Elgin Cathedral

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Elgin Cathedral sometimes referred to as ‘The Lantern of the North’ is an historic ruin in Elgin in Moray, north-east Scotland.

It was established in 1224 but only reached completion near the end of the 13th century. The cathedral's chapter house — a unique feature in Scottish secular cathedrals^[1] but not uncommon in England — is still mostly intact. The vaulted tombs of some of the Bishops of Moray containing their effigies can still be seen. Glimpses of its former splendour can yet be discerned. In 1390 it was burned by Alexander Stewart, 1st Earl of Buchan, known as the Wolf of Badenoch. It was once again attacked in 1402 by the Lord of the Isles’ followers and yet again repaired in the 15th and 16th centuries only to fall into disuse and ruination due to neglect following the Reformation.

Contents 1 The early cathedral churches of Moray 2 The cathedral church at Elgin 3 The cathedral routine 4 Post Reformation 5 Decay 6 Stabilisation 7 Notes 8 References 9 External links

[edit] The early cathedral churches of Moray

It is possible that the mormaers of Moray may have appointed bishops as early as the 11th century.^[2] After the suppression of Máel Coluim mac Áeda (sometimes known as Malcolm MacHeth) and Óengus of Moray by King David I in 1130, the presence of bishops in Moray was viewed as a fundamental part of the keeping the rebellious inhabitants pacified.^[3]

The post-Óengus bishops of Moray did not have a settled location for their cathedral and sited it at different times at Birnie, Kinneddar and Spynie. It was during the episcopate of Bricius de Douglas when a papal consent of 7 April 1206 authorised the church of the Holy Trinity to be set at Spynie.^[4] Authorisation to establish a chapter of eight canons for the day-to-day running of the cathedral was also granted. The chapter based its constitution on that of Lincoln Cathedral^[5] and may have been influenced by the fact that Bricius’ predecessor was Bishop Richard de Lincoln.

[edit] The cathedral church at Elgin

The burgh of Elgin had become the lay centre of the province under David I. In very uncertain times, the royal castle in Elgin may have been seen as offering more protection to the bishop and chapter and so papal permission to move the see to Elgin was granted on 10 April 1224 during the period of Bishop Andreas de Moravia.^[6] The move was facilitated by King Alexander II when he granted the land for the cathedral on 19 July 1224. Completion was after 1242 but in 1270, the Scotichronicon records that the cathedral church and the canons’ houses had burned down but gave no reason. The cathedral was to be rebuilt but in a much grander scale and is supposed to have been completed by the outbreak of the Wars of Independence in 1296. The sanctity of the cathedral was respected by both the Scottish and English combatants and even during the assault on Moray in 1336 by King Edward III of England.

Soon after his election to the see, in 1362 — 3, Bishop Alexander Bur requested funds from Pope Urban V for repairs to the cathedral citing neglect and hostile attacks.^[7] Bur began payments to Alexander Stewart, 1st Earl of Buchan, also called the Wolf of Badenoch and brother to King Robert III, in August 1370 for the protection of his lands and men. The two men had many disputes culminating in February 1390 with the bishop turning to Thomas Dunbar, son of the Earl of Moray, to provide the protection service and the excommunication of Stewart.^[8] This infuriated Stewart and in May, in an act of revenge,^[9] he descended from his castle on an island in Lochindorb and burned the town of Forres. He followed this up in June by burning a large part of Elgin including the Monasteries of the Dominicans (Blackfriars) in the west side and the Franciscans (Greyfriars) in the east, St Giles Church, the Hospital of Maison Dieu and the cathedral. Bishop Bur wrote to the king seeking reparation^[10] in an impassioned letter stating

My church was the particular ornament of the fatherland, the glory of the kingdom, the joy of strangers and incoming guests, the object of praise and exaltation in other kingdoms because of its decoration, by which it is believed that God was properly worshipped; not to mention its high bell towers, its venerable furnishings and uncountable jewels.

King Robert eventually granted an annuity to Bur of £20 for the period up to the bishop’s death and the pope granted the income from the unfilled vacancies in the diocese of St. Andrews.^[11] Again, the cathedral was attacked, this time by Alexander of Lochaber, brother of Domhnall of Islay, Lord of the Isles in 3 July 1402. Financial support for these repairs came from a diversity of sources but collections from the faithful could not be relied on. Among the ordinary people there was an increasing feeling of disenchantment with the higher institutions of the church and this was further exacerbated by an increasing inclination for them to support the smaller parish churches where the bulk of the people worshipped.^[12]In 1408, the money saved during a vacancy was diverted to the rebuilding and in 1413 a grant from the customs of Inverness was provided.^[13]

Bishop John Innes (1407 — 14) contributed greatly to the rebuilding process evidenced by his tomb with the inscription praising his efforts. The west front was completed before 1435 and contains the arms of Bishop Columba de Dunbar (1422 — 35). It is presumed that the choir aisles were finished before 1460 as it contains the tomb of John de Winchester (1435 — 60). Probably, one of the last important rebuilding feature was the reshaping of the chapter house which contains the arms of Bishop Andrew Stewart (1482 — 1501)

[edit] The cathedral routine

The buildings and fabric of the cathedral were important to the medieval bishop reflecting his status in the church hierarchy, but so too was the daily rituals carried out within the cathedral’s walls as they were the very reason for its existence. So that these services could be fulfilled with proper devotional solemnity, there had be due respect for the churchs' traditions and that required the correct number of clergy to carry out the total of cathedral functions.^[14]At Elgin, in 1242, it was decided that the Rites of Salisbury Cathedral would be followed. Bishop Andreas formed a new constitution with twenty three canons; only Glasgow and Aberdeen held larger chapters than this.^[15] The main income to support the canons were from appropriations from the parish churches. Eventually, around forty churches were designated to support individual canons and about six others were held in common for all of the canons. Further to this, the income from fifteen other parishes was used directly for the upkeep of the bishop.^[16] Additionally, Andreas also allowed for the canons to be aided by seventeen vicars made up of seven priests, five deacons and five sub-deacons; later these vicars’ numbers were augmented to twenty five. The vicars’ stipendiary ranged from five to twelve marks by 1489.^[17]

Despite these numbers, all of the clergy were not present at the services. Indeed persistent non-attendance was an enduring fact of life in all cathedrals in a period when those seeking career advancement would accept prebends from more than one cathedral.^[18] However, in 1240, Elgin decided to penalise absentee canons by removing one seventh of their income.^[19]The bulk of the workload fell on the shoulders of the vicars and a small number of canons who were responsible for celebrating high mass and for leading and arranging sermons and feast day processions. A total of seven services were held daily some of which were solely for the clergy and those took place behind the rood screen; this separated the high alter and choir from lay worshipers. Each morning, the canons held a meeting in the chapter house where a chapter from a book written by St Benedict was read and thus providing the origin of the name.^[20] A growing trend in the cathedral was the introduction of chaplains or Mass priests to serve the increasing number of foundation altars. King Alexander II founded a chaplaincy for the soul of a predecessor^[21] while the chapel most frequently referred to was that of St Thomas the Martyr (Becket) in the north transept; it had five chaplains^[22]. Other chaplaincies referred to are those of the Holy Rood,^[23] St Catherine, St Duthac, St Lawrence, St Mary Magdalene, St Mary the Virgin and St Michael.^[24] It is likely that many more chaplaincies would have existed along the outer chapel aisles of the nave.

The accommodation for these numbers of priests depended on their status and their residences were in the chanonry situated around the cathedral. The chanonry itself was enclosed by a susbstantial wall, four metres high and two meters thick, which not only delineated the sacred grounds from the secular, but was intended as a means of defence. This wall had four doors, one of which, the Pans Port, still survives. The manse of the precenter, erroneously called the Bishop’s House can still be seen. The scale of this building demonstrates the standing that the higher clergy held.

[edit] Post Reformation

In August 1560, parliament rejected the authority of the pope over the Scottish Church and the Mass, as the fundamental act of worship, was abolished.^[25] However, the office of bishop was not ended until 1689. The evolving church was generally unsympathetic to most of the previous episcopal practices and to cathedrals as centres of worship. The cathedrals that survived did so because they also doubled as parish churches however they had the trappings of Roman Catholicism swiftly removed. The burgh of Elgin had the parish church of St Giles and meant that the cathedral was surplus to requirements. It is evident that the use of the cathedral must have ceased fairly soon after the Reformation parliament's decisions. In 1567-8, Regent Lord James Stewart's Privy Council ordered the removal of the lead from the roofs of both Elgin and Aberdeen cathedrals and to be sold for the upkeep of his army.^[26] The ship that was destined to take the cargo to Holland was so overladen that it sunk in Aberdeen harbour.^[27]

[edit] Decay

In 1615, Taylor, the ‘Water Poet’ wrote: ^[28]

a faire and beautifull church with three steeples, the walls of it and the steeples all yet standing; but the roofes, windowes and many marble monuments and tombes of honourable and worthie personages all broken and defaced.

Decay was setting in and on 4 December 1637, the roof of the eastern limb collapsed during a gale.^[29] Even by this time not all of the fixtures of the old religion had been removed, the most prominent of which was the rood screen. Determined to remedy this, the minister of St Giles kirk, Mr Gilbert Ross along with the lairds of Innes and Brodie pulled it down and chopped it up for firewood.^[30] At some point the cathedral grounds had become the burial ground for Elgin and because of this the Town Council arranged for the boundary wall to be repaired in 1685. The council ordered, however, that the stones from the cathedral should not be used for this purpose.^[31] Although the building was becoming increasingly decayed, some parts of it continued to be utilised with the chapter house being used for the meetings of the Incorporated Trades from 1671 to 1676 and then again from 1701 to around 1731.^[32] No attempt at stabilising the decay was carried out and on Easter Sunday 1711 the central tower buckled and fell causing much collateral damage to the structure.^[33] Many artists came to Elgin to sketch the ruins and it is from these that the slow but continuing ruination can be observed.^[34] By the closing years of the 18th century, travellers stopping in Elgin would visit the ruin. Pamphlets giving the history of the cathedral were prepared for the early tourist and in 1773 Samuel Johnson recorded: ^[35]

a paper was put into our hands, which deduced from sufficient authorities the history of this venerable ruin

[edit] Stabilisation

Since the abolition of bishops within the Scottish church in 1689, ownership of the abandoned cathedral fell to the crown, but no attempt to halt the decline of the building took place. It was Elgin Town Council that showed the first signs of recognising the need to stabilise the structure firstly by rebuilding the surrounding wall in 1809 and in around 1815 the debris around the remaining walls were cleared. ^[36] The Lord Provost of Elgin petitioned the Kings Remembrencer for assistance for a new roof for the chapter house and in 1824 £121 was provided to Robert Reid for its construction.^[37] Reid was significant in the development of conservation policy for historical building in Scotland and achieved the setting up of the Scottish Office of Works (SOW), in 1827^[38]. It was during Reid’s tenure at the head of the SOW that supporting buttresses to the choir and trancept walls were built.^[39]In 1824 John Shanks, an Elgin shoemaker and probably the most important figure in the conservation of the cathedral, started his work. Sponsored by local gentleman, Isaac Forsyth, Shanks was to clear the grounds of centuries of rubbish dumping and rubble. Shanks was appointed Keeper and Watchman, possibly by Reid, at a salary of £5 per annum in 1826.^[40] Certainly his work was highly valued at the time and brought the cathedral back into public focus but the clearance work had not been carried out scientifically so there is no way of knowing if any valuable evidence of the cathedral’s history had been lost. On his death in 1841, the Inverness Courier printed:

April 28. — John Shanks, the beadle or cicerone of Elgin Cathedral, died on the 14th inst. in the eighty-third year of his age. His unwearied enthusiasm in clearing away the rubbish which encumbered the area of the Cathedral and obscured its architectural beauties, may be gathered from the fact that he removed, with his pick-axe and shovel, 2866 barrowfuls of earth, besides disclosing a flight of steps that led to the grand gateway of the edifice. Tombs and figures, which had long lain hid in obscurity, were unearthed and every monumental fragment of saints and holy men was carefully preserved, and placed in some appropriate situation..... So faithfully did he discharge his duty as keeper of the ruins, that little now remains but to preserve what he accomplished.

In 1847-48 some of the old houses associated with the cathedral on the west side were demolished and a series of relatively minor changes to the boundary wall were completed. Major consolidation of the structure and some reconstruction work began in the early 20th century. This included restoration of the east gable rose window in 1904 and also the replacement of the missing form pieces and mullions and decorative ribs in the window in the north-east wall of the chapter house.^[41] By 1913 work to re-point the walls and additional waterproofing of the wall tops were completed. Lowering of the ground level and the repositioning of the tomb of the Earl of Huntly which had been a 17th century construction took place in 1924.^[42]Further repairs and restoration occurred during the 1930’s including partly dismantling some of the 19th century buttressing and the rebuilding the lower parts of the nave piers with fragments that had been found earlier. The vault of the south choir was roofed in 1939^[43]. During the last forty years of the 20th century there was unremitting replacement of crumbling stonework. Between 1976 and 1988, the chapter house window tracery was gradually replaced and its re-roofing completed the process. Floors, glazing and a new roof were added to the south-west tower between 1988 and 1998 and the same procedure was applied to the north-west tower in 1998 to 2000.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Elgin Cathedral - site information from Historic Scotland