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 TRANSACTIONS OF THE GLASGOW ARCH/EOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 No. II. 
 
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 NOTES ON EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND IN EARLY DAYS. 
 
 I.— TO THE WARS OF THE BRUCE SUCCESSION: 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS M. LINDSAY, D.D., 
 
 Professor of Church History in the Free Church College, Glasgow. 
 
 [Read at a Meeting of the Society , held on nth December , 1882.] 
 
 Dr. Skene’s book on Celtic Scotland for a long time must be the starting 
 point for every student who desires to know something of the social, political, 
 and religious life of early Celtic Scotland. In his second volume he devotes 
 a chapter to the learning and language of the early Celtic Church. I propose 
 in this paper to give a short summary of Dr. Skene’s results, and then supple- 
 ment and illustrate what he has said by some notes of my own — notes which 
 I made before Dr. Skene’s book was published — the result of investigations 
 guided mainly by Dr. Joseph Robertson’s short paper on the “Scholastic Offices 
 of the Early Scottish Church,” and by Dr. Reeves’ works on Columba and on 
 the Culdees. 
 
 
 >0 
 
 Dr. Skene tells us that one of the most striking features of the 
 
 X of the early monastic church in Ireland and Scotland 
 
 organisation 
 
 <3 — , w^u was its provision for the 
 
 cultivation of learning and for the training of its members in sacred and profane 
 literature. It early acquired a reputation for scholarship and attracted crowds 
 ft of students from all quarters. This educational office had belonged to the 
 Church from the beginning. Its fathers and founders had been trained in the 
 Monastic School at Candida Casa, or had been equipped for their work in 
 monasteries in Wales presided over by David, Gildas, Cadoc, and others 
 almost as famous. From these Welsh monasteries went forth Finnian and 
 other missionary teachers who founded the monastic schools of Ireland. 
 These schools, especially the Irish ones, became so celebrated that they 
 attracted students from England and from the Continent, and when the people 
 
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 of Europe began afresh their onward march in civilisation after the Wandering 
 of the nations, the Celtic Church was confessedly in advance in education and 
 furnished teachers for the Continental schools. 
 
 Bede* tells us that many of the nobility and of the middle ranks of the 
 Anglic nation went to Ireland to apply themselves to study, going about like 
 the wandering Mediaeval student from one master’s cell to another. He tells 
 us also that Aldfred, who succeeded Ecgfrid who was slain by the Piets in 
 685, was a man most learned in the Scripture, and that he had lived in exile 
 in the Islands of the Scots for the sake of studying letters. And Colgan, in 
 his life of St. Servan, narrates how fifty Roman monks came to Ireland for the 
 purpose of leading a life of stricter discipline and improving themselves in the 
 study of Scripture. 
 
 The Monastic Church of Columba was true to its origin in this as in other 
 respects; Columba himself never could spend an hour without study, or 
 prayer, or writing, or some other holy occupation. He wrote books, a book 
 of hymns for the office of every day of the week, and others. “Thrice fifty 
 noble lays the Apostle made — some in Latin which were beguiling, some in 
 Gaelic fair the tale.”f When Aldfred went to the Islands of the Scots to study, 
 Iona was one of the islands he visited.J 
 
 Besides these scattered and incidental notices of the state of learning, 
 literary remains have descended to us which testify to the knowledge of Latin 
 among the monks of that old Church. The most interesting are the writings 
 of Columbanus which contain his monastic rule, some letters, seventeen 
 sermons, and one or two poetical pieces. 
 
 In the 7th century, the educational work of the Celtic monasteries seems to 
 have become more thoroughly organised. In earlier times, famous scholars 
 attracted to their cells students who wandered from teacher to teacher. 
 The work done was left to the chance existence, here and there, of eminent 
 students. In the 7th century, however, we find the beginnings of an organised 
 educational work. In every monastery there was a scribe, scribhneoir, or 
 
 * Hist. Eccl. B. Ill, c. 27. Hist. Eccl. B. IV, c. 27. 
 
 t Skene, Celtic Scotland , II, p. 421. Compare, also, Adamn : Vita S. Columbcz, pp. 
 lxxviii, 1 16, 175, 233. 
 
 + Vit. S. Cuth. auct. anon.; Bede, Opera Minora , p. 274. 
 
i5 
 
 scriba, who had charge certainly of the ancient records of the monastery, but 
 who was also the public teacher or lecturer in the convent. These scribes 
 gave a new impulse to the literary activity of the Church. One of the most 
 celebrated of their compilations was the Book of Armagh, the work of 
 Ferdomnach, a “sage and choice scribe of the Church of Armagh.” The 
 book contains (i) memoirs of St. Patrick, the oldest we have, with a confession 
 of St. Patrick, which Dr. Skene believes to be an undoubtedly genuine work ; 
 (2) St. Jerome’s preface to the N.T. with the Gospels in their order, and a 
 Latin prayer for the transcriber ; (3) St. Paul’s Epistles with prefaces chiefly 
 taken from the works of Pelagius; (4) The Apocalypse; (5) The Acts of the 
 Apostles; (6) The Life of St. Martin of Tours by Sulpicius Severus. The 
 institution of this office of scribe was also followed by the publication of 
 hagiologies; lives of St. Patrick, of St. Bridget, of St. Servan, and of other 
 Celtic Saints. 
 
 The presence of an educated class indicates to some extent a system 
 of education, and Dr. Skene has some interesting remarks about the influence 
 of the Celtic Church on the education of the people. At this stage, however, 
 I pass from Dr. Skene’s book to notes of my own. 
 
 It is manifest that the presence an educated class does not necessarily mean 
 a system of popular education, for training in letters may have been confined 
 to those persons who were from early life destined for the Church. Our first 
 question will, therefore, be whether there is any evidence that the learning 
 and education in the early Celtic Church were given to others than those 
 intended for any ecclesiastical life. 
 
 It must be remembered that the Celtic Church was in its flourishing period 
 essentially a missionary church, and that its rules were all meant to be rules for 
 those engaged in aggressive Christian work ; and it would appear that the 
 Celtic missionaries did their utmost to educate the children of the tribes they 
 civilised. The prose rule of the Cele Dei, translated by Dr. Reeves in the 
 appendix to his monograph on the Culdees, shows how highly learning was 
 encouraged. Reading, giving instruction and writing are set down as every- 
 day labour. To be with the students at their reading is a priest’s duty classed 
 with offering the body of Christ upon the altar, and singing the intercession. 
 It is the Church’s duty to see that a bishop be established in each chief territory 
 
i6 
 
 to ordain priests who may baptise and train boys and girls to reading and piety ; 
 for if the boys do not read at all times, every church will die, and there will be 
 no religion but black heathenism in the land. The kingdom of Heaven is 
 promised to those who teach to read, and a very substantial reward is set aside 
 for them on earth.* * * § 
 
 When so many and so strong recommendations of learning are found in 
 such a short document as this prose rule, we may suppose that every Culdee 
 monastery or chapel, however small, was also a school for the neighbourhood, 
 and as will be afterwards seen there are facts to support the conjecture. Dr. 
 Skene tells us that in later times from about the middle of the tenth century 
 when instruction in literature began to be added to the practice and teaching 
 of penmanship, the more honourable name of Ferleiginn (vir lectionis) or 
 lecturer! was given to the man of learning. Each Culdee monastery was thus 
 not only the religious centre, but the school for the clan% in whose lands it was 
 placed. The ‘man of learning’ was a most important officer in the early 
 Scottish Church. He transcribed the manuscripts, copied deeds, and had the 
 rule of the schools, and was often, like the monk whom Alcuin addressed as 
 “Coleus lector in Scotia,” famous beyond the bounds of his clan and even of his 
 country. As the power of the Church increased, the duties attached to the 
 office became weightier and more honourable ; and we find that three grades 
 of the scholastic office prevailed in the early Scottish Church and survived the 
 great civil and ecclesiastical revolution which was begun by St. Margaret, the 
 Saxon wife of Malcolm Canmore, and was followed out, but not completed, by 
 her sons. These three offices, which give us insight into the educational organisa- 
 tion of the Church, were those of Scoloc, Magister or Rector Scholarum, and 
 Ferleiginn or Lecturer. The lowest order was that of Scoloc; the word 
 means the scholar, or the clerk who was preparing for priest’s orders, and whose 
 training enabled him to do part of the priest’s work in his absence. He could 
 sound the bell and go through the serviced These scolocs were often a wild 
 
 * Dr. Reeves’ Culdees of the British Islands , pp. 93-96. 
 
 t Celtic Scotland , ii, p. 445 ; compare, also, Adamnan, Vita S. Columbce , p. 196, Note. 
 Reeves’ Edition. 
 
 X Pref. to Book of Deer, Spalding Club, pp. 126 ff., and pp. 136-7. 
 
 § Du Cange, Glossarium. 
 
r 7 
 
 set of youngsters, and St. Patrick’s rule directed that every man in orders, with 
 whom these boys read, was entitled to chastise, check, and restrain them.* * * § 
 When St. Aelred of Rievaux travelled into Galloway in the year 1164, he saw 
 the turbulence of the scolocs and wrath of St. Cuthbert. He happened to be 
 at “ Cuthbictis Khirche,” or Kirkcudbright, on the feast day of the Saint. A 
 fierce bull bound with ropes was dragged from the pasture by strong men to 
 the church to be offered as an alms and oblation to St. Cuthbert. “The 
 clerks of the church, who are called in the Pictish tongue ‘Scollofthes,’ wished 
 to get some sport out of the bull, and very irreverently (pro ludibrio scurrilitatis) 
 propose to bait it in the church-yard. They hauled it away and hurried to 
 loose the ropes. The older and wiser remonstrated against the profanity, 
 and feared a speedy judgment. ‘ There is no Cuthbert here,’ says a scoffer 
 (in eos garriendo cachinnans), ‘ nor is this a place to show his power, for all 
 his well-built stone chapel.’ So saying, he unbound the bull and began to 
 bait him with the rest. The bull shook himself loose with a roar, rushed at the 
 crowd jammed together, and, hurting no one, made right at the aforesaid 
 scholar and pinned him on his horn. Thus fell retribution on the scoloc who 
 rashly broke the peace of St. Cuthbert’s cemetery by a bull-bait on St. Cuthbert’s 
 own feast-day. The whole crowd, who saw the power of the Saint, broke 
 forth into singing, rendering due praise to the blessed Cuthbert.”! 
 
 The duties of the scolocs in the old Culdee monasteries consisted probably 
 in learning diligently to read, to write, to sing the one hundred and fifty psalms ; 
 to know the hymns and canticles, the lection, baptism, and communion; to sing 
 the intercession ; and to know the service in general, until they are capable of 
 receiving orders.! They also assisted those who already had received “noble 
 orders.” They carried the candlesticks and crosses before the canons, and 
 did the work of choristers. It is not improbable, too, that some scolocs were 
 intrusted with the education of the boys and girls who came to the monastery 
 to learn to read ;§ for no scoloc could be received into a noble order, until he could 
 
 * Prose rule of the Cele De given by Dr. Reeves in his Culdees of the British Islands , p. 96. 
 
 tReginaldus De admirandis Beati Cuthbcrti Virt p. 179. Surtees Society. 
 
 t Prose rule of the Cele De : Reeves’ Culdees , p. 95. 
 
 § Prose rule of the Cele De : Reeves’ Culdees , p. 95. 
 
i8 
 
 instruct in religion, in reading, and in soul friendship ; and any bishop who 
 conferred noble orders on one not able to instruct in reading , was called an 
 enemy to God and man.* 
 
 The office of Magister or Rector Scholarum is the second scholastic 
 grade we find in the early Scottish Church, and was of considerable 
 importance. In the reign of King Alexander I, in 1 1 24, Berbeadh, the rector 
 of the schools of Abernethy (rector scholarum de Abernethyn), a monastery of 
 the culdees, is named among those who witnessed the confirmation of the 
 grant which Edelrad, Abbot of Dunkeld, and Earl of Fife, son of St. 
 Margaret, made of the lands of Admore to St. Serf and the Keldee hermits of 
 the Isle of Lochleven.f It does not appear that the magister scholarum had 
 any jurisdiction beyond the schools over which he presided, but his known 
 learning and the dignity of his calling made him a man of standing, able to 
 hold his own against other officers of the monastery who tried to interfere with 
 his rights. 
 
 The highest scholastic office was that of Ferleiginn, Scholasticus or Lecturer. 
 In the infancy of the Church the Ferleiginn was the clerk who kept the 
 accounts, transcribed the MSS., and was schoolmaster to the community. 
 But as the monastery grew in resources and influence, and gathered round 
 it district colleges of the brethren, each with its school ; and as the monks 
 learned to systematise their educational efforts, the office of Ferleiginn grew in 
 importance, until the man of learning became the manager of the whole 
 educational organisation of the monastery, ruled the schools, appointed the 
 teachers, defended the rights of scholars, and represented the educational 
 interest in all disputes. 
 
 This very complete scholastic organisation of three distinct grades, which the 
 Church of St. Columba possessed, survived the great revolution and reform- 
 ation wrought by St. Margaret and her three sons, and therefore has a real 
 connection with the present educational system of the country. 
 
 The religious system has been thrice almost uprooted and replanted in 
 distinct form, but the educational system has had an even flow of development. 
 
 * Prose rule of the Cele De : Reeves’ Culdees , p. 94. 
 t Regist. Priorat St. Andree, pp 316-8. 
 
19 
 
 It is impossible to exaggerate the decay of the Celtic Church long before 
 Macbeth came to Scotland. The Scoto-Irish Church had fallen from that 
 position of piety and learning which had called forth the praises of Bede. The 
 Lord’s Day was no longer observed. The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper 
 was no longer celebrated even on Easter, the holiest day of the year. The 
 lands set apart for the maintenance of religion had passed to other uses. 
 The larger and better part of them, together with the title of Abbot, had been 
 usurped by laymen, who transmitted the benefice and title as a heritage to 
 their children. What remained with the title of Prior was possessed by 
 ecclesiastics, who performed irregularly enough the services of religion. 
 The same abuse spread to the smaller endowments for the village churches. 
 A layman, in everything save his shaven crown, had the parsonage, and was 
 called the parson ; while the spiritual duties were discharged by a priest who 
 lived on the dues and offerings of his flock. So also it was with the lands 
 set apart to maintain the scholars. They passed into the hands of laymen, 
 and all that the Church got from the scoloc lands, in many cases, were 
 nominal dues.* It is almost impossible to underrate the degradation of the 
 Scottish Church in the nth century, 
 
 It was to revive again. “The conquest of England is,” says Dr. Joseph 
 Robertson, “nearly contemporaneous with the dawn of a revolution which 
 slow, silent and nearly bloodless, wrought changes in Scotland more momentous 
 and far more auspicious than flowed from the Norman triumph at Hastings. 
 The Northern kingdom was to be wholly transformed. Not new lords only, or 
 strange laws, but a new people and another language — almost another form of 
 religion — were to be introduced. The Celt was henceforth to serve in the land 
 which he had ruled, his birthright and heritage — even his name of Scot — were 
 to be shared among Anglo-Saxon fugitives, Norman adventurers, and mercen- 
 ary men-at-arms from Flanders and Brabant. Beginning with the partition of 
 Northumbria, and the cession of Lothian to Scotland about the middle of the 
 tenth century, a continuous series of causes contributed during nearly four 
 hundred years to the colonisation of the territory beyond the Tweed by chiefs 
 and people from the Southern provinces. The tide of emigration northwards 
 
 e.g., Quarterly Review , Vol. lxxxv, pp. 115-18, Art. by Dr. Jos. Robertson. 
 
20 
 
 was influenced by the fall of the Welsh dominion of Strathclyde, by the civil 
 wars in Albany, which were let loose by the dagger of Macbeth, by the throes 
 which preceded the dissolution of the Anglo-Saxon power, by the conquest, by 
 the dreaded fury of the Red King. But the chief place in the historian’s 
 canvass is to be filled by a benigner figure — that saintly princess who brought to 
 the Scottish throne the blood and the rights of the Anglo-Saxon kings, and 
 planted among the Scottish people the seeds of a more energetic faith and a 
 superior civilisation. There is no nobler picture in the northern annals than 
 St. Margaret (illustrious by birth and majestic in her beauty) as she appears in the 
 artless pages of her chaplain Turgot. The representative of Alfred and the niece 
 of the Confessor, she showed in womanly type the wisdom and magnanimity of the 
 one, and more than all the meek virtues of the other. The daughter of exiles 
 who found refuge in the court of St. Stephen, she began in Scotland the good 
 and great work of enlightenment which that prince accomplished in Hungary. 
 Wedded to a rude husband — no unmeet type of his barbarian realm — she 
 subdued his wild nature until he became the gentle minister of her wishes, the 
 partner of her never-ending works of charity and mercy: eager to share in her 
 long vigils and frequent prayers, gazing fondly on her books which he could not 
 read, or carrying them away by stealth, that he might bring them back to their 
 mistress with new and costly adornments. 
 
 To Margaret and her three sons, the gentle Edgar, the firm Alexander, and 
 the saintly David, Scotland owed that new life, religious and political, which 
 brought into being the numerous abbacies; which divided the land into 
 parishes, and covered it with churches, each a centre of religion, education, 
 and culture ; which built free and prosperous burghs all over the lowlands and 
 east coast of Scotland; which opened up the country to the trade of Norway 
 and the Netherlands, and made Scotland an asylum for English fugitives driven 
 over the border by the wars of succession in Stephen’s time, and a refuge for 
 students seeking quiet which England could not give. And Scotland long 
 acknowledged the debt ; the good queen Margaret lived long in the memory 
 of the people, as a beneficent patroness still with them, though absent in the 
 body, bringing blessings to Scotland. As the Twin God^ fought for Rome in 
 her great battle with the thirty cities — as San Jago charged with Spain against 
 the hosts of Mexico — so it was believed by the Scots that on the eve of the 
 
dreaded day of Largs, the tombs of Dunfermline gave up their dead, and there 
 passed forth through its northern porch to war against the might of Norway, 
 a lofty blooming matron in royal attire, leading in her right hand a noble 
 knight, refulgent in arms, wearing a crown upon his head, and followed by 
 three heroic warriors, like armed and crowned — the Protectress of Scotland, 
 her consort, and her sons.”* 
 
 One of Margaret’s first cares was to redress the abuses of the Church. She 
 called provincial councils. She reasoned and debated with the churchmen. 
 Her policy, carried out by her son David I, was, if possible, to reform the 
 irregular monks of the lifeless Celtic Church, and, failing that, to restore 
 religion and education in Scotland by the introduction of the strict monastic 
 orders from England and France.! Margaret died in 1093, bequeathing her 
 work to her sons. The reclamation of the Culdees was found to be impossible, 
 and in time the Scottish church was not so much reformed as gradually over- 
 grown by an English church transplanted to Scotland with its clergy, creeds, 
 rites, and institutions. 
 
 “ Of the Scottish sees all, save three or four, were founded by St. David ; 
 and their cathedral constitutions were formally copied from English models. 
 Thus the chapter of Glasgow took that of Salisbury for its guide. So did 
 Dunkeld. Elgin, or Murray sent to Lincoln for its pattern, and transmitted it 
 with certain modifications to Aberdeen and to Caithness. So also was it with 
 the monasteries. Canterbury was the mother of Dunfermline ; Durham, of 
 Coldingham. St. Oswald’s at Nost Hill, near Pontefract, was the parent of 
 Scone, and, through that house, of St. Andrews and Holyrood. Melrose and 
 Dundrennan were daughters of Rievaux in the North Riding. Dry burgh was 
 the offspring of Alnwick ; Paisley, of Wenlock. So also was it with the village 
 churches. The parish system supplanted the Culdee colleges of the various 
 clans as the Anglo-Norman colonisation of the country advanced.”! 
 
 What concerns us is that in this complete transformation of the Scottish 
 church the educational organisation remained unchanged — there were still 
 scholars, the magister scholarum, and the lecturer. The old name of “ scoloc ” 
 
 e.g., Dr. Jos. Robertson in the Quarterly Review , Vol. lxxxv, p. 116. 
 e.g., Prof. Cosmo Innes’ Scotland in the Middle Ages , p. m. 
 e.g., Dr. Robertson in the Quarterly Review , Vol. lxxxv, p. 116-8. 
 
22 
 
 gradually died out and was replaced by “clerk” or “scholar.” The title “Ferlei- 
 ginn” lingered in the Latin form of “Ferlanus,” but was commonly changed 
 into the English “Chancellor.” But, in all respects, the change of name made 
 no essential change of duties, and the scholastic offices of the Scoto-Irish 
 Church were retained, and new life put into them, in the Scoto-English. David 
 the First restored and established that system of national education which 
 was to last until the overthrow of the ecclesiastical policy with which it was 
 interwoven. 
 
 The amount and spread of education in these early times had been very 
 much underrated. Every monastery and every cathedral was a centre of 
 learning for the district. It is scarcely too much to say that almost every parish 
 church was also a school. There must have been a wide-spread means of 
 education, or we cannot account for the number of travelling Scottish 
 scholars who found their way all over Europe from the ninth century down- 
 wards. Alcuin, the intellectual prime minister of Charles the Great, was him- 
 self trained in the North of England, and kept up a life-long correspondence 
 with Scottish scholars. Wandering students — Irish or Scotch — appear continu- 
 ally in the pages of this earliest mediaeval history. 
 
 A story, which can be traced back to almost contemporary times, tells that 
 the earliest teachers in Paris and Pavia were wandering scholars, trained in some 
 Celtic monastery. Two Scottish monks, Claudius Clement and John of Mel- 
 rose (Scotos seu Hibernos, says Bulaeus, but the name John of Melrose 
 sets all doubt aside) came over to Paris in company with certain English 
 merchants. They stood in the market like other sellers, without seeming to 
 have anything saleable. When asked their business they always answered : 
 “If any one wants wisdom , let him come and buy it; we have it for sale:” (Si 
 quis sapientise cupidus est, veniat ad nos et accipiat earn, nam venalis est 
 apud nos). This at length was told the king, who, curious about the matter, 
 sent to ask them if they really had wisdom for sale. “Yes, we have it; and if 
 any one wants it we are ready to give it,” they answered: (Et habemus earn, et 
 in nomine Domini digne quserentibus dare parati sumus.) The king asked the 
 price, and they answered, “A place fit to teach in, willing pupils, food and cloth- 
 ing.” Charles closed with the offer. He set Claudius Clement over a school 
 in Paris (the beginning of the famous university), and gave him for pupils lads 
 
23 
 
 selected from the nobility, from the gentry, and from commoners. He took 
 John of Melrose with him to Italy, to place him at the head of the lately 
 founded university of Pavia.* 
 
 The Monastery Schools, which sent out Claudius Clement and John of 
 Melrose in the beginning of the 9th century, sent out many distinguished 
 students in the nth and 12th centuries, to wander over the continent, and win 
 rank and fame by those intellectual powers which had first been trained in some 
 Scottish convent school. The cathedrals, monasteries, and their churches, 
 spread like a network over all Scotland, and in this way learning was diffused 
 over the country, not gathered into one or two educational centres. In the 
 North were the bishoprics of Caithness, Ross, and Moray; with the cathedral 
 seats of Dornoch, Rosmarkyn, and Elgyn. In the bishopric of Ross were 
 the monasteries of Feme and Beaulieu (Beauly), and the friary of Cromarty. 
 In the bishopric of Moray were the monasteries of Keanloch, Pluscardyn, and 
 Urquhart, with the friaries of Inverness and St. Nicholas. On the East Coast 
 were the dioceses of Aberdeen, Brechin, and St. Andrews; with the cathedral 
 seats of Aberdeen, Brechin, and St. Andrews. In the bishopric of Aberdeen 
 were the monasteries of Deer, Monimusk, and Fyvie, with the friaries of 
 Tulloch, Aboyne, Kincardine-o’Neil, Maryculter, Turiff, Newburgh, Banff, and 
 Rothfan. 
 
 In the diocese of St. Andrews were the monasteries of Aberbrothoc, 
 Restennet, Scone, Lindores, Balmcrinach, Pittenweem, Portmoak, St. Serf 
 (Lochleven), Dunfermline, Leith, Holyrood, Newbattle, Coldingham, and 
 Dryburgh; and the friaries of Dundee, Perth, St. Leonard’s, Cupar, St. 
 Monance, Linlithgow, Torphichen, Lauder, &c. On the west were the 
 dioceses of Galloway, Glasgow, Argyle and the Isles ; with the cathedral seats 
 of Whithorn (Quhiltern), Glasgow, Lismore and Iona. In the diocese of 
 Galloway were the monasteries of Dundrennan, St. Mary’s Isle, Longland, 
 Glenluce, and Whithorn. In the diocese of Glasgow were the monasteries of 
 Kelso, Melrose, Jedworth, Canonbie, Sweetheart, Holyrood, Crossraguel, 
 Dalmellington, Mauchline, Le,smahagow, Kilwinning, Paisley, Blantyre, and 
 Roseneath, with the friaries of Peebles, Lanark, Ayr, Irvine, &c.; in the 
 
 * Buteeus, Hist. Univ., Paris: Vol. i, pp. 101-2. 
 
24 
 
 diocese of Argyle, the priory of Ardchattan ; in the diocese of the Isles were 
 the monasteries of Scarinch in the Lewis, St. Clement’s in Harris, Colonsay, 
 Oronsay, and Moras on the Holy Isle, Arran. 
 
 The dioceses of Dunkeld and Dunblane had their cathedral seats in the 
 towns of the same name. In the former were the monasteries of Strathfillan, 
 Coupar, Inchaffray, and Abercumaig; and in the latter the monasteries of 
 Inchmahome, Cambusnethan, Culross, and Abernethy. 
 
 Every cathedral seat and every monastery had more or less educational 
 influence on the surrounding population. But the cathedral towns of Aberdeen, 
 St. Andrews, and Glasgow; and the monasteries of Aberbrothoc, Abernethy, 
 Dunfermline, Holyrood, Kelso, and Paisley, were famous for their scholastic 
 organisation. In many of the monasteries the higher learning was discouraged ; 
 but even in Dryburgh Abbey, belonging to monks of the Order of Prsemons- 
 tratenses, or white canons, where the lay-brethren were not allowed books, and 
 the monks were forbidden to teach schools, no one was admitted who did not 
 know Latin; and it was customary for each brother in turn, during dinner and 
 other meals, to stand by a desk in the side of the hall, and read to the others 
 out of the Holy Scriptures or some other edifying book.* This means that the 
 monks could read, and that they had been taught to read either at this abbey 
 or elsewhere. The very prohibition of books and schools proves that the case 
 of the white canons was exceptional ; and that part of the work of the monastery 
 was literature and education. Besides, the church required choristers for its 
 services. The boys had to be taught to read as well as sing ; and not unfre- 
 quently the old song school grew into burgh or parish school. The growing 
 wealth and importance of the burghs, fostered and trained to self-government 
 by David I., made the monks often select them as the seat of the chief school of 
 the convent ; and it is more than probable that almost every burgh school which 
 can boast of a history before the reformation, took its beginning from a 
 monastery school. The clergy were eager to get good, able boys to train them 
 for the service of the church, and, in many cases, the parish church was also a 
 parish school. We have upon the whole three distinct classes of schools, all 
 under the care of the clergy, existing in Scotland before the days of William 
 the Lion. 
 
 Liber de Dryburgh , pref. pp. 9-10. 
 
2 5 
 
 There were the village, or parish or small burgh schools. This was the 
 lowest class. We have abundant evidence for the existence of such schools. 
 In 1152, and again in 1159, Robert, Bishop of St. Andrews, confirmed to the 
 monks of Dunfermline, the church of Perth, and that of Stirling, and the 
 schools, and everything belonging to them. Bishop Armaldus “grants to the 
 church of the Holy Trinity at Dunfermline and to the monks serving God 
 there, the church of Perth, and that of Stirling, with the chapel and the schools 
 and every other thing belonging to them.”* * * § That these schools were not 
 merely the two chief schools of the monastery, established in Perth and in 
 Stirling, but included many others not of such importance as to want special 
 mention is plain from other charters. In 1163, and again in 1172, Bishop 
 Richard granted “to the church of the Holy Trinity of Dunfermline, the 
 school of Perth, and the school of Stirling, and all the schools which belong to 
 the said church, free and quit of all claim and exaction for ever.”f This grant 
 occurs in a deed headed, “ Confirmation of the Schools,” which seems to have 
 been a special charter confirming to the church and monastery of Dunfermline 
 all its schools scattered over its possessions. The wealthier Scottish convents 
 had numerous dependencies in different parts of the country. Thus Paisley 
 had its thirty parish churches ; Holyrood, twenty-seven ; Melrose and Abbey, 
 each as many;! and when the convent was noted for learning, the parish 
 churches which belonged to it had in all likelihood their schools attached. 
 In the chronicle of the virtues of St. Cuthbert already quoted, we find more 
 than one reference to parish or village schools. In a wonderful story about 
 Walter, a parishioner of Kellow, who went with other guests to drink at the 
 priest’s house, and was bewitched by the devil in the shape of a black dog, and 
 only cured by forcing open his jaws with a piece of wood, pointed like a hedge 
 stake, and pouring down his throat some drops of water blessed by St. Cuth- 
 bert ; we are told that the brother of this man Walter kept a reading school 
 (scholam in legendo) at the village of Norham on the border.§ The miracle 
 happened in the days of Bishop Galfrid Rufus, i.e, sometime between 1133 
 
 * Regist. de Dunfermlyn , p. 56. 
 
 t Regist. de Dunfermlyn, p. 58. 
 
 X Innes’ Scotland in the Middle Ages, p. 132. 
 
 § Reginald De Bcati Cuthberti Virt pp. 32-37. 
 
26 
 
 and 1140, and the reading school is mentioned without comment, which 
 proves that such schools were not uncommon even then. The school, more- 
 over, is a reading school, not a singing school, for these, too, were common to 
 train the people for the worship of the chapel. Reginald, a monk of Durham, 
 who lived sometime in the 12th century (circa 1165-1172), the author of this 
 account of St. Cuthbert, gives us a glimpse into the work of such a village 
 school. “There was,” he says, “a school kept in the church of the village of 
 Norham for the benefit of the neighbourhood — a school in a village church 
 attended by the boys of the village and the parish. Some came to school 
 because they wanted to learn; others because they were forced to go. Some 
 worked hard at their lessons, because they felt their ignorance and were urged 
 on by a love for learning. Others because they feared the rod and were com- 
 pelled to work by a hard master (timore verberum saeviente magistro coacti).” 
 Reginald unfortunately does not tell us what tasks were set in the school, but he 
 lets us see the chastisements. Both birch and thong were kept going pretty 
 vigorously, and there seems to have been an hour set apart for punishment. 
 One lad, Haldane, who had not done his task, and had been promised a 
 flogging ; having a wholesome dread of the coming beating, and being a lad 
 of ingenious mind, he set himself to find out how he might escape the rod. 
 He imagined very cleverly, that if he could secretly do something to set the 
 whole school and village in an uproar, he would be forgotten in the noise, 
 and nothing could do that more effectually, he thought, than to lock the 
 church door and steal the key. Accordingly he watched his opportunity, 
 locked the door, carried off the key, and running with it to the Tweed, threw it 
 into one of the deepest holes in the river, called the Paddlewell. When shortly 
 afterwards the key was found amissing, there was a great commotion. Neither 
 priest nor people could get into church. Religion and learning are at an end 
 for the time. Suspicion fell on Haldane. [The priest questioned him, but he 
 stoutly denied all knowledge of the matter. The priest was perplexed. This 
 must be a work of the Evil One ; who alone could carry such a great heavy key 
 away without being seen do it. Next day he was still more perplexed — the 
 key had not been found, and no divine service could be held. At night 
 St. Cuthbert appeared in a vision and scolded the poor man for not keeping 
 up service in his chapel. The priest knelt and told the theft of the key, and 
 
27 
 
 that he could not find it. “Go to-morrow as early as possible,” says St. 
 Cuthbert, “ to the Tweed fishermen who fish the Peddle,” — for then, as now, 
 it was a famous salmon hole — “ and buy the first draught of the net for what 
 price you can.” It is needless to say that the net contained a salmon, and the 
 salmon the key. But whether Haldane escaped or was found out, and if found 
 out, was punished, and with what punishment, Reginald does not tell us. 
 He immediately gets involved in two learned and intricate comparisons — one of 
 St. Cuthbert and the angel who had the key of the bottomless pit, forgetting 
 quite what place the chapel corresponds to if his comparison is carried out, 
 and the other of the key and the prophet Jonah. The story has interest for 
 us because it brings so vividly before us a village school scene more than 
 seven hundred years ago, and Reginald tells us that the school of Norham was 
 in his day an old foundation (ab antiquo fundata), and adds that such schools 
 taught in the parish churches are quite common in the middle of the twelfth 
 century — de more nunc satis solito et cognito, he says.* 
 
 Besides these village or parish schools, most of the larger and more influential 
 monasteries had schools or colleges in some of the larger burgh towns. These 
 schools corresponded very much to our High Schools of the first-class, and 
 were the foundation of the present High Schools of the burghs. The Magister 
 Scholarum was at the head of these schools, just as the parish clerk — the culdee 
 scoloc — took charge of the village schools. These ‘High Schools,’ I call them 
 by the modern name, to mark what I believe was their character, were scattered 
 over Scotland. Thus the Church of Aberdeen had a Grammar School at the 
 cathedral town of Aberdeen as early as 1262. Master Thomas, of Beunum, 
 Rector of the Schools of Aberdeen, was witness to a deed by Richard, Bishop 
 of Aberdeen, at Inverurie, in the year 1262-63.! The Church of Moray and 
 Elgin appears to have had Schools in Elgin in the beginning of the thirteenth 
 century.} There was at least the title of Magister Scholarum which had sur- 
 vived the school ; for when in the end of the fifteenth century the chapter of 
 Moray ordains that a common school shall be erected and built in Elgin, 
 
 * Reginald De B. Cuthberti Virt., pp. 149-50. 
 f e.g., Regist. vet. de Aberbroth , p. 193. 
 
 £ Registrum Moravicnse> p. 57-8. 
 
28 
 
 they cite the Rector of the Church of Kincardine, in Strathspey, to show 
 by what right he held the office of Magister Scholarum.* * * § 
 
 The monks of Arbroath had probably schools in Montrose and Dundee, if 
 we are to believe the accounts of the early training of some distinguished 
 Scotch scholars which are given in Mackenzie’s Lives. 
 
 The Church of St. Andrews had schools in Abernethy as early as 1124; 
 and there was a Magister Scholarum in St. Andrews as early as i2ii.f The 
 monks of Dunfermline had important schools at Perth and at Stirling. The 
 canons of Holyrood had the Grammar School of Edinburgh, with the churches 
 of the Castle and St. Cuthbert given them by David I; for we find in later 
 times that the possession of the churches meant also possession of the school. 
 The monks of Coldingham had schools at Berwick-upon-Tweed as early as 
 1279. For in that year a controversy between the monks of Kelso and the Vicar 
 of Roberton was referred to the arbitration of the Sub-Prior and Sacristan 
 of Coldingham, and the Rector of the schools at South Berwick. J The monks 
 at Kelso had their schools at Roxburgh. ‘The churches and schools of Rox- 
 burgh, with all their belongings,’ were granted them by David I, as early as 
 ii47.§ The value of the schools and their high standing is evidenced by the 
 mention made of them so frequently in the charters of Kelso. King David’s 
 grant was confirmed by William the Lion in 1 195, || and again in 1199; by the 
 Bishops of Glasgow (for Kelso was in the diocese of Glasgow) Herbert, 
 Joceline, and Walter, between the years 1152 and 1232; and by Pope Innocent 
 IV, between the years 1243 and 1254.U The monks in Paisley had schools 
 in Ayr as early as 1234. Alan, master of the schools of Are, with the Deans 
 of Carrie and Cunnyngham, were appointed by the Pope to decide a case be- 
 tween the Clugniacs of Paisley, and Dufgallus, rector of Kylpatrick, and seems 
 to have settled the dispute to the satisfaction of all parties.** The chapter of 
 Glasgow, which modelled itself on that of Salisbury, as Moray had copied 
 
 * Registrum Moraviense , p. 270. 
 
 t Regist. Priorai S. Andree , p., 1 16 ; and pp. 316-18. 
 
 + Liber S. Marie de Calchou , p. 278. 
 
 § Liber S. Marie de Calchou , p. 5. 
 
 || Liber S. Marie de Calchou , p. 316. 
 
 IF Originates Parochiales Scotiae , Vol. i, p. 465. 
 
 ** Registrum Monasterii de Passelet, pp. 164, 165, 169, 173, 174. 
 
2 9 
 
 Lincoln, declared, in the middle of the thirteenth century, that one of the 
 duties of the chancellor was to take charge of the schools of the diocese. 
 This charge included the oversight and inspection of a grammar school in 
 Glasgow ; for in the end of the fifteenth century we find the chancellor of 
 Glasgow successfully asserting “that from time immemorial (ultra memoriam 
 hominum) he and his predecessors had had the unquestioned right of instituting 
 and removing the master of the Grammar School of Glasgow.”* * * § 
 
 The great importance of these “ High Schools ” or “ Grammar Schools ” to 
 the chapter or monastery to which they belonged is proved from their frequent 
 mention in the charters of grant or confirmation; and also from the honourable 
 position assigned to the master of the schools, and the well-known character 
 and learning of those appointed to the office. The master of the schools often 
 succeeded to the chancellorship of the diocese or to the abbotship of his 
 convent. He was frequently employed as a witness to important documents ; 
 and he was continually made arbiter in difficult cases of dispute. Instances 
 have already been given, f 
 
 The education given at these schools was evidently good for the age. In 
 1256 the chancellor of the chapter of Aberdeen is required “to provide a 
 private master for the government of the schools of Aberdeen, able to teach 
 the boys both grammar and logic,” and grammar then meant classical literature.^ 
 So also the chancellor of the chapter of Glasgow took upon himself to provide 
 a teacher capable of instructing the boys of Glasgow in grammar and letters. § 
 And Bulaeus, the learned historian of the University of Paris, when speaking 
 of the students who distinguished themselves at Paris, says frequently that 
 they had been trained in letters, grammar, and logic in the schools of their 
 own country. 
 
 A third and it is probable a higher class of schools was kept by the Scottish 
 church — a private school in the monastery or in some part of the cathedral 
 church. This school was generally called the house of the poor (domus 
 pauperum), because the scholars were commonly clever intelligent boys of the 
 
 * Regist. Episcopates Glasguensis , Vol. i, p. 170, and Vol. ii, p. 490. 
 
 t Regist. de Passelct , pp. 229, 164-9. 
 
 + Regist. Episc. Aberdon , Vol. ii, p. 45. 
 
 § Regist. Episcop, Glasg., Vol. ii, pp. 490- 1. 
 
3 © 
 
 poorer classes whom the monks meant to train for the church, and the educa- 
 tion must have been to some extent theological. The students of the Lycaeum 
 of St. Andrews were, in a later age, instructed in the deep things of theology 
 and philosophy from the Quodlibets of Duns Scotus •* * * § and it is not unlikely 
 that the education at this earlier period was somewhat similar. But while 
 theology must have been taught, it cannot have been the only study. For in 
 England, even at a later period, these private monastery schools successfully 
 competed even with the universities,! and in Scotland it was the custom to 
 send lads of the higher class of society to these ‘‘schools of the poor scholars” 
 to get the advantage of the higher education taught there. In the year 1260 
 the widowed lady of Molle assigned a part of her dowry lands to the Abbot 
 and Convent of Kelso on the condition that they should board and educate 
 her son William among the scholars of the best rank in their house for the 
 poor in the monastery of Kelso (exhibeunt in victualibus cum melioribus et 
 dignioribus scholaribus qui reficiunt in domo pauperum).| 
 
 It is probable that the clerk who taught the parish or village received school 
 fees, commonly in kind, from his scholars. Fees must have been paid by 
 the students at the grammar schools or High School, for the profits derived 
 from them is always set down among the revenues of the Convent. But the 
 private schools of the monastery where supported, in most cases, out of parts 
 of the old Scoloc lands, and disputes sometimes arose between the Convent 
 and the master of the schools about the amount due for the support of the 
 school. Thus, between 1211 and 1216, the Prior of St. Andrews refused to 
 pay to Master Patrick, master of the schools of the city of St. Andrews, and N 
 the poor scholars of the same city the proceeds of the lands of Garioch and 
 Neulchi, which was wont to be paid to them. Master Lawrence, who was 
 archdeacon and lecturer of the diocese, and whose duty was to protect the 
 rights of education, took the side of the scholars. The dispute ended in a 
 compromise, and the Prior and Convent paid dues to the school through the 
 hands of Archdeacon Lawrence and his successors.§ These dues from Scoloc 
 
 * Reliquicz Divi Andrea? , p. 187. 
 
 t Munimenta, &c., Mr. Anstey’s Preface. 
 
 i Liber de S. Marie de Calchou, p. 142. 
 
 § Regist. Priorat St. Andree , pp. 317-8. 
 
lands enabled the masters of these private schools to train many poor scholars 
 for the service of the church without charging fees; but when young noblemen 
 wished to become scholars and boarders, the monks knew how to increase 
 their own revenue by making the parents of the young gentlemen pay well for 
 their schooling. 
 
 From the time of David I down to the death of Alexander III, Scotland 
 had a very complete educational organisation, entirely in the hands of the 
 Church, but worked with great efficacy if the production of scholars is to be 
 taken as a test. The rivalries of the various monasteries and cathedral towns 
 gave a healthy stimulus to education. The dignity of the office of master of 
 schools made men eager to qualify themselves for the position. The appoint- 
 ment of an educational office — the Culdee Lecturer whose office was merged 
 into that of Chancellor or, as in St. Andrews, of Archdeacon — whose duty it 
 was to inspect all the schools, test the efficiency, appoint and dismiss the 
 masters, must have given a measure of thoroughness to the training such as is 
 then was. While the distribution of first-class schools all over Scotland, as 
 was the case, must have given the whole people that taste for education which 
 has ever been a characteristic of the Scots nation, and which could never have 
 been wrought into them, had the educational power of the country been 
 confined to one or two favoured localities. 
 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE GLASGOW ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 No. III. 
 
 NOTES ON EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND IN EARLY DAYS. 
 
 II.— FROM THE WARS OF THE BRUCE SUCCESSION TO THE 
 FOUNDATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS. 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS M. LINDSAY, D.D., 
 
 Professor of Church History in the Free Church College, Glasgow. 
 
 [Read at a Meeting of the Society, held on iyth March , 1883.] 
 
 The history of Scotch education from the death of Alexander III to the 
 foundation of the University of St. Andrews, in 1412, is the record of endeavour 
 to recover lost ground. The Wars of Succession, which lasted till 1315, 
 destroyed the prosperity of the country and hindered its onward progress, 
 Trade was ruined, roads were destroyed, bridges broken down, and it seemed 
 as if general anarchy was to become permanent in Scotland. The central 
 power was weak ; the lowland barons and highland chiefs were petty kiffgs, 
 making peace and war with each other, wasting the country with forays, 
 combining against the king’s peace. 
 
 The church suffered greatly, and, with the church, education. The monas- 
 tery of Kelso, the great educational centre for the south of Scotland, was 
 almost completely ruined. It lay in the very heart of the district which suffered 
 most from English invasions and Scotch forays. Edward I, indeed, ordered 
 his soldiers to spare it ; but his edicts could not protect it from the roving 
 bands of freebooters his policy had let loose in Scotland. After the energy of 
 King Robert the Bruce had restored peace to Scotland, the ruined monastery 
 became the object of general sympathy. John, Bishop of Glasgow, expressed 
 his sorrow that “the Benedictine monastery of St. Mary of Calchow, which 
 used to shew a liberal hospitality to all who crowded thither, and lent a 
 helping hand to the poor and the needy, being situated on the confines of the 
 kingdom, is now impoverished through hostile incursions and long-continued 
 
33 
 
 war of the countries, spoiled of its goods, and in a measure desolate.”* The 
 Bishop of St. Andrews, William of Lamberton, in the preamble to a grant in 
 favour of the monks of Kelso, speaks in similar terms of the state of the 
 monastery. “ The house of St. Mary of Kalcho,” he says, “ on the borders of 
 England and Scotland, is, through the common war and long depredation and 
 spoiling of goods through fire and rapine, destroyed, and its monks and conversi 
 . . . wander through Scotland begging food and clothing at the other 
 
 religious houses.”! 
 
 Many other educational establishments suffered almost as much as Kelso. 
 Robert Wischart, Bishop of Glasgow, was one of the most zealous of Bruce’s 
 supporters, and his diocese suffered in consequence, and was devastated over 
 and over again by the English troops. William of Lamberton, who assisted 
 the monks of Kelso in their troubles, was himself a sufferer in the War of 
 Independence, and saw his diocese plundered. Churchmen, King, and 
 Commons — in fact, all classes of society save the turbulent nobility — seem to 
 have united to restore to Scotland the educational benefits conferred on the 
 nation by the policy of David I, and lost in the Wars of Independence. 
 Bishops began to reorganise the schools within their dioceses; monasteries 
 encouraged with letters of recommendation brethren who seemed likely to 
 make good scholars ; the kings made grants of money or land to struggling 
 schools ; and the burghs began to pay schoolmasters within their bounds. 
 
 Scotland was not quiet enough for the cultivation of the higher learning 
 within her borders, and had there been leisure and ease, the generation of 
 teachers had passed away, and new scholars had to be trained. The turbulence 
 and poverty of the country made it impossible to set up High Schools and to 
 invite distinguished foreigners to settle in the country as teachers. Teachers 
 had to be trained as thriftily as possible at foreign universities where learning 
 flourished. Perhaps also the national shrewdness suggested that it would pay 
 better in every way to have Scotch colleges at foreign universities, where all 
 manner of educational helps abounded — celebrated professors, good libraries, 
 and an organised student life — than to seek to build and endow a national 
 university. At all events, for nearly one hundred years after the battle of 
 
 * Liber S. Marie de Calc how, p. 477. 
 
 t Liber S. Marie de Calc how, p. 309. Preface, p. xliii. 
 
34 
 
 Bannockburn, young Scotch scholars who wished to learn more than the 
 cathedral and monastery schools could teach them had to go abroad for their 
 learning. Every encouragement was given to talented young “clerks” to finish 
 their education at some foreign university. It appears, so far as one can 
 make the matter out by putting together the scraps of information which the 
 old chartularies of the monasteries and the records of the cathedral seats give 
 us, that there was a regular and systematic selection of the best students, who 
 were sent abroad to complete their education under the care of a qualified guide. 
 
 The first Scotch college was built in Paris, and attached to the famous 
 university of that city. It was founded by David Murray, Bishop of Moray, 
 in the reign of Robert the Bruce, and retained its distinctive nationality down 
 to the Reformation. This David Murray, descended from the Murrays of 
 Duffus, bought lands in the village of Erisy, in the diocese of Paris, to serve 
 as a foundation for Scotch students of his own diocese who were sent to 
 France to study. The lands were bought in 1326. In that year King Robert 
 the Bruce sent an embassy to Charles the Fair of France to renew treaties of 
 alliance between the two countries. The embassy consisted of Thomas 
 Randolf, Earl of Moray, Lord of Annandale and of Mar; Robert Keith, 
 Marischal of Scotland; and three churchmen — James Barr, Archdeacon of 
 Glasgow; Adam Murray, and Walter of Twynham, Canons of Glasgow. The 
 Bishop of Murray took advantage of this embassy to get his Scotch College 
 founded, and Randolf undertook the management of the affair. In the August 
 following the interview between the Scotch ambassadors and the French king 
 at Corbeil in April 1326, Charles granted his royal patent for the foundation 
 of the college, and that without the usual fees of amortissement, “ out of 
 favour for Scots nation, and in consideration of the love and favour he bore to 
 the Earl of Murray.” The patent, which is said still to exist, is dated Ipres, 
 August 1326. Bishop David died before the matter was finished, and his 
 successor, John Pilmore, continued the work to successful completion, as 
 appears from a second charter of date 1334. The college thus founded was 
 governed by the Bishops of Moray, its founders and patrons, and retained its 
 national character, as I have said, down to the Reformation.* 
 
 * Mackenzie’s Lives , vol. ii, pref. p. vi ; Michel’s Les Ecossais en France , pp. 55, 56 ; 
 Keith’s Catalogue of Scottish Bishops , pp. 140, 141 (edition of 1824). 
 
35 
 
 This is the history of the Scotch college at Paris, as told by Dr. Mackenzie, 
 • who says that he got his information from private sources in Paris. It is 
 accepted as trustworthy by Dr. Keith. The only reason for doubting it is that 
 Bulseus, who is usually exact and full of information, gives no account of the 
 foundation of the college, and that no trace of the correspondence which must 
 have passed between the Bishops of Moray and the French Court appears in 
 the Registrum Moraviense . 
 
 However founded, there was a Scotch college in Paris, and numbers of 
 Scotch students went to the university there, many of whom rose to places of 
 distinction. These Scotch students formed part of the Natio Anglicana , the 
 most powerful of the four nations of the University of Paris, and this position 
 entitled them to various privileges in tuition and money grants. Indeed, the 
 Natio Anglicana was so exceptionally fortunate in these respects that students 
 who ought by birth to have joined other nations strove to connect themselves 
 with it, and refused to leave it. This exceptional prosperity of this nation , and 
 its attraction to itself of students who did not belong to it, gave rise to fierce 
 quarrels between the Anglicani and the Picardi and Saxones. One dispute, 
 caused by Johannes Mast, B.A., joining the Natio Anglicana , when he had no 
 right to do so, lasted two years and had to be settled by a Bull from the Pope.* 
 It is obvious from the lists of names given by Bulseus that Scotch students 
 must have formed the larger half of this English Nation, and that they came 
 from Scotland in increasing number ; for while the English students became 
 fewer, the English Nation maintained its numerical supremacy. 
 
 The alliance between France and Scotland made Scotch students welcome 
 in Paris, and those who were able to surmount the difficulties of the sea-voyage 
 found themselves at once among friends and fellow-countrymen. Many of the 
 lecturers were old Scotch students who were ready to help their young country- 
 men. The Scotchmen at Paris lived together in a corner of the city which was 
 called Scotland Street (rue d’Ecosse). They were clannish, and helped each 
 other to get on. Many great prizes in the University and in the Church were 
 gained by the Scottish students. If great hopes failed, the wandering Scotch- 
 man could always return to his native land and receive the welcome accorded 
 to every travelled Scot. 
 
 * Bulseus Hist. Univ. Paris , iv, 335, 345. 
 
3 6 
 
 There was one great difficulty, however, which prevented the Scotch college 
 in Paris becoming a training-ground for teachers of the higher learning in Scot- 
 land, and that was the sea-voyage. The English had destroyed the continental 
 trade of Scotland, which David I had fostered in its origin, and which had 
 made the country prosperous and wealthy under Alexander III. 
 
 The English had command of the seas, and attacked, with intent to capture 
 and destroy, every ship that belonged to another nation. Scotch students of 
 the poorer class, as far as I can make out, commonly went by England, and 
 got across in English ships. Young noblemen got safe conducts, — many are to 
 be found in the Rotuli Scotorum ; — but these were not for the poorer students, 
 who had to find their way across as they best could. 
 
 In these circumstances Scotchmen naturally turned to the English univer- 
 sities. A hundred years earlier when their great countryman, John Duns 
 Scotus (John of Duns, the Scot) taught at Oxford, crowds of Scotch students 
 had swelled the multitudes who were drawn to Oxford from all parts of Europe 
 by the fame of the young Doctor Subtilis. The foundation of Balliol College 
 in 1282 or 1284 by Devorguilla wife of John Balliol (father to John Balliol the 
 competitor for the Scotch crown) had given the Scotch students a national 
 centre at Oxford. For although it is not correct to say as some writers have 
 done that Balliol College was a Scotch college, yet it is undoubted that Balliol 
 was from its foundation largely frequented by Scotch students, and that they 
 looked upon it as a gathering place in Oxford. It is but natural that this 
 should have been so. John Balliol, who had in his lifetime always supported 
 several poor students at Oxford, and had when dying, earnestly recommended 
 his wife to further and extend his plans for aiding education, was a Scottish 
 baron as well as a great Yorkshire proprietor. His wife Devorguilla, who so 
 ably carried out her husband’s pious intentions, came of an old Scottish family. 
 She was the daughter of Alan Lord of Galloway, and was celebrated all over 
 Scotland for her beauty, gentleness, and learning. 
 
 “A bettyr ladye than she, was nane 
 In all the yle of Mare Bretane,” 
 
 says Wyntown the Prior of Lochleven. She was the patroness of Dumfries, 
 and built the bridge over the Nith which so greatly helped to make the burgh. 
 She built a convent at Dundee; another at Wigtown; the Grey friars monas- 
 
37 
 
 tery and Newabbey in Kirkcudbrightshire. Newabbey and Balliol College 
 were her two favourite foundations. The former was built to be a fitting 
 shrine for the heart of her husband, which had been embalmed and placed in 
 a little ivory casket. Hence its beautiful name Dulce Cor or Sweetheart Abbey. 
 The latter was built in fulfilment of her husband’s last wishes to extend that 
 help to poor scholars which he had given in his lifetime. The scholars were 
 enjoined to “cause three masses to be duly celebrated every year for the soul 
 of our [beloved husband, John, Lord of Balliol, and for the souls of our 
 predecessors, and all the faithful departed, as also for our own weal and 
 salvation. Also on every day . . . after meat let them return thanks, 
 and pray especially for the soul of our beloved husband above-mentioned and 
 for the souls of all our predecessors, as also for those of our departed children, 
 for our salvation and those of our children, and for that of our other living 
 friends according to the form of ancient use.” 
 
 The college founded by this Scottish lady would naturally attract the Scotch 
 students who had heard in their own land of her bounty and benevolence. 
 The Rotuli Scotorum give us interesting glimpses of the earnestness of the 
 country after higher education. In 1357, King Edward III, at the request of 
 King David of Scotland, granted a safe conduct to John Barbour, Archdeacon 
 of Aberdeen, to go to Oxford to study there with three pupils in his company.* 
 In October of the same year the king granted a general license to all Scotch 
 students who might wish to study at Oxford and Cambridge. This license was 
 granted at the request of the Bishops of St. Andrews and Brechin, who had 
 become known to the English king because they were among the commissioners 
 sent in 1348 to treat about the ransom of King David, f The next year a special 
 license was granted to James Sandilands, clerk, to reside in the town of 
 Durham or in any other part of England for the purposes of study and of 
 practising the scholastic art.J In the following years the applications for and 
 grants of safe conduct to Scotch students going to study at Oxford or Cam- 
 bridge became very numerous. A stream of Scottish students flowed steadily 
 from Aberdeen, Glasgow, St. Andrews, and the south country — i.e., from the 
 
 * Rot. Scot., i, p. 808. 
 
 t Rot. Scot., i, pp. 815, 816. 
 
 + Rot. Scot . , i. p. 727. 
 
33 
 
 chief educational centres — to the English Universities of Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge. Many of the Scottish “ clerks,” who would otherwise have gone to 
 France, crossed over the border to throng the lecture rooms of the English 
 Universities. Young noblemen, attended by one or more armed servants, 
 went to swell the crowd of turbulent Oxford students, and to become the 
 plague of colleges and the terror of townsmen. Ambitious young monks 
 who had ^earned all that their convent could teach them, came to win 
 the scholastic distinction which was so often a sure way to preferment. The 
 chartulary of Kelso gives us an interesting glimpse into the ways and means 
 by which the more talented of the young monks were able to indulge their 
 zeal for study beyond the walls of the monastery. In 1398 the convent 
 selected a young monk and sent him to study in England for the honour of 
 the order.* The abbot gave him a letter of introduction to the heads of the 
 English University, and recommended him to the care and hospitality of brethren 
 in England. The license and letter of recommendation, for it is both, tells the 
 bearer to find lodging in some monastery of the same order. He is directed 
 to choose for himself a confessor, who will give him absolution not merely for 
 the common sins of a monk, but also for those to which a scholastic life is 
 more especially liable. He may study at any university he pleases, in any 
 liberal faculty, and at any branch of science taught at a university. This 
 “letter” would be as much worth to the young student of the fourteenth 
 century as a travelling scholarship to the modern undergraduate. It gave the 
 bearer a certain academical position, more or less important as the monastery 
 from which he came was or was not famous for its learning. It gave him great 
 freedom of action. He could go where he liked, study what he liked, and the 
 power to choose a “ fit confessor ” — idoneum confessorem — allowed him to do 
 what he liked. The recommendation to other monasteries was the money 
 part of the scholarship. He lived in the convent if there was one, and begged 
 in the name of his convent if there was not. Licenses to beg were common 
 scholarships in the fourteenth century. The University of Oxford itself was 
 accustomed to issue official letters to poor students, allowing them to beg 
 from the town’s people — literas testimoniales sub sigillo officii ad petendam 
 
 Liber S. Marie de Calchow> p. 441. 
 
39 
 
 eleemosynam. It was almost the only bursary they had to give them, and 
 answered the purpose very well. Begging was a recognised way by which 
 “ clerks ” got their living in these days. They repaid their benefactors in 
 prayers. Chaucer’s poor clerk — 
 
 “ Busily ’gan for the souls pray, 
 
 Of them that gave him wherewith to scolay. ” 
 
 The letter given by the Abbot and Convent of Kelso to their “dearly-beloved 
 brother and fellow-monk” would serve very well, if need were, for begging 
 credentials. 
 
 This extract from the old Chartulary of Kelso shows how the monasteries of 
 Scotland took advantage of the safe conduct from the English King to 
 Scotch students studying at Oxford or Cambridge. They picked out some 
 promising young monk, gave him a travelling scholarship in the shape of a 
 letter of recommendation to the heads of the universities and monasteries in 
 the south country, and sent him off on his educational travels, to come back 
 fit to be the schoolmaster in one of the outlying schools established in a neigh- 
 bouring burgh, or to take upon him the duties of the “ magister scholarum ” 
 himself, or to be lecturer to the monastery and the head of the private convent 
 school. The letter from the Abbot of Kelso is only one of an immense 
 number which must have been issued during the hundred years between the 
 battle of Bannockburn and the foundation of the University of St. Andrews. 
 
 Besides the young noble and the young churchman, there must have been 
 many a poor scholar who hurried over the border to swell the ragged hungry 
 crowd, which was one of the most peculiar accompaniments of mediaeval 
 university life. How the “poor clerks” could travel as they did from 
 university to university, and how they could live while studying, no one can 
 well tell. Perhaps the Oxford Chancellor’s book, with its records of poaching 
 and plundering, highway robbery and masterful begging, may help to explain 
 the mystery of their lives. Among the crowd there must have been many a 
 Scotchman. They might cross the border as servants to some of those com- 
 panies of Scottish merchants who were always getting license to trade in 
 England. They might beg or thieve their way alone. They might go in 
 bands, living very much as gipsies do now. At all events, they were to be 
 found in Oxford in the fourteenth century ready to claim their share of the 
 
40 
 
 poors’ pence on St. Scholastica’s Day, and of any other money which the 
 charitable had left for the poor clerks. 
 
 When we look into the old books, we can see a very close connection 
 between the English universities and some of the Scotch centres of education. 
 To say that the kings of England granted licenses to Scotchmen to study 
 at Oxford and Cambridge, and that these were largely taken advantage of, 
 does not at all describe the whole state of affairs. There must have been a 
 much closer and more systematic connection between the English universities 
 and the three Scotch dioceses of Aberdeen, Glasgow, and St. Andrews. There 
 seems to have been a selection year by year of the best students in the mona- 
 stery and cathedral schools of these dioceses, who were sent up to one of the 
 two great English universities to complete their education. These students 
 were placed under the charge of some one old enough and of rank enough to 
 ensure the obedience of his pupils, and learned enough to help them and 
 guide them in their studies. John Barbour, Archdeacon of Aberdeen, author 
 of “ The Bruce,” whom we have already mentioned, was the first of these 
 travelling tutors. We find canons, rectors of parishes, priests and deacons, 
 heading companies of students going to Oxford or Cambridge, staying for 
 three years at the universities, and then returning with their pupils to Scotland. 
 Churchmen of rank do not commonly go to the universities to study, nor did 
 these Scottish clergymen. They went to superintend the pupils which the 
 chapter of the cathedral gave them to take charge of; to protect them when 
 among strangers; to see that they used all the advantages the English univer- 
 sities could yield; and to guide them in their studies. They made it their 
 business to take charge of young Scotchmen who were studying in England 
 and to bring them safely across the border again. It often happened that 
 the more successful tutors were employed more than once in this way. 
 Barbour took three students to Oxford in 1357, and a party of six in 1364. 
 Adam of Tynninghame, a famous man also, twice conducted student parties to 
 Oxford. John Peebles, Canon of Glasgow and Aberdeen, travelled once with 
 a party of six, afterwards, in 1373, with a party of twelve. John of Carrie and 
 John of Govan, Glasgow men, were more than once at Oxford or Cambridge 
 with students from the great south-western diocese of Scotland. The bishops, 
 advised by their chancellors or archdeacons — for sometimes the chancellor, 
 
4i 
 
 sometimes the archdeacon filled the place of the old Culdee ferlanus or 
 superintendent of education — picked out his most promising students, and 
 sent them off to the southern universities under the care of a fit and proper 
 person. This systematic selection of the good scholars of the diocese with the 
 corresponding supervision was the Scotch substitute for a national university 
 — and was no bad substitute as the times went. The more distinguished 
 students on their return were offered the charge of a party of scholars 
 about to set out for England; while others were settled in ecclesiastical or 
 educational positions according to their abilities, or the interest they were able 
 to command. Successful tutors were the men who became “ masters of the 
 schools,” archdeacons, chancellors, and even bishops. They were entrusted 
 with the foreign business of their diocese or monastery. They headed and 
 took charge of the large parties of pilgrims who from time to time left Scotland 
 to visit Continental shrines. They watched over the interests of their diocese 
 or convent at the Roman curia. They were churchmen who had seen and 
 knew the world, and were almost sure of preferment. 
 
 In 1365 Adam of Tynninghame, who had been one of those churchmen 
 who had taken charge of Scotch students at Oxford, led a large party of 
 Scottish pilgrims to visit the sacred places in partibus transmarinis in Europa 
 et Asia * They spent two years in visiting shrines and other holy places, and 
 returned to Scotland in 1367. The same Adam of Tynningham was sent by 
 the diocese of Aberdeen with four companions to attend the Roman curia in 
 1363.1 He was commonly employed to transact the foreign business of the 
 diocese of Aberdeen. Successful tutors were important men, and rose to 
 offices of great trust. 
 
 It is only on some such scheme that we can explain how Church dignitaries 
 are found going to Oxford to study. Warton, in his History of English 
 Poetry , claims Barbour as an Oxford student. Dr. Irving, in his Lives of the 
 Scottish Poets , says that Churchmen of rank do not commonly attend classes, 
 and shows that when Barbour was at Oxford he was already archdeacon. 
 Both authors are in the right. Barbour undoubtedly went with three pupils 
 to Oxford to study. He headed the first party of Scotch students going to 
 
 * Rot. Scot., pp. 901, 91 1. 
 f Rot. Scot., pp. 877, 932, 960, &c. 
 
42 
 
 the English universities. He did not go to study, but to superintend his 
 pupils and to become acquainted with the higher education of England. We 
 need not wonder how on the first trial of this new system an archdeacon was 
 sent when we remember how in many Scottish cathedrals the archdeacon’s 
 duty was to superintend educational matters, and, in fact, to take the place of 
 the old Culdee ferlanus. Afterwards, when the plan was found to work well, 
 there was no need to send up to England the highest educational official, and 
 the travelling tutors were younger men, who had yet to win ecclesiastical rank. 
 I have no doubt that this plan of sending Scotch students to the south-country 
 universities under the charge of a competent tutor took its rise from an English 
 custom then very common. Travelling to and from the university was no 
 easy matter, and the roads were by no means safe. The needs of the time 
 created a body of men who made it their business to take students to and 
 from the university. These men were called in the old Oxford statute books 
 “ bringers or fetchers of scholars.” They made regular journeys, could be 
 heard of at the principal inns in every town, and were persons of importance. 
 They had always more or less of a university standing, and their rights were 
 fully recognised in the indenture made between the town of Oxford and the 
 university in 1459. Some weeks before Michaelmas term they began going 
 their rounds, picking up one lad here, another there, and so on until they had 
 a large party well armed and mounted. Then they turned their horses’ heads 
 towards Oxford, and made the journey to the university by regular stages. 
 We have only to suppose that these “ fetchers,” instead of being illiterate men 
 who had charge of the students only on the journeys to and from the 
 university, were scholars, accomplished for the time, maintaining their authority 
 over their pupils from the day that they left Scotland until they returned again 
 after three years of Oxford life, and we can have some idea of the duties of 
 John Barbour, Adam of Tynninghame, John of Carrie, and other famous 
 Scotch tutors. 
 
 When Barbour and his pupils reached Oxford, in 1357, the university was 
 by no means in such a flourishing state as when Duns Scotus lectured to thirty 
 thousand students. The plague which devastated England in 1349 had dis- 
 persed the Oxford men, and caused an interruption of all university life for at 
 least three years. The citizens had, meanwhile, taken possession of the 
 
43 
 
 untenanted buildings. Crime abounded. The first band of Scottish students 
 reached Oxford only six years after the recommencement of classes and 
 lectures. The university was organising itself and adjusting its position with 
 the town. Its authority was not yet supreme, nor were its privileges fully 
 secured. There was still, however, plenty of intellectual life. The long wars 
 with France had not yet broken the connection with Paris, nor isolated Oxford 
 from the great European schools; and the overthrow of the party of Wycliffe 
 and the expulsion of the Lollards had not yet crushed the rising intellect of 
 England and destroyed the fame of her universities. Barbour, a keen observer 
 and naturally interested in all matters belonging to education, as became the 
 archdeacon of a diocese so famous for scholarship as Aberdeen was even in 
 these days, could see and learn much worth noting. In 1357, the year of his 
 arrival at Oxford, the university authorities were engaged in making provision 
 for the proper selection of masters for their preparatory grammar schools. 
 Next year they resolved to appoint two inspectors of grammar schools, to over- 
 look the masters and keep them to their work ; for it was found that lazy boys 
 who had too much money were in the habit of bribing the masters to give 
 them lectures, in which the masters did all the work of speaking while the 
 pupils listened, instead of the regular lessons with question and answer. The 
 mendicant friars had to be watched also and kept in order. It was found that 
 they were secretly inducing young men studying at the university to join their 
 order, and were so successful that the nobles and the people generally began 
 to be afraid to send their sons to Oxford lest they should be kidnapped by 
 these begging friars. The university, in self-defence, enacted that “if any 
 friar induce or cause to induce any member of the university ” to join their 
 fraternity, “ no graduate belonging to the cloister to which the friar belongs 
 shall be allowed to lecture for the year ensuing.” Shrewd Scotchmen could 
 get many a lesson in the art of increasing the uses and checking the abuses of 
 scholastic life. They were also taught, if they did not already know it, 
 the true meaning and value of the university dress. Oxford men knew the 
 worth of academical robes in 1360. As God had granted various powers and 
 capacities to clerks which He had denied to those altogether inferior beings, 
 laymen, it was but reasonable and proper that they who were so distinguished 
 should have some distinction of dress to mark the difference — “ Honestum est 
 
44 
 
 enim et consonum rationi \ quibus Deus ultra laicos ornamentis intrinsecus tribuit 
 proerogativam , etiam extrinsecus laicis in habitu sint difformes So the 
 academical dress is ordered to be cut in due form, “ according to the ancient 
 custom, allowing sufficient length of robes for the masters,” on pain of 
 imprisonment to the unfortunate workmen ; and the tailors, whose duty it was 
 to make men extrinsically what God had made them intrinsically, were to be 
 free of the university. While the crowd of Scotch students lived at Oxford 
 the university was engaged in doing its best to accommodate itself to the 
 growing and changing wants of the times. It was making provision for the 
 proper management of the property left to it by pious benefactors. It was 
 setting apart rooms for books, and forming the nucleus of its future library 
 with the bequest of Master Thomas Cobham. It was enacting that no book- 
 sellers save the “ sworn stationers ” to the university should settle in the town ; 
 for it was found that manuscripts of great value were often sold to unprincipled 
 booksellers and carried away from the university. The Scotchmen would find 
 themselves citizens in a great literary republic, which, armed with but limited 
 powers as yet, on the one hand had to struggle against the encroachments of 
 the townspeople, and on the other had to check and keep down the fights and 
 disturbances always breaking out between students of different halls and rival 
 factions, and at the same time had to do all in its power to foster learning and 
 encourage intellect, its life and strength. 
 
 The life of the Scotch student at Oxford could not have been such a pleasant 
 one as his countrymen spent at Paris. Protected as he was by a safe-conduct, 
 which commanded all the king’s subjects to refrain from molesting him and to 
 give him all assistance, he was yet in an enemy’s country. Pie could not look 
 forward to university rank or ecclesiastical prizes as could the Scotchman at 
 Paris. Yet his case was not so bad in 1350, as it must have become seventy 
 years later, when Master Thomas Bysshop, Principal of White Hall, was 
 falsely called a Scot and enemy of the king — pro Scoto et adversario domini 
 regis — by Master Thomas Elslake, and summoned Master Elslake before the 
 chancellor for defamation of character. 
 
 The students in the English universities, and more especially in Oxford, 
 were divided into two great parties — Northmen and Southmen (Boreales 
 et Australes). The Northern men represented the Saxon popular element]; 
 
45 
 
 the Southern the French and conservative element. The Northmen had 
 taken the side of Simon de Montfort and the barons and the people, while 
 the Southmen sided with the king. The Oxford faction fights had great 
 political significance in the 13th century, and were often the beginning 
 of a war which spread over the whole land. As the old rhyme runs — 
 
 Thus old story says, 
 
 From our Oxford frays, 
 
 After few months and days 
 All England’s ablaze.* 
 
 The Battle of Evesham, which broke the popular power, greatly lessened the 
 influence of the north countrymen in the university, and they had frequently 
 to submit to insults from the domineering southerners. But notwithstanding 
 their numerical weakness, the northerners had on their side the great propor- 
 tion of the intellectual strength of the university. And just about the time 
 that Barbour and his three pupils came to Oxford they were going to make a 
 strong effort under the guidance of the venerable Wycliffe to counteract the 
 deadening ecclesiastical policy of the south countrymen ; for it is worth noting 
 that this influx of Scotch students to the English universities in the regularly 
 systematised plan described above was contemporaneous with the Wycliffite 
 movement in Oxford, beginning when it began, and ending shortly before the 
 Lollards were finally expelled and the northern party finally subdued in 1412. 
 The Scotch students in England were absorbed in the Northern faction. We 
 find mention of Welsh and Irish students in the Munimenta published by Mr. 
 Anstey, but no mention of Scots until after 1430. This silence at a time when 
 so many students were thronging from Scotland to the university can only be 
 explained by the fact that the Scotch were not distinguished from the 
 Northerners, They spoke the same language. Chaucer had not yet risen, or 
 his influence had not yet extended so far as to create an English language. It 
 was still the age of dialects. Barbour wrote as good English as any English- 
 man. It was not until the next century that Gawain Douglas could flout at 
 Scotchmen for aping the southern speech. The Scotch student companies 
 
 * Chronica si penses, 
 
 Cum pugnant Oxonienses, 
 
 Post paucos menses, 
 
 Volat ira per Angligenses, 
 
4 6 
 
 came by the same roads as the Yorkshire and Lancashire men. They 
 spoke almost the same language, and could understand each other much 
 better than either did the French or Italian-English which south-country 
 students used. “ Strike down the foreigners ! Slay the Italian dogs ! ” was a 
 favourite war-cry with the north-country students. And the Scotchmen, at 
 least in the time of Barbour, must have felt some sympathy with the national 
 and anti-papal feelings which Wycliffe was rousing in the north-country Oxford 
 men. The Scotch had often enough resisted Papal intrusion. In 1324, when 
 Bishop John de Lindesay had been appointed to the see of Glasgow, the Pope 
 claimed the right of filling the vacant prebend, and nominated Nicolas de 
 Guercino. But King Robert I would not brook such interference. He 
 claimed the presentation, according to the custom of Scotland, to a benefice 
 in the bishop’s gift falling vacant before the bishop had taken the oath of 
 fidelity to the king, and presented Master Walter de Twynham. The bishop 
 was forced to obey, and Master Walter was installed. The Pope had to rest 
 satisfied with a formal protest, and his nominee put in his claim quite ineffec- 
 tually.* The Scottish Church were quite as ready as their King to resent any 
 undue interference by Rome. When Walter de Wardlaw, Bishop of Glasgow, 
 who had been made a cardinal and legate a latere for Scotland and Ireland 
 by the anti-Pope Clement VII, died in 1387, the Pope endeavoured to 
 intrude John Framisden into the see of Glasgow, and even craved the assistance 
 of Richard II for his settlement by force. But the chapter resisted stoutly, 
 and the Pope’s attempt failed entirely. Matthew de Glendonwyn obtained the 
 bishopric peaceably.! Although Spottiswood is incorrect when he says that 
 William de Lawdre, consecrated in 1420, was the first bishop whom the Pope 
 appointed by his mere authority to the see of Glasgow,! yet the statement is 
 near enough to the truth to show how the Scottish court and clergy in the four- 
 teenth century were not at all tolerant of Papal interference, and would readily 
 sympathise with the supporters of the rights of national churches against the 
 encroachments of Rome. The Scotch students were naturally absorbed 
 
 * Reg. Episc. Glas. Pref. p. 37. 
 t Reg. Episc . Glas. Pref. p. 39-40. 
 $ Reg. Episc . Glas. Pref. 46 N. 
 
47 
 
 in the great northern party, and for this very reason got all possible advantages 
 from their university life ; for the northern party had undoubtedly the great 
 proportion of the intelligence and learning of the university on its side. The 
 Scotchmen so far helped to increase their numbers. Whilst they came 
 thronging to Oxford — i.e., from the middle to the end of the fourteenth 
 century — Wycliffe and his followers had almost gained the upper hand in the 
 university, and so long as this was the case the Scotch students could live 
 somewhat comfortably. They could feel among friends. But towards the end 
 of the fourteenth century the greater numbers of the south-country students 
 and their dull steady opposition to all reforms prevailed over the intelligence 
 and zeal of their opponents, and made English university life less bearable 
 to the students from Glasgow and Aberdeen. The English national feeling 
 was growing, and with it an opposition to Scotchmen as foreigners and 
 enemies. This feeling was much strengthened, if it was not altogether caused, 
 by the fact that during the period of the Papal schism the Scottish Church 
 supported Clement VII, while the English declared for his opponent. Hence 
 Scotchmen came to be considered not merely foreigners but schismatics. 
 There is in the Rotuli Scotios a curious decree by Richard II, wherein the 
 King enjoins the university and students of Oxford to abstain from all violent 
 attacks upon the Scotchmen who may be there, notwithstanding their 
 “ notorious and damnable conduct ” in espousing the cause of the schismatic 
 Pope Clement VII. Life in England must have been bad enough before 
 such a letter could be issued, and the letter itself could not have much effect. 
 We find that some years after this Scotch tutors ceased to take up pupils to 
 the English universities. This national dispute hastened what otherwise 
 must have come of itself. In 1412 the University of St. Andrews 
 was founded, and Scotchmen had no longer to seek their higher education 
 beyond the limits of their own country. I have already called attention 
 to the connection between the Scotch students and the Lollards. The 
 fact of connection must not be too much insisted upon, but these circum- 
 stances must be borne in mind. The Scotch students at Oxford were 
 not at first recognised as a distinct nationality ; they belonged to the north- 
 country men (Boreales). The northern faction in the university were always 
 the party of progress. They were weak in numbers, but strong in intellectual 
 
4 8 
 
 power; and in the latter half of the fourteenth century were the followers of 
 Wycliffe. During the years when the Scotch students came in great numbers 
 to Oxford the northern party were able to make head against their opponents 
 as they had not done since the battle of Evesham. The Papal schism, while 
 it perhaps increased the moral force of Wycliffe’s party, was undoubtedly the 
 beginning of its losing ground at Oxford, and also prevented the Scotch 
 students coming in such numbers to Oxford as they had formerly done, and 
 at last led to the foundation of the University of St. Andrews. For it is 
 curious to note that Bishop Wardlaw, the founder of St. Andrews University, 
 was at Oxford when King Richard II sent his letter to the heads of the 
 university enjoining them to protect Scotch students from insult. It would 
 not be right to say that the followers of Wycliffe founded the first Scottish 
 university, for Bishop Wardlaw was one of those Scotch bishops who received 
 his appointment directly from the Pope. But there was a close connection 
 between the followers of Wycliffe and the young Scotchmen at Oxford. 
 The University of St. Andrews was founded in the same year that the south- 
 country faction triumphed and the Lollards were banished from Oxford. 
 Many of these banished north-country men found refuge in Scotland, and 
 many were received into the universities. For many years after it was found 
 necessary by more zealous Churchmen to purge the Scottish universities 
 from the plague of Lollardism. 
 
V