THE CATHEDRAL CLERGY OF IN THE EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY1

Ian B. Cowan with Michael J. Yellowlees

Since a recent survey of Scottish material in the Vatican archives, much more is known about the organisation of the medieval church in in general and in the in particular.2 The names of the clergy who served the cathedral in various capacities from the twelfth century until the Reformation in the mid-sixteenth can be established with some certainty and the identities of many of the diocesan clergy can also be ascer• tained for numerous parishes.3 Their tenure of office and the bit• ter struggles which occasionally characterised their search for benefices are frequently documented, as are sometimes their educational qualifications and blood relationships with kings, magnates and commoners. Little, however, is known about their daily lives and how they measured up to their vocation as priests. This is a fact which is common to all Scottish dioceses, with one exception, that of Dunkeld. In this case, here one of the canons, Alexander Myln,4 not only wrote an account of the lives of the bishops of Dunkeld, but added to it a pen-picture of his fellow

1 This paper was originally delivered at the AGM of the Society of Friends of Dunkeld Cathedral on 14 April 1988. Permission to reproduce it, in slighdy am• plified form, has kindly been granted by Mrs Anna Cowan and Mr J J. Robertson, the literary executor of Professor Cowan. Thanks are also due to Michael Moss, Glasgow University Archivist, and to Professor Allan Macinnes for their help in uncovering it. 2 A wealth of information is contained in the draft calendars of materials in the Vatican archives held by Glasgow University; see LB. Cowan, 'The Vatican Archives: a report on pre-Reformation Scottish material', SHR, xlviii (1969), 227- 42. A synopsis of the Scottish cases in the Manualia of the Sacra Romana Rota, which includes 28 cases from Dunkeld between 1464 and 1560, is currently being prepared for publication by Mr J.J. Robertson. 3 For the cathedral dignitaries, see Watt, Fasti, 93-126. There has been no study of the Dunkeld Cathedral clergy in the first half of the sixteenth century, but lists of dignitaries, canons and chaplains in the Reformation period are con• tained in MJ. Yellowlees, 'Dunkeld and the Reformation' (Edinburgh University Ph.D., 1990), 339-55. 4 DNB, xiv, 2-3; Camb. Reg., pp.lxxxviii-xcvi; DSCHT, 616. THE CATHEDRAL CLERGY OF DUNKELD 137 canons and their deputies—the vicars choral—shortly after the death of Bishop George Brown in January 1515.5 Amongst Brown's achievements Myln listed the refurbishment of the cath• edral and the construction of the palace on Loch Clunie, the bridge over the Tay and St George's Hospital. The hospital was restored following the discovery in an old diocesan register of a forgotten hospital prebend from the lands of Ferdischaw. These revenues combined with those of Logiebride to provide a hospital with a master, who was responsible for seven poor folk. Myln enjoyed a particularly close relationship with Brown, attending him on his death-bed and then acting as his executor.6 Who were these clergy and how did they fit into the daily life of the cathedral? First and foremost, it should be understood that the bishop had no formal authority within a church which at first glance might appear to be his rightful charge. Instead, he could officiate only as a simple member of a chapter which constituted the ruling of the body of the cathedral in both spiritual and temporal matters. Even this concession was not universal: although the was accepted as a member of the chapter the archbishop of Glasgow was effectively debarred from such a position. Nevertheless at Dunkeld, as elsewhere, the dean held pre-eminence.7 The dean, as head of the chapter which constituted the clergy of the cathedral, was assisted by various other dignitaries—the chanter or precentor who was responsible for the song school and the cathedral services; the chancellor who looked after the cathedral's library as well as its writing house or chancery; and the treasurer who was custodian of the cathedral's jewels and pre• cious objects, which at Dunkeld included the famous Columban relics reputedly removed to or the Western Isles at the Reformation. To these four principal persons could be added the archdeacon, the 'eyes and ears of the bishop' who was responsible for discipline among the diocesan clergy, and also a varying number of canons including a sub-dean and sub-chanter; these numbered seventeen in all at Dunkeld and as a body were

5 A. Myln, Vitae Dunkeldensis Ecclesiae Episcoporum ...ad annum MDXV (Bann. Club, 1823; later edition, 1831). The period covering George Brown's episcopate is translated in Dunkeld Rentale (SHS, 1915). 6 Dunkeld Rentale, 314-15, 318-20. 7 As well as the dean there were four rural deans established in the late fif• teenth and early sixteenth centuries to oversee discipline in the various parts of the diocese: Dunkeld Rentale, 304; Watt, Fasti, 102-06, 122-4.