Análisis y discusión

Considering the friotion which existed between Scotland and England, in matters of Church and State, and in view of the strong sense of national ecclesiastical and liturgical Independence felt by Scotland before and after the Reformation, we might not expect to find much support for the cult of essentially English saints North of the border. Surviving evidence bears out this suspicion on the whole, but there are a few outstanding exceptions. The international and cosmopolitan nature of Mediaeval Scottish life and, in particular, of seaports and pilgrim centres, resulted in just a few signs of support for English saints slipping through. In Fife, which may be seen as the centre of the Scottish Church life, there is evidence of the cult of four particular English saints: Cuthbert, Botolph, Edward the Confessor and Godric.

Of these four the least surprising to have a dedication in Mediaeval Scotland is St Cuthbert, whose feast is on 20 March.(1) The Northumbrian St Cuthbert was trained under Eata at the monastery of Melrose and is said to have travelled in various parts of Scotland preaching the Gospel. He is primarily associated with Lindisfarne however, and, with the later rise of his cult, with the cathedral church of Durham. He has a few dedications in Scotland, one of which was an altar in Dunfermline Abbey and a garden associated with it.(2)

Although a saint with as Anglo-Saxon a name as Botolph would not seem to be a likely candidate for a dedication in Mediaeval Fife, he did have an altar dedicated to him in the Town Kirk of the Holy Trinity, St Andrews. This seventh century abbot who is generally associated with Lincolnshire, is not named as a dedicatory patron in W E R Rankin’s otherwise careful study of The Parish Church of the Holy Trinity. St Andrews.(3) The saint is clearly named, however, in a charter of James III dated 12 August 1471. This document in the Register of the Great

Seal refers to: "eoolesiam S Trlnltas ctm vicarla ejusdem ad usus prioris et canonlcorum, cum capella S Botulphl et aliis capellls ...".(4) Who founded this chapel we simply do not know but, as with the altar of St Cuthbert at Dunfermline, I assume the story of this English saint was brought to Fife by some pilgrim or merchant from England, or perhaps by some local cleric who had visited Durham or some such place.(5)

The third Scottish dedication to an English saint is at Balmerino where the abbey was jointly dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to the English king and saint Edward the Confessor. The charters of this royally founded house refer most frequently to the popular Cistercian dedication to the Virgin, but nevertheless there are at least twelve references to "Sancto Edwardo de Balmurinach".(6) Moreover the abbey’s seal has a figure of St Edward with the inscription "S ABBIS. SCI. EDWARDI IN SC0CIA".(7) With the exception of a possible dedication to the Confessor in St John’s Church, Perth, this dedication is unique in Scotland. It is difficult to account for this use of an English patron and Forbes went so far as to suggest that Edward the Confessor was not the Balmerino saint, but rather a Bishop Edward of Aberdeen was intended.(8) More likely than this is the possibility that word of the efficacy of his invocation and popularity of his cures had reached Scotland by the time Balmerino was founded in 1229.

It would be wrong to suggest that there was a thriving cult in Mediaeval Fife of a fourth English saint, but I think that it would be equally wrong to ignore St Godric of Finchale’s association with St Andrews in the context of the cult of saints in Mediaeval Fife. Godric was a merchant and holyman who became a hermit at Finchale in the

twelfth century. He also had a particular fondness for travel which was appeased by his trading expeditions and pilgrimages. His biographer, Reginald of Durham, records how Godric travelled to the shrines at

Compostella, Rome, Jerusalem and St Andrews*

" ... deinde prius ad Sanctum Andream In Scotia, exinde vero prima vice Romam profectus est. Rediens vero, cum denique quorumdam juvenum

mercandi negotiis avidius insistentium contuberniis familiaris existerteret, coepit et audacioris

animi formam sumere, et terras aliénas circumquaque positas discurrendo per maria, lucrandi gratia, saepius circuire ..."(9)

It is particularly interesting to note that Godric visited St Andrews expressly as a shrine of the apostle and a pilgrim centre; such was the popularity of St Andrews for pilgrims by the twelfth century that Godric deemed it as worthy of a visit as the most famous shrines of Europe:

"Denique per longi itineris dispendia, per cerulea aequora saepius vadens et rediens, plurimorum sanctorum locorum invisere meruit habitacula; cognita prudentius perquirens, et amplius quotidie peregrine quaeque dinoscens. Inter quae quam maxime famosum illud domicilium Sancti Apostoli Andreae, quod in primitivis constat esse finibus Scotiae, saepius solebat invisere, et vota

devotioniis suae placabilia Domino frequenter offerre ..."(10)

This account of the visit of Godric to St Andrews is also recorded in the Chronica Majora of Matthew Paris, who bases his story on that preserved by Reginald of Durham.(11) Although it is just a glimpse, this account does give us some indication of the esteem in which St Andrews

and its shrine were held in another country in the twelfth century.

The few examples which survive of the cult of English saints in Mediaeval Fife do not indicate any particular fondness for them, but it is clear that this area of Scotland was open to influence from all quarters, including its often hostile Southern neighbour.

FOOTNOTES

1. "St Cuthbert: His Cult and Community to AD1200" was the subject of a recent conference held at the University of Durham. The proceedings are expected to be published early in 1988.

2. Dunfermline Register No 514 (1526). 3. Edinburgh 1954.

4. RMS 1424-1513, p215.

5. The feast of St Botolph (17 June) is recorded in the Arbuthnott Missal. This is the only record of the saint in any Scottish calendar and is yet another indication that the Arbuthnott Missal’s Calendar was compiled in St Andrews, probably at the end of the fifteenth century.

6. As in Charters of Balmerino Abbey I in D E Easson (ed), Mpaastlo Chartere, Miscellany af Scottish History Society VIII, Edinburgh 1951.

7. H Laing, Scottish Seals i, p174. 8. Kalendars. p331.

9. Libellus ^ Vita M Miraculjs S Godrlcl. Heremitae de Finchale. by Reginald, Monk of Durham, Surtees Society 20, 1845, p28. 10. Ibid. p31.

11. H R Luard (ed), Matthew Paris, Chronica Maiora. Vol II (1067-1216) London 1874, p265.

- 154 - I