The Sixth Scottish University : The Scots Colleges Abroad: 1575 To 1799 [1 ed.] 9789004214620, 9789004214262

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The Sixth Scottish University

History of Science and Medicine Library VOLUME 24

Scientific and Learned Cultures and Their Institutions Editor

Mordechai Feingold California Institute of Technology

VOLUME 3

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/hsml

The Sixth Scottish University The Scots Colleges Abroad: 1575 to 1799

By

Tom McInally

LEIDEN • BOSTON 2012

Cover illustration by Neil McInally – a diagrammatic representation of Andreas Gordon’s Friction Generator connected to his “Electric Whirl”. This book is printed on acid-free paper.

ISSN 1872-0684 ISBN 978 90 04 21426 2 Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change.

To my brother, Charles McInally (1938–2008), an alumnus of Blairs College – successor college to Scalan and Aquhorties

CONTENTS

List of Tables, Figures and Maps .................................................... Acknowledgements ............................................................................

ix xi

1. The Sixth Scottish University .....................................................

1

2. Development of the Colleges – Networks and Political Involvement .................................................................................. The Need for Catholic Colleges ................................................. Scots Benedictines in Germany ................................................. The Execution of the Queen ...................................................... Formation of the Colleges .......................................................... Furthering Political Aims ........................................................... A Scottish University ................................................................... Distractions, Progress and Retrenchment ............................... Toleration in Scotland .................................................................

6 6 11 16 20 31 43 47 51

3. The Education Provided .............................................................. European Movements in Education ......................................... College Buildings .......................................................................... Ratio Studiorum ........................................................................... Curricula ........................................................................................ Daily Life of the Students ........................................................... Teaching Staff ............................................................................... Espousal of Enlightenment Values ........................................... Scottish Enlightenment ............................................................... The Penalties of a Catholic Education ......................................

62 65 71 82 83 95 100 107 119 126

4. The Students and their Backgrounds ........................................ The Students .................................................................................. Family Connections .....................................................................

129 131 146

5. Catholic Missions in Scotland .................................................... Changes over Time ...................................................................... The Mission in Scotland .............................................................

152 155 173

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contents

6. Heritage ..........................................................................................

209

Appendix: A List of Scottish Nobles Identified by their Disposition towards Mary Queen of Scots ...............................

215

Bibliography ........................................................................................ Index ....................................................................................................

217 221

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND MAPS*

Tables 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Numbers of alumni with professional careers ...................... Known college students, 1575–1799 ....................................... Nationality of students .............................................................. Percentage of students from Scottish regions ....................... Social origins of students .......................................................... College students ordained or entering religious orders ......

106 132 139 144 145 153

Figures 1. College entrance trends ............................................................. 2. Student age on entry to college ............................................... 3. College students ordained or having entered religious orders ........................................................................................... 4. Secular priests ............................................................................. 5. Benedictines ................................................................................ 6. Other regular orders .................................................................. 7. Jesuits ........................................................................................... 8. Home regions of students – 1598 to 1615 ............................. 9. Home regions of students – 1615 to 1653 ............................. 10. Home regions of students – 1653 to 1695 ............................. 11. Home regions of students – 1695 to 1756 ............................. 12. Home regions of students – 1756 to 1799 .............................

134 138 156 157 165 168 169 180 189 194 197 203

* All the tables and figures are from the doctoral thesis viz. McInally Thomas, The Alumni of the Scots Colleges Abroad 1575–1799, unpublished treatise, University of Aberdeen, 2008. The maps were made by the Cartography Dept. of the University of Aberdeen under direction of the author. Reprint permission has been given.

x

list of tables, figures and maps Maps

1. Home location of expatriate Scottish students at the colleges ........................................................................................... 2. Continental benefices of secular priests ................................... 3. Continental postings of Scottish Jesuits ...................................

160 161 171

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book has been derived from my doctoral treatise and therefore I would like to thank my supervisors, Professor Allan Macinnes and Professor Peter Davidson, for their support and encouragement. This was especially important to me in the early stages of my research when it was still unclear that my researches would uncover anything of value. They have also added immensely to my enjoyment of this work. In visiting overseas archives I also benefited enormously from the help and hospitality of many. At the Pontifical Scots College in Rome the students and staff could not have been more welcoming. On my first visit the rector, Mgr. Christopher McElroy, vice-rector, Rev. Paul Milharvie, and Rev. Stephan Robson, spiritual director, gave me complete access to the college archives and showed a genuine interest in my work. It was with pleasure that I renewed my acquaintance with so many of them and met with the same warmth from the new rector, Mgr Philip Tartaglia (now Bishop of Paisley). At the Royal Scots College in Salamanca the rector, Mgr. Denis Carlin, and his staff and students were equally welcoming and helpful in researching the college archives. Mgr. Carlin’s extensive knowledge of the college’s history and records was invaluable in providing me with guidance in my searches. Research requiring a series of visits to the Archivio Segreto Vaticano was facilitated by the secretary to the prefecture, Dr. Marco Maiorino. Retired ASV archivist, Mgr Charles Burns, helped with essential guidance on the relevant records here. In the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana Rev. Ambrogio Piazzoni and his staff were extremely kind in helping me negotiate the catalogues to find material. The staff of the Archivio Storico of the Congregatione Per L’Evangelizzazione Dei Popoli could not have been more helpful or understanding of someone with so little knowledge of the Italian language. Their good humour made the visits truly enjoyable as well as profitable. The Archivium Romanum Societatis Iesu had just relocated to a newly built facility the month that I arrived but again I met with only helpfulness. The director of archives, Rev. Thomas Reddy S.J., took time out of his busy schedule helping identify the various provinces of the society where Scottish Jesuits served. I am indebted to him for his help. At the University of

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Würzburg the assistance given by the archivist, Dr. Günter-Schmidt, and his staff, particularly Angelika Pabel, was not only helpful but extremely professional for which I am grateful. For help in the Scottish Catholic Archives I must thank its archivist, Andrew Nicholl, and in the Aberdeen City Archives, the city archivist, Judith Cripps. Dom Aiden Bellenger, abbot of Downside Abbey, was of considerable help in reviewing material on the former Scots College in Douai. My colleagues at the University of Aberdeen also deserve thanks for putting up with my obsessions on the subject. Although it is unfair to single out any one I must especially thank Dr Michael Brown for his constructive criticism and the cartographers of the Department of Geography for helping produce the maps. My thanks also go to Clive Marsden of the Alford IT Centre for his efforts in helping me structure my database and for his continued guidance in overcoming technical problems – mostly of my own making. Finally my son, Neil McInally, has my gratitude for producing the diagrams of the electrical apparatus used in the eighteenth century by Andreas Gordon in his experiments which are shown on the book cover. An apology must go to my wife who agreed to my undertaking my researches in the belief – which I fostered – that it would involve going to delightful places (true) and that we could treat our visits together as holidays. Her patience was sorely tested during the many hours that I spent in the archives in Rome, Salamanca and Würzburg. The evening meals and weekend excursions were, however, some compensation. The information source for the production of the tables, figures and maps is my doctoral thesis viz. McInally Thomas, The Alumni of the Scots Colleges Abroad 1575–1799, unpublished treatise, University of Aberdeen, 2008.

CHAPTER ONE

THE SIXTH SCOTTISH UNIVERSITY

The small cemetery is all that remains of the Snow Kirk in Old Aberdeen. The church itself fell into ruin in the eighteenth century having been used by the Catholic community since the Reformation.1 The churchyard, however, continued to be used for Catholic burials into the twentieth century. Two wall plaques record the burial there of the brothers John and James Sharp, both priests, who had worked on the mission in Scotland for many years. John was about 90 years old when he died in 1860. The funeral monuments attest to their piety and in John’s case state that he had been educated at the colleges at Scalan in Upper Glenlivet and Valladolid in Spain.2 Praise follows for his great learning and for his personal culture and manners:3 the implication being that he owed these qualities to his education at the colleges. It is particularly charming that the epitaph places equal emphasis on learning and urbanity. He had been trained at a Scots college abroad when it was illegal to receive such an education in Scotland. While his memorial tablet commemorates his achievements the majority of Scots Catholics who attended the colleges abroad during the Penal Times have gone unrecorded. During the last quarter of the sixteenth and the first quarter of the seventeenth century Scottish Catholics founded four colleges in continental Europe. Study in Scotland had been made illegal and anyone who wished to study for the priesthood or openly display their faith attended one of the Scots colleges in Douai, Rome, Paris or Madrid. 1 St Maria ad Nives (Our Lady of the Snows) founded by Bishop Elphinstone in 1498 as the parish church on the creation of the Barony of Aberdeen. After the Reformation St Machar’s Cathedral became the parish church of the Protestant congregation. 2 He studied at the Scots college in Valladolid from 1785 to 1796. On ordination he left for Scotland. Records of the Scots Colleges, vol. 1, New Spalding Club, Aberdeen, 1906 p. 209 Hereafter RSC. 3 “PIETATE IN DEUM ANIMARUM ZELO HUMANIORUM LITERARUM SCIENTIA AC MORUM URBANITATE INSIGNIS AD VENERABILEM SENECTIAM VIXIT”

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When the Church hierarchy ceased to exist in 1603 these colleges together with three Benedictine monasteries4 in Southern Germany represented the only remaining formally recognised Scottish Catholic authorities. Together they formed a university, not in name but in function and structure. Scotland already had five universities – St Andrews, Glasgow, Edinburgh, King’s College and Marischal College, Aberdeen. The Catholic colleges abroad became Scotland’s sixth university.5 The colleges functioned as the major educational institutes for Scots Catholics during the Penal Times. In the course of two and a quarter centuries over 2000 students were educated. The college authorities viewed them primarily as seminaries and almost 600 students were ordained as priests.6 Many of the others returned home to take up running their family estates and supporting the wider Catholic community. Still others took up careers in the military, politics, academe, the arts, sciences and commerce. Due to the application of the Penal Laws most of these men were forced to engage in service abroad in Europe and elsewhere. Many achieved distinction but only the most illustrious have been given any recognition in Scotland, the majority being unknown in their native land despite some having been honoured in France, Germany or wherever they had prospered. In each case the debt these men owed to the Scots colleges for their superior education is unappreciated. Histories have been written on the colleges but for the most part they have been referred to only within the context of general Catholic

4

Known as Schottenklöster i.e. Scottish cloisters. This title has been claimed for two other institutions: Fraserburgh College which existed from 1597 to about 1615 and the University of Leiden. Neither has as good a claim as the Catholic Scots colleges. Fraserburgh was a failed institute which did not survive the imprisonment of its only principal and Leiden’s claim derives from the fact that in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries many hundreds of Scots studied there. However, Leiden remained essentially a Dutch run university where Scots students were a minority albeit a substantial one. Myers Esther “Scotland and the United Provinces, c. 1680–1730”, Grosjean A. & Murdoch S. eds Scottish Communities Abroad in the Early Modern Period, Brill, 2005. 6 McInally T., The Alumni of the Scots Colleges Abroad 1575–1799 unpublished doctoral dissertation, pp. 75–6, University of Aberdeen, 2008, p. 73. 5

the sixth scottish university

3

history. Alphons Bellesheim,7 J.F.S. Gordon8 and William Forbes-Leith9 have given accounts which, though of great value, are more than a century old with consequent short-comings. Bellesheim, the German historian, wrote on the history of the Church in Scotland from the earliest times. Gordon wrote his history in anticipation of the re-establishment of the Scottish hierarchy in 1878. The main part of his text is devoted to supporting this and the Penal Times are covered only in an extensive foreword in which he attempts a broad sweep of the subject and like Bellesheim relies heavily on unreferenced source material. Both of Forbes-Leith’s major works are heavily dependent on the accounts of the troubles of Catholic individuals from the late sixteenth to the eighteenth century. In nature they are family histories dominated by a small number of northern families including Gordon, Forbes and Leith. In all these histories passing reference is made to the Scots colleges abroad but no assessment of their impact is attempted. More recently Mark Dilworth,10 Maurice Taylor11 and Brian M. Halloran12 have produced histories of individual Scots colleges and an anthology of essays on the Pontifical Scots College in Rome was produced to celebrate its 400th anniversary.13 The Innes Review continues to produce scholarly articles on many aspects of Scottish Catholicism. However, these accounts are focused largely on religious matters as is unsurprising since almost all of the historians involved are priests who wrote from a professional or vocational perspective.14 No history has been written which evaluates the importance of the colleges as a whole in nurturing a cadre of Scots Catholics who through personal ability and mutual support were able to contribute significantly to the intellectual,

7 Bellesheim A., History of the Catholic Church in Scotland, 4 Vols, translated by D.O. Hunter Blair, Edinburgh, 1890. 8 Gordon J.F.S., Catholic Church in Scotland, Glasgow, 1869. 9 Forbes-Leith William, Memoirs of Scottish Catholics during XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries, London, 1909. Forbes-Leith William, Narratives of Scottish Catholics under Mary Stuart and James VI, Edinburgh, 1885. 10 Dilworth Mark, The Scots in Franconia, Edinburgh and London, 1974. 11 Taylor Maurice, The Scots College in Spain, Valladolid, 1971. 12 Halloran Brian M., The Scots College Paris 1603–1792, Edinburgh, 2003. 13 McCluskey Raymond Ed., The Scots College Rome 1600–2000, Edinburgh, 2000. 14 Mgr. Maurice Taylor wrote his history of the Spanish college while serving as rector of the Scots College in Valladolid.

4

chapter one

cultural and political life of Europe while maintaining a specific Scottish identity. Much of the archival material belonging to the Scots colleges and the Schottenkloster survives although almost all of the Paris college archives have been lost. Prior to the author’s current research the only review to have been conducted of the archives of the Scots colleges was organised by P.J. Anderson15 more than a century ago and consisted of the assembly of primary material without translation or analysis. The author’s research in archives in Italy, Spain, Germany and Scotland has produced additional corroborative evidence. As a result it has been possible to conduct statistical analyses of the prosopographical details available on the students. This has provided information on the growth and development of the colleges as well as illustrating patterns and trends in the make-up of the student body over time. This information has been used to highlight the social networks that surrounded the colleges and the mutual support which they provided for their alumni. A second benefit of these quantitative analyses is the information provided on the cultural impact that the colleges achieved through their alumni. The numbers of Scottish alumni active in various fields such as the Church, military and state service, commerce, academic research, humanities, art and architecture were large enough to make the influence of Scottish Catholics felt.16 The numbers alone do not account entirely for their impact. Within each grouping there were men of outstanding ability who justify study in their own right. Some of them have already been evaluated either in biographies17 or within general histories.18 In every case they have been treated as individuals with little suggestion that they belonged to a corpus of alumni .

15 Records of the Scots Colleges vol. 1, New Spalding Club, Aberdeen 1906. Anderson was the Librarian of the University of Aberdeen and Secretary of the New Spalding Club. He coordinated the copying of the register of the Rome College by its rector, Mgr. Robert Fraser, of the Douai College by Fr. William Forbes Leith, and of the Madrid and Valladolid colleges by its vice-rector, Fr. James Humble. Anderson, himself, copied the records of the Ratisbon College. The New Spalding Club intended publishing a second volume on the origin and history of the colleges, biographical notes on the students and aspects of the Scottish mission. This volume was never published and as far as one can tell no significant work was undertaken on these subjects. 16 This second focus, to some degree, is an attempt to rectify The New Spalding Club’s failure to produce their planned second volume on the Scots Colleges. 17 E.g. James Gibbs – Freidman Terry, James Gibbs, New Haven and London, 1984, or Little Bryan, The Life and Work of James Gibbs, London, 1955. 18 George Con features prominently in Albion Charles, Charles I and the Court of Rome, London, 1935.

the sixth scottish university

5

that benefited from the unique privileges which attendance at a Scots college conferred. This work attempts to rectify that omission. By examining the endeavours of the whole body of students it is possible to gain an understanding of the colleges’ importance in the Scottish Counter-reformation and the survival of Catholicism in Scotland. More than two centuries of State repression did not eliminate Catholicism from Scotland. It survived as the religion of a minority because of the continuous efforts in resistance which the colleges coordinated. Integral to this resistance were the political measures pursued in trying to reinstate Catholicism as the dominant religion in Britain: a policy which eventually had to be replaced by attempts to gain toleration for their faith. The college alumni who involved themselves in this sometimes were able to take diplomatic roles to advance their cause but more frequently took military action in Britain or in the armies of foreign powers in Europe.19 Although most students shared their sentiments only a minority displayed the temperament necessary to take up direct action. Others, such as Thomas Dempster and George Gordon used their talents to advance scholarship. They and others of their distinguished fellow students were able to contribute to all of the great intellectual movements in Europe such as Humanism and the Enlightenment. Brilliant architects, engineers, scientists and scholars made their mark in Britain and abroad. While making great cultural contributions they also managed to preserve a separate Scottish identity at a time in the country’s history when the Scottish nation was being subsumed into a British State. This was important to them as individuals but through the community of Scottish Catholics that the colleges represented the distinctness of the Scottish Catholic Church was also maintained through the centuries. When Catholic emancipation came in the nineteenth century it was a Scottish and not a British Church which was re-established.

19 McInally T., The Alumni of the Scots Colleges Abroad 1575–1799 unpublished doctoral dissertation, pp. 75–6, University of Aberdeen, 2008, pp. 144–7.

CHAPTER TWO

DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGES – NETWORKS AND POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT

The Treaty of Edinburgh, passed by the Scottish parliament in August 1560, approved the Scots Confession of Faith, abrogated the authority of the Papacy and forbade the celebration of mass. Although this represented the establishment of the Church of Scotland and the prohibition of Catholicism, matters of religion were far from settled in Scotland. The Protestant Lords of the Congregation were by no means assured of full national support for their programme of reform through legislation. They had tried the year before to depose Queen Mary of Guise as regent but despite military support from Queen Elizabeth of England they had been unable to gain a decisive victory. Only when the queen regnant died in June 1560 were they able to pass the Treaty of Edinburgh legitimising their power and establishing Protestantism as the religion of Scotland. Queen Mary I of Scotland refused to ratify the treaty but remained in France and did not return to Scotland until after the English and French troops had withdrawn from Scotland as required by the treaty. When her mother died Mary was still queen consort of France and she returned to Scotland only after the death in December 1560 of her husband, Francis II. When she did return in August 1561 she faced hostility from the Lords of the Congregation for her support for Catholicism. The country was divided into the opposing camps of Mary’s enemies and supporters but there were also a large number of nobles uncommitted.1 Confrontation was assured and one of the earliest areas in which it happened was in the provision of education.

The Need for Catholic Colleges The Protestant lords had realised that it was crucial to their success in destroying Catholicism that they gained control of the seats of learning. 1

See Appendix.

development of the colleges

7

In 1560, prior to Queen Mary’s return, the principals and staff of the universities were required to subscribe to the Confession of Faith and reform their curricula to comply with the first Book of Discipline.2 There were three universities in Scotland at the time; St Andrews, Glasgow and King’s College, Aberdeen. The staff at St Andrews and Glasgow were confessionally Protestant. Those at Aberdeen were not and they decided to defy parliament. In January 1561 Alexander Anderson, the sub-principal of King’s College and several members of the college staff were summoned to Edinburgh.3 They argued that the university’s courses had already been reformed. Corrupted Medieval Latin forms had been removed and the texts which they used were humanist and neo-classical. More importantly Anderson refused to subscribe to the Confession of Faith. His resistance had the support of the queen when she returned to Scotland and under her protection the University of Aberdeen was able to operate as a Catholic institution as before and also was exempted from the new tax levied on clergy.4 This toleration ended following the queen’s abdication in 1567. Regent Moray required the college’s subscription to the Confession of Faith and on refusal in 1569 Anderson, then the principal, and senior staff of King’s College were removed from their posts. Doctrinally approved replacements were substituted. From that time in Scotland there were no institutions of higher education which were open to students to study Catholic doctrine.5 On her imprisonment in England, Queen Mary still had the support of a number of Scots nobility and gentry, many of whom remained Catholic and hoped to restore the queen and Catholicism as the dominant religion in Scotland. Mary was the focus for their efforts but any involvement that the queen had in their enterprise required working with trusted emissaries. One such was John Leslie, the Catholic Bishop of Ross. Leslie followed the queen into exile and acted for her initially in representations to King Phillip II of Spain. In 1567 and 1568

2 It cannot be coincidental that at exactly the same time Queen Elizabeth was conducting a similar campaign in England. On her instructions, Robert Horne, the Protestant Bishop of Winchester, visited Oxford to enforce Protestantism at the university. By 1561 almost every college had a new Protestant head. For a fuller account see Duffy Eamon, Fires of Faith: Catholic England under Mary Tudor, Yale University Press, 2009. 3 Macfarlane Leslie, ‘Chapter Two’, Geddes Jane Ed., Kings College Chapel, Aberdeen, 1500–2000, Aberdeen, 2000, p. 22. 4 Macfarlane, p. 24. 5 Catholics still attended universities but could not openly follow Catholic practices.

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Mary sent Leslie to Spain with letters to the king.6 Mary’s hopes of restoration of Catholicism in what she believed to be rightfully her kingdoms of England and Ireland as well as Scotland accorded with the aims of both Philip and the Papacy for Universitas Christiana – a United Christendom – for Europe and the Spanish overseas empire. In engaging in the mission Leslie was more than simply a courier. He argued the queen’s case for an invasion of England to free her and, with Philip’s approval, went on to Rome to gain the support of Pope Pius V in the matter. Roberto di Ridolfi’s plot was the outcome of this diplomacy.7 When Charles Baillie, a Scottish courier and member of the Marian party, was caught in possession of incriminating letters, Bishop Leslie was arrested by the English and made to confess. His testimony helped incriminate Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, who was then executed for treason.8 Mary did not abandon Leslie despite his weakness under torture. The year following his release from prison in 1574 she sent him to Rome as her ambassador on a mission to establish a college for Scottish students.9 The removal of Anderson from King’s College in Aberdeen had made it essential that other arrangements for the education of Catholics and the training of priests were organised and Mary was determined that adequate provisions should be made. The problem was not unique to the Scots. Queen Elizabeth’s actions in England had caused a Catholic English college to be established in 1568 at Douai in the Spanish Netherlands by Cardinal William Allen.10 Similarly in 1573 Pope Gregory XIII had founded a German college in Rome for the education of young men, especially nobility, training for leadership in the Church and State throughout the Holy Roman Empire. Gregory had placed the running of his new college in the hands of the Society of Jesus. The Jesuits were gaining a formidable reputation for providing the highest standards of education available and the pope’s choice of

6 Sáenz-Cambra Concepcion, Scotland and Philip II, 1580–1598, unpublished treatise, University of Edinburgh, 2003, p. 26. 7 The aim of the plot was to assassinate Elizabeth and place Mary on the English throne. Black pp. 148–51. 8 Black J.B., The Reign of Elizabeth 1558–1603, Oxford, 1959, p. 151. 9 Leslie was ideally suited to the role of ambassador. As well as being from a noble family and a bishop it is clear that he was very persuasive in presenting arguments. He was largely responsible for convincing the Duke of Norfolk, against his initial better judgment, to support the Ridolfi plot. Black, p. 151. 10 Black, p. 171.

development of the colleges

9

them to run the German college in Rome established a pattern for the provision of education for Catholics from Protestant lands. It became a model for later national institutions in Rome and elsewhere.11 The German College provided accommodation and spiritual welfare for all its students but gave tuition only in the basic humanities (Trivium) which normally lasted four or five years. Those students who wished and were ready to proceed to the higher disciplines (Quadrivium) received tuition in and were examined by the Collegio Romano, the Jesuit university in Rome.12 In sending John Leslie to Rome in 1575, Mary’s intention was to persuade the pope to permit a Scottish college to be founded in the same manner as those for the German and English students. Gregory was sympathetic and this overture together with the support of Archbishop James Beaton of Glasgow, who was living in exile in Paris, led to the establishment of a college in Paris in 1580. However, without having enrolled any students the college was transferred in the following year to Pont-à-Mousson, in Lorraine. The reason for the move was that Mary’s Guise relatives had established a Catholic college there which was Jesuit directed. Mary funded the new Scots college. Her income, which amounted to £12,000 p.a. at this time, derived from her French estates which were a legacy of the dowry settled on her marriage to the Dauphin.13 The Guise family would have seen mutual benefit in accommodating Mary’s college for Scots within the establishment they had already founded. Removal from Valois-dominated Paris could also have been a consideration. A Scottish Jesuit, William Crichton, was appointed superior of the college in Pont-à-Mousson. Previously he had been rector of the Jesuit College in Lyons.14 Crichton, like John Leslie, had also acted in the service of both Philip of Spain and the pope and had been used by them as an emissary to the Scottish court of James VI. Using his connections

11 Wright Anthony D., ‘Rome, The Papacy and The Foundations of National Colleges in the Sixteenth and early Seventeenth Centuries’, McCluskey Raymond Ed., The Scots College Rome 1600–2000, Edinburgh, 2000, pp. 1–2. 12 Now the Gregorian University. 13 Black, p. 374. Mary had entrusted the administration of her French income to Archbishop Beaton whom she appointed as her ambassador to the French court. 14 Mitchell David, The Jesuits, London, 1980, p. 90. Two other Scottish Jesuits were prominent around this time in directing Jesuit colleges – Edmund Hay and John Tyrie, rectors of Claremont College, Paris.

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in Rome Crichton successfully petitioned the pope in 1581 to grant the college an additional papal endowment.15 While Crichton was engaged in setting up the queen’s college in Pont-à-Mousson, other Scottish Jesuits were also helping their Scots co-religionists elsewhere. Expatriate Scottish communities – merchants and their families – existed in many parts of Europe. Poland was particularly amenable to settlement by Scots due in part to the relative toleration of differing religious communities. By the middle of the sixteenth century groups of Scottish Catholics and reformed church members had settled in a number of towns. Many Hansa ports had substantial Scottish communities.16 In 1564 the cardinal archbishop of Ermland, Stanislaus Hosius, founded the Lyceum Hosianum in Braunsberg, a Hansa port in Poland, with the help of Jesuits.17 The gymnasium was quickly followed by a residence for noble Polish students (1565), a diocesan seminary (1567) and a Jesuit seminary (1569).18 One of the original ten Jesuit teachers sent from Rome to help in this work was Robert Abercromby, a Scot who later worked as a missionary in Scotland. With their help Hosius fulfilled his ambition of making Braunsberg the centre of a Polish Counter-reformation. Antonio Possevino, the Jesuit ambassador of the Holy Roman Empire to Sweden, built on this initiative by establishing a papal seminary in Braunsberg in 1578 to train priests for the Northern mission.19 Known as the Swedish Seminary the university was open to students of all nationalities of northern Europe. In 1580 Robert Abercromby returned from a visit to Scotland bringing with him two students for the new papal institution. These were the first of 43 Scottish students recorded in the register of Braunsberg University. The majority attended between 1580 and 1610. Most were native born Scots but a number were Polish born of Scottish parents.20 The university closed in 1626 when the city was captured by the troops of 15 Wright, pp. 4–5. A condition of this grant was that the college would accept Irish students as well as Scots. The college records do not show that they did so. 16 Bieganska A., ‘In Search of Tolerance, Scottish Catholics and Presbyterians in Poland’, Scottish Polish Review, Vol. 17, 1991. 17 Murphy G.M., ‘Robert Abercrombie, SJ (1536–1613) and the Baltic Counter Reformation’ Innes Review, Vol. 50, 1999, p. 58. 18 John Hay, another Scots Jesuit, after teaching at Braunsberg, became the rector of the Jesuit novitiate college when it transferred to Vilna in 1584. Murphy, p. 60, p. 62. 19 Mitchell, pp. 105–6. 20 Bellesheim, Vol. 3, p. 455.

development of the colleges

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Gustavus Adolphus. It reopened after 1635 when the Poles regained control but there was little Scottish involvement thereafter.21 By that time the Scots had other educational establishments dedicated to their own use. A number of Queen Mary’s servants especially John Leslie and James Beaton had worked to achieve this. While in Rome making his petition to the pope, Bishop Leslie was able also to pursue these Scottish interests in a different region.

Scots Benedictines in Germany When Leslie set out on his embassy to Rome he first went to Paris and met with Archbishop Beaton and another Scottish exile, Ninian Winzet. Winzet had been a servant of the queen and remained a staunch supporter. He was a secular priest who had fled his post as schoolmaster in Linlithgow in 1562 while under attack for being too active in publishing books and pamphlets in support of Catholicism. He had gone into exile in France and become a distinguished academic at the University of Paris.22 In 1571 he went to England and Scotland on behalf of Mary. She was later to describe him, in her letter of recommendation to the emperor, Rudolph II, as her confessor.23 In the same year as Winzet’s return to Scotland Leslie had become involved in the Ridolfi Plot. There is no evidence that Winzet was implicated but he returned to Paris in 1575 after having gained a master’s degree in theology at Douai. In Paris Leslie decided to include Winzet in his retinue on the trip to Rome. Their embassy was not the only one attempting to gain papal approval to establish a college. When they arrived in Rome they found that English Catholics were making representations to the pope to allow the conversion of the English hospice, a medieval foundation in the city, into a college and seminary. Counter-reformation thinking in Rome at the time was clearly full of plans for the establishment of colleges for the training of Catholics. It was in this atmosphere that Leslie and Winzet heard of happenings at the Scots monastery in Regensburg (Ratisbon) in southern Germany which Leslie felt could be used to their advantage. 21

The last recorded Scottish student was Patrick Gordon, who became a general in the Russian Imperial army. 22 Dilworth, Franconia, p. 23. 23 Dilworth, Franconia, p. 25.

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Cardinal Ninguarda, the papal legate in southern Germany, and John Hay, a Scottish Jesuit, had both written to Rome criticising the behaviour of Thomas Anderson, the abbot of the Scots monastery in Regensburg. Anderson was using his office to further his own ends by supporting himself, his son and nephew without following any monastic observances.24 No action was taken but when Anderson died in 1576 the town senate took over the administration of the monastery and proposed that it should be given to the Jesuits to house a college which they were planning for Regensburg. The city had a thriving Scottish community of merchants who took exception to this proposal and the Scots appealed directly to the pope to appoint William Chalmers, a Scottish secular priest resident in Regensburg, as abbot to ensure that the establishment stayed in Scottish hands. It was at this point that Bishop Leslie intervened and requested that Pope Gregory appoint Ninian Winzet to the vacant abbacy. The pope concurred and so began the long Scottish involvement in the German Counter-reformation. The history of the monastery in Regensburg dated back five centuries. Its origin lay in Irish monasticism. Irish monks were to a great extent responsible for the early conversion to Christianity of many parts of Europe and in the eleventh century they were extremely active in Germany. They founded a monastery in Regensburg in 1075 which by 1135 they had consolidated as an Irish Benedictine community. A new monastery had been built and the original foundation converted to a priory. Over the course of the next fifty years the Ratisbon community had expanded to found a further seven monasteries in Southern Germany, two in Ireland and one in Kiev. Collectively the German monasteries – i.e. Regensburg (together with its associated priory of Kelheim), Erfurt, Würzburg, Nuremburg, Constance, Vienna, Memmingen and Eichstätt – were known as Schottenklöster i.e. Scots monasteries. This name gave rise to the confusion which led later to the Scottish Benedictines taking possession of three of them.25 The original

24 Hammermayer Ludwig, Deutsche Schottenkloster, Schottische Reformation, katholische Reform und Gegenreformation in West-und Mitteleuropa (1560–1580), 1963, pp. 176–221. 25 Archivio Segreto Vaticano, (Hereafter ASV) Miscellanea Armadio II, F. 136R– 137V. This document is an account of the history of the Scots monasteries in Germany written by a papal secretary in 1576. It appears to have been prepared to support the case for Scottish possession and makes a strong appeal to support Scots Catholics since their queen is so opposed to heretics. The principal argument is that the Scots will be a bulwark against heresy in Southern Germany.

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Irish in Germany described themselves as Scots (Scoti) and all legal titles to their German property referred to them as such. By the fifteenth century Irish missionary zeal had lessened and the number and quality of monks had dropped significantly. Only Regensburg and Würzburg had any Irish monks resident. The abbots of the other foundations were appointed from the Regensburg community but did not necessarily attempt to take up their posts. Local bishops took control of the assets and in 1497 the prince-bishop of Würzburg installed German monks in the Schottenkloster there, leaving only Regensburg with an Irish abbot. In 1514 the abbot was in dispute with the bishop of Regensburg and they appealed jointly to Pope Leo X to adjudicate. The pope’s decision the following year was to depose the abbot on the grounds that he was not a Scot and appoint a Scottish secular priest in his place. This perverse decision was probably influenced by a petition from the large Scottish community of merchants which was resident in Regensburg.26 Scottish control of Regensburg continued in this fashion until the adverse reports regarding Abbot Anderson’s running of the monastery were received in Rome. It is clear that Pope Gregory would not have appointed Winzet in place of Anderson had it not been for the energetic intervention of Leslie. Using what were clearly formidable powers of persuasion the bishop sought “restitution” of not just Regensburg but of all the Schottenklöster. He prevailed upon the papal legate at the Diet of Ratisbon, Cardinal Morone, to influence, on the Scots’ behalf, Rudolph II Holy Roman Emperor, Daniel Brend of Homborg, Elector PrinceArchbishop of Mainz and Albrecht IV, Duke of Bavaria. Pope Gregory’s appointment of Ninian Winzet in 1577 as abbot of Regensburg was possible because of the monastery’s special status as a consistorial abbey: one where the abbot was appointed by the pope rather than elected by the abbey community.27 Control of the abbey of Regensburg also included the priory of Kelheim. The disappointed William Chalmers installed himself as abbot of Erfurt and in this way, by the time Winzet arrived in 1578, the Scots had taken possession of three properties – Regensburg, Kelheim and Erfurt – although the only one of any financial consequence was Regensburg.

26 27

For a fuller account see Dilworth, Franconia, pp. 11–21. Dilworth, Franconia, p. 25.

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In 1578, in Scotland, Regent Morton resigned and the young James VI assumed power directly. Pope Gregory believed that this presented an opportunity to advance Catholic interests and appointed Leslie as his ambassador to James’ court. On his way home Leslie decided to journey through Germany and lobby Emperor Rudolph and others on the “return” of the remaining Schottenklöster. Again Leslie demonstrated his powers of persuasion and the emperor and the Duke of Bavaria were won over as was Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn, the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg. However, German-speaking monks were in possession of the monasteries in Vienna and Würzburg, the monastery in Einstätt had been given to the local seminary by Abbot Anderson in 1568 in exchange for a small pension and Nuremburg had been in Lutheran hands since 1525. None of those in occupation was prepared to concede possession to the Scots. The abbeys at Constance and Memmingen were not approached at this time but the situation in Würzburg was felt by Leslie to be encouraging. Leslie’s optimism was based on the personality of Echter who had been appointed Prince-Bishop of Würzburg in 1573. At the time of his installation the see was already half Protestant and the Catholic half was unreformed. Echter set about changing things with a reformer’s zeal. He built political alliances among the Catholic princes of the region and instituted a programme of education of clergy and laymen. Being temporal as well as spiritual leader he was in a position to take decisive action. He confiscated two moribund monasteries using one to found the city’s university and the other as a hospital. By these means he not only started on the reform of the clergy but gained popular support among the citizens.28 In his 44 year rule he successfully oversaw the Counter-reformation in his part of Germany. However expulsion of Lutherans and large scale witch burning are perhaps less attractive features of his approach.29 When he met John Leslie in 1578 Echter received his request for the return of the Schottenkloster with sympathy but took no action. His

28

Janssen J., History of the German People, London, 1905, pp. 335–6. Midelfort Eric H.C., Witch Hunting in South-Western Germany, 1562–1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundations, Stanford, 1972, p. 138. Bishop Echter accused Protestants of witchcraft to discredit them and consolidate his Counter-reformation efforts. The Schottenkloster in Würzburg had an unenviable role in Echter’s programme of witch burning. The grounds of the monastery, which were situated at the edge of the city, were used for the executions. Although there is no record of the Scots having direct involvement they must have been spectators to many of the judicial murders. 29

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plans for his diocese of necessity were long-term and the appropriate opportunity was needed before he could accommodate the Scots Benedictines within them. Winzet journeyed to Würzburg to meet with Echter in 1581 and impressed him as an individual. Winzet was a scholar of distinction and by then had founded a successful college in Regensburg for the education of the local youth. A churchman of this calibre fitted very well with the plans that Echter was implementing in his own city. In addition Winzet had won favour with the Duke of Bavaria and his son and successor, Wilhelm V, and had struck up a close friendship with their secretary, Erasmus Vendius. When he met Echter he came with strong recommendations from these men as well as Cardinal Ninguarda.30 It was 1583 before Echter could transfer the financial administration of Würzburg monastery into his own hands. He did this on the death of his auxiliary bishop who had been using the monastery as his residence and in part as a benefice. Echter offered places in the monastery to the Scots in Regensburg provided they could support themselves with finances from elsewhere. This was an offer the Scots were unable to accept since Erfurt was almost destitute and Regensburg needed all its income to maintain the six monks in residence and provide for the new college which Winzet had founded in the city which by this time had almost 100 students.31 Part of Echter’s plan was to strengthen his control over his bishopric. The German-speaking monks resident in the Würzburg Schottenkloster were from the community of St Stephen’s monastery in the city. The monks of St Stephen’s represented a quasi-independent spiritual (and financial) power. By depriving them of their possession of the Schottenkloster Echter would be able to strengthen his own authority over them. He finally achieved this in 1595 by offering St Stephen’s financial compensation for the loss of the property. The pope’s support of the Scots’ claim appears to have been crucial in gaining the eventual acceptance of the abbot of St Stephen’s. Before the Scots could take possession of the monastery, however, they had to agree to a new charter written by Echter in which they acknowledged the prince-bishop as their spiritual superior. The original Irish monastic arrangement of the supremacy of the Regensburg abbot was not recognized. Three

30 31

Dilworth, Franconia, pp. 26–7. Dilworth, Franconia, pp. 28–31.

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Scottish monks went to Würzburg in 1595 to take possession of the monastery. They were led by Richard Irvine as their first abbot. He had been abbot of Erfurt for the previous ten years. Francis Hamilton and John Stuart had come from Regensburg.32 The Schottenklöster of Regensburg, Würzburg and Erfurt provided refuges for Scots Catholics who wished to enter the Benedictine Order but their acceptance by their German hosts was based on an expectation that the Scots would help in the Counter-reformation in Germany.

The Execution of the Queen In the final years of Mary Queen of Scots’ imprisonment, wider European interests were concerned with the question of the succession to the English throne following Elizabeth’s death. A number of plots involving the assassination of Elizabeth and declaration of Mary as Queen of England and Ireland as well as Scotland were devised, discovered or abandoned starting with the Ridolfi Plot of 1570 and continuing to the Babbington Plot of 1587 which led to Mary’s trial and execution. Philip II supported Mary throughout this period but his aims changed as her imprisonment continued. The initial objective of placing Mary on the English throne with a suitable husband chosen by Philip was abandoned when he accepted that any action taken to free Mary would result in her being killed before English Catholics or Spanish troops were in a position to help her.33 Mary’s second objective of seeing her son, James, convert to Catholicism34 seemed much 32 Dilworth, Franconia, pp. 31–2. Echter did more than give the Scots legal possession of the monastery – like that of Regensburg it was called St James’. He appears to have undertaken renovation of the fabric of the building and added two distinctive “Julius towers”. He had renovated a number of church buildings in his bishopric and stamped his mark on the work by erecting towers of Italianate design with distinctive steep Germanic roofs. St Stephan’s cathedral in the city was treated in the same way as the Schottenkloster. 33 The Marian faction of Scottish nobles sent George 5th Lord Seton to Flanders in 1573 to negotiate a combined invasion from Scotland of Scots and Spanish to release Mary and place her on the throne. The Duke of Alba knew this was totally impracticable and referred the whole matter to Philip. The king decided to offer pensions to the nobles to keep them favourable to Spanish interests but took no further action. Sàenz-Cambra, p. 28. 34 The Memoirs of Father Robert Persons, ii pp. 212–3 as quoted in Sàenz-Cambra, p. 51.

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more realistic to Philip. This belief was misplaced and was derived largely from the reports of desperate and deluded exiles. Nevertheless he expended time and money to win James over to supporting Spanish interests. The return of England and Scotland to Catholicism was a sincere aim of the king but hard political interests also drove Philip. The rebellion in the Spanish Netherlands was receiving support – initially financial but latterly military – from Elizabeth. Drake and other English privateers were increasingly disrupting the treasure fleets and causing significant losses. Removal of Elizabeth by assassination or invasion was required. James’ support in the latter would be valuable and be rewarded with his succession to the English throne as a Catholic monarch, albeit under Spanish control. Philip was therefore willing to engage in diplomatic negotiations with James – an initiative which he called the Scottish Enterprise. He and the other principal protagonists in these dealings relied heavily on Scottish Catholics to act as envoys in their dealings. In 1579 Archbishop Beaton in Paris urged a Spanish invasion of England to free the queen. Beaton as well as being Mary’s ambassador at the French court represented Scottish Catholics abroad and began to play a major role in the diplomatic negotiations. He pledged Guise support for the enterprise and sent John Leslie to Juan de Vargas Mejia, the Spanish ambassador in France, to reinforce his commitment to Spain.35 A second aspect of Beaton’s negotiations involved petitioning the pope to send Jesuits to Scotland to attempt to convert James. Mary had written at the same time to Fr Robert Persons, the Jesuit superior in England, with a similar request.36 Persons and Crichton were sent to Scotland on this mission. Although in theory it was a mission of conversion in reality the priests were ambassadors of the principal Catholic powers instructed to try to broker a deal with James. The moment looked propitious since James who was still only 15 years old was under the influence of his cousin, Esmé Stewart, who had been brought up a Catholic although he had chosen to convert to Calvinism in order to stay with the king in Scotland. Crichton wrote in 1581 to General Aquaviva and the pope requesting more Jesuit missionaries.37 Frs Holt (an English Jesuit) and Hay

35 36 37

Sàenz-Cambra, p. 42. Sàenz-Cambra, p. 26. Sàenz-Cambra, p. 55.

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(Scottish) were sent to boost the negotiating team and the following year Crichton took over the principal negotiations through Esmé Stewart, whom James had created 1st Earl of Lennox. In the name of King Philip and the pope he promised Lennox 15,000 troops for the invasion of England in support of James’ claim to the English throne. In this he grossly overreached his negotiating remit. Lennox sent him with letters to the Spanish ambassadors in Paris and London to obtain confirmation of the offer. Persons delivered a similar letter from Lennox to Philip II outlining a plan of attack on England through Scotland.38 The Anglophile party in the Scottish nobility was so concerned with the growing influence in favour of Spain that in August 1582 the Earls of Angus, Gowrie and Mar abducted the king in what became known as the Ruthven Raid. Lennox was forced into exile in France dying there the following year. Philip was not pleased with the Jesuits’ work in this matter nor was Mary Queen of Scots who had not been kept informed of developments. She stripped Archbishop Beaton of his power of administration of her dowry lands in France for his part in the debacle.39 In 1583 John 8th earl of Maxwell went to France to meet with the Duke of Guise, Archbishop Beaton, the Papal nuncio and the Spanish ambassador in order to obtain continental Catholic support for James in exchange for religious toleration for Catholics in Scotland and, after James’ accession to the English throne, in that kingdom too.40 This could not be countenanced because of the displeasure of Philip regarding recent events. James escaped from his captors in June of that year but in England in December the Throckmorton Plot was uncovered and the Spanish ambassador in London was expelled for his part in it. James decided to end all contacts with Spain and considered concluding an alliance with England. However it is clear that James trusted no one and therefore was not willing to rely on any one party or to lose possible support from any quarter. As well as negotiating with Elizabeth he wrote on 19 February 1584 to Pope Gregory XIII offering to convert if the pope would provide him with assistance in his ambitions as regards England.41 On the strength of this overture and other favourable signs, Beaton requested another attempt by the Jesuits to 38 39 40 41

Sàenz-Cambra, p. 65. Sàenz-Cambra, p. 76. Sàenz-Cambra, p. 88. Sàenz-Cambra, p. 96.

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convert James. Only Scots were sent on this occasion. Frs Crichton, Hay, Gordon and Tyrie were nominated and although Crichton was captured at sea and imprisoned in the Tower of London the others gained admittance to James’ court. Hay was able to report to Aquaviva in a letter of 29 October 1584 that James heard mass every day.42 This could only have been for show since Fr Alexander McQuhirrie reported in 1601 that “James hated all Catholics except as far as he could make use of them for the purpose of furthering his design upon the English Crown”.43 James concluded his defensive league with Elizabeth by the end of 1585 although they were still haggling over the size of his pension from England and having his right of succession to the English throne written into the treaty.44 At this point the Jesuit embassy gave up all hope of converting James.45 These moves decided Philip II to pursue his ambition to occupy the English throne himself. Mary had promised that if her son did not convert to Catholicism she would disinherit him and name Philip as her heir. However, Philip considered that he had right of succession in his own person through marriage to Queen Mary of England and more importantly as a descendant of Edward III through the marriage of John of Gaunt’s daughter, Phillipa, to John I of Portugal in 1387.46 The Scottish Enterprise was superseded by Philip’s plans of personal rule in England – the English Enterprise. In the event it came to nothing in that Mary was executed in the wake of the Babbington Plot and the Armada failed. The effect on the Catholic party in Scotland was devastating. The full extent of its weakness was shown by the fate of Philip’s emissary to James’ court, Colonel William Semple. On the eve of the Armada Semple had been sent to Scotland to test James’ resolve to avenge the execution of his mother by invading England. James adopted a “wait and see” policy and when news of the Armada’s destruction reached Scotland he had Semple thrown into prison. On her death the college which Mary had established at Pont-àMousson no longer had any financial support from her dowry and Gregory’s successor, Pope Sixtus V, cancelled the college’s papal 42

Forbes-Leith, Narratives, pp. 198–201. Sàenz-Cambra, p. 40. 44 The treaty was finally signed in the summer of 1586. 45 The new pope, Sixtus V, was reluctant to abandon hope and sent a new delegation of four Jesuits to James, viz. Frs. William Lange and Alexander McQuhirrie – Scots, Fr Holt – English and Fr Frosonnet – French. 46 Philip was also king of Portugal. 43

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endowment as part of a money saving programme. The college was left to survive on the charity of the Guise Jesuit foundation to which it was attached but the following year the Jesuits were forced to close that university and the Scots college effectively ceased to exist.47 From this low point Scottish Catholics worked to resuscitate their fortunes. The requirement to provide higher education remained crucial and was seen by many as the priority. While the queen lived, her college in Pont-à-Mousson could be viewed as a temporary expediency which would be no longer required on the restitution of Catholicism in Scotland. With her death a college abroad became a permanent necessity for the survival of the Faith. Networks of collaboration were constructed and servants and supporters of the late queen played dominant roles to achieve this end. Over the course of the next 40 years four colleges specifically for Scots were established in Europe.

Formation of the Colleges Douai College In the final years of the sixteenth century the likelihood that James VI of Scotland would succeed to the English throne on the death of Elizabeth elevated the importance of Scottish affairs in the eyes of European rulers. In light of this material support for Scottish Catholics was considered important. Clement VII on his accession to the papal throne in 1592, appealed to Catholic rulers and churchmen for financial help for the non-existent Scots college in Pont-à-Mousson. With papal backing, William Crichton managed to obtain sufficient funds, including an endowment from another Jesuit, Hippolytus Curle,48 to re-establish the college in Louvain in the Spanish Netherlands in

47 Wright, p. 5. Closure of the Jesuit college was for financial reasons due to reversals in the Guise family fortunes. The Duke of Guise and his brother the Cardinal of Lorraine, Queen Mary of Scotland’s cousins, were assassinated on 23 December 1588 on the orders of King Henri III of France. Their deaths removed the Guise’s protection from all of their educational foundations. The pope formally closed the college in August 1590 but the last student admitted was Thomas Lyon, a nephew of Fr Tyrie, who had entered the college the previous year. 48 Curle was the nephew of Gilbert and Lady Elizabeth Curle who were in the service of Queen Mary prior to her execution. Gilbert was her cipher secretary and Elizabeth was one of the ladies in waiting who attended the queen at her execution.

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1593.49 This arrangement was little more than provision of accommodation and Crichton, making use of the contacts he had made in Rome while in the service of Gregory XIII, approached Clement again to make a direct appeal to Archduke Albert, the Habsburg regent in the Netherlands for financial support for the college.50 The Archduke was sympathetic and responded favourably with enhanced funding. Crichton was able to move to Douai in 1597 setting up the college in buildings which could house 20 students and staff as well as having a dedicated chapel. The college was for the exclusive use of Scots and was named St Andrews. Douai was a more favourable location than Louvain in that it was a centre of Counter-reformation activity for English-speaking exiles – English and Irish secular colleges were already thriving in the town. Douai was still within the Archduke’s domain and had the advantage, unlike Louvain, of having Englishspeaking staff at its Jesuit college. The restoration of their college was a success for Scots Catholics but at home the repercussions from the incident of the Spanish Blanks51 caused another disastrous turn in their fortunes. A number of the remaining Catholic nobility were accused of treason. Some of the founders and early students of the Scots college had acted as couriers in the affair and were in part complicit in the failure.52 The earls of Angus, Huntley and Erroll survived the accusations only by subscribing to the Protestant Confession of Faith.53 In this way they were able to retain their estates but open adherence to Catholicism had become too dangerous for senior nobility which further weakened the Catholic cause in Scotland. Crichton remained college superior for two more years before being succeeded by George Christie, a fellow Scot. The college was highly

49 He was able to re-enrol three of the previous students from Pont-à-Mousson, David Law, William Barclay and John Wemys, who had in the interval graduated as Masters at other institutions. RSC, p. 5. 50 Wright, p. 4. 51 In this incident a courier en route to Spain was caught in possession of blank sheets of paper which members of the Scottish nobility had signed. The implication was that they had agreed to whatever declaration King Philip wished to make in their name. Black p. 408. 52 The Jesuit fathers, James Gordon, Robert Abercromby and William Crichton acted as couriers in the transfer of letters which led the Earls of Angus, Huntley and Errol together with Adam Gordon of Auchendoun to be implicated in treasonable activities with the king of Spain in 1593. 53 Calderwood D., History of the Kirk of Scotland, 8 vols., Editors Thomson & Laing, Wodrow Society, 1842–9, pp. 159, 244.

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successful in attracting students; there are over 800 named in the college register.54 Its proximity to Britain was undoubtedly a factor in its success. When Christie returned to Scotland in 1605 the Jesuit provincial appointed a Belgian national to be the superior of the college and Belgians continued to head up the college for a number of years.55 Only after the appointment of John Rob in 1632 was it accepted that Scots should hold this position which was then renamed rector.56 Despite the disruption to the college’s existence its identity as a Scots institution was never in doubt. In 1690 in a report to the papacy, the rector, Gilbert Ingles, stated that the college in Douai had been founded by Queen Mary and many other benefactors.57 St Andrew’s college remained in Douai for two centuries until its forcible dissolution at the time of the French Revolution. The Pontifical Scots College, Rome When John Leslie petitioned Pope Gregory XIII in 1575 for permission to set up a seminary for Scots, the initial intention was that the college be located in Rome. There were a number of reasons why this was desirable. An establishment in Rome, as the seat of government of the Catholic Church, would allow opportunities to influence decision makers on behalf of Scottish interests. A hospice for the accommodation of Scottish pilgrims had existed in Rome from medieval times and it was thought that this could be used as a home for the college. Alexander Seton, who was to become the Earl of Dunfermline in 1610, living in Rome at the time, suggested this to Pope Gregory. He also proposed that the Scots share a college with the English – an idea which was to recur at least three times over the next 150 years. Despite these benefits the decision was for a location in Paris. This was probably strongly influenced by Archbishop Beaton and the Guise family involvement. Gregory’s decision could also have been re-enforced by the views of William Crichton, who was in his service and advising him on Scottish affairs at this time.58 Queen Mary’s initiative in 54

RSC, pp. 1–95. Here Belgian does not refer to the modern state but to the Jesuit province of Gallo Belgiae Provincialis. The college registers use the term “Belgian” from at least the early seventeenth century. 56 RSC, pp. 96–7. 57 ASV, Fondo Carpegna 55 F. 74V–75R. 58 Dilworth Mark, ‘Beginnings 1600–1707’, McCluskey Ed., p. 20. 55

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requesting permission to establish a college and more importantly in the funding of it made a French location desirable. The matter of a college in Rome for Scots remained closed until the accession of Pope Clement VIII in 1597 when Leslie together with William Chisholm, the Bishop of Vaison, petitioned again. This time the new pope was in sympathy with the request. The importance of Scotland, or at least the Scottish king as the expected heir to Queen Elizabeth, had grown in the intervening 20 years. While Clement was considering the request a positive development for Catholicism in Scotland happened. In 1598 James’ queen, Anna of Denmark, converted to Catholicism59 and although this was not widely known it gave encouragement to the pope (which James himself did little to dispel) that Catholic interests in Britain might be viewed more leniently. This merited a stronger Roman-Scottish relationship and Clement was persuaded as part of the celebrations for the Jubilee of 1600 to set up a college in Rome using the property of the ancient Scots hospice. In his bull of 5 December 1600 Clement established the college and set up a papal endowment to ensure its success. He also placed it under the authority of the Cardinal Protector of Scotland, Camillo Borghese, the future Pope Paul V.60 The papal endowment proved to be essential since the medieval hospice did not provide the Scots with the financial resources that the English had obtained a quarter of a century earlier. The Scots hospice was much more modest and, unlike that of the English, the building does not appear to have been owned by the Scots. A lawsuit in 1604 saw the loss of their first house and Clement came to their aid by donating a small property in Rome to allow them to continue.61 At first these houses provided only accommodation for entrants; eleven students in 1602.62 Tuition was provided at the Collegio Romano. Money continued to be a problem and in 1606, shortly after his enthronement as Pope Paul V, Camillo Borghese granted the college an additional endowment. As a pontifical college Clement had placed the administration of the college under a papal official. The first, Mgr Bernardino Paolini, died in 1612 and Maffeo Barberini, the new Cardinal Protector for Scotland, failed to appoint a successor. The neglect which followed 59 Bellesheim, Vol. 4, pp. 58–9. Also McCoog and Davidson, Times Literary Supplement, Nov 2000. 60 Dilworth, ‘Beginnings’, p. 20. 61 Dilworth, ‘Beginnings’, p. 20. 62 RSC, p. 101.

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caused discontent among the students such that they petitioned Barberini to appoint Jesuits as superiors. In 1615 the cardinal acquiesced and appointed Patrick Anderson, a Scots Jesuit, as the first rector. By the time of Anderson’s appointment the college had enrolled more than 60 students although it is unlikely that there were more than 20 in residence at any time.63 Under Jesuit direction, which lasted for over a century and a half, the college grew to be extremely successful. Having survived for over four hundred years it functions today as the senior seminary for the training of Scottish Catholic priests. The College in Paris The long association through the Auld Alliance between the Scots and French meant that there were many Scottish links with the French capital. Paris had long been a centre of attraction for Scots and the city had hosted a Scots college since the fourteenth century when the Bishop of Moray, David Innes, established scholarships for Scottish students at the University of Paris. The bishop had purchased a farm at Grisy-Suines, the income from which was to provide bursaries for four young men from his own diocese. Over the course of 250 years this had widened to include recipients from elsewhere in Scotland and although the income had not always been sufficient to support the stipulated four, Scottish students had continuously benefited from “The College of Grisy”.64 The term “College of Grisy” which appears in legal documents cannot be taken as representing a building and it is not known whether after 1333, when the students resided at the College of Cardinal Lemoine, they even lodged together at the same location. Nevertheless it did provide financial support for Scottish clergy and laymen being educated in Paris. When it was proposed that Mary Queen of Scots’ college should be established in Paris in 1580, the intention was to combine that institution with the College of Grisy. Even after the new college was established in Pont-à-Mousson the queen supported the Paris scholars by adding to their endowment.65 With the increase in the number of Scottish Catholic exiles in Paris caused by

63

RSC, pp. 101–4. Scottish Catholic Archives (Hereafter SCA), Book of Grisy CA 1/1. 65 Up to her execution in 1587 Mary provided an additional pension for the Grisy scholars. Archivio Storico Congregazione per l’Evangelizzazione dei Popoli o “de Propaganda Fide” (Hereafter ASCEP) Fondo Congragazioni Particulari Vol. 86. 64

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the reversals of their fortunes in Scotland it was to be expected that the attraction of the city for Scots seeking an education would grow. Archbishop James Beaton was the most prominent Scottish exile living in Paris at the end of the sixteenth century. He had been Mary’s ambassador to the French court and remained there after her execution. He had also involved himself with planning the training of priests for Scotland at the time of the Bishop of Ross’s embassy to Rome on the queen’s behalf in 1575. At the foundation of her college in 1580 he had petitioned Gregory XIII to grant an indult enabling the bishop of Paris and Meaux to ordain priests for the Scottish mission without dismissorial letters.66 This concession would have been necessary when the Scottish hierarchy ceased to exist, which it did on Beaton’s death in 1603. A year before his death the archbishop purchased a house in the Rue des Amandiers with the intention of using it as a college for Scottish scholars. It is likely that the Grisy bursars moved into that property immediately.67 In his will the archbishop also left the residue of his estate for the upkeep of the new college. This together with the farm at Grisy provided an income for “poor students of the Scotch nation to study either in humanities or theology”.68 It was clear that Beaton’s intention was to continue the tradition of clerical and lay students coming to Paris and being supported there in his college. This perhaps also lay behind his decision to place the college under the supervision of the superior of the Carthusian monks of Vauvert in Paris.69 As a silent contemplative order their natural inclination would have been to leave the Scots to manage their own affairs and interfere in the running of the college as little as possible. The first principal of the college, William Lumsden, had been a Grisy bursar and his appointment almost certainly ensured a smooth transition from “The College of Grisy” to the new Scots college. Jesuit administration of the Scots colleges in Douai and Rome was not extended to the new college in Paris. Their involvement had been precluded at the outset due to their expulsion from Paris in 1595.70 When the ban was removed in 1620 and the Society of Jesus was

66 67 68 69 70

Halloran, p. 4. Halloran, pp. 4–5. SCA, Avery, GC 13/1. Halloran, p. 5. Mitchell, p. 94.

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allowed to return, the college was solidly established and not open to manipulation. Efforts were made by the Jesuits from time to time to obtain control but all were successfully resisted by the college’s secular superiors. In this they were helped by a combination of oppositions to the Society. The inherent Gallicanism of the Church in France sought to ensure that papal control was limited to matters of dogma with Church administration being reserved locally. The Jesuits who reported directly to the pope represented a force which owed no responsibility to the hierarchy of the countries in which they operated. In the continuing struggle with papal authority the French hierarchy did not normally view Jesuit overtures sympathetically. Another ally of the Scots secular superiors was found in the Congregation of Propaganda Fide. Founded in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV the congregation’s raison d’être was to manage the Church’s world-wide missionary activity. The Jesuits resisted Propaganda Fide’s intrusion into the running of their missions.71 In turn Propaganda Fide was extremely wary of any Jesuit action which might be construed as subverting their role. Despite determined efforts by the Jesuits to take control, by using these powerful allies, the secular principals remained in charge of the Scots College in Paris until its closure in the turmoil of the French Revolution.72 As a popular and successful college, Paris was to play a pivotal role and in the seventeenth century its rector, Robert Barclay, helped forge all of the colleges abroad into a coherent unified force for the education of Scots Catholics and the advancement of their aims. The Royal Scots College in Madrid By the early part of the seventeenth century the Scots had three colleges in Catholic Europe – Douai, Rome and Paris – exclusively for their use. For those who wished to enter the Benedictine order there were also the three monasteries in Germany. English Catholics had four colleges at that time which catered for much larger numbers than the Scots.73 The geographical spread of the colleges meant that Scots had a presence in the lands of all of the major Catholic powers;

71

Halloran, pp. 39–40. Rapport Michael, “Loyal Catholics and Revolutionary Patriots”, Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies, Vol. 2 Issue 1, 2009, AHRC Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies, University of Aberdeen, pp. 51–72. 73 Douai, Rome, Valladolid and Seville. Black, p. 172. 72

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the Spanish Netherlands, France and Rome as well as Hapsburg Germany. The Scottish colleges were small, however, and due to shortage of funds limited in the numbers they could accept – a problem they tried to lessen by occasionally accepting fee-paying laymen and non-Scots.74 If any additional funds could have been made available their obvious use would have been to support the existing colleges. Indeed, in 1623, Pope Urban VIII stated as much and said that there was no need for a further college for Scots. (See below) The foundation of the college in Madrid, therefore, requires explanation. Colonel William Semple and his wife, Doña Maria de Ledesma, founded the college in 1627. Semple was born in 1546, a member of the Semple family of Lochwinnoch; probably illegitimate.75 As a young man he had been in the service of Mary Queen of Scots, being present at the Battle of Langside in 1568.76 He was later to claim that Mary instructed him to go into exile and serve the Catholic cause in Scotland from abroad. By his own admission he took a commission in the army of William of Nassau in the Netherlands fighting against Spain; an action which hardly supports his claim. Around 1573 he was approached by Sir John Seton, the son of George, 5th Lord Seton, 1st Earl of Winton, who was in the Netherlands trying to gain Spanish help for the queen. He persuaded Semple to act as a spy for Spain while remaining in the service of the Prince of Orange. In 1582 Semple was instrumental in surrendering by prior arrangement the town of Lier near Antwerp to the Duke of Parma. Using his contacts with other Scots mercenary commanders in the armies of the States General he was also able to arrange the surrender of Bruges and Guelders to the Spanish.77 Semple earned the gratitude of the Duke of Parma and was given promises of financial reward. Having exhausted his credibility with his former colleagues he went to Spain and continued making use of his contacts in Scotland to provide intelligence for the Spanish king. Following Mary’s execution in 1587 he was sent on an embassy by Philip II to James VI to test his willingness to act against England to 74 RSC, p. 17 (E.g. the Alsondaer brothers, Andreas and Godrid from Antwerp were admitted to Douai in 1621. They were orphans of servants of Lady Curle who requested – and presumably paid for – their admission to the college.) 75 ODNB, Vol. XVII, p. 1177. 76 This was the decisive battle in which Regent Moray leading the Protestant Lords of the Congregation defeated the queen’s forces causing her to flee to England. 77 Taylor, p. 19.

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avenge his mother’s death. While there the news of the defeat of the Armada reached Scotland and Semple was arrested in Edinburgh. He escaped with help from his sister, Lady Jean Ross,78 wife of James, 4th Lord Ross of Halkhead, and daughter of Robert, 3rd Lord Sempill. This early escape allowed Semple to avoid compromising any of his Scottish contacts.79 From Scotland he went to the Duke of Parma in the Low Countries. It was possibly on this occasion that Semple first became familiar with the Scots college in Pont-à-Mousson run by William Crichton. After the college had transferred to Douai he provided it with an annuity sufficient to support eight students.80 Parma sent Semple back to Spain with a request that the royal treasury pay him for his services. However the finances of the Spanish king were not such that he could be paid.81 A number of expediencies to discharge the debt were adopted by the government over the rest of Semple’s life. In 1594 he was able to marry a Spanish widow who brought a modest dowry and was in receipt of a state pension. He was also awarded a number of prestigious titles, none of which carried any significant income. In 1613 Semple was given two houses which the state owned in the centre of Madrid. The declared value of this property was inflated and with its receipt Semple was required to acknowledge the complete discharge of the debt. The houses, which were to become the Scots college 14 years later, came encumbered with a number of tenants (retired royal servants who were entitled to live rent-free in the property). Semple and his wife moved in and shortly afterwards he offered support to his nephew, Hugh Semple, a graduate of Glasgow University who had converted 78 The Semples and Rosses had been related for over a century with two of the daughters of Lords Semple marrying Rosses in the fifteenth century. Lady Jean Ross was one of three natural children of Lord Semphill and Elisabeth Carlile, an Englishwoman. The children were legitimated on 24 August 1546, the year that Colonel Semple was born. There is no record of William or another son, Gilbert, who died in military service in Flanders, in Lord Semphill’s will and it would appear that they were illegitimate of the same mother as Jean but since they had not been born at the time of the deed of legitimation were not included with the others. Balfour James, Scots Peerage, Edinburgh, 1904–14, Vol. VII, pp. 254–5. 79 The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, Vol. IV, p. 316. The following year Semple’s servant, Thomas Pringle, was captured in England bearing letters from Scottish nobles to Philip II, the Duke of Parma and Col. Semple. He had journeyed to Scotland on Semple’s instructions. Ibid., pp. 360, 820–1. 80 Taylor, p. 25. 81 Black, p. 339 (The money owed was approximately 200,000 reals.)

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to Catholicism and was intending joining the Jesuits. He joined his uncle in Spain and eventually became a professor of mathematics at the Colegio Imperial de San Isidro, the Jesuit college in Madrid.82 It was Fr Hugh who took the first steps in founding the college. In 1623, no doubt after consultations with his uncle, he wrote to the king, Philip IV, suggesting that a college be established in Spain.83 The king wrote to Pope Urban VIII asking him to allocate an annual allowance from benefices in Spain to set up a college for the Scots in the same manner as the English and Irish colleges there. The pope’s reply was that there was no need for a further college for the Scots and that any students should be educated at their college in Rome.84 This response probably arose out of a concern that too many seminaries for missionaries had been set up in the Habsburg Empire as much as a reluctance to engage in additional expense. The previous year Urban had strengthened the role of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide in Rome in its responsibility for missionary activity across the world. Steps such as Philip was proposing would make control from Rome more difficult. Following the pope’s rejection Colonel Semple wrote to Urban to press the case for his college but Philip pre-empted any further discussion by informing the pope that he had control of a pension of 11,000 reals from the bishopric of Cadiz which at present was distributed among needy priests in Ireland. He proposed giving half of this sum to the Scots to establish their college. On the strength of this promise Colonel Semple and his wife signed a Deed of Foundation in 1627. Faced with a fait-accompli the pope gave the college his blessing but no funding. From the start the principal problem facing the college was lack of money. The property in Madrid needed extensive repairs and modifications. In order to complete these Colonel Semple took out large loans. The interest alone on the loans amounted to 16,500 reals p.a. When the Father Provincial of the Toledo province of the Society of

82

Taylor, p. 28. Archives of the Royal Scots College, Madrid, (Hereafter ARSCM), Box 42, F 1a. At the time Charles, Prince of Wales, was negotiating with the Spanish king for the hand of the Infanta. The proposal to found the college for Scots in Madrid should be seen as part of the intended improvement in relations between the two countries. The marriage negotiations were broken off soon after but the momentum which had been achieved to found a Scots college ensured its establishment in 1627. 84 Taylor, p. 23. 83

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Jesus, whom Colonel Semple had appointed as general supervisor of the college, carried out his first visitation he advised that no students be enrolled until the debts had been paid; advice that was ignored. The first students came from the Douai College in 1633. It is likely that the rector was persuaded by Colonel Semple to send them through the simple expedient of stopping the annuity which he had been sending to Douai. The colonel died aged 86 the following year but the widow and tenants remained in the college. Fr Hugh Semple was made rector. The students were accommodated in nearby inns and received tuition at the Colegio Imperial. The Scots college building appears to have been used by them only for worship in the chapel and the provision of meals.85 As the original tenants died or left (Doña Maria died in 1646) the college premises became available for housing the students. In 1647 a group of ten students arrived: five from Douai and a further five brought from Scotland by Fr Adam Gordon. This intake helped Fr Semple defend the college against calls for its closure. The Jesuit authorities at the Scots College in Douai appear to have wanted it closed down and its financial resources transferred to them.86 After his death in 1654 Fr Semple’s successors as rectors were faced with similar demands. The college’s principal failure was that none of its students was being ordained to go on the mission to Scotland. The earliest who can be verified as becoming a secular priest and working in Scotland for a significant period was Sir George Innes who entered the college in 1664.87 The lack of missionaries was due in large part to the fact that most of the students who completed their courses became Jesuits. This was a predictable outcome of the arrangement whereby the students went to the Colegio Imperial for studies; indeed, from the founding of the Madrid college until 1681 the superiors had stayed at the Colegio Imperial and not with their students in the Scots College. As well as the lack of missionaries the Scots elsewhere were concerned that the Madrid College would become a Spanish Jesuit institution which accepted Scots rather than a Scots college run by Jesuits. This was a real fear since the Spanish province had tried to appropriate the college and had had to be corrected by the General of the Society.88

85 86 87 88

Taylor, p. 33. Hay M.V., The Blairs Papers, London and Edinburgh, 1929, p. 167. RSC, p. 199. Taylor, p. 34.

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The Spanish rector of the college, Fr Antonio Rada, in a report to the papacy in 1690 claimed that the college was a State foundation and that there had been no Scots there since 1650: both statements being at best exaggerations.89 The college, nevertheless, managed to struggle on with varying numbers of students and Scottish rectors until 1681. The college had relied on the Colegio Imperial to teach its Quadrivium students and when that college failed in its primary aim of attracting the sons of Spanish nobility and was forced to close, the Scots college too became unviable and was closed. The administration of the college was placed in Spanish Jesuit hands and no further students were accepted. The college income continued, however, and while under Spanish administration its debts were largely repaid and its finances put on a sounder footing. For their part the Scots appear to have been satisfied with an annuity from the college income being sent to Douai for the support of students there.90 Despite the reverse in Spain the colleges had taken on an air of permanence and, together with the Benedictine monasteries in Germany, they constituted a recognisable Scottish Catholic Church in exile. This image was intensified by the degree of cooperation and interchange of personnel they achieved. The increasing numbers of their alumni at home and abroad formed a nexus capable of attempting to influence political affairs in Britain directly and through service with other continental powers.

Furthering Political Aims Most of the Scots involved in founding the colleges were state servants. Many held senior positions in the Church as well as being courtiers and diplomats. In order to accomplish their missions they were required to conduct negotiations with foreign dignitaries at the highest level. As has been seen, John Leslie dealt personally with the pope and the Spanish king. Later, in Germany, he made representations on his own initiative to the Holy Roman Emperor, the Duke of Bavaria, the Prince-Bishops of Mainz and Würtzburg. Leslie’s diplomatic status was crucial in pursuing his aims. He was shown respect because he was a Scottish nobleman and a dignitary of the Church

89 90

ASV, Fondo Carpegna 55, p. 75R–V. Taylor, p. 34.

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but most significantly because in the eyes of the courts he attended he represented the head of state of his country. Mary’s execution in 1587 ended this particular advantage and changed the status of Scottish Catholics wishing to serve their country in a diplomatic capacity. From that point onwards they were potential traitors to their own sovereign; a situation which was not to be resolved until the Catholic Relief Acts were passed by the British Parliament in the late eighteenth century. Initially, following Queen Mary’s execution, James VI saw the usefulness of retaining Archbishop Beaton as Scotland’s ambassador in Paris – the office to which the queen had appointed him. James was motivated in part by a desire to use Catholics to his own advantage in maintaining control in Scotland and in ultimately succeeding to the English throne. However, Bishop Leslie, despite at first being confirmed in his ecclesiastical appointments by James, had no place in the king’s plans and after Mary’s execution he lived out the remainder of his life in exile, taking up an appointment as bishop of Coutances in Normandy – a gift of the king of France. Leslie’s fate rather than Beaton’s was more typical of what befell his fellow countrymen and co-religionists in the years that followed. In 1603, on Archbishop Beaton’s death, the Scottish hierarchy ceased to exist, no replacement appointments having been made, and with that opportunities for Scots Catholics to attain senior Church positions were severely curtailed. These changes meant that Catholics were restricted in attempts to engage in diplomatic initiatives. Short of apostatising, the likelihood of state service in Scotland or England was small. James VI did continue to use one Catholic in the running of the state. He appointed Alexander Seton, the Earl of Dunfermline, as his chancellor in 1604. Seton had been educated in Rome at the Collegio Romano in the 1570s and remained a Catholic. He combined his superior education with formidable financial and administrative skills making himself indispensable to James in the running of Scotland, especially after the king’s accession to the English throne. James used the Privy Council to govern Scotland following his transfer to London and Seton’s position as a senior member of that body helped to keep a balance such that no faction – not the Kirk, Protestant nobles nor Catholic sympathisers – was able to dominate.91 By James’ practice of divide and rule he

91 Prince Charles was left in Seton’s care in Scotland when his father went to England in 1603. Clearly James trusted him more than most of his nobles.

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managed to temper the increasing strength of the Kirk as well as holding in check his more independent nobles. Seaton held his position as chancellor until his death in 1622 but his case was exceptional. The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 ended any possible opportunity for Catholics to advance their cause with the Stuarts notwithstanding the presence of Dunfermline in the Scottish Privy Council.92 Only after James’ death in 1625 could Catholics, particularly those associated with the Scots colleges abroad, hope to influence political affairs in Britain and then it was as agents of foreign powers. The onset of the Thirty Years War in 1618 with its initial division of the protagonists along doctrinal lines exacerbated the problems facing Catholics. King James’ son-in-law, Frederick V, the Elector Palatine, had precipitated the catastrophe by his actions but apart from providing recruits for mercenary armies Britain remained aloof from the war in Europe. King Charles’ marriage in 1625 to Henrietta Maria, the sister of Louis XIII of France, was undertaken to strengthen the Stuart kingship among European dynasties93 but had become troublesome due in part to the queen’s resentment of Charles’ support of the Huguenots. The military disaster of La Rochelle and consequent assassination of the king’s adviser, the Duke of Buckingham, in 1629 allowed Charles to change policy. Freed from the influence of Buckingham Charles and Henrietta Maria were able to enjoy a new relationship in their marriage and by 1634 they had three children. The queen used the genuinely affectionate nature of her relationship with the king to establish her influence in Britain in favour of France and win greater toleration of Catholicism. The success of Charles’ marriage and the easing of legal penalties against Catholics underpinned the king’s diplomatic efforts to obtain relief for his beleaguered sister’s family. Frederick had died in 1632 leaving his family in The Hague reliant on a small pension from the English parliament. His son, Louis, looked to his uncle to help him regain the Palatinate from the Habsburg emperor. Jointly with the queen Charles approached the queen’s godfather, Pope Urban VIII, through intermediaries (William Alexander, Earl of Stirling and Sir

92 Several of the conspirators had studied at the Jesuit English college in St Omers and were said to have made their initial plans while there. James’ anger was directed at Catholics in general but particularly Jesuits and those with connections to the colleges abroad. 93 As well as being a French princess she was daughter to Maria de Medici.

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Robert Douglas)94 to intercede with the emperor on behalf of Louis. The embassy was cloaked in a petition to appoint a British-born cardinal. The queen’s hope was to have someone of authority in the Church who could bring the quarrelling English Catholics into line and enhance the status of Catholics within the kingdoms.95 In agreeing to the queen’s wishes in this Charles hoped to use a cardinal to act as a channel of negotiation at the highest level with the pope. His objectives, in return for the improved treatment of Catholics in England, were to obtain the pope’s support in petitioning the emperor to re-instate his nephew as Elector Palatine and the provision of financial support for himself.96 Urban’s reaction was cautious. By virtue of his office he might have been able to arbitrate, but he was required to demonstrate impartiality in any dealings between the Catholic powers of Habsburg and Bourbon. Allying with a Bourbon princess and her husband would compromise him in the eyes of the Habsburgs. On the other hand he was conscious of the good intentions of his god-daughter and the implied threat from Charles. The course he chose was to defer a decision until he had full knowledge of the real wishes of the royal couple. He sent an agent, Gregorio Panzani, an Oratorian friar, to sound them out. The pope particularly wanted to establish whether a greater prize was possible; that of the conversion of the king himself. Charles played along with the agent telling him that he was really a Catholic at heart. Panzani’s grasp of English was not strong enough to detect that the king was simply asserting that Anglicans were the true Catholics and in his

94 Douglas is likely to have been the 4th son of William 9th Earl of Angus and uncle to both William 1st Marquis of Douglas and James Douglas, 1st Lord Mordington, who headed the most prominent Catholic families in Southern Scotland in the early seventeenth century. Prior to becoming Henrietta Maria’s Roman envoy, Sir Robert Douglas led a company of Scots, described as the Douglas Regiment, in the French army and died in 1635 probably aged about 75. The choice of Sir Robert as envoy marked an increase in French influence in British affairs. This point was not lost on Urban VIII and added to the difficulty of mediating with the Habsburg emperor on Charles’ behalf. 95 The secular priests wanted a bishop and the regulars, particularly the Jesuits, did not want to submit to any such authority. For his part King Charles was unwilling to allow the establishment of any hierarchy other than that of the Anglican (and Scottish) Church. 96 Charles was initially unsuccessful but his nephew, Charles Louis, was made Elector Palatine under the terms of the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. Financial support came later during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in the guise of payments to the queen. (See below)

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opinion it was the Roman Catholic Church that was heretical. Panzani presented the pope with a favourable report but still Urban was cautious. The preferred candidate for a cardinalcy was George Con who was serving in the household of the pope’s nephew, Cardinal Charles Barberini in Rome. Con was one of a small but growing number of Scots Catholics who had been educated at the Pontifical Scots College and had subsequently been appointed to administrative positions within the households of members of the Curia.97 George Con was of Scottish gentry, born the son of Patrick Con of Auchry and Isabella Chyn of Esslemont in Aberdeenshire. He had been a student at the Scots colleges in Paris and Rome. In 1619 he left the Rome college due to ill health and joined the Barberini household. In this position he had been able to introduce to the Papal Court any fellow countrymen who were visiting Rome. He became well known and was appreciated among Scottish Catholics as a good contact. The Earl of Stirling and Sir Robert Douglas both recommended Con to the king and queen when the issue of an “English” cardinal was first raised. From the papal point of view he was also acceptable in that he was of good birth which ensured he had some private income, he was known and trusted, and above all he was an intelligent man who could be relied upon to represent Catholic interests in any dealings with his king. Following Panzani’s report Urban sent Con to England to act as papal agent to the court of Henrietta Maria. Con had been informally advised by his employer, Cardinal Charles, that he was being considered for the cardinalcy. His mission was to secure the conversion of the king and if achieved would result in the award of a cardinal’s hat. Shortly after his arrival in England Con realized that the king would never convert to Catholicism and that he had been given an assignment in which everyone was doomed to be disappointed. Charles’ love and knowledge of fine arts was well known and Urban had provided Con with a wide range of gifts to distribute as aids to a successful mission.98 It must have been all the more disappointing to

97 Others were William Ogilvie, Colin Campbell and Thomas Forbes who were in the households of Cardinals Ginetti and Charles Barberini. Later Patrick Con, George’s nephew entered the service of Cardinal Francesco Barberini. 98 At the beginning of the first volume of correspondence between George Con and Cardinal Charles there is a document (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, – Hereafter BAV – Barb. Lat. 8639, F. 1–3) which lists the presents that Con took to England. The list is five and a half pages long and contains more than 100 pieces which include items of religious devotion such as relics of saints but also many gold and silver medallions

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the pope, therefore, to learn that he had been too optimistic in believing that Charles might be willing to convert. Con was not mistaken in his understanding of the king’s position. He had quickly gained Charles’ good favour by engaging him in one of the king’s favourite pastimes; that of controversy, particularly in religious matters.99 Charles apparently enjoyed their conversations and even went as far as seeking the envoy out while he was visiting the queen’s court. As a result of these one-to-one discussions Con was able to report to Rome that the king had two strong hatreds; first of Puritans since he considered that they were little more than republicans in disguise and secondly Jesuits since they encouraged his Catholic subjects to resist his authority in matters that were prerogatives of the king, specifically the taking of the Oath of Allegiance. His policy was to root out both evils from his kingdom and Archbishop Laud was engaged in the reform of the Anglican Church to ensure that there was no room for extremists. In his four years as Papal envoy Con saw further improvement in the conditions of Catholics. The court began to take a more relaxed view of Catholicism and it became fashionable among minor courtiers to convert to the queen’s religion. The improved toleration also had the effect of encouraging crypto-Catholics to practice their religion more openly. These events were highly visible to the general populace, and as well as the anger created among the Puritans there was resentment among mainstream Anglicans. Charles felt it prudent to issue a proclamation in 1637 forbidding proselytizing. This, however, appears to have made little difference to the actions of the Catholics or the attitudes of the Protestants. The following year Charles’ mother-

and works of fine art including a coronet of gold and silver set with diverse stones, a large reliquary made of precious metals and semi-precious jewels by Francisco Spagna and co-designed by Bernini. Another work of art (painting) is described as by the hand of Anibal Caraci. Many of these items were clearly personal presents for Charles and his queen and intended to impress. 99 BAV, Barb. Lat. 8639, F. 73–84 is a letter dated 16 September 1636 written from Amptonton (sic) in code. It gives an account of one of the conversations between Con and the king in which Con asked for further relaxation of freedom of conscience for Catholics saying that he could count on the support of not only the pope but also King Louis XIII of France. The king replied that any support had to be tangible (i.e. financial ) but that it was impossible to have any change in the law passed by parliament since it was full of Anabaptists and other heretics. Con then pressed for changes in Ireland where the writ of the English parliament did not run but the king was noncommittal. Con ended the letter by stressing that the pope and the Court in Rome had to understand how tightly the king was constrained by parliament despite the fact that he was personally sympathetic to the plight of his Catholic subjects.

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in-law, Dowager Queen Marie de Medici, came to stay at court.100 It could only appear to the majority of his subjects that things were getting worse. The pope had been kept aware of these developments by Con through his correspondence with his nephew. Not wishing to antagonize Charles but unwilling to help him in relation to any approach to the Emperor regarding the Palatinate, Urban fell back on delaying tactics in his dealings with both Charles and Con. The issue of the Oath of Allegiance became the sticking point in the negotiations and Con and Charles worked hard to arrive at alternative drafts which would clarify that it was temporal in nature and did not contravene any spiritual authority claimed by the pope.101 Playing around with forms of words allowed Urban to delay for two years. Charles was beginning to lose his patience and Con was running out of excuses. Urban promised a definitive reply on the two remaining points of difference once he had sought the opinions of a council of theologians which he would convene especially for the purpose. In an attempt to ensure Charles’ forbearance hints were made that gifts of money might be possible.102 In due course the theologians made their pronouncement and, no doubt as Urban expected, they found that instead of the two points of difficulty in the wording of the oath they had managed to find “numerous obstacles to the oath”.103 Understandably the king reacted angrily and Con’s position as envoy was totally compromised. Con threatened to resign and since his health, which had never been strong, had deteriorated this was used as an excuse to recall him to Rome in 1639. Cardinal Charles’ correspondence at the time indicates that Urban intended to elevate Con to the Cardinalcy in deference to the wishes of the queen and king but also because he had served well

100 The queen had long been at odds with Richelieu regarding the influence he had over her son, Louis XIII. She had been forced into exile in 1631 and had spent seven years traveling around Europe and outstaying her welcome. 101 In going this far Charles was risking censure from his parliament as and when it had to be recalled. The existing wording of the Oath had been passed by parliament and was enshrined in English law. 102 Urban knew how short of cash Charles’ treasury was. Charles later in 1641 asked for 600,000 crowns (approximately £150,000) to help with his costs in running the war. A donation of 30,000 crowns (approx. £7,500) was eventually given in 1642. This was supposedly to help the queen. Albion, p. 375. 103 Albion, p. 277.

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as an envoy.104 Con did not live to see it happen as he died shortly after his arrival in January 1640.105 The king and queen still had ambitions regarding the appointment of a British cardinal. The queen’s preference was for Walter Montagu, one of her protégés at court; the king’s was for his cousin, Abbé Ludovic Stuart d’Aubigny, the younger brother of the Duke of Lennox and grandson of Esmé Stuart, King James VI’s favourite. Neither could agree on the other’s candidate and another alumnus of the Scots college in Rome, Robert Philip, an Oratorian friar and the queen’s confessor, was considered as a compromise acceptable to them both as well as to the pope. However, Fr Philip had no ambition for the position and with the gathering political problems in Britain the matter was abandoned.106 Con’s replacement as Papal envoy to the queen was a young Italian nobleman, Conte Carlo Rossetti. He could achieve little since when he arrived in England the situation in the country had changed dramatically. The problems which the Laudian reforms had caused in Scotland107 had forced Charles to recall his parliament.108 The improved toleration for Catholics that Henrietta Maria and Con had worked to achieve was lost in the anguish of the ensuing wars. Persecutions returned. Robert Philip was impeached by parliament for arranging financial help from the pope for Henrietta Maria. He was imprisoned but eventually allowed to accompany the queen when she fled to The Hague in

104 Prior to Con’s return Urban had suggested to his nephew that Con be given a cardinal’s allowance to stay in England and that he be installed as a cardinal on his return to Rome. Albion, p. 315. 105 A letter dated 4 August 1658 (BAV, Barb. Lat. 8669, F. 254) from Patrick Con to his employer Cardinal Francesco Barberini comments on the text proposed for his uncle’s (i.e. George Con’s) epitaph in the church of San Lorenzo in Damaso in Rome. Patrick Con expressed the opinion that it should contain a comment to the effect that Pope Urban had intended making him a cardinal but death had intervened. Attached to this letter is an unsigned comment (BAV, Barb. Lat. 8669, F. 253) to the effect that the writer is “whingeing on” about a long forgotten incident. The monument, which is very splendid, makes no mention of the cardinal’s hat for Con. However his old college in Rome has just such a reference in its records. 106 Albion, pp. 319–20, 328. Ludovic Stuart was later, in 1665, appointed a cardinal shortly before his death. 107 The National Covenant and the Bishops’ Wars. 108 Before he left for Rome in 1639 Con raised a “voluntary” levy among English Catholics in an attempt to remove the need for the king to recall parliament. The levy raised £10,000, a sum that was totally inadequate to the task.

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1642. The worst excesses were the public executions of priests which restarted in 1641.109 By the time the wars started the Scots Colleges abroad had been functioning for decades educating hundreds of young men, many of them nobility and gentry, who had returned to Scotland, inheriting family estates, or had taken up careers in Europe. As Catholics, other than entry to the Church, the openings most readily available to them were in the military service of foreign powers. Many had taken up commissions in the armies of Spain, France and the Hapsburg emperor. In the late 1630s the alumni of the colleges who were of military age numbered more than 300. Sentiment among them was overwhelmingly in favour of the king. The reasons for this are not difficult to understand. The parliamentarians’ persecution of their co-religionists added to a loyalty to the Scottish House of Stuart and together with their defence of the privileges of the landed gentry meant active opposition to the king was virtually unthinkable. The colleges began to organise support for Charles.110 A number of the students left their studies and returned to Britain to engage in the wars.111 College alumni who had taken up military careers on mainland

109 The first recorded execution is of Fr William Ward, a 76 year old Franciscan. Edward Ambrose Barlow, Benedictine, was hanged, drawn and quartered in Lancaster in September 1641. In January 1642 two priests were hanged at Tyburn. As a concession to the age of one of them, Thomas Greene who was 80, the drawing and quartering were carried out after they were dead. The executions continued throughout 1643 and 1644. The names of 18 priests and lay Catholics are recorded as having been executed during these two years in various cities throughout England. Many more died in prison. Albion, pp. 371–2. 110 The register of the Madrid College in 1647 shows that the college authorities provided finance for two of their mature students to buy commissions as centurios in the militia. Adam Gordon was aged 32 and considered too old for serious study. The college gave him 200 Reals to buy a commission. The register also states that he recruited fellow students from the Scots colleges in Douai and Paris. He seems to have influenced another student at the Madrid College, Robert Gordon, who is described as of noble birth from Elgin, to join the army. The college provided Robert with 250 Reals to obtain a commission. RSC, pp. 196–7. 111 Seven students are recorded as having broken off their studies to fight for Charles. This can only be viewed as the minimum number since the college which is most likely to have responded to the military needs of the time was Paris whose records are lost. The Macghie brothers from Glasgow are examples of those students whose names are recorded in the college registers. George left Douai to go to Ireland in c. 1641. His younger brother, Claud – 11 years his junior, left at the age of 15 to become a soldier in 1649 – too late to participate in the wars. Both brothers appear to have joined the French army following their return from Britain.

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Europe returned to Britain to fight for the king.112 The colleges helped the officers in Charles’ army in another way. The young members of their families were given refuge in the Scots colleges. Not all of those helped were Scots.113 The men who took an active part were not acting as individuals. The colleges had become part of a Catholic network of interconnected families and friends who gave the institutions financial support. They added to their primary role of education by providing accommodation for couriers, travellers and exiles. By supporting this mobile Scots community they were able to provide the wider Scots diaspora with a relatively secure means of communicating with compatriots throughout Europe. The Scots College in Paris became a key part of this system. The networks in which the colleges participated had taken time to develop. As has been shown, the colleges from their foundations benefited from supporters of Queen Mary I, but it is clear from the college registers that the networks of their families were greatly enlarged in the 1620s when increased numbers of students from Scotland came to France and the Spanish Netherlands. However the greatest expansion of the expatriate Scottish community in Paris came in the 1640s when royalist refugees from each of the three British kingdoms flooded into the city. The most prominent were certainly Queen Henrietta Maria and her three sons.114 She established her court in exile with many of her husband’s supporters in attendance. Fr Philip was still with her as her confessor but many others joined them as the tide of war turned against the royalists. The end of the war and the execution of the king added to the number of exiles in France. Confessional divisions seem to have been forgotten at this time in view of their common royalist

112

Among many examples are: Walter Hervey who also had been at Douai had become a soldier in Spain but returned to fight for the king who knighted him for his valour. Hervey returned to Spain following the king’s defeat: and Alexander Leith, a student of Douai and Rome Colleges, fought under the Marquis of Montrose in Scotland and returned to Douai en route to Paris with dispatches from the Marquis in 1649 shortly before his capture. 113 Senior officers in Charles’ forces who sent their young sons and other male relatives to the Scots colleges during the hostilities include General George Middleton, Lord John Reid of Aitkenhead, Colonel Robert Innes of Leuchars, Colonel Cathcart, Colonel Walter Whytford and Colonel David Barclay. 114 Her youngest son, Henry Duke of Gloucester, was imprisoned in London by Cromwell and did not join his mother in Paris until 1652.

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sentiments and the shared hardship of exile.115 Giving mutual support and sharing information became common among many of the exiles in Paris. Patrick Con used this spirit of cooperation to his advantage. Con was a nephew of George Con, the deceased papal envoy to Henrietta Maria. In 1648 he was engaged by Cardinal Francis Barberini, nephew of Pope Urban VIII, his uncle’s old employer, to buy books for his library in Rome. There is no question that in this Con was providing a service which the cardinal valued.116 However, Con fulfilled another role for the cardinal and indirectly the pope. Much of their correspondence is filled with information regarding the situation in Britain. Con had been educated at the Scots colleges in Douai, Paris and Rome and benefitted from his knowledge of Paris when the cardinal made him his book buyer there. In addition to adding to the cardinal’s library Conn was required to gather intelligence on affairs in Britain. The cardinal shared this information with the other members of the Curia.117 By using his contacts within the Scots college and the court of Henrietta Maria, Con was able to engage with a number of royalist refugees and pass on first-hand accounts of matters such as the trial and execution of the king.118 Later he was able to report on the parliamentary factional infighting and opposition to Cromwell and the disintegration of the Commonwealth after the protector’s death. This information came from a variety of sources within the parliament

115 Many Protestant supporters, however, left Paris with Charles II when, as a condition of the Treaty of Westminster 1654, he was excluded from French territory. The treaty ended the First Anglo-Dutch War and under its terms the United Provinces, Cromwell’s Commonwealth and France made common cause against the Spanish Netherlands. 116 This is clear from their correspondence in which he frequently gives Con instructions on purchasing specific books. 117 Con corresponded with others in Rome including Cardinal Antonio Barberini, another nephew of Urban VIII and William Leslie of Propaganda Fide. BAV, Barb. Lat. 8666 ff. 98–9. 118 Con names Doctor Holden as one of his contacts but he makes frequent reference to discussions with Cavalliere Digby. Sir Kenelm Digby (son of Everard, the gunpowder plotter) was at this time in exile in Paris in the household of Queen Henrietta Maria who had appointed him as her chancellor. She had been using Digby as emissary between herself and her husband in England. In a letter to the Cardinal dated 19 February 1649, Con reported that Fairfax and Cromwell had refused to issue Digby with a permit to travel to England and, therefore, reliable information might prove more difficult to obtain. BAV, Barb. Lat. 8666, FF. 98–9.

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and the officer corps of the parliamentary army. These contacts were particularly important in keeping Conn and consequently the authorities in Rome abreast of the developing support for the restoration of Charles II. Conn was extremely adept at using his network of informants and in this his association with the Scots College in Paris was important. His networking skills had enabled him to develop a further useful facility for Scots Catholics. As part of his duty to supply books and more significantly money between Paris and Rome he used a number of trusted couriers and had established a secure means of transporting messages and money. His couriers used the river and canal systems from as far north as Liege to the south of France and from there by ship to Italy.119 The security of his system of transporting money was extremely important to Con and probably indicates that he was acting as paymaster for British spies in papal service. On his recall to Rome in 1654 Con delegated his duties in these matters to James Mowat (Mout), a Scottish banker who was well known in Paris at the time.120 Mowat’s banking activities would have included pawn broking and money changing, both services in demand among a community of exiles, but it is likely that he also operated a brokerage in bills of exchange which was a more secure way of transferring money than carrying cash. Con returned to Paris in 1657 but this time in the capacity of business or legal representative of the cardinal and resumed his previous activities in providing information on developments in Britain.121 While 119 Hay Blairs Papers pp. 244–5. Also BAV, Barb. Lat. 8666, F. 16. In a letter from Con to the cardinal dated 31 July 1648 he writes that he has despatched a carton of books in the care of Collonello Vaini by canal from Liege and has given him 1000 scudi for payment of customs and other expenses. He then gives news of the war in England as reported by his informant, Dr Holden. He reports that the Scots have invaded and parliament has branded them traitors and ordered General Fairfax against them. Colchester is still holding for the king but cannot withstand the siege much longer since the cavaliers with the Duke of Buckingham can do nothing and are fleeing to Holland. The Earl of Peterborough with 500 cavaliers has already gone as has the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York. He ends by saying that not much can be expected of the Scots since Marshall Hamilton has already lost too much credibility to get full support from them. 120 Hay M.V., ‘The Barberini Library’, Library Review, vol. 20, 1931, p. 166. 121 His weekly letters to the Cardinal recommenced and continued to 1675 i.e. almost to the cardinal’s death in 1679. As before the information is given in great detail indicating that he had managed to acquire an extremely reliable circle of informants. In letters dated 3 May and 8 June 1657 (BAV, Barb. Lat. 8669, FF. 11, 17) he tells that parliament has voted to offer Cromwell the title of king but the Anabaptists opposed it. Cromwell has sought that the title should be granted in perpetuity to his

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acting as the cardinal’s business agent Con appears to have resided in the college from time to time122 and from that vantage point was able to witness the major transformation in the organisation of the Scots colleges abroad such that they began to operate as a coherent body with single-mindedness of purpose. He remained extremely close to the rector of the Scots College in Paris, Robert Barclay, and communicated with other members of the wider Scottish Catholic network who supported Barclay in the organisation of the changes to the colleges.

A Scottish University Robert Barclay was born c. 1612, the son of David Barclay of Mathers and Elizabeth Livingston. The family was Calvinist but after graduating from the University of Aberdeen in 1633, Robert converted to Catholicism and went to Paris to study at the Scots college there. His arrival coincided with a period of heightened expectation among Catholics caused by King Charles’ softening of the application of the Penal Laws. One outcome of this was a marked increase in students attending seminaries abroad.123 A number of these students on ordination formed a group of idealistic Scottish priests who planned to expand missionary activity in Scotland. Members of the group took on important complementary roles. William Ballentine was appointed the prefect of the mission of secular priests in Scotland. William Leslie became the representative of the Scottish mission in Rome, initially attached to the household of Cardinal Charles Barberini but later appointed to the post of archivist of Propaganda Fide, the first person successors and this has built up a furious opposition. In a series of letters dated 8 and 25 August and 10 October 1659 (BAV, Barb. Lat. 8669, FF. 25, 27, 28–30, 31, 32–3) he tells of the developments in favour of Charles II. In these he says his informant was a gentleman under the command of General Massey. The news was that there was widespread disgust among the people against parliament and that the cities of Gloucester and Bristol as well as the counties of Sussex, Surrey and Hereford have declared for the king and that cavaliers there are armed. The Scots are reported as providing support although they have not crossed the border; also that Dorset is now behind the king. In a letter dated 20 February 1660 (BAV, Barb. Lat. 8669, FF, 32–3) he says that General Monke (sic) has dissolved parliament and has come out in support of the king. His letter of 28 May 1660 describes Charles proclamation as king in London on 8 May. (BAV, Barb. Lat. 8669, FF. 37–8) 122 He lived out the last years of his life in the college dying there in 1695 aged 80. 123 McInally T., The Alumni of the Scots Colleges Abroad 1575–1799 unpublished doctoral dissertation, pp. 75–6, University of Aberdeen, 2008.

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to hold this important office. For over 40 years he worked at the centre of the Church’s missionary organisation engaging Roman support for the Scots. Such was the respect which he gained that over time his colleagues affectionately referred to him as Don Guillielmo. In 1650 Robert Barclay was made the mission’s agent in Paris responsible among other things for the safe onward transmission of the payments from the Roman authorities to the missionaries in Scotland. Two years later George Leith retired and Barclay took his place as principal of the Scots College in the city. Having such a strong commitment to furthering missionary efforts it was predictable that Barclay would dedicate the resources of the college to providing as much support to the mission as possible. The college which Barclay had taken over from Leith had had a lacklustre record in producing missionaries, but it had prospered materially. The contributions of benefactors had included gifts of property124 and Barclay was able to house additional students as well as rent out unused property to increase the college income. He was assiduous in cultivating a network of prominent Scots in the city and soliciting contributions from them.125 Among the benefactors were Thomas Chambers, a Scot who was almoner to Cardinal Mazarin, and Patrick Con, both of whom were college old boys. There were also a number of benefactors from the refugee Scottish community such as Colonel Sir Patrick Menteith of Salmonet and Margaret Maitland of Lethington and even an English exile, Alice Banks of Borlace. In addition to improving the college’s income Barclay showed himself to be extremely prudent in managing expenses. Contemporary accounts give the impression that he was careful with money to the point of being parsimonious. This was not personal meanness, however, since he contributed to the college from his own resources. The financial reserves which Barclay built up enabled him to continue to buy property in Paris such that during his principal-ship the college owned six houses and a farm. His careful husbandry was to a purpose. A new college was required to fulfil his ambitious plans for Scottish education

124 No. 9 Rue des Postes had been bequeathed by George Galloway, a canon of St Quentin’s, in 1636. At least one and possibly two other properties were owned prior to 1652 in addition to Archbishop Beaton’s house in rue des Amandiers and the farm at Grisy-Suines. 125 In the necrology of the college there are at least nine listed as having contributed to the college during Barclay’s principal-ship. Halloran, p. 48.

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and increase the missionary effort. In this he was supported by others especially William Leslie in Rome. Due to their wariness of Jesuit intentions, the secular rectors of the Paris college had striven to maintain operational independence from the Scots colleges in Douai, Rome and Madrid which were run by the Society. Over time the three Jesuit colleges had developed close working relationships. The colleges’ approaches to the admission and training of students were not the same but were compatible. They were able to develop mutually beneficial arrangements regarding teaching. As an easier first port of call from Scotland, Douai enrolled new young students starting on their basic education in humanities. On graduation these students were provided with the opportunity of entering the colleges in Rome or Madrid to continue with their studies in philosophy, theology or canon law. Without being formally described as such, the relationship became that of Douai as a junior college teaching the Trivium and acting as a feeder to Rome and to a lesser degree Madrid, which were seen as senior colleges teaching mainly the Quadrivium. Within this arrangement there was little opportunity for the college in Paris to take students from Douai. As a junior college Douai took a laxer view of admissions than the others. Among its students were many who had made clear that they did not wish to proceed to ordination. On completion of the Trivium some of these students continued their studies in Paris and consequently the Paris college achieved a low number of ordinations. As a result the majority of Scots who were being ordained were doing so in the Society of Jesus. Secular priests were in a minority. Complaints against the Society regarding their appropriating most of the students, particularly the brighter ones, for their order had been current for many years.126 Although the accusation was in part justified it was to be expected that young men should prefer to join the Jesuits since the secular clergy could provide little organisation or support. It was this situation that Barclay and Leslie were anxious to rectify. The restoration of Charles II in 1660 gave Barclay the encouragement to plan for a significant increase in the number of priests to be trained and their better organisation on mission work. The opportunity for better relations with the Jesuits also presented itself in the person of Alexander Leslie, the Jesuit rector of the Scots College in

126

Taylor, pp. 38–9.

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Douai, who was the brother of Don Guillielmo in Rome. The necessary improved cooperation between the secular clergy and the Society of Jesus was then possible and Barclay began work on providing a new physical location for the college. In 1662 he purchased a piece of land in Rue des Fosse St Victor (now Rue Cardinal Lemoine) at a cost of 27,000 livres and proceeded to build a large college. It was opened in 1665 and in 1672 Barclay built an additional wing together with a chapel. When it was completed Barclay was able to house the college staff and students under one roof and considerably increase their numbers.127 Even allowing for this increase, the college had more space than was needed and Barclay decided that it should take on two extra roles: that of providing accommodation for missionaries who had suffered persecution and exile from Scotland and that of providing training for all ordained priests about to go on the Scottish mission.128 The training lasted for one or two years and consisted of imparting practical knowledge of working in such difficult conditions. Being able to work undetected in their communities in Scotland was an important part of this. Ostensibly working as doctors or tutors provided priests with good cover and while in Paris training was given in medicine and other subjects to allow them to do this. Barclay managed to persuade Propaganda Fide to provide additional funds for this training.129 Under this system all Scottish missionaries no matter where they had been initially educated or ordained became part of a network centred on the Scots College in Paris. This concentration meant that the new college building became an even more important centre for Scots in Paris. Visitors from Scotland and exiles from elsewhere in Europe made contact with the college on arrival in Paris. However Barclay refused to provide college accommodation to priests and limited the time that other visitors would be accommodated. He did this to preserve the college accommodation for its primary function of education and training. As a result visiting Scots rented apartments in the street adjacent to the college which became known as Rue d’Ecosse, the name

127

Noticeable increases in numbers to all of the colleges occurred in the 1670s and peaked in the 1680s. McInally, pp. 75–7. 128 ASCEP, Collegii Varii 50, Fol. 568, ref. No. 2. 129 ASCEP, Collegii Varii 50, Fol. 568, ref. No. 1.

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by which it is still known.130 Thanks to the work of Leslie, Barclay and others,131 Scots Catholics had very significant educational provision in Douai, Paris, Rome and Madrid. Each college was still run independently of the others but for the first time they worked in a coordinated manner to produce the most effective result for the education of Scottish Catholics and the training of priests and missionaries.

Distractions, Progress and Retrenchment Barclay’s efforts were responsible for providing the manpower needed to sustain the missionary effort in Scotland,132 but shortly after his death in 1682 matters became more difficult. The Madrid college had closed to Scottish entrants in 1681 but the greatest damage was done by the Stuart monarchy. The encouragement to Catholic interests caused by the coronation of the James VII/II was short-lived, being reversed by the Glorious Revolution. The Scots colleges, particularly that of Paris, came to James’ aid in his attempts to regain his throne. Just as they had for his father half a century earlier, students and alumni joined his armies. After his defeat in Ireland in 1691 the external interests and energies of the Paris college were largely absorbed in supporting the Jacobite cause. James set up court in St Germain and the college principal, Louis Innes, was made the king’s almoner and appointed to his inner circle of advisers. The distraction this caused resulted in a 130 The college authorities later bought property in this street to rent out to fellow Scots. Montague V.M., ‘The Scottish College in Paris’, The Scottish Historical Review, Vol. 4, University of Edinburgh Press, 1962, p. 405. 131 Principal among the others was Thomas (Placid) Fleming who entered the Paris college in 1668 and became a Benedictine monk at the Schottenkloster in Regensburg. As abbot of the monastery for over 40 years he revitalized the Scots Benedictines in Germany welding the monasteries in Würzburg, Erfurt and Regensburg into a single community. In Erfurt he endowed two chairs of philosophy at the city’s university which were reserved specifically for Scots Benedictines. He built up close relationships with the Duke of Bavaria and the Imperial Court in Vienna and used his influence to advance Scottish interests. His work was greatly helped by the support which he received from James Leslie, Count of the Holy Roman Empire. General Leslie became a significant benefactor of the Scots monastery in Regensburg during his lifetime and left a legacy on his death. This enabled the Benedictines to support the mission in Scotland. When Thomas Nicholson was appointed Vicar Apostolic in Scotland Fleming was able to provide him with eight Benedictine priests for his mission. In enhancing Scottish interests in the German lands and Habsburg Empire Fleming was working to a pattern inspired by Barclay to further the aims of Catholics in Scotland. 132 See Chapter 5.

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decrease in ordinations due to more of the college students taking up military careers. This heavy involvement in the Stuart cause continued up to James’ death in 1701.133 Afterwards the colleges’ commitment to the Stuart cause weakened. Their sentimental attachment to the Stuarts did not change but they did not give the same material backing to his son’s and grandson’s military efforts to regain the thrones. This was due to more than a reduction in their expectations of success. James’ status, in the eyes of others, as a client of King Louis XIV had made support difficult. The college in Rome and the Schottenklöster were particularly dependent on the goodwill of the papacy and the Hapsburgs whose interests often opposed those of France. This dependency was shared by a number of Catholic exiles who viewed Rome or the Schottenkloster rather than Paris as their European base. The monasteries in Germany were thriving under Abbot Placid Fleming who had managed to gain imperial and papal recognition as head of all three Scottish monastic communities thereby overturning the sixteenth-century charter set up by Prince-Bishop Julius Echter and Ninian Winzet. Fleming had been a student in the Scots College in Paris in the 1670s and was a protégé of Barclay. With his encouragement and that of William Leslie in Rome, as abbot of Regensburg, Fleming had strengthened the German monasteries financially and increased their support for the Scottish mission. After two decades of petitioning, the pope and the Duke of Bavaria gave Fleming permission in 1703 to set up a seminary in Regensburg for the training of priests. Although the three monasteries belonged to a contemplative order they had provided missionaries for Scotland from the earliest times.134 Fleming’s actions were designed to increase missionary effort

133 By the terms of his will the king’s papers were transferred to the college for safe keeping and were later joined by the private papers of a number of prominent Jacobites. Although some were lost as a result of looting at the time of the college’s closure the majority of the Stuart Papers were transferred to England at the beginning of the French Revolution and are now housed in the Queen’s Collection at Windsor. Halloran, pp. 80–90. 134 When Thomas Nicholson was appointed the first Vicar Apostolic to Scotland in 1695, of the 35 missionary priests he had already working in Scotland six were Benedictine monks. In his annual report to Propaganda Fide in 1698 Bishop Nicolson stated that the missionaries then at his disposal were 40 in number – 10 Jesuits, 4 Benedictines and 26 seculars. The numbers were relatively few but represented a supply of missionaries which Propaganda Fide did not have to support financially. ASCEP Con. Par. Vol. 32R–267V. (See chapter 5.)

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in Scotland but he was also aware of the distress of Scottish exiles and their need for a safe refuge. This became more necessary as the initial hospitality at the court in St Germain became strained through lack of money. In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries the monasteries under Fleming were hosts to considerable numbers of exiled Jacobites. Some joined the Order but most were entertained as guests.135 The abbots of the Schottenklöster had participated in the political life of their city states and made important contributions at crucial times.136 By their actions they had made influential connections and were able to act as intermediaries between the exiles and the courts of Bavaria and of the emperor in Vienna. Consequently the Schottenklöster not only provided refuge but exerted a political influence over Scots which was greater than could have been expected from their size and distance from Scotland. The establishment of their seminary in 1703 meant that the Regensburg monastery became part of the formal arrangements for education that the Scots colleges represented. The monasteries had always been in close contact with the colleges; many of the monks were Scots college students before joining the order. Fleming expanded the Scots’ role in the academic life of Southern Germany by founding chairs at the University of Erfurt and supporting members of the Order in holding professorships at universities in Southern Germany.137 This enlargement of Scots representation in Germany was accompanied shortly afterwards by advances in their fortunes in Spain. In 1713 the Jesuit General instructed the Spanish administration which had

135 The abbots were careful to ensure that entrants to the monasteries were Scots. In over 200 years of existence only two non Scots are recorded – a Fleming and an Irishman – both in the last decade of the seventeenth century. Abbot Augustine Duff of Würzburg petitioned King James VII/II in St Germain on behalf of the Irishman, Philip Culbin, to be allowed to change his nationality to Scottish before being allowed to stay permanently (Archives of the Pontifical Scots College, Rome, – Hereafter APSCR – Box 3, Item 92). When the monasteries were closed in the early nineteenth century as part of the secularization of religious institutions ordered by Napoleon, their identity was still clearly Scottish and the monks were able to re-establish their community as the Benedictine abbey of Fort Augustus. 136 For example during the Thirty Years War William Ogilvie, Abbot of St James’ monastery in Würzburg, surrendered the city to the forces of Gustavus Adolphus in 1631. The civic dignitaries had fled and Abbot Ogilvie was the only person of any authority left. He yielded the city without a struggle on the condition that the citizens were not molested and thereby avoided the worst of the atrocities that had befallen other conquests in the war. Dillworth, Franconia, p. 67. 137 See Chapter 3.

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taken over the college in Madrid to return it to the Scots. It reopened with Thomas Fyfe as rector. Fyfe had been educated at Douai before joining the Jesuits in Naples. He held a number of educational appointments including that of rector of the Scots College in Rome before his appointment in Madrid. Under his leadership the college underwent a period of academic and financial success. Student numbers were buoyant. By accepting fee-paying sons of Spanish nobility and gentry he was able to accommodate an increased number of impecunious Scots as scholars. The college gained a reputation for excellence in education. Its success was such that the king, Philip V, intended founding a college near Madrid for the sons of the Spanish nobility to be run by the Scots but this was opposed by the Spanish Jesuits.138 Despite this rebuff the reputation of the Scots was further enhanced when the new rector of the college, William Clerk, was appointed in 1727 to be the king’s personal confessor. This second period of Scots activity at the college came to an end in 1734 when the General of the Society decided that all the students should be sent to Douai together with an annuity from the college revenues sufficient to support 12 students. There were probably two reasons for this decision. The Douai argument that the college was failing to meet the aim of its charter of foundation to produce priests for the Scottish mission was still valid but there also appears to have been weariness on the part of the Scots in Madrid in the face of continuous opposition from the Spanish Jesuits.139 The rector at Douai, Francis Strachan, was extremely angry about the closure. He had not been consulted nor informed before the students from Madrid arrived at Douai without papers and almost penniless. James Hudson, the Prefect of the Scots Mission in Edinburgh, who had agreed to the Madrid college confiscation by the Spaniards, was required to defend himself in correspondence with Douai and Rome. He argued that the interests of the Scots mission would be better served by more priests being educated at Douai from the revenues of the Spanish property. Douai complained that they would see little of the money promised – which proved to be correct – and that a considerable portion of the college’s library had been sent from Douai and should be returned – it never 138

Taylor, p. 41. Taylor, p. 42 also RSC p. 200. The entry in the college register lists five students being transferred to Douai claiming that the Spanish Jesuits expelled them and dissolved the Madrid College. 139

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was. The argument and correspondence seems to have ended only with Strachan’s death in 1739 and the college remained in the possession of the Spanish Jesuits.140 When the Society of Jesus was expelled from Spain in 1767 the Scottish bishops took action to regain the college property. They sent John Geddes to Madrid to negotiate its return. A genial and highly intelligent man, he was able to make friends at the Spanish court and, after negating plans which had been put in place by the Irish to their benefit and the Scots’ disadvantage, he was entirely successful. There is irony in the fact that part of this success was in re-establishing the college in the confiscated Jesuit College of San Ambrosio in Valladolid. The revenues from the college properties in Madrid and elsewhere in Spain were sufficient to allow the seminary to accept its first entrants from Scotland in 1770.141 The true significance of this re-opening of the college was to be seen 30 years later. By that time the colleges in Paris, Douai and Rome142 had been closed by order of the Revolutionary French government and the Schottenkloster had been dissolved by the actions of Napoleon. For 20 years Valladolid was the only college available for the training of Scots priests in continental Europe.

Toleration in Scotland In the late eighteenth century the British government was slowly moving towards an accommodation with its Catholic subjects. The Catholic Relief Act of 1778 had been passed for England and Wales driven by the government’s need to secure the loyalty of Catholics serving in its armed forces. The process was accelerated and then completely transformed by the event which was to turn Europe upside down. The recall of the Estates General in 1789 by Louis XVI led to revolution and the king’s loss of control in France. One of the first targets of the revolutionaries was the property of the Catholic Church. By November of 1791 all Church property had been confiscated and clerics, as State servants, were required to swear an oath of loyalty to the State (the Civic Oath). Many refused and along with aristocrats and other

140 141 142

Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu, (Hereafter ARSI ) Anglia 5I, Scottica Epistolae. Taylor, pp. 66–77. The Pontifical Scots College in Rome reopened in 1820 after a gap of 23 years.

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figures deemed to be part of the Ancien Régime were persecuted. The fate of some was imprisonment and execution. Many more fled the country and due to its proximity England became a place of refuge for French Catholics, including clergy. The initial reaction of some British of a liberal disposition was to welcome the discomfiture of its old enemy and the application of what were seen as Enlightenment values to the process of government. But this very quickly turned to alarm at the reality of the violence and instability of the new order. Stories brought by the refugees of anarchy and later of the Reign of Terror moved public opinion and as a result the British – government and people – gave a compassionate welcome to the French, even the Catholic hierarchy and clergy. Pope Pius VI saw this generosity as an opportunity for improving relationships between the Church and the British government. He decided to send an envoy to the court of George III to try to gain formal legal recognition for the French clergy. For this task he chose the most distinguished alumnus of the Scots colleges living in Rome, Charles Erskine.143 Erskine was the son of Colin Erskine, seventh son of Sir Alexander Erskine of Cambo and grandson of the 3rd Earl of Kellie. His mother was Agatha Gigli144 and he had been born in 1739 in Rome. Colin Erskine was a Jacobite exile and died in Rome in 1740. Charles was taken under the protection of James VIII/III’s younger son Henry, who later became Cardinal Duke of York.145 At the age of nine he was enrolled in the Pontifical Scots College in Rome but he did not want to commit himself to a religious life and left in 1753 aged 14. He entered the law and by 1780 was one of the most prominent and successful lawyers in Rome. Much of his legal work was in connection with the Church and in 1782 Pius VI enrolled him into his household and made him Dean of the Consistorial Advocates – effectively the most

143 Erskine’s Roman mother had adopted the Italian spelling of the family name – Arschine. 144 The Gigli family were Roman nobility but impoverished. The family, however, were still highly regarded. Agatha’s grandfather had published a very popular book in which he had revealed salacious details of the affairs of his fellow nobles. This had gained the family enemies. But he had let it be known that there was another book waiting for publication which would embarrass many more of the nobility. The blackmail worked and the Gigli family was welcomed in the highest society in Rome. 145 The cardinal played a significant role in supporting his brother’s attempts to regain the British thrones for the Stuarts and after the death of the Young Pretender he took on the mantle of claimant to the thrones.

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senior legal figure in the Papal States.146 Although he had taken minor orders in 1783147 he had not been ordained when the pope selected him as envoy to Britain. This was important as Pius did not want the mission to fail through injury to the sensitivities of the British. Erskine possessed other valuable attributes. He spoke English and was, as the son of a Scot, a British citizen and, therefore, did not require a passport for entry.148 Also ostensibly he could travel as a private individual who was visiting his Scottish relatives. The final concession to British anti-Catholic feelings was to provide Erskine with his letters of accreditation from the Senate and People of Rome (SPQR) rather than from the Papal States. He set out for Britain in 1793 with a free ranging brief to obtain as wide a series of concessions for Catholics as Erskine could achieve. On his arrival he recorded in his diary that he had been treated with courtesy as the ambassador of the pope by immigration officials. Clearly the court had known of his visit and their reaction was no doubt influenced by the recently arrived news of Louis XVI’s execution. Erskine’s first objective, however, was to meet with his relatives in Fife. Archibald Erskine, 7th Earl of Kellie, was effusive in his welcome and introduced him to another cousin, his namesake Charles Erskine of Cambo, later 8th Earl of Kellie, as well as other members of the family. The good relationships which they struck up were later to prove invaluable to the papal envoy. His entry to the court in London was equally successful in that he had discussions with the king and his prime minister, William Pitt. The king was interested to hear news of the Cardinal Henry denominatio of York,149 his rival for the throne150 while Pitt

146 The unofficial title of this position is The Devil’s Advocate a detail which apparently was to give George III much amusement in his discussions with Erskine. 147 He received the minor orders from the Cardinal Duke of York who had continued to take an interest in his fellow countryman’s career. 148 Pius had verified this with the British consul in Rome, Mr Jenkins. In making the diplomatic approach the pope was also relying on his personal acquaintance with two members of the British royal family. He had met on cordial terms with both William Henry, Duke of Gloucester, brother of George III, and Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, the king’s son, while they were conducting their Grand Tours of Europe in the 1770s and 1790s. Brady W.M., Anglo Roman Papers, Paisley and London, 1890, pp. 125–6. 149 On the death of Charles Edward Stuart in 1788, his brother, Henry had issued a declaration that he inherited all his titles of kingship but that he would continue to be known as Duke of York. 150 Erskine’s powers of diplomacy must have been formidable. The sensitivity of such a subject and the close relationship that he had with Cardinal Henry must have

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concerned himself with discussing appropriate actions in dealing with Catholics in the kingdoms.151 In each of his discussions Erskine’s comments and advice were well received. Shortly after this successful start, Erskine was informed that Pius VI had promoted him to the position of Papal Uditore and that he had been elevated to the cardinalcy in petto.152 King George was informed and according to Erskine was pleased both at the discretion used in the matter and in the courtesy of the papal envoy to Great Britain being of the highest rank in the Church. From the behaviour of the British authorities it seems clear that Cardinal Erskine was highly respected as an extremely intelligent, educated and cultured individual. These good opinions were to help him greatly in the years he remained at the court. He communicated with the Vicars Apostolic of England153 and Scotland and the Irish bishops. As cardinal and papal envoy he was in a position not only to advise but to instruct and he used his authority together with his influence at court to co-ordinate the rapprochement between the Church and the British government which was to lead to a greater easing of conditions for Catholics and such positive initiatives as the government funding the building of a new Scots seminary at Aquhorties in 1799.154 But events in Europe gave Cardinal Erskine another role to play. By 1795 the consequences of the revolution in France were affecting its neighbours. The advances of the Austrians, Prussians, British and Spanish had been reversed. The revolutionary army had occupied the Papal territories of Avignon and Venaissin and invaded Piedmont. In anticipation of renewed moves by the great powers to oppose France, Pius VI appointed Erskine to act as representative of the Papal States in any negotiations. No congress was declared at this point but the cardinal was to use this authorization later when the pope was a prisoner of the French and unable to direct events himself. The French captured the Papal States and by the Treaty of Tolentino in February 1797 the presented great difficulty. Added to this was “the insuperable obstacle of the king’s scruples” on any relaxation of laws against Catholics. Brady, p. 155. 151 As well as advising Pitt, Erskine avoided a possible cause of friction by instructing some French refugee priests to desist from proselytizing in England. 152 Uditore is a very senior position akin to Chancellor. In petto (in the breast) indicated that no formal admission of the event would be made until political conditions allowed it. 153 On the death in 1798 of Bishop Charles Berington, Vicar Apostolic of the Midland district, he conferred with the remaining three bishops and agreed on a successor since reference to Rome on the matter was impossible at the time. Brady, p. 143. 154 See Chapter 5.

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pope lost almost all of his territories and when Rome was declared a republic the following year Pius was exiled, later to be taken to France as a prisoner and dying there in 1799 at the age of 81. During this period Erskine took it upon himself to maintain communication with the papal nuncios who were based in other European capitals.155 The good standing that Erskine had achieved at George III’s court allowed him to survive the reaction of the British government to the 1798 rebellion in Ireland which had been inspired in part by the French Revolution. Erskine condemned the action of the Irish and was able to confirm the pope’s sorrow at the bloodshed expressed in a letter to him.156 George III personally intervened to award the cardinal a pension from the British government when the income from his benefice in Rome was stopped. Pius VI had left instructions that on his death a conclave to select his successor should be arranged in whichever city held the greatest number of cardinals. Accordingly the conclave was called in Venice under the protection of the Austrians. The French could not interfere given that matters in Paris were in turmoil with Bonaparte dissolving the Directory and establishing the Consulate with himself as First

155 The British government provided a postal service for this. Erskine had the support of Under-Secretary Canning in obtaining this service. The nuncios in Madrid, Lisbon, Vienna, the Rhineland and Holland were together the senior coherent administration of the Catholic Church at this point. The cardinals of the Curia had all been expelled from Rome and some forced to go to Sicily and some to Venice where they were under Austrian protection. The catastrophe of the destruction of the Papal States had the additional effect of ending all support for missionary work by Propaganda Fide. This had a particularly serious impact in Scotland where great reliance had been placed on this source of income. Erskine also took on the role of supplying funds for the Church’s missions. As well as money sent to Bishop Hay in Edinburgh and the bishop of Upsala in Sweden he supported mission stations in the Far East – Macao, Coromandel, Pondicherry, Malabar, Cochin China and others. He was able to do this by persuading the British government to provide a subvention for the bishops in Scotland and by arranging loans against future repayment by Propaganda Fide through an unnamed Jewish lender but he used the services of Coutts Bank in London to transmit the funds. Brady, p. 148. 156 The letter dated 28 July 1798 was sent from Florence shortly before the French removed the pope to France. Brady, p. 143. For an account of the Irish Rising see Elliott Marianne, Partners in Revolution, Yale, 1990. The goodwill of the British government was extended to allowing Cardinal Erskine to arrange a solemn requiem mass in London for Pius VI. The mass was held in the Irish Catholic chapel of St Patrick in Westminster and was attended by 18 bishops from Britain and continental dioceses as well as many other clergy and foreign ambassadors. As a public event this would have been unthinkable even a few years before and illustrates to some degree the changing attitudes to Catholicism (albeit largely foreign) in England. Brady, p. 146.

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Consul. On his election Pius VII returned to Rome with Austrian help. Negotiations with the French began almost immediately on establishing a Concordat. Bonaparte faced a major problem in France. The measures against the Church perpetrated earlier by the revolutionaries had incensed many of their fellow countrymen and there had been a number of revolts. The principal one which had involved almost the entire population of the Vendée from 1793 to 1796 had been brutally crushed with enormous loss of life. Other counter-revolutionaries who shared the same aims as the Vendéan rebels, the Chouanneries, had adopted guerrilla warfare tactics and were active throughout much of Brittany, Normandy and Anjou.157 Their revolt could not be crushed and was tying up significant numbers of troops. Bonaparte, on coming to power in November 1799, decided that an accommodation between the French State and the Roman Catholic Church was required. Although he needed an agreement he understood that the pope’s position was extremely weak. Therefore he dictated terms which gave power of Church appointments to the State, stipulated that the clergy were salaried State employees and all Church property was under State ownership.158 In return the State recognized that Catholicism was the religion of the majority of French people but that the pope could exercise his authority only in matters of dogma. Also the Papal lands, with the exceptions of Avignon and Venaissin, were to be returned to the pope. The negotiations continued through 1800 and 1801. The delivery of a key feature of the implementation of the Concordat was entrusted to Cardinal Erskine. In order that the power of appointment could be transferred to the State all of the existing French Church hierarchy were required to resign. Since most of them were resident in England, Erskine had to persuade them. Although he personally felt that the bishops were being badly dealt with he used his experience as a lawyer to defuse a mass rebellion and was able to deliver their acceptance, which avoided a damaging split in the French Church. A further important requirement in the matter of the Concordat was given by Pius VII to Erskine for negotiation. The pope asked that Great Britain 157 The Vendéans and the Chouanneries were the most dangerous of the counterrevolutionaries but there were many more. In the department of La Gard resistance continued as late as 1815. Davies Norman, Europe A History, Oxford University Press, 1996, p. 704. 158 In part Bonaparte saw these terms as no more than the French monarchy’s insistence of its authority in a Gallican Church but he was taking powers which were far greater than even Louis XIV had attempted in his quarrel with Pope Innocent XI.

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act in the interests of the Papal States in their negotiations with France following the collapse of the Second Coalition of allies. He was successful in this and French withdrawal from Papal territory in Italy was included in the Treaty of Amiens of 1802. By then the cardinal had left Britain for Paris to witness the formal declaration of the full terms of the Concordat. His period as Papal envoy had been highly successful considering the difficulties faced. His primary objective of improving the position of Catholics in Britain can be said to have been met. The cardinal never returned to Britain but the remainder of his life deserves a brief account here. He stayed in Paris for more than eight months during which on a number of occasions he met and socialized with Bonaparte and the other members of the Consulate.159 However in his meetings with the First Consul in the company of Cardinal Caprara, the Papal Legate to France, Erskine saw the ruthlessness of Bonaparte in forcing his interpretation of the Articles Organiques160 on the legate. He witnessed him browbeat the elderly cardinal and threaten him with physical violence over the disputed terms. In the end Bonaparte got his way and the Articles Organiques were formally published in May 1802. As part of Bonaparte’s recall of émigrés he persuaded Cardinal Erskine to encourage the French prelates in England to return home.161 Erskine stayed in Paris until the clarification of the Concordat and the ratification of the Treaty of Amiens but left as soon afterwards as possible.

159 As well as attending formal dinners he was also present at the weddings of Louis Bonaparte to Josephine Bonaparte’s daughter by her first marriage and General Murat to Bonaparte’s younger sister. The latter marriage was the solemnization of a previous civil contract. Brady, p. 176. 160 These were secret provisions of the Concordat which were not published at the time of the signing in summer 1801. They confirmed that Catholicism was de facto the State religion of France. Bonaparte insisted that they also confirmed papal recognition of the independence of the Gallican Church in all matters other than dogma. He also defended the position of the “Constitutionals” in their adherence to the primacy of the State over the pope. 161 Erskine did this and a significant number returned. Some were reinstated to their old dioceses, others to lesser sees or non episcopal posts within the Church. But Bonaparte retained the eight “Constitutional” bishops (i.e. those who previously had complied with the State demands against the orders of Pius VI) and took the opportunity of placing others he felt he could trust in the most senior positions. He made his uncle, Joseph Fesch, archbishop of Lyons. A close relative of the Second Consul, Jean Jacques Cambacérès, was made archbishop of Rouen. The following year Bonaparte prevailed upon Pius VII to elevate both of them along with the archbishops of Tours and Paris to the cardinalcy. Brady, pp. 185, 194.

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On his return to Rome in the autumn of 1802 Erskine was formally installed as cardinal and assigned amongst other duties the Secretaryship of Propaganda Fide.162 Among his tasks was the re-establishment of the Scots College in Rome which had completely ceased to function by 1797.163 Resident in Rome at the time was Abbé Paul Macpherson whom he enlisted to help him. In the coming difficult years Macpherson stayed at his post and eventually succeeded in re-opening the college in 1820. Bonaparte continued to place demands on the pope. The enforced attendance of Pius VII at his coronation as Napoleon I in 1804 was to add prestige to his transformation from consul to emperor. By 1807 the French armies again occupied Italy and the pope was a prisoner in the Quirinal Palace. Erskine was one of only three cardinals who shared this confinement with Pius. Many of the other cardinals had been forced out of Rome. In July 1809 the pope was abducted and imprisoned in Savona by the French. The final clearance of Rome of its ecclesiastical government was achieved by the end of the year when Cardinal Erskine164 and the other two remaining cardinals were forced to go to Paris on the instructions of Napoleon.165 This journey seriously undermined Erskine’s health and when he did reach Paris he was a sick man. By the end of January 1810 the entire active College of Cardinals166 was resident in Paris. With the pope imprisoned in Italy it is clear that

162 The other duties were heading up the congregations (departments) of Council (of which body he had previously been dean), Rites and Fabbrica. As well as these tasks he was appointed Cardinal Protector of Scotland. For the most part these were duties which could only be done by a Cardinal resident in Rome. By any standards his was a heavy workload but Erskine was now 63 years old and his health was beginning to fail. 163 While in Paris he had met with Abbé Innes, Superior of the Scots College in Paris, and Fr Gordon, the last Principal of the college, to help them try to recover its property which had been appropriated by the State during the revolution. Their only recourse, however, was to Marquis Cornwallis to put pressure on the French but with little success. Brady, p. 165. 164 The Cardinal had considered returning to Britain but had found that this was physically impossible due to the French blockade of Roman ports. Brady, p. 223. 165 On the same day that the cardinals were expelled Rome was declared a Department of France and the looting which the French had carried out in 1797/8 returned but this time accompanied with an administration of French civil servants who ensured an ordered and systematic stripping of all works of art and valuable artifacts from the city. By designating Rome as a French Department Napoleon could claim that this was not theft but legal transfer of State property to the capital, Paris. 166 There were four or five cardinals not present but they were extremely elderly and infirm and had previously received the pope’s permission to retire to monasteries.

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Napoleon intended to dictate the appointment of the next pope when the opportunity arose.167 Erskine applied on several occasions to the French authorities for permission to return to Scotland. It was never granted and neither was any other cardinal allowed to leave France. Deprived of their benefices most of the cardinals were forced to rely on a stipend from the French State. Erskine was able to avoid this act of dependency through the funding provided by his cousins in Scotland and the good offices of Mr Coutts, the English banker, who had befriended the cardinal during his stay in England.168 Napoleon soon put his new collection of cardinals to work. He had divorced Empress Josephine169 early in January before Erskine had arrived in Paris. He then arranged to marry the Archduchess of Austria, Marie Louise, and the emperor wanted the Church’s recognition of the legitimacy of the marriage to protect his hoped for dynasty. The proxy service was held in Paris in April 1810 and all the cardinals were required to attend. Those who refused were immediately demoted.170 Cardinal Erskine did not attend but he, like two other cardinals, was excused on the grounds of ill health and was therefore spared this humiliation. His humiliation came after his death the following year. Cardinal Erskine had called on two – Cardinal Carafa at Treni and Cardinal Antonelli near Folligno – en route to Paris. 167 Pius VII outlived Napoleon so the opportunity never presented itself. But there can be little doubt that there would have been a Napoleonic appointee; probably his uncle, Cardinal Fesch. 168 Mr Coutts on first being informed of the Cardinal being deprived of his ecclesiastical income had written to him transferring funds from his own account to the Torlonia Bank in Rome. The key members of the Torlonia family were personal friends of Cardinal Erskine. In transmitting the money Coutts claimed that he would have approached the king to re-instate the Cardinal’s British State pension but George III was experiencing another bout of his recurring illness. Later Coutts used his contacts with the French bank of Perregeaux to transfer funds to his friend in Paris but this time the money was provided by the Earls of Kellie and Buchan. Brady, p. 251. To do this was difficult when both countries were at war but clearly not impossible. 169 Napoleon had to have both his civil and religious marriages to Josephine annulled. There were no difficulties in obtaining a divorce such as those experienced by Henry VIII of England. The civil marriage was annulled on the grounds that there had been administrative irregularities – Josephine lied about her age and Bonaparte gave a wrong date of birth – but the Church annulment on the same grounds could only have been achieved through coercion and the influence of his uncle and other dependent cardinals. The Church wedding had been conducted at the insistence of Pope Pius VII as a precondition to his officiating at Napoleon’s coronation as emperor in 1804 and was in no way dependent on the earlier civil ceremony for validity. 170 They became known as the “black cardinals”. The significance was that they were no longer allowed to wear their robes of office (scarlet in colour) but only ordinary clerical garb. It is likely that their stipends were also reduced to those of ordinary curés. The complying cardinals were known as “red cardinals”. Brady, p. 254.

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He died on 10 March 1811 the day after an heir was born to Napoleon. Two days later Cardinal Vincenti died and the French authorities suggested that the bodies of both cardinals be embalmed since no funerals of prominent persons would be allowed in the city during the two weeks of official rejoicing for the birth. The bodies were finally interred at the end of this period in the crypt of the church of St Genevieve, which had been designated by the Revolutionary government as a national shrine for the great and good of France. The church is now known as the Pantheon and serves this purpose today.171 The significance of Charles Erskine of Kellie in the rehabilitation of Catholicism in Scotland – indeed Britain – is that someone of his background could act as a bridge between Catholics and the British State. As the son of an exiled Jacobite rebel and protégé and friend of the Stuart claimant to the throne it is difficult to imagine anyone less likely to win over the British government to the belief that Scottish and English Catholics could be loyal subjects. But the Jacobite threat had disappeared thereby allowing a fundamental change in sentiment which can be demonstrated by Cardinal Erskine’s declaration of national loyalty in the face of the enemy. Shortly after his arrival in Paris in 1810 the cardinal was formally presented to the emperor. The meeting was brief and the atmosphere entirely different from their meetings of eight years earlier. The cardinal recorded in his diary that on being re-introduced to him Napoleon spoke one word – “Anglais?”: he replied with –“Ecossais! ”.172 Charles Erskine succeeded by his actions in proving that Catholic political ambitions of overthrowing the British monarchy lay in the past. He did not live to see the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829173 but the diplomacy

171 The selection of such a burial site for the cardinals may be considered an honour and privilege but up to that point the church had had a very indifferent record in holding the great of France. Almost all the prominent figures of the Revolution who were interred there had later been ejected by their political enemies on coming to power. Of the pre-Napoleonic interments only Voltaire and Rousseau remained in their graves. The Papal Legate, Cardinal Caprara had died in 1810 and been buried in the Pantheon. It can be argued that the burial of the cardinals was adding prestige to an institution which was still in the process of establishing itself. 172 Brady, p. 254. 173 The delay in the passing of this act indicates the depth of prejudice against and perhaps the fear of Catholicism in Britain. The Hanoverian regime had been given informal Papal recognition in 1766 on the death of the “Old Pretender” and many solid political arguments supported a much earlier change in the laws. Politics has been described as “the art of the possible”. It would seem that it was only possible to

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he exercised in his role of Papal envoy, during a period when Britain faced a dangerous enemy which was still viewed as Catholic, did much to dissipate the centuries of hostility and which eventually allowed the legal acceptance of Catholicism in Britain.174 Erskine’s efforts were not isolated. He was part of an effective network of alumni who had worked over the centuries to achieve this end. The survival of Catholicism in Scotland to see its eventual legal acceptance by the British State would have been impossible without the colleges. Nor would the mere existence of the colleges have been enough to ensure success. It was essential that their alumni be provided with the highest standard of education possible and that is what the Scots colleges abroad achieved.

remove the Penal Laws in the same way that they had been introduced – that is step by step over many years. 174 Others of course contributed to this change by their demonstration of loyalty. Many Catholics fought in the British forces. Donald Macdonald, an alumnus of the Scots College in Valladolid, was a career soldier who lost his life at the siege of Badajos in 1812. He was one of many of the Scots college alumni who served in the British forces. Others aided the war against Napoleon in other ways. In 1808 James Robertson, a presbyter of the Schottenkloster in Regensburg, acted as an agent for Wellington in enticing the Marquis of Romana, a general in Napoleon’s army, to defect to the Allies.

CHAPTER THREE

THE EDUCATION PROVIDED

Scottish Catholics in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when considering how to obtain an education had difficult choices to make from the options available. Private tuition was possible for the very wealthy. There are a number of examples where priests, while conducting their ministry, lodged as tutors with noble families in Scotland. They would teach the children of the family and any relatives whom their host invited. Naturally there was a limit to the scope of such an education as well as the numbers who could be accommodated and continuity of education could be interrupted. Attendance at a Scottish university was possible although not necessarily the most educationally beneficial option. The requirement of swearing the Calvinist Confession of Faith, initially for graduation purposes but later in order to matriculate, could be avoided unless the student intended practicing a profession such as law or medicine. King’s College, Aberdeen, was particularly noted for its tolerance in these matters. This was as true in the eighteenth century as it had been in the seventeenth.1 The other Scottish universities, however, were stricter and conducted occasional purges especially in the seventeenth century when Presbyterian Calvinist interests were competing with those of Episcopalians for dominance.2 In the seventeenth century Scottish universities did not enjoy a good reputation as educational institutes. This was particularly true during the period when the Scots colleges abroad were being established. The universities were small and poorly funded and staffed. This was the case before the Reformation3 but with the loss of Episcopal revenues they were forced to rely on town council and parish benefices for

1

MacFarlane, p. 25. Durkan John and Kirk James, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, University of Glasgow Press, 1977, p. 250. 3 John Mair (Major) drew attention to this – “I look with no favour on this multitude of universities” – and cited it as the reason why distinguished Scots scholars such as George Buchanan preferred to work abroad. Durkan and Kirk, pp. 226, 239–40. 2

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support. St Andrews, as the Episcopal capital of Scotland, was very badly affected. Even with the return of regal authority and Episcopal dominance in the 1610s its previous revenues were not restored. Glasgow fared no better and in 1570 appears to have ceased functioning for a few years. Attempts at educational reform were severely hampered by a continuous shortage of funding but this was not the only problem facing the reformers. When he was principal at Glasgow (1574–1580) and at St Andrews (St Mary’s College and then the University itself from 1580 to 1606), Andrew Melville was strongly resisted at both institutions. He had to contend with innate conservatism but also, because of his espousal of Presbyterianism and the interests of the Kirk, he fell foul of the autocracy of King James VI/I. With his fall from power and subsequent imprisonment in 1607 his planned reforms were abandoned and many of his achievements were undone.4 The relative quiet at the universities which followed was characterized by academic stagnation and matters only deteriorated from 1638 with the upheavals of the civil wars. The Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 produced no relief. Some officers of the universities were removed from post but, although the king promised much in terms of restoration of the Episcopal incomes, nothing was delivered. The Revolutionary Settlement of 1690 brought another round of purges and it was only with the Union of the Parliaments in 1707 that the universities began to build international reputations as centres of educational excellence. It is not surprising, therefore, that during the seventeenth century more Scots of all religious persuasions chose to study abroad than in their home universities.5 Those who did attend a Scottish university mainly took humanities which prepared them for courses in philosophy, medicine and law which they chose to pursue on the continent. Despite the convenience and lower cost of attending a university in Scotland more Calvinists studied abroad than even the Catholics who

4 His proposal for a full professorial structure and the abolition of the regents was strongly resisted and was not achieved until 1747. Regents remained at the other universities until 1708 – Edinburgh; 1727 – Glasgow; 1753 – Marischal College; 1799 – King’s College. Cant Ronald G., The University of St Andrews, St Andrews University Library Publication, Third Edition, 1992, p. 109. 5 de Ridder-Symoens Hilde, ‘Mobility’, de Ridder-Symoens Hilde Ed., A History of the University in Europe, Volume II, Cambridge, 1996, p. 439. Scottish Calvinists came to prefer the University of Leiden which had the greatest number of Scots at the end of the seventeenth century.

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attended the Scots Colleges. Throughout the seventeenth century the Scottish universities struggled to provide education in the higher faculties to the standards achieved elsewhere. The level offered can be gauged to some extent by an incident in 1620 when the local schoolmaster of St Andrews complained to the town council that the university had set up a class in Latin which was depriving him of his livelihood by stealing his pupils.6 Clearly the university was struggling financially and was unable to attract extra students into its Quadrivium classes. Provision of pre-Trivium classes in teaching Latin are indicative of weakness rather than strength of resources. Scots universities were confined to serve as feeder institutions for the more prestigious continental universities. The consequent impact on numbers of students and revenue available ensured that they continued to struggle to maintain and improve their buildings and attract and retain competent staff. Their inferior status was thereby perpetuated. With the exception of the University of St Andrews, even during periods of religious persecution on continental Europe, very few continental Calvinists or other Protestants attended a university in Scotland. In the late eighteenth century, when a majority of Scots students studied at home universities, it was still possible for the Dutchman, Bilderdijk, to report that the reason why continental students shunned the Scottish universities was that they could not understand the Latin spoken there.7 For Scots, going abroad to study was expensive, sometimes dangerous and if it were to be at a Catholic university could incur legal penalties on the student and his family. The penalties were applied irregularly but appear to have made the greatest impact when inheritance of family estates was threatened. Nevertheless many hundreds of students chose to study abroad and enrolled in the Catholic Scots colleges. For those who were considering a life in the Church the choice was perhaps predictable. Others were no doubt mainly influenced by confessional considerations but the quality of the education provided

6

Cant, pp. 80–1. de Ridder-Symoens, ‘Mobility’ p. 428. However, Bilderdijk’s comments were probably inspired by professional hubris. Previously many Scottish students, who had completed humanities at Scottish universities, continued their higher faculty studies at Leiden and appear to have had no difficulty adjusting to Dutch pronunciation of Latin. By the time of Bilderdijk’s writing, Scottish students had stopped attending Leiden University in any significant numbers and his comments represent “sour grapes” on his part. 7

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had an additional bearing on their decision. The Scots, at least in the seventeenth century, who attended the Scots colleges abroad, were offered an education of the highest quality which was not available to them in their homeland.

European Movements in Education When Mary Queen of Scots sent her ambassador to Rome to obtain papal approval for the establishment of her college in France, those involved in the enterprise were motivated by a desire to continue with an educational provision which was no longer possible in Scotland. But rather than a continuation what was achieved was a new beginning with the involvement of the Scots in major changes which were taking place throughout continental Europe. The first of these changes was the movement for reform from within the Catholic Church. Certainly all of the Scots colleges were integral to Counter-reformation efforts but their declared aim was to train Catholics for work in Scotland. However, the Scots gained control of the Schottenklöster of Southern Germany in the late sixteenth century specifically to help with reform there. They helped with the mission in Scotland at crucial times but initially their primary role was to help in the Counter-reformation in Germany. When Pope Gregory XIII sent Ninian Winzet as abbot to Regensburg he was providing the city with an eminent scholar who had amply proved himself as a supporter and defender of the Catholic Church. Winzet knew that the Regensburg city council had preferred that the monastery property be given to the Society of Jesus to set up a school. On his appointment, in order to win the favour of the citizens, Winzet decided to found a gymnasium for the education of the local youth. He had held a senior position in the University of Paris – Head of the German Nation8 – and had graduated a Master of Theology at the Jesuit University at Douai and was well qualified to provide high quality education to the burghers. His gymnasium was successful and within a few years had almost a hundred students.

8 The university was divided into four “nations” – French, Norman, Picard and German. Any nationality not covered by the first three was automatically included in the German Nation, hence Winzet’s eligibility.

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Acceptance of the Scots’ claim to the monastery of St James’ in Würzburg by Archbishop Echter was greatly influenced by his good opinion of Winzet as an educator and the wish that the Scots should help also in the reforming work that he was carrying out in his diocese. In 1575 he had already used another monastery in the city to re-found its university. In the deed of foundation of St James’ monastery, Echter stipulated that a Scots Benedictine should teach theology at the university.9 However, the archbishop had invited the Society of Jesus to run the university, which it did until the dissolution of the order in 1773. Throughout the two centuries in which they had control the Jesuits were reluctant to have any interference in the administration of the university and none of the Scots Benedictines taught there. Nevertheless, the Scots continued to take their role in providing education in Germany very seriously and participated in higher education until the dissolution of their monasteries in the nineteenth century. (See Chapters 2 & 5) The second great movement in education that the Scots found themselves participating in was the growth in the number of colleges. The century between 1550 and 1650 saw a massive increase in provision of education. Most of the medieval colleges and universities underwent change due to the doctrinal and political conflicts of the times. Control of universities in northern Europe passed out of the hands of the Catholic Church to local magnates and town councils. The primary role of a university to produce educated clerics was initially thrown into question and then re-established along doctrinal lines. The practice of peregrinatio academica – i.e. students moving between universities taking advantage of study with the most distinguished professors of each discipline – was greatly reduced as secular rulers forbade their subjects from travelling abroad for education and the universities began to require confessional oaths. These changes caused attendance at university to become more regional in character. This together with the increasingly recognized need of the Protestant and Catholic churches for educated clergy led to the establishment of a large number of new universities. In the second half of the sixteenth century a total of 47 were established (31 in Catholic and 16 in Protestant Europe); a further 24 were created in the first half of the

9

Dilworth, Franconia pp. 270–1.

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seventeenth century (14 Catholic and 10 Protestant).10 Many hundreds of colleges and schools also were set up. A number of the new colleges in Catholic countries were intended to cater for Catholics from Protestant lands and were national in character. The Scots Colleges abroad were established between 1580 and 1627 and must be seen as part of this greater movement. A further fundamental change in the provision of education came with the adoption by the Society of Jesus of its major role in teaching throughout Europe and in the Spanish and Portuguese empires. The Jesuits’ involvement in education had begun in the mid sixteenth century. Queen Mary’s college founded in Pont-à-Mousson was the first major example of the Scots’ participation in this powerful movement. When the college’s first rector, William Crichton, opened the Scots college in 1580 the Jesuits had already founded 162 colleges; by 1603 the number had grown to nearly 300.11 The phenomenal growth was due in large part to the effectiveness of their teaching and the consequent high regard in which their colleges were held. They had achieved the designation of being the “Schoolmasters of Europe”12 and had effectively defined what education should consist of and the best way of imparting it.13 This success was achieved through the refinement and careful application of the teaching techniques that Ignatius of Loyola, the Society’s founder and first General, and his original companions had experienced in their own education. They had studied at the universities of Alcala, Salamanca, Paris, Bologna, Padua and others.14 Although he had found academic enquiry at the University of Paris moribund due to the adherence to scholasticism by the Dominican and Franciscan professors, Loyola was impressed with the discipline exercised in the governance of the university. It was this model that the Jesuits built on to create their academic success. The modus

10

Frijhoff Willem, ‘Patterns’, de Ridder-Symoens Hilde Ed., p. 71. Mitchell, p. 58. 12 Fitzpatrick Edward A. Ed., St Ignatius and the Ratio Studiorum, New York, 1933, p. 24. 13 In his History of the Popes Book V sec. 418 Von Ranke quotes contemporary remarks that “Students learned more with them in six months than with other teachers in two years” and “Even Protestants removed their children from distant gymnasiums to confide them to the care of the Jesuits.” 14 Mitchell, pp. 30–1. 11

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Parisiensis contained three key features which secured material advantages over other systems of education.15 First the university as an organization was controlled and run by its academic staff. Undergraduates enrolled as members of the student body and were required to obey university regulations. They had no power of appointment or dismissal of their teachers. This was in contrast to the modus Bononiensis16 applying at the University of Bologna and elsewhere where the control of appointments was in the hands of the student body. Secondly the university was organized into colleges. These provided secure lodgings, teaching and spiritual direction for their students. The role of the university’s central authority was in conducting final examinations and awarding degrees. The colleges controlled their own finances and represented the overwhelming bulk of the material assets of the university. In Paris the central university authority was provided with accommodation in the college of the Sorbonne, having none of its own.17 Most of the older established universities in mainland Europe at the time had no specific student accommodation and required undergraduates to lodge in inns and private houses. Students belonging to religious orders often lodged in the nearest monastery or priory. There were many similarities in facilities and rules between the university colleges and monastic establishments; the colleges being derived in no small part from them. Thirdly the courses of study were organized in a logical way, with each new stage being more advanced and relying on the students’ having knowledge and understanding of the previous stages. Classes of students were grouped according to attainment and students were set regular practice exercises (exercitium) to ensure understanding and reinforcement of the course work. This progressive class system of the modus Parisiensis impressed Loyola most and was the first aspect built into the Jesuit teaching model. Finances did not always allow Jesuits schools to be established as colleges in the Paris manner, but structured tuition and streamed classes were fundamental to their organization.18 15

Frijhoff, ‘Patterns’, pp. 54–5. Müller Rainer A, ‘Student Education, Student Life’, de Ridder-Symoens Hilde Ed., p. 329. 17 de Ridder-Symoens Hilde, ‘Management and Resources’, de Ridder-Symoens Hilde Ed., p. 190. 18 The Jesuits were not alone in recognizing the merits of this. Johannes Sturm developed the methodus Sturmiana from the Paris model by 1538 at his institute in 16

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Scottish universities followed this approach where possible. Boece and later Melville, both of whom had studied at Paris, introduced these ideas to Aberdeen, Glasgow and St Andrews. The limitation in its effectiveness lay in part in the continuation of the regency system of tuition. The same teacher was required to take a class through every subject to be covered. Standards under such a system were inevitably lower than under the professorial system of subject specialists. In their colleges which catered for senior students studying the Quadrivium the Jesuits deviated from the Paris model in one key respect. The students were to be taught in the wider university classes which would allow them access to the most competent professors available. In these cases the colleges can best be described as residences. Spiritual needs were also provided for by having dedicated chapels. The Scots colleges were set up in modus Parisiensis as developed by the Jesuits. The first Scots college established in 1580 in Pont-à-Mousson was attached to the town’s Jesuit university which had been founded in 1572 under the auspices of the Guise family. The college’s rector, William Crichton, was fully experienced in the Jesuit way of organising colleges having been rector of the Jesuit College in Lyons. On its eventual re-establishment in Douai, still with Crichton as principal, the college was again attached to a Jesuit-run university. The University of Douai had been founded in 1560 under Spanish protection and when the Scots arrived in 1597 it had grown to 25 colleges which included foundations for English and Irish students.19 For all of its existence the Scots college offered mainly the Trivium and because of this, unlike the higher colleges, it was self-sufficient in teaching the subjects covered. The Pontifical Scots College in Rome was not initially run by Jesuits but its students, from its beginning in 1600, received tuition at the Collegio Romano, the primary Jesuit teaching institution, (now the Gregorian University). The function of the college was to provide Scottish students with secure accommodation and spiritual welfare. From 1615 it was under the direction of Jesuit rectors; the first being Patrick Anderson. The change was to ensure effective running of the college and did not represent a change in the organization of studies.

Strasburg. His system was copied in many Calvinist universities. Hammerstein Notkar, ‘Relations with Authority’, de Ridder-Symoens Hilde Ed., p. 117. 19 de Ridder-Symoens, ‘Management and Resources’, p. 160.

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From its beginning it had followed the Jesuit Ratio Studiorum (see below) in structure and operation. At its foundation in 1603 the Scots college in Paris incorporated the College of Grisy, which had been part of the University of Paris from the fourteenth century. Archbishop Beaton had bequeathed a substantial house in the centre of the city to act as a college building. Jesuit involvement was impossible due their expulsion from Paris in 1595. The first principal was William Lumsden who had been a Grisy bursar at the university. It would be expected, therefore, that the Scots college in Paris which was run by secular clergy would have been organized in modus Parisiensis. However for much of its existence the college was too small to follow the Paris model exactly and students of the Quadrivium received tuition at the neighbouring larger College de Navarre. In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries when the numbers at the college increased dramatically the Scots still attended classes at other colleges, thereby benefiting from the best tuition available. The Paris college was closer to the wider Jesuit model than might be expected with the principal difference being the absence of Jesuit influence in teaching the higher faculties of philosophy and theology. When set up in 1627 the Royal Scots College in Madrid was the one least able to follow the Parisian model. The college buildings were not available to house the students due to there being sitting tenants (see Chapter 2). The students were housed in inns and private houses for the first few years of its existence. The rector, Hugh Semple, and other staff lodged in the Collegio Imperial. All classes were held there until the college was closed to the Scots in 1681. Collegio Imperial was a Jesuit foundation, not of university status, founded in 1629 under the protection of King Philip IV with the express purpose of attracting members of the Spanish nobility to the higher studies in education.20 Spain like most other European countries was experiencing a disinclination on the part of noblemen to attend university. Their educational preferences consisted more of courtly and chivalric skills than the humanism being taught to mainly bourgeois students at the conventional universities. Attempts were made to establish specific colleges for noblemen throughout many parts of Europe.21 In the Holy Roman Empire privately run Ritterakadamien came into being to teach skills

20 21

di Simone Maria Rosa, ‘Admission’, de Ridder-Symoens Hilde Ed., p. 318. E.g. Braunsberg University in modern Poland.

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such as swordsmanship, horsemanship, the social arts of music and dancing as well as philosophy. These establishments attracted the nobility and were successful as much for the exclusive nature of their student bodies as for the focus of their courses of study. Jesuit attempts outside Italy to provide a suitable curriculum for noblemen were not normally successful22 and in the case of the Collegio Imperial they failed and the college closed. It was probably due to this failure that the Scots college in Madrid stopped accepting students and was put under Spanish Jesuit control in 1681. When the college re-opened to Scots in 1713 it was as a teaching institution in its own right and followed the modus Parisiensis. The new rector, Thomas Fyfe, came with students from Douai having taught there for a number of years. For the next 20 years members of the Madrid college teaching staff were provided by the Scots colleges in Douai and Rome. Only during this period of the college’s history did it closely resemble the other Scots colleges in student life and studies. By following similar systems of education the colleges enabled mutual benefits to develop. Teaching staff were able to transfer between colleges without disrupting the quality of education. Students likewise were able to progress through from Trivium to Quadrivium while changing colleges. As well as providing flexibility in the provision of places this allowed the Douai college to specialise as a junior feeder college to the others. The individual colleges adhered to their own rules and traditions but in this way cooperated to form a distinct Scottish university on the continent specifically for the education of Scottish Catholics. This was not an inferior institution. The Scots colleges as a whole benefited greatly in intellectual achievement and reputation by their association with the resurgence of education in Europe. Scots Catholics who chose to study at one of the colleges were securing for themselves an education which their Protestant countrymen had difficulty in receiving at home.

College Buildings Each of the Scots colleges was located in a major European city. The cultural experiences which they could offer were considerable and more stimulating than anything available in Scotland. On arrival at 22

di Simone, p. 318.

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college the first impressions which the Scots students received would have been extremely favourable. The impression created by the college buildings themselves would have been profound for many. Contemporary descriptions make clear that for the greater part of their life the college premises were of extremely high quality. The original buildings used in Rome and Paris are still in existence and even today support this assessment.23 A plan drawn by Bernard Jaillot in the late eighteenth century of the Paris college buildings built in 1667 by Robert Barclay shows a four-storey quadrangular building with an inner courtyard containing flower beds and a poultry yard. As well as a vaulted chapel there was a library, refectory and two classrooms on the first floor. The other floors provided accommodation with the kitchen and domestic provisions in the basement.24 James Fraser, a graduate in divinity at King’s College Aberdeen, has left a journal of travels he made on the continent in 1657–1660. In it he described the Scots college in Douai in the following manner. “…the Scotch Colledge, called St Andrews, a very pretty commodius building and good revenues, it hath but one Court curiously paved and a neat fountain in the middle; their Church the best furnished in Doway for Alters, Lamps Candlesticks and noble painting, the Organ Case large and the best carved and guilded here, the gift of Collonel [Braice] yt famous Scot. . . .”25 Fraser also visited the Schottenkloster of Regensburg and has given a description of its buildings. He described the church as “a noble fabrick” with a high altar “a statly curious Carving in Stone” and a “Case of Organs”. The monastery itself is also described in glowing terms. “a great house, the Stately entry built by Abbot Mitchell 1530. the Hall of the ground well paved & great lights”.26 The building housing the Scots college in Calle Jacometrezo, Madrid was demolished in 1920. A photograph, taken shortly before, shows a substantial four storied building with a long frontage of eight windows on each floor.27 References to the college identify the existence of simi-

23 The Paris College in the Rue du-Cardinal-Lemoine is now a girls’ school. The original Rome college buildings still stand in the Via delle Quattro Fontane and are the property of a bank. 24 Montague, pp. 402–3. 25 Aberdeen University Library, Special Collections, (Hereafter AULSC) MS 2538, Vol. III, F 137V I am grateful to Professor Peter Davidson for drawing this material to my attention. 26 Ibid., FF 9V, 10R. 27 Taylor, illustration between pp. 48–9.

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lar facilities to that in Paris viz. chapel, library, refectory, dormitories and domestic accommodation.28 All of the Scots colleges abroad were substantial and prestigious properties built or modified to meet the specific needs of a seminary. The college authorities paid particular attention to providing their scholars with well-stocked libraries covering a wide range of subjects. Notwithstanding that the students studying the Quadrivium had access to the libraries of their external colleges all students could use their own college library. The only original library now largely extant is that of Madrid, now in Salamanca.29 A catalogue of the library as it existed in 1760 remains in the college archives.30 Many hundreds of books are listed. The publication dates range from the late sixteenth through to the mid eighteenth century. The subjects covered include the arts, philosophies, sciences, history, religious material, military treatises, navigation, architecture, medicine and many more. The books are in Greek, Latin and many contemporary European languages.31 There is no doubt that this provision would have been an enormous boon to the students in providing them with the opportunity to widen the range of reading beyond what was required of them by their formal studies. The loss of the libraries belonging to the other colleges makes it impossible to examine precisely what they contained, however, it is clear that in the case of each college it was very extensive. A report, dated 1798, by Abbé Paul Macpherson quantifies the value of the lost library of the Roman College conservatively at 2,500 Roman crowns. This was a considerable sum since in the same report he values two houses owned by the college at 1,500 crowns.32 When the Spanish Jesuits expelled the Scots from the Madrid College in 1734, the rector of the

28

Taylor, pp. 25–34. The libraries of the colleges in Paris and Douai were destroyed or dispersed at the time of the French Revolution. Those of Schottenklöster were appropriated on the closure of the monasteries during the secularisation of educational institutions. Much of their material was lost during the Second World War. The original library of the Roman College appears to have been stolen by Napoleon and shipped to Paris. Abbé Paul MacPherson was certainly of that opinion. None of it was returned. 30 ARSC, Box 23, Item 2. 31 It is informative of the dearth of books published in the Gaelic language to note that there were none in the library at that time. The earliest one is a book of psalms published in the late eighteenth century – Sailm Dhaibhidh, I Smith D.D., Edinburgh, 1787. 32 Gordon, p. 638. 29

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college in Douai complained that the contents of the library contained many books which had been sent from Douai to augment the library of the Spanish college. It is clear from this remark that Douai’s library was sufficiently well endowed to gift books to other establishments. The Paris college library also appears to have been well stocked. At the time of the despoliation of the college in 1794, Alexander Innes, the last rector, reported that the looters took away several carriages and 24 boxes full of books. Later, other revolutionaries returned and burned the remaining books and papers.33 The Schottenklöster are reported to have had impressive libraries.34 The best information in this regard exists for Würzburg.35 The Scots had inherited a substantial collection of medieval manuscript books owned by the original Irish monastery. This collection was added to such that by 1679 it had grown to over 500 large volumes and an unrecorded number of smaller books.36 Unquestionably the libraries represented the largest investment in academic material that the colleges made; however, records show that other impressive facilities to aid study were available in the Madrid College. While he was rector, Hugh Semple acquired a collection of expensive astronomical instruments. These were used to equip an observatory in the college. It is unlikely that students were given a free rein in use of the equipment but Semple would have involved them in helping him with his astronomical observations and built the findings into lessons on mathematics and cosmography. On his death the instruments were sold by Fr John Seton who had been sent by the General of the Society to order the college’s affairs. Seton deplored Semple’s observatory as “profuse, prodigall, and irreligious spending

33

Halloran, p. 187. James Fraser in his journal describes the library at Regensburg – “a long and large Roome, is well furnished wt varieties of Bookes especially manuscripts of all sises in qh they Glorie” AULSC, MS 2538, Vol. III, F 10R. 35 Dilworth, Franconia, p. 230. A catalogue of 1615 lists 29 manuscripts and about 300 printed books. 36 Weiland M., ‘Das Schottenkloster zu St Jacob in Würzburg’, Archiv des historischen Vereins für Unterfrankenund Aschaffenburg, 1863, p. 67. Comparison of the size and quality of libraries is not easy to make. The universities in Scotland in the seventeenth century had libraries but since these had to be shared by many more students than the Scots colleges had it can be argued that the Scots studying abroad had better facilities than their compatriots at home. This position undoubtedly started changing after 1709 when the Copyright Act was extended to cover the Scottish universities under which by law they received free copies of new British publications. The libraries of Scottish universities could then be said to rival or exceed those of the Scots colleges abroad. 34

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of much moneyes in toyes, triffles and unnecessare things”.37 There is no record of any other attempt to establish similarly adventurous facilities in the Scots colleges. This was no doubt due more to the continuous shortage of money than to the lack of individuals’ interest in exploring wider subjects. It should not be viewed as a failing on the colleges’ part since facilities such as observatories were only available in the seventeenth century in the largest of universities and to individual scholars in possession of independent financial support.38 In light of this Semple’s experiments should be applauded. All the facilities which the colleges provided ensured that the students worked in a stimulating cultural environment. The architecture of the buildings and the artwork, particularly of the chapels, was of a very high standard. These were the products of professional architects and artists.39 On returning to Scotland most of the students must have retained fond memories of what they had seen and carried a desire to replicate them to even a small extent. Acting as patrons of the arts was, however, beyond the means of most. A notable exception was William Forbes who in the construction of his castle at Craigievar incorporated even more French influences than was then current in the Scottish Renaissance style of building.40 Others of more modest means no doubt indulged in less costly pursuits – buying books, commissioning portraits or engaging in musical performances.41 The greatest influence 37

Taylor, p. 35. Pedersen Olaf, ‘Tradition and Innovation’, de Ridder-Symoens Hilde Ed., A History of the University in Europe, Volume II, Cambridge, 1996, pp. 471–4. The provision of observatories tended to be made by State funding. For over 20 years Tycho Brahe obtained support from the Danish king. Also the city authorities of Utrecht in 1642 provided its university with an observatory. 39 Douai college possessed an Adoration of the Magi painted by Reubens which was displayed in the chapel. Charles Alexander, Regensburg 1739, one of the family of professional painters from Aberdeen and Edinburgh produced work for the Schottenkloster. Most of his paintings for the Regensburg chapel were lost in the destruction caused by the Second World War but a portrait of an abbot survives at Douai Abbey, Woolhampton, the English Benedictine community. 40 McKean Charles, ‘The Re-evaluation of Scottish Renaissance Architecture’, Architectural Heritage, Vol. VI, Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland, 1996, p. 5. In Forbes’ time at Pont-á-Mousson the chateaux of Lorraine were as renowned as those on the Loire. Less than five miles from the college was Chateau de Dieulouard which was famed for its seven towers as well as other ornamentation. It, along with almost every other chateau in Lorraine, was reduced by the armies of Cardinal Richelieu in the first half of the seventeenth century. 41 The Aberdeen Musical Society in the mid eighteenth century had a number of founding members with strong family connections to the Scots colleges and Schottenklöster; the Urquharts of Meldrum and the Menzies of Pitfodels are readily 38

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that the colleges had, however, is through those alumni who engaged in careers in art and architecture. Two students in particular, James Smith and James Gibb, showed themselves to be architects of genius. Smith was born in Forres in about 1647. His father was a stone mason and town burgess. The family was Catholic and in 1671 James enrolled in the Pontifical Scots College in Rome and took the missionary oath. Four years later he left to return to Scotland without having been ordained. On his way to and from Rome he travelled through Vicenza where he spent time studying the civic buildings and private country mansions designed by Andreas Palladio in the previous century. On return to Scotland he took up his father’s profession. He furthered his career considerably by marrying the elder daughter of Robert Mylne, the king’s master mason, and became a burgess of Edinburgh in 1679. Under his father-in-law, Smith carried out work for Sir William Bruce, Surveyor and Overseer of the King’s Works in Scotland. Bruce was a gifted dilettante and owed his position to the prominent role he played in Charles II’s restoration in 1660. When the king died in 1685, Bruce lost his post and Smith was appointed in his place. As a Catholic, Smith had the favour of King James VII/ II and his principal task was to continue the renovation which Bruce had started at the Palace of Holyrood. Bruce had incorporated many elements of the Palladian style into the building and Smith was ideally suited to continuing the project.42 As well as completing the restoration of Holyrood House he returned the original palace chapel to use as a Catholic Chapel Royal for the king.43 The existing Protestant congregation was evicted and a new church built for them by Smith. The Canongate Kirk is a splendid building but includes many Catholic features which caused resentment and criticism.44 On the accession of William and Mary it would have been understandable if Smith had lost his position as Surveyor. Yet this did not

identifiable from the society’s records. (I am grateful to Professor Peter Davidson for this information.) 42 Smith had been heavily involved in the work under Bruce’s direction. 43 To be used by the Order of the Thistle. Its re-dedication as a Catholic place of worship was the cause of serious rioting in Edinburgh. 44 Among other “Catholic” features the frontage has decorative curvilinear gables like many of the churches in Italy. The design was still causing offence in 1956. Its then minister published a history in which he complained that “(Smith) was (and perhaps was chosen by design) a Roman Catholic, which may help explain the unique cruciform plan, almost Jesuit in character”. Selby Wright R., The Kirk in the Canongate, Edinburgh, 1956, p. 79.

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happen, possibly for two reasons. First the position itself was by then almost meaningless. The monarchs had no interest in any building projects in Scotland and Smith’s official duties were restricted to maintenance of the fabric of Holyrood Palace. Secondly Smith formally renounced his Catholicism.45 His talents were, however, in great demand by private patrons. He had created a fashion for Palladian architecture on which he proceeded to capitalize, becoming very successful commercially.46 He built a magnificent home for himself and his growing family47 near Musselburgh in 1685. The project overstretched his finances and he was forced to sell when he was declared bankrupt. By continuing to work well into old age he restored his fortunes and became Member of Parliament for Forres.48 He dominated Scottish tastes in architecture for the first quarter of the eighteenth century.49 His significance in Scotland was acknowledged in his lifetime50 but his influence on English Palladianism was hidden. The three volumes of Colen Campbell’s Vitruvius Britannicus which were published between 1715 and 1725 consist of plans and drawings acknowledged as being from prominent architects such as Inigo Jones and Wren. Campbell also included drawings of his own devising heavily influenced by Palladio’s work. Although he had visited Rome in the 1700s he had not initially intended becoming an architect51 and his detailed knowledge

45 The register of the Scots College in Rome states that he did so but does not give a date. His renunciation was pragmatic and cosmetic. He maintained close connections with the Stewarts of Traquair who were Catholic and Jacobite. When Smith died in 1731 he was reputed to be a Roman Catholic. Roberts A, ‘James Smith & James Gibbs – Seminarians and Architects’, Architectural Heritage, Vol. ii, 1991, p. 44. 46 For a detailed account of Smith’s work and its significance see Dunbar. His major works included Hamilton Palace, Dalkeith House, Yester House and his own home of Whitehill (now called Newhailes and a National Trust for Scotland property). 47 He married twice and had 32 children. 48 Ed. Hennings B.D., History of Parliament: The Houses of Commons 1660–1690, Secker & Warburg, 1983. 49 William Adam (the head of the dynasty of Scottish/British architects) became successful only when Smith retired. Gifford John, William Adam 1689–1748, Mainstream Publishing, RIAS, 1989, pp. 76–7. 50 In Vitruvius Britannicus, or the British Architect Colen Campbell described Smith as “the most experienced architect of Scotland”. Campbell has been credited, through the publication of the first two volumes of this work and subsequent commissions for private houses, with being the founder of the Georgian style of architecture in England. The third volume showed his limitations as an original architect. Campbell’s initial success appears to have been built in part on copying without accreditation from more gifted architects. 51 He was a lawyer and on his move from Scotland to London he used his contacts to gain influential friends among the legal profession many of whom were Whigs and well placed in society.

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of Palladio’s work came from Smith. Recent scholarship has suggested that the drawings which Campbell published as his own were copies of Smith’s work which Campbell had obtained through blackmail.52 If this proves to be true – it is still contentious – James Smith’s influence on British (as opposed to Scottish) architecture of the eighteenth century and later is clearly due for a major reassessment. In contrast to Smith who had been born into a family of builders, James Gibb53 came from a mercantile background. His father, Patrick, was a Catholic merchant living in Aberdeen who got into trouble with the authorities when James was still a child.54 James was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and Marischal College. On completing his studies in 1699 he went to Holland to stay with relatives. While there he worked for a master-builder before going to Italy. In 1703 at the age of 21 he enrolled in the Scots College in Rome. It is unlikely that Gibb had any serious intention of being ordained since he left ten months later because he was unwilling to take the missionary oath. He remained in Rome55 for a further four years enrolling in the school of Carlo Fontana, Bernini’s pupil and the most prominent architect in the city. It was during this time that he became fully familiar with the artistic and architectural heritage of the city.56 His return to Britain in 1708 was initiated by news of the illness of his brother who died before Gibb reached England. Travelling through

52

Campbell had been born at Boghall, near Forres, and was a neighbour of Smith. He knew of his Catholicism and the insincerity of his renunciation of his faith. Campbell’s family had previously been Catholic and still retained Catholic sympathies but he appears to have used his privileged knowledge to advance his career at the expense of Smith and later James Gibb. (see below) Colvin H.M., ‘James Smith’, Placzek A.K. Ed., The Macmillan Encyclopaedia of Architecture, London, 1982, Vol. 4, London, 1982, pp. 89–90. 53 For fuller accounts of Gibb’s architectural career see Freidman or Little. 54 In James VII’s reign Patrick Gibb named two pups, Calvin and Luther, and used these names in public. On William and Mary’s accession Aberdeen council tried Gibb for his disrespect and ordered the dogs to be hanged. Roberts, Architectural Heritage, p. 50. Patrick had strong Jacobite sympathies which James inherited. 55 This was possible because he had obtained a loan of 100 crowns from James Gordon who was deputy to William Leslie the archivist of Propaganda Fide. He described Gibb as a “youth of good parts . . . He resolves to stay some while here and apply himself to painting, seemingly to have a great genious for that employment” Roberts, Architectural Heritage, p. 52. 56 He was also a personal pupil of Pietro Francesco Garroli, professor of Perspective at the Accademia di San Luca, learning to produce architectural drawings especially in perspective. Little, p. 19.

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Holland he met the Earl of Mar57 who took an interest in the young man and promised to gain him employment as an architect in London. Mar was, with Lord Loudoun, joint Secretary of State for Scotland and each of them gave Gibbs58 work on their London town houses and an additional commission in Scotland.59 Mar promoted Gibbs’ interests among his friends but the following four years were lean times for him both in work and earnings. London at the time was able to boast of an extraordinary number of gifted architects, both gentleman and professional. Sir Christopher Wren was still active, as were John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor. However, an opportunity for great advancement came in 1713 when the position of surveyor to the Commissioners for Building Fifty New Churches became vacant. There were two surveyors to this body which was engaged in a massive reconstruction of London churches. The other position was filled by Hawksmoor.60 Gibbs’ application for the job was strongly supported by Mar’s Tory friends. Wren also added his voice as did Gibbs’ fellow Aberdonian, Dr John Arbuthnot,61 the queen’s physician: but as well as the other contenders – the strongest was John James, the master carpenter at St Paul’s Cathedral – Gibbs faced opposition from Whigs especially Vanbrugh. Nevertheless the commission was dominated by Tories and he was successful. He immediately started work on what was to become his masterpiece: the church of St Mary-le-Strand. His design won out against those of Thomas Archer and John Vanbrugh.62 By the time his church was complete in 1716, however, the queen was dead, the Tory government had fallen, Mar had led and failed in a Jacobite rebellion, the House of Hanover was on the throne and Gibbs had lost his surveyorship.63

57 The earl was an amateur architect and a strong Jacobite. His patronage of Gibb was to prove extremely helpful. 58 On his return to Britain he became known as Gibbs. 59 Freidman, p. 8. 60 The churches were authorised by the Parliamentary Act of 1711. Only 12 were built, eight by Hawksmoor (two of which were in collaboration with John James), two by Thomas Archer, one by James and one – St Mary le Strand – by Gibbs. 61 The Arbuthnot family was Catholic. George Arbuthnot entered SC Douai in 1714 and became a Jesuit. RSC, p. 68 (See also Abbot Benedict Arbuthnot below). 62 Freidman, p. 312. 63 Gibbs believed that his loss was due to his Catholicism rather than his patronage by Mar. Colen Campbell reported to the Commissioners that Gibbs was a Catholic. Gibbs complained that this was a false accusation. Campbell’s perfidy did him no good since he was not given the surveyorship as he had hoped. It went to John James.

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This setback was short-lived and Gibbs received a growing number of private commissions.64 In 1720 he again won a competition to build a London church – St Martin-in-the-Fields. The commission cemented his reputation. Drawing on his encyclopaedic knowledge of classical architecture and church design in Italy he created an iconic model which was to dominate ideas regarding Protestant ecclesiastical architecture for the rest of the century. The church was the most important in the capital being the parish church of the king. By using the design of a classical temple he could affix the royal coat of arms prominently above the portico without offending religious sensibilities. Incorporating a spire in such a structure was not novel but his use of Corinthian, Ionic and Baroque elements in what was essentially an Italianate campanile as its base broke new ground. Gibbs did not restrict his activities to buildings. He designed funerary and other monuments which he then had executed in marble by the Dutch sculptor, John Michael Rysbrack. Rysbrack had arrived in London in 1720 and Gibbs was the first to recognize his talents and provide him with work. Their professional relationship was highly successful and lasted for the rest of Gibbs’ life.65 In 1728 Gibbs started a new venture by publishing A Book of Architecture followed in 1732 by Rules for Drawing The Several Parts of Architecture. These books, which were reissued several times during his lifetime and many more after his death, were intended as guides for builders enabling them to erect prestigious and fashionable buildings for clients without the expense of employing a professional architect. As well as plans and drawings of the structure of buildings, Gibbs included internal and external decorative details with instructions on plaster and woodwork. The books were runaway successes. In North America the designs were taken up in New England throughout the century66 and his patterns

64 Lord Burlington and the Duke of Argyll among others were using him to improve their London properties and country estates. When the Earl of Mar, in exile in Rome in 1717, invited him to visit, Gibbs declined writing “I have a great deal of business on my hands”. Freidman, pp. 12–3. 65 Rysbrack established a career in his own right as a portrait sculptor and produced busts of many of the great and good in Georgian England. In 1726 Gibbs’ bust was one of his first commissions. 66 Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Virginia, allegedly his own design, is in all major aspects “a Building of the Dorick Order in form of a Temple, made for a Person of Quality”, plate 67 in A Book of Architecture. Freidman, p. 274. King’s Chapel (1749) in Boston Massachusetts is similarly derived from Gibbs. Freidman, p. 277.

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for churches became especially popular. Examples of his designs were still being built a century later.67 By the end of the 1720s Gibbs was unrivalled as the architect of choice in England. Wren, Vanbrugh and even Campbell were dead (Hawksmoor died in 1736) and he was employed completing some of their unfinished commissions.68 His work for Cambridge (King’s College, the Senate House et al.) and Oxford (Radcliffe Camera) universities added to his successes. The commission from the trustees of the late Dr John Radcliffe for a prestigious building to house his collection of books was the crowning achievement of his later life which he was to commemorate by publishing a detailed account of its design and construction (Bibliotecheca Radcliviana, 1747) and the university celebrated by awarding Gibbs a Master of Arts degree on the Library’s dedication in 1749. Much can be said of the unique design of the Radcliffe Camera. Gibbs drew on an earlier submission for the work by Hawksmoor but he incorporated features which gave the building a distinctive appeal. The circular construction allowed a copious provision of natural light from windows incorporated in the basal plinth and drum and lights built into the dome which was capped by a lantern. This was a novel use for a much-loved architectural construction – the drum and dome covering for the crossing of a cathedral. Wren had already crowned St Paul’s Cathedral with a dome and made the English comfortable with a form of architecture that previously had been restricted to Catholicism. Gibbs had built on this familiarity by creating a secular building of this form. Close examination shows that the Camera is closer in design to the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome than to St Paul’s. The arrangement of twin columns surrounding the drum, the lights and above all the construction of the dome make the Radcliffe a smaller version of that great dome. Gibbs, the clandestine Catholic, had brought the intelligentsia of Oxford possibly unwittingly under the roof of his church and caused them to applaud the marvellous building that they now had.69 When he died in 1754 Gibbs bequeathed his architectural library and collection of manuscript drawings to be housed in the Radcliffe. His other bequests showed that the 67

Center Church in New Haven, Connecticut, was completed in 1815. Little, p. 75. The spire of St Clement Danes, London, for Wren; Houghton Hall, Norfolk for Campbell. 69 Summerson John, Architecture in Britain 1530–1830, Penguin, 1977. 68

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convictions and loyalties he had held as a young man were unchanged despite being suppressed during the major part of his life. In his will he left provision for masses to be said for himself but his own house and a great part of his wealth he left to Cosmo Alexander, a painter of distinction, a fellow Catholic from Aberdeen, a Jacobite (he had fought at Culloden) and for much of his exile a resident of Rome.70 Smith and Gibbs became famous through their special talents which had been indirectly nurtured while studying at the Scots college in Rome. Their fellow students also benefited indirectly from their exposure to greater cultural influences but it was through the formal education which they received that they were able to make their mark on the world. The superb quality of this education enabled many to fulfil careers in intellectual and political life. The courses which they followed at the colleges were in classical humanism as laid down by the Society of Jesus in their Ratio Studiorum.

Ratio Studiorum The Collegio Romano was opened in 1551 with a notice nailed to its door proclaiming that it was a “School of Grammar, Humanities and Christian Doctrine. Free”.71 From the beginning the Jesuits had a clear view of the kind of education which should be provided. However, a full specification was not drawn up until 1599 when General Aquaviva published Ratio Studiorum formally laying out the plan which each Jesuit teaching establishment was required to follow.72 Drafting the “plan of studies” had taken 14 years and represented the cumulative wisdom of over 50 years of Jesuit experience in providing education throughout Europe and the mission lands.73 The plan allowed for regional variations and stated that it should be modified in light of experience and continuing educational developments but its initial success gave it an almost iconic status which ensured universal adherence

70 Gibbs had no family. Cosmo was a confidente with whom he discussed his wider interests without reserve. Gibbs left his six other houses to those he felt he owed a debt e.g. Lord Erskine, the heir of the Earl of Mar, who had fallen on hard times since the earl had gone into exile. Little, p. 159. 71 Mitchell, p. 59. 72 O’Malley John W., The First Jesuits, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1993, p. 225. 73 An author of the original draft submitted in 1585 was Scotsman John Tyrie, rector of the Claremont College in Paris. Mitchell, p. 90.

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to its strictures. It was not formally amended until 1832 after the reinstatement of the society.74 Ratio Studiorum stipulated that before students could be accepted at a Jesuit college they had to be literate in Latin. This had been insisted upon by Ignatius Loyola himself. He felt that Jesuit resources could not be stretched to include elementary education. The stipulation, although not always observed, created an image of superior academic achievement in the entrants to Jesuit colleges.

Curricula The colleges fell into two categories: those offering lower studies which provided a general education mainly for younger students and colleges which offered higher classes leading to masters’ or doctors’ degrees. Entrants to the lower colleges studied the Trivium, a course of studies lasting normally five years and consisting of grammar, syntax and rhetoric. Its purpose as stated in Ratio Studiorum was to “. . . instruct the boys, who are entrusted to our Society, that they will thoroughly learn along with their letters, the habits worthy of Christians”. The students at entry were usually between ten and 12 years of age.75 All of the Scots colleges offered the Trivium at least for some part of their existence.76 From a study of the entries in the college registers it is clear that the college in Douai was operating predominantly as a junior college although a few of its students appear to have continued at the college and completed their higher studies there. Most of its students who wanted to proceed to the next stage transferred to another college. Higher education required study of the Quadrivium which took from four to seven years. The student could choose to study in one or more faculties – arts (philosophy), theology, medicine and law. Law could be either canon law or civil law (jurisprudence). Initially canon law was most commonly offered but as the requirement for lawyers to

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Fitzpatrick, p. 34. Fitzpatrick, pp. 195, 215–6. 76 The colleges, like all other educational institutions of the time, taught Trivium studies using regents i.e. class teachers who covered all the subjects. However, the fourth and fifth years of Trivium and all of the Quadrivium studies were conducted by a series of professors who specialised in their own subject. This was by no means the case with other institutions. None of the Scottish universities abandoned the regency system for Quadrivium studies until well into the eighteenth century. 75

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work in the civil administration of national states grew, the colleges increasingly turned to civil law. Uniformity in the provision of education exacted by the central authority of the Society ensured that the Scots colleges followed the pattern laid down. The surviving registers of the colleges support this. The records are not complete but lists of students exist for Douai, Rome and Madrid; all of these were Jesuit-run colleges. Partial reconstructions of student lists for Paris and the Schottenklöster are also available. However, the courses of study followed by students are either not mentioned or recorded as the entry subject only. Descriptions of continuous studies are given only in the cases of some exemplary scholars. The implication of this method of recording is that the student started at the beginning of the relevant course (Trivium or Quadrivium) and stayed until completion unless otherwise stated. This implication is likely to be correct but another difficulty exists in interpreting the college registers. Over time the administrators used a great variety of titles for courses. The more familiar names such as grammar, syntax and rhetoric are frequently to be found but others recorded are figures, poetry, logic, literature, etymology, metaphysics, basic studies, physics, dialectics, cases of conscience, divinity and dogma.77 These do not represent different courses of study but aspects of or different titles for the parts of the Trivium and Quadrivium which are fully detailed in Ratio Studiorum. The Jesuit classification of the aspects of an Arts education was emulated by Protestant scholars. Johann Heinrich Alsted, (1588–1638) professor at Herbron University, in his Encyclopedia (1620s) illustrated the subdivisions of philosophy which were recognized at that time.78 It is clear here as in Ratio Studiorum that the separation of arts and sciences had not yet occurred.79 Alsted expanded the categorization of

77

Figures is defined as an introduction to logic. Divinity and dogma are parts of the Quadrivium in the faculty of theology but there is evidence that some introduction was given at the junior college stage of education in the Scots colleges. 78 Schmidt-Biggemann Wilhelm, ‘New Structures of Knowledge’, de RidderSymoens Hilde Ed., pp. 499–500. 79 When the separation started in the second half of the seventeenth century with the rise of experimental sciences, the Jesuit adherence to the teaching of humanities began to erode the predominance of their educational model. This had a significant effect on the education provided by imposing limitations on what students could study. In Jesuit run colleges mathematics remained the predominant science and initially was restricted to Euclidian geometry. Other institutions (Scottish universities were noted examples) started to adopt medicine and the experimental sciences

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Ratio Studiorum indicating to some extent how thinking had moved on in the 25 years since its publication. Theoretical philosophy consisted of metaphysics and mathematics which in turn included music, optics, architecture and cosmography as well as arithmetic and geometry. Practical philosophy included ethics, economics, history and politics as well as poetry which could encompass logic, oratory, grammar and rhetoric. His analysis also stated that oratory derived from logic and in its purest form was used in the production of sermons. Alsted’s analysis further helps in our understanding of the courses of study at the Scots Colleges by showing that they all fit within the formal descriptions of the Trivium and Quadrivium. In addition to teaching the Christian virtues Ratio Studiorum stated that the purpose of the education was to instil in the pupils the humanist principle of sapiens atque eloquens pietas.80 The ability to discourse eloquently and knowledgably on a wide range of subjects was considered to be the epitome of a well-educated person.81 Proficiency was to be acquired through study of the Trivium in which Ratio Studiorum stipulated there should be five classes – three covering grammar, one of rhetoric and a final class of higher humanities.82 Each class would normally take a year to complete. The first class in grammar covered an introduction to Latin syntax using the first book of Emmanuel (Isaiah’s prefiguring of the coming of Christ from the Vulgate Bible) as its principal text. The second class covered the eight parts of speech and used the second book of Emmanuel. It was also in this class that the students were introduced to Greek. The third class continued using the second book of Emmanuel to cover figured construction and measuring syllables leading to an understanding of the art of versification. In Greek the students were

as their major non-Arts offerings by the early eighteenth century. Early Jesuit work in experimental sciences, heavily reliant on astronomy, was later to be curtailed by theological considerations and reactions to the work of Protestant scientists such as Newton. Innovative pioneering work by Jesuits such as Hugh Semple in Madrid and those at the Collegio Romano did not continue beyond the seventeenth century. In the eighteenth century the Benedictines in Germany were pioneers of experimental sciences but achieved this in the teeth of Jesuit opposition. (See below) 80 “Wisdom with the ability to express it piously.” Rüegg Walter, ‘Themes’ de RidderSymoens Hilde Ed., p. 29. 81 After the Council of Trent it was accepted that the basis of education for Catholic priests should be in the Humanities. This was also the basis for training Lutheran and Calvinist pastors. Frijhoff, ‘Graduation and Careers’, pp. 371–2. 82 Fitzpatrick, p. 176.

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to be taught the eight parts of speech. The range of texts expanded to include Cicero, the epistles of Ovid, an expurgated Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius and the Eclogues and fourth Georgic of Virgil. Greek was taught using the works of St Chrysostom, Aesop and Agapetus.83 The fourth year studying rhetoric covered poetry and oratory. Works by Cicero, Quintillian and Aristotle were to be used but also other texts of a similar nature were encouraged at the choice of the teacher. This class explored precepts and style with the object of increasing the students’ erudition on the range of subjects covered by the texts. The final year of the Trivium built on this by further exploration of poetry and the reading of a wider range of authors – Caesar, Sallust, Livy, Curtius, Cyprian and any others thought suitable by the professor.84 As well as regular written work, the exercises in rhetoric required the individual student to debate in public on any subject selected by the teacher. By the end of the Trivium the student should have acquired the ability to use rhetorical skills through a thorough mastery of Latin and Greek and an extensive knowledge of classical texts and scripture. This course structure ensured that students were able to achieve the principal aims of a Jesuit education. For many of the students at the Scots colleges their formal education ended with the completion of the lower studies of the Trivium. Progression to the Quadrivium meant studying the higher faculties of Philosophy, Theology, Law or Medicine. Since for most of their existence the Scots colleges functioned as seminaries, students were expected to take up their higher studies in Theology and Philosophy. Again Ratio Studiorum defined what should be taught. The Philosophy course required a minimum of three years to complete. Logic was to be studied using the works of Toletus and Fonseca. Aristotle’s Natural Philosophy was also to be explored using as texts his second books of Physics and De Anima. A separate professorship in Mathematics was provided to introduce students to the geometry of Euclid. The rules also stated that any students who were particularly gifted were to be given extra private tuition covering other fields of mathematics and astronomy.85 The texts chosen could cover any subject but often reflected the interests of the teacher. For example the

83 84 85

Fitzpatrick, pp. 176, 222. Fitzpatrick, pp. 208, 216. Fitzpatrick, pp. 167–74.

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archival material in the Royal Scots College in Madrid makes it clear that its first rector, Hugh Semple, worked from mathematical texts and cosmography. However he ranged widely over the ancient writers as can be seen from the quotations he used as illustrations in his unfinished Latin dictionary.86 From the entries in the college records it can be seen that the texts used covered literature and poetry as well as logic. The lack of distinction between the arts and sciences, certainly in Semple’s period as rector in the first half of the seventeenth century, allowed the grammar course to cover sciences such as physics, optics, hydraulics and mathematics. Other subjects identifiable as having been taught include history, geography, medicine, architecture and land management. Although the teaching of these subjects is not specifically recorded the library shows that they were of significant interest to the staff and therefore likely to be referred to in their general studies.87 The Madrid library also supported the exploration of theology with a wide range of relevant texts as recommended in Ratio Studiorum. The Theology course was four years in length and was in two parts; Moral Theology and Sacred Scriptures. The professor of Moral Theology was required to be of firm Thomist convictions and the ten books of Ethics of Aristotle were stipulated as a required text. The study of Aquinas ensured that students understood the limitations of Aristotelianism. Sacred Scriptures included the use of the earliest texts which required proficiency in Hebrew as well as Greek. The professor appointed to take this course had to be proficient in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldaic and Syriac.88 Successful theological students had to be trilingual.89 Scottish scholars had gained international reputations as humanists even before the foundation of the Scots colleges. Prominent among them were Henry Boece, Andrew Melville, John Major and George 86

ARSC, Box 26, Item 6. ARSC, Box 23, Item 2 is the library catalogue in 1760. The range of subjects listed is even wider than described above. Navigation and military matters are covered. Hugh Semple’s papers contain a manuscript of mathematical exercises on conic sections which he had prepared for his students. Conic sections describe parabolas which Galileo had proved were the shapes followed by the trajectories of missiles. The library has a copy of Galileo’s treatise on ballistics. It is clear that Semple was fully conversant with this work and incorporated it into his mathematics classes. 88 Fitzpatrick, pp. 121–2. 89 ARSC, Box 41 Item 17 is a list dated 1785 of students who had passed examinations in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. 87

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Buchanan. The colleges, therefore, did not initiate a new intellectual discipline for Scots but gave additional opportunities for them to continue an established tradition.90 Yet the quality of the classical education provided by the Scots colleges can be determined in part by the number of humanist scholars which they produced. Most of the Scots who attended the colleges benefited from humanist learning which was the basis for much of the teaching given but a number went on to play significant roles in this branch of knowledge in the early modern period. Three college alumni in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries provide good illustrations.91 Each made a significant career for himself as a scholar, publishing work and interacting with other prominent scholars in the Republic of Letters. They also benefited in their careers by the interest taken in them by King James VI/I and the help he gave them. Thomas Dempster came to prominence at an early age. As a young boy he was sent by his uncle to study at Cambridge University to escape family disputes.92 The family problems had worsened when Thomas completed his studies at the age of 13 and he was sent to continue his studies in Paris and Rome. By his own account by the time he was 17 he had studied in Louvain and Rome, obtained an MA at Douai, become a Doctor of Canon and Civil Law and had been appointed a regent of the College of Navarre in the University of Paris.93 While in Louvain he stayed at the Scots college and took classes at the university under Justus Lipsius, the founder of the Neo-Stoicism school of

90 Scottish connections to Paris were particularly strong and of long duration, as the College of Grisy demonstrates. These humanists were energetic in fostering awareness of Scotland’s nationhood. Major and Boece each produced a history of Scotland and the Breviary of Aberdeen. (Written by Bishop Elphinestone of Aberdeen in 1510 to include Scottish saints not included in other versions of the Sarum Office and intended to replace these English texts.) These works encouraged a strong Scottish dimension to the pre-Reformation Church and were in support of James IV’s policies for unifying his kingdom. 91 Thomas Dempster (Douai 1593), Thomas Seget (Douai 1596) and Thomas Reid (Douai 1606) Dempster and Seget both entered the college in the short period it was based in Louvain prior to relocating to Douai. RSC, pp. 6, 7, 10. 92 His elder brother attempted to murder his father, Thomas Dempster of Muiresk, who was later executed for treason. 93 Dempster’s autobiography contains many exaggerated claims. He was at least five years older than he claimed. His enthusiasm for those issues that he held dear (principally himself and Scotland) led him to make a number of nonsensical claims which led to a lessening of respect for the quality of his scholarship. ODNB, Vol. 15, pp. 759–62.

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philosophy.94 He managed to gain sponsorships from Cardinal Cajetan in Rome and Archduke Albert, regent of the Spanish Netherlands, while in Douai.95 As an avowed self-publicist, Dempster’s claims should not all be accepted but there can be no doubt that his was a formidable intellect and was recognized as such by his contemporaries. Like many of his fellow humanists his career took him around Europe. As a Catholic he was restricted to working at Catholic universities – Toulouse, Nimes and as a private tutor to a nobleman’s son in Spain – but he did spend some time at the Protestant college in La Rochelle where he gained work only by pretending to become Calvinist – a conversion which few believed but the college authorities accepted in order to obtain the services of such a distinguished scholar. He was publishing his own work, much of it Latin poetry, to great acclaim. Although it was not unusual for scholars to be peripatetic, Dempster’s frequent moves were driven in part by his habit of reacting aggressively to perceived insults. For his own safety, he was obliged to move on from his position in Toulouse and on one occasion in 1605 he was even imprisoned in Nîmes for duelling with a student.96 He may have understood Lipsius’ teaching regarding Stoicism but clearly was unable to live up to those principles. On his return to Paris in 1608 Dempster took up teaching appointments at no less than four colleges. During this period he lacked an important sponsor and in an attempt to rectify this he dedicated his edition of Rosinus’ Antiquitatum Romanorum Corpus Absolutissimum in 1613 to King James VI/I. The flattery worked and in 1615 James invited him to court to become Historiographer Royal – the first person to hold this title. On arrival in England he met and married a beautiful Englishwoman, Susan Waller. At court she attracted attention, which she did little to avoid, and Dempster’s unpredictable temper again led him into fights. Having newly arrived and being Catholic, he had few friends at court and the following year he had to leave London. When he arrived in Rome Pope Paul V imprisoned him

94 Lipsius was a Catholic but changed his publicly professed faith from Catholic to Lutheran to Calvinist in order to gain positions at the universities of Jena, Cologne and Leiden from 1572 to 1592. When he took up the chair of Latin History and Literature at Louvain he was again a professed Catholic. Lipsius’ pragmatism in this matter possibly affected his students. Dempster, Reid and Seget each varied their profession of faith to further their careers. 95 He claimed he also had a pension from the King of Spain. 96 ODNB, Vol. 15, p. 760.

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on suspicion of spying for King James. He later released him when hoping to develop better relationships with the British monarch.97 He recommended Dempster to the Duke of Tuscany for a professorship at the University of Pisa. While there Dempster wrote a history of Etruria which he dedicated to the duke.98 Jealousy sparked by his wife’s behaviour, however, led him into another serious argument and he again moved on thereby losing the patronage of the duke. He spent the rest of his life as a professor of humanities at Bologna – possibly the most prestigious university of the time – working on his posthumously published Historia Ecclesiastica Genus Scotorum.99 This work has such preposterous claims of grandeur for Scots and the kingdom of Scotland that it could only have been another attempt to gain King James’ favour by flattery. It was never used to this end since before its completion both James and Dempster were dead. Notwithstanding this late aberration, when he died in 1625 Dempster was at the height of his fame, widely respected as a scholar and historian and in many ways his life epitomizes that of a humanist of his time albeit one of the most colourful. Although their backgrounds were similar Thomas Reid and Thomas Seget are remembered for different achievements. Reid was the son of the Calvinist minister of the parish of Banchory-Ternan in Aberdeenshire.100 After graduating from Marischal College he went at the age of 23 to the Scots college at Louvain. In order to enter the college he had to convince the superior, Fr Jean Libion, that he was a Catholic thereby emulating in reverse Dempster’s action at La Rochelle. Reid’s purpose in attending the Catholic college was, like Dempster, to study under Lipsius. His subsequent studies took him to the German Protestant universities of Rostock and Leipzig where he taught and published works on metaphysics. Here he began his lifelong interest in collecting books. His reputation as a scholar had been sufficiently established by 1618 that, on the illness of Robert Ayton, the king’s Latin secretary, James VI/I appointed him as Ayton’s successor.101 Reid quickly rose 97 The marriage between James’ heir, Charles, and the Catholic Infanta of Spain, Isabella, was being discussed at the time. 98 The book was highly influential on the writing of history because it dealt with the subject in the round rather than limiting it to the actions of great men. As well as dealing with Etruria in antiquity he covered its modern economic history. 99 A section of the book is given over to Dempster’s autobiography. 100 ODNB, Vol. 46, pp. 413–4. 101 Reid was probably recommended for the job by Ayton, himself, who had visited the Scots college and made friends with Dempster and the resident scholars.

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in the king’s favour by publishing a Latin translation of James’ collected works.102 When he died in 1624 Reid had amassed a library of over 1,000 printed books and manuscripts. As well as collecting while working in continental Europe he had added many interesting and valuable manuscripts while in London.103 He left his collection to his alma mater, Marischal College, together with 6,000 merks to employ a librarian.104 By the terms of Reid’s will the library was open to scholars and clerics making it the earliest public library in Britain. Reid knew Thomas Seget well. They shared many personal friends and corresponded with each other throughout their careers. Like Reid, Seget had already graduated MA, in his case from Edinburgh University, before journeying to Louvain to continue his studies at the Scots college.105 Unlike Reid, Seget appears to have genuinely converted to Catholicism.106 This happened after his arrival at Leiden in 1589 where, like Dempster and Reid, he had travelled to study under Justus Lipsius. The great scholar thought highly enough of his young pupil to give him a glowing testimonial to be used as an introduction to Lipsius’ friends. Seget put the document to good use. An examination of his Album Amicorum provides evidence of the society to which the testimonial gave Seget access. In 1597 he journeyed to Antwerp to visit the renowned Jesuit academic, Andreas Schottus, and Abraham Ortelius, the cartographer and friend of Gerhard Mercator. Soon after returning to the college in Louvain, Seget set off for Italy. En route he stopped at Augsburg where he used his acquaintance with Ortelius and his testimonial from Lipsius to meet many of its notable citizens. The young man was welcomed by Marc Welser, the classical scholar, Adolf Occo, a leading light in the Augsburg school of medicine and friend of the

102 He did this in collaboration with Patrick Young. The work was published in 1619, only a year after Reid’s appointment. 103 The rarest book in his collection, an illustrated manuscript bestiary of the early thirteenth century, came from the Old Royal Library at Westminster Palace. He also acquired a number of books from the archives of old St Paul’s Cathedral which the king had borrowed. His ability to purloin these books was due no doubt to James’ increasing senility towards the end of his life. 104 The income was so high in the beginning that the librarian was the highest paid person in the university. The library now forms part of AULSC. 105 Odlozilik Otakar, ‘Thomas Seget: A Scottish Friend of Szymon Szymonowicz’, The Polish Review, Vol. 11. No. 1, p. 3. Surprisingly there is no entry for Seget in ODNB. There is a short biography in Irving David, Lives of the Scottish Poets, Vol. 1, Edinburgh, 1804. 106 Nevertheless he made friends with scholars of many different branches of Protestantism – Calvinists, Lutherans, Arians, Antitrinitarians and others. Odlozilik, p. 30.

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late Andreas Vesalius,107 and David Hoeschel, the rector of the Annenschule and publisher of humanist texts. On arrival in Padua he called on notable intellectuals including Antonio Riccoboni, professor of humanities at Padua Grammar School and Giovanni Pinelli, owner of one of the best private libraries in Italy.108 Seget studied law at Padua for three years and visited Venice on a number of occasions meeting prominent visitors including Galileo who made an entry in his Album Amicorum in 1599.109 In this way Seget continued expanding his circle of acquaintances among humanist scholars and European nobility while maintaining his contacts through copious correspondence. He appears to have been a valued correspondent, spicing up his letters with interesting gossip regarding mutual friends. In 1601 David Hoeschel invited Seget to contribute poetry to a new publication in Greek. The contribution was accepted and Seget’s name appeared in print alongside a number of distinguished humanist scholars, including Isaac Casaubon. He had become famous by association rather than the intrinsic value of his work. Little is known of how Seget earned his living after Pinelli’s death but in 1602 he was elected consiliarius of the Scottish Nation at the University of Padua. In 1603 he was imprisoned in Venice for what Sir Henry Wotton, James VI/I’s ambassador to the Serene Republic, called “a youthful error”. He was released after two years only because Wotton petitioned on his behalf and promised that Seget would leave Venetian territory for ever.110 He left for Germany, living off the hospitality of his German friends, while composing Latin poetry mainly of an ingratiating nature. Almost by accident in 1610 during a stay in Prague he became a participant in a major advance in the history of science. Galileo had in that year published Sidereus Nuncio in which he described his discovery of the moons of Jupiter. He had made his observations using a telescope of his own devising and initial reactions

107 Vesalius was a distinguished anatomist who through his public dissections of corpses while professor of anatomy at the University of Padua refuted Galens’ ancient texts on the subject. In 1543 he published De Humanis Corporis Fabrica which helped launch the modern study of anatomy. 108 Pinelli provided Seget with accommodation in Padua. While staying with him he met many more classicists. When Pinelli died in 1601 Seget was appointed administrator of his library. Odlozilik, p. 16. 109 Galileo stayed with Pinelli several times while in Padua and renewed his acquaintance with Seget. Odlozilik p. 10. 110 Odlozilik pp. 17–8.

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to his claims were sceptical.111 Afterwards Galileo had success in Florence where the Grand Duke, Cosimo de’ Medici, was able to see the moons.112 To counter the incredulity of scholars north of the Alps, Galileo sent one of his telescopes to the Elector of Cologne, Ernst of Bavaria. Johannes Kepler borrowed this instrument to check Galileo’s claims. Over a period of nine nights in September 1610 he saw three of the moons. He invited a small number of reputable gentlemen who were in Prague at the time to attend as observers. Kepler made much of the presence of these men who were able to see some of what he could through the telescope. The only one who saw all the moons visible to Kepler was Thomas Seget whom Kepler described as “a man already known in the books and letters of celebrated men, to whom therefore the reputation of his name is dear to his heart”. By citing Seget in support of his observations Kepler was assuring his readership of the absolute trust which they could place in his findings. This use of independent and impartial witnesses to the replication of scientific experiments was an early step in advancing the study of natural knowledge through experimentation.113 Seget continued his travels around northern Europe, particularly in Lithuania and Poland where he became friends with the Polish philosopher and poet Szymon Szymonowicz (Simon Simonides).114 However, because of the outbreak of war it was proving increasingly difficult for him to survive and around 1618 he returned to Germany and took up a teaching position at the University of Altdorf. His life there could not have been satisfactory. The increasing disruptions caused by the Thirty Years War eventually caused him to move to Amsterdam. There he published a booklet in 1622 entitled Thomas Seghetus a gravicalumnia

111 At a demonstration at the University of Bologna neither the professor of astronomy, Giovanni Antonio Magini, nor his guests were able to see the moons. This was no doubt due to their unfamiliarity with the instrument but it was a major blow to Galileo since Magini was a friend. Van Helden Albert, ‘Telescopes and Authority from Galileo to Cassini’, Osiris, 2nd Series, Vol. 9, Instruments, 1994, p. 11. 112 Named “Medicean Stars” in Cosimo’s honour. 113 Seget wrote to Galileo informing him of Kepler’s experiment before Kepler had either published or even written to Galileo himself. Odlozilik, p. 27. In 1611 the Jesuit mathematicians and astronomers at the Collegio Romano reported that Galileo’s observations were correct. This endorsement resulted in Galileo’s induction into the prestigious Accademia dei Lincei. Van Helden, pp. 13–4. 114 Seget had published some of Szymonowicz’s poems in 1608. This was several years before the two men met but ensured Szymonowicz’s gratitude and friendship. Odlozilik, p. 22.

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vindicatus. It is unclear what the calumny was but his booklet was addressed to the Stuart king in London and copied to the Prince of Wales. The inference is that Seget was hoping for some preferment at court.115 At this time Reid wrote to his friend making no mention of the attacks on him but assuring him of his continued friendship. James did not respond to Seget’s entreaties which, given the king’s health, was to be expected but neither did Charles. Unlike his father Charles’ interests did not include patronising humanist scholars. Seget never returned to Britain. He died while writing a book on the Italian States for the Leiden publishing house of Elzevir. As an epitaph for Seget, the book is revealing. It was a great commercial success. 116 Despite the fact that Seget had written only the first part, dying before he could complete it, and that the book was largely a transcription from the Italian of some other person’s work, Seget’s name was clearly valuable in marketing it for the publishers to use it in this way. He had lived his life rubbing shoulders with the most prominent scholars of his time yet although his poetry was of some quality he had not fulfilled the early promise that his teacher, Lipsius, had predicted for him. Dempster, Reid and Seget were by no means the only college alumni to distinguish themselves as humanists. The Schottenklöster produced a number of poets and historians, such as Thomas Duff, whose work was appreciated in their adopted cities of Regensburg and Würzburg. George Strachan, a founding student at the Pontifical Scots College in Rome and close friend of Thomas Dempster,117 was a noted poet before he embarked in 1613 on his adventure of travelling through the Ottoman, Persian and Indian empires establishing himself as the greatest expert of his day in oriental languages. The comprehensive nature of the education in humanities which the Scots colleges provided clearly produced scholars to rank with any others in Europe.

115 Seget had earlier changed the styling of his name from Scottus to Britannicus, perhaps in an attempt to appeal to James’ vanity regarding his great new kingdom. Odlozilik p. 22. 116 De principatibus Italiae, 1628. It was produced in a second edition the following year. 117 He wrote an introductory Latin poem for Dempster’s Antiquitatum Romanorum Corpus Absolitissimum.

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Daily Life of the Students Apart from the formal courses taught, life in the colleges enabled students to acquire other knowledge, experience and skills. By exposing them to the wider communities in which they lived the colleges gave their students a polish which helped them to make their way in society. Many became multilingual in vernacular languages. The surviving correspondence in the archives shows that they were proficient in French, Italian, German and Spanish which were used as well as Scots for communication between colleagues. This ability allowed many to take up important positions in mainland Europe. Ernest Leslie, a student at Douai and Madrid Colleges, became a professor at the University of Nancy and published a book of his own poems in French.118 Such success could only have been possible if students had become not only linguistically fluent but also fully conversant with the customs and culture in which they were operating. The benefits of this education ensured that the colleges were popular with many, especially the sons of the gentry who were not interested in a life in the Church. Indeed, as has been seen in the case of Thomas Reid, even non-Catholics were attracted. The colleges became strict in ensuring that applicants were truly Catholic. From the mid seventeenth century they insisted that the Mission Oath was taken by entrants. The high demand for places also meant that the colleges were able to prescribe arduous work routines. Classes were held each morning and afternoon. Modus Parisiensis required pupils to be organised into forms of equal ability. The teacher would choose the topic to be studied and read a passage from a Roman author while the pupils examined their own copies of the text. All discussions were conducted in Latin. (Students were allowed to speak in the vernacular only during recreational time.) The teacher followed a logical pattern of discussion by explaining the argument of the author (thesis) followed by a possible counter argument (antithesis) and finally a resolution of the opposing ideas by an argument, usually of his own devising, which reconciled all the accepted facts (synthesis). Afterwards the students were set exercises (exercitium) on the subject to complete and memorise before their next lesson so that the teacher could check

118

RSC, p. 200.

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on their comprehension and progress.119 The teacher would also set written work that was often assessed by a practice known as concertatio. Written work was criticized by a fellow student in “honourable rivalry” in the presence of classmates and the professor. The author and critic would then engage in debate. This practice was deemed to be highly beneficial in raising standards.120 In the Quadrivium written examinations were set towards the end of each academic year – after Easter. Students’ results were given one of three classifications – Excel Mediocrity; Mediocrity; Fall below Mediocrity. Mediocrity was defined as the ability to explain points without necessarily being erudite enough to defend them with theological argument. Students in the highest category – Excel Mediocrity – were selected for additional higher studies and sometimes given private tuition. Those in the lowest category were required to repeat the year’s studies. At the end of their higher studies students had to discourse in public. For the more gifted this was usually before an invited audience of church and civic dignitaries and when successful marked the awarding of a master’s or doctor’s degree.121 The discipline stipulated within Ratio Studiorum was not restricted to educational and spiritual matters. Standards of behaviour were laid down in the college rule books.122 Students had to be full-time and were forbidden to take up additional occupations. They were not allowed to bring arms into the college or use abusive language, cause injuries, lie or visit “evil places”. Rules stipulated that no student should leave the college premises on his own but had to be accompanied by at least one other student. By these measures the college prefect was to ensure that the students would be protected from “all things that detract from morality”.123 Equally the college authorities had responsibilities towards the students. They were to be provided with wholesome food, decent clothing, adequate accommodation and opportunities for exercise and recreation. Looking after these physical needs was often a strain on college finances but nevertheless they were taken very seriously, not

119

Müller, pp. 343–5. Fitzpatrick, p. 203. 121 Fitzpatrick, pp. 129, 146. 122 Each college had its own rule-book which was based on Ratio Studiorum. Rulebooks survive for Madrid ARSC, Box 30, Item 9 and Paris SCA, CA 1/10/2. 123 Fitzpatrick, pp. 137, 241–2. 120

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least by the students themselves. Issues of new clothing were made each year.124 Feeding the students appears to have been somewhat easier than clothing them. Fresh food and wine were provided from the college properties such as the farm at Grisy belonging to the Paris College, the country estate of Gilimón of the Madrid College and the vineyard and house at Marino owned by the Roman College. Initially the Schottenklöster were not so fortunate. While they were being re-established in the late sixteenth century, they received very little income from their property and had to turn applicants away on the grounds that they could not be supported. The abbey at Erfurt in particular took decades to recover its property sufficiently to support more than one monk in residence. In the Scots colleges meals normally consisted of meat, bread, wine and fruit though occasionally they could be more sumptuous. The account of the St Andrew’s day festival meal in the Madrid College in 1663 shows how substantial this could be.125 Not all provision was as generous and the existence of a complaints procedure for the students’ use is indicative of occasional hard times. While at college, exercise was provided by allowing the students to take walks. During the week Quadrivium students went to and from the college and university twice a day. In Rome at the weekend they were allowed to visit churches in different parts of the city to attend services. More substantial exercise was possible during the holidays. Ratio Studiorum stipulated that, as well as feast days, the 12 days of Christmas and two weeks from Passion Sunday were to be free from lessons. In addition grammar students were to have one or two weeks’ holiday per annum, upper Trivium students three or four weeks and

124 In the Statutes of the Paris College it stipulated that the Procurator had responsibility for keeping the clothes of students “up to standard by renewing with clothes that are good, decent and not easily deteriorated”. Also “if there is any defect in food, clothes, health, studies, recreation or anything else, students will have immediate recourse to the Prefect” SCA, CA1/10/2, pp. 15–34. College alumni are recorded as donating money on completion of their studies. In two cases students at the Scots college in Douai donated full sets of clothes for their fellow students. (Ignatius Corduan 1671, John Fowler 1676, RSC, pp. 50, 53). 125 Taylor, p. 38. The provisions included 20 rolls, ten pounds of mutton, six pounds of beef, four pounds of pork, four hens, 16 partridges, a large game pie, a cake, a dozen lemons, two dozen eggs, six pounds of biscuits, six pounds of olives, four pounds of candied fruit and a quantity of whipped cream. Even including the teachers and college servants this would have been a substantial feast.

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Quadrivum students one or two months.126 In summer, when teaching had ended, the students were taken to the colleges’ country properties to escape the heat of the city. While there they had greater freedom to exercise and follow outdoor recreational activities. There are records of hunting and fishing being enjoyed. Swimming was another activity pursued.127 Clearly a wide variety of recreational activities were organized which extended to quieter uses of their leisure. There was plenty of scope for private reading; all of the colleges had extensive libraries. However, a Jesuit tradition had grown up of participating in “spectacles”, open to the public, in which as many students as possible took part. These had developed from an earlier tradition at universities, such as Paris, in which students would perform plays and engage in academic celebrations. As part of modus Parisiensis the students’ involvement in these celebrations was considered to be exercitium and was required of all students. In continuing and developing the practice Jesuits argued that by these means a number of worthy objectives could be achieved: poor students who performed well might attract the attention of wealthy benefactors, who could support them through their studies; the college would gain kudos in the wider community; the students would improve their Latin and their memory; virtuous lessons might be promulgated more easily than through sermons.128 These “spectacles” were taken very seriously and were a key feature of Jesuit promotional efforts and, as well as celebrating special occasions, took place at the close of each academic year. Preparation would, therefore, occupy much of the leisure hours of the students for that year. The types of “spectacle” included orations and recitations of poetry, dialogues which would include verses set to music, philosophical and theological disputations and drama which could include music entr’acte.129 The Ratio Studiorum stipulated that “tragedies and comedies (could be performed) on sacred and pious (subjects, but) no feminine role or attire is to be introduced. . . . Prizes may be awarded by patrons … but scholars must not suffer any moral or intellectual loss in the preparation of them (the plays).”130

126

Fitzpatrick, pp. 133–4. Edward Widrington drowned swimming in the Lambrus River in 1672 while a student at Douai. RSC, pp. 50–1. 128 Mitchell, p. 140. 129 O’Malley, pp. 222–3. 130 Fitzpatrick, pp. 140–1. 127

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Evidence for the Scots colleges’ participation in these “spectacles” is sparse. The libraries contain suitable material in the form of poetry, plays, books of music and suitable religious subjects but there is no overt record of Scots involving themselves in them. However, overwhelming circumstantial evidence does exist. The students at the Scots College Rome would have been required to participate in those held at the Collegio Romano. This may have extended to “spectacles” performed by other colleges. The English College in Rome131 was active in this area as was the Jesuit English College of St Omers in the Spanish Netherlands. When the St Omers College burned down in 1685 students were sent to the Scots college in Douai to study logic. Over the course of six years, while the college was being rebuilt, a total of 14 English students attended Douai.132 It is difficult to imagine that this influx could have passed without some recreational “spectacle” involving the Scots students being performed even if the Scots had not previously been engaged in such events. The college students were certainly performing “spectacles” by 1732 when John Young is recorded as having been given all the imperious roles in the tragedies performed at the college and having been awarded the laurel crown for his performances.133 In the archives of the Royal Scots College in Madrid there is a souvenir programme134 of a performance of a play, Benjamin, specially performed by the students to celebrate the marriage between the Prince of Asturias and Doña Luisa, Princess of Parma in 1766. This happened during the period when Scots had been expelled by the Spanish Jesuits. According to the programme the performing students were Spanish. However it is direct evidence that the college building was used for such activities and substantiates earlier evidence that the Scots did produce plays.135 These plays would have been accompanied by music which was part of the recreation engaged in by the student. The records of the

131 The English College in Rome has within its archives a number of plays written and performed by its staff and students. Gossett Suzanne, ‘English Plays in the English College Archives’, The Venerabile, 28:1, 1983, pp. 23–33. 132 RSC, pp. 59–63. 133 RSC, pp. 77–8. 134 ARSC, Box 24, Item 19. 135 Lope Felix de Vega Carpio, the Spanish poet and playwright, was a regular attendee at performances in the Scots College. He had been there the evening before his death on 27 August 1635. Taylor, p. 26. It is tempting to think that the college was the scene of a production of his epic play on Mary Queen of Scots, Corona Tragica (1627).

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Valladolid College include the music book of John Gordon (rector, 1799–1809). This music is both sacred and secular, is written for a variety of instruments and voices and includes Scottish as well as Spanish pieces. It is clear evidence of active musical performances by the Scots in Spain.136 Madrid was not alone in engaging in musical diversions. Douai college records state that a student, James Bryson, left the college in 1623 because he became more interested in his study of the French language and music-making than his religious studies.137 It is clear from this evidence that the life led by the students at college was cultured and exposed them to works of literature, music and the visual arts. On leaving college they were capable of taking up active roles in polite society not only at home in Scotland but in continental Europe.

Teaching Staff Even the best course of study is only as good as the staff available to teach it. In this respect the Scots colleges were fortunate. As far as can be determined all of their teachers were in holy orders either regular or secular. Having sworn a vow of obedience it is reasonable to assume that for the most part rules were followed and courses of study adhered to. This is particularly significant when assessing the diligence displayed by teachers. A major problem at most universities in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was absenteeism amongst staff. Poorly paid professors struggling to support their families supplemented their income with private tuition to the neglect of their university lectures. Relieved of the necessity of earning additional income, the teachers in the Scots colleges may have been more attentive to their duties. Their proficiency as teachers, however, can only be assessed by examining a number of indirect factors such as the level of education they themselves had attained; their teaching experience; their scholarship as measured by published works; membership of academies of arts and sciences and other relevant bodies; any appointments to high

136 I am grateful to Professor Peter Davidson for drawing my attention to the existence of this material. 137 RSC, p. 18.

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office or advisory positions within other institutes of higher education, the Church or State. Implied in the above list is the belief that a good teacher adds to the understanding of their discipline and does not simply disseminate existing knowledge. Although this view may be contested, the additional implication, that recognition of worth by their peers is also necessary, is probably more widely accepted. Assessment of teachers at the Scots colleges is possible only by referring to examples. Academically, they varied. The first principal of the Paris College, William Lumsden, was a doctor of law who had received his education at the University of Paris.138 The statute of 1707 which followed the re-patenting of the Scots college by Louis XIV in 1688 stated that the principal had to possess a diplôme du maitre ès arts.139 Ninian Winzet who established the city gymnasium in Regensburg had gained his doctorate in theology from the University of Douai. The Jesuit-run Scots colleges provided senior staff of graduate status. Rome and Madrid used the teaching resources of the Collegio Romano and Colegio Imperial respectively. Romano was the premier teaching establishment of the Jesuit order and as such had an excellent reputation. Less is known of the Collegio Imperial but Hugh Semple taught at the college and was a graduate of the Universities of Glasgow and Alcala. It is not unreasonable to assume that the general standard was that of graduate teachers at this college. It should, however, be noted that graduation was not the inevitable outcome of successful studies at university or college anywhere in Europe. The cost was often prohibitive and, except in the cases of those wishing to pursue professions in law or medicine, was required only rarely.140 Any variability in the educational attainment of the teaching staff came in the practice of the Jesuit and other educational institutions of using Quadrivium students who had successfully completed their Trivium studies to coach junior students in the early stages of

138

Halloran, p. 28. Montague, p. 406. 140 Frijhoff, ‘Graduation and Careers’ pp. 378–9. Many universities in the early seventeenth century had graduation levels as low as 5%. It slowly changed as graduation was required to allow individuals to practice law, medicine or gain employment in State administration. By the end of the eighteenth century it had risen in Europe to exceed 70%. However, students of the Scots colleges who did not take up the life of a religious and returned to Scotland would have found any certificate of graduation not only useless but incriminating and therefore may not have graduated formally. 139

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grammar.141 Since this was a widespread practice in universities it cannot be said that the teaching given in Scots colleges was inferior to that available elsewhere.142 The Scots colleges, once established, often recruited teaching staff from former students thereby consolidating the practice of using graduate staff. Given that the principal facilities available to Scots Catholics to gain an education consistent with their beliefs were the Scots colleges abroad, it was highly likely that some students having graduated should go on to staff the colleges. The danger in this practice with regard to the quality of teaching lay in the risk that it would lead to a lack of breadth of experience in the teachers. That this was not the case was due in large part to the movement of students and teachers between colleges. There are many examples; that of Thomas Fyfe will illustrate the point.143 Fyfe was born in Aberdeen and entered the college in Douai in 1690 at the age of 16. He completed three years of study in grammar before deciding to join the Jesuits. He entered the Society at their college in Naples completing his Trivium before taking a theology course there. On completion of his first degree in 1708 he transferred to the Scots College in Rome as rector while taking a doctorate in canon law. Graduating in 1711 he was replaced by William Clerk as rector. He then taught humanities at the Beneventus college in Rome before transferring as deputy rector to the College of Nobles in Naples. He was appointed rector in his alma mater, the Scots College in Douai, in 1718. He was later sent by the Father General to Madrid to be rector of the Scots college there before returning to Douai. After a further spell of teaching he was made Procurator of the Scottish Mission based in Paris. Fyfe had experience as student and teacher in three colleges (albeit Jesuit ones) beyond the Scots college network and no doubt could bring fresh perspectives to his later teaching career in Douai and Madrid. The medieval practice of peregrinatio academica had almost ceased but students, such as Fyfe, who pursued a full academic career, were among the few in Europe who continued to benefit from this exposure to a wider academic experience. Fyfe’s career also illustrates

141 An example of a student required to do this is John Maxwell, Douai 1698, who took his Quadrivium studies in 1704 at Nancy and Sedan where he taught philosophy to junior pupils for two years. RSC, pp. 64–5. 142 Vandermeersch Peter A, ‘Teachers’, de Ridder-Symoens Hilde, p. 213. 143 RSC, p. 61.

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the way in which, by transfer of staff, the Scots were able to weld their disparate colleges into a coherent whole functioning as a university. The members of the college academic staff were not inward looking. This can be further shown from the volume of original work produced. At all of the colleges there were members of staff who published work. Much, though by no means all, was of a religious nature. Alexander Baillie in the monastery at Würzburg published a book of religious controversy entitled A True Information of the Unhallowed Offspring, Progresse and Impoisoned Fruits of our Scottish-Calvinian Gospel and Gospellers (1627).144 William Aloysius Leslie, rector of the Scots College in Rome, published a life of St Margaret, Vita di Santa Margharita written in Italian in 1675.145 There is also evidence that he was engaged in writing a history of Scotland to follow on from his namesake, John Leslie’s History of Scotland.146 Thomas Innes, Prefect of Studies and Vice Principal of the college in Paris, wrote and published Critical Essay on the Ancient Inhabitants of Scotland in 1729 at the request of King James VIII/III. He later published another history, The Civil and Ecclesiastical History of Scotland.147 Hugh Semple, first rector of the Madrid College wrote and published a number of books on mathematics, the De Mathematicis Disciplinis libri duodecim in 1635 and Experientia Mathematica in 1642.148 The numerous publications demonstrate a high standard of academic achievement among the colleges’ staff. There is less evidence, however, of a corresponding representation of college staff in academies of arts and sciences or involvement in matters of state although a number can be identified. Ernest Leslie, for instance, previously of the Madrid College, was a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Nancy at the time of his death in 1756.149 Similarly Brother Ildephonsus Kennedy was a founding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in the latter half of the eighteenth century.150 Equally, and in recognition of his many scientific publications, Andreas Gordon received honorary memberships of academies including the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris. (See below) These examples are not exhaustive but the relative 144 145 146 147 148 149 150

Dilworth, Franconia, p. 232. Dilworth, ‘Beginnings’, p. 34. Dilworth, Franconia, p. 246. Halloran, p. 88. Taylor, p. 28. RSC, p. 200. RSC, p. 270.

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paucity of involvement in such institutions may indicate a lack of opportunity rather than ability. Involvement in matters of state was only possible when the individual was able to resign his teaching post. William Clerk did so in 1726 when he stepped down as rector of the Scots college in Madrid to take up the position of chief confessor to Philip V.151 Louis Innes took a lengthy sabbatical from his appointment as rector of the Paris College to act as advisor to James VII/II at St Germain and later to his son.152 The quality of teaching that these men provided might be measured indirectly by reviewing the proportion of students who completed their courses and were awarded the relevant diploma or degree. Hard information on these points is not available however. The college records do not contain lists of course completion but record has been kept of those students who for a variety of reasons left the colleges prior to completion. A reasonable inference would be that, where no such mention is made, the students did complete the course of study. If this is the case more than three quarters of the college students successfully completed their studies. There was another process whereby the quality of the education provided by the colleges was safeguarded. Throughout their existence the colleges and monasteries were open to official inspection by the relevant authorities. The Congregation of Propaganda Fide had this responsibility for the greatest part of the colleges’ history. Within the archives of Propaganda Fide and those of the colleges which survive (Rome and Madrid) there are reports of visitations which were usually conducted by a bishop or another senior cleric. Complaints by students on conditions within the college were followed up and reported on. Suggestions or improvement orders were made and it is clear that the system allowed for correction of unacceptable behaviour and performance. The universities with which the colleges were associated – Collegio Romano, Colegio Imperial, Universities of Würzburg and Douai – were equally subjected to visitations. By these means the colleges achieved high standards and enhanced reputations. Prominent dignitaries in Catholic Europe held the colleges and their staff in high regard. The archives contain correspondence

151

Taylor, p. 41. On his deathbed the king thanked Innes personally for his help. Innes was almoner in James VIII/III’s cabinet until he was dismissed in 1718. Halloran, pp. 82, 88. 152

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between college rectors and individuals in positions of authority in other academic institutions and the wider church.153 Dialogues were maintained with contemporaries on matters of mutual interest and concern. Members of staff were involved in a nexus of communication which placed them in positions of some prominence within Catholic spheres of influence. Perhaps the most reliable indication of the high regard in which the colleges were held comes from the students themselves. There are numerous instances where several generations of families attended the same college – fathers sending their sons and grandsons to their old college. (See Chapter 4) There also appears to have been continuous pressure from non-Scots to be admitted to the colleges. Despite being reminded on a number of occasions not to accept them, the colleges enrolled many non-Scots. Some were drawn, no doubt, by the convenience of a local college154 but others such as the four members of the Carroll family from Maryland who attended Douai from 1716 to 1720 must have been influenced by the reputation of the college.155 All of these instances point to a high regard for the education which the colleges provided and that this valuation persisted over many years. This respect was underpinned by the use to which the alumni put their hard won education. Life, even in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, offered more than service in the Church, military or State. Most of the students who entered the Scots colleges did not take up these careers but returned to “ordinary life” as landed gentry, doctors, lawyers or men of business. Their interests did not however end at their careers and categorization of their achievements in terms of occupation is almost impossible. Even those who entered the Church or took military and State service can be shown to have engaged in wider interests. Nor were their successes trivial. So many of the college alumni distinguished themselves 153 Extensive correspondence exists between college rectors and Propaganda Fide e.g. SCA, BI Lett 1/74/7 – Letter from Louis Innes rector of the SC Paris to William Leslie secretary to Propaganda Fide 7 June 1682. Correspondence with figures of State authority was held. The Earl of Perth, Lord Chancellor, wrote from Edinburgh to Charles Whyteford in Paris on 12 July 1687 regarding members of his family joining the college. SCA, BI Lett 1/106/15 Jean Mabillon, the eminent historian, visited Ratisbon in 1683 and afterwards the abbot of Wurzburg, John Cook, engaged in regular correspondence with him. Dilworth, Franconia, p. 134. 154 Antoine and François Franean of the town of Douai entered the Scots college in 1682. RSC, p. 57. 155 RSC, p. 69.

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Date of College Entry

Education and Academe

Medicine

Arts

Science

Pre 1600 1600–24 1625–49 1650–74 1675–99 1700–24 1725–49 1750–74 1775–99 Totals

12 7 10 6 11 8 8 4 2 68

2 3 3 0 2 2 1 0 1 14

2 6 1 2 2 2 2 1 0 18

1 0 1 0 0 0 3 1 1 7

Law Totals and Commerce 2 3 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 14

19 19 16 9 16 13 16 8 5 121

Source information: McInally Thomas, The Alumni of the Scots Colleges Abroad 1575–1799, unpublished treatise, University of Aberdeen, 2008

in other fields of endeavour that, it can be inferred, their attendance at the colleges was fundamental to success. An analysis of the college records (Figure 1), which shows the numbers of alumni and general areas in which they gained recognition, is informative.156 As can be seen the greatest number were involved in education and academic life. Careers in education are to be expected.157 The academics held senior positions at universities throughout Europe but a number also published works on philosophy, theology and scientific research. A smaller number took up careers in medicine although little more than that is known of them. Throughout the period alumni of the colleges engaged in commerce. Some of these dealt only with routine business affairs; others such as William Forbes in the early seventeenth century and Alexander Sloan a century and a half later became wealthy merchants with significant business interests in Europe as well as Scotland. Of the categorizations shown in the table, science is the least represented. This is in part due to the late appearance of science in its modern

156

Does not include those engaged solely in the Church, military or the State. Staff who taught exclusively at the Scots colleges are not included, only those who held appointments in other higher educational institutions. 157

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meaning and the difficulty of identifying those engaged in it. Thomas Seget (see above) would have considered himself to be engaged in philosophy. The philosophy which he and his contemporaries adhered to was that of Aristotle. The findings of Galileo and later Newton and Leibniz began to erode the iconic status of Aristotle’s work. By the first quarter of the eighteenth century vocal adherents of Aristotleanism were in a minority. Among those were the Jesuits who retained their adherence to the study of Aristotle in Ratio Studiorum which ignored experimental philosophy. Unlike the situation in the early seventeenth century their principal scientific study was mathematics and Jesuit colleges lagged behind in teaching the new natural philosophies. Figure 1 gives some indication of the effect of this stagnation in that of the 121 alumni identified as having gained prominence in professional careers only one third did so in the eighteenth century. It would appear from this that Enlightenment values passed the colleges by. This, however, is far from the true situation.

Espousal of Enlightenment Values Benedictine involvement in education in Regensburg and especially Erfurt allowed them to make significant contributions to the developing Aufklärung. The role of Scots Benedictines in the German Enlightenment is acknowledged in Germany but has been largely forgotten in Scotland – if indeed it has ever been known.158 Their success was due to unremitting effort on the Scots’ part to fulfil their original promise to involve themselves in the provision of education in Germany. The first gymnasium in Regensburg flourished but they were obstructed in Würzburg by Jesuit refusal to concede any role for Benedictines at the city’s university. The Society of Jesus’ pre-eminent role in education was used to exclude other religious orders. German Benedictines had control of the University of Salzburg and the Scots were welcome there but had no major role to play.

158 See Hammermayer, Aufklärung for a fuller assessment of the Scots contributions. In 1900 the city of Erfurt named its technical high school Andreas Gordon Schule. It has since expanded greatly. This compares with the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography where there is only a short entry for Gordon and none at all for Ildephonse Kennedy or Benedict Arbuthnot.

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An opportunity to change this situation arose in 1664 when Erfurt was conquered and annexed by the Electorate of Mainz, the principal Catholic bishopric in Germany. For the following century and a half Erfurt was in the unusual position of being an enclave within Thüringen-Saxony, which was mainly Protestant. The Erfurt city councillors needed to coexist with both Protestants and Catholics and the city and university authorities adopted a more relaxed approach to confessional matters. The Scots Benedictines worked to take advantage of this improvement in conditions for Catholic interests in Erfurt. The abbot of Regensburg, Placid Fleming, had managed to gain recognition, from papal and imperial authorities, as head of all three Scottish Benedictine communities in Germany. He used this strengthened position to further his aim of gaining authority in the provision of higher education. Fleming saw the situation in Erfurt as an opportunity to achieve his aim free from Jesuit interference. He sent an eminent scholar, John Dunbar, to Erfurt in 1685. Dunbar was a linguist and obtained permission to start classes teaching oriental languages. He was formally recognised by the university as a professor extraordinary although not admitted into the Philosophy Faculty. Fleming built on this success in 1693 by sending John’s brother, Ephrem, another Regensburg monk, to join him in teaching languages. He also bought a professorship for another Scots scholar, Maurus Stuart.159 The chair was to be held in perpetuity by a Scot from the Erfurt monastery who was to be acknowledged as a full member of the university senate. A second chair was added shortly afterwards giving the Scots a strong influence over the senate. The senate accepted this, no doubt persuaded by the archbishop of Mainz, their overlord. Due to Fleming’s efforts Scots Benedictines from the end of the seventeenth century onwards held two and sometimes three chairs at the University of Erfurt. There were a number of undoubted benefits to the senate in agreeing to Fleming’s advances despite the fact that it broke the Protestant monopoly of academic positions at the university. Erfurt had been struggling 159 Fleming was able to afford this due to a bequest to the monastery made by Count James Leslie who had died in 1692. The count was following in the footsteps of his illustrious uncle General Walter Leslie who had made a substantial bequest to the monastery when he died in 1667. The Leslies encouraged expatriate Scots to settle in the German Habsburg Empire. They were trying to counterbalance the predominant French influence which Paris had gained over the Scottish community. As a result the Regensburg monastery gave hospitality to many Scots expatriates at this time.

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financially due to a reduction in the number of students attending the university.160 Its ambivalent confessional attitude probably harmed its ability to attract students from communities where confessional loyalty was more clearly defined. The 550 Reichsthalers which Fleming paid for the chair of philosophy would have been welcome but the provision of well-qualified professors who worked without pay would also have been valued. The subjects that the Scots taught were not restricted to theology and moral philosophy but included experimental physics, mathematics, algebra, logic and, later in the eighteenth century, anthropology. Prior to this, the university was run on a system of regent professorships so the Scots’ approach of subject teaching by specialist professors was a notable improvement. These changes made studying at the university attractive to a wider range of students. The benefits that the Scots brought to the university were added to by the generous provision of the use of some of the monastic buildings for university activities. The twin towers of the church housed the observatory and several of the monastic classrooms were devoted to the university’s “cabinet of physics” – displays of experimental instruments many of which were gifts from the Elector of Mainz, Archbishop Johann Friedrich Karl von Ostein. The Scots also supervised and greatly increased the stock of the university library. The benefits of this collaboration were not solely on the side of the university. The Scots gained substantial control with Hieronymus Panton holding the post of university rector in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. Throughout the remainder of the century the average length of tenure for the Scots professors was more than ten years. A number of them distinguished themselves academically. Erhard Grant held a series of professorships for almost 40 years from 1739 and was appointed dean on six separate occasions. But the Scot who most fully embraced Enlightenment ideas and achieved international renown was George Gordon. Gordon was born at Coffurach near Fochabers in Morayshire on 15 June 1712. The Gordons of Coffurach were gentry and a cadet branch of the ducal house of that name. Like their cousin, Alexander 2nd Duke of Gordon, they were Catholic. In order to receive a higher education it was, therefore, necessary for them to go abroad. George’s elder brother, Alexander, attended the Scots College in Paris and in

160

Mainly due to competition from the nearby universities of Jena and Goettingen.

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1724 at the age of 12 George was sent to the Schottenkloster in Regensburg. Abbot Bernard Baillie was so impressed with the young boy’s abilities that he organized a special educational programme for him. He was sent to study at colleges in Austria, Italy and France161 where he received a fuller education than would have been possible at the monastic school. When he returned to Regensburg in 1732 he started his Benedictine novitiate taking as his given name Andreas; the name by which he became famous. At Regensburg he studied under Gallus Lieth who had recently resigned his professorship at Erfurt. Lieth taught the scholastic tradition of philosophy which must have been frustrating for Gordon. The young man had already been exposed to the ideas of the philosopher Christian Wolff, who had rejected Aristotelian strictures and any other received wisdom which could not be verified by practical experiment. Wolff’s views had caused much controversy and he was attacked by his co-religionists. He had been ousted from his professorship at Halle, in Prussia, in 1723 by ultraLutheran Pietist professors and had been forced to flee to the University of Marburg in Hesse-Kassel. Despite being a renowned scholar Wolff needed both academic allies and political protection to continue to teach until he was able to return to Halle in 1740. His experience was not unique. Enlightenment movements throughout Europe had to deal with entrenched interests which were fundamentally conservative.162 Orthodox Lutheran and Jesuit universities espoused Aristotelian Humanism and adhered to debating theory in preference to engaging in scientific enquiry through practical experiment. When Andreas Gordon later in 1743 rejected this strict Scholasticism he too came under severe criticism. However while studying with Lieth in Regensburg he conformed to the conventional thinking of his teacher. Andreas completed his formal education by gaining a distinction in his degree in law at the University of Salzburg. On graduation in 1737 he was appointed at the age of 25 to a chair of philosophy at the University of Erfurt. On arrival at Erfurt Gordon may have been fascinated by the “Cabinet of Physics”163 which was housed in the monastery buildings. His 161 In Paris he met up with Alexander who was still studying at the Scots college. Later in 1735 Alexander became prefect of studies there before being appointed as rector in 1738 of the illegal Catholic seminary at Scalan in upper Glenlivet in Scotland. 162 Hammermeyer, Aufklärung, p. 67. 163 Pradel Joh., Studium und wissenschaftliches Streben, Erfurt, 1923, pp. 56–7. It is known that this held a large number of expensive instruments including vacuum pumps and a Brenspiegel.

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first interest was in investigating practical problems and initially he worked on the “Florentine Thermometer”. This instrument which had been developed in Florence in the 1650s used alcohol to measure temperature and was unreliable due to the inconsistency of alcohol’s coefficient of expansion; thereby giving variable readings particularly at low temperatures. Gordon had done little more than describe the problem164 before Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit, a German glass-blower and instrument maker working in Holland, had produced a reliable mercury based thermometer. This experience helped Gordon to appreciate that practical problems required practical approaches to achieve solutions. The university’s “Cabinet of Physics” may have contained an electrostatic globe of the type developed by von Güricke in the previous century which provided Gordon with the stimulus to devote his energies to the nascent science of electricity which he turned into his lifetime’s work making an international reputation in the process. The science, such as it was, had scarcely progressed beyond the work of Otto von Güricke and Isaac Newton of nearly a half-century earlier. Gordon showed his practical ingenuity by improving on their devices. He designed and built a machine capable of developing and sustaining a sufficiently high electrostatic potential that continuous discharge was produced. His friction generator consisted of a glass cylinder driven by a flywheel allowing the cylinder to be spun at speeds up to 680 rpm. The cylinder, while brushing against a spring-loaded leather pad, became electrically charged and generated a continuous discharge along a copper wire. Gordon’s electric machine had the additional advantage of being portable and therefore could be set up in lecture rooms as well as in the laboratory.165 With this equipment, which he had devised by the time of his first university session at Erfurt in 1737/8, Gordon created a whole series of experiments illustrating a number of aspects of the nature of electricity. He organized his lectures to include demonstrations and invited his audience to participate. One of his earliest was to form a chain of people holding hands. He then electrified the chain such that its participants could not free themselves. This not only astounded everyone but also caused great amusement among onlookers. A second early experiment consisted of attaching the cable to small animals or birds 164

Published posthumously in Elementa Physica Experimentalis, Erfurt, 1753. Heilbron J.L. Electricity in the 17th and 18th Centuries, University of California Press, 1979. p. 273. 165

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and electrocuting them. His generator was so powerful that the animal could be killed even when the cable was more that 150 metres long. These experiments were highly popular and attracted greatly increased numbers of students. This was financially beneficial to the university and Gordon’s standing in the senate grew. He reinforced his success by publishing detailed accounts of his electric machine and the experiments he was conducting using it. In this he again followed Wolff ’s strictures by publishing in Latin for scholars and again in German for “a further readership”. His fame spread internationally and he was invited to repeat his demonstrations at the courts of Gotha and Weimar. Gordon’s experiments were studied by many who were not privileged to witness his demonstrations. The books in which he described in detail his apparatus, methodology and findings were written specifically so that others would be able to replicate his results and were widely distributed and ran to several editions. Gordon was also engaged in correspondence by philosophers interested in developing knowledge in the phenomena of electricity. Abbé Jean Antoine Nollet, a member of the French Academy of Sciences, befriended Gordon and conducted similar experiments to those of the young Scot. In 1746 he made his own electric machine which adapted Gordon’s design to accommodate a range of larger glass spheres which allowed even stronger discharges to be generated. Nollet repeated the human chain experiment with 200 Carthusian monks holding hands. However his machine did not displace Gordon’s design as it was extremely cumbersome and could not be easily transported. Honours began to come Gordon’s way. In 1742 he was offered the position of librarian by the archbishop of Krakow and in 1743 on the death of Abbot Baillie his brother Benedictines asked him to become abbot of Regensburg. He declined, preferring to continue his researches at Erfurt. Other scientists were copying extensively from Gordon’s published work. Public demonstrations were financially profitable and Gordon’s experiments were repeated for that reason alone. However at the opening conference of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin in 1744 Christian Friedrich Ludolff gave a demonstration of an earlier experiment of Gordon’s in which he used a spark to ignite a bowl of alcohol. Ludolff claimed that this proved that electricity was a form of fire.166 In making

166 His fellow German scientist and great rival, Professor Georg Mathias Bose of Leipzig University, made the same claim and stated that he had discovered this before

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this claim he was attempting to show that electricity conformed to Aristotle’s categorisation of the four elements. Gordon rejected this conformity to Scholasticism and set out to show that this view was wrong. He refined his original experiment by electrically charging a fine jet of water and aiming it at a bowl of alcohol. The alcohol caught fire. In Aristotelian terms this was a paradox since water could not be an agent of fire. In his view, Aristotle’s philosophy could not account for electricity. Andreas Gordon published this rejection of Scholasticism in his book Oratio de Philosophia Nova Veteri Praeferenda in 1745.167 In presenting his findings he stressed that advances in knowledge of physics could only be gained by the application of mathematics to experimentation. His attack on Aristotle’s categorization of the elements aroused the hostility of members of the Society of Jesus. He was accused of the same doctrinal errors that had been directed at Galileo a century before. In the eyes of the German Jesuits Gordon was refuting the Thomist explanation of the substance and appearance of matter in the doctrine of transubstantiation.168 In 1747 a Jesuit professor of philosophy at the University of Würzburg, Petrus Eisentraut, attacked his ideas in his book Dissertationes Philosophicae Quator de Electricitate. A public dispute developed the following year when Gordon replied with his publication Epistola ad Amicum Wirceburgi. Gordon had made dangerous enemies who continued to attack him but he had also received international recognition for his work. In 1745 he was made a member of the Academy of Perugia and in 1748 he was appointed a member of the French Academy of Sciences, Nollet having proposed him for this accolade. These honours flowed largely from the work that Gordon had described in his Versuch einer Erklärung der Electricität (Erfurt, 1745). One of his experiments in particular generated considerable excitement and renewed Jesuit hostility. In this experiment Gordon had pushed the boundaries of what was possible in the study of electricity and confounded scholastic ideas. He had devised an apparatus in which two bells were given opposite electrical charges. Between them was suspended a metal clapper insulated

Ludolff through having set his laboratory on fire on a number of occasions by accidental electrical discharges. 167 Hammermeyer, Aufklärung, pp. 82–3. 168 Only members of the German province of the Society took this view. French Jesuits were much more open minded and Italian Jesuits participated in practical experimentation with no concerns regarding charges of heresy.

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on a silken cord. The clapper was attracted to each bell in turn. On contact it took on the bell’s charge and thereby was repelled by that bell and simultaneously attracted to the oppositely charged bell. The clapper oscillated between the bells which rang continuously for as long as the current was applied. This device which came to be known as “German Chimes” and later “Franklin’s Bells” was the first application where electrical energy was converted into mechanical energy. Although this was a spectacular demonstration in itself, Gordon’s principal purpose was again to attack Aristoteleanism. It provided proof of “a force acting at a distance” which could not be explained away in Aristotelian terms as Scholastics had attempted with Newton’s work on gravity. They had claimed that all actions were explicable by the inherent nature of matter itself and manifestations of gravity were caused by the quality of gravity which the object possessed. Objects therefore had the potential to move when conditions were suitable without any external force being applied. Gordon’s experiment of the ringing bells reduced the Aristotelian explanation to nonsense and Jesuit antagonism to Gordon was based on being made to look foolish as much as on having their philosophy refuted.169 Immediately the Jesuits renewed their attack on Gordon. Another Würzburg professor, Lucas Opfermann, went as far as accusing him of heresy. However, Gordon had friends who stood by him. The senate of his university, both Catholic and Lutheran members, fully supported him and he also had influential allies in his Benedictine brethren both Scottish and German. The matter generated a considerable amount of rancour and was almost out of control when the archbishop of Mainz stepped in and imposed an interdict on all the parties to the dispute from any further public debate. But in 1749 Josef Pfriemb, the Jesuit professor of Ethics and Physics at the University of Mainz, went public with another attack on Gordon. Immediately Pfriemb was removed

169 There is little doubt that Gordon took pleasure in making fun of his critics. The story is told of an observer at one of Gordon’s lectures who questioned the value of studying electricity, claiming that it was no more than entertainment. Gordon responded that one of its benefits was to greatly improve one’s sense of smell and that he could demonstrate such to him. The critic accepted the offer and Gordon poured some brandy into a spoon which he then held for him to smell. The spoon was electrified while Gordon was standing on an insulating pad. When the heckler breathed in the fumes the current discharged through his nose with chastening results. It is clear that Gordon could be merciless with his critics. Heilbron J.L. Electricity in the 17th and 18th Centuries, University of California Press, 1979, p. 273.

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from his post and transferred to the University of Bamberg. Gordon’s most effective defence, however, came from the pope. Benedict XIV was personally interested in natural philosophy and the arts and was an acknowledged liberal in Enlightenment terms. As a young man he had been befriended by the eminent scholar, Bernard de Montfauçon, who encouraged him in Enlightenment thought. It was likely, therefore that, when the new philosophers in Germany were attacked by the Jesuits, Benedict should sympathise with the defenders of Enlightenment ideas. In 1747 he had written in defence of Johann Adam von Ickstatt, professor of philosophy at the University of Ingolstadt, saying that his teaching was irreproachable and entirely correct in faith. This defence was extended by argument to all like minded philosophes including Gordon. The Jesuits did not give up the fight but Andreas Gordon was able to continue research, teaching and publication of his findings for the remainder of his short life. As well as researching the phenomenon of “action at a distance” Gordon was interested in another scientific preoccupation of the time, that of developing a perpetual motion machine. In the same book as he published his experiment of “Gordon’s Bells” he captured the imagination of the learned community by describing an experiment involving a device known as “the electric whirl”. This consisted of a metal wheel, like a star, with several points around its circumference which came into contact with an electrically-charged conductor. As each point in turn touched the conductor it received an electrical discharge which caused the wheel to rotate and brought the next point on its circumference into contact with the conductor. This is the earliest example ever devised of an electric motor; specifically it was an electrostatic reduction motor. The forces were too weak to do much more than turn the wheel itself and therefore the device could not be put to practical use.170 A better understanding of electromagnetism and the invention of the induction coil were needed before a more powerful electric motor could be built. This was only achieved by Faraday a

170 Paradoxically reduction motors are now used in highly sophisticated control systems in a number of complex electrical devices including transformers. The inherent weakness of low current produced by high voltage is an advantage in these circumstances since they generate only a very weak electro-magnetic field which does not interfere with the sensing heads of the controls. Gordon had invented a solution for which there was no problem in his lifetime.

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century after Gordon’s experiment.171 Nevertheless Gordon gained the reputation of being a brilliant scientist. Other scientists took advantage of Gordon’s pioneering work but many did not follow similar precepts of openness in publishing full details of experiments. Professional vanity together with the financial benefit of devising new demonstrations led them to keep significant aspects secret so that others could not copy their experiments. Bose, Musschenbroek and von Kleist were among those guilty of such actions. While following one of Gordon’s experiments each of these researchers independently discovered an effect which led to what is arguably the greatest advance in electrical science in the eighteenth century. In 1746 Peter Musschenbroek, a Dutch physicist at the University of Leiden, demonstrated to a friend, Andreas Cunneus, Gordon’s experiment in which he electrified water in a jar which then was capable of generating a spark. Afterwards while alone Cunneus tried to copy the experiment and mistakenly held the jar in his hand. He received an enormous electric shock. When he was told, Musschenbroek realized that the jar itself could store electricity. Recognising the significance of this fact he published his discovery and was given credit as the inventor. The device, named a Leyden Jar by Nollet in honour of Musschenbroek’s university, was the first condenser/capacitor to be developed. Ewald Georg von Kleist and Professor Bose belatedly claimed making the same discovery, again by repeating Gordon’s experiment, but in keeping with the secrecy which prevailed they had not disclosed it to anyone.172 It appears clear that Gordon’s openness with his findings inspired a number of fellow scientists to work on similar lines of research. He may only have been a short step away from making the same discovery himself. Andreas Gordon did not spend much time following up Musschenbroek’s work. Progress in the better comprehension of the nature of electricity was thereby delayed. It was to take researchers many years through trial and error before a full understanding of the working of the Leyden Jar was made and its effectiveness as a condenser achieved. A series of failures to understand the processes they were observing hampered developments. Even as late as the 1770s Benjamin Franklin was still making suggestions for improvement. Gordon’s limited work

171 172

Hamilton James, Faraday: The Life, London, 2002. Heilbron, pp. 312–4.

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on the new discovery is not difficult to understand. His energies were being taken up in the dispute with his Jesuit critics. However, he was also suffering from failing health. By 1750 he was showing clear signs of the tuberculosis which eventually killed him and he had ceased research into electricity altogether. He confined his efforts to writing up the scientific investigations he had already undertaken but when he died in 1751 at the age of 39 he had not finished his final book. His fellow Benedictine and professor at Erfurt, Bernard Grant, completed and published Elementa Physica Experimentalis in 1753. At the same time his former pupil, Ildephonse Kennedy, wrote that his friend’s death had been hastened by the attacks of the Jesuits.173 Gordon’s contribution to the early development of the science of electricity was undoubtedly substantial and groundbreaking. How then can one account for his relative obscurity today. A number of factors played a part. After his death Gordon’s work continued to be copied but few gave credit to the Scotsman. Despite the fact that his experiments were all published, few researchers acknowledged any of his contributions to the science which they used. Only Nollet appears to have tried to give appropriate recognition to his friend. Franklin used Gordon’s Bells as part of his experimentation into lightning referring to them only as “German Chimes”. Subsequently they have become known as “Franklin’s Bells” without any acknowledgement of their true inventor. It is perhaps easy to understand why intellectual rivalries among his contemporaries and successors contributed to Gordon being ignored but lack of recognition in Scotland probably has more to do with the fact that he was a Scottish Benedictine monk working in Germany at a time when Catholicism was outlawed in his own country. Nevertheless acknowledgement of Gordon’s contributions could be expected in his adopted country of Germany but even here it has been limited. The University of Efurt was rightly proud of its distinguished alumnus but in 1803 Prussia annexed Erfurt and the surrounding Thuringian state. The Prussians closed the 300 year old university and it was not re-founded until the 1990s after the fall of Communism and the re-unification of Germany. The new institution is still engaged in re-establishing itself as a fully functioning university. Nevertheless Erfurt has honoured Gordon. In 1900 the city commemorated its famous Scotsman by naming its new technical college

173

Hammermeyer, Aufklärung, p. 102.

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the Andreas Gordon Schule. The college continues to prosper today running degree level courses in a wide range of subjects including, appropriately, electrical and electronic engineering. An eponymous college in the city of his triumphs is a deserved but limited reward for Gordon’s significant contributions to the Enlightenment. His legacy includes three specific achievements which deserve better recognition. First is the major contribution which he made to the science of electricity. Unlike a number of his contemporaries he did not simply seek to entertain with diverting displays of electrical effect – although he certainly did that. He also sought to explain what he saw. In this, like everyone else prior to James Clerk Maxwell a century and a half later, he was unsuccessful except that he argued passionately that Aristotle’s philosophy could not accommodate the new science. By the time he died that argument had been won. Secondly Gordon helped grow a tradition in which Scottish Catholics played major roles in education in Germany. This involvement did not begin with Gordon but he ushered in its most important period. By training and inspiring a group of young Scotsmen his influence lasted beyond his death throughout the rest of the eighteenth and even into the nineteenth century. In the 1750s his pupils Ildephonse Kennedy and Benedict Arbuthnot helped to found the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and contributed to science with their researches into chemistry, mathematics, anthropology and genetics. Kennedy was appointed the academy’s secretary and held the post for forty years. The Scottish Benedictine involvement in German academic life was reduced when religious institutions were secularized in the first decade of the nineteenth century but it did not end immediately. Its last great flowering came with the Scots astronomer, John Lamont, who studied at the Regensburg Schottenkloster. Lamont went on to be appointed Bavarian Astronomer Royal in 1852 and was created a count by the king of Bavaria, dying in his adopted country in 1879. Scottish contributions could be said to continue even afterwards with Lamont’s bequest of his considerable wealth to found scholarships in science. Andreas Gordon’s third contribution to the Enlightenment and arguably his finest was the manner in which he conducted his research and disseminated his findings. His complete candour and willingness to inform others is impressive: his work was shared with the wider scientific community; his observations were from practical experiment; measurements and detailed notes were taken; all experiments were repeatable resulting in replication of the same findings. All this

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was achieved at a time when many of his contemporaries acted out of personal gain and professional hubris. This marks Gordon as a scientist in a new mould dedicated to the advancement of knowledge in a spirit of cooperation.

Scottish Enlightenment Despite the significant contributions made to the Enlightenment in Germany open participation by Catholics in the Enlightenment in Scotland could only be peripheral given that they were subject to the Penal Laws. Nevertheless Scots Catholics abroad were conscious of the advances being made in their own country and clearly shared interests with some of the leading exponents of Enlightenment thought. David Hume, the philosopher and historian, worked at the Scots college in Paris from 1763 to 1765 studying the royal papers of James VII/II. The college principal, John Gordon, had allowed him access while he was revising the sixth volume of The History of England.174 Fr Ildefonse Kennedy as secretary of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences translated British scientific papers into German for the society’s members. He was very much aware of developments in Scotland as can be shown by his translation of Joseph Black’s Experiments Upon Magnesia Alba (1756).175 Bishop John Geddes was resident in Edinburgh from 1781 to 1793 during which time he became friends with leading citizens. On two occasions at social gatherings in the house of Lord Monboddo in the winter of 1786/7 he met and befriended Robert Burns whom he described as “an excellent poet started up in Ayrshire”.176 Burns was in the city to supervise the publication of the revised edition of his poetry. Geddes placed himself and all of the Schottenklöster and Scots colleges abroad on the book’s subscription list.177 Burns borrowed Geddes’ copy of the 1787 edition and kept it for two years. On eventually returning it, he apologized saying that he had been working on ideas for longer poetic works. Geddes found that Burns had written another 13 poems 174

Halloran, p. 185. Forbes, p. 93. 176 Burns’ father was a tenant on Lord Monboddo’s estate in Ayrshire. SCA, BL3/496/12 Geddes thought Burns “a man of uncommon genius”. 177 The Scots College in Salamanca still has its copy which is used each Burns Night by the staff and students. I am grateful to the former rector of the college, Monsignor Dennis Carlin, for this information. 175

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in the flyleaves of the book.178 John Geddes had supped, conversed and corresponded with one of the most colourful personalities of the Scottish Enlightenment. It was however his cousin, Alexander Geddes, who was to make his own significant contributions to groundbreaking thought and argument in that movement. He gained an international reputation as a biblical scholar and radical poet and in the process became a thorn in the side of the church and civil Establishments. Alexander was two years younger than his cousin but they were educated together at first by a private tutor then by their local parish priest, Alexander Godsman, before going to the newly-reopened seminary at Scalan in 1751. At the age of 21 Alexander transferred to the Scots College in Paris to continue his studies in Greek and Hebrew. By the time he left the college in 1764 he was reading the gospels in their original versions.179 While in Paris he also became aware of the work of the French philosophes and their questioning approach to received wisdom. He had the opportunity of holding discussions with David Hume who was researching at the college in Geddes’ last two years of study there. The intellectual rigour and critical questioning which he was later to show in his work on the Bible probably had their origins in Paris. This experience also sowed the seeds of his radicalism, which was to develop later into active campaigning through his writings. After ordination in 1764 he returned to Scotland where, following a short spell in Dundee, he was appointed chaplain to the Earl and Countess of Traquair. There he formed a lifelong friendship with their son Charles180 but the dowager countess found his Parisian ways too easy going and requested his removal. He became parish priest at Auchinhalrig near his birth place in the northeast of Scotland. There he was a conscientious priest, spending his time ministering to his flock and building additional chapels in the parish for his expanding congregation. He was a “farmer priest”, working his farm like his neighbours.181 During this time the first Catholic Relief Act was passed in England. This caused serious rioting in Glasgow and Edinburgh with much damage to the properties of Catholics in those cities. These 178 Darragh James, ‘The Geddes Burns’, St Peter’s College Magazine, Vol. XVIII, no. 71, Cardross, 1948, pp. 123–31. 179 Fuller R.C., Alexander Geddes 1737–1802, A Pioneer of Biblical Criticism, Sheffield, 1984, p. 14. 180 Geddes’ first independently published original poem celebrated the birth of Charles’ son in 1781. Linton: A Tweeddale Pastoral, Fuller, p. 156. 181 The tradition of “farmer priests” continued to the middle of the twentieth century.

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events seem to have spurred Geddes into a first public expression of his radicalism.182 In the northeast of Scotland such sentiments were not a barrier to acceptance into the non-Catholic community. Like his cousin John, Alexander was in great demand on social occasions by the local gentry. His education, intelligence and sense of humour gave him a prominence among his neighbours which he enhanced by writing poetry and works of general interest. His poems were in Latin and Scots vernacular which he described as the Scoto-Saxon dialect.183 He wrote for periodicals and published books and articles often under a pseudonym.184 His translation in verse of Select Satires of Horace (1779) was published under his own name and proved to be commercially and critically successful. It was received with such acclaim that the following year he was awarded the degree of LLD. from both Marischal and King’s Colleges.185 However, Geddes’ relationship with his bishop had been deteriorating although the academic awards186 did not contribute

182 Geddes, A Memorial. A Catholic priest expressing concern at attacks on Catholics can hardly be described as radical but Geddes took the step of publishing these views when few others were willing or interested. 183 Fuller, 1984, p. 158. One of his poems, Lewie Gordon or the Charming Highlandman was printed in the 2nd edition of The Scots Nightingale in 1779. Its refrain became popular – Robert Burns praised it. Oh! Send my Lewie Gordon hame, And the lad I daurna name: Although his back be at the wa’, Here’s to him that’s far awa’. The Cambridge History, Vol. IX, Chapter XIV, section 16, Alexander Geddes. Although it is far from being great poetry, the Jacobite sentiment would have ensured its popularity in the Northeast of Scotland especially with its reference to a permanent exile of the House of Gordon. 184 Letters on Usury was a reprinting of correspondence printed in Edinburgh Weekly Magazine in which Geddes under the pseudonym “Simon Sober”exchanged arguments with another correspondent. Fuller, p. 156. The poem Wee Wifukie is credited to him although it was unattributed on publication in The Scots Nightingale in 1799. It is humorous verse relating to drunken shenanigans and would have drawn disapproval especially if it had been known to have been written by a priest. 185 Anderson P.J. Ed., Officers and Graduates of University of King’s College Aberdeen, MVD–MDCCCLX, New Spalding Club, Aberdeen, 1893, p. 111 and Anderson P.J. Ed., Fasti Academiae Mariscallanea, Aberdonensis, MDXCIII–MDCCCLX, New Spalding Club, Aberdeen, 1898, p. 99. In the minutes of King’s College he is described as “James (sic) Geddes, author of some translations and imitations from Horace. Recommended by Mr Baron Gordon, Dr Beattie etc.” 186 The honorary awards presented more of a risk to the colleges than to Geddes. Degrees were only to be awarded to those who subscribed to the Confession of Faith, which Geddes did not do.

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to George Hay’s decision to remove Geddes from his placement. The bishop gave his reason as Geddes’ socializing with non-Catholic gentry187 but the two men appear to have been temperamentally different. Hay188 was a Roman who was suspicious of Parisian-trained priests due to their Gallicanism and consequently reduced deference to the strictures of Rome. Also memories of the earlier problems with Jansenism had not disappeared entirely.189 On his removal from Auchinhalrig Geddes went to London to become a chaplain to the ambassador of the Holy Roman Emperor.190 He was to spend the remainder of his life as an exile in London. The emperor closed his chapels shortly after Geddes arrived which forced him to consider returning to Scotland. He avoided this through the support of Lord Petre whom he had met on a previous visit to London. Charles Stuart had introduced him to this prominent English Catholic. Petre, knowing of his academic excellence and interest in biblical studies, sponsored Geddes to produce an improved translation of the Douai and Chaloner versions of the Bible for the use of British Catholics. Bishop Hay influenced his fellow bishops in deciding that they should carry out this work themselves rather than entrust it to Geddes who, he believed, would produce something with which they might have theological difficulties. Petre persevered with his support for Geddes and by their action the bishops freed Geddes from simply amending what he considered to be fundamentally flawed texts. He proposed to Petre that he use Hebrew texts which predated the Vulgate. He received intellectual support in this from Dr Robert Lowth, the Anglican Bishop of London, who arranged that the Scot be given

187 He was a regular guest of the Duke and Duchess of Gordon and others. The Earl of Findlater invited him to hear a sermon preached by a minister, Mr Nichols, in a local Episcopal chapel. This appears to have been the last straw for the bishop. Fuller, p. 25. 188 See chapter 5 for his substantial contribution to the survival of the mission. He was, however, known to be a difficult man and had quarrels with the principal of the Paris college, Alexander Gordon. In 1784 he refused to send any students to the college from Scotland. Halloran, p. 170. 189 In 1770 the Scottish bishops required all missionaries to affirm their adherence to Unigenitus. (See Chapter 5) Geddes did not have Jansenist sympathies but delayed signing until 1771 because he felt that it was unnecessary and demeaning. Fuller, pp. 127–8. 190 The Emperor, through his ambassador, maintained a number of private chapels in London for the use of English Catholics who could not legally establish any churches of their own. The chaplains concerned were therefore drawn from the ranks of British clergy.

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access to suitable copies of the texts in his library at Lambeth Palace and the British Museum. In 1786 Geddes published his arguments regarding the need for a new translation, particularly of the Old Testament. His Prospectus was well received among scholars. He argued that although the Bible was divinely inspired it was open to the same textual analysis that applied to the works of classical writers. Hebrew scribes had made errors in transcriptions of the texts just as medieval transcribers of classical works had done.191 The solution was the same in each case: to go back to the earliest versions of the texts and eliminate as many errors as possible. His Prospectus established Geddes internationally as a serious biblical scholar. It attracted the attention of Johann Gottfried Eichhorn at the University of Göttingen and Geddes also benefited from the friendship of the great English Hebrew scholar, Benjamin Kennicott, who had spent much of his life collecting and collating all available manuscripts. Previous scholars who had attempted to open up debate on biblical analysis had suffered criticism from both Catholic and Protestant theologians. Catholic authorities asserted that the Church pronounced on the true interpretation of Scriptures, while for Protestants the Bible was the word of God who would not have allowed it to be corrupted by man. Therefore, no revision was required; indeed it would be considered blasphemous or heretical. Despite the positive critical acclaim that the Prospectus had received Geddes was under no illusions that his work would be attacked. Kennicott died in 1783 but Geddes was able to use his scholarship to locate the necessary texts. He travelled to Glasgow and Paris to examine particularly important archives. He also learned German to be able read the publications of contemporary scholars. In 1792 he published the first volume of his translation of the Old Testament containing the Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua. In translating he added commentaries in which he asserted that the first five books should be linked with that of Joshua as they were all written by the same person and moreover derived from fragments of older accounts which had been collected together and written down in the time of King Solomon. This exposition by Geddes became known as the “Fragment 191

Geddes was not the first scholar to make these assertions. Variations of Geddes’ arguments had been put forward for almost 150 years by men such as Louis Cappel, Jean Morin, Richard Simon and Charles Houbigant – Calvinist and Catholic scholars in France. Catholic Encyclopedia, New York, 1908.

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Hypothesis” and was highly controversial among scholars. The church authorities both Catholic and Protestant were outraged and savagely attacked the book. The Catholic bishops warned their congregations against the “use and reception” of the translation and Geddes was immediately suspended from carrying out any of his priestly duties. He was widely pilloried and sarcastically referred to as the “corrector of the Holy Ghost”.192 Fortunately Geddes had supporters. Lord Petre continued to provide him with a pension. Charles Stuart, now Earl of Traquair, remained loyal. His publisher, Joseph Johnson, stood by Geddes. Johnson was a particularly close friend and included Geddes in his inner circle.193 Johnson’s support was a mixed blessing in that it highlighted Geddes as an active radical. He had reinforced this in 1790 when he presented a poem in praise of the French Revolution to the deputies of the French National Assembly.194 Geddes was considered dangerous not only by the Church authorities but by much of the British Establishment. Bishop John Geddes’ position became impossible at this point. He was unable to help his cousin who for most of his life had been his best friend. The two men had corresponded frequently.195 The interdict by the bishops ended any direct contact between them. Alexander tried to rectify the situation by publishing a defence of his position written in the form of a letter to Bishop Douglas, his superior in London.196

192

Encyclopedia Britannica, p. 547. Johnson was an active radical publisher. He held regular social gatherings for radical authors. From 1788 Geddes was a regular contributor to Johnson’s magazine Analytical Review. Johnson also published other works by Geddes e.g. An Apology for Slavery, 1792 (an ironic work). Through Johnson’s circle Geddes befriended many prominent radicals including Henry Fuseli, the painter, George Gregory, translator of Bishop Lowth’s Hebrew poetry, and John Bonnycastle, mathematician who were particularly close friends but also Joseph Priestley, Mary Wollstonecraft and Thomas Paine. For a fuller account see Braithwaite Helen, Romanticism, Publishing and Dissent: Joseph Johnson and the Cause of Liberty, Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. 194 The poem (in Latin) was read out to the Assembly in 1790 to demonstrate the degree of international support that the Revolution had achieved. Goldie Mark, ‘The Scottish Catholic Enlightenment’, Journal of British Studies, Vol. 30, No. 1, Jan. 1991, pp. 20–62. A copy of the poem translated into the vernacular was published in London and Paris in 1790. Carmen Saeculare pro Gallica Gente tyrannidiaristocraticae erepta. Geddes’ radical writings were not seditious and never advocated violence. His support for such causes sprang from his moral stance. 195 Alexander had sent at least 74 letters to his cousin from London from his arrival there in 1781 to July 1791. Following the publication of The Holy Bible their correspondence ceased. Fuller, pp. 161–2. John died in 1799. 196 Fuller, p. 158. 193

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But he also continued to write radical works197 as well as more commercial works by which he hoped to increase his income; an English rhymed translation of Homer, Scots and Latin poetry and light-hearted accounts of social occasions were produced in the five years following his Bible.198 Geddes published the second volume of his Bible in 1797. This completed the Old Testament and was as controversial as volume one. In 1800 he published a book to accompany the Bible which he entitled Critical Remarks on the Hebrew Scriptures corresponding with a New Translation of the Bible in an attempt to defend his earlier works. When he died in 1802 he was working on a translation of the Psalms. This work was posthumously published by his friend, Joseph Johnson, who had continued to support him in publishing not only his Biblical criticism but also his poetry and radical papers. Alexander Geddes’ impact on the Scottish Enlightenment came in three distinct strands; poetry, radicalism and biblical criticism. 14 collections of poems were published in his lifetime but he published many more pseudonymously. Not all of these have been identified. Indeed a number which have now been identified had previously been attributed to other poets.199 When his light-hearted prose works are added to these it is clear that Geddes was a prolific writer of works intended to entertain and enlighten. A full assessment of the value of them remains to be done but it is apparent that in his lifetime they gave genuine pleasure to his readership. An assessment of his radical writings presents great difficulty. Only a portion of them are identifiable.200 By the very nature of radical works, publication is often anonymous. Of the seven identifiable pieces published under his own name six relate to easing the Penal Laws against Catholics and one to the abolition of slavery – both subjects that a Catholic clergyman could espouse without social censure or the serious disapproval of authority. To judge by the content of these examples no matter how harsh he was in his condemnation of an injustice he delivered his views rationally and calmly and much of his writing allows strong humorous

197 In 1795 he presented an ode to Thomas Pelham occasioned by his speech in the Irish parliament on the Catholic Relief Bill of that year. Fuller, p. 158. 198 Fuller, pp. 157–8. 199 Two had been attributed to Burns. Carruthers Gerard, ‘Scattered Remains: the Literary Career of Alexander Geddes’, Johnston, pp. 61–77. 200 Carruthers, pp. 61–77 also Van Dijk Catharina F.M., ‘Alexander Geddes and his Unpublished Papers’, Johnston, pp. 44–60.

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elements to shine through. Nevertheless he was a committed radical as the mutual friendship with Joseph Johnson shows. Any attempt to evaluate his impact as a biblical scholar has to deal with the issue that Geddes failed in his ostensible objective of producing a translation of the Bible for use by British Catholics. Nevertheless he produced an opus which stimulated other academics to further his theories.201 Despite the opprobrium heaped on Geddes while alive his biblical criticism stands as his greatest work. After he published his Old Testament volumes there was no going back for scholars. A complete assessment of his research into Old Testament texts is not possible because most of his working papers were destroyed at his death.202 It has been suggested that Geddes destroyed them himself before he died but this is unlikely. It would appear that even after his death Geddes’ ideas were considered dangerous.203

The Penalties of a Catholic Education Geddes’ life demonstrates the emotional pressures Catholics in Scotland endured in taking their place in a society which was initially

201 Joseph S. Vater advocated Geddes’ “Fragment” hypothesis and introduced it into Germany in 1805. The controversy which this started lasted for a quarter of a century before it was proved to be erroneous. Reid, “Biblical Criticism (Higher)” in Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. IV, New York, 1908. 202 His remaining papers are in the Petre family archives but no working papers on his biblical analysis remain. Fuller, pp. 103–4 Johnson was able to publish Geddes’ work on the psalms posthumously because Geddes had sent each section to the printers as he completed it. Fuller, p. 105. 203 It would have been only human for Geddes to have turned away from his faith given the hostility that he had had to face but at the end he remained a Catholic. The Abbé de St Martin, a French émigré priest, administered the last rites to Geddes as he lay dying in his house in London. Fuller, p. 103. He was reluctant to allow any priest of his London diocese to visit. His sense of hurt clearly was acute. (It is ironic that the French Revolution which he had initially praised had thrown up this last benefit for Geddes – a priest who had suffered at the hands of the revolutionaries was able to attend him when he no longer felt close enough to his own countrymen to allow them to perform that service.) Nevertheless, Alexander Geddes’ faith remained strong and ecumenical as can be shown from the epitaph he wrote for himself and which is carved on his tombstone: Christian is my name and Catholic is my surname. I grant that you are Christian as well as I. I embrace you as a fellow disciple in Jesus, And if you are not a disciple of Jesus, Still I would embrace you as my fellow man. The Scalan News, November 2002

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intent on their elimination and later only tolerant of their existence as second-class citizens. Conformity was required of them by both the State and the Catholic Church. Paradoxically being educated at the Scots colleges abroad both helped and hindered them in keeping their faith alive. Given the quality of the education provided, the benefits of the education received could be considerable as is shown by the success achieved by so many of the students. However, the superiority of their education compared to the majority of their compatriots at home must have made the legal and social restrictions which they had to face all the more burdensome. It is unsurprising, then, that some on return to Scotland hid or renounced their faith in order to take up profitable roles where their talents could be used. In light of this temptation it is remarkable that the vast majority of the students retained allegiance to their church when penalties of doing so were so great. Even in the latter half of the eighteenth century, when open declaration of the faith was possible, as shown in the case of Alexander Geddes difficulties were placed in their way. Emotional difficulties on returning home were not the only ones which students at the Scots colleges had to bear. They also had to overcome physical and material hardships. For much of the time student life was akin to one of monastic discipline and not all young men found this acceptable.204 However, the rigour with which this was applied was beneficial in an important way. Conditions in cities such as Rome and Paris were unhygienic with sporadic outbreaks of plague. The shelter of the colleges at those times reduced the danger to the students although occasionally there were fatalities from, among other causes, plague and tuberculosis.205 Others had to be sent home to recover “in the healthy air of their own country”.206 The expense incurred in travel and living abroad could be high and even when the colleges supported students from their own funds the strain on student’s families was considerable. In addition another financial penalty hung over them. Legal censure was threatened by the Scottish authorities and fines and

204 The college records have numerous examples of students who requested return home or were expelled for unacceptable behaviour. 205 E.g. John Gordon died of the plague in 1626. He had been sent from Douai where the plague was prevalent to the college in Paris for safety but died en route. RSC, p. 19. 206 James Kinneard, who entered Douai college on 2 October 1620, had a mental breakdown (mania correptus) and returned to Scotland where he recovered and later became a Benedictine in Germany. RSC, p. 15.

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forfeiture of property could be imposed as punishment on families who sent a son to a Catholic college abroad. In light of these difficulties it is impressive to note the numbers of Scottish students who attended the colleges. The surviving records are incomplete, nevertheless, they contain over 1,700 names and include considerable biographical detail on the students. Analysis of this archival material reveals not only who the students were, their backgrounds and circumstances, but throws light on the composition of the Catholic communities of Scotland in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

CHAPTER FOUR

THE STUDENTS AND THEIR BACKGROUNDS

Scots started coming to study at the colleges abroad as soon as they were set up. The Jesuits had already established their reputation for providing the best quality education when the Scots College in Pontà-Mousson was opened in 1581 and this ensured a strong demand for places by Scottish Catholics. The desirability of being educated by them was such that for the first half century of their existence a number of Scottish Protestants, claiming to be Catholic, also applied and applications from non-Scots were received throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.1 These factors help make the composition of the student body complex but an analysis of the records reveals much about the Scottish Catholic community at home and abroad and the ways in which it changed over time. However, care is necessary in making such an analysis as there are difficulties in obtaining full and reliable details on the students. The principal sources of information regarding the students who attended are the registers of the colleges themselves. Other sources such as the archives of Propaganda Fide, the correspondence of missionaries and the journals of visitors make occasional references to the students but rarely in a way that would allow anything other than a cursory analysis of the composition of the student bodies. However, reliance on the archives of the colleges for detailed information presents a number of difficulties. First the registers are incomplete. The Madrid College and its successor in Valladolid are the only ones to have almost intact sets of archives including college registers surviving from their foundations. All the other colleges and the Schottenklöster have suffered serious losses of records at various times in their history. The Pontifical Scots College in Rome lost many of its archives at the end of the eighteenth century due to the French invasion and temporary closure of the college. Only a limited amount of material from the colleges in Paris

1 For example Ambrose Spinola of Genoa attended the Rome college in 1632 and Charles de Legillon of Namur attended Douai in 1770. RSC pp. 189, 94.

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and Douai was saved from the depredations of the French Revolution. The archives of the Schottenklöster were taken into the custody of the German states on the secularization of religious institutions in the first half of the nineteenth century. With the fortunate exception of some material relating to the monastery in Würzburg, held in the library of that city’s university, all of this material appears to have been lost in the destruction of German cities during the Second World War. A second problem that compromises reliance on the records is that they are not necessarily contemporary with the events they record. It is clear from an examination of the handwriting in the surviving manuscript registers that in the cases of Rome and Madrid the early entries were written up at a later date, presumably from earlier records no longer surviving.2 While it is reasonable to assume that the transcription of earlier records would have been done with care the danger remains of inaccuracies particularly in omissions from the registers. Thirdly the type of information recorded in the registers relating to each student is not consistent from college to college or indeed in the same college over the years of its existence. The greater part of the surviving records was kept by the Jesuit administrators and as such follows a procedure suggested in Ratio Studiorum. Usually the minimum information recorded was the date of entry to the college, the student’s name and the course of study in the year of entry. A majority of the entries also include the student’s age, place of birth and names of parents. Names of referees or family connections with the college are also given where relevant. The outcome of the course of study and date of leaving were recorded in only a minority of cases and usually when the reason for the termination of studies was exceptional; examples included illness or death, expulsion or recall home. A reasonable inference from this method of recording exceptions is that where no entry was made the student left the college after completing the full course (Trivium or Quadrivium). A fourth problem arises in some of the surviving records – that of accuracy. Sometimes the record keeper has been factually mistaken.3 There are also examples of two or more versions of events being 2 In the Rome register a number of entries prior to 1612 are recorded as having been made by Abbé Paul McPherson and therefore of early nineteenth-century origin. RSC, pp. 101–4. 3 The Douai Diary states that the four members of the Carroll family who entered in 1716 and 1717 were brothers. They were three brothers and a cousin. RSC, p. 69 and Hoffman Ronald Princes of Ireland, Planters of Maryland A Carroll Saga, 1500–1782, University of North Carolina Press, 2000, pp. 406–8.

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recorded, quoting different sources of information. This difficulty usually arises in accounts of the student’s career after leaving the College.4 For these reasons our knowledge of the students attending the colleges must be viewed as limited. Nevertheless sufficient material has survived with which to compile a substantial database. Through careful examination and statistical analysis of this data followed with reference to other sources, significant advances can be made in understanding the students and their backgrounds.

The Students The colleges were established for the purpose of educating Scottish Catholic men and boys particularly for the priesthood. Entry to the colleges, however, was not always restricted to students who satisfied each aspect of this description. All of the students who attended indeed were men or boys. There are no instances where women were enrolled in the colleges. The records occasionally refer to domestic servants being employed who may have been female5 but women do not appear to have been involved with the colleges in any other capacity. The requirement that students be Catholic was held to as rigidly as possible. It is clear that the college authorities were concerned that spies might infiltrate the colleges and report back to Scotland, especially on the names of the students. No doubt this was sufficient reason to cause the rectors to examine closely any applicant who claimed to be a convert to Catholicism.6 Alexander Gordon, a Presbyterian minister, tried to enter the Scots College in Paris in 1657 but was refused despite having Jesuit sponsors and letters of introduction. He also had involved Vincent de Paul (founder of the Lazarist Order) on his behalf.7 He then applied to the college in Rome and afterwards St James’ monastery in Würzburg with equal lack of success. By 1658

4 The records for Arthur Cheyne, Douai and Rome 1627–33, state that he left due to ill-health and returned to Scotland but also quote Father Robb that he was ordained. RSC, pp. 22, 109. 5 Taylor, p. 33 and Watts John Scalan: The Forbidden College 1716–1799, East Linton, 1999, p. 106. 6 There are numerous references to examination and confirmation in faith conducted by the college rectors. E.g. Alexander Forbes was allowed to enter Douai in 1669 after acceptance of his conversion in the college chapel. This was required despite his being a nephew of Fr James Forbes who was a missionary in Scotland at the time. RSC, p. 48. 7 Halloran, p. 41.

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he had reached Regensburg and was admitted to the Schottenkloster there. He left shortly afterwards and on his return to Scotland boasted about his success in spying on the monastery.8 However, over two centuries 40 students are recorded as being genuine converts who were admitted to the colleges. Given the fragmentary nature of the surviving records this number can only be seen as a minimum. The colleges did not always insist on students being Scottish. The definition of Scottish-ness stated in the rule book of the Madrid College was someone who had been born in Scotland or who had at least one Scottish parent.9 This definition was stretched to include looser relationships. Jean Baptiste Young and his brothers Ignatius and Joseph were accepted at Douai in 1731 and 1732 on the strength of having a Scottish grandfather who had been an exile in Paris. This was in spite of the family having Francisised its name to Le Jeune.10 Even this degree of Scottish-ness was not a rigid requirement. As is discussed below, non-Scots of many nationalities were admitted to the colleges; the majority in the century between 1650 and 1750. Table 2 shows the number of students recorded in the surviving registers as having attended the colleges. Table 2: Known college students, 1575–179911 College Pont-à-Mousson Douai Madrid Valladolid Rome Paris Regensburg Würzburg Totals

Students 58 756 46 54 378 235 84 1629

Monks

Totals

73 47

58 756 46 54 378 235 157 47

120

1749

Source information: McInally Thomas, The Alumni of the Scots Colleges Abroad 1575–1799, unpublished treatise, University of Aberdeen, 2008.

8 Hay The Blairs Papers, pp. 90–1. In Gordon’s case he appears to have been a political spy working on behalf of Cromwell. 9 Taylor, p. 32. 10 RSC, pp. 76–8. 11 A conservative extrapolation of these figures to take account of the missing Paris college and Erfurt records and the under-representation of the Würtzburg and Regensburg figures is capable of yielding an overall figure of at least 2000 alumni over the two centuries.

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Included in the numbers for Rome are 35 convictors.12 The student register of the Paris College has not survived and only partial reconstructions exist.13 The figure of 235 students noted in Figure 2 is likely to be a significant underestimate as it was a large and very busy college for most of its existence. The full number of students would have been at least equal to but probably exceeded the Roman college. Records of the Schottenklöster are extremely fragmentary. Regensburg has the most complete records surviving;14 Würtzburg’s records are more limited;15 there are no records of students of the Erfurt abbey although a number of teachers’ names are known.16 As well as showing overall figures the surviving records reveal how the numbers changed over time. Explanations for the changes can be attempted when contemporary events are considered. Travelling abroad to enrol in a continental college would always have been expensive but on the outbreak of war it would also have been especially difficult and dangerous. Admissions to the colleges were therefore likely to be affected by civil disruptions occurring in Scotland and elsewhere in the British Isles and continental Europe. The available college records are disproportionately influenced by the registrations at the college in Douai where the most complete records have survived. (Table 2) Douai was essentially a junior college whose pupils were admitted when they were in their early teens. (Figure 2) There would have been serious difficulties in sending such young children abroad during times of political and military unrest with resultant distortions in entrance trends. An analysis of the entries in the surviving student registers shows that an average of between eight and ten new students per year was enrolled in these colleges. However the number of students does not appear to have been evenly spread throughout the period. Figure 1 shows that there were significantly higher levels of student entrance

12 RSC, pp. 101–47, 185–7 Convictors were boarders who normally did not engage in any programme of study. All of the colleges accepted convictors. In the case of Rome as well as visiting Scots there were clerics from Italy and Greece. In almost every case their stay was limited to a few months. The colleges also had visitors, especially from Scotland, who were travelling through the region. Many of these were couriers working for Scottish and continental political interests. They were given board and lodging but not normally noted in the college registers and are not included in Figure 2. 13 Halloran, pp. 206–19. 14 RSC pp. 249–70, 264–85. 15 Dilworth Franconia, pp. 278–81. 16 Ibid. p. 269.

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140 120

Students

100 80 60 40 20

15

80 15 s 90 16 s 00 16 s 10 16 s 20 16 s 30 16 s 40 16 s 50 16 s 60 16 s 70 16 s 80 16 s 90 17 s 00 17 s 10 17 s 20 17 s 30 17 s 40 17 s 50 17 s 60 17 s 70 17 s 80 17 s 90 s

0

Decades

Source information: McInally Thomas, The Alumni of the Scots Colleges Abroad 1575–1799, unpublished treatise, University of Aberdeen, 2008.

Figure 1: College entrance trends

in the 1620s, 1680s and 1730s and lower levels in the 1700s and in the second half of the eighteenth century. The sharp increase in the number of students enrolling in the 1620s coincides with a period of particularly strict application of the penal laws against Catholics in Scotland.17 James VI/I and especially Charles I tried to soften Presbyterian opposition to their attempts to promote Episcopal practices in Scotland by being especially harsh in the application of the anti-Catholic laws. The increased vigour in persecuting Catholics over this period resulted in a significant increase in the

17 In 1629 Charles I added to the existing penal laws the provision that proscribed Catholics should be pursued with the full vigour of the law. The laws included prohibition of attendance at mass, harbouring priests and sending children to Catholic schools. The penalties available were confiscation of goods, banishment or death. Later laws in the eighteenth century prohibited Catholics from inheriting property or educating their children and offered rewards (£100 Scots) for the apprehension of Jesuit priests. Although the penal laws (with the exception of those against priest) were not consistently applied their continuous reassertion and accumulation was effective in suppressing Catholicism in many parts of Scotland.

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number of mature students enrolling in the colleges.18 Almost onethird of the intake was aged over 21 years. This proportion increased in the 1630s and 1640s as the number of younger students decreased due to difficulties in travel caused by the political instability at home. The more benign regime of James VII/II in the 1680s allowed Catholic families to send greater numbers of their younger sons abroad instead of attempting to educate them at home. There was a notable rise in the number of students in their early teens enrolling for Trivium studies over this decade. (50% of enrolments were students under 15 years of age compared with 8% in 1670s and 27% in 1690s.) This caused the increase in overall numbers. The collapse in numbers of new students in the 1700s can be explained in part by two factors. A series of bad harvests had occurred causing financial hardships.19 Furthermore there was difficulty caused in travel and trade by war with France.20 Each of the colleges suffered a significant reduction in entrants both to Trivium and Quadrivium studies. Indeed the Madrid College recorded no new registrations during the whole decade. Madrid had always been the most difficult and, therefore, expensive college to reach and it is not surprising that it should suffer most from an economic crisis in Scotland coupled with disruptions to travel. Financial difficulties were widely felt and there were very few non-Scots joining the colleges over this period. Only two such students enrolled in the 1700s.

18 The execution (martyrdom) of the Jesuit, John Ogilvie, in Glasgow in 1615 appears to have helped stimulate the increase in the numbers of mature entrants. If this consequence was known in Scotland, as it almost certainly was, it would explain why imprisonment and exile were the preferred punishments from that time on. Imprisonments were severe and frequently resulted in breaking the health of the priest and in some cases death while in custody. Nevertheless imprisonment appeared to provide a less effective stimulus for recruitment than martyrdom. 19 1698 and 1709 were particularly severe. Clark George The Later Stuarts 1660– 1714, Oxford, 1956, p. 38. 20 The Regensburg records show that parties of students were escorted from Scotland e.g. the entry for 1713 shows that ten of 11 new entrants arrived on 5 July in the company of Fr Maurice Stuart; in 1718, eight of nine students came on 26 July escorted by Lord George Cruckshankes of Robiston. The practice of accompanying groups of new students from Scotland existed at the other colleges as well although the names of escorts are not recorded. (Six of nine students who entered Douai in 1693 did so on 13 July.) Disruption in travel caused by the war with France which ended in 1713 affected these parties of entrants not in frequency but in size. In 1700 two groups of two and three came to Douai, one group of two came in each of the years 1701 and 1702. This pattern is typical of the rest of the decade both for Douai and Rome.

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However, these factors can explain only part of the overall reduction. The college records show that there was a marked decrease in the number of students coming from the east of Scotland at this time. In the previous century there had been about two entrants from that part of the country each year. In the 1700s the figure dropped to less than a quarter of that level and thereafter only one or two students enrolled per decade. This coincided with a major change of role for the Society of Jesus in Scotland when they were required to report directly to the Vicar Apostolic of Scotland, Bishop Thomas Nicholson. The Jesuits had been particularly active in the east and it is likely that an unintended consequence of the change was a lessening of Catholic activity and possibly a disruption of the Jesuit practice of recruiting students for the colleges and accompanying them abroad. These changes added to the political, legal and financial pressures on Catholics in the east of Scotland making it too difficult for them to continue openly with formal Catholic education abroad. As the economic conditions improved in the following decades, the 1710s and 1720s saw a return to historically normal figures of entrants to the colleges and by the 1730s another major rise in numbers of students was being recorded. Students from the Highlands and the Hebrides accounted in large part for this. Many of these Gaelic speakers took up Quadrivium studies in Rome. But there was also a significant increase in the number of students who had not been born in Scotland. Catholic Jacobite exiles from each of the four nations of Great Britain and Ireland sent their sons to the Scots colleges, particularly Douai. (Table 3) As well as Scots the college enrolled the sons of English, Irish and Welsh exiles who had some connection with Scotland. This trend had started in the 1720s with 15 clearly identifiable but by the 1730s this had almost doubled to 29 students who had not been born in Scotland. Although a number were of Scottish parentage others had no obvious connection with Scotland.21 The peak of enrolments experienced in the 1730s was followed by three decades of decreasing college attendances. The harshness of the retribution on Jacobites in Scotland after the battle of Culloden in

21 Joseph O’Donnoghue, Douai 1732. His father was Irish but his mother was Anna Urquhart of Meldrum. RSC, p. 78 William Rigg, Douai 1730, was born in London of a Scots father (from Galloway) and an English mother. RSC, p. 75 However Patrick Shee, seems to have had no direct Scottish connection. He was the son of an Irish father and a French mother. RSC, p. 77.

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1746 clearly was widely felt among the Catholics. There was, however, another reason for the reduction in numbers of students going to the colleges abroad. The establishment in the first quarter of the eighteenth century of the junior seminaries in Scotland – the Lowland seminary at Scalan and the Highland seminary which functioned in a number of locations in the western highlands in the eighteenth century22 – provided Trivium courses which lessened the need for younger students to study abroad. As these colleges prospered and the number of students increased in the second half of the eighteenth century there was a consequential deleterious effect on enrolment of Scottish students at Douai.23 The beneficial effects of the home junior seminaries, however, were demonstrated in the increased numbers of Quadrivium students attending Rome and later Valladolid. Figure 1 shows that even during periods of civil war and stricter application of the penal laws, Scots Catholics did not stop sending their sons abroad to be educated. Nevertheless the ages of the students on first going abroad influenced the structuring of the colleges’ programmes of education and presented difficulties for their financial viability in troubled times. In most cases the decision of when to go abroad would have been taken by the student’s family. Figure 2 shows that over 40% of students were aged 15 or under at the time of their first enrolment in college. This might be expected given that the available data is weighted towards Douai with its relatively young intake. But further examination shows that the majority of the Scots enrolling at any of the colleges would have required at least their parents’ permission and probably financial support since only a quarter of all students were over the age of majority on initial enrolment. Figure 2 also shows that, although very young boys were occasionally admitted, the norm was for new entrants to be aged between 12 and 17. This is the age at which they would have been enrolled to study all or part of the Trivium which if completed would mean that the boys were aged between 18 and 22 when they left the college. Those who wished to proceed to the Quadrivium usually enrolled at the age of 18 or older and continued for at least a further four years, completing their studies in their early to mid-twenties. For much of 22

The locations were Eilean Bàn and Buorblach in Morar, Guidale, Glenfinnan and Samalaman before the college finally relocated to Lismore in 1803. 23 Watts John, Scalan: The Forbidden College 1716–1799, East Linton, 1999 also McInally, p. 76.

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25%

Percentage

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%

21

Source information: McInally Thomas, The Alumni of the Scots Colleges Abroad 1575–1799, unpublished treatise, University of Aberdeen, 2008.

Figure 2: Student age on entry to college

the history of the colleges enrolment was conditional on a promise to sign the missionary oath, especially on starting the Quadrivium.24 Those engaged in these studies were therefore indicating a desire to be ordained as priests. The Roman college register shows that approximately two-thirds of the new entrants were enrolled for Quadrivium studies.25 An analysis of the records and Figure 2 indicate that about one-fifth of Trivium students went on to study the Quadrivium at the Scots colleges and that these were added to by mature entrants26 who accounted for approximately one-half of all Quadrivium scholars. These age profiles clearly show that the primary function of the colleges to act as seminaries was being met: the junior seminary function being satisfied to the extent that 20% or more were progressing to 24 The missionary oath, i.e. a solemn written promise to work on the mission in Scotland upon ordination, was insisted on by Propaganda Fide and normally had to be signed no more than six months after enrolment. This condition was not required of young students on the Trivium course. SCA, CA 1/11. 25 93 out of 142 students whose ages are recorded were aged 18 or older on first entry. Many are recorded as having come from Douai or Paris. The Scots College in Madrid shows a similar profile but with many fewer being recorded; 19 out of the 29 students whose ages are recorded. 26 Here mature students are defined as aged 22 years or older on enrolment.

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senior seminary level and the senior seminaries were augmenting this supply of candidates for the priesthood by a very substantial intake of mature students. The success or failure of the missions, especially in Scotland, depended on the colleges’ ability to produce priests. Their effectiveness in producing sufficient numbers of them and their calibre will be discussed later. The nationality or country of birth is recorded in the registers for 1361 students. Of the remainder (approximately 400) almost all have Scottish surnames. Some were children of Scots émigrés but the majority of them must have been native-born Scots. There are 245 students whose recorded place of birth was not Scotland. This equates to 18% of the students whose nationality is recorded but only 14% of the total registered students. Table 3 illustrates the nationalities as recorded in the college registers and therefore gives an exaggerated view of the proportion of non-Scots who attended the Scots colleges. Table 3: Nationality of students Decade 1600–09 1610–19 1620–29 1630–39 1640–49 1650–59 1660–69 1670–79 1680–89 1690–99 1700–09 1710–19 1720–29 1730–39 1740–49 1750–59 1760–69 1770–79 Totals Percentages

Scotland

Spanish England Netherlands

France

Ireland

Italy

Others

70 74 116 77 88 66 75 45 63 71 33 63 53 69 42 52 32 27

2 1 3 5 3 0 6 12 8 8 3 5 5 14 11 5 0 2

3 0 2 3 4 8 3 5 2 1 0 0 8 8 5 0 5 6

0 0 0 2 4 2 1 1 3 0 0 3 6 4 2 1 3 3

1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 1 0 2 2 4 3 0 0 0

0 0 0 3 0 1 0 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0

0 0 2 0 1 1 0 2 1 1 0 7 5 2 2 0 1 0

1116

93

63

35

17

12

25

82.0%

6.8%

4.6%

2.6%

1.2%

0.9%

1.9%

Source information: McInally Thomas, The Alumni of the Scots Colleges Abroad 1575–1799, unpublished treatise, University of Aberdeen, 2008.

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Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the colleges accepted non-Scots as students. This was in spite of receiving occasional rebukes from Propaganda Fide and criticism from colleagues on mission work and indeed those in other colleges.27 Of the 245 students whose recorded place of birth is other than Scotland only 37 have Scots surnames and are almost certainly sons or grandsons of Scots émigrés. Thus over 80% of these students fall outside the colleges’ definition of Scottish. The colleges persisted in accepting foreign students for a number of reasons. The principal justification was the additional revenues gained but there were other factors that influenced them. An early example was that of the brothers Andreas and Godfrid Alsondaer. They were accepted by Douai in 1621 at the behest of Lady Elizabeth Curle. Born in Antwerp to parents who were in the service of Lady Curle, they had been orphaned and she needed to find a home for them – Godfrid was ten years of age and Andreas only eight.28 There was clearly a humanitarian need but Lady Curle had another reason to turn to the Scots college for help. Her nephew, Fr Hippolytus Curle, had left a significant legacy to the college which had enabled it to reopen after its closure at Pont-à-Mousson. This is by no means the only example where repayment of a favour or the maintenance of an important relationship contributed to the acceptance of a non-national into a Scots college. Pedro de Lompius, a Spaniard from the Basque country, was admitted to Douai in 1670. His uncle was the Spanish naval commander in the Netherlands and as well as being able to pay for his nephew’s admittance he represented an important political connection.29 All of the colleges were regularly in need of extra finances and accepted convictors as well as students of different nationalities in order to increase income.30 The English constituted the single largest non-Scottish grouping with a total of 93 students. Almost from their foundation the colleges admitted a few students from England. However, the presence of large

27 ASCEP, Fondo Congragazioni Particulari, Vol. 32, 306R–307R. Criticism from the Prefects of the Mission and later from the Vicars Apostolic of Scotland was based on the need for the colleges to produce missionaries for Scotland. Acceptance of foreign students blocked access for Scots. The colleges were equally vociferous in attempting to justify their actions. Ibid., 310R–V. 28 RSC, p. 17. 29 RSC, p. 50. 30 See above regarding the Rome college. Many Italians appear to have used the college as a convenient lodging while in Rome. RSC, pp. 185–7.

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numbers of English at Douai was due to a specific incident. In 1672 the Jesuit English College at St Omers burned down. The college needed to find suitable academic accommodation to house its students. At the time the Scots college had space available. It had been required to provide students for the college in Madrid to enable the rector there to argue that it was functioning as a seminary for the Scottish mission, thereby countering the Spanish Jesuit claim that it was not meeting its foundation charter. Douai was thus in need of students and was in a position to help the English College. 12 students came from St Omers to complete their studies at Douai. The relationship between the two colleges continued for more than 50 years and students from St Omers attended Douai for at least one year of study, usually in logic, the fourth year of their course.31 Students from the Spanish Netherlands represented the second largest non-Scottish grouping but were restricted almost entirely to the college at Douai.32 Some of these students were described as being of Scottish-Flemish stock and would have been entitled to admittance due to Scottish ancestry.33 However, other factors were involved in the acceptance of Flemish and Walloon students at Douai. From 1606 to 1632 and again from 1639 to 1640, the rectors of the college were from the Belgian province of the Society of Jesus. During these periods the majority of entrants were Scots but the Belgian rectors also admitted their fellow countrymen. In 1640 three of the five new registrations were Walloons. Their admittance seems to have been a gesture by the outgoing rector, Jean de la Roche. His successor, Thomas Robb – a Scot – allowed the students to stay and complete their studies but laid down a policy that no more Belgians were to be admitted.34 This policy was adhered to until the French took control of the area and again it became expedient to make exceptions for non-Scots. In 1678 and

31

RSC, pp. 51–72. Although the southern Spanish Netherlands including Douai had been annexed by France in 1670–80, the categorisation of this geographical area in Table 3 has been maintained throughout the period shown. There are 71 students identifiable as originating from this area with a further eight listed as coming from Holland. 33 Viscount Thomas Preston, Douai 1670, of Tarragh in Ireland, grandson of General Preston, was of Scottish descent. He is described as having been born in Flanders and holding a baron’s title there. RSC, p. 50. 34 RSC, p. 33. 32

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1682 three sons of the chief magistrate of Douai, Jacques, François and Antoine Franeau, were admitted.35 The third major nationality admitted to the colleges was French with 35 students listed. This number under-represents those attending. If a fuller record of the Scots college in Paris had survived it is certain that it would show a much greater involvement of French students. Also some of the students recorded in the group from the Spanish Netherlands were French. As well as the Franeau brothers previously mentioned, Ignatius Coruan,36 son of the advocate to the Scots College in Douai, was French. No doubt the reasons for admittance of French students to the college in Paris would have been similar to those of the Belgians known about from the Douai records. In the latter half of the eighteenth century when Douai was attempting to compensate for the loss of Scottish students who were attending the junior seminaries in Scotland an increased number of students with French names appears on its college register. Other non-Scottish students came from many parts of Europe and the New World such as Ireland, Italy, Poland, Germany, Spain, North America (Maryland), Wales, Portugal and the English Caribbean. Only in the cases of Ireland and Italy37 did any single nation’s numbers exceed ten. The vast majority of students at the colleges were from Scotland38 and in many cases their place of birth was recorded at the time of their entry. Table 439 shows the origin of those Scottish students whose region of birth has been recorded.40 It can be seen that a majority 35

RSC, pp. 54, 57. RSC, p. 50. 37 17 Irish and 12 Italian students. 38 1,116 known students. In addition there are students with Scottish surnames who have no nationality listed. Figure 6 includes only those students where a Scottish region of origin has been recorded – 680 in total. 39 The table runs from 1600 ignoring the decades from 1580 (covering the period of operation of the Scots college at Pont-à-Mousson) the 1590s when it was re-established in Douai since over this period the register shows the Scottish regions of origin for only two of the 42 students listed. The decade of the 1740s is distinct from the others in that the records show that only students from the north-east, Hebrides and Highlands came to the colleges; no doubt another consequence of the Jacobite rising in 1745. 40 The regions have been defined as: North-east Scotland – Angus, Aberdeenshire, Moray and Nairn but not including Inverness. East of Scotland – Dundee to Lothians including Edinburgh and west as far as Perth. West of Scotland – Glasgow to Stirling and south to include Ayrshire. 36

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(over 55%) originated from the north-east of Scotland. This was true throughout the whole of the period being examined. The east of Scotland is also represented over this time. More than 20% of the students came from this region in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries but as has already been noted from 1700 the numbers dropped such that less than 2% of students in the eighteenth century were recorded as coming from the east. The west and south-west of Scotland also show patterns of strong representation which over time reduced significantly. They provided less than 10% each of the regions of origin identified, but the decline in numbers happened earlier than in the east of Scotland. In the west the contraction had occurred by 1670. The hoped for easing of restrictions on Catholics, that the accession of Charles II in 1660 had suggested, failed to materialize. The resultant demoralization clearly had an effect in the west although it was not until 1740 that all enrolment from the area ceased. The south-west had been the home region of a significant number of students until 1640 after which only a few are recorded for each decade. (There was, however, a short lived resurgence in numbers from the south-west in the 1720s and 1730s.) The reduction in numbers in the 1640s coincided with the onset of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms which must in part have contributed to the decline.41 Small numbers of students had come from the Highlands from the foundation of the colleges but whereas recruitment from the east and west of Scotland declined in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth

South-west Scotland – Dumfries and Galloway. Highlands – All mainland areas north and west of the Highland Line excluding north-east Scotland but including Inverness. Hebrides – the western islands. Borders – Berwickshire, Nithsdale, Liddesdale and Annandale. Orkney – Orkney Islands. The college records, where they identify the origins of the students, sometimes do so by place of birth i.e. town, village etc and sometimes by diocese e.g. Glasgow, St Andrews and sometimes by both. Where no other information exists, those recorded as being from the Diocese of Glasgow have been included in the west of Scotland region and those recorded as being from the Diocese of Dunkeld have been included in the east of Scotland. Therefore it is likely that these regions have been over-represented in Table 4 and those of south-west Scotland and Highlands respectively have been under-represented. 41 The Covenanting movements were particularly strong in the south-west, the west and Fife which resulted in especially fierce government attention in these areas. It is likely that all dissenters including Catholics received harsh treatment in the southwest at this time.

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Decade

North East

East

Highlands

West

1600–09 1610–19 1620–29 1630–39 1640–49 1650–59 1660–69 1670–79 1680–89 1690–99 1700–09 1710–19 1720–29 1730–39 1740–49 1750–59 1760–69 1770–79

18 36 39 34 41 25 29 26 22 29 18 24 17 18 14 10 7 9

10 18 17 8 10 7 5 6 23 10 4 4 1 6 1 2 2 2

1 3 7 2 3 3 6 2 2 6 4 4 5 7 1 4 1 1

8 6 5 4 5 6 5 3 3 3 2 3 2 4 0 0 0 2

3 10 11 8 1 0 2 1 2 2 1 1 6 7 0 0 2 3

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 3 2 6 5 6 5 4

0 0 2 0 1 1 7 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

416

136

62

61

60

34

14

1

53.1%

17.3%

7.9%

7.8%

7.7%

4.3%

1.8%

0.1%

Totals Percentages

South West Hebrides Borders Orkney

Source information: McInally Thomas, The Alumni of the Scots Colleges Abroad 1575–1799, unpublished treatise, University of Aberdeen, 2008.

centuries the number of students from the Highlands started then to increase. Almost no students are recorded as having come from the Hebrides prior to 171042 but throughout the rest of that century their numbers continued to grow. These events coincided with the opening of the Highland junior seminary in Morar and it seems reasonable to infer that the availability of a Trivium course of study nearer to home encouraged more young men from the Highlands and Islands to progress to Quadrivium studies abroad particularly in Rome and later Valladolid. The Borders region provided a small number of students up to 1690. From that point they ceased to enrol or at least their presence was no longer recorded. Only one student is recorded as having come from Orkney. This happened in the 1680s which was the period of most 42 The first identifiable student from the Hebrides was, however, Roderick Maclain who entered Pont-à-Mousson in 1586. He is recorded as being from Mull (Hebridensis ex Mula). The following prolonged absence of students does not appear to be a reflection on the numbers of Catholics in the Highlands or Islands but more a consequence of the lack of provision in formal education for the majority of the populace.

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lenient application of the Penal Laws. There is no record of there ever having been a student from Shetland. The changes over time in numbers of students from the different regions of Scotland can in large part be explained by the ease with which the State and the Kirk could impose their will. The unruly North of the country exerted independence from central authorities by rejecting the laws devised in Edinburgh and thereby allowed Catholicism to survive more easily than in Central or Southern Scotland. A further aspect of the students’ background that can be gleaned from entries in the records is their social status. Most of the registers’ entries are restricted to giving only the names of their parents. Identification of social background, therefore, is impossible for most students. However some do have fuller descriptions and from these it is possible to identify whether their origins were nobility or gentry. In a few cases the profession of the father is noted. Table 5 shows what little the records reveal. Table 5: Social origins of students Decade

Gentry

Nobility

1580–89 1590–99 1600–09 1610–19 1620–29 1630–39 1640–49 1650–59 1660–69 1670–79 1680–89 1690–99 1700–09 1710–19 1720–29 1730–39 1740–49 1750–59 1760–69 1770–79

5 0 7 2 20 10 20 19 11 17 20 21 13 25 34 28 9 21 4 5

1 0 2 5 10 15 23 15 27 27 21 13 5 11 6 12 9 2 1 12

1 0 0 0 2 0 5 5 0 5 6 3 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 6

0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 2 2 1 1 0 0 0 0

1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 1 0 1 0 4 0 0 0 0

286

216

35

11

10

Totals

Professional

Merchant

Military

Source information: McInally Thomas, The Alumni of the Scots Colleges Abroad 1575–1799, unpublished treatise, University of Aberdeen, 2008.

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As can be seen no details are recorded for the majority of students throughout the period. The social origins identified are: Gentry – 286 students; Nobility – 216; Professional – 35; Military – ten; Merchant – 11. The professional grouping consisted of doctors, lawyers and convert sons of “heretical” ministers.43 The silence of the records may be construed as evidence that the majority of students came from the general Catholic population in Scotland and although this is likely to be true this conclusion must be modified by additional factors. It is clear that for a great part of the life of the colleges the authorities and students were anxious to retain as much anonymity as possible. To this end the students often used aliases while at college. Many of these are recorded in the registers.44 Under these circumstances it is unlikely that the sons of prominent Catholic families would always be recorded as such. Also early records tend to be brief. George Strachan who is recorded only by name in the Rome register of 1602 is known from other sources to have been a younger son of Strachan of the Mearns.45 There are undoubtedly other examples where the full identity has not been recorded. It is possible, therefore, to assert with confidence that the number (29%) of students recorded as belonging to noble or gentle families is a minimal figure. The importance of this lies in the fact that the individuals in these two categories are more easily traceable in the Scottish community, particularly when details of both parents have been registered. An analysis of 504 such students sheds light on the network of family relationships which existed among the Catholics who studied at the Scots colleges abroad.

Family Connections The registers of the colleges contain over 420 different surnames of students. About 50 of these recur frequently such that they make up

43 14 of the 35 identifiable in the professional group had clergymen fathers. To this listing can be added 15 students who are recorded in the registers as being nephews or cousins of Catholic priests. It is clear from this that a number of students came from professional ecclesiastical family backgrounds. 44 Among others are: Robert Pope from Edinburgh known as Bruce, Douai 1651: Thomas Hamilton known as Hay, 1655; Alexander Young from Buchan known as Fraser, Douai 1656. RSC, pp. 40–2. 45 Dellavida G.L., George Strachan, Aberdeen, 1956, p. 1.

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more than two-thirds of those who attended. Students who did not belong to a family with a title, although sharing their surname, would not necessarily have been closely integrated. Since most of them are relatively common Scottish names there is no way of proving family relationships. It is likely that many were from families who were tenants and servants of the gentry. Therefore not all would have fully benefited from the support afforded by greater family networks within Scotland and abroad but their attendance at a Scots college would have drawn them closer together and linked them with the wider network of students at the colleges, and indeed with Catholics from other countries studying at their national colleges in centres such as Douai and Rome. Providing a comprehensive description of what constituted a network in the context of Scots Catholics is difficult but its key features relate to how it operated as opposed to its composition. One definition of a network is a nexus of people who may or may not be aware of each other’s existence but through mutual friends and acquaintances are inclined or indeed bound to provide mutual support if required: the trigger for the provision of help often being a personal introduction by a mutually trusted member of the group.46 The students had a number of reasons to consider that they belonged to such a network. First, most of them were Scots and all of them were Catholic, thus belonging to a minority persecuted in their own country. Secondly, they constituted an educated elite who shared a personal knowledge and experience of continental Europe which further set them apart from the majority of their compatriots. Thirdly, in many cases they shared ties of kinship and local association. Students from the Highlands and the Hebrides also shared clan membership thereby extending immediate family relationships. However, it should be noted that kinship in itself did not guarantee strong bonds of mutual support. Indeed the application of the Penal Laws against Catholics sometimes caused the opposite to happen.47 The evidence of the college records points

46 “friends’ friends are friends. . . . .” Berkowitz S.D. ‘Afterword: Toward a formal structural sociology’, Eds. Wellman and Berkowitz. Social Structures: A network approach, Cambridge, 1988, pp. 483–4. 47 In 1605 George Strachan was denounced as a Catholic to the Privy Council in Edinburgh by his brother. His family had converted to Calvinism to protect their estates and saw George’s religion as a threat to their position. After failing to persuade him to convert his brother denounced him. Dellavida G.L. George Strachan, Aberdeen, 1956, p. 8.

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to kinship being an important feature among the body of students however. Membership of individual families and wider relationships are regularly noted. The strength of the networks formed or enlarged through attendance at a Scots college abroad can be gauged by an examination of the careers of the alumni. In a wide range of fields of activity Scots who had attended the colleges provided professional, political, academic, social, moral as well as financial support to other members of the community. It is important, therefore, to attempt to construct a picture of the constitution of these recognizable networks. From the time of the foundation of the colleges it is possible to identify a network of Scots of noble birth whose sons were enrolled as students. The origins of this network can be determined in part by examination of a document held in Archivio Segreto Vaticano.48 This manuscript is undated and unsigned but was written about 1565/6. It lists the supporters and opponents of Mary Queen of Scots at the crucial time before her abdication and defeat at Langside. The names of the nobles are arranged in three groups. The first and largest is of those who could be counted on to support the queen (the Catholic Party). The second grouping lists those whose opposition to the queen was implacable and underpinned by their religious persuasion (the Heretic Party). The third group was those whose loyalty was uncertain (the Suspect Group). In each group the names are shown under two headings; Comites (greater nobles) and Mylordis (lesser nobles) of Scotland. A number of the names defy definite identification but most are clear. A comparison of this document with the registers of the Scots colleges yields a number of names in common. Nobles listed as loyal to the queen or within the suspect group headed families to which a significant number of the earliest students to attend the Scots colleges belonged. The names represented in both sets of records are Gordon (Huntly), Hay (Eirelle), Kennedy (Cassellis), Crawford, Hume, Seton, Sempill, Gray, Ross, Douglas (Angus), Drummond, Ogilvie, Forbes and Maxwell. It would appear, therefore, that the initial networks of Scots attending the colleges derived in large part from the supporters of the late queen. These could not have been coherent networks from the start.

48

ASV, Miscellanea Armadio II, p. 90. See Appendix.

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The conditions prevailing in Scotland at the time acted against strong alliances being widespread or long lasting. The existence of the colleges, however, helped wider networks to develop from the kinship groups that had given their support to the queen. Changes occurred over time. Some families such as Hume and Ogilvie are recorded mainly in the early years of the college records. Other family names only appear from the late seventeenth century onwards. These include Stuart, Fraser, Hamilton and Campbell. Branches of the Gordon, Menzies and Urquhart families illustrate that some of the earliest networks survived over more than 150 years. The families continued to send their sons to the colleges through a number of generations. Also a picture emerges that shows that family networks survived and strengthened themselves through intermarriage,49 thereby extending the networks to other families. Although these networks were widespread a number of prominent families dominated. The largest was the one centred on the Gordons of Huntly. Being the wealthiest and most powerful landowners in the north-east of Scotland the Gordons could command the allegiance of many of the lesser nobility and gentry in that region.50 In the records of the colleges there are 218 students with surnames that are connected with the Gordon family, many being fully identifiable by title. The first such student was William Gordon, brother of the Earl of Huntly who entered Douai College in 1594 together with his manservant.51 The Gordon family connections with the Scots colleges continued through the whole of the seventeenth century, widening to include cadet branches and the related families of Crichton, Forbes, Menzies, Bisset, Leslie, Irvine, Seton and Urquhart. The eighteenth century also witnessed strong Gordon representation until the death in 1728 of Alexander, 2nd Duke of Gordon. While still providing support to her Catholic tenants and kinsfolk his widow raised their two infant sons in the Episcopal Church. Their family network had by then expanded to include Gairden, Grant, Cumming, and Duguid but the numbers attending the Scots colleges had reduced and the 1760s saw the last of 49 There are 174 records in the college registers where the names of both parents of the students are noted. 172 show that both parents belonged to families who had a tradition of sending sons to the colleges. 50 Balfour James, Scots Peerage, Edinburgh, 1904–14. 51 When he left the college he became a Franciscan but William was not the first member of his family to join the Church. His uncle, James Gordon of Huntly, had joined the Society of Jesus in 1563 being only the second Scot to do so.

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any significant enrolments. The final defeat of the Jacobites and exile of many prominent supporters appear to have led to a decline in their numbers and the disruptions caused to the Scots colleges themselves in France and Rome by the changed political situation at the end of the century destroyed the coherence of any remaining network. The Maxwell family formed the second major network associated with the colleges. As Earls of Nithsdale they held significant estates in the south-west of Scotland and were closely related with the Herries and Browns, other major local landlords.52 The Maxwell network was always more tightly knit than the Gordons but following the 1640s it appears to be limited to immediate family members. From then onwards it is impossible to trace with any certainty any of their tenants or servants attending the colleges. Furthermore where the parentage of the Maxwell students has been recorded it indicates that marriages were restricted to cousins – distant or otherwise. Intermarriage of Maxwells with Gordons or Menzies, for example, is not recorded before the eighteenth century by which time their attendance at the colleges was in decline; the last Maxwell and Herries attending in the 1730s. Other major families formed more limited networks at the colleges – Ogilvie, Douglas, Semple, Abercrombie, Farquharson, Macdonald and Mackenzie; they also occasionally married with members of the other families thus forming wider but probably looser networks. Yet, while kinship and inter-marriage by themselves do not provide evidence of an effective network their presence provide an additional reason for social cohesion. Although the full extent of this nexus cannot be established, the major strands can be identified and they help to explain the survival of the colleges and their ability to influence affairs in Scotland and abroad. There is clear evidence that the colleges supported the networks and that the networks supported the colleges. This can be illustrated best by examining the careers of the students. As has been discussed, the remarkable degree of personal success achieved in many cases can be attributed in no small part to the quality of the education they had received but it was also a consequence of the support of the networks of Catholics that they had been introduced to or strengthened by their attendance at a Scots college abroad.

52

Balfour.

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There was one major endeavour in which it was essential for the alumni of the colleges to combine their efforts to achieve success. The primary purpose of the colleges was to provide missionaries to ensure survival of Catholicism in Scotland. While engaging on this missionary work, as well as making undoubted personal sacrifices, the alumni achieved a degree of collaboration which was only possible through the colleges and their networks. It is appropriate, therefore, to examine the progress of the mission in Scotland to determine the degree to which the colleges were successful in their principal aim.

CHAPTER FIVE

CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN SCOTLAND

It is doubtful whether many of the students entering college in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries considered that by doing so they were equipping themselves to follow a career. The major exceptions to this were those who intended entering the Church. Eldest sons of the nobility and gentry could expect to inherit the family property. Younger sons might receive an income but would still require a suitable station in life to which a formally educated man could apply himself without damaging his social standing. For them the clergy and military presented the most easily available acceptable positions but, as has been seen, careers as courtiers and diplomats, academics and men of letters were also possible. For men of a lesser rank in society, however, attendance at a seminary often meant that they had decided upon a life in the Church. Examining the records of the Scots Colleges supports these assumptions. It is also clear that those who entered the Church did not necessarily restrict themselves to one sphere of activity however. There are many examples where churchmen engaged in academe or court life. The college officials who kept the registers have been most assiduous in recording details of those students who took up the religious life. In each case the entries were made a number of years after the original arrival at the college. Often the reference includes details of ordination at the college or elsewhere and, where relevant, acceptance into a religious order. In many cases a short biography is given accompanied by a note recording the source of the information.1 Therefore examination of the registers provides a fuller picture of the impact of the colleges on the life of the Church than for any other sphere of activity entered by the college alumni. Table 6 provides an insight into the scope of the colleges’ contributions to the mission in Scotland and

1 E.g. The Douai register provides such details for Roger Lindsey, 1606, attested to by Frs Thomas Robb, James Le Brun and Patrick Anderson. RSC, p. 9.

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Table 6: College students ordained or entering religious orders Order

Missionary

Non-Missionary

Total

Secular Jesuit Benedictine Franciscan Capuchin Dominican Carthusian Carmelite Augustinian Oratorian Lazarist Unknown

166 70 9 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

71 119 88 15 2 6 3 3 2 2 1 1

237 189 97 17 3 6 3 3 2 2 1 1

Totals

248

313

561

Source information: McInally Thomas, The Alumni of the Scots Colleges Abroad 1575–1799, unpublished treatise, University of Aberdeen, 2008.

to the wider Church community. The 237 secular priests2 recorded make up the largest grouping, being over 40% of the total. This is almost certainly an understatement of their numbers. The records of the Scots College in Paris are lost and as this was run by secular priests its students were known to have been ordained as seculars rather than join a regular order. The second largest grouping (33%) is of those who entered the Society of Jesus. Not all of them were priests. The records often are limited to a statement that the student on leaving the college entered a Jesuit seminary as a tyro. Membership of the Society was on four distinct levels. Tyro-ship initially lasted for six months but by the end of the sixteenth century had been extended to two years and was conducted in a specially designated training college which every province of the Society was required to establish. Tyro-ship was concluded with a decision to continue as a lay member at level two or leave the Society.

2 Secular priests are those under the authority of a bishop. In the early days of the colleges the secular priests had poorly defined lines of reporting and no source of income outwith their “parishes”. Scotland’s pre-Reformation parishes had become Calvinist and therefore no longer provided any income for Catholic priests. It was not until the formation of Propaganda Fide in 1626 that a regular stipend was provided for seculars (50 crowns a year). When Bishop Thomas Nicholson was appointed Vicar Apostolic for Scotland the secular priests on the mission reported to him.

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Level two comprised a period of study lasting from five to seven years together with preparation for ordination. However it did not automatically result in the student becoming a priest. Lay membership (oblate) might have been preferred and the individual would then have remained within the Society at that level. Ordination occurred at level three. Level four could only be attained much later; perhaps 20 years after ordination. There are few examples in the records of the colleges in which the full record of a Jesuit’s progress within the Society is reported.3 The only other grouping with any significant number of entrants is the Benedictine Order. The Schottenklöster of Regensburg and Würtzburg functioned as seminaries for the Scottish Mission in the eighteenth century but their primary function throughout their existence was as Benedictine monasteries. Students enrolling at these seminaries who chose the religious life became Benedictines. As with the Jesuits, however, they did not necessarily become priests. A number remained in the monasteries as oblates. The three major groupings, Seculars, Jesuits and Benedictines, make up almost 95% of those students recorded as having entered the Church. It is not surprising that there were so few entrants to other orders. The Scottish provinces of the older established orders such as Franciscans and Dominicans had been extinguished by the late sixteenth century.4 The General Councils of these Orders had given responsibility for Scotland to the Irish provinces. Scots who wished to join them did so by entering the relevant Irish college in Louvain.5 Table 6 also shows the number of priests who went on the mission.6 The key function of the colleges was to educate Scots Catholics and 3 The archives of the Society of Jesus in Rome (ARSI) have fuller details of more. Unfortunately even these are incomplete. Many were lost when the Society was suppressed in the second half of the eighteenth century. There are significant numbers of named Jesuits in the records of the Scots colleges for whom there is no information in ARSI. 4 Thomas Primrose’s attempt to re-establish a Scottish order of Dominicans in the seventeenth century did not survive his death. (See below) 5 Fenning Hugh O.P., ‘Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum XLI’, Registers of the Dominican Order, 1971. 6 In this case it is appropriate to describe them as priests. All of the missionaries were ordained. The only recorded oblate was John Stuart, a Scots Franciscan from the Irish college in Louvain, who went to Scotland as part of the first Irish Franciscan Mission in the company of a fellow Scottish Franciscan, John Ogilvie, in 1612. (See below) However, Stuart did not attend any of the Scots colleges and is not included in Table 6.

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where possible gain ordinations to the priesthood. Both these aims, but particularly the latter, were essential for the continuation of Catholicism in Scotland. The provision of an adequate and regular supply of missionary priests was key to the continued financial support for the colleges from Propaganda Fide. Encouragement was given to priests to become missionaries in Scotland. For most of the existence of the colleges, Quadrivium scholars were obliged to sign the Mission Oath which committed them to working on the mission in Scotland for at least three years following ordination. However, missionary life was not easy and a majority chose to exercise their vocations elsewhere. The 313 students who did not engage in missionary work were not ineffectual in helping their Scottish co-religionists. As will be discussed, many ministered to other expatriates. The majority of Seculars did become missionaries but only after their work became organised and controlled. Immediately following the Reformation in Scotland the Society of Jesus provided the only co-ordinated missionary effort and contributed the greatest number of missionaries in the period before 1650. Although there are only nine recorded Benedictine missionaries, their significance is much greater than their numbers would indicate for two reasons. First, as a contemplative order, the Benedictines would not normally have left their monasteries. The fact that they did so illustrates the extreme need for priests in Scotland. Secondly, the Benedictine missionary effort was concentrated in a relatively short period from the 1680s to the 1710s during which time bishops were re-established and the mission was being conducted in a more organized fashion. For these reasons their contribution was more effective and important than might be expected. Closer analysis of the figures shows how the pattern of contributions by the different religious groupings changed over time and their importance to the continuous work of the mission.

Changes over Time Ordinations from the Colleges There is a striking similarity in the overall pattern of student enrolment in the Scots colleges and that of the students who took up life as Religious. (c.f. Figure 1 and Figure 3 below) In both, the peak decade of the 1620s is clear as is the trough of the 1700s. The peaks of the

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1680s, the 1710s, the 1730s and the 1770s are even more pronounced in the case of the ecclesiastical students. This is also true of the troughs of the 1740s and the 1750s. Where they differ is in the last quarter of the seventeenth century and the 30 years from 1710 to 1740 which produced a higher proportion of students taking up the religious life. Nevertheless the ratio of priests ordained to students enrolled remained remarkably stable at 40% of the total over the two centuries.7 This is a clear indication that missionary work in Scotland produced positive results throughout the period. Communities of Catholics were sustained as well as individual converts gained. These communities were able to provide a continuous supply of students to the colleges. Over the two centuries, however, the proportion of priests who 50 45 40

Numbers

35 30 Non-Missionary Missionary

25 20 15 10 5

15 80 15 s 90 16 s 00 16 s 10 16 s 20 16 s 30 16 s 40 16 s 50 16 s 60 16 s 70 16 s 80 16 s 90 17 s 00 17 s 10 17 s 20 17 s 30 17 s 40 17 s 50 17 s 60 17 s 70 17 s 80 17 s 90 s

0

Decades

Source information: McInally Thomas, The Alumni of the Scots Colleges Abroad 1575–1799, unpublished treatise, University of Aberdeen, 2008.

Figure 3: College students ordained or having entered religious orders7

7 Figure 3 shows the dates of student enrolment not ordination. Students starting Trivium studies would have taken at least nine years and more typically 13 years to ordination i.e. five years Trivium and four to eight years Quadrivium. Mature students starting the Quadrivum would have taken as much as eight years to ordination. If Figures 3–7 are viewed as records of ordination or entry into a religious order the dates should be adjusted by a decade to take account of these factors.

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became missionaries changed significantly. In 70 years from 1580 to 1650 a minority did so. For the next 120 years approximately half of the priests recorded worked on the mission. Only after 1770 did the majority (80%) of priests become missionaries although by then the overall numbers being ordained had started to decline. Secular Priests In the case of Secular priests a distinctive pattern emerges as can be seen in Figure 4.8 Prior to the 1650s a minority of them became missionaries. Before the foundation of Propaganda Fide the financial support available for missionaries was limited and unreliable. In some cases it was restricted to living with their own families in Scotland. On discovery priests were 25

Numbers

20

15 Non-Missionary Missionary 10

5

15 80 15 s 90 16 s 00 16 s 10 16 s 20 16 s 30 16 s 40 16 s 50 16 s 60 16 s 70 16 s 80 16 s 90 17 s 00 17 s 10 17 s 20 17 s 30 17 s 40 17 s 50 17 s 60 17 s 70 17 s 80 17 s 90 s

0

Decades

Source information: McInally Thomas, The Alumni of the Scots Colleges Abroad 1575–1799, unpublished treatise, University of Aberdeen, 2008.

Figure 4: Secular priests

8

NB scale is half that of Figure 3.

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subjected to imprisonment and exile. In each case the individual was required to provide for himself. This was always difficult and in some cases impossible. The records of the Town Council in Edinburgh show that it provided money on occasions to ensure that priests would not starve while in custody. In exile there was no special provision made for them before 1655. Robert Barclay, principal of the Paris college, was the first to offer refuge to these missionary priests.9 Secular priests who had returned from the mission before this date had to support themselves as best they could. Some joined religious orders which then gave them refuge.10 Many of the Scottish priests who did not go on the mission gained benefices in France, Italy or elsewhere in continental Europe. (See Map 2) After the 1650s the proportion of secular priests who became missionaries increased substantially. A number of factors had come together to achieve this. Provision of a stipend from Propaganda Fide and the availability of a refuge in Paris upon exile or retirement have already been mentioned. In addition, better organization of the secular clergy under their own Prefect of the Mission appears to have given a sense of cohesion which made mutual support more possible, all of which encouraged secular priests to see work in Scotland as their first choice, even if this was possible only for short periods. By the final quarter of the eighteenth century all students ordained as secular priests were returning to work in Scotland. Undoubtedly missionary work was the Church’s preferred outcome for those alumni being ordained. However there was another real and valid demand on the services of Scottish priests. Ministering to the many Scots Catholics residing outside Scotland was a call that could not be ignored. Most of the appointments to these positions must have presented more attractive and comfortable ways of life than working on the mission in Scotland. These posts were highly sought after but were in relatively short supply. In a number of cases the duty had to be combined with other charges on their time. The representatives of the Scottish Church based in London not only acted as channels of communication with the court but also served the expatriate Catholic community and any Scottish petitioners visiting the king. Courtiers

9

The first to receive aid was John Walker in 1655. Halloran, p. 37. George Asloan (Douai 1606) and George Wedderburn (Douai 1623) became Benedictines. Roger Lindsay (Douai 1606) became a Capuchin. Robert Valens (Douai 1607) and William Monteith (Douai 1627) became Jesuits. All had served on the mission in Scotland as secular priests. 10

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cannot be considered to be a settled community since in most cases their estates were in Scotland and they would return home occasionally. But elsewhere in Europe there were settled communities of Scots and these required priests wholly assigned to their needs. Scottish merchants had spread throughout Europe in the seventeenth century and earlier.11 Former soldiers on release from service in foreign armies often did not return to Scotland but settled abroad. Political and religious exiles later added to these groupings. Confirmatory evidence of the presence of Scottish communities comes from an analysis of students in the colleges who are recorded as having expatriate parents. (See Map 1) The majority came from France and the Low Countries but others were from England, Ireland and even Rome. The convenience of studying at a Scottish college near to home must account in part for the preponderance of students from these areas of Europe. Scottish communities further east made other arrangements to educate their sons.12 The records of the Scots colleges also show that on ordination a number of secular priests took up benefices in Europe. (See Map 2) Comparison of maps 1 and 2 shows significant overlap. Competition for placements in European dioceses, especially in France and Spain, was particularly strong given the large number of Irish priests being ordained from their colleges in Paris and Spain.13 One of the outcomes of the Council of Trent was a prohibition on benefices being given to foreigners.14 Although there is no certainty that all of these priests were ministering to communities of Scots it is difficult to explain why they should have been offered these valuable and often prestigious livings if there had not been strong local Scottish involvement. Scottish mercantile involvement in the Hanseatic ports almost certainly accounts for the appointments of Matthew Hamilton and James Nesmyth in Pärnu in Estonia in the late sixteenth century. Also local expatriate communities would have played a part in obtaining benefices for John Greirson in Anderlecht (Brussels) and Andrew Leighton

11

Devine T.M., Scotland’s Empire 1600–1815, Allen Lane, 2003. E.g. Braunsberg University (in Pomerania, now Poland) in the first half of the seventeenth century. 13 O’Scea Ciaran, ‘The Irish Exile in Early-modern Galicia 1598–1666’, O’Connor Thomas Ed., The Irish in Europe 1580–1815, Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2001, pp. 27–48. 14 Jedin Hubert, History of the Council of Trent, Vol. IV, 1976. 12

Map 1: Home location of expatriate Scottish students at the colleges

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Map 2: Continental benefices of secular priests

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in Mechlin (the diocese of Brussels/Flanders) in the early seventeenth century and also for most of the nine identified Scots appointments in France obtained over a period of 150 years. There can be less certainty regarding the recorded appointments in Spain and Italy over the same period but Scots patronage in some form would have been essential. A number of appointments can be identified as originating in family connections. In the 1640s William Lesley took over the position of canon of St Quitin’s in Amiens from his uncle. John Menzies of Balgannie became a canon of St Genevieve’s Church in Paris in 1649. His mother was from the family of Gordon of Aberfeldy which may have influenced his appointment to such a prestigious institution. In 1716 another William Leslie15 obtained the bishopric of Valens (Vacs) in Hungary due to his family’s standing at the court of the emperor. Two years later he was installed as Bishop of Ljubljana where he died in 1727.16 The Scots were not alone in using family influence to gain benefices. Matthew Everard, an Irishman who attended the Scots college in Douai in 1730, was appointed a canon of Ghent cathedral in place of his uncle in 1735. Another Irish student of the Scots colleges, Charles Gibson, in the 1740s became a canon of Courtrai where his father was lieutenant to the city’s commandant.17 From these examples it can

15 He is an indisputable example of a priest actively avoiding work on the Scottish mission. He informed his cousin, Count James Leslie (see below), on visiting him in 1684 that he had been unable to obtain a position as missionary in Scotland due to the Church’s lack of funds. Worthington David, ‘On the High Post-Way between Vienna and Venice – The Leslie Family in Slovenia’, Zapuščina Rodbine Leslie Na Ptujskem Gradu, pokrajinski muzej Pruj, 2002, p. 34 The assertion does not accord with the situation in Scotland known from the “Hardboots” Visitation report of 1680. 16 William Leslie of Warthill was a distant cousin of James Leslie, Count of the Holy Roman Empire and Imperial Field Marshall. The count had served with distinction in the defence of Vienna during the Turkish siege of 1683 and took part in the capture of Buda and the extension of the imperial lands into Ottoman territory in Hungary and Croatia. For his services he was granted lands in Styria and Carinthia. William Leslie visited him in 1684 in the hope of obtaining some preferment. He was unsuccessful but immediately afterwards became professor of theology at the University of Padua. His cousin died in Styria c.1692 leaving an annuity to the Schottenkloster in Regensburg. (This is another tangible example of the Benedictines’ attachment to the Imperial Court. The significance of this attachment rather than to the French Court of Louis XIV, as was espoused particularly by the Scots College in Paris, is that it led to the Regensburg monastery acting as a centre for Scots Catholics who did not unquestioningly support the Jacobite cause. See Chapter 3) His estates were inherited by his nephew, James Ernest Leslie in 1694. William no doubt owed his eventual installation to both bishoprics to these family connections. Worthington, pp. 34–8. 17 RSC p. 81.

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be deduced that appointments of secular priests to minister specifically to expatriate Scottish communities in Europe had diminished significantly by the middle of the seventeenth century but that family connections continued to be important in obtaining appointments throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Jesuits were also heavily involved in ministering to exiled Scots (See below) but these contacts were primarily of benefit to secular priests by presenting a meaningful way of maintaining their separate Scottish identity when it was most under threat in the seventeenth century. When it became practicable their principal theatre of operation was the Scottish Mission but, before and after the appointment of a secular prefect of the Scottish mission, for over 100 years they fought attempts from within the Church to extinguish their unique Scottish identity. Starting with George Blackwell’s appointment as archpriest in England in 1598 they were required to submit to English administrative authority for a quarter of a century. The Scottish clergy’s petitioning of Pope Gregory XV led to the removal of George Blackwell’s successor, William Bishop of any responsibility for the Scottish secular clergy in 1623.18 The original decision to unite the Scottish and English clergy was more than a matter of expediency in that James VI had been expected to inherit the throne of England and therefore the two kingdoms would be united. The attempts by the Church authorities to view Britain as a single administrative unit continued throughout the century19 and there were no less than three separate occasions when a proposal was made to unite the Scottish, English and Irish colleges into a single British identity. Opposition came from all of the nations concerned20 but the

18 The outcome of this appeal by the Scottish Catholic clergy to the pope for independence from English influence was to the benefit of the Scots. When it is compared with the outcome of Charles I’s attempts to impose unity of forms of worship in Scotland with those of England a decade or so later, the authority of the papacy derived through Apostolic Succession seems to have been more amenable to special pleading than that of kingship through Divine Right. 19 Propaganda Fide re-established the See of the Isles in the 1670s as part of the diocese of Armagh as part of this plan. (See below). 20 The English Bishop Saltmarsh’s letter to Propaganda Fide laid out his reasons for opposition to the proposal and it is revealing that in writing it he strayed from any pretence of diplomacy. He wrote that the English students would not share a college with the Scots because they were dirty and unwashed and whenever they met they invariably fought. He also claimed that parents would not send their sons to a college if they knew that Scots would be there. ASV Fondo Albani 167, pp. 192R–193V.

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Scottish arguments almost certainly carried most weight. During most of this time their principal advocate in Rome was William Leslie who as Procurator of the Scottish Mission and archivist of Propaganda Fide had significant influence over decisions which affected the Scots. Bishop Nicholson used Leslie’s support to help him achieve his aim of gaining complete control of all the missionary effort throughout Scotland. Together they were successful in establishing a cohesive Scottish Catholic Church with a unique national identity which was recognized as such by the authorities in Rome. The last attempt to unite the colleges was in 1708 following the union of the parliaments. It was successfully resisted. After Nicholson’s death21 there were no further attempts by Rome to amalgamate the Scottish clergy into a British union. Scottish resistance bore fruit in 1878 with the re-establishment of the Scottish hierarchy within the Roman Catholic Church. Scots Benedictines There are records of nearly 100 Scots entering the Schottenklöster and becoming Benedictines during the period from the re-establishment of the monasteries in the late sixteenth century to the end of the eighteenth century. The paucity of surviving lists means that this is an underestimate of their numbers. The fragmentary nature of the surviving archives of the Benedictine Order in the Schottenklöster means that it is unsound to rely on the figures illustrated in Figure 522 for other than two significant points. First, the concentration of their missionary effort in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries can be noted and, secondly, the increase in student numbers consequent on the Schottenklöster being given official seminary status at the beginning of the eighteenth century is clear. Any further analysis of Figure 5 would be unreliable. Only nine Benedictines are known to have worked on the Scottish Mission. This is a very low number particularly when compared with secular priests and Jesuits but their contribution came at a critical period in the mission’s history and was disproportionately effective. (See below) Unlike the Jesuits, as a contemplative order, anyone joining the Benedictines normally would be restricted to their monastery.

21 22

Thomas Nicholson died in 1718. William Leslie had died in 1703. NB scale of Figure 5 is approximately half that of Figure 10.

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12

10

Numbers

8 Non-Missionary Missionary

6

4

2

15

80 15 s 90 16 s 00 16 s 10 16 s 20 16 s 30 16 s 40 16 s 50 16 s 60 16 s 70 16 s 80 16 s 90 17 s 00 17 s 10 17 s 20 17 s 30 17 s 40 17 s 50 17 s 60 17 s 70 17 s 80 17 s 90 s

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Source information: McInally Thomas, The Alumni of the Scots Colleges Abroad 1575–1799, unpublished treatise, University of Aberdeen, 2008.

Figure 5: Benedictines

Therefore the Benedictines of the Schottenklöster served only in Regensburg, Würtzburg and Erfurt. Their primary purpose was not to minister to an expatriate Scottish community.23 Nevertheless their presence in Germany provided a valuable service to Scottish Catholics. Of the regular orders only they managed to retain a clear Scottish identity as a religious community. They took great pains to ensure that no non-Scots were allowed entry24 and throughout their existence the Schottenklöster were largely self governing. By these means they were able to retain their distinctive Scottish-ness and represented a Scottish Catholic Church, albeit, one in exile.

23 Such a community pre-existed the arrival of the Scottish monks in Regensburg in the sixteenth century. (See Chapter 2) 24 Irishmen were viewed with particular suspicion due to the confusion regarding the translation of the word Scoti in the original monastery charters. Also although the records of the Schottenklöster are incomplete they show that their selectivity was extended to excluding applicants from the local Scots communities. By the seventeenth century the Regensburg Scots may have been viewed as “German” by the Scottish monks. Given the difficulty that they had had in regaining the Würtzburg monastery from the German-speaking Benedictines they considered that only Scots born applicants were safe to admit.

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Failure to Work on the Mission in Scotland The Catholic Church, the Congregation of Propaganda Fide and the wider Catholic community in Scotland placed the highest importance possible on the provision of missionaries to work there. Despite this there was a continuous shortage of available priests. Therefore, the fact that only a minority25 of students from the colleges who engaged in a religious life became missionaries in Scotland presented the Church with a problem. Many of those who did not go to Scotland exercised personal choice, motivated by a strong personal interest or sense of duty, in ministering to the diaspora – initially in Europe but later in North America – acting as military and personal chaplains and, as has been shown, joining orders of regulars. In other cases aversion to the hard life of the missionary in Scotland cannot be ruled out. The attraction of a more congenial life in one of the cultural capitals of southern and central Europe is perhaps obvious. To these graduates must be added alumni who worked on mission stations other than that in Scotland. The colleges accepted at least 281 students who were not native-born Scots. Those who were ordained from among their number would not have viewed Scotland as deserving of their first loyalty26 and therefore it is not surprising to find that they returned to their native lands or worked as missionaries outside of the British Isles. Andreas Alsondaer, a Dutchman, the elder of the De La Chaussee brothers, a Frenchman, and four Flemish Benedictines all worked in Flanders in the seventeenth century. The French Jesuits, Charles De Villeneuve and Louis Delvall served respectively in San Domenica and Paraguay in the 1730s. William Canvan from St Kitts studied at the Scots college in Douai in the 1740s before joining the Jesuits. He may have returned to the Caribbean thereafter although his posting is not recorded. Indeed the college records give no more than the barest information on the subsequent careers of non-Scots. These and other examples make it clear that the information available to the college rectors through their network of contacts was restricted largely to the activities of the Scottish alumni.

25

248 of 561 students ordained or who entered religious orders. (Figure 3) The notable exception of the many Irish priests working in Scotland does not belie this assertion since there are no recorded cases of them having attended a Scots college. 26

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However this is not the case when dealing with English students. A significant number of ordained students from the Scots colleges worked on the English mission. The Scots College in Douai and the English College in St Omer were in close communication regarding the four English students27 who had attended both colleges and were ordained before returning to England. The records of Douai College give as much information regarding them as of Scots alumni in similar situations. 14 Scots are also recorded as missionaries in England. As has been discussed some of these were acting in Scottish interests holding positions such as Procurator of the Scottish Mission28 in London but others served English Catholics.29 Their reasons for working in England are not obvious in every case. Robert Valens was active at the court of Charles I in politically difficult times and can be viewed as serving the interests of Scotland. Scottish Jesuits such as Alexander Ogilvie in 1627 and William Sharp in the 1650s and 1660s are unlikely to have had a choice in where to work having been instructed by the Father Provincial as to their postings.30 Other priests may have chosen to work in England at times of particular persecution in Scotland. George Asloan spent part of his ministry in England in the 1610s, which was a time of intense persecution for Catholic priests, before returning to Scotland in 1619.31 William Mentieth appears to have been obliged to take the same course in 1645. But there is no obvious explanation for John Smith working as a missionary in the north of England in 1671. It may have been personal preference, something he would not have been given license to do if Scotland had had a vicar apostolic at the time. Prior to the appointment of Thomas Nicholson to this post in 1695 it is possible that some priests viewed work in England as equally worthy as on the mission in Scotland. There are, however, a number of alumni whose personal choice of religious life appears to have been taken to avoid work in Scotland. Of the 38 who joined religious orders other than those of the Benedictines and Jesuits only three engaged in any missionary work. The harshness

27 Robert Newstead and Francis Evans, 1670; James Thomson, 1683; Archibald Bower, 1702. 28 Thomas Rob held this post from the 1630s. Later it was considered more prudent to appoint someone less obviously Scottish. George Paterson was procurator in London from 1663 to 1703. He was born in London of a Scottish father. 29 Peter Gordon, Douai 1696, had his own “diocese” in England in 1738. 30 RSC, pp. 15, 24. 31 RSC, p. 105.

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Numbers

5 4 Non-Missionary Missionary

3 2 1

15

80 15 s 90 16 s 00 16 s 10 16 s 20 16 s 30 16 s 40 16 s 50 16 s 60 16 s 70 16 s 80 16 s 90 17 s 00 17 s 10 17 s 20 17 s 30 17 s 40 17 s 50 17 s 60 17 s 70 17 s 80 17 s 90 s

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Decades

Source information: McInally Thomas, The Alumni of the Scots Colleges Abroad 1575–1799, unpublished treatise, University of Aberdeen, 2008.

Figure 6: Other regular orders

of life on the Scottish mission and the difficulty of obtaining suitable benefices on the continent influenced their decision to join foreign chapters of orders with no commitment to missionary work in Scotland. Although small in number their loss to the mission would have been keenly felt. Figure 632 shows the limited entries in the records of the Scots colleges of those who entered other regular orders as listed in Figure 3. Applications were few and ceased in the 1730s. From then onwards students at the Scots colleges who wished to take up the religious life appear to have done so as Seculars, Benedictines or Jesuits. The Society of Jesus Figure 7 shows that recruitment into the Society of Jesus from the Scots colleges was sustained from their foundation almost to the suppression of the Society in the 1770s. These figures give weight to the complaints of the secular priests, the bishops and Propaganda Fide

32

NB scale of Figure 6 is approximately half Figure 5.

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25

Numbers

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15 Non-Missionary Missionary 10

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15 80 15 s 90 16 s 00 16 s 10 16 s 20 16 s 30 16 s 40 16 s 50 16 s 60 16 s 70 16 s 80 16 s 90 17 s 00 17 s 10 17 s 20 17 s 30 17 s 40 17 s 50 17 s 60 17 s 70 17 s 80 17 s 90 s

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Decades

Source information: McInally Thomas, The Alumni of the Scots Colleges Abroad 1575–1799, unpublished treatise, University of Aberdeen, 2008.

Figure 7: Jesuits

that, either actively or by example, the Jesuit superiors of the colleges were persuading their students to enter the Society. The criticisms, however, are in part unwarranted in the seventeenth century since, although many joined the Society, a significant proportion of these Jesuits went on to work on the Scottish Mission. This is particularly the case prior to the 1650s when so few of the Secular priests were able to survive as missionaries. There were many fewer Jesuit missionaries in the eighteenth century – 13 or 20% of the total who joined the Society from the colleges in this period. The decline coincides with and may in part be a consequence of the decision in 1703 to make all Jesuits in Scotland answerable to the vicar apostolic rather than the Jesuit Prefect of the Mission. (See below) Nevertheless the Jesuit missionary effort was crucial to the survival of Catholicism in Scotland. The colleges were not the only route by which entry to the Society was possible. Scots had enrolled directly to Jesuit seminaries even before the Scots colleges had been founded and direct entrance continued until the Society’s suppression in 1773 but the colleges provided the primary means of initial training for Scots Jesuits. There are believed to have been approximately 250 Scots who joined the Society

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prior to its suppression. Of these at least 189 had previously attended a Scots college. From this it is easy to understand the resentment of the Society by Propaganda Fide and others for what was perceived as an abuse of their privileged position in the educational system. Their attitude overlooked the attractions that membership of the Society had for the students. The reputation of the Jesuits as an elite body and the absence of financial support for secular priests in the early part of the seventeenth century were important factors. Added to these must be the fact that the Society offered a variety of interesting and challenging work. Of the 70 Scottish Jesuits who worked on the mission in Scotland few can be said to have devoted the whole of their career to this work. Even when they were not forced by the hostility of the Kirk and State authorities to leave Scotland, their Jesuit superiors transferred them to other duties on the continent. Whether this policy was to avoid the priests’ physical and spiritual exhaustion or as part of a programme of broader development for the individual is not clear, but their actions did have these effects. Obedience to orders formed part of their vows and the high numbers of Scots Jesuits who did not return to Scotland after ordination must be seen more as an outcome of their superiors’ decisions rather than any personal choice on the part of individual priests. Despite the significant number of Scots who joined, there was no Scottish province within the Society of Jesus. Initially they were encouraged to join Germania province. By the second half of the seventeenth century they were being directed primarily to Anglia province but individual Scots joined provinces in Austria, Italy and elsewhere. As a consequence their Provincial Superiors were not Scots. These men did not view their provinces’ work as being largely, let alone solely, dedicated to the Scottish Mission. They deployed their members where they felt they could do the most good. Scottish Jesuits were required to work in many parts of Europe. They were rarely allowed to remain in one location throughout their careers; most having multiple postings. The majority were sent to France, the Low Countries and Italy. Significant numbers also worked in Spain and the German-speaking lands but a number of Scottish Jesuits also worked in Bohemia, Poland and Russia. (See Map 3) This did not necessarily deprive Scots Catholics of their services. As has been discussed with the Secular priests, many Jesuits ministered to expatriate Scottish communities. There is a high degree of correlation between their postings and known communities of exiles. Some

catholicchapter missionsfive in scotland

33 The map is derived from the notes in the records of the Scots Colleges and relates only to those Jesuits who had attended one of the colleges prior to joining the Society. The postings in England shown on the map were, in almost every case, to act as representatives of the Scottish Mission at the Court. There is clear evidence, however, that those priests also ministered to Scots Catholics living in or visiting the court in London.

Map 3: Continental postings of Scottish Jesuits33

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of these were military in nature, such as that in Moscow,34 but others were settled communities of merchants as in Bordeaux.35 Diplomatic communities in capital cities are also well represented: London, Paris, Madrid, Rome, Vienna and even Krakow. An analysis of the places of birth of those students at the Scots colleges who were born to expatriate parents reinforces the view that the Jesuits were ministering to the Scottish diaspora in Europe. (See Map 1) The concentration of Jesuits in Italy, particularly Rome, may be no more than a consequence of their being attached to the headquarters staff of the Society, but communities of Scottish Catholics did exist in Italy and many visitors came to Rome for cultural, political as well as religious reasons. Despite the fact that in the seventeenth century they were the principal supporters of the Scottish Mission, Scots Jesuits also played a major role in looking after their Catholic fellow countrymen abroad. Although there was no Scottish province within the Society the Scots were able to exert significant influence and control within the Society of Jesus. The posts of Fathers Provincial and consequently that of General of the Society were out of their reach but a number of Scots managed to attain positions of authority beyond those of the Scottish Mission. Even before the Scots colleges had been founded Scots were holding such positions. John Tyrie, while rector of Claremont College – the principal Jesuit establishment in Paris – was a major author of the Ratio Studiorum which was to govern Jesuit teaching practices for 200 years. Other Scots succeeded in achieving a measure of prominence. James Innes, who attended Douai in 1623, was retained in Rome by the General of the Society, Muzio Vitelleschi, to help with the administration of the Society worldwide. No doubt Vitelleschi valued Innes for his intellect and standard of education but it also would have proved useful to him to have as a key member of 33

34

The Scots in the service of the Russian army have already been noted. A number of the Scots mercenaries in the Spanish army fighting in the Netherlands are known to have retired to Spain – Colonel William Semple is perhaps the most prominent of them. 35 The greatest concentration of Scottish merchants in the seventeenth century was in the Baltic. Sweden and North Germany attracted or permitted only Protestant communities. However, this was not the case in Poland. The strength of the Scottish community in Poland can be gauged in part by the attendance of 24 students at Braunsberg University who had Scottish surnames but were recorded as being from Poland. The descendants of Scottish immigrants in Poland chose to attend Jesuit run colleges nearer to home rather than to face the expense of study at the Scots colleges in Rome, Paris, Douai or Madrid.

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staff someone who was not patriotically tied to any of the Society’s provinces. This factor may also have influenced the appointment in 1668 of James Brown of Lochill to the Ruling College of the Society. He was joined on that body three years later by his compatriot George Bisset of Lessendrum. As well as holding positions of influence at the centre of the Society, at least one Scot took up a major role in one of the provinces. David Abercromby was made Moderator of the Province of Campania in 1682. The significance of this appointment lies in the fact that a Scot could be viewed as impartial in administration of the affairs of the Society rather than being intent on a career which could lead to seriously high office. Given the small numbers of Scottish Catholics overall, these were significant placements. Prominence of Scots in the Society did not continue beyond the seventeenth century. With the exception of James Innes of Drumgask who was appointed spiritual coadjutor of the Austrian province in 1702 no Scot in the eighteenth century held a senior position outside the Scottish Mission. Even in this the Jesuits had been required to become subordinate to the authority of the secular Vicar Apostolic in Scotland. This may have been a consequence of the reduction in the number of Scots in the Society or the lessening of the power of the Jesuits overall. It probably reflects both of these factors. Their influence remained considerable, however, due to their control of three of the four Scots colleges which provided the greatest part of the missionary effort in Scotland.

The Mission in Scotland Not all of the missionares, particularly in the years immediately following the Reformation, were educated at the one of the colleges but during the more than two centuries in which the Penal Laws operated 248 college alumni are recorded as having served as priests in Scotland. Their numbers alone do not account for the survival of Catholicism in Scotland. Their effectiveness came from the degree to which they were able to organise into a co-ordinated corps. This took time to achieve and effort to maintain and in this their success was due in no small part to the support of the Scots colleges.

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Pre 1598 The 13 years which followed the Treaty of Edinburgh in 1560 saw the abdication of Queen Mary and defeat of her forces at Langside and the continuation of the civil wars through the regencies of Moray, Lennox and Mar before relative peace was achieved in 1573 under Morton’s rule. The Penal Laws against Catholics were increased in 1574 with the addition of the requirement of the publication as declared outlaws of those practicing Catholicism. Even prior to this, things had been far from easy for Catholics. In 1572 Sir William McKie, an ordained priest and schoolmaster in Leith, was hanged for saying mass. About the same time an unnamed priest was hanged in Glasgow for the same offence.36 Catholicism was in retreat and many of the clergy converted to Calvinism. Others did not. The members of the Church hierarchy who remained Catholic went abroad. Archbishop Beaton of Glasgow had moved to Paris in 1560 and was appointed Queen Mary’s ambassador at the French court, a position he continued to hold under James VI. James Leslie, Bishop of Ross, had become a roving ambassador for Queen Mary and other prominent prelates such as Ninian Winzet had left Scotland for reasons of personal safety. He had been the schoolmaster in Linlithgow, writing and publishing pamphlets against Calvinism and in support of Catholicism. Alexander Anderson, principal of the University of Aberdeen, and his staff were dismissed and replaced by Calvinists. (See Chapter 2) Not all of Scotland acquiesced in the rule of Parliament and some priests remained in their parishes. James Owen stayed as priest in Braemar despite attacks from Protestant neighbours. Bishop Nicholson on a visit to the Catholic community in Braemar at the end of the seventeenth century was told that Owen was still remembered with respect and affection and his behaviour was in part responsible for the survival of Catholicism in the area. This was remarkable since their landlord, the Earl of Mar, was strongly opposed to Catholicism.37 There is also evidence that priests left parishes where they could not be safe and went to other parts of the country for refuge. Sir Andrew Naismith, a pre-Reformation ordained priest, lodged for protection with Annabella, Countess of Mar, widow of the regent Mar. The

36 Sanderson Margaret, ‘Catholic Recusancy in Scotland in the sixteenth century’, Innes Review, vol. 21, p. 88. 37 Forbes Leith, Memoirs of Scottish Catholics p. 227.

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countess had remained a Catholic.38 Secular priests in the country were much reduced in numbers but not eliminated. When John Row was appointed Calvinist minister of Carnock in Fife in 1592, he had to share half the income from the glebe land with an old friar who was allowed to live out the remainder of his life there.39 Monks of Crossraguel Abbey were reported as still living in the ruins of the abbey at the end of the century.40 In 1602 George Strachan, while travelling in Scotland, met his uncle, William Blackwood, who had been a presbyter of Dunblane Cathedral. Blackwood was aged 82 at the time and had been a priest for 60 years. He told his nephew that despite his advanced age he was still in constant fear for his life.41 By the end of the century most of the pre-Reformation secular clergy in Scotland who had remained Catholic had died. Very few newly-ordained secular priests from the Scots colleges had gone to work in Scotland.42 The Catholic Counter-reformation in Scotland was left almost exclusively in the hands of the Jesuits. By 1581, when Morton was executed and the young king began his personal rule, they had started to organize their missionary activity in Scotland. Robert Abercromby SJ visited Scotland in 1580 on a recruiting drive for students for the new University of Braunsberg. On his return he made a report to the newly-appointed General of the Society, Claudio Aquaviva, which was sufficiently optimistic to encourage the Jesuit general to establish a mission in Scotland. This proved possible only after a great deal of diplomacy involving Mary Queen of Scots, Philip II of Spain and Pope Gregory XIII.43 The significant Scottish church figure in these negotiations was Archbishop Beaton who wrote to Pope Gregory in 1584 suggesting four Scottish Jesuits for the work – Frs

38

Mathew David, Scotland under Charles I, London, 1955, p. 200. Row William, Coronis being a Continuation of the Historie of the Kirk if Scotland, Maitland Club, 1842, p. 240. 40 Sanderson p. 98 For a fuller account of the demise of pre-Reformation ordained clergy in Scotland in the late sixteenth century see Sanderson, pp. 87–107. 41 Johnstone J.F.K., The Alba Amicorum of George Strachan, George Craig, Thomas Cumming, Aberdeen University, 1924, p. 12. 42 Mark Ker (Pont-à-Mousson, 1582) worked as a priest in Scotland before his death in Rome in 1595. James Seaton of Garngonock (Pont-à-Mousson, 1583) was in Scotland in 1598. William Barclay of Tollye (Pont-à-Mousson, Douai, Louvain and Paris 1598) prepared for work in Scotland but obtained a dispensation from Rome and did not go. In avoiding working in Scotland he is a more typical example of the new secular priests of this period. RSC, pp. 3, 5. 43 For a more detailed account of this episode see Sáenz-Cambra. 39

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Hay, Gordon, Tyrie and Crichton. Crichton had already been involved in the earlier diplomatic missions to Scotland.44 The pope died before taking any further action on this request and his successor Sixtus V, for diplomatic reasons, decided to include English and French Jesuits. In 1586 he sent Frs Holt (English), Frosomont (French), William Lange and Alexander McQuirrie (Scots) to negotiate with James VI in the matter of Phillip II of Spain’s Scottish Enterprise (see Chapter 2). In addition he gave overall responsibility for the mission to Robert Persons, the superior of the English mission.45 While these diplomatic manoeuvres were being conducted Robert Abercromby was heavily involved in recruiting a group of Scottish Jesuits to work in Scotland. There were many Scots within the Society; some in strategically important positions.46 Abercromby was well placed to know Scots in Jesuit colleges. He had been Master of Novices at the colleges in Poznan and Vilnius before helping to establish Braunsberg University. Scots colleagues included William Crichton, Edmund Hay and John Tyrie. Crichton had been superior of the college in Lyons before teaching at Braunsberg and establishing Queen Mary’s new Scots college at Pont-à-Mousson. Hay and Tyrie had been principals of Claremont College, the Jesuit foundation in Paris.47 Through his connections Abercromby recruited a small group of Scots to go to Scotland in 1581: one of the group, William Ogilvie, who was later (1629) to be appointed the prefect of the Scottish Jesuit mission, had been a student at Braunsberg but the names of his companions are unknown other than by aliases.48 More were to join them. Robert Abercromby returned to Scotland in 1587 accompanied by the first of the Jesuit priests who had studied at the Scots colleges.

44

Forbes-Leith, Narratives pp. 196–8. English involvement was due to the expectation that James VI would inherit the English throne. Knox Thomas Francis, Records of the English Catholics under the Penal Law, Vol. ii, London, 1882–4, p. 25 Holt had accompanied Crichton to Scotland in 1582 to sound out sympathetic Scottish nobles on the likelihood of James’ conversion to Catholicism again as part of the Scottish Enterprise. Sáenz-Cambra, p. 55. 46 Abercromby is the earliest entry of a Scot in the surviving records of the Society. He joined on 19 August 1563 aged 27. The second was James Gordon of Huntley on 20 September 1563 aged approximately 21. Gordon died in Paris in 1620 having served in France and Vienna. ARSI, Catalogue entries. 47 John Tyrie had also been a member of the committee drafting the Ratio Studiorum. See Chapter 3. 48 Andrew Stinson is one such alias. Abercromby was known in correspondence as Robert Scot. Delavida, pp. 7, 8. 45

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George Elphinston and George Christie worked on the mission from 1596. Elphinston returned to Douai in 1599 and Christie a little later.49 David Law succeeded in reaching Scotland in 1598 after having been captured in England the previous year.50 The Jesuit strategy on reaching Scotland was to station priests in the households of nobility sympathetic to the Catholic religion. When Abercromby arrived he succeeded in attaching himself to the royal court, possibly through the influence of the Lord Chancellor, Dunfermaline. Reports on the missionaries’ activities relate that they were spread throughout the country. It is known that there were Jesuits in the homes of Kirconnell, Munches, Terregles and Traquair in the southwest and south, as well as in the Palace of Seton (the Lord Chancellor’s residence) near Edinburgh and in the northeast in the Castles of Gordon (Huntly), Letterfourie, Slaines and Strathbogie.51 The presence of the Jesuits helped these and other noble families to retain their Catholicism. A report by Lord Burghley in 1590 stated that “all the Northern part of the Kingdom, including the shires of Inverness, Caithness, Sutherland, and Aberdeen, with Moray, and the Sherrifdoms of Buchan, of Angus, of Wigton, and of Nithsdale, were either wholly, or for the greater part, commanded mostly by noblemen who secretly adhered to that faith (Catholicism), and directed in their movements by Jesuits and Priests, who were concealed in various parts of the country, especially in Angus.”52 Robert Abercromby’s success in converting King James VI’s wife, Queen Anna, in 1598 is testament to the effectiveness of the Jesuit policy in what was a hostile national environment.53

49

RSC, p. 8. RSC, p. 5. 51 Diccionario Historico de la Compaňia de Jesus IHSI, Vol. II, Roma, 2001, pp. 1259–62. The Marquis of Huntly and Gordon of Craig were each granted the Royal Sanction for the private exercise of their Catholic religion in 1603 on the king’s departure for England. This appears to have been an acknowledgement of an existing situation which had been in place for some years. Gordon p. iv. 52 Gordon, p. iii. 53 Existing historiography as exemplified by Sanderson, pp. 87–107 and her essay and maps for Atlas of Scottish History to 1707 pp. 406–10 acknowledges the importance of the Jesuit mission in Scotland in the late sixteenth century but gives almost no detail. In her thesis Sáenz-Cambra concentrates entirely on the diplomatic involvement of the Jesuits particularly where it related to Spanish policy but again provides no detail of the missionary work in which they were involved or any measure of the 50

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1598 to 1615 If 1598 was a high point for Jesuit success it also produced an incident which illustrates in a revealing way the ineffectiveness of the secular priests. There had been no functioning hierarchy in Scotland for almost 30 years. The sole surviving member of the pre-Reformation hierarchy, Archbishop Beaton of Glasgow, had been in exile in Paris for almost 40 years and was nearing the end of his life. The English hierarchy had ended in 1584 with the death of Bishop Thomas Watson of Lincoln. No replacement bishop was created and it was not until Rome appointed George Blackwell as archpriest of England in 1598 that English secular priests had a superior. As archpriest he did not have full episcopal powers; nevertheless all secular priests in England reported to him.54 It is proof of the weakness of the situation in Scotland that Rome also gave Blackwell responsibility for the secular priests there. The Scots clergy submitted to this with reluctance.55 They were in no position to object however since it would appear that at that time there were no more than nine secular Scottish priests who had been ordained since the Reformation. Of these only one, James Seton, was working in Scotland.56 Blackwell’s influence in Scotland was negligible. However the effect on morale could not have been good. Only two secular priests are recorded as having returned to Scotland in the following 20 years. John Hamilton, for whom there is no known connection with the Scots colleges, was rector of the University of Paris from 1587 to 1600 when he returned as a secular priest to lodge with his nephew.57 The second example is Roger Lindsey, son of the Baron success achieved. However, contemporary records show that their activities caused great concern to Calvinists. 54 Marshall Peter, Reformation England 1480–1642, London, 2003, pp. 182–3, 188. Blackwell was appointed after the death of Cardinal William Allen in 1594. Allen had been Prefect of the English Mission while based at the English college in Douai and de facto head of English seculars. Blackwell as archpriest was required to consult with the Jesuits whose authority in the English mission increased significantly. 55 Gordon, p. v. 56 RSC, pp 3, 5. 57 Sir Thomas Hamilton (later Lord Binning 1613, Earl of Melrose 1619 and first Earl of Haddington) was accused by Andrew Melville at the Hampton Court Conference in 1606 of harbouring his uncle and Mr Gilbert Borown, (sic) whom he described as abbot of Newabbey. Original Letters relating to Ecclesiastical Affairs of Scotland, pp. 56–67. John Hamilton also lodged in the household of another relative, John, ninth Lord Maxwell, in 1601. Lord Maxwell who was aged 15 at the time was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle for his hospitality. The priest preached in both households. Mathew, pp. 77–8, 212.

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of Mains. He arrived in 1607 but was captured in August 1610 and exiled. During his exile he entered the Capuchin order.58 It is clear that the colleges had produced very few secular missionaries during this period.59 The Society of Jesus continued to provide the only significant missionary effort. But the colleges’ role in the work was important in that the majority of Scots joining the Society had previously been students at the colleges. On James VI’s accession to the throne of England in 1603 the Scottish court moved to London and with it the disposition of the Jesuit missionaries changed. Abercromby accompanied Queen Anna to London.60 Initially he was treated with respect but on the discovery of the “Gunpowder Plot” in 1605 and with the suggestion of Jesuit involvement61 a warrant for his arrest was issued by the king and a price of 10,000 crowns put on his head. He was imprisoned for a short time before being released in 1607 after which he returned to Braunsberg. His release was probably due to his age – he was 71– and lack of evidence of personal involvement in the plot. Elphinston and Christie had returned to Scotland in 1605 and it is also likely that Patrick Stichel, George Mortimer and William Leslie from Aberdeen started their missionary work from about 1610. The ill-fated John Ogilvie also joined the mission at this time. A further two intended additions to the work of the mission, John Ogstoun and Alexander Seton, died before they could take up their duties.62

58

He returned to Scotland possibly prior to 1621 and continued to work there until his death in 1666. RSC, p. 9. 59 Secular priests were unsupported at this time. Even when Propaganda Fide funds were provided they remained more poorly paid than their counterparts in the regular orders. In a report to Propaganda Fide at the beginning of the eighteenth century, Bishop Nicholson listed the annual stipends of each missionary. The regular priests received more than the 50 crowns p.a. awarded to secular priests. 60 Abercromby attended court in the guise of the queen’s falconer. Albion, p. 194. 61 The main conspirators had been educated at the English College in St Omers in Artois which was Jesuit run and fulfilled a similar role to that of the Scots College at Douai. The conspirators are believed to have conceived their plot while at college. James’ belief in Jesuit involvement, therefore, had more of a basis than that of the Parlement of Paris regarding the case of Jean Chastel. The Jesuit order had been blamed for involvement in the botched assassination attempt by Chastel on Henri IV in 1595. This was on the basis that Chastel had attended a Jesuit college. The resulting expulsion of the Jesuits from Paris in the same year was still in force at the time of the Gunpowder Plot. Henri did not share the Parlement’s view – Chastel was identified as being mad – and the Jesuits were allowed to remain in all other parts of his kingdom. 62 RSC, pp. 3, 101.

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60%

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Source information: McInally Thomas, The Alumni of the Scots Colleges Abroad 1575–1799, unpublished treatise, University of Aberdeen, 2008.

Figure 8: Home regions of students – 1598 to 1615

The hostility generated by the “Gunpowder Plot” was shown also in Scotland. The Privy Council in Edinburgh through which James exercised his rule intensified the application of the Penal Laws. Matters became very difficult for Catholic priests in Scotland. The secular priest, Roger Lindsey together with a Jesuit, Andrew Crichton, who both had been on the Scottish Mission from 1599 were captured in August 1610, imprisoned and exiled. Three other priests were incarcerated shortly afterwards – Robert Philip, an Oratorian, George Mortimer and a Franciscan from Dundee, William Thomson. By the time that the Jesuit, John Ogilvie, was executed in Glasgow in 1615, the Scottish Mission was in disarray. The remaining missionaries were withdrawn and it is possible that there may not have been any Catholic priests left in Scotland at this time. However significant communities of Catholics continued to exist and provide students for the colleges abroad. An examination of the entries which record the birth places of the students gives an indication of where these communities were strongest. Figure 8 shows the numbers for the early part of the century. The predominant region represented was the northeast of Scotland, however, significant numbers of students came from the east, west and southwest. Lack of representation from the eastern borders indicates that 40 years after

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the Reformation communities of Catholics in this area probably had ceased to exist and Catholicism had become the religion of individual families. The Highlands and Hebrides are also poorly represented but in their case the reason appears to lie in the lack of opportunity of Catholics to receive a formal education. The lack of schools for Gaelic speakers was a severe obstacle. As will be shown this was a problem which was to persist for the majority of the seventeenth century. 1615 to 1653 The Catholics of Scotland needed their priests. The hiatus in the work of missionaries in 1615 was short lived. Ogilvie’s execution, far from crushing Catholicism, acted as a spur to recruitment to the seminaries abroad. There was an unprecedented increase in the number of students to the Scots colleges. (See Chapter 4) These were, to a large extent, mature students: young men who could be expected to react strongly to Ogilvie’s martyrdom. Almost immediately the mission stations were re-manned. Patrick Stichel and William Leslie, both Jesuits, returned to their former stations. Two secular priests, Robert Callendar and George Asloan from Galloway, started their missions in Scotland in 1617 and 1619 respectively. Roger Lindsey, who had joined the Capuchin Order, had returned to Scotland by 1621. A further ten alumni of the Scots colleges went on the mission in the 1620s.63 The length of each missionary’s term of service is unknown for the most part but varied from months to decades. Roger Lindsey remained on the mission until his death in 1666. His record in the Douai Diary states that he served strenuously on the mission in Scotland for 56 years having been a priest for 60 years.64 Andrew Leslie served at least two periods in Scotland, from 1625 until 1649 and again from 1652 until his death. It is impossible from the remaining records to be certain how many missionaries were active at any one time during this period but in the Lowlands and North East of Scotland it could not have exceeded 15 and was likely to have been between eight and ten priests. There was, however, another active mission being pursued in the Highlands and

63 7 Jesuits (James Mcbreck, William Geddes, William Christie, George Heggat, Robert Grondiston, Andrew Leslie and John Leslie), 1 Capuchin (George Leslie), 1 Secular (Robert Valens) and 1 Oratorian (Robert Philip). 64 RSC, p. 9.

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Islands which added to this number. This mission, at least in its earlier stages, did not rely on the Scots colleges but was born in part out of their failure to educate and ordain Gaelic speakers. All of the efforts to maintain a Catholic clergy in Scotland had largely avoided the Highlands and Islands. There were no native Gaelicspeaking priests available and the number of missionaries serving in the Lowlands and North East was insufficient for the task there and none could be spared to work in the Highlands and Islands.65 Several Highland clan chiefs were concerned about the situation and by 1611 a number of appeals had been made to Pope Paul V to send Irish Franciscans to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland – referred to as Montana Scotiae.66 The Irish were selected because of the mutual intelligibility of the Gaelic spoken in Ulster and Scotland. Also the Irish province of the Franciscans had been given responsibility for Scotland and Scots had joined the order at the College of St Anthony in Louvain. The chieftains’ requests were passed to Lucio Morra, the papal nuncio in the Spanish Netherlands, to discuss with the superiors of the college. Initial reactions were not favourable, given the additional burden that such a commitment represented. But in 1612 they sent John Ogilvie, one of the Scottish Franciscans residing at the college, to determine the state of affairs in Scotland. A fellow Scot, John Stuart, a lay brother also at Louvain, followed him. Stuart reported back in 1614 and after further difficulties (largely financial) two Irish priests, Patrick Brady and Edmund McCann, set out with Stuart in the guise of soldiers to Montana Scotiae in 1619.67 Brady started working in the western Highlands while McCann went to the islands. However news of their work was quickly brought to the attention of the Kirk.68 McCann was imprisoned and later banished.

65

This problem was particular to the western parts of the Highlands and the Hebrides. A bilingual priest, Fr Murdoch, who worked in Perthshire during this period, also covered parts of the eastern Highlands in his traveling ministry. In addition Jesuits had been stationed in Braemar for some time and as their colleagues in Strathglass were to do later in the century they learned Gaelic (see below). It is likely, therefore, that Gaelic speakers in the eastern Highlands had access, albeit limited, to priests who could minister to them in their own language. 66 Giblin Cathaldus O.F.M., ‘The Irish Mission to Scotland in the Seventeenth Century’, Franciscan College Annual, Multyfarnham, 1952, p. 9. 67 Ibid., p. ix. 68 The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, xii, 47, ‘Against ex-communicate trafficking Papists’.

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During McCann’s imprisonment a major change was made in the Catholic Church’s organisation of missionary work. In 1622 Pope Gregory XV established the Congregation of Propaganda Fide with responsibility for co-ordination of the missionary work of the Church on a world-wide basis. The Scottish Mission was a low priority for the authorities in Rome:69 greater opportunities for evangelisation existed in the New World and the Far East. Nevertheless the provision of additional Irish priests for the Scottish Mission was promoted, and funds for another Franciscan missionary venture from Louvain were provided. On this occasion it was decided to send four priests. As well as McCann who decided to return despite his banishment, Paul O’Neill, Patrick Hegarty and Cornelius Ward set out for Scotland in 1624. They travelled from Antrim to Kintyre and with their landing increased the Franciscan presence in the Highlands and Islands to five – Brady was still working on the Scottish mainland but John Stuart had been arrested and exiled.70 The difficulties faced by the missionaries were considerable. To have any chance of success they required help from the local population. The inter-clan warfare which plagued the region made this difficult. James VI had capitalised on clan enmity using Clan Campbell and Clan Mackenzie as agents to implement his policies for the Highlands and Islands. Other clans were hostile to the central authorities and it was to them that the missionaries looked for a favourable reception.71 Prior to their leaving Louvain there had been contact with Scottish Catholics such as Sir James McDonald of Clan Donald South (i.e. Kintyre, Islay and Antrim) – at the time an exile in Spain72 – Col Ciotach McDonald of Colonsay and Roderick Macleod of Harris. An agreement had been made to meet with the latter two chieftains on the missionaries’ arrival in Scotland. An initial meeting was pre-arranged with Hector McNeill of Carskey in Kintyre on the first day of their

69 The Scottish Mission was not formally established until 1629 under Pope Urban VIII. Gordon, p. vi. 70 Giblin Cathaldus O.F.M. Ed., ‘Irish Franciscan Mission to Scotland 1619–1646’, Documents from Roman Archives, Dublin, 1964, p. x. In the 1620s there was also one Irish Jesuit, David Galway, working in the Highlands and Islands. He travelled extensively throughout the north and west disguised as a merchant. His ministry lasted less than a year. Diccionario di IHSI, Vol. II, p. 1261. 71 Roberts A., Bonamargy and the Scottish Mission, The Glynns, 1988, pp. 33–40. 72 Alistair, chief of the MacDonalds of Keppoch, was exiled in Spain with Sir James and there had been contact with him too.

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arrival.73 McNeill was one of the most prominent men in Kintyre and helped the Franciscans at the start of their mission by providing them with guides and introductions. This help was much needed since the instructions laid down by Propaganda Fide make it clear that they were poorly informed about the prevailing conditions in Montana Scotiae. Along with other unhelpful instructions the Roman authorities had stipulated that the missionaries should meet every third night to discuss progress and agree plans.74 The utter impracticability of this and other requirements had to be explained to Propaganda Fide and its failure to comprehend their difficulties became a continuous theme in the missionaries’ reports. Over the next two years the missionaries, working primarily as individuals, travelled through and evangelised in large areas of the Highlands and Islands. Most frequently they worked in Kintyre, Western Inverness-shire, the Ross of Mull and Bute. Ward worked particularly in the Outer Hebrides, making many converts in North and South Uist, Barra and the surrounding islands.75 In the Inner Hebrides they covered Islay, Oronsay, Jura, Colonsay, Gigha and Arran. Among the smaller islands they visited were Canna, Rum, Eigg and Muck. O’Neill spent most of his two years on the mission working on Skye before he had to retire to Ireland due to ill health. Brady, who had been working on the mission for five years when the others arrived, continued in Caithness and Sutherland.76 After a visit to see Brady in northern Scotland, Ward reported to Propaganda Fide that conversions were not so easily obtained there. The people were afraid of openly professing Catholicism because of the legal penalties. The likelihood of penalties being exacted was higher due to the greater number of officers of the State and the level of activity of Kirk ministers in that region.77 Life on the Scottish Mission was not easy. The missionaries’ problems came in a number of different forms. Physical attack was threatened as well as imprisonment and banishment. In 1627 Brady reported being set upon by 14 ministers of the Kirk, thrown from his horse,

73

ASCEP, Rif. Nelle cong. Gen.Vol. 312, FF. 15v–16v. ASCEP, Instruzioni diversi, F. 69r. 75 Their claims of conversions have to be viewed in light of their wish to influence Propaganda Fide in supporting their mission with more resources. It is likely that most of the “conversions” were reconciliations rather than conversions from Calvinism. 76 Giblin, ‘Irish Franciscan Mission to Scotland 1619–1646’, pp. xi–xii. 77 ASCEP, Rif. Nelle Cong. Gen., Vol. 312, FF. 25r.–27r 74

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robbed and left severely injured.78 In 1629 Clanranald was ordered by his overlord, Seaforth, to arrest Ward who had recently returned to Uist. However 30 of Clanranald’s tenants accompanied by his uncle intervened and prevented the arrest.79 Despite his escape on this occasion Ward and each of the other Franciscan missionaries were imprisoned on at least one occasion.80 The living conditions presented other hardships for the priests. Shelter and food were not easy to come by and when obtained were often of very poor quality. They had to sleep in the open for several nights at a time and on occasions had only shellfish to eat which they had collected themselves. Of the inhabitants of the Western Highlands they said that they “have a greater taste for military exploits than for food and are content with fare which would be scarcely sufficient for other people when fasting”.81 The greatest difficulties which the missionaries had to face, however, were presented by dealings with Propaganda Fide itself. Financial support was often slow in coming. But the description by the missionaries of such primitive conditions was felt to be exaggerated and this belief was reinforced by Scottish Lowland priests in Rome expressing their doubts.82 Requests for special faculties to cater for their unusual situation, such as allowing priests to say mass without a server or without candles were not understood in Rome. Even when given, approval was often hedged with conditions that rendered it unhelpful. Requirements

78

Bellesheim, Vol. 4, p. 68. The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 2nd ser., IV, 391 Clanranald was Iain Muideartach MacDonald, 12th chief of Clanranald. His paternal uncle, Ranald MacDonald of Benbecula, also known as Raghnall Mac Ailein ‘ic Iain had a colourful reputation for murder and numerous “marriages”. He had met Ward on his arrival on Uist and accommodated him in his home. At that time he had petitioned the priest to regularize his existing marriage to his cousin. This was outwith Fr Ward’s power. However, in their letters to Propaganda Fide the missionaries reported that great consolation was had by their parishioners through the priests’ ability to conduct marriages and regularize existing relationships and they asked for special faculties to legitimize marriages to cousins. It appears, therefore, that Ranald MacDonald had particular reason to want the priest to be at liberty and no doubt influenced Clanranald’s tenants to come to his aid. The following year, 1630, Hegarty, Ward’s Franciscan colleague, was able to legitimize the marriage and formally admit Ranald and his wife into the church. 80 Bellesheim, Vol. 4, pp. 66–72. 81 ASCEP, Rif. Nelle cong. gen., Vol. 312, FF. 24rv, 25r–27r, 15v–16v. 82 Giblin, ‘Irish Franciscan Mission to Scotland 1619–1646’, pp. xii–xiii. The priests in Rome are not named but chief among them would have been the rector of the Scots college, Patrick Anderson. 79

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included seeking dispensations from a bishop; the nearest bishop being in Ireland. Despite the difficulties and the constant shortage of financial support their work was successful. Their reports to Propaganda Fide state that they had converted over 6,600 people and baptized a further 3,000.83 In Rome the response to their claims was somewhat guarded. Cardinal Rospigliosi could still write in 1669 “The natives of the islands adjacent to Scotland can, as a general rule, be properly called neither Catholics nor heretics. . . . They go wrong in matters of faith through ignorance, caused by want of priests to instruct them”.84 The Kirk, however, was concerned about their success. Alexander Knox, Bishop of the Isles and later of Raphoe, an appointee of James VI/I, heard of the Franciscan missionaries and wrote to the king in London asking him to take measures to stop them. “The king’s response was to laugh and say that there was no need to be angry with those who were converting people so wild as the natives of Kintyre to Christianity, even if that Christianity came from Rome, but that such missionaries deserved to be thanked.”85 The king in London, nearing the end of his life and with his queen having converted to Catholicism, might take this enlightened view but the Protestant clerics in Scotland continued their opposition. The eventual withdrawal of the Franciscan missionaries was due to a number of factors but the principal one was the failure of Propaganda Fide to understand the true needs of the missionaries. Their reports frequently pleaded for greater freedom to minister to the spiritual needs of their congregations. They needed regular and reliable stipends, as the country could not support them. The people were too poor to spare food, and items such as wheaten bread and wine for use in the mass were unobtainable. Trips to Ireland or the Lowlands of Scotland were necessary to replenish their supplies.86 Propaganda Fide’s reaction to requests for help was influenced by its belief, in its world-wide role, that the missions should be able to support themselves from the contributions of their congregations. It was difficult for the Franciscans to convince them that this was impossible in the Highlands of Scotland. The lack of relevant knowledge on the 83 84 85 86

ASCEP, Rif. Nelle Cong. Gen., Vol. 312, FF. 228v–229v. ASCEP, Act, F. 462. ASCEP, Rif. Nelle Cong. Gen., Vol. 312, F. 3rv. Giblin, ‘The Irish Mission to Scotland in the Seventeenth Century’, pp. 89–98.

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part of the officials in Rome almost certainly contributed to their tardiness in providing financial support. Communication with Rome was difficult before the disruption caused by the civil wars and physically and financially exhausted the missionaries withdrew to Ireland even before it began – O’Neill in 1626, Brady in 1630, Hegarty in 1631 and Ward in 1637. The date of McCann’s final withdrawal from the Scottish Mission is unknown, but he preceded Ward.87 In the latter stages of their mission attempts were made to revive the See of the Isles but they foundered on the question of who should head it as bishop. In practical terms Hegarty’s candidature was the most logical and he had the support of at least one senior Scots cleric.88 However there were Scottish objections in Rome regarding an Irish primate for a Scottish diocese. This matter was particularly sensitive since at the time Rome was not responding to Scottish requests for the appointment of a vicar apostolic and as the Irish Franciscan mission had effectively come to an end, the matter was shelved. The situation of the mission in the other parts of Scotland continued to develop in the 1620s and 1630s and here the graduates of the Scots colleges played the major role. In 1623 Pope Gregory XV created William Bishop vicar apostolic of England on the death of Blackwell. The Scottish secular clergy successfully petitioned the pope to rescind Bishop’s authority over them. However, Pope Gregory died without resolving the issue of reporting authority in the Scottish Church.89 There followed a period in which the Jesuit prefect had whatever control was possible over all of the missionaries in the Lowlands of Scotland. Urban VIII appointed William Ogilvie as the first prefect in 1629 on the formal establishment of Scotland as a mission country. His successors included William Christie in 1644, James McBreck in the 1650s, George Leslie in 1664 and Alexander Con in 1668. The secular clergy were not happy with this arrangement either and continued with their requests for a vicar apostolic. Their wishes were met in part by the appointment of one of their number, William Ballentine of Elgin, as prefect of the secular mission in 1653. The timing of the appointment was propitious in that Cromwell had crushed the forces

87

Ibid., p. xv. Fr Hugh Semple SJ, rector of the Scots College in Madrid gave money to the Franciscan mission and wrote to Rome in support of Hegarty. Gordon, p. vi. 89 Ultimate authority resided with the Cardinal Protector of Scotland, at the time Maffeo Barberini, later to become Pope Urban VIII. 88

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of the Covenanters and the worst of the persecutions against Catholic clergy was removed. Ballentine was a good choice as prefect. He had been active in organizing representation in Rome90 and had gone to Scotland in 1649. The recognition of the independence of the secular priests from the supervision of the Jesuits was due in no small part to the desire by Propaganda Fide to secure undisputed control of all missions, including those of the Society of Jesus. However the Jesuits also appear to have been weakened in Scotland by the disruptions caused by the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Some had gone to England to be with the court91 and there had been few replacements. There are only two identifiable in the college records.92 In the same period two secular priests had come.93 Although there are no reliable records of overall numbers of priests it is clear that, due to the disruption of the wars, the 1640s saw a significant reduction in missionary activity in all parts of Scotland. The wars, however, did not reduce the number of students attending the colleges abroad. An analysis of their regions of origin shows, however, that other than in the northeast Catholicism was losing ground. (See Figure 9) Over a period of almost 40 years the Catholic communities in west and southwest Scotland together produced only one entrant on average a year. Almost as many students came from the east of Scotland but the dominance of those from the northeast intensified over this period. When organisation and control over the secular missionaries was given to William Ballentine he chose his home town of Elgin as his base and it is unsurprising that the northeast region became the focal point of much of the missionary effort.

90 While in Paris he persuaded William Leslie, another Scots secular priest, to accept the post of tutor in Cardinal Carlo Barberini’s household and return with him to Rome. This led to Leslie’s gaining prominence in Propaganda Fide. (See below) 91 Robert Valens had gone with Lord Abercorn to London in 1641 and died in Oxford in 1645. James McBreck went with Lord Winton and did not return to Scotland until the 1650s. 92 James Stuart who was imprisoned in Newcastle and forced to return to Rome without having reached Scotland and Francis Dempster who arrived in Scotland in the 1630s but was imprisoned and exiled in the 1640s. 93 These were John Smith who came in 1633 but was forced to return to Rome where he joined the Jesuits before returning to Scotland in the 1650s to work on the mission until his death and William Ballentine who was to serve as prefect of the mission until his death in 1661.

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Source information: McInally Thomas, The Alumni of the Scots Colleges Abroad 1575–1799, unpublished treatise, University of Aberdeen, 2008.

Figure 9: Home regions of students – 1615 to 1653

1653 to 1695 Ballentine benefited greatly from the work of Robert Barclay and his network of contacts in Paris and Rome. (See Chapter 2) William Ballentine and John Walker were both part of this group before being appointed missioners by Propaganda Fide. Another member, William Leslie, was chosen to be the representative of the Scottish mission in Rome and later appointed first archivist of Propaganda Fide, an office he held for over 40 years. Robert Barclay was appointed the mission’s agent in Paris responsible among other things for the safe onward transmission of the payments from the Roman authorities to the missionaries in Scotland. This cadre of Scottish priests with its missionary zeal soon attracted others and for the first time since the Reformation an integrated mission of secular priests (as opposed to the Jesuit and Franciscan missions) operated in Scotland with William Ballentine as the Prefect of the Mission. Ballentine worked to rebuild the mission and gained the respect not only of his secular priests but also of his Protestant neighbours in Elgin and the northeast. His success is remarkable given the paucity of his resources and the relatively short duration of his prefecture – eight years. While in Paris prior to his appointment he had

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made an additional significant, if indirect contribution, to the mission by persuading Dominicans to provide missionaries. Earlier appeals for help to the Irish Province of the Order, which had responsibility for Scotland, had been refused but it was now agreed that any Scot who joined the Order would be allowed to carry out missionary work in Scotland.94 There the matter remained until Thomas95 Primrose, a Scot who was a member of the Irish province, met Ballentine and his fellow missionaries in Paris and Rome. The near absence of any priests in the Highlands and Islands appears to have exercised the group and the idea of a co-ordinated mission was developed. Ballentine’s vision inspired Primrose who began recruiting a number of young Scots into the Dominican Order. Of these, two were native Gaelic speakers, Alexander96 Lumsden and Vincentius Marianus Scotus. Primrose set up his mission in Scotland in the mid-1650s just as Ballentine was taking up his role as Prefect of the Mission. Lumsden worked in Caithness until 1664 when he returned to Paris but Marianus, who was in post in Morar by 1658, continued in the Western Highlands until 1677.97 In 1663 an Irish Dominican friar, George Fanning, joined them, to work on Barra. Fanning died in Arisaig in 1678, having worked for 15 years on the mission. Thomas Primrose died in 1671 and with him ended any co-ordinated effort by the Dominican Order to provide support to the mission. The Dominicans were not the only additional support provided to the mission at this time. In 1651 Vincent de Paul, founder of the Lazarist Order, also received appeals to provide Gaelic-speaking priests for the Highlands. He responded by sending Francis White and Dermot Duggan, both natives of Limerick. They were escorted from France

94 Fenning Hugh O.P., ‘Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum XXXIX’, Registers of the Dominican Order, 1969, pp. 299–303. 95 Sometimes recorded as Patrick. 96 Alexander has been confused with Thomas Lumsden the Lazarist who worked in the Orkneys and Caithness at about the same time. Thomas is recorded in the Rome College register as student number 151, Alexander is 152. Thomas died in Paris in 1671. Alexander was in London in 1678 at the time of Oates’ Popish Plot. He was arrested and condemned to death but freed on the grounds that he was a Scot and therefore not subject to English law. Alexander and Thomas were from Aberdeen, probably related, and able to speak Gaelic. Unusually, the college records do not show any familial relationship but the records were recreated by Abbé McPherson 150 years later from earlier records and he may have considered it unnecessary to include detail of this kind. 97 ASCEP, SOCG, FF. 297, 329r.

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by “Young Glengarry”98 who took them to Glengarry Castle. White remained there, working in the Western Highlands. Duggan moved on to the islands travelling between the Uists and Barra. Vincent de Paul also sent a Scot, Thomas Lumsden, to Orkney, Ross and Caithness.99 The work of the Irish missionaries continued until their deaths – Duggan in 1657 and White in 1679. Lumsden returned to France in the 1670s. In their reports to Propaganda Fide these priests described their ministries as pastoral care of the Catholic communities rather than large-scale conversions to the faith but they had a major success in opening the first Catholic school in Scotland since the Reformation. The provision of education was a primary role of the Lazarist Order and it had achieved considerable success in doing this among the rural poor of France. However, the practical problems associated with the Highland mission were such that it took until 1664 before they could open their first school in Glengarry through the provision of a stipend of 50 crowns p.a. by Propaganda Fide to pay a schoolmaster.100 The involvement of so many Irish in missionary work in Scotland caused political difficulties. In 1669 Propaganda Fide decided to recreate the See of the Hebrides and place it under the authority of the Archbishop of Armagh, Oliver Plunkett.101 The archbishop was making plans to visit the islands in 1671 when he was dissuaded by Francis MacDonnell. MacDonnell was an Irish Franciscan from Louvain who had been working in the Hebrides for a number of years, initially with his brother Mark. MacDonnell’s reasoning was that the Highlands and Islands were full of rumours of landings by the French. A visit by the archbishop would be interpreted as politically motivated to assist the French, and therefore treasonable. MacDonnell also wrote to Propaganda Fide declaring that the continued use of Irish priests in Scotland

98 Aeneas Macdonnell, later 1st Lord Macdonnell and Aros. In 1660 on the Restoration of Charles II he gained his ennoblement in recognition of his support for the king. He had been one of Montrose’s most steadfast supporters during the Civil War and had his lands forfeited by Cromwell. During this period he was effectively head of the Macdonnells of Glengarry and known as “Young Glengarry” to distinguish him from his grandfather, “Old Glengarry”, who died in 1645 aged 105. The nickname continued to be used long afterwards. Stevenson David, Highland Warrior Alistair MacColla and the Civil Wars, Edinburgh, The Saltire Society, 1980, pp. 277–8. 99 Bellesheim, Vol. 3, pp. 84–5 Lumsden’s work on Orkney produced the only student from those islands to enter the colleges – Alexander More, Rome 1686. He was ordained and returned home as a missionary. 100 Campbell Ed., Book of Barra, London, 1936, p. 11. 101 Bellesheim, Vol. 4, p. 86.

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was diplomatically dangerous. It was imperative, in his opinion, that Scottish priests be appointed to positions of authority. The Irish missionaries could then act as their auxiliaries. Only by this means would they be able to counter the arguments of the Kirk authorities that the actions of the Catholic Church were seditious. Archbishop Plunkett endorsed this view and added that schools in the islands were essential to provide for the education of potential candidates for the priesthood.102 Propaganda Fide responded in 1675 by funding a second school on Barra. Archbishop Plunkett never visited his See of the Hebrides. With his execution at Tyburn in 1681 the See came to an end and authority for this mission passed to the Prefect of the Scottish Mission. Irish missionary involvement in Scotland did not end, but Scottish responsibility for the whole of the country was established and, as far as possible, acted upon. William Ballentine had died in 1661 and been replaced as prefect by Alexander Winster.103 Winster urged Propaganda Fide to appoint a vicar apostolic for Scotland on the basis that the political situation appeared to be more favourable to Catholics with the restoration of Charles II and the possibility of a Catholic king in his brother James.104 Propaganda Fide ordered a visitation to be conducted prior to any decision and commissioned Alexander Leslie, brother of William Leslie, the procurator of the mission based in Rome, to go Scotland and report on what he found.105 His visit was delayed, however, by the reaction in Britain in 1678 to Titus Oates’ accusations of a Popish Plot. The visitation eventually went ahead and Leslie submitted his report in 1680.106 Leslie had found that there were 22 secular priests and three Jesuits working as missionaries at that time. Although they covered most parts of the country the greatest concentrations were in the Northeast and the Highlands and Islands mirroring the distribution of Catholics that Leslie had found. He reported that there were

102

ASCEP, Rif. Nelle Cong. Gen., Vol. 1, reported in Campbell Ed., pp. 15–16. Also known as Winchester or Dunbar. 104 Gordon, p. xi. 105 Leslie was known thereafter as “Hardboots” because of the epic nature of his visitation. ASCEP, Fondo Congragazioni Particulari, Vol. 26, FF. 294r–299v. 106 The report, Leslie’s recommendations and Propaganda Fide’s decisions regarding them are in ASCEP, Fondo Congragazioni Particulari, Vol. 26, FF. 13r–327v. 103

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14,000 Catholic communicants of whom 12,000 lived in the Highlands and Islands.107 Leslie’s findings proved the dominance of the northeast of Scotland as the centre of Catholicism for Lowland Scots but highlighted the degree to which the Catholics of the Highlands and Islands had been neglected by the colleges in their recruitment of students. The intake pattern of the previous 100 years was being maintained with the decline in all lowland areas continuing, other than in the northeast (see Figure 10). The increase in student numbers from the Highlands and the first student from the Hebrides came at the end of the century and were possible because of the opening of the schools in Glengarry and on Barra. Propaganda Fide’s reaction to Leslie’s report was to intensify the missionary effort. It decided to provide more financial support for the missionaries. (Leslie had discovered that only Winster was being supported entirely by his parishioners.) A vicar general would be appointed to whom all missionaries would report. To provide for the great need for more priests, the Scots colleges had to recruit more students and they should be required to take the missionary oath. The rectors of the colleges were instructed to visit the Highlands and Islands to persuade parents to allow their sons to be trained at the colleges. These were sensible improvements but before they could be acted upon a number of events critical to the success of the mission occurred. James VII/ II had lost his throne, his attempt to regain it through Ireland had failed disastrously and the defeat of the French fleet at La Hogue had ended any possibility of a French invasion in support. The reaction of the British government against Catholics was swift. A large number of priests were incarcerated and later exiled.108 One of these was Thomas Nicholson who was chosen to be the first vicar apostolic in 1695.

107 The numbers he recorded in the Lowlands were distributed through Galloway – 550, Glasgow and neighbourhood – 50, Forfarshire and Kincardineshire – 72, Aberdeenshire – 405, Banffshire – 1,000 and Moray – 8. This last number must be due to the delineation of the boundary between Moray and Banff since each community supported one priest. Ibid., FF. 13r–327v. 108 Winster and Nicholson were imprisoned in 1689. Alexander Burnet and Alexander Leslie only escaped by taking to the heather for four months. In November and December of 1689 Walter Innes, Alexander Crichton, Robert Seton S.J., Walter Innes S.J., George Adamson S.J. and James Bruce O.S.B. were all imprisoned. Forbes Leith, Memoirs, pp. 145–50. Roger Maxwell SJ was arrested in Edinburgh shortly after his arrival and after several months was exiled. He returned in 1698 but his health

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60%

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Source information: McInally Thomas, The Alumni of the Scots Colleges Abroad 1575–1799, unpublished treatise, University of Aberdeen, 2008.

Figure 10: Home regions of students – 1653 to 1695

1695 to 1756 Thomas Nicholson was about 50 years of age on appointment as Vicar Apostolic of Scotland. The son of Sir Thomas Nicholson of Kemnay, he had converted to Catholicism in 1682 following a career as a regent of Glasgow University. After studying theology at the Scots College in Douai he was ordained and returned to Scotland as a missionary in 1687. His imprisonment in 1689 was ended when his younger brother, Sir George, who was a Lord of Session, stood bail for him. Nicholson had been in exile when he was consecrated bishop. After several unsuccessful attempts to return to Scotland in which he was detained in Holland and imprisoned in England he succeeded in 1697. His period of office, as those of his immediate successors, was blighted by involvement of Scottish Catholics in the activities of the Jacobites and the government’s consequent reprisals. Although only a minority of the support for James VII/II and his heirs came from Catholics the had been so badly damaged by his earlier imprisonment that after three years he was invalided back to Scots College Douai. RSC, pp. 53–4.

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majority of Catholics were Jacobites in sentiment and a high proportion of them including clergy were involved in active capacities in the civil wars. (See Chapter 3) Notwithstanding this appalling handicap to missionary work Bishop Nicholson produced many positive achievements. His tenure of office saw the beginning of order and planning in all parts of the Scottish Mission. With the exception of the Jesuits all missionaries working in Scotland reported to him from the start of his episcopacy.109 All of Scotland was his diocese. There was no longer any claim that the See of the Isles should be revived as part of the Irish Church. Indeed the Irish priests who continued to work in the Highlands and Islands were under his control. He established fixed parishes for each of his missionaries. Although this was difficult to maintain his successors continued with this discipline. His office became the conduit for payment of priests’ stipends provided by Propaganda Fide. This was immediately of practical benefit since a series of disastrous harvests starting in 1695 were affecting Scotland and it was impossible in most places for the parishioners to support their priests. By 1700 he had drawn up Statuta – rules for the missionaries – to govern conduct and discipline. He also created posts as administrators for seven of his priests. These men looked after the general interests of the mission in different parts of the country when the bishop was absent. By 1706 he had arranged for James Gordon to be made a bishop and act as coadjutor of the mission thereby securing an immediate successor.110 While he was carrying out these reforms Nicolson was engaged in visiting every Catholic community throughout Scotland, a task that took him several years. This allowed him to gather intelligence on the true state of affairs in the mission and use it to formulate plans and to support his pleas for help from Propaganda Fide. First there was the severe lack of missionary priests to be addressed. He pleaded with the regular orders of friars and monks as well as the Jesuits for volunteers to come to Scotland. He complained to Propaganda Fide that the Scots colleges were not fulfilling their duty to the mission by providing sufficient numbers of priests. He urged particularly that the college in Rome should remove those students who were wastrels and vagabonds

109 Continuous pressure from Propaganda Fide resulted in the Jesuit superior accepting the bishop’s authority in 1702. 110 Forbes Leith, Memoirs, pp. 158–63.

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who had no intention of becoming priests. He was also critical of the Jesuits for abusing their position as college administrators to persuade students to join their order and thereby be lost to the mission in Scotland. His efforts with regard to these points resulted in some success. The records of the Scots colleges show that almost 50 students went on to work on the mission in Scotland during his period of office. There was also an increase in the number of volunteers from the Benedictines especially but also Franciscans, Augustinians and Jesuits. By 1703 there were 33 missionaries active in Scotland despite having lost a number to imprisonment, exile and death.111 The colleges’ principals resented his criticisms and expressed these views in correspondence with Propaganda Fide and each other. But the improvement in the provision of priests was sustained.112 Nicholson did not restrict his efforts to exhortation. He argued that the lack of Catholic schools presented the greatest obstacle to increasing the Catholic presence in Scotland. When he was appointed bishop in 1695 there were only three such schools in the whole country. The one which had been founded in Barra in 1675 with the support of Archbishop Plunkett was still functioning. The earlier school in Glengarry had relocated to Arisaig (Scotus) and a third school had been opened in Uist. The school in Arisaig was the most successful with over 30 pupils attending. Bishop Nicholson gave additional support to the schoolmasters and they continued to flourish for several years. The schoolmasters, however, were as much a target for persecution as the priests and all of the schools had been suppressed by 1703. To counter this setback the bishop encouraged his priests within their own parishes to accept pupils where they could do so safely. These efforts were no substitute for Catholic schools and in 1715 Bishop Gordon set up a school in Morar.113 It closed almost immediately due to the reprisals taken by the government against Jacobite sympathizers following the 1715 rising. It relocated the following year to Scalan (See Chapter 2) and functioned as a junior seminary. It continued, with periodic disruptions, until 1799 when it transferred to the purpose-built seminary at Aquhorties. Despite the disruptions, however, Bishop Nicholson’s efforts to provide education in the Highlands and the Hebrides started 111

Archivio Storico Congregazione per l’Evangelizzazione dei Popoli o “de Propaganda Fide”, CP, Vol. 32, pp. 300R–301R. 112 Forbes Leith, Memoirs, pp. 169, 187. 113 Watt, p. 10.

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Source information: McInally Thomas, The Alumni of the Scots Colleges Abroad 1575–1799, unpublished treatise, University of Aberdeen, 2008.

Figure 11: Home regions of students – 1695 to 1756

to bear fruit. Student entrants to the colleges abroad for the first time included significant proportions from these regions. (See Figure 11) Nevertheless, the historic pattern of northeast dominance and continued decline in the other lowland areas remained. Catholics in the south, east and west of Scotland had little protection from the government authorities and the steady application of increasingly severe penal laws took their toll. Queen Anne’s accession to the throne in 1702 did not alleviate the measures which had been put in place against Catholics. As well as suppressing the three Catholic schools the State provided funding for SSPCK114 to fund Calvinist-run schools in the Highlands. Funding had originally been approved by King William four years earlier but had taken time to have a practical effect. Having virtually a monopoly of the provision of education in Scotland provided the Calvinists

114

The Scottish Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge was founded by the Church of Scotland in 1700 following the example of SPCK in England and Wales founded ten years earlier. The society’s purpose was to run schools in areas of the country lacking parish ministers.

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with a very powerful weapon against the spread and even survival of Catholicism.115 Another action which harmed the Catholic mission was the introduction in 1700 of a reward of 500 marks for the arrest of a priest. This led to a need for the priests to become more guarded. Often travel could be conducted safely only at night,116 aliases and disguises were necessary and reports were written in open code.117 The lists of missionaries produced at the time no longer used names (not even aliases) and the locations of their parishes were not given.118 A third blow to Catholics was the re-enactment of laws which prohibited Catholics from inheriting property and of educating their children.119 These laws might have been as relatively ineffectual as previous attempts at enforcement had it not been for the inauguration of circuit courts which allowed Catholics to be arraigned locally, increasing the possibility of attempts to dispossess them of their estates.120 The cumulative effect of these pressures had a disastrous outcome on the number of students enrolling in the colleges in the 1700s. (See Chapter 4 Figure 1) The economic hardships caused by the prolonged famine of 1696 to 1703 exacerbated this effect. Attendance of the sons of a family at a Catholic college abroad openly testified to that family’s adherence to Catholicism, leaving it liable to the full force of the laws. The fear of penalties was eventually eased in 1710 when the Secretary of State for Scotland, the Duke of Queensberry, and the Secretary for England, the Earl of Dartmouth, responded to petitions from Catholics and instructed the judiciary not 115 However the SSPCK was Lowland based and as such suffered from the problem of finding suitable Gaelic-speaking schoolmasters. Bishop Nicholson provided some of them with small payments to avoid proselytising their Catholic students. The most famous schoolmaster working for SSPCK was Alasdair MacMhaighstir, the Gaelic poet, who taught at a number of schools in the Highlands from 1729 to 1744, initially at Finnan Island then Kichoan and Corryvullin. In 1745 as well as joining in the Rising he converted to Catholicism. MacMhaighstir was a crypto-Catholic during the greater part of his time as a teacher and worked to subvert the intentions of his employers. 116 Forbes Leith, Memoirs, p. 186. 117 In letters the missionaries referred to themselves as “labourers”, Propaganda Fide as the “Exchange”, the colleges as “shops”, college staff as “merchants” and the students as “apprentices”. There were many other coded references to disguise the true nature of the communication from casual inspection. 118 ASCEP, C.P., vol. 32 pp. 300r–301r. 119 Chronological Table of the Statutes, London, 2006. 120 The courts in Aberdeen and Inverness presented the greatest number of Catholics with this problem. This pressure appears to have been short-lived, perhaps influenced by the reluctance of the gentry to acquiesce in the government’s power to dispossess any of them.

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to prosecute them unless they failed to keep the peace.121 The peace was broken in 1715 and punitive actions were resumed against Catholics. Over time this pressure had the desired effect. Catholic families with significant land holdings converted to Protestantism – usually Episcopalianism – or saw their estates being inherited by Protestant relatives. The case of the Urquharts of Meldrum is illustrative of this. The eldest son, John, became Episcopalian while two of his brothers, Adam and Charles, were Jesuits in France and his daughter, Mary, married into the Menzies of Pitfodels – a prominent family of Catholic gentry. The most significant transfer of allegiance in the northeast of Scotland came with the death of Alexander, 2nd Duke of Gordon, in 1728. His widow, Lady Henrietta Mordaunt,122 raised their sons123 as Episcopalians thereby securing their inheritance and although the family continued to provide protection to their Catholic tenants they no longer sheltered priests in their own homes. On the death of Bishop Nicholson in 1718 James Gordon became vicar apostolic for Scotland with John Wallace as coadjutor. Gordon petitioned Rome to create a second vicariate in Scotland for Gaelic speakers in order to lessen the burden on him and his even more elderly coadjutor.124 This was accepted in 1731 and Hugh Macdonald was made bishop of the Highland District which covered the Highlands and Islands. Bishop Gordon kept responsibility for the remainder of the country as the Lowland District. This division was not conducted equitably and the complaints of the clergy of the new Highland District led to renewals of accusations of Jansenism among their Lowland District colleagues. Bishop Alexander Smith who replaced Wallace as coadjutor in 1733 was singled out for attack with a petition to Propaganda Fide that he be removed from office. The disruption caused was catastrophic for the mission. This was in spite of the fact that the Scots colleges continued to educate missionaries for Scotland. Between the death of Bishop Nicholson in 1718 and the Jacobite Rising of 1745 the colleges had supplied the mission with over 50 priests. The Jansenist problem was still largely unresolved when the heavy involvement of Scottish Catholics and clergy in the 1745 Rising added to their troubles.

121

The laws were kept on the statute books, however, to act as a threat to Jacobites. Lady Mordaunt was the daughter of Charles, 3rd Earl of Peterborough. 123 Cosmo George, 3rd Duke, was aged eight at the time of his father’s death. His brother Adam was newly born. 124 Gordon was 67 and Wallace about 81. 122

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One priest died in battle, ten are known to have been imprisoned, two dying while there125 and the rest had to go into hiding. The effect on the general Catholic population was believed to be a loss of over 1,000 communicants through death or exile.126 The seminary at Scalan was destroyed. The task of rebuilding the mission was in the hands of Alexander Smith who succeeded Gordon as bishop of the Lowland Vicariate and Hugh Macdonald. Neither could act for some time. The northeast and the Highlands were garrisoned with government troops. Arrests of priests continued and it became extremely difficult for students to attend the colleges abroad.127 Only when the repercussions of the failed rising died away and the acceptance was commonplace that the Stuart cause was dead did it became possible for positive steps to be taken in missionary work in Scotland once again.128

125 Colin Campbell was killed and John Tyrie and Robert Leith were wounded at Culloden – all were combatants. Those imprisoned were the Jesuits, John and Charles Farquharson, Alexander Cameron of Lochiel and Alexander Gordon who died in prison. The secular priests imprisoned were Alan Macdonald, Alexander Forrester, James Grant, Alexander Godsman and George Duncan. In addition Bishop Gordon had died. Forbes Leith, Memoirs, pp. 329–30. 126 This number has been extrapolated to a figure of between 10,000 and 15,000 Catholics. If correct the total Catholic population of Scotland would have been reduced from 40,000 recorded in Leslie’s report of 1680 to less than 30,000 in 1750. Forbes Leith, Memoirs, pp. 330, 329. The reports of the Highland and Lowland Vicariates to Propaganda Fide immediately prior to the 1745 Rising state similar numbers of communicants in Scotland as in 1680. This represented a recovery from a low in 1720. In 1721 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland received a report from Rev. Robert Wodrow that the numbers of openly professing Catholics in the North had increased greatly. Walsh James, History of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Glasgow, 1874, p. 499. In 1755 Rev. Alexander Webster published An Account of the Number of People in Scotland in the Year 1755 in which he gave statistical information compiled from reports from all Presbyterian ministers in Scotland. The number of Catholic communicants given is 16,490 which would equate to approximately 30,000 Catholics in total thereby corresponding closely to the reports to Propaganda Fide in 1763. Darragh, ‘The Catholic Population of Scotland’, pp. 49–59. 127 Robert Maitland S.J. was tried at Edinburgh in 1751 and sentenced to exile. Patrick Gordon S.J. suffered similarly at Aberdeen Circuit Court the same year. Gordon, p. 31. 128 The Act of Indemnity of June 1747 allowed most of the less prominent involved in the rising to return to Scotland, but Catholic missionaries did not benefit from this relief. In their case the penal laws were applied with more vigour. Bishop Macdonald was in exile in Paris for three years returning to Scotland in 1749. Bishop Smith remained in Scotland after 1746 but in 1750 he was obliged to move to England for over a year to avoid capture.

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1756 to 1799 In the 30 years which followed the colleges were unable to provide more than half the number of missionaries that they had supplied in the preceding three decades.129 This was totally insufficient to replace the losses suffered following 1746. Appeals were made to the Benedictines in Regensburg as well as to the pope to help with additional priests but without success.130 The bishops’ reports to Propaganda Fide for the years 1762 and 1765 reveal that there were 18 missionaries in the Lowland and five in the Highland Districts.131 Even allowing for the significant reduction in numbers of Catholics following the 1745 Rising, these priests were insufficient to provide ministry for the whole country. The need for more priests drove Bishop Smith to reopen the seminary at Scalan in 1750 despite the continuing dangers of reprisals.132 The records show that in the beginning only two students attended, one of whom had been studying at the college in 1746 at the time of its destruction. Bishop Macdonald also established a Highland seminary but it was on an even more modest scale and did not become properly re-established until 1770 when it was set up in Buorblach in Morar. Some boys were able to receive education from parish priests133 but the numbers were insufficient to meet the needs of the Church in Scotland. The low numbers of students able to attend the colleges abroad was the principal reason for the shortage of priests for the mission but this was compounded by the almost complete removal of help from the Society of Jesus. The Society had been coming under increasing pressure from its opponents both outside and inside the Church. The Marquis of Pombal, Sebastão José de Carvalho e Mello, prime minister of Portugal, effected their expulsion from his country in 1759. This was followed by expulsion from France in 1764 and Spain in 1767. The

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26 missionaries compared with 54 in the previous 27 years. In 1750 Robert Leith was sent to the abbot of Regensburg to appeal for support. The abbot sent him to the pope who in turn sent him to be chaplain to the French ambassador in London. Fischer T.A., The Scots in Germany, Edinburgh, 1902, p. 149. 131 Forbes Leith, Memoirs, pp. 358–60. 132 There was a permanent garrison of troops at Corgarth and detachments at Tomintoul and elsewhere in Glenlivet. A sergeant and six men were posted at Scalan itself but they showed no interest in harassing the seminarians. By 1752 the rector, William Duthie, judged it safe enough to start rebuilding. Watts, pp. 99–100. 133 Alexander Godesman had a class of six boys at Preshome in 1748–9. Taylor, p. 49. 130

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continued intense political pressure led Pope Clement XIV to issue the Brief of Suppression of the Society in 1773.134 The report from the vicar apostolic to Propaganda Fide in 1765 stated that there were only two or three Jesuits left serving in Scotland and in the records of the colleges it is clear that for nearly 20 years no new entrants to the colleges had gone on to join the Society.135 The expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain provided an opportunity for the Scots to regain the college they had lost in 1734. The loss had not been forgotten, especially by the rectors in Douai. On their expulsion by Charles III the Jesuits’ property in Spain was appropriated by the State. The English and Irish clergy were quick to argue for the return of the property which the Jesuits had confiscated from them. The Irish indeed managed to claim that the Scots college should be handed over to them since there were very few Scottish Catholics and that the majority of priests in Scotland were Irish. The Scots, through the negotiations of John Geddes, were able to regain their lost revenues and also obtain the Jesuit college of San Ambrosio in Valladolid. (Chapter 2) The first students arrived in 1770 and it was largely through the success of the college that in the remaining years of the eighteenth century the number of new priests who went to work in Scotland increased significantly.136 An analysis of the college registers to identify the regions of birth of the students is problematic in that the number of students so identified is much less than in earlier records. (See Figure 12) A number of points, however, can be confirmed. First, the Catholics of the northeast survived the repressions which followed the ’45 relatively intact. Indeed as relief measures for Catholics were implemented towards the end of the century, their numbers increased dramatically. The same is true of the other lowland regions with the exception of the Borders, although

134

The suppression did not include the Russian Province which continued under Catherine the Great and her successors until 1820. The reinstatement of the Society in the rest of Europe came in 1814. The establishment of a Jesuit Province of the United States of America by Archbishop Carroll was permitted in 1805. Prior to the suppression in 1773 Carroll had been a member of the Society. Campbell Thomas J., The Jesuits 1534–1921, London, 1921, p. 661. 135 Alexander Strachan of the Mill of Gairtly, Douai 1741, is the last recorded. He joined the Society in Paris in 1746 working on the mission in Scotland from 1771. RSC, p. 84. 136 The colleges produced 41 missionaries over the 30 years. This figure is all the more remarkable since this period saw the closure of the colleges in Douai and Paris which had previously been the principal source of missionaries.

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Source information: McInally Thomas, The Alumni of the Scots Colleges Abroad 1575–1799, unpublished treatise, University of Aberdeen, 2008.

Figure 12: Home regions of students – 1756 to 1799

from a much lower number of Catholics. Secondly, for the first time, a significant proportion of students enrolled came from the Hebrides. The nature of the college in Valladolid was different from the other colleges in that a majority of students came from the Highlands and Islands and were Gaelic speakers.137 This rich source of recruits was used to good effect as the application of the penal laws was eased and the final quarter of the century saw greater success for the mission than the previous 25 years had done. The work of the missionaries started to take on a significant new dimension in administering to their parishioners abroad. Initially this was as army chaplains but later in supporting large-scale emigration. After the hopelessness of the Jacobite cause had been recognised138 the British government began to recruit increased numbers of Catholic troops from Ireland and Scotland. The continuing wars with France had made this expedient. Scottish priests accompanied the regiments

137 Of the 54 students enrolled in the eighteenth century 35 are clearly identified as coming from the Highlands and Islands and therefore were probably Gaelic speakers. RSC, pp. 204–11. 138 Pope Clement XIII gave de facto recognition to the Hanoverian House in 1766 on the death of James VIII/III.

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as chaplains. Their role as military chaplains had been long established. More or less permanent chaplaincies existed with units of Scottish troops serving in foreign armies. Service in the Russian army lasted for over 200 years and in the French army for considerably longer. The archives of the Scots colleges contain details of several alumni who took up positions as chaplains to troops. The earliest noted is John Wemys (Pont-à-Mousson 1583 and Douai 1593) who joined Captain Foret Scot’s Company in about 1598.139 Scot’s company fought in the Spanish Netherlands. Throughout the following century and a half others are noted to have served with the Scottish Brigade in France and Russian army in Moscow.140 Priests had engaged with the Jacobite campaigns of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries ministering to the troops and even engaging in the fighting. Following the failure of the Jacobite Rising of 1745 mention in the college records of Scottish priests serving as army chaplains disappears for the rest of the century. There is little doubt, however, that some saw service within the British army in North America. It is not possible to say with certainty that priests attended the Scottish troops during the Seven Years War. Nevertheless they were there ministering to the veterans by the time they had been demobilized (1763/4) and given land to settle in North America.141 Once large-scale emigration from the Highlands of Scotland to North America had started later in the century it became a major role of the Scottish priests to accompany their parishioners. The first detailed account is of James Macdonald who went to Prince Edward Island142 with a party of Gaelic-speaking Highlanders led by John Macdonald of Glenaladale in 1772. James Macdonald was ordained in Rome in 1765 and initially had been posted to Scotland.143 Highland Scots continued to arrive in this part of British North America, added to by

139

“. . . juvet cohortem Capitanei Foretii Scoti.” RSC, p. 5. Dukes P., ‘Scottish Soldiers in Muscovy’, Caledonian Phalanx, Publications of the National Library of Scotland, 1987, pp. 9–23. 141 Three students who studied at Rome in the 1750s – Alan, Alexander and Augustin Macdonald – are all recorded as having gone to America and died there. Problems arise, however, with the lack of dates, the common surnames and evidence that the record keeper perhaps has been confused over details. Abbé Paul Macpherson wrote up the records of the Rome College in the 1820s and appears to have been drawing on colleagues’ memories of individuals as much as on surviving records. 142 Known as St John’s Island at the time. The name change took place in 1798. 143 RSC, p. 137. 140

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loyalist refugees from the newly-founded United States of America. In 1785 Roderick Macdonald was assigned by his bishop in Scotland, Alexander Macdonald, to the Glengarry and Stormont Provinces of Ontario to minister to the growing number of Scots Catholics there. He was joined the following year by Alexander “Scotus” Macdonnell. Both men were graduates of the newly-opened college in Valladolid. Macdonnell had been parish priest in Glengarry in Scotland and had gone with his parishioners when they left for Canada. He was ordained the first bishop of Upper Canada in 1819. Voluntary exile for Highlanders was followed by the forced clearance of many parishes. Angus MacEachran, another Valladolid graduate, arrived in Prince Edward Island in 1790 to replace James Macdonald who had died five years earlier. He became the first bishop of Charlottestown covering Prince Edward Island and Eastern Nova Scotia.144 A second Alexander Macdonald and a second Roderick Macdonald from Valladolid accompanied their parishioners to Canada when they were cleared from their land. Roderick arrived in 1825 by which time Alexander’s parishioners had been settled for some years. Another eighteenth-century priest from Valladolid who accompanied his parishioners from Scotland was William Fraser who arrived in Nova Scotia in 1822. He was installed as Bishop of Arichat in Antigonish in 1844.145 Scottish-born priests who had studied at Valladolid continued to go to Canada with their parishioners146 but unlike their European counterparts the Scots expatriates in North America never sent any students to the colleges in Europe. By the time the Scots arrived in large numbers, Catholic seminaries were already established and flourishing in both the United States and Canada. Much of the legacy of the original Scottish priests can be gauged by the demographic make up of Cape Breton and Eastern Nova Scotia shown in the first Canadian national census in 1871. Of the 105,000 inhabitants 47,000 were Catholic.147 To place this figure in context it is

144 For a fuller account of Scots settlement of Prince Edward Island see Bumstead J. M., Land, Settlement and Politics on 18th Century Prince Edward Island, Montreal, 1987. 145 RSC, p. 210. 146 One of the last was John Maclachlan who had attended Valladolid in 1821 and Regensburg in 1838. He died in America in 1856. RSC, p. 214. 147 Census of Canada 1871, Vol. 1 pp. 328–33. The same census recorded that 70,000 of the population were Gaelic speakers.

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necessary to compare it with the numbers of Catholics in Scotland at the time of the emigration to Canada. Before the mass immigration of Irish Catholics into Scotland there were approximately 30,000 in the country. A large part of Scottish Catholic heritage can be described as having been invested in the Eastern provinces of Canada and been supported by the graduates of the Scots colleges of Rome and particularly Valladolid. It is ironic that this mass transfer of communities from the Highlands and Islands took place in a period when persecution of Catholics in Scotland was easing. The first appreciable relief for Catholics came when the British government began to see benefits in ending active persecution throughout the three kingdoms. At the outbreak of the Seven Years War in 1756 self-interest led the government to reduce garrisons in the Highlands and promote recruitment into the army. A significant proportion of the British army consisted of Catholics: mainly Irish but also Scottish Highlanders.148 An additional consideration was the possibility of treasonable sentiments being nurtured in the disaffected English, Scots and Irish Catholics149 who were still being educated on the Continent. This was seen as exposing the country to subsequent dangers on the return of the students. Petitions for leniency in application of the Penal Laws and even their repeal began to be viewed seriously by the government. As part of the preparations for the introduction of the Catholic Relief Act proposed in England by Sir George Saville, representations were made to Bishop Hay in Scotland to determine the provisions that Scottish Catholics would find acceptable. George Hay had become coadjutor of the Lowland District on the death of Bishop Smith in 1769 and vicar apostolic in 1778 on

148 Bishop Grant, in a report to Propaganda Fide in 1756, wrote that between 6,000 and 7,000 Scots Catholics were serving in the British army at that time. They were stationed in America and the bishop gloomily commented that few would return to Scotland. Forbes Leith, Memoirs, p. 360 The Catholic Relief Act (18 George III c. 60) passed in 1778 allowed English Catholics to join the armed forces without taking the oath of allegiance to the Church of England. The Scots Catholics who joined the army prior to this date, in common with the rest of their countrymen, had no such requirement placed on them. Allegiance to the Church of Scotland had never been a requirement. 149 The precedent had already been set for this with the defeat at the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745 of the British and their allies in the War of Austrian Succession. The French army had received crucial support from the Irish Brigades in the final decisive assault.

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the death of Bishop Grant. In a letter of 16 February 1778 to Sir John Dalrymple, the agent in this matter in Scotland for the government of Lord North, Bishop Hay laid out three points. Namely: “First, a Repeal of the old, sanguinary Laws against the Hearers and Sayers of Mass . . . Secondly, (a repeal of the laws depriving Catholics of the right to inherit and to enforce the restitution of debts) . . . Thirdly . . . those who enter the service be required to swear Fidelity to the King . . . (not to the Church)”.150 Hay was realistic in recognizing that repeal of all the penal laws was impossible but he was also forced to accept that the Relief Act had to be passed for England before it could be introduced to Scotland. The rioting in Glasgow and Edinburgh which the passing of the English Act provoked was emulated and exceeded in London. The Gordon151 Rioters attempted to have the Act repealed but it was maintained in England and followed by a further Act in 1791. The Scots had to wait 15 years before they saw the law change. The equivalent relief act for Scottish Catholics came in 1793.152 At this point the position of Catholics in Scotland changed and with it the nature of the work of the mission. Scottish Catholics numbered perhaps as few as 33,000 and most of them lived in the Highlands and Islands and Northeast.153 By the end of the century large-scale immigration of Irish into Scotland had started as the need for industrial workers grew. They settled in the Lowlands, particularly in the west, and changed the demography of the country. When the Catholic Emancipation Act was passed in 1829 the number of Catholics had grown significantly and the Church reorganized itself into Eastern,

150

Gordon, p. 145. A mob of more than 40,000 supporters of Lord George Gordon rioted while he was presenting a petition for the repeal of the Act to Parliament. Gordon had formed the “Protestant Association” specifically for this purpose but whereas 25 of the rioters were later hanged Gordon was judged to be innocent and escaped imprisonment. It is ironic that Gordon was a grandson of the 2nd Duke of Gordon, the last Catholic head of that house. 152 Forbes Leith, Memoirs, p. 331. 153 In light of these numbers it would seem that the missionaries had failed to make any progress, indeed, they had failed to maintain the number of Scottish Catholics that had been reported in 1680. However, this is a wrong conclusion. In 1680 the numbers of communicants were 12,000 in the Highlands and 2,000 in the Lowlands and Northeast. Bishop Hay’s report to Propaganda Fide in 1779 gave figures of 9,000 in the Highlands and 8,000 in the Northeast and Lowlands. Clearly progress had been made but was being offset by the removal of Highland Catholics into the army and the start of the Clearances. These Catholics were lost to Scotland but not to the Church. 151

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Western and Northern districts to recognize the changing geographical distribution of its membership. Without the supply of priests from the Scots colleges and the missionary work accomplished in the preceding two centuries it is unlikely that Catholic communities in Scotland would have survived to witness these changes.

CHAPTER SIX

HERITAGE

Any analysis of registers will result in lists of numbers and so it has been in this review of the records of the Scots colleges abroad. Much can be learned from statistics, particularly regarding how circumstances changed over time. Injecting life into any picture so formed, however, comes from knowing about the people involved. The prosopographical information contained in the college registers together with other archival material provides colour and depth which is impossible to appreciate from dry data. For most of the students recorded in the college archives only the barest of information is given, but for a substantial minority the recorder has written at more length. Satisfaction in the achievements of the alumni is discernable. Sometimes it is unalloyed while for others it is tinged with disappointment or even disapproval – potential not realised or energies directed to a less than worthy cause. Nevertheless the college principals who were the custodians of these records clearly had a pride in the achievement of their students and the part that the colleges played in helping them. This is particularly so when their achievement furthered the objectives which the colleges pursued. Those objectives were to preserve and foster Catholicism among Scots, not only in Scotland but throughout the world. By their efforts Catholicism managed to survive for a small minority of the population concentrated in the Highlands and Islands and the northeast of Scotland. Over two centuries in all other areas Catholicism became the religion of individuals rather than of communities. However, the efforts of the college alumni were not restricted to Scotland. They worked in much of Europe and beyond and in this they were highly supportive of the Scottish Catholic diaspora. Moreover the number of priests involved and the variety of postings which they undertook provide valuable evidence of the size and extent of that diaspora. The maintenance of their Catholicism allowed some Scots to play significant roles in European military and State affairs often as adversaries of their own king and government at home. The records show that 125 were in the service of foreign states, two-thirds being commissioned

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military men. There appears to have been no theatre of war in Europe in over 200 years in which some of the alumni did not form part of the officer corps or where they were not used in diplomatic roles. Some of these individuals eventually returned home to Scotland, although many did not. One advantageous consequence of this dispersal was that Scots Catholics, particularly the alumni of the colleges, were able to establish extremely extensive and effective networks of contacts throughout Europe as well as at home. The analysis of the college records shows the existence of interconnections among seven major Scottish families with over 100 cadet and lesser branches; connections which were maintained over a long period often through intermarriage. Crossing political divides by means of the bonds of kinship, friendship and religion provided them with a degree of influence seldom achieved by others. As numerous examples in the college records show, when they were able to return home to Scotland, their wide knowledge and experience together with the superior education which the alumni had received earned them respect and gained them positions of influence within their communities.1 James Smith and James Gibb, men of true genius, with help from the college networks, were able to work in Britain. The buildings which they produced greatly enriched the architectural heritage of their country and are valued and admired today. Alexander Geddes contributed to intellectual debate through his radical writings and biblical scholarship. In doing so he showed great personal courage but would have been unable to persevere without the support of his Catholic networks. By asserting that no area of knowledge was outside scholarly examination he helped clear the way for others to publish scientific findings which ran counter to the contemporary held view of a literal interpretation of the Bible.2 These few examples show only some of the many ways, great and small, that the alumni of the colleges enhanced the cultural wealth of their own country and beyond. It is however in the fields of academe and general scholarship that the greatest impact of the colleges can be found. The records show by

1 Although in order to achieve this, discretion regarding their Catholicism was almost always necessary and in many cases even an outward denial was required. 2 The developing science of geology made no sense if the world had been created in 4004 bc as calculated by Archbishop Usher. His literal interpretation of the Old Testament was still being promulgated by churchmen in 1845 and later. (Rev T. Smith of St John’s College, Cambridge, in his chronology in Lempiere, p. vii.)

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name and often by major achievements 68 students who excelled in these areas. They studied and taught at some of the most respected universities in Europe where they gained considerable prestige in a wide range of disciplines in the arts and sciences. The influence on late humanist scholarship of Dempster, Reid and Seget has perhaps been limited to a few decades after their own lifetimes but because of his exceptional linguistic skills and adventurous nature George Strachan took humanist disciplines into Oriental studies in a way that had never been attempted before.3 For this at least he can be considered as a scholar of outstanding stature. He is not the only alumnus of the colleges to deserve international renown as someone who advanced the sum of human knowledge. His achievements can be matched by the Scots Benedictines of the Schottenklöster in the development of the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century.4 Andreas Gordon deserves greater recognition as a scientist who not only made ground-breaking discoveries in electricity but also was one of the earliest to exhibit that commitment to the dissemination of knowledge which characterizes the modern scientific method. He broke with the obscurantism of the alchemists of the previous century in sharing rather than guarding his discoveries. Not even Isaac Newton was fully open in that respect.5 His pupil, Ildephonse Kennedy learned Gordon’s techniques and emulated them during his 40 years in the post of secretary to the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences. He was instrumental in helping to spread knowledge of scientific developments in Europe to the widest possible audience of scientists and interested laymen. The achievements of these Scotsmen could only have been possible if their education had been of the highest calibre. The Scots colleges and Schottenklöster which nurtured them must therefore be viewed as institutes of higher education of full university status. They were part of the great flowering of new universities engendered by the

3 Strachan, who was a founding student of the Pontifical Scots College in Rome, spent the last 25 years of his life traveling through the Levant, Middle East and India learning oriental languages and collecting manuscripts on Turkish, Arabic and Persian civilization. Interlinear in the texts he included his translations and commentaries. When he shipped these back to Europe scholars were able to use them to increase greatly their understanding of oriental languages. 4 The small number of Scots in the college records who engaged in science, seven, belies their true influence. 5 Newton was still intrigued by the occult and much of his publication was driven by personal rivalry with Leibniz.

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Reformation and Counter-reformation which occurred in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The involvement of the Society of Jesus in the planning, organisation and running of the majority of the Scots colleges ensured that they took their place among the more prestigious of these new institutions. The efforts and genius of so many Scots who attended and taught at the colleges allowed them to achieve and maintain the highest academic standards possible. Indeed they can be thought of as another Scottish university in their own right. In itself this is a magnificent achievement but it is unlikely that such an outcome would have been foremost in the minds of the founders of the colleges and their successors. Their principal objective was to ensure the survival of Catholicism in Scotland. Key to this was the provision of trained priests and the education of Catholic elite. The surviving records list 1749 students who attended the colleges:6 of these 561 were ordained or entered religious orders, of whom 248 are known to have been missionaries in Scotland. Despite the heroism of many, the missionaries who undertook the task sometimes hindered their own efforts by involving themselves in disputes more pertinent to politics than religion and to continental Europe than to Scotland. Adherence to either Roman or Tramontane sympathies or, especially, Jansenism destroyed a cohesion which would have benefited the collective mission. These divisions occasionally translated themselves into oppositions of Highlander versus Lowlander and of secular versus regular clergy, particularly focussed on the Jesuits. Nevertheless, and in the face of continuous hostility from the Kirk and State, the faith did survive in Scotland. Numerically less than 4% of the population remained Catholic but it would be wrong to view this as insignificant. Communities of Catholics prospered in the North East and the Highlands and Hebrides. Elsewhere Catholicism had become the religion of individuals and families but when the Penal Laws were eased Catholic sympathisers became Catholic converts and numbers grew. Before this could have a major effect on the Church the Clearances started.7 The depopulation which this caused had a disproportionate effect on Catholics. As a consequence in Canada where the descendents of those Highlanders cleared from their land in the late eighteenth and early 6

When the lost records are taken into account the true number can be assessed conservatively at over 2,000. 7 For an account of the Clearances see Prebble John, The Highland Clearances, Penguin, 1963.

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nineteenth centuries emigrated many still maintain not only their Gaelic identity but also their Catholicism. The faith survived in Scotland and in the Scots who ventured or were forced abroad. Clearly the Scots colleges had served their primary purpose well, but the wider contributions that their alumni made make their achievements even more remarkable. A small group of men who came from a minority within their own small nation achieved much more in the arts and scholarship than their numbers would suggest. This did not happen by chance. Part of the answer as to how it was possible lies in the fact their studies abroad had imbued them with a knowledge and understanding of cultures richer than that of their native land. Smith, Gibb and Leslie demonstrated this by the ingenuity of their architectural creations which drew on this richer heritage. In such men of intelligence, indeed of genius, the combination of good education, wide experience and the determination to survive and succeed, often in alien and hostile environments, marked them out as superior to many of their contemporaries. They were also better able to overcome setbacks through the support given by the network of their fellow college alumni and Catholics in general.8 Most of the 2,000 or so Scots who went to the colleges abroad are likely to have exhibited these characteristics to some degree. Their successes and the survival of Catholicism in Scotland therefore were not due to a series of fortuitous accidents but were a result of the advantages that attendance at the colleges provided. The existence of the colleges was crucial to all of this. The manner in which the alumni obtained these advantages is also important. Maintaining their Scottish identity was almost as important as their religion. The colleges aided this by ensuring that they could study together as a Scottish community with sufficient Scottish teachers to support their own social and cultural norms. The importance of this lies in the fact that, while they were absorbing the beneficial influences of other cultures, in the eyes of their hosts they retained their Scottish identity. Their presence in a number of the major capitals of Europe helped the idea of a separate Scottish nationhood to be upheld during periods when the creation of the British State had obliterated it politically. A passive presence was not enough to achieve this. On

8 In the case of Gibbs, as with other “exiles” in England, support also came from fellow Scots whether or not Catholic.

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at least three occasions the colleges actively resisted pressure from the Church authorities to amalgamate into a British identity. Again the restoration of the colleges in Rome and Valladolid with their independent Scottish identity intact at the end of the Napoleonic Wars was achieved only by dogged persistence.9 Such determination was rewarded with the restoration of the Scottish hierarchy in 1878 with its own separate identity within the Church. This was not the only possible outcome. Scottish Catholics could have suffered the fate of being within a collection of North British dioceses or succumbing to incorporation into an Irish hierarchy due to the numerically-larger Irish presence in Scotland. Therefore, seeing the achievements of the Scots who went to the colleges as beneficial only to Catholicism in Scotland is too narrow a view. By retaining their Scottish identity the contributions of the alumni of the Scots Colleges abroad have become part of the heritage of all Scots.

9 Abbé Paul MacPherson’s 20-year vigil in Rome guarding what he could of the property of the Scots College is testimony to the effort required.

APPENDIX

A LIST OF SCOTTISH NOBLES IDENTIFIED BY THEIR DISPOSITION TOWARDS MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS

The list is undated but within other material which indicates that it was written about 1565/6. There is no author named. The listing is to be found in ASV, Miscellanea Armadio II, p90. Catholic Party Comites Lenox Athol Huntly – Queen’s chancellor, a powerful man Botual Admirandus (Bothwell) Eirelle (Errol) – Queen’s constable Montrose – a powerful man and prudent Cutuensia (Caithness?) Eglinton Cassellis Crawford Sutherland

Heretic Party Comites Moray – Queen’s natural brother Argadia (Argyll) – Justice summus Morton Glenkarn (Glencairn)

Mylordis Hume Seton Seton Sempill Gray Fleming Lewiston Symracsual (Scrymgeour?) Borbili? Endersmyth Ross Olimphant Salton Sinclair Lovat Liester

Mylordis Ruthven Lindesy Boyd Vebiltre ?

216 Suspect Group Comites Castauleroy (Chateauherault) Arran Maresil (Marshall) Maria Lord Arskyn (Erskine) Angus Mentuls (Menteith?)

appendix

Mylordis Drummond Ogilbe Greirton Glamnis Forbes Maxwell E?uindal (Allandale?) Charcart (Cathcart) Mestin ?

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INDEX Abercromby, David, 173 Abercromby, Robert, 10, 21, 175–7, 179 Albrecht IV, Duke of Bavaria, 13 Alexander, Charles, 75 Alexander, Cosmo, 82 Alexander, William, 33 Alsondaer, Andreas and Godfrid, 27, 140, 166 Alsted, Johann Heinrich, 84–5 Anderson, Alexander, 7–8, 174 Anderson, Patrick, 24, 69, 150, 185 Anderson, P.J., 4 Anderson, Thomas, 12–4 Angus, See Douglas Anne I, 197 Annenschule, 92 Aquaviva, Claudio, 17, 19, 82, 175 Arbuthnot, Benedict, 79, 107, 118 Arbuthnot, Dr John, 79 Arbuthnot, George, 79 Archduke Albert, 21, 89 Aristotle, 86–7, 107, 113, 118 Arschine, Cardinal Charles, See Erskine Asloan, George, 158, 167, 181 Asturias, Prince of, 99 Ayton, Robert, 90 Baillie, Alexander, 103 Baillie, Bernard, 110, 112 Baillie, Charles, 8 Ballentine, William, 43, 187–90, 192 Banks of Borlace, Alice, 44 Barberini, Cardinal Antonio, 41 Barberini, Cardinal Charles, 35, 43, 188 Barberini, Cardinal Francesco, 35, 38, 41 Barberini, Maffeo, See Pope Urban VIII Barclay of Tollye, William, 21, 175 Barclay, Colonel David, 40 Barclay, Robert, 26, 43–8, 72, 158, 189 Barlow, Edward Ambrose, 39 Beaton, James, 9, 11, 17–8, 22, 25, 32, 44, 70, 174–5, 178 Benedictine monasteries, See Schottenklöster Benedictines, 11–2, 15–6, 26, 39, 47–9, 66, 75, 85, 107–8, 110, 112, 114, 117–8, 127, 153–5, 158, 162, 164–8, 196, 201, 211

Bishop, William, 163, 187 Bisset of Lessendrum, George, 173 Blackwell, George, 163, 178, 187 Blackwood, William, 175 Boece, Henry, 69, 87–8 Bonaparte, Louis, 57 Bose, Georg Mathias, 112, 116 Brady, Patrick, 182–4, 187 Brown of Lochill, James, 173 Bruce, James, 193 Bruce, Sir William, 76 Buchanan, George, 62, 88 Burghley, Lord, 177 Burns, Robert, 119, 121, 125 Cajetan, Cardinal, 89 Callendar, Robert, 181 Cameron of Lochiel, Alexander, 200 Campbell, Clan, 183 Campbell, Colen, 77–8, 81 Campbell, Colin, 35, 200 Canongate Kirk, 76 Caprara, Cardinal, 57, 60 Capuchins, 153, 158, 179, 181 Carroll Family, 105, 130 Carroll, Archbishop, 202 Casaubon, Isaac, 92 Cassellis, See Kennedy Catholic Relief Acts, 32, 51, 120, 125, 206–7 Chalmers, William, 12–3 Chambers, Thomas, 44 Charles I, 29, 32–40, 43, 90, 94, 134, 163, 167 Charles II, 41–3, 45, 76, 143, 191–2 Charles III, See Stuart, Charles Edward Chisholm, William, 23 Chouanneries, 56 Christie, George, 21–2, 177 Christie, William, 181, 187 Clanranald, Iain Muideartach, 185 Claremont College, 172, 176 Clerk, William, 50, 102, 104 College de Navarre, 70, 88 College of Grisy, 24–5, 44, 70, 88, 97 Colleges Acquhorties, 54, 196 Beneventus, 102

222

index

Buorblach, 137, 201 Colegio Imperial de San Isidro, 29–31, 70–1, 101, 104 Douai, 1, 4, 8, 11, 20–31, 39–41, 45–7, 50–1, 65, 69–75, 79, 83–4, 88–9, 95, 97–102, 104–5, 127, 130–8, 140–2, 146–7, 149, 152, 158, 162, 166–7, 172, 175, 177–181, 194, 202, 204 Eilean Ban, 137 Glenfinnan, 137 Guidale, 137 La Rochelle, 89–90 Lismore, 137 Lyons, 9, 69, 176 Madrid, 1, 4, 26–31, 39, 45, 47, 50–1, 55, 70–4, 84–5, 87, 95–104, 129–30, 132, 135, 138, 141, 172, 187 Naples, 50, 102 Paris, 1, 4, 9, 24–6, 35, 39–48, 51, 58, 70, 72–4, 84, 97, 101–5, 109–10, 119–22, 127, 129, 131–3, 138, 142, 153, 158–9, 162, 172, 175, 202 Pont-à-Mousson, 9–10, 19–21, 24, 28, 67, 69, 75, 132, 140, 142,144, 175–6, 204 Regensburg (Ratisbon), 132, 135, 154, 162, 165, 201, 205 Rome, 1, 3–4, 22–6, 29, 35, 38, 40–1, 45, 47–8, 50–1, 58, 69, 71–2, 76–8, 82, 84, 94, 99, 101–4, 129–37, 140, 144, 146–7, 150, 172, 190–1, 195, 204, 206, 211, 214 Samalaman, 137 Scalan, 1, 110, 120, 137, 196, 200–1 Scotus, 196 St Omers, 33, 99, 141, 167, 179 Valladolid, 1, 3–4, 51, 61, 100, 129, 132, 137, 144, 202–3, 205–6, 214 Con, Alexander, 187 Con, George, 4, 35–8 Con, Patrick, 38, 41–4 Coruan, Ignatius, 142 Coutts, Thomas, 55, 59 Crichton, Alexander, 193 Crichton, Andrew, 180 Crichton, William, 9–10, 17–22, 28, 67, 69, 176 Crossraguel Abbey, 175 Cruckshankes of Robiston, Lord George, 135 Curle, Gilbert, 20 Curle, Hippolytus, 20, 140 Curle, Lady Elizabeth, 20, 27, 140

Dalkeith House, 77 de Lompius, Pedro, 140 de Paul, Vincent, 131, 190–1 de St Martin, Abbé, 126 Dempster, Francis, 188 Dempster, Thomas, 5, 88–91, 94, 211 Digby, Cavalliere, 41 Dominicans, 67, 153–4, 190 Douglas Family, 18, 21, 34, 148, 216 Douglas, Bishop, 124 Douglas, Sir Robert, 34–5 Duff, Augustine, 49 Duff, Thomas, 94 Duggan, Dermot, 190–1 Duke of Guise, 20 Duke of Parma, 27–8 Duke of Sussex, Augustus Frederick, 53 Dunbar, Alexander, See Winster Dunbar, Ephrem, 108 Dunbar, John, 108 Duncan, George, 200 Dunfermline, Earl of, 22, 32–3, 177 Duthie, William, 201 Echter, Julius, 14–6, 48, 66 Eichhorn, Johann Gottfried, 123 Eirelle, See Hay Family Eisentraut, Petrus, 113 Elizabeth I, 6–8, 16–20, 23 Elphinston, George, 177, 179 Elphinstone, Bishop, 1 English Colleges, 99 English Enterprise, 19 Erroll, See Hay Family Erskine of Cambo, Alexander, 52 Erskine of Cambo, Charles, 53 Erskine, Archibald, 53 Erskine, Cardinal Charles, 52–61 Erskine, Colin, 52 Erskine, Lord, 82, 216 Everard, Matthew, 162 Fahrenheit, Gabriel Daniel, 111 Family networks, 147–51 Fanning, George, 190 Farquharson, John and Charles, 200 Fleming, Placid (Thomas), 47–9, 108–9 Forbes, Alexander, 131 Forbes, James, 131 Forbes, Thomas, 35 Forbes, William “Danzig Willie”, 75, 106 Forrester, Alexander, 200 Franciscans, 39, 67, 149, 153–4, 180, 182–7, 189, 191, 196

index Franeau, Jacques, Francois and Antoine, 142 Fraser, James, 72, 74 Fraser, William, 205 Fraserburgh College, 2 Frederick V, Elector Palatine, 33 Fyfe, Thomas, 50, 71, 102 Galileo, 87, 92–3, 107, 113 Geddes, Alexander, 120–7, 210 Geddes, John, 51, 119–20, 124, 202 Geddes, William, 181 George III, 52–5, 59 Gibb/Gibbs, James, 76, 78–82, 210, 213 Gibb, Patrick, 78 Gibson, Charles, 162 Gigli, Agatha, 52 Godsman, Alexander, 120, 200 Gordon Family, 21, 176 Gordon of Auchendoun, Adam, 21, 30 Gordon of Craig, 177 Gordon, Adam, 39 Gordon, Alexander, 122, 131–2, 200 Gordon, Alexander, 2nd Duke of, 149, 199, 207 Gordon, Andreas (George), 5, 103, 107, 109–19, 211 Gordon, Fr., 58 Gordon, General Patrick, 11 Gordon, James (I), 19, 21, 78 Gordon, James (II), 149, 176, 195–6, 199–200 Gordon, John, 100, 119 Gordon, Lord George, 207 Gordon, Patrick, SJ, 200 Gordon, Peter, 167 Gordon, Robert, 39 Gordon, William, 149 Grant, Bernard, 117 Grant, Bishop, 206–7 Grant, Erhard, 109 Grant, James, 200 Greirson, John, 159 Güricke, Otto von, 111 Hamilton Palace, 77 Hamilton, Francis, 16 Hamilton, John, 178 Hamilton, Marshall, 42 Hamilton, Matthew, 159 Hamilton, Sir Thomas, 1st Earl of Haddington, 178 Hamilton, Thomas, 146 Hawksmoor, Nicholas, 79, 81

223

Hay Family, 148, 215 Hay, Bishop, 55, 206–7 Hay, Edmund, 176 Hay, George, 122 Hay, John, 10, 12, 17, 19 Hegarty, Patrick, 183, 185, 187 Henrietta Maria, Queen, 33–5, 38, 40–1 Henry, Duke of York, Cardinal, 52–3 Hoeschel, David, 92 Holt, Fr, 17, 19, 176 Hudson, James, 50 Hume, David, 119–20 Huntley/Huntly See Gordon Family Huntley, Earl of, 21, 149 Huntley, Marquis of, 177 Ickstatt, Johann Adam von, 115 Ingles, Gilbert, 22 Innes of Drumgask, James, 173 Innes of Leuchars, Robert, 40 Innes, Abbé, 58 Innes, Alexander, 74 Innes, David, Bishop of Moray, 24 Innes, James, 172 Innes, Louis, 47, 104–5, Innes, Sir George, 30 Innes, Thomas, 103 Innes, Walter, 193 Jaillot, Bernard, 72 James IV, 88 James VI/I, 9, 14, 16–20, 23, 27, 32–3, 38, 63, 88–94, 134, 163, 174, 176–7, 179–80, 183, 186 James VII/II, 47–9, 76, 78, 104, 119, 135, 192–4 James VIII/III, (Old Pretender), 52, 103–4, 203 James, John, 79 Jansenism, 122, 199, 212 Jesuits, 8–10, 12, 17–26, 29–36, 45, 48–51, 65–73, 76, 79, 82–6, 91, 93, 98–102, 107–8, 110, 113–5, 117, 129–31, 134–6, 141, 153–4, 158, 163–83, 187–9, 192, 195–6, 199–200, 202, 212 Johnson, Joseph, 124–6 Kellie, Archibald Erskine, 7th Earl of, 53, 59 Kennedy Family, 148, 215 Kennedy, Ildephonse (Thomas), 103, 107, 117–9, 211 Kennicott, Benjamin, 123

224

index

Kepler, Johannes, 93 King’s College, Cambridge, 81 Kleist, Edwald Georg von, 116 Knox, Alexander, (Bishop of the Isles), 186 Lamont, John, 118 Laud, Archbishop, 36, 38 Law, David, 21, 177 Lazarists, 131, 153, 190–1 Leighton, Andrew, 159 Leith, Alexander, 40 Leith, Andrew, 181 Leith, George, 44 Leith, Robert, 200–1 Lennox, Earl of, 17–8, 38 Leslie, Alexander “Hardboots”, 45, 192–3, 200 Leslie, Ernest, 95, 103 Leslie, George, 181, 187 Leslie, James, (Count of Holy Roman Empire), 47, 108, 162 Leslie, John, 103, 108 Leslie, John, (Bishop of Ross), 7–9, 11–4, 17, 22–3, 31–2, 174 Leslie, Walter, (General, Count of the Holy Roman Empire), 108 Leslie, William, 162, 179, 181 Leslie, William Aloysius, 103 Leslie, William, (Bishop of Vacs), 162 Leslie, William “Don Guillielmo”, 41, 43, 45, 47–8, 78, 105, 164, 188–9, 192 Lieth, Gallus, 110 Lindsey, Roger, 152, 178, 180–1 Lipsius, Justus, 88–91, 94 Louis XIII, 33, 36–7 Louis XIV, 48, 56, 101, 162 Louvain, 88–91, 175 Lowth, Robert (Bishop), 122, 124 Loyola, Ignatius, 67–8, 83 Ludolff, Christian Friedrich, 112–3 Lumsden, Alexander, 190 Lumsden, Thomas, 190–1 Lumsden, William 25, 70, 101 Macdonald of Benbecula, Ranald, 185 Macdonald of Glenaladale, John, 204 Macdonald of Keppoch, Alistair, 183 Macdonald, Alan, 200, 204 Macdonald, Alexander, 204–5 Macdonald, Augustin, 204 Macdonald, Donald, 61 Macdonald, Hugh (Bishop), 199–201 Macdonald, James, 204–5

Macdonald, Roderick, 205 Macdonnell, Aeneas, (1st Lord Macdonnell and Aros), 191 Macdonnell, Alexander “Scotus”, 205 Macdonnell, Francis, 191 Macdonnell, Mark, 191 MacEachran, Angus, 205 Macleod of Harris, Roderick, 183 MacMhaighstir, Alisdair, 198 Macpherson, Abbé Paul, 58, 173, 204, 214 Maitland of Lethington, Margaret, 44 Maitland, Robert, 200 Major, John, 62, 87–8 Mar, Annabella, Countess of, 174 Mar, Earl of, 79–80, 82 Mary, Queen of England, 19 Mary, Queen of Scots, 6–9, 11, 16–20, 22, 24–5, 27, 32, 40, 65, 67, 99, 148, 174–6, 215 Mary, of Guise, Queen, 6 Maxwell, James Clark, 118 Maxwell, John, 102 Maxwell, John 8th Earl of, 18 Maxwell, John 9th Lord, 178 Maxwell, Roger, 193 McBreck, James, 181, 187–8 McCann, Edmund, 182–3, 187 McDonald, Col Ciotach, 183 McDonald, Sir James, 183 McKie, Sir Williiam, 174 McNeill of Carskey, Hector, 183–4 Medici, Cosimo de, 93 Medici, Marie de, 33, 37 Melville, Andrew, 63, 69, 87, 178 Menteith of Salmonet, Sir Patrick, 44 Mentieth, William, 167 Menzies of Balgannie, John, 162 Menzies of Pitfodels Family, 75, 199 Mercator, Gerhard, 91 Methodus Sturmiana, 68 Modus Bononiensis, 68 Modus Parisiensis, 68–71, 95, 98 Montagu, Walter, 38 Montfauçon, Bernard de, 115 Morra, Lucio, 182 Mortimer, George, 179–80 Mowat, James, 42 Murat, General, 57 Musschenbroek, Peter, 116 Mylne, Robert, 76 Naismith, Sir Andrew, 174 Napoleon, 49, 51, 55–61, 73

index Nesmyth, James, 159 Newhailes, 77 Newton, Isaac, 85, 107, 111, 114, 211 Nicholson of Kemnay, Sir Thomas, 194 Nicholson, Sir George, Lord of Session, 194 Nicholson, Thomas (Bishop), 47–8, 136, 153, 164, 174, 179, 193–9 Ninguarda, Cardinal, 12, 15 Nithsdale, Earls of, 150 Nollet, Jean Antoine, 112–3, 116–7 O’Neill, Paul, 183–4, 187 Occo, Adolf, 91 Ogilvie, Alexander, 167 Ogilvie, John, 154, 182 Ogilvie, Saint John, 135, 179–81 Ogilvie, William, 35, 176, 187 Ogilvie, William (Abbot), 49 Ogstoun, John, 179 Opfermann, Lucas, 114 Ortelius, Abraham, 91 Owen, James, 174 Palace of Holyrood, 76–7 Panton, Hieronymus, 109 Panzani, Gregorio, 34–5 Penal Laws, 2, 43, 61, 119, 125, 134, 137, 145, 147, 173–4, 180, 197, 200, 203, 206–7, 212 Persons, Robert, 17–8, 176 Petre, Lord, 122, 124, 126 Pfriemb, Joseph, 114 Philip II, 8–9, 16–9, 21, 27–8, 175 Philip IV, 29, 70 Philip V, 50, 104 Philip, Robert, 38, 40, 180–1 Pinelli, Giovanni, 92 Plunkett, Oliver (Archbishop), 191–2, 196 Popes Benedict XIV, 115 Clement VII, 20–1 Clement VIII, 23 Clement XIII, 203 Clement XIV, 202 Gregory XIII, 8–9, 12–4, 18–9, 21–2, 25, 65, 175 Gregory XV, 26, 163, 183, 187 Innocent XI, 56 Leo X, 13 Paul V, 23, 89, 182 Pius V, 8

225

Pius VI, 52–7 Pius VII, 56–9 Sixtus V, 19, 176 Urban VIII, 23–4, 33–8, 41, 183, 187 Primrose, Thomas, 154, 190 Propaganda Fide, 24, 26, 29, 41, 43, 46, 48, 55, 58, 78, 104–5, 129, 138, 140, 153, 155, 157–8, 163–4, 166, 168, 170, 179, 183–202, 206–7 Quadrivium, 9, 31, 45, 64, 69–73, 83–6, 96–7, 101–2, 130, 135–8, 144, 155–6 Rada, Antonio, 31 Radcliffe Camera, 81 Ratio Studiorum, 70, 82–7, 96–8, 107, 130, 172, 176 Reid, Lord John, 40 Reid, Thomas, 88–91, 94–5, 211 Riccoboni, Antonio, 92 Ritterakadamien, 70 Rob, John, 22 Rob, Thomas, 131, 141, 152, 167 Rospigliosi, Cardinal, 186 Rossetti, Carlo, 38 Row, John, 175 Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences, 103, 118–9, 211 Rudolph II, 11, 13–4 Ruthven Raid, 18 Rysbrack, John Michael, 80 Saltmarsh, Bishop, 163 Schottenklöster, 2, 4, 12–6, 47–9, 51, 61, 65, 72–5, 84, 94, 97, 110, 118–9, 129–133, 154, 162, 164–5, 211 Schottus, Andreas, 91 Scottish Enterprise, 17, 19, 176 Scotus, Vincentius Marianus, 190 Secular priests, 11–3, 21, 26, 30, 34, 43, 45–9, 70, 153–64, 168–70, 175, 178, 211 Seget, Thomas, 88–94, 107, 211 Sempill, Robert 3rd Lord, 28 Semple, Gilbert, 28 Semple, Hugh, 28, 30, 70, 74–5, 85, 87, 101, 103, 187 Semple, William (Colonel), 19, 27–30, 172 Senate House Cambridge, 81 Seton, Alexander, See Dunfermline, Earl of Seton, Alexander, 179

226

index

Seton, George, 5th Lord, 16, 27 Seton, James, 178 Seton, John, Fr., 74 Seton, John, Sir, 27 Seton, Robert, 193 Sharp, James, 1 Sharp, John, 1 Sharp, William, 167 Simonides, See Szymonowicz Sloan, Alexander, 106 Smith, Alexander, (Bishop), 199–201, 207 Smith, James, 76–8, 82, 210, 213 Smith, John, 167, 188 Snow Kirk, 1 Sorbonne, 68 SSPCK, 197–8 St Germain, 47, 49, 104 St Martin-in-the-Fields, 80 St Mary le Strand, 79 Stewart, Esmé, See Lennox Earl of Stichel, Patrick, 179, 181 Strachan, Alexander, 202 Strachan, Francis, 50–1 Strachan, George, 94, 146–7, 175, 211 Stuart d’Aubigny, Ludovic, 38 Stuart Papers, 48 Stuart, Charles, See Traquair, Earl of Stuart, Charles Edward, Prince (Young Pretender), 53, 202 Stuart, Henry, Duke of York, Cardinal, 52–3 Stuart, James, 188 Stuart, John (I), 154, 182–3 Stuart, John (II), 16 Stuart, Maurice, 135 Stuart, Maurus, 108 Szymonowicz, Szymon, 93 Thomson, James, 167 Thomson, William, 180 Traquair, Earl of, 120, 122, 124 Treaty of Edinburgh, 6, 174 Trivium, 9, 45, 48, 64, 69, 71, 83–6, 97, 101–2, 130, 135, 137–8, 144, 156 Tyrie, John (I), 9, 19–20, 82, 172, 176 Tyrie, John (II), 200 Universities Alcala, 67, 101 Bamberg, 115

Braunsberg, 10, 70, 159, 172, 175–6, 179 Collegio Romano, 9, 23, 32, 69, 82, 85, 93, 99, 101, 104 Douai, 11, 21, 65, 69, 88, 101 Edinburgh, 2, 63, 91 Erfurt, 12, 47, 49, 107–13, 117, 165 Glasgow, 2, 7, 28, 62–3, 69, 101, 194 Gottingen, 123 Herbron, 84 King’s College, Aberdeen, 2, 4, 7–8, 43, 62, 69, 72, 174 Leiden, 2, 63–4, 89, 91, 94, 116 Marischal College, Aberdeen, 2, 63, 78, 90–1, 121 Nimes, 89 Oxford, 7, 81 Paris, 11, 24, 65, 67–70, 88, 98, 101, 178 St Andrews, 2, 7, 63–4, 69 Toulouse, 89 Würzburg, 104, 107, 113–4, 130 Urquhart of Meldrum Family, 75, 136, 149, 199 Valens, Robert, 158, 167, 181, 188 Vargas, Mejia, 17 Vendeans, 56 Vendius, Erasmus, 15 Vesalius, Andreas, 92 Vitelleschi, Muzio, 172 Walker, John, 158, 189 Wallace, John (Bishop), 199 Ward, Cornelius, 183–7 Ward, William, 93 Watson, Thomas (Bishop), 178 Welser, Marc, 91 Wemys, John, 21, 204 White, Francis, 190–1 Whitehill, See Newhailes Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria, 15 William and Mary, 76, 78 Winchester, See Winster Alexander Winster, Alexander, 192–3 Winzet, Ninian, 11–15, 48, 65–6, 101 Wolff, Christian, 110, 112 Wotton, Sir Henry, 92 Yester House, 77 Young Glengarry, 191