Ditchburn Chpt - Scotland & Europe, 1st estate

Question 1

To which Pope was the 1320 Declaration of Arbroath addressed?

Answer 1

Pope John XXII

Question 2

Which document invited the Pope “to admonish and exhort the king of England to leave in peace us Scots who live in this poor little Scotland beyond which there is no dwelling place at all”

Answer 2

The Declaration of Arbroath

Question 3

What was the commonly held view about Scotland at the time?

Answer 3

That is was isolated, uncivilised and poor. Contemporary maps showed Scotland near the periphery of the known world.
Some continental writers thought it a suitable place for cannibals and the Devil.

Question 4

What did visiting French knights in 1385 think?

Answer 4

Scotland’s landscape was inhospitable

Question 5

Was this true?

Answer 5

No. Scotland was distant from centre of a world focused on Jerusalem but was within the known world with a firmly European identity.

Question 6

Who had taken an interest in Scotland’s wars of independence?

Answer 6

Pope John XXII and predecessors Clement V and Boniface VIII

Question 7

What was papal position on Scotland’s struggle to retain independence?

Answer 7

Initial encouragement of Scots, later censure.

Question 8

What did Declaration represent?

Answer 8

A “manifesto of the elite”

Question 9

Who wrote & signed it?

Answer 9

Author unknown but probably a leading clergyman.
Signed by secular aristocrats.
Likely instigated by the king, Robert I

Question 10

Society was hierarchical. Hierarchy seen as natural & God-given

Answer 10

Society also organised into 3 functions; those who a) prayed b) fought and c) worked. These cut across hierarchies & contributed to contrasting views of Europe

Question 11

The 1st Estate: The clergy & the Church

Answer 11

Medieval Europe was intensely religious. Not a personal choice so much as a state of mind. Clergy’s role was therefore particularly important.

Question 12

What was the role of the clergy (p104)

Answer 12

Job was to pray for the living and the dead. Approx 3 - 4,000 clergy in medieval Scotland. All owed obedience to pope (aka bishop of Rome) who was acknowledged as the final arbiter of religious doctrine & law.

Question 13

Where did pope’s authority come from?

Answer 13

Derived from association with St Peter, Christ’s foremost apostle & 1st bishop of Rome

Question 14

Doctrinal issues

Answer 14

Usually discussed by leading clergymen in general councils summoned periodically by pope. Decisions of these councils had to be ratified by pope

Question 15

Scotland’s participation in Church general councils?

Answer 15

1163 - Bishop Gregory of Dunkeld attended council at Tours. After that, most councils attended by at least some of Scotland’s leading clergymen.

Question 16

Church law

Answer 16

Pope’s written rulings were binding on whole Church and were basis of canon law.

Question 17

How was canon law disseminated & applied?

Answer 17

Systematised from C12th. Disseminated by papal reps (including legates who visited Scotland requently in C12th & C13th). Also through manuscripts.
Applied in church courts established in every diocese but most authoritative at the papacy

Question 18

Difference between papal legate & delegate?

Answer 18

Legates have diplomatic status and represent the pope in dealings with foreign governements. Delegates represent pope in Church matters only.

Question 19

What did church courts deal with?

Answer 19

All matters to do with the clergy. Also marital & testamentary issues, morality & belief (eg illigitimacy, blasphemy & heresy) & some commercial matters eg usury so lay men & women could appear before church courts too.

Question 20

Other aspects of Church?

Answer 20

Offices of Chancery (archive records), Datary (investigating merit of recipients of benefices) & Penitentiary (administrion of penance) were at the papacy & used by both clergy & lay people. These offices could absolve sins & exempt people from canon law stipulations.

Question 21

Scotland’s interaction?

Answer 21

Offices were regularly used by Scottish clerics, proportionately more than other ‘peripheral’ clergy eg from Scandinavia.
Illigitimacy most frequent reason for petition to penitentiary; occasionally bodily defects as disabled and the illigitimate couldn’t become priests

Question 22

How else Christian states bound to papacy?

Answer 22

Money. Clerical income tax brought in to finance crusades. Levied several times in Scotland in C13th. Then mostly abandoned in favour of taxes on individual clerics appointed by pope & wasincentive to increase powers to appoint.

Question 23

Papal appointments (p105)

Answer 23

Before C13th, few Scottish clerics appointed by pope. By end C14th, approx 13 per year. No need for personal mtg. Clerics cld be appointed via letters or reps at papal court (procurators). But in person visits to papcy were not uncommon.

Question 24

Who affected by papal authority?

Answer 24

Directly: clergy men & women
Indirectly: lay people

Question 25

Types of cleric

Answer 25

1. Regular - rule followers usually living together in cloistered communities eg Benedictines, Cistercians
2. Seculars - ministering directly to laity in churches.

Question 26

Regulars

Answer 26

Before 1100, followed monastic patterns common throughout Celtic world.
After 1100, increasingly resembled continental patterns

Question 27

Benedictine monks

Answer 27

established at ancient royal centres; Dunfermline, Iona plus Coldingham (Berwickshire), Isle of May & Urquhart
Iona group replaced well-established monastic community following ing Irish norms. Dunfermline, Coldingham & May came from Canterbury, Durham & Reading respectively.

Question 28

Benedictine variants

Answer 28

Variants also introduced taking names from places of origin: Cluniacs (abbey of Cluny, Burgundy), Tironensians (Tiron, near Chartres), Cistercians (abbey of Citreaux, Dijon)
1st Scottish Cistericians came from Yorks (Rievaulx) & settled at Melrose. Others follows to Coupar Angus, Culross, Deer, Newbattle, & Sweetheart (Galloway) among others

Question 29

Other houses

Answer 29

3 Valliscaulian houses established, based on rule of Val des Choux, Langres, France
Carthusians (followed Grande Chartreuse, Grenoble) arrived Perth 1429
Small number of nunneries but fewer opps for women

Question 30

Augustinians

Answer 30

Followed St Augustine of Hippo (or variants). Initial Scottish communities mostly recruited from abroad. 1st at Scone (c. 1120). It and Holyrood drew from Surrey while Cambuskenneth drew from Arrouaise, France

Question 31

Other types of religious order

Answer 31

Military orders; Templars & Hospitallers. Both got extensive endowments in Scotland
Mendicants (friars). Originated C13th. Dual purpose to lead fight against heresy & minister to growing urban poor.

Question 32

Friars (p106)

Answer 32

Leading orders: Franciscans (St Francis of Assisi), Dominicans (St Dominic Guzman) and Carmelites (Mount Carmel, Sinai). Established in 24 towns cf 116 locations in England, 155 in France
But - not much heresy in Scotland & towns were small.

Question 33

Transformation of monastic communities

Answer 33

Irish influence waned & radical change during C12th & C13th. Even places preserving an Irish link eg Saddell, Argyll operated within continental framework.
Most new regular religious communities lost touch with continental mother institutions. Cistercians, Hospitallers and medicants kept theirs longest coz of admin arrangements eg requiring attendance of meetings in place of origin, overseeing responsibilities of mother orgs, financial links

Question 34

Links between mother & daughter houses

Answer 34

Inspections of daughter houses took place regularly during C12 & C13 but then interrupted by:

1. war between Scotland, England & France
2. Papal schism, 1378 - 1418. Scotland & France recognised pope in Avingon, England - Rome.

Question 35

Secular church hierarchy

Answer 35

Archbishops presided over archdiocese made up on a number of diocese under bishops. Each diocese was further divided into archdeaconries

Question 36

No archbishop in Scotland

Answer 36

Most units of church admin established by C12 except for archbishop.
W. Isles & Orkney were under Norwegian archbishop of Trondheim
Archbishops of York & Canterbury vied for control of Scottish bishops but control opposed by Scottish kings & bishops

Question 37

How did papcy compromise? (p107)

Answer 37

Declared Scottish mainland bishops a ‘special daughter’ of the papacy itself. Date uncertain: 1189 or 1192
Galloway remained under York but integrated with rest of Scottish bishops along with the Isles, after papal schism
Arrangement continued till appt archbishop of St Andrews in 1472.
Archbishop of Glasgow appt 1492

Question 38

Universities & study abroad

Answer 38

Universities were quasi-ecclesiastical institutions. Many seeking senior clerical office, started careers at unis, mostly abroad.
Even after St Andrews Uni founded in 1413, Glasgow in 1451 and Aberdeen 1495, students still went abroad
Scottish Unis under-resourced without range of subjects or famous teachers cf continental unis.
In C13, many Scots went to Oxford & Cambridge, but problem during Anglo-Scottish conflicts.

Question 39

Continental unis

Answer 39

From C13, favoured for
Bologna law
Paris - basic arts + doctoral theology
From C15, 
Orleans
Cologne
Leuven

Question 40

Papacy’s control over appointments

Answer 40

Papacy’s role mean foreigners could be appt to ecclesiastical positions. Some Scots benefited eg John Kirkmichael, studied Paris, posts in France & Scotland then bishop of Orleans 1426
Few foreigners appt to Scots positions cause Scots benefices relatively poor & pope usually went along with king’s wishes on senior clergy

Question 41

King William the Lion & pope dispute

Answer 41

Concerned appt bishop of St Andrews
Lasted 1179 - 1188
Bitter but unusual

Question 42

Formalising papal-monarch agreement (p108)

Answer 42

1487 - crown’s right in appointments formalised
Pope Innocent VIII agreed eight month delay in making appts to cathedral churches & wealthier monestaries so king had time to indicate preferred candidates

Question 43

Uniformity

Answer 43

Churches laid out & decorated in same way, priests wore similar clothes, services given in Latin (except some parts of Croatia). Elements of services also common with some variation as pre-printing standardisation of texts was difficult