1 Five Thirteenth-Century Papal Bulls for Paisley Abbey Dr Matthew Hammond, King’s College London PRONI, 12 June 2019. Today we will be exploring the history of Paisley abbey with the help of The People of Medieval Scotland web resource. At the heart of PoMS (www.poms.ac.uk) is a database with evidence from over 11,000 documents of the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, allowing us to create unique pages for over 22,000 People and Institutions, which allows people around the world to explore the activities, relationships, and occupations and titles of all these people. I don’t want to say that it’s like Facebook, but… It’s a little bit like a medieval facebook. As part of the COTR project (www.cotr.ac.uk ), we have recently expanded the database to include the charters of King Robert I and his son King David II, taking us up to 1371, and it is hoped to eventually complete the database with all kinds of documents up to 1406. [SLIDE: PAISLEY ABBEY] This is Paisley abbey’s page in PoMS, showing us its location just to the west of Glasgow. Today, I am going to talk for the next half hour about five papal bulls, four of which comprise the sole surviving contemporaneous, original documents from before the wars of independence relating to Paisley abbey, and they are why we are all here today. First, we’ll take a quick look at the five papal bulls. Then, I’ll tell you a bit about Paisley abbey and its early history. Finally, we’ll see how the five documents we have here before us today fit into that broader story. [SLIDE: 1219 PAPAL BULL] Ladies and gentlemen, the star of the show, what we are all here for today! This document was made, or at least dated, 800 years ago today, on 12 June 1219. It was written here, at Rieti [SLIDE] in Lazio in the mountains north of Rome, where the popes had a residence [SLIDE]. Pope Honorius III [SLIDE], previously known as Cardinal Cencio Savelli, was an elderly and frail Roman aristocrat elected in 1216 to succeed the reforming juggernaut Innocent III. Honorius is primarily remembered for orchestrating the Fifth Crusade and sanctioning the new mendicant orders of friars; [SLIDE: MS again] those things, of course, 2 and being responsible for the oldest manuscript document in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, providing the auspicious date which gathers us together today. Let’s start by really looking at the manuscript itself. This document appears to be on thin, high-quality lambskin vellum parchment. The fold at the bottom has two holes, where silk cords once held a lead papal bulla, if the corresponding documents in the collection are any indication. [SLIDE: Bulla of Gregory IX] The weight and the look of the lead bulla would have stood out to any medieval person encountering the document. Anyone who has even casually glanced at medieval seals will notice how different the papal seal looks. The immediate impression is of something from classical antiquity rather than the medieval period, of the pope as the inheritor of the authority and protector of the legacy of ancient Rome. On the front, we have saints Paul and Peter, on the back simply the name of the pope. This is a simple but powerful image. [SLIDE: TOP HALF] Returning to the document itself, just feast your eyes on all this luxurious and expensive blank space! Wasting space was something medieval scribes avoided at all costs. Showing you could afford to waste space was just showing off. The quality of the writing is expert, precise, and creative, with the initial H in Honorius’ name and the capital S in Solet and Specialiter particularly noteworthy. [SLIDE: BOTTOM HALF] The writing on the bottom line is spaced out to avoid any empty space at the end, a decision with practical as well as aesthetic connotations. Large white spaces between lines, long and delicate ascenders and descenders; these are the hallmarks of the handwriting of the papal chancery. All of these things together ooze power, prestige, and the apex of authority. [SLIDE] For comparison, we can take a look at a contemporaneous royal document. This 1224 charter of Alexander II, king of Scots, records the gift of some lands in Dumfries-shire to one Thomas de Aunay.1 [SLIDE] 1 RRS, iii, no. 96; BL, Add. Ch. 76700 3 The lines and lettering are less neat, with little space between them, the general effect messier, the parchment of cheaper quality and the seal attached with a parchment tag. [SLIDE: BALMERINO] Even when kings sought to copy some of the sophistication of papal writing practice, such as this charter for a newly founded Cistercian abbey at Balmerino in Fife, they don’t achieve the same level of even these fairly mundane papal documents. So what is this papal bull actually about? Honorius is taking the prior and monastery of Cluny, following the example of his predecessor pope Innocent, under the protection of himself and St Peter. Many papal letters begin in this way, placing the religious house under the pope’s wide umbrella of protection, before moving on to more specific matters. In this case, Honorius is confirming the priory in their possession of the churches of Cathcart, Rutherglen, Carmunnock, Kilbarchan, Mearns and Pollok, all in the Paisley area, which had previously been granted by Bishop Jocelin of Glasgow and confirmed by bishop-elect Florence. [SLIDE: POMS] If we go to the relevant page in the PoMS database, we see the location of these churches mapped out. [SLIDE OF BULL NO. 2] The second document in our collection is a bull of Pope Gregory IX, dating to the 10 th of June, 1232, at Spoleto not far from Rieti. The initial decorated G. is worth zooming in on, and we also have the surviving lead bulla. [SLIDE of details] This document confirms an agreement between Paisley and the bishop of Glasgow, regarding the taxation of vicarages in the diocese of Glasgow, which had been settled by papal judges delegate. We will return to this question later. [SLIDE: POPE CLEMENT BULL] Our third document is in the name of Pope Clement IV, formerly Gui Foucois from the south of France, and pope from only 1265 to 1268. This bull was dated 28 March 1265 at Perugia, in the same place, and less than two months after his election. [SLIDE: DETAIL] This is a kind of document known as an indulgence, stating that no one may bring the abbot and convent of Paisley into a secular court regarding the lands that they held in free and perpetual alms. The relevance of this will again become clear later. [SLIDE : bull no. 4] 4 We have another original document from Pope Clement’s short reign. This is perhaps the most beautiful of all the manuscripts. The ornate decoration of Clement’s name is remarkable. [SLIDE: DETAIL] This was made a couple of months after the previous letter, also at Perugia. Here, Pope Clement is confirming an agreement between Abbot William of Paisley and Bishop of Walter of Glasgow, again regarding the taxation of church vicarages. [SLIDE: POMS MAP] Here, it is specified that the abbey had the right to appoint chaplains rather than perpetual vicars in the burgh church of St Nicholas of Prestwick, the church of Neilston, and of Rosneath. [SLIDE: BULL no. 5] Our fifth document today is another bull of Clement IV, but it only survives as a copy. In 1469, Simon Dalgleish, precentor and official of the episcopal court of Glasgow, made this judicial transcript. [SLIDE: DETAIL] This is a much longer document, by which the pope confirms all the possessions of Paisley abbey. [SLIDE: POMS DESCRIPTION] Just glancing at the description of the contents in the POMS database gives us a sense of the level of detail, as well as just how much the abbey had accrued around the 100-year mark. [SLIDE: POMS MAP] If we go to the transaction page for the confirmation of possessions, this map gives a visual impression of the spread of Paisley’s churches, lands, and other privileges and rights. [SLIDE: PAISLEY ABBEY] Now that we have had a look at our beautiful thirteenth-century manuscripts, let’s turn to the history of Paisley abbey itself. [POMS: WALTER SON OF ALAN] Paisley abbey was founded by Walter son of Alan, the first royal steward of Scotland, in 1163. His person page in PoMS shows the places where he witnessed charters (green dots) as well as the lands those charters dealt with (red dots). Walter, a younger son of the lineage of hereditary stewards of Dol in eastern Brittany, had joined the knightly entourage of King David I in the late 1130s, and may not have acquired the position of stewardship until about 1150. [POMS: MALCOLM IV CHARTER TO WALTER: TWO SLIDES] 5 Walter’s endowment from King David and his grandson, Malcolm IV, was based on Renfrew and the area known as Strathgryfe, which later became the sheriffdom or county of Renfrewshire. [MAP OF RENFREWSHIRE] Paisley was a monastery of the order of Cluny, and was thus ultimately under the authority of Cluny abbey in Burgundy. [SLIDE: CLUNY] Founded in 910, Cluny’s stricter and reform-minded take on Benedictine monasticism, especially under its abbot Odo (927 to 942), led to a far-flung and expansive network of religious houses by the 12th century, reaching some 2000 houses, after which time its star waned as newer pious movements such as the Cistercians gained favour. Paisley and its daughter house at Crossraguel were the only Cluniac houses in Scotland. [SLIDE: MUCH WENLOCK] Paisley itself was the daughter of Much Wenlock priory in Shropshire, where Walter’s brother Alan was busy founding the FitzAlan dynasty, who would go on to become earls of Arundel. Much Wenlock was founded 1079x82 by Roger de Montgomery, earl of Shrewsbury, from the French house of La Charité-sur-Loire. [SLIDE: Walter’s earliest charter] A copy of Walter’s foundation charter has been preserved in the late medieval cartulary, produced in the 1520s, now held in the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh. At the time of this charter, in 1162 or 63, what was envisioned was a relatively modest establishment at the steward’s caput of Renfrew, with a prior and 12 monks having a residence in the burgh and a boat and local fishing rights for salmon and herring to provide an income.2 [SLIDE: RENFREW AND PAISLEY] King Malcolm’s charter of confirmation, produced within a couple of years, shows that the steward had provided the house with a site on the island or inch beside his castle at Renfrew, as well as the church of Paisley with two ploughgates of land there, another church at the 2 Paisley Reg., 1-2 (3/547/11) 6 Stewart estate of Innerwick in East Lothian, and another ploughgate in Roxburghshire. 3 Paisley would thrive under the patronage of the Stewarts over the following centuries, but its power would rest more on control of local churches and it could never compete in the landholding arena with the great royal foundations like Kelso or Arbroath. It became, nevertheless, probably the largest and most powerful monastic establishment on Scotland’s west coast. By 1173, the foundling religious settlement was on a firm footing, having moved up the White Cart a couple of miles to the site of Paisley. Walter the steward’s much fuller charter composed at this time describes the church of St James and St Mirin and St Milburga of Paisley. [ST MIRIN SLIDE] Professor Geoffrey Barrow suggested intriguingly that Walter had gone to the pilgrimage site of St James of Compostella while at the Siege of Lisbon in 1147, part of the second crusade. This would explain the remarkable attraction to the name James to be found within the Stewart family, especially given its rarity in Britain at that point. St Milburga was a Mercian noblewoman of the late seventh century and the patron of Wenlock Priory, she disappeared from Paisley records after the first generation of monks died off. St Mirin was probably already associated with the church of Paisley, and remains the patron saint of the burgh today, commemorated periodically by football supporters. [WALTER LATER CHARTER MAP SLIDE] By 1173 as well, the burgeoning priory had gained control of all the churches of Strathgryfe except Inchinnan, as well as the church of Prestwick, the seat of the Stewarts’ other lordship of Kyle Stewart, and scattered other holdings. [SLIDE: ALAN SON OF WALTER] Paisley consolidated its position as the family monastery of the Stewarts under the term of Walter’s son Alan (1177-1204). Alan’s own additions to his father’s munificence were fairly meagre, such as ownership of the mill of Paisley, the upland estate of Moniabrock in Strathgryfe, and fishing rights in Lochwinnoch. [POMS: MONIABROCK in STRATHGRYFE] In this generation, moreover, it was the Stewart’s vassals and tenants turn to curry favour with their lord, and with The Lord, by supporting what was still the priory of Paisley. [SLIDE; GRANT OF CHURCHES] By this means they acquired the nearby parish 3 RRS, i, no. 254 (1/5/115) 7 churches of Pollok, Mearns, and Carmunnock, as well as Craigie further south in Kyle Stewart. [SLIDE: KINGARTH] With this firm foundation of churches, privileges, and some lands in Renfrewshire and Ayrshire, Paisley was set to benefit in the early thirteenth century from the Stewart’s expansion of power to the west. Around 1200, Alan took over Bute in the Firth of Clyde, and Paisley took over the ancient religious centre of Kingarth, home to the cult of St Blane. [SLIDE: RAGNALL & FONIA] Furthermore, Rognvald or Ragnall, son of Somerled and his wife ‘Fonia’ joined the confraternity of Paisley, despite the fact that Ranald himself founded a Cistercian house at Saddell in Kintyre. This confraternity, whereby Ranald and Fonia became brother and sister of the monks at Paisley, and of the whole of the Cluniac order, was a big deal. The monks were to receive 8 oxen and two silver pennies from every house from which smoke was expelled within his vast kingdom of Argyll and the Isles, and to continue receiving a penny from every house after this. [SLIDE: MAP] It is difficult to see how this was executed, or indeed how many years it was maintained, but it certainly gives an indication of the importance of such spiritual relationships for medieval rulers. The monks, for their part, saw the protection and support of Clann Somairle as vital for them to continue with their plans on the western seaboard and in the islands. For this reason, the charter specifies that Ranald and his heirs would instruct their men and beseech their friends to support the monks, under the threat of malediction from St Columba.4 [SLIDE: ERECTION TO ABBEY] IN the time of Alan’s son, Walter son of Alan II, steward from 1204 to 1241 and justiciar of Scotia from the 1230s, a number of interesting developments took place for Paisley. First of all, in 1219, Paisley went from being a mere priory to an abbey. Unlike monasteries of the Cistercians, Augustinians, and other orders, Cluniac daughter houses were expected to remain priories, expressing obedience to the abbot of Cluny, who sent delegates periodically to inspect the daughter houses. The 33 Cluniac priors of England 4 Paisley Reg., 125 (3/30/3) 8 and Wales, for example, were expected to attend the General Chapter at Cluny every three years.5 What unfolded in Scotland, however, was that the sole Cluniac foundation in 1219 was given the right to have an abbot. [SLIDE : paisley cartulary] On 15 July 1219 – maybe we can all meet in Paisley for the 800th anniversary of this event Pope Honorius III wrote to the bishop of Glasgow and the abbots of Kelso and Melrose, noting that the lack of an abbot in Paisley was causing danger to souls and the dissolution of order, the issue having been raised in letters by the young new king, Alexander II. Apparently among the evils of the current situation were the fact that monks would set off on horseback, allegedly to travel to Cluny, but in reality to rejoin the secular world. The bishop and abbots were to ensure that the prior had the resources to elect an abbot canonically.6 This was not the end of the story, however. At some point between that July and the following May, the bishop and abbots met at Jedburgh. Apparently the monastery’s patron, Walter Stewart, had insisted that the prior of Wenlock could come and have his say. In the event, the prior didn’t show up, the abbot of Melrose excused himself from the matter, and the remaining papal judges delegate gave Paisley the go ahead to elect an abbot. 7 It’s not at all clear in this whether Walter actually wanted Paisley to gain the abbatial status, and his own charter simply gave them the right to elect either an abbot or a prior. It seems likely that the Stewards had been able to control the choice of prior up to that point, but the house was seeking to gain independence. [IMAGE: SEAL OF PAISLEY ABBEY WITH STEWART COAT OF ARMS] In any event, after this episode Walter decided he wanted to found a new monastery on his other lordship, that of Kyle Stewart in Ayrshire. [MAP WITH KYLE STEWART] Walter began corresponding with the master of Sempringham, head of the unusual Gilbertine order of double-monasteries including Cistercian nuns and male Augustinian canons, along with lay-brothers and sisters, about founding a house on his land. Walter issued a charter establishing a house at Dalmilling near Ayr, and granting them a package of lands and rights. 5 http://www.monasticwales.org/article/7 Paisley Reg., 8-9 (2/139/33) 7 Paisley Reg., 8-9 (4/32/32); Ferguson, Medieval Papal Reps., App. I, no. 46 6 9 [SLIDE: POMS foundation] Sixhills Priory in Lincolnshire was to provide the new convent, but when the prior of Sixhills visited the site, he was apparently so unimpressed that the whole deal subsequently fell through. Walter have up at this point, and at some time around 1230, simply gave Dalmilling’s abortive endowment to Paisley abbey, greatly increasing its presence in Ayrshire. [SLIDE: 1265 CONF] This is clear when we look at the snapshot of Paisley’s holdings provided by the 1265 papal general confirmation. Walter also came under intense pressure at this time to convert Paisley to the Cistercian order, from both King Alexander II and various Cistercian abbots. Even Paisley’s first abbot, William, told the abbot of Cluny that he had promised the king he would advocate for the conversion. [SLIDE: THE CISTERCIAN THREAT] John Durkan even suggested that Stewart accepted the move to abbacy in 1219 in the hopes that Paisley would leave the Cluniacs. Walter and various Cistercians visited Paisley abbey in person in an attempt to try to convince the monks, but they were ultimately unpersuasive. This perceived opportunity also arose because Cluny was incensed by Paisley achieving abbatial status, and it was only in 1240 or 1241 that Cluny took Paisley back into the fold, with an agreement that the abbot would visit Cluny once every seven years.8 [SLIDE: CROSSRAGUEL] The Cluniacs did achieve a second Scottish house, when Cluny spawned a daughter house at Crossraguel in south Ayrshire. Walter Stewart’s sister Avelina, married a regional powerplayer, Duncan earl of Carrick. Earl Duncan gave three churches in Carrick and land at Crossraguel and Blanefield to Paisley abbey, which was confirmed by Pope Honorius III in 1227 and by King Alexander in 1236.9 [SLIDE: POMS] Earl Duncan apparently believed he was getting his own monastery, while the monks seemed to think all they had to provide was a small oratory. The bishop of Glasgow settled the dispute in 1244: not only did Paisley have to provide for an independent monastery at Crossraguel, but it was also to be free to elect its own abbot, provided they ‘conform to the order observed by the house of Paisley and shall provide visitation to the abbot of Paisley.’10 [SLIDE: POMS] Crossraguel Abbey was to pay an annual tribute to Paisley of ten marks, but there are signs that payment may have been stopped within a generation. 8 John Durkan, in Innes Review, 7 (1956) RRS, iii, no. 249 (1/7/256); Paisley Reg., 410-14 (2/139/104) 10 Paisley Reg., 424-5 (4/33/17) 9 10 In the time I have left, I would like to try to place our five papal bulls into the context of Paisley abbey’s history. [SLIDE: papal letters for paisley] Our four originals and one late medieval transumpt are part of a much larger body of papal documentation produced in favour of Paisley. The Paisley cartulary provides us with the texts of 47 such letters between 1173 and 1286. Examining this corpus allows us to gauge the kinds of issues on which Paisley’s relationship with the papacy hung. Many of the documents were confirmations of the abbey’s possession of churches given them, like our first bull of 1219, which confirmed six local churches. [SLIDE: 1219 BULL] These confirmations ranged from those dealing with a single property to grand confirmations covering all the abbey’s named possessions. A number of other documents are concerned with many of the issues already raised, such as Paisley’s relationship with Wenlock, Sempringham and Crossraguel. [SLIDE: 1265 DOC] One long letter of Clement IV, dated 11 June 1265, related the story of the dispute between the abbey and the earl of Carrick, and that Crossraguel was to pay Paisley 10 marks annually for their quitclaim of the earl’s donations. This document shows that twenty years after the agreement, Paisley was still petitioning the pope, feeling they had been shortchanged.11 The pope appointed papal judges delegate, but Paisley was unsuccessful. [SLIDE: TWO ORIGINAL BULLS] A number of the papal letters are concerned with ongoing disputes such as these. Two of our surviving originals relate to a running disagreement with the bishops of Glasgow over the valuation of vicarages. This issue came to the fore with the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, which upheld the principle that sufficient altar portions should be assigned to the parish priests. Bishops were to defend the rights of vicars to a separate endowment. As a results, disputes over the use of teinds (tithes) and offerings between bishops and monasteries were common. In 1225, Honorius III appointed the bishop of Argyll and two abbots at the instance of the abbot of Paisley, who complained that he was not receiving enough of the parish profits.12 [SLIDE: 1227 AGREEMENT] The judges delegate passed the case on to a panel of five mediators, who settled the dispute at Peebles in 1227 by making arrangements on a church-by-church basis. For example, several parish priests were assigned the altarage topped 11 12 Paisley Reg., 424 (2/146/10); Ian Cowan, ‘Vicarages and the cure of souls in medieval Scotland’ Paisley Reg., 320 (2/139/96); Ferguson no. 70 11 up with a certain amount of flour, or other dues.13 All of this is known from our 1469 transumpt papal bull of Pope Clement IV. [SLIDE: Another major dispute related to the church of Kilpatrick on the north side of the River Clyde. [SLIDE: Old Kilaptrick] This was a major early medieval church centre, as evidenced by its large medieval parish, now split into Old and New Kilpatrick. [SLIDE: New Kilpatrick] This church is why you occasionally see claims in the media that St Patrick originated here. [SLIDE: MEDIA] In any event, Earl Mael Domnaig of Lennox gave the church to Paisley abbey in the 1220s.14 The earl’s brother Dougal was the rector, and a dispute soon broke out with the abbey over the control of certain lands with which the church of Kilpatrick had been endowed, especially a piece of land called Monachkennaran. The abbey went to the pope, who appointed judges delegate, which led to Dougal resigning his claim and two other laymen being condemned for contumacy. [TRANSACTION: QUITCLAIM] This issue was revived around 1270, when three women claiming to be the nearest heirs of Dougal rector of Kilpatrick, together with their husbands, fought the abbey in the court of the earl of Lennox, agreeing on 12 Oct. 1270 to resign their claims to the abbey in return for 140 marks. The following spring, however, the claimants obtained a brieve to commence a royal process of inquest. The abbot would have preferred to stay firmly within the realm of ecclesiastical courts. It may have been for this reason that the abbot acquired papal indulgences from both Urban IV (1261x64) and Clement IV in 1265, the second of which is one of our original papal bulls. [SLIDE: PAPAL BULL #3] In any case, the result of the royal process was to bring the litigants back to the earl of Lennox’s court in 1273, with the end result being that Dougal’s heirs were paid their 140 marks, even if they had to pay back £40 to the abbey essentially for legal fees. [SLIDE: WHOLE CHARTER] We are also fortunate enough to have an original charter of John of the Wardrobe and his wife Mary, who was one of those litigants. [SLIDE: ZOOM] This document is an obligation 13 14 Paisley Reg., 319-22 (4/32/58), also 4/32/59 Paisley Reg., 158 12 or bond holding John and Mary to attend the earl of Lennox’s court in 1273, under the watchful eye of the bishop of Glasgow. [SLIDE: POMS] To conclude, I feel very fortunate that the four papal bulls and John’s charter survive here at PRONI, as very rare survivals of what was once a large archive covering Paisley abbey’s first 150 years. While these are only chance survivals, the papal bulls are outstanding examples of the output of the papal chancery, among a fairly small collection of surviving original bulls relating to Scotland. Furthermore, they shed light on several of the key dimensions of thirteenth-century monastic history, and today, 800 years later, that is well worth celebrating.