roxburgh-1956-vol-2/-05_012

Transcription

No. 567 -- MELROSE PARISH -- No. 567

from the dorter of the conversi to their choir. Lastly,
in this earliest arrangement the frater stood on the
N. side of the cloister parallel to the church as at
Rievaulx and Dundrennan, ¹ the latter a sister-house
of Melrose ; this was replaced in the 13th century
by a frater running N. and S.
Such then was the arrangement of the infant abbey,
a plain little cross-kirk with a north cloister. From
the beginning and throughout its early years the
abbey prospered. Within four years of its entry the
convent was sufficiently strong to send out a colony to
settle Newbattle Abbey, other contingents emigrating
within a century to form new houses at Holm-
cultram, Kinloss, Coupar-Angus, Balmerino, and
possibly Glenluce as well ; while priories at Mauch-
line and at Berwick-on-Tweed were also manned
from Melrose. These new foundations must indicate
an influx of adherents to the mother-house. Materi-
ally, too, the place was soon flourishing. Credit for
this must be given to Waldeve, step-son of David I,
who became second abbot, in succession to Richard,
in 1148 ² and died in 1159. ³ Within his lifetime
Melrose came to possess great wealth in oxen, sheep,
and pigs, with dairy and garden produce in plentiful
supply, and acquired by gift from various donors
lands, pastures, fishings, salt-marshes, and peat-
mosses in addition to ecclesiastical property. By the
time of Renier, seventh abbot, that is before the close
of the 12th century, the abbey was doing business
beyond the boundaries of Scotland. Renier became
security for Roger de Quinci's debt to the well-known
Hebrew financier, Aaron of Lincoln. In 1223-4
Henry III granted Abbot Adam's men, who were
carrying money overseas, a safe conduct throughout
his dominions ; and in the following year he granted
the abbot leave to send a ship, laden with wool and
other merchandise, to Flanders, under the direction
of William de Led and Friar Thomas of Boulden (Bow-
den). Five years later a similar permit was given, and in
1271-2 the abbot and monks of Melrose received simple
letters of protection for three years. ⁴ Such entries show
some of the ramifications of the abbey's business.
By the beginning of the 13th century the Melrose
monks found themselves in a sufficiently good fin-
ancial position to consider improving their buildings.
The façade of their church they embellished with
a handsome Galilee porch, of which a fragment
survives ; while pieces of early 13th-century detail
which have come to light within the church show
that they also effected some internal improvement.
There is evidence, too, that the chapter-house was
extended to the E. and provided with a new font on
the cloister side in or about the year 1240. Then,
towards the close of the century, the choir-monks'
frater was rebuilt upon a different axis, an alteration
which must have affected the warming-house, kitchen,
and day-stair to the choir-monks' dorter. The E.
and W. ranges were both extended N. of the cloister
in the 13th century, rib-vaulting being introduced
into the undercrofts at some time after 1250. Abbot
Matthew, who was elected in 1241, is credited with a
good deal of building during his twenty years of
office, and the camera on the bank of the canal (p. 287)
is ascribed to him.
With the Wars of Independence the prosperity of
the abbey was interrupted. Although Edward I in
1290 had granted the abbot and convent freedom
from distraint, ⁵ in 1296 their property in North-
umberland was seized and their servants removed.
On 28 August of the same year Abbot Patrick, in
company with his brother-abbots of Jedburgh, Dry-
burgh, and Kelso, swore fealty to Edward I at
Berwick-on-Tweed. ⁶ In 1307 the abbot and convent
of Melrose petitioned Edward to confirm their
charters ; they also asked for timber from Selkirk
forest for the repair of their buildings which had been
" burned and destroyed while at his peace and pro-
tection " ⁷ and were allowed forty oak-trees. In
1322, when Edward II invaded Scotland, his troops
on their return from Edinburgh despoiled the abbey
" causing great desolation ". They not only slew the
prior, William de Peebles, as well as a sick monk and
two blind conversi in their dormitory, and seriously
wounded several other monks, ⁸ but even cast down
the Host from the high alter and carried off the silver
pyx. The convent seems to have resisted stoutly,
as at least four of Edward's Gascons were killed. ⁹
The material damage must have been great, so ex-
tensive in fact that it was decided to rebuild the
Abbey church completely ; in fact, however, the
fabric appears only to have been repaired at this time.
To provide funds for the reconstruction, Robert I,
on 21 March 1326, granted a charter ¹⁰ to the abbot
and convent awarding them certain feudal dues from
the county of Roxburgh, stated to be worth £2000
sterling. In so doing the king may have carried out
in another form a pious intention already expressed
in the abortive treaty that he had arranged with the
Earl of Carlisle in 1322-3. ¹¹ After Bruce's death,
and acting on his instructions, Sir James Douglas
carried the King's heart overseas on a campaign
against the Infidel ; but after the death of Douglas,
in Spain, the heart was brought back to Scotland and
was buried at Melrose, apparently on the orders of
the Regent. ¹² However, despite careful search, no
trace of the relic has been found.
On or about 10 August 1385 ¹³ the abbey was burnt
and utterly destroyed by Richard II. In 1389, how-

1 Inventory of Kirkcudbright, No. 398.
2 Melrose Chronicle, 34.
3 Ibid., 35.
4 Cal. of Docts., i, 1108-1272, passim.
5 Ibid., ii, 1272-1307, No. 452.
6 Ibid., No. 817.
7 Ibid., No. 1982.
8 Scotichronicon, xiii, cap. iv.
9 Cal. of Docts., iii, 1307-57, No. 1015.
10 R.M.S., i, 1306-24, No. 331.
11 Cal. of Docts., iii, 1307-57, No. 803.
12 Barbour, The Bruce, (ed. Mackenzie), bk. xx and notes ;
Cal. of Docts., iii, No. 991 ; S.H.R., xxxii (1953), 18ff.
13 Extracta, 199, etc.

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