ANALISIS DE LA NORMATIVA NACIONAL E INTERNACIONAL SOBRE EL ADULTO MAYOR
2.10.1 RESIDENCIA PARA ANCIANOS – TOYO ITO:
The mid-fifteenth century witnessed the expansion of higher educational provision in Scotland through James Kennedy’s erection of the College of St Salvator at St Andrews, and William Turnbull’s foundation of a second studium generale in Glasgow. Towards the close of the century, William Elphinstone (younger) extended university provision still further by establishing a third institution at Aberdeen.1 Recent commentators have questioned the wisdom of developing higher education in this manner in preference to augmenting St Andrews’ resources. They have suggested that the diocesan approach made for financially insecure universities that were limited in scope and, in failing to provide adequate instruction in the higher disciplines of medicine, law and theology, did little to stop the Scottish ‘brain-drain’ to continental institutions.2 Regional expansion has also been discussed in terms of diocesan prestige, and the foundation of universities at Glasgow and Aberdeen presented as attempts by Bishops Turnbull and Elphinstone to place their respective sees on the same footing as St Andrews. Kennedy trumpeted St Salvator’s College as an enhancement to the studium at St Andrews;3 Turnbull perhaps sought to redress the diocesan imbalance brought about by Kennedy reinforcing St Andrews’ status as Scotland’s centre of higher learning in this manner.4 In so doing, Turnbull set a regional tone for further development of higher education in Scotland.
1 Kennedy erected the College of St Salvator on 27 August 1450. StAUL, UYSS110/A/1-2, Charters of
Foundation. For foundation dates of Glasgow and Aberdeen: Introduction, n.4-5.
2 Cowan, ‘Church and Society’, 125-128; Ditchburn, ‘Educating the Elite’, 328; Fletcher, ‘Foundation of
Aberdeen’, 11-13; Fletcher, ‘Welcome Stranger?’, 300, 303; Macfarlane, ‘A Short History’, 2; J. Verger,
Men of Learning in Europe at the End of the Middle Ages (Notre Dame, 2000), 92-93.
3 StAUL, UYSS110/A/2, Charter of Foundation; Cant, College of St Salvator, 55.
4 A. L. Brown and M. Moss, The University of Glasgow 1451-1996 (Edinburgh 1996), 1; Dunlop, James
Kennedy, 273-274, 278, 288; Durkan, University of Glasgow, 6; G. S. Pryde, ‘The University of
The establishment of a functioning university imparted dignity upon a town and, more importantly, the founder. Like Wardlaw before them, Kennedy, Turnbull and Elphinstone all stood to enhance their personal prestige considerably through establishing institutions of higher learning as monuments not only to their tenure as bishops, but also to themselves as erudite patrons of an academic tradition in Scotland. Annie Dunlop argued that in erecting his impressive tomb in St Salvator’s Chapel, and not the cathedral at St Andrews, Kennedy made a statement of his altruistic love for the university.5 This certainly appears to have been a deliberate association on Kennedy’s part, born of desire to be remembered first and foremost in the context of his academic foundation rather than as bishop of St Andrews. It may also be the case that St Salvator’s College was conceived to recover some of the prestige he had enjoyed when serving James I’s widow, Joan Beaufort.6 Norman Macdougall has suggested that Kennedy turned his attentions to developing the university at St Andrews during a subsequent period of political obscurity.7 If so, Kennedy’s motives were similar to Wardlaw’s, who, as we have seen, experienced comparable political eclipse under the Albany regime.
Glasgow University, however, cannot be presented as a diversionary diocesan project to occupy a marginalised statesman in quite the same way. Turnbull had distinguished himself through assiduous service to both the papacy and the crown and, having served as royal secretary and keeper of the privy seal, continued to act as a prominent councillor and ally of James II during the period of his new university’s
5 Dunlop, James Kennedy, 259.
6 During the period of minority rule following the assassination of James I in 1437, Kennedy undertook
embassies to the continent and led Scotland’s pro-papalists in their response to the Little Schism. He aligned himself with Joan Beaufort against the Douglas-Livingston faction which exercised government and, from 1439, had custody of James II. By 1445, however, the Douglas faction was victorious and Joan Beaufort was dead, leaving Kennedy isolated for the following five years. Dunlop stated that this period allowed Kennedy to concentrate on the university and indulge his love of ceremony and pageantry. Dunlop, James Kennedy, 27, 264, 272-273.
7 N. Macdougall, ‘Bishop James Kennedy of St Andrews: a reassessment of his political career’, in N.
Macdougall, ed., Church, Politics and Society: Scotland 1408-1929 (Glasgow 1983), 12-13,17. Durkan proposed that Kennedy erected the chapel to resemble the Basilica of St John Lateran at the Latin Gate in Rome that was originally dedicated to St Salvator. This further reinforces the sense that in addition to being committed to expanding higher education in Scotland, Kennedy was determined to make a statement of status in establishing St Salvator’s College. Dunlop records Durkan’s observation in Acta, xxiv, n. 1.
foundation.8 His original supplication for the erection of Glasgow University is lost, although its drafting can be traced to the autumn of 1450 conceived, or so it might seem, in direct response to Kennedy’s foundation dated 27 August 1450.9 It is more likely, however, that Turnbull drew inspiration from the existence of St Andrews University itself and not from the foundation of its new college. On his elevation to the episcopate and almost immediate translation to Glasgow in 1447, Turnbull set about augmenting his diocesan resources, capitalising on his proximity to James II. Much of this appears to have been undertaken with a view to founding a university in the city. Turnbull extracted permission to exercise rights of regality in civil cases, and statutes prohibiting Renfrew and Rutherglen from poaching Glasgow’s trade.10 This reinforced his financial reserves while satisfying Glasgow merchants, in the hope perhaps of attracting their material support for his foundation.11 Nicholas V also permitted Turnbull to divert one third of the revenue collected as contributions to the papal jubilee of 1450 from Scots who could not attend Rome in person to the upkeep of Glasgow Cathedral.12 The infant university at Glasgow would become dependent on the cathedral chapter and ancillary buildings to host meetings and teaching, and on certain of its chaplains to staff the institution. In securing funds for the cathedral, Turnbull perhaps garnered the chapter’s support while accruing further means for funding his academic enterprise.
This all served to reinforce Turnbull’s standing as one of the most influential men in the realm. At the same time, and in the spirit of episcopal competition, it also
8 Turnbull served James II as councillor, keeper of the privy seal from 1440-1448, and royal secretary
from 1441-1444. For further details of Turnbull’s academic, administrative and ecclesiastical profile: Chapter 3, n.74, 161.
9 Durkan, William Turnbull, 39; see also, above n.1.
10 Turnbull received two grants of rights of regality: Reg. Glasguensis, ii, 375-377, 389. The ports came
under the jurisdiction of Paisley Abbey. D. Marwick, ed., Charters and other documents relating to the
city of Glasgow, i.ii (Glasgow, 1906) 27; I. B. Cowan, The Parishes of Medieval Scotland (Edinburgh
1967), 175.
11 Merchant communities and the laity of mainland Europe, especially the Empire and the Low Countries,
were demonstrating interest in learning and university education. For their increasing tendency to endow, even found, institutions see Rashdall, Universities, ii; Fletcher, ‘Foundation of Aberdeen’, 10-22; see also below, n.24-25.
12Reg. Glasguensis, ii, 391; Durkan, University of Glasgow, 8. Issued in response to James II’s petition,
underlined Glasgow’s position as a diocesan rival to St Andrews. Turnbull’s activities in 1447-1450 suggest, however, that the foundation of Glasgow University was by no means simply a hurried response to Kennedy’s foundation of St Salvator’s.13 Kennedy erected his college in advance of journeying to Rome to seek official sanction in the autumn of 1450.14 This coincided with Andrew Durisdeer departing for the curia to present Turnbull’s case and letters of supplication for a second Scottish studium
generale; and Nicholas V in fact issued the bulls permitting the establishment of a
university at Glasgow on 7 January 1451, almost a month prior to confirming the erection of St Salvator’s College on 5 February 1451.15 Turnbull’s academic undertaking appears to have been a carefully considered enterprise, and the timing of these foundations was also surely more than coincidental. In fact it suggests a degree of collaboration between Kennedy and Turnbull in devising and articulating a case for expanding higher education in Scotland rather than their foundations being the product of diocesan rivalry.
That said, however, such competition may have assumed particular importance for Elphinstone in founding Aberdeen University later in the century, by which time the papacy had bestowed metropolitan status on both St Andrews (1472) and Glasgow (1492).16 The explicit creation of an episcopal hierarchy, and the elevation of these dioceses to archiepiscopal status, subjected the incumbents of Scotland’s remaining eleven sees to their authority and, not surprisingly, met with some resistance.17 It did not sit easily with Elphinstone who, as an experienced canon lawyer and former official of both Glasgow and Lothian, held misgivings over the merits of the new hierarchy,
13 There was a gap of just ten months between Kennedy proclaiming the foundation of St Salvator’s on 27
August 1450 (StAUL, UYSS110/A/1-2, Foundation Papers), and the promulgation of the foundation bulls for Glasgow at the town’s market cross on 22 June 1451. Munimenta, i, 3-6.
14 StAUL, UYSS110/A/1-2, Foundation Papers; CPL, x, 88.
15Munimenta, i, 3-5, 20-22; StAUL, UYSS110/A/3, Foundation Papers, Papal Bull.
16 St Andrews, 17 August 1472; Glasgow, 9 January 1492. Vetera Monumenta, 465-468, 505-506.
Ditchburn, ‘Educating the Elite’, 329-330; Ditchburn, Scotland and Europe: the medieval kingdom and
its contacts with Christendom 1214-1560 (East Linton 2000), 74.
17 Macfarlane examines the elevation of St Andrews: L. J. Macfarlane, ‘The Primacy of the Scottish
Church, 1472-1521’, IR, xx (Glasgow, 1969), 111-129. For further discussion of Scotland’s diocesan make-up: section 3.1; Appendices 2.1-2.13.
particularly the capacity of the archbishops to exercise their authority with justice and impartiality.18 Indeed, as bishop of Aberdeen, Elphinstone secured exemption from St Andrews’ jurisdiction in 1490.19
The foundation of Aberdeen University might then be viewed as part of a concerted effort by Elphinstone both to recover some personal prestige as a member of the Scottish episcopate and to establish diocesan parity with Glasgow and St Andrews, proclaiming Aberdeen’s intellectual and cultural dynamism. His firm resolve to secure papal sanction for the establishment of a studium generale in Aberdeen, evident in his supplicating the papacy in person in 1495, reinforces this view.20 Elphinstone’s appeal to the pope entirely overlooked the existence of Glasgow and St Andrews, a presumably deliberate omission founded on fear of being refused a licence on the grounds that a third foundation risked saddling Scotland with an over-abundance of small universities of dubious viability. Similarly, his depiction of northern Scotland as ‘uncultured, ignorant … and almost barbarous’ – dismissed in recent commentaries as hyperbole – underlines Elphinstone’s determined use of rhetorical devices and cultural stereotypes to reinforce his case.21
This said, we should not dismiss Elphinstone’s foundation as a product solely and simply of episcopal politics or one-upmanship. In the same way as Kennedy and Turnbull had done, though perhaps with greater success, Elphinstone made concerted efforts to secure sufficient endowment for his university, and was meticulous in prescribing the character and organisation of his institution. He augmented its funding and refined its structure over a period of almost twenty years (1495-1514), suggesting that the university was not simply a vanity project or a symbol of diocesan prestige, but
18 For discussion of the conciliarist principles underpinning Elphinstone’s opposition, and his waiving his
own metropolitan jurisdiction over Caithness when nominated archbishop of St Andrews: Macfarlane,
William Elphinstone, 217-218.
19 6 July 1490. Full text: Macfarlane, ‘Some Recent Research on the Founder of the University’, AUR,
xxxvi (Aberdeen, 1956), 238-240.
20 6 February 1495. GUS, Reg. Supp., 1000, fos 81v-82v.
21 J. J. Carter and C. A. McLaren, Crown and Gown, 1495-1995 (Aberdeen, 1994), 5; Ditchburn,
that it was also and deliberately conceived to meet perceived educational needs.22 As a diplomat, administrator, bishop and lawyer, Elphinstone maintained international, national and local profiles.23 As we shall see, the character of his studium generale was shaped in response to the intellectual, political and cultural preoccupations of these intersecting spheres.
The episcopal character of Scotland’s medieval studia has been identified as outdated within the general pattern of university expansion in the fifteenth century, more in keeping with what proved to be the financially unviable model employed in peripheral regions of Europe than with the more impressive and better endowed foundations of the Empire and the Low Countries.24 In setting out this argument John Fletcher contrasts the under-endowed universities of Uppsala and Copenhagen, and failed institutions at Pécs, Buda and Pressburg, with the well-established foundations of Cologne, Nuremberg and Wittenberg, that were erected in vibrant trading communities and benefitted from patrons invested in learning.25 The development of higher educational provision in Scotland along diocesan lines was certainly limiting in some respects, and perhaps encouraged a degree of parochialism. The finite resources at a particular bishop’s disposal and the essentially clerical character of their episcopal foundations, restricted prospects for expansion; Scotland’s medieval institutions remained small, more akin in size to the individual colleges of Oxford, Cambridge and continental universities, but geographically dispersed and without the advantages that incorporation within a single university structure could bring. Their small scale also posed certain risks, such as interruptions to teaching should a master be called away or fall ill, a particularly disruptive factor in the higher and more specialised faculties where teaching resources were even scarcer than in arts.26
22 Below, section 2.4.
23 For discussion of Elphinstone’s academic, administrative and ecclesiastical careers: Chapter 3, n.160,
162.
24 Fletcher, ‘Foundation of Aberdeen’, 9-12. 25ibid., 10-22.
At the same time, expanding university provision in this way offered advantages well suited to fifteenth-century Scotland. As we shall see, the laicisation of higher education did exert some influence over Elphinstone’s planning of Aberdeen at the turn of the sixteenth century. However, there has been a tendency to exaggerate the provision made for the laity, and so long as higher education remained primarily geared towards the clergy, dioceses presented the natural ‘unit’ of university provision. They provided the bishop-founders with essential pastoral, intellectual and administrative resources and, in so doing, served to perpetuate the regional character of higher education in Scotland. Yet, such regionalism also reflected the decentralised, geographically fragmented nature of the kingdom itself; and the tendency of scholars who pursued studies in Scotland to attend their local institution (explored in Chapter 3) suggests that the diocesan character of higher education mirrored regional identification within the Scottish community.27 Despite the diocesan and regional framework in which the Scottish universities developed, however, it is important to note their engagement with intellectual developments of European currency. As we have seen, early St Andrews was a dynamic, vibrant community of scholars fully-engaged with the developments in – and sometimes heated debates over – philosophical instruction that characterised medieval higher education as a whole. St Andrews’ evolution in response to the intellectual and political debates which consumed academics elsewhere should caution us against dismissing the effectiveness and educational potential of such small- scale institutions.
The bishop-founders no doubt revelled in the personal prestige that erecting institutes of higher learning bestowed on them. Kennedy and Elphinstone tied themselves to their foundations in death: their respective interments in St Salvator’s and King’s College chapels established lasting monuments to their roles as patrons of learning. Turnbull and Elphinstone may also have been inspired to some degree by diocesan competition. However, to trace the evolution of university provision in fifteenth-century Scotland in terms of these motives alone relies on an overly-narrow interpretation of the stimuli driving expansion. In the same way that Wardlaw
recognised the need to provide a privileged environment for the enterprising group of scholars gathered at St Andrews in 1410, so the timing of the foundation of St Salvator’s College and Glasgow University, and Elphinstone’s dedication to establishing a viable studium at Aberdeen, suggest that much more than personal or diocesan prestige fuelled the development of higher education in fifteenth-century Scotland. Indeed, the character and structure imposed on these additional institutions indicates that, as with the foundation of St Andrews, expansion should be viewed in the context of wider intellectual, political and cultural concerns.