Chapter XVII: Abbot Robert,
1498-1525
So wrote Abbot Robert, like many another man at that sad court, where bribery and corruption held sway, involved in the toils of intrigue and deceit which were spread around. He made enemies, politic though he was. In the December of 1524, while hanging on at Court, he received ominous notice that the two powerful Earls —Angus and Lennox—intended to keep their Christmas in his Monastery at Paisley. Their proposed visit was certainly a strain upon the hospitality of the Convent, as they were to be accompanied by two hundred men. In his distress at this threatened invasion of the Abbey, he betook himself for help to his friend, Dr. Magnus, the English Ambassador. “The good Abbot of Pasley,” [30] Magnus wrote to Cardinal Wolsey, then in the height of his power, “of late shewed unto me he was likely to sustyne gret hurte and damage, both to himself and his Monastery, by the said two earls, if remedy were not founden in tyme convenient, for as he shewed to me the said two earls intended to keep their Christmas in his house, and to use everything there at their liberty and pleasure, both for horse and man, to the number of two hundred persons, and, therefore, desired me to write for him to the said Earl of Angwisch, and so I did.” The letter of Magnus to the earl has been found among the repositories of the State Paper office. [31] “Mine own good lorde,” he says, “full heartely I recommend me unto your lordship, and where, among other things, it is reported here that ye and my Lord Lennox, with your company and servants attending upon you, do use the house and Monastery of Pasley, as if the same were your own, and intend so to continue, and to use it for a season to the great hurt and hynderance of the said Monastery, so that the monks and brethren of that house, with good and convenient hospitality, cannot nor may be maintained as to the same it doth of right appertain. I, your assured friend and good lover, do marvell thereof, considering, as I know of truth, how well and how lovingly the Abbot of that Monastery beareth his special and singular good mind and person to your good lordship, and to my said Lord of Lennox. Insomuch as his lordship hath sustained no little blame for both your causes, and is, and will be content that both your lordships shall have your pleasure in his Monastery as any lords in all Scotland, ye both shall be welcome to that house, using it as his friends and loving lord is in good and reasonable manner.” The invasion that threatened the Abbey never took place, and the monks, it would appear, escaped all intrusion from the stalwart troopers of the two earls, for Angus wrote the English Ambassador in reply to his remonstrance, that he intended to spend his Christmas with the Earl of Lennox, and would do nothing to the displeasure of “my Lord of Paisley,” and that nothing but what he might wish would be done either to his place or himself. [32]The brethren thus enjoyed their Christmas festivities in peace.
Abbot Robert desired, like most other Scotch courtiers, some reward for his services ; and Hals, the English spy, writes to Norfolk, “The Abbot of Paisley hath made meanings unto me, not by his own speech, but by others, to write unto your grace to be good lord unto him.” What the Abbot sought by his hints through friends was the office which his uncle had held, that of treasurer, but better promotion was in store for him. The Bishopric of Moray became vacant, and those in power arranged that he should be promoted to it.
[30] Ibid., No. 138.
[31] State papers, Scotland, Henry VIII., Vol. II, No. 86.
[32] State Papers, Scotland, Henry VIII., Vol. II., No. 87.