Chapter VI: The Priory 1164—1248
The account of the transaction between the Abbey and the Island Lord, as given in the charter, is very curious. There is in the story much that tells of the wild chieftain. Reginald was the son of Somerled, Lord, as he is termed, of Inchegal, who led an army of wild Islesmen on a plundering expedition to the mainland, and had been slain at Renfrew [18] about the time that Humbald arrived there with his monks from Wenloc. Reginald became a great benefactor to the church. From an old Celtic record called the “Book of Clanranald, kept from time to time by the MacVurichs,” we learn that he was the most distinguished of his day among the Gael “for prosperity, sway of generosity, and feats of arms.” Three monasteries were founded by him, viz.:—A. Monastery of Black Monks in Iona, in honour of God and Columkille [19] a Monastery of Black Friars in the same place; and a Monastery of Grey Friars at Sagadale.[20] lf It may have been the circumstance of his father's death at Renfrew, in the neighbourhood of the newly-founded monastery, that led him to take an interest in the Paisley ecclesiastics, as well as those of far-away Iona. His “sway of generosity” was exercised to the full in favour of our Abbey. He bestows on the convent, for the first year, eight cows; and two pennies from every house in his dominions from which smoke proceeds ; and in every succeeding year, one penny ; while his wife, Fonia, gives a tenth of all the goods which God has given her, “both those which she retains for her own use and those which she sends by sea or land for sale.” Unless the tax is promptly paid by his heirs, he tells them they shall have his curse—a threat which to a highlander was of fearful import. He charges them to be always at peace with the brotherhood at Paisley; he beseeches his allies, and commands his men that wherever the monks or their men should go by land or sea they should hold them by the hand, [21] and aid them in all their transactions ; if his heirs ill-treat them they are to have his malediction, if his men, they are to be punished with death. This he swears by the most sacred oath an Islesman could take,—by the patron saint of all highlanders, Saint Columba of Iona. For those good offices toward the Priory he is made a brother, and Fonia is made a sister of the house of Paisley and of the whole order of Clugny, sharing in their prayers and the “rites of the divine service.” Reginald was buried at Iona. The Gaelic chronicle, which we have already quoted, says, that, “having obtained a cross from Jerusalem and having received extreme unction, he died, and was buried at Reilic Oran, at Iona, in A.D. 1207.” In the churchyard of the chapel in this sacred isle, there is a stone having on it a sword (which marks the grave of a warrior), a small cross, and below, a treasure-box, which is said to denote the founder of some church. This is probably the monument of Reginald, Lord of Inchegal, one of the first benefactors to the Abbey of Paisley. It has been supposed that about this time a colony of monks went from Paisley to Iona, and that this celebrated seat of learning and piety became a cell of Paisley, filled with Clunaic monks. [22] The Pope addresses a bull to Celestinus, Abbot of Iona, dated 9th December, 1203, and to the brethren, present and future, then professing a religious or monastic life, and takes under his protection the Monastery of St. Columba, in order that the monastic order instituted in that place, according to God and the rule of Saint Benedict, may be preserved inviolate in all time to come. It is evident, however, that this monastery could not have been an offshoot from Paisley. The superior is designated an abbot, and the house of Paisley itself was only ruled by a prior. This fact shews that the Iona monks must have belonged to another order of Benedictines than that of the Clunaics. [23]
[18] 1166.
[19] Or St. Columba.
[20] Saddle in Kintyre.
[21] Manuteneant.
[22] Ancient Church of Scotland (by M'Kenzie Walcott); Lanagan, and others.
[23] Society of Scottish Antiquaries, April 14, 1873.—Paper by W. P. Skene.