorumGoogle Scholar, in Migne, , Patrologia Latina, clix. 513 ff.Google Scholar; Dowden, J., op. cit., pp. 42 ff.Google Scholar; MacEwen, A. R., History of the Church in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1913–1918), i. 181.Google Scholar
page 149 note 01 Later episcopal controversies in the twelfth century concern the subsequent problem of free election. See Dowden, J., ‘The Scottish Crown and the Episcopate in the Medieval Period’, Scottish Historical Review, vii (1909), 130–40.Google Scholar
