Chapter X: Wallace and Bruce, 1297-1329
All readers of Scottish history are familiar with the story of the murder of the Red Comyn by Robert Bruce before the high altar of the Franciscan Friars of Dumfries. It has been told with all its picturesqueness by all writers of our national annals. It is as weird an incident as any therein related, Bruce stabbing his rival with his dagger in the privacy of the church and going into the street defiled with blood—
Kilpatrick's bloody dirk,
Making sure of murder's work.
The deed lay heavy on the conscience of the King, and though it is said
he was absolved by the patriotic Bishop of Glasgow before assuming the
crown, he longed for the assurance of pardon from the Pope himself, and sent messengers to obtain it from him. [18] Who these messengers were we are not told, but it is very probable the good offices of the Stewart were employed. He had been associated with Bruce in the closest manner, and was a very fit messenger on this occasion. The Pope (Clement V.) was at the time at Poictiers with Philip, the King of France, and the Stewart knew the latter well, having a few years previously (1307) been sent to him by the Scots to obtain his aid. In the Stewart the King had a powerful advocate, and he did not plead in vain. The Pope had at that time been taking considerable interest in the affairs of Scotland. He was angry at the imprisonment of the Bishop of Glasgow, and was disposed to lend a favourable ear to the petition of the Scottish King. It was, however, desirable that the boon sought should be bestowed in as quiet a manner as possible, that offence might not be given to the English sovereign. A commission was therefore issued to the Abbot of Paisley by Berengarius, the penitentiary of the Pope, to absolve the Bruce, and appoint him proper penance for his crime. Berengarius was a well-known cardinal, and was in attendance on the Pope at Poictiers. The commission would likely have been sent to the Bishop of Glasgow had not that prelate at the time been in an English prison. The name of the Abbot of Paisley might have been readily suggested by his friend the Stewart, and it may also have been thought that, as he had suffered so much from the English, he deserved to have the honour conferred upon him of restoring to the full favour of the Church their greatest foe. As the incident is interesting, we may here give the text of the commission :—
BERENGARIUS, by the Divine mercy Cardinal Presbyter, by the title of Saint Nereus and Achilles, to the holy man the Abbot of the Monastery of Paisley, of the Order of Saint Benedict, in the diocese of Glasgow, salvation in the Lord. A petition presented to us by a certain noble, Robert de Bruce, layman of Carrik in the said diocese, stated That he lately, with certain accomplices, being inspired by the Devil, slew John and Robert Comyn, knights, who provoked him very much, in the church of the Minorite brothers of Dumfries. But as he and his accomplices, on account of the great strifes and the perils of war, are not able to go to the Apostolic Seat, or even his own diocesan or his vicar, he humbly made supplication that he and his accomplices might be mercifully dealt with by that Seat. We, therefore, who rejoice to succour the faithful in Christ, by the authority of the Lord Pope, whose penitentiary we are, and, indeed, are the utterance of his living voice, commit the matter to your dis¬cretion, that, if it is as has been stated, you may, after the said Robert and his accomplices have made proper satisfaction to the aforesaid church, absolve him and them for this occasion from the excommunication which they have incurred for this thing, and from the charge of slaying that layman, according to the customary form of the Church, and after having heard with care their confession and considered their fault, you may appoint them, by the said authority, salutary penance and those other things which are commanded by law. Given at Picenum, tenth kalends of August, and the third year of the pontificate of Clement the Fifth.”
[19]
[18] I have given in full in the appendix my reasons for believing the correctness of this incident as given in Fordun by Goodall, Vol. II., p. 231.
[19] I have in the appendix given my grounds for supposing Picenum for being a misreading of Poictiers.—Goodall has shown in his notes that the date is as given above.