Page:Scottishartrevie01unse.djvu/156

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126
THE SCOTTISH ART REVIEW


wattle huts. These erections were the origin of the city of Glasgow.

No record remains to us of the immediate succes- sors of Kentigern, and we have but little information on the history of the See previous to its restoration by David i., for the convulsions of the tenth century saw the See in abeyance, and its possessions were seized by laymen. Tiie restoration was the work of David, while he was yet Earl or Prince of Cumbria, and John Achaius, who had been tutor, and afterwards chancellor, to the prince, was elected and consecrated bishop (1115). He has been com- monly called the first Bishop of Glasgow, but that should be understood to mean the first bisliop of the restored See. His first care was to provide a churcli for his Cathedral. The ancient cemetery and its girdle of trees seems to have been nearly all that remained at Glasgow of St. Kentigern when Bishop John laid the foundation of his church. It was begun before the year 1124, and he consecrated it in the year 1136, in the presence of his royal pupil, who was now King of the Scots. Bisliop John held the See for the space of 32 years, and went to his reward in the year 1147. To the episcopate of Bishop Herbert, the succes- sor of John, we must assign the foundation of what became the great abbey of the diocese. Walter, High Steward of Scotland, founded in 1163, at Paisley, a monastery for Cluniac monks. Pope Honorius iii. (1198-1216) raised it to the dignity of an Abbey, and Robert iii. presented it with a charter of Regality. No part of the original building re- mains, for the beautiful first -pointed work that replaced the earlier structure dates from the foui-- teentli century. The progenitor of the Stuarts endowed munificently the house he founded in the midst of his great fief of Strathgryfe, ' for the souls of King Henry of England, of King David, and of King Malcolm.' Tiie fourth occupant of the revived See was Jocelin, wlio was called to the chair of St. Kentigern from the great Cistercian monastery of Melrose. Tliis energetic prelate obtained, in 1175, as soon as he was appointed to the See, from William the Lion the grant of a burgh, which was confirmed by Pope Lucius in 1181, and King Alexander, by a charter in 1189, granted to the bishop the right of a fair. Jocelin also began at once to make preparations for a new Cathedral ; as the structure of Bishop John had been destroyed by fire some forty years after its consecration. He laid the foundation in 1181, beginning at the east end, and sixteen years later his building was consecrated, in 1197, on the octave day of SS. Peter and Paul. It has been the custom to associate the present crypt under the choir with the name of Jocelin. We cannot enter into that question, beyond saying that the first- pointed style of the crypt is evidently of a later date than the time of Jocelin. To call it by his name is a mistake. WiUiam de Bondington, Chancellor of the king- dom (1233-1258), was the third bishop in succession from Jocelin. To him we must assign the com- mencement of the erection of the present Cathedral ; and he completed the crypt and the choir. To promote the building, a resolution or order was passed by a Provincial Council held at Perth, in 1242, ordaining that the Indulgence for the Cathe- dral be hung up in every church in the realm, and its terms plainly expounded in the vulgar tongue to the parisliioners ; that on every Sunday and holiday from Ash Wednesday to Low Sunday the duty of contributing to the work be enjoined on the people ; and that, during the season so specified, offerings were not to be solicited in the parish churches for any other object. This arrangement for a national collection would seem to point out that the new Cathedral had been now commenced; and to the fruits of it we owe the completion of the crypt and choir before the year 1258. Another work of Bishop Bondington was the foundation of the Blackfriars Monastery about the year 1246. Robert Wishart, or Wiseheart, of the old family of Wisehearts of Pitarrow, in Kincardineshire, was the next notable Bishop of Glasgow. The central tower of the Cathedral was probably built by him, and also what may be called the clerestory tran- septs, but he is most widely known as a strong sup- porter of Scottish independence. He took the side of Wallace and Bruce, and his hands crowned Robert at Scone, on 27th March 1305. Later lie was taken prisoner, and detained in England until after the battle of Bannockburn in 1314. He was Bishop of Glasgow for 44 years, dying in 1316, and was buried in the crypt between the altars of St. Peter and St. Andrew, and the monument in the centre of the east end of the crypt must be allowed to be the monument of Robert Wishart. William Rae, who was consecrated in 1339, built a bridge over the Clyde, where now the Stockwell Bridge spans the river. It was he who procured from Rome a dispensation by which Robert ii., the founder of the royal house of Stuart, was enabled to marry Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Muir, though related by affinity and consanguinity. In return for this favour Robert founded a chaplaincy in the Cathedral of Glasgow.

Walter Wardlaw succeeded, of the Wardlaws of Torry, in Fifesliire, a prelate of great distinction. By King Robert he was sent to France to renew the