Canons Regularand the Reformation

CANONS REGULARAND THE REFORMATION Mark Dilworth OSB In the late Middle Ages, houses of canons regular and mon asteries of monks strictly so called had grown to be very like each other. The canons were priests living a monastic life, while monks —by definition, living a monastic life—usually received ordination as priests. Even if their calling was different in principle, their way of life was similar in practice. Canons and monks alike, in sixteenth-century Scotland, suffered the same vicissitudes such as inflation, taxation and warfare as well as what can only be de scribed as a general malaise. Communities were declining rather than flourishing and small priories became non-conventual, that is, a superior lived there without any other monk or canon. Monasteries were subjected to the predatory attentions of the crown and local magnates: not only was monastic property alien ated, but men who were not monks or canons were appointed as monastic superiors. There were two orders of canons regular: the Black Canons, also called Augustinians, and the White Canons, also called Nor bertines (after their founder, St Norbert) or Premonstratensians (after their mother house, Prémontré in northern France). Both followed the Rule of St Augustine, though the latter were more centralised and tightly organised as well as somewhat stricter in their observance. The only important difference between canons and monks was that canons could and did serve as vicars in parishes appropriated to their monastery. Even here, however, the evidence must be looked at closely, as some canons with the title (and presumably the revenue) of a parochial vicar did not serve personally in the parish. Despite the general malaise, the picture was not uniformly black. There were efforts to reform observance and signs of vit ality. Buildings were repaired, theological studies were main tained and music flourished to a remarkable degree. Scottish can ons regular played a part in Reformation controversies before 1560 and made a substantial, though uneven, contribution to the ranks of Protestant clergy. The most important and conspicuous sign of vitality was the CANONS REGULAR AND THE REFORMATION 165 founding of St Leonard's College by the canons of St Andrews.1 This Augustinian house was the wealthiest in Scotland and had the largest monastic community. As it was a cathedral priory, its superior was only a prior, but he enjoyed the use of pontifical insignia and ranked above all Scottish abbots. Prior James Hepburn founded St Leonard's in 1512 as a college of St Andrews university. He had been a secular cleric, not a canon, before his appointment as prior in 1483; he was also motivated by personal ambition and deeply involved in church politics. Nevertheless the foundation was a sign of Augustinian vitality and desire for re form. A monastic reform movement emanating from the Augustinian monastery of Windesheim in the Netherlands had coalesced to some extent with the efforts of a remarkable man, Jean Stan- donck, to reform university life for clerical students.2 His aim was to produce priests dedicated to study and to austere poverty; the place which exemplified his ideals was the College of Montaigu in Paris. The founding of St Leonard's as a 'College of Poor Clerks' owed much to this ideal, and John Annand, a St Andrews canon and possibly the first principal of the new college, had known Standonck well. The principal was to be a canon appointed by the prior, and visitations were to be conducted by the prior and conventual chapter. St Leonard's was in large measure an ap pendage of the priory, situated within the monastic confines, endowed with priory revenues and aimed at recruiting and trai ning young canons. The students, whether Augustinians or not, were treated as novices, under strict discipline and secluded from outside influences that might hinder their formation. St Leonard's gradually won acceptance within St Andrews Univ ersity and parity with the other colleges. Paradoxically, given the origins of its ethos, it played a significant part in preparing the ground for the Scottish Reformation. According to the historian Calderwood, a student imbued with Reformation principles was said to have drunk of St Leonard's well, while John Knox records two such alumni who were forced to flee abroad. The first, Alex ander Alane, a St Andrews canon, was born in Edinburgh in 1500, 1 For St Leonard's see J. Herkless & R.K. Hannay, The College of St Leonard (1905); StA. Acta, xliii ff;J. Durkan The cultural background in sixteenth-century Scotland', in McRoberts (ed.), Essays on Scottish Reformation, 293-5. 2 See also Richardinus, Commentary, xiii ff; H. Rashdall, The Universities of Eu rope in the Middle Ages (1905), i, 520-21n; iii, 412-13. .

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