Chapter XIV: Abbots Henry Crichton and George Schaw, 1459—1498
Abbot Crichton's life at Paisley had been comparatively uneventful and quiet, but his removal occasioned no small stir throughout Scotland. It was an act of royal favouritism which has occasioned much comment, not of a very favourable kind, and has been referred to by a well-known historian of the Church of Rome [12] as the beginning of those abuses which led to the downfall of that Church in Scotland. Hitherto the Abbot had been elected to his high position by the monks of his Monastery, and it may be presumed they exercised their right with considerable discrimination, if we may judge from the position which the dignified ecclesiastics occupied among the leading men of their time. Sometimes the monks chose some brother who had occupied an inferior position —the sub-prior or the cellarer—and sometimes one of themselves, who had shown aptitude for business and the management of secular transactions; generally those whom they selected were well able to hold their own in Court or in Parliament, and again and again filled the high position of ambassadors and officers of State. This mode of election was very jealously guarded, and in the reign of James III. Parliament passed an act declaring any nomination to an abbey or a cathedral, even by the Pope invalid, and asserting the right of the clergy to the election of their own dignitaries. [13] The King who sanctioned this law was the first to violate it. The monks of Dunfermline, on a vacancy occurring in their Abbey, elected in the usual way one of their own number, Alexander Thomson, to be their Abbot, but the King interfered, annulled the election, and promoted Henry Crichton to Dunfermline. It is supposed that the transaction was effected by a bribe, which is not unlikely. The Pope, at the request of the King, confirmed the appointment, and thus inaugurated a system which was most disastrous in every way to the Church. Men were appointed to abbacies who knew nothing of monastic discipline, and who were totally unfit to govern the Convent over which they were placed. When an abbacy became vacant it was sold for money, or given to reward services often of a very doubtful character. Many of the abbots were the bastard sons of nobles. Nothing could have been more hurtful to the Church than this system of appointment. It led to the decay of order and good government. Abbots were found oftener at Court than in their convent; some of them never made any pretence to piety at all, many led lives of a shameless character, [14] and even the monasteries under their charge became nurseries of vice.
[12] Bishop Leslie.
[13] Cunninghame's Ch. Hist. Vol. I., p. 200, cap. 12. Thomson's Acts, Vol. II., p. 83.
[14] Lest this should be thought exaggerated, we may give the following account of the promotion of Crichton from the Catholic Bishop of Ross:—“The Abbacye of Dumfermlinge, vacand, the Convent chusit ane of thair awne monks callit Alexander Thomsoune, and the King promovit Henry Creightoune, Abbot of Paslaye there to, quha wes preferit be the Paip through the King's supplications to the said Abbacye, and sic like Mister George Shawe, Persoun of Mynto, wes promovit be the King to the Abbacye of Paslaye, and sua there first began sic manner of promotioun of secularis to Abbacyies be the Kingis' supplications, and the godly erections were frustrate and destroyed becaus that the Court of Rome admittit the Princes' supplications the rather that they gat gret soumes of money thairby, wherefore the bischoppis durst not confirm thame that wes chosen be the Convent, nor thay quha were electit durst not maintain thair awne right, and sua abbayes cam to secular abussis, the Abbotis and Pryouris being promovit forth of the Court wha livit courtlyke, secularlye, and voluptouslye, and than cessit all religious and godlyke mynds and dedis whair withe the secularis and temporal men beand sklandirit with thair evil example feisfra all devocioun and godlyness to the warkis of wickedness whairof daily meikle evil did increase.”—Lesley's de Reb. gest. Scot., 1574.