Brief Notice Of Scotland During The Fourteenth And Fifteenth Centuries The Opening Of The Sixteenth Before The Sacred Scriptures In Print Were First Imported.

BEFORE the Sacred Volume in our vernacular tongue, and in a printed form, was brought into England itself, we had occasion to notice the two preceding centuries; and it would be doing injustice to the northern part of our island, were we not now to glance, however briefly, at the same period.

The early connexion of Scotland with France is distinguished by the institution of the Scots College, or “Seminaire des Ecossais,” in Paris, founded in 1325, by the Bishop of Moray; and in the revival of literature during the fourteenth century, such as it was, individual natives of Scotland must have taken an interest, if one of her sons may be admitted in evidence.

In furnishing a poetical historian, contemporary with Wickliffe and Chaucer, of whom an Englishman, even Wharton, has told us, that he “adorned the English language by a strain of versification, expression, and poetical imagery, far superior to the age;” Caledonia had so far already proved herself to be no unmeet “nurse for a poetic child.” We refer to John Barbour, Archdeacon of Aberdeen, the author of “The Bruce”-a soothfast history of the life and adventures of Robert; the First; for, independently of its poetical merits, it is acknowledged to be a book of good authority. “Barbour,” says Dr. Irving, “was evidently skilled in such branches of knowledge as were then cultivated; and his learning was so well regulated, as to conduce to the improvement of his mind: the liberality of his views, and the humanity of his sentiments, appear occasionally to have been unconfined by the narrow boundaries of his own age.” His apostrophe to Freedom, like the earliest lark of the morning, though hailing a day which hc could not anticipate, has been quoted with admiration in his own country, at the distance of more than four hundred and fifty years. “Ah! freedom is a noble thing:- Though he that aye has lived free May not know well the property.” This work, finished about the year 1375, was written while Wickliffe was yet busy with his translation of the Scriptures; and we notice them together, simply for the purpose of remarking, that as there was but little difference in the phraseology of the Scottish and English writers of this period, so the prose of Wickliffe must have been as intelligible in North Britain, as the poetry of Barbour in the south. “The obscure and capricious spelling,” it has been said, may, perhaps, deter some readers from a perusal of “The Bruce,” (a supposition equally applicable to Wickliffe;) “but it is very remarkable, that Barbour, who was contemporary with Gower and Chaucer, is more intelligible to a modern reader, than either of these English writers.” Nor was the language unfelt by those who first read it.

On the contrary, so highly was the work appreciated, that, by Robert II., the author had a pension assigned to him, which was punctually paid until the day of his death in 1395.

Seventeen years, however, before that event, this man, along with the rest of his countrymen, had taken part in that great controversy, which agitated all Europe, when Scotland and England became divided in opinion, and on a point of such vital importance as the Pontificate itself. To this subject, reference has already been made, in our introduction at the commencement of the volume; but to understand it now, so far as Scotland was concerned, we know not of a shorter method, than that of exhibiting the two countries in the position which they respectively occupied for nearly half a century.

ENGLISH PONTIFF. CHOSEN. DEPOSED. RESIGNED. DIED SCOTTISH PONTIFF. CHOSEN. DIED.

Urban VI. 1378 1389.. Clement VII. 1378. 1394.

Boniface lX 1389. 1404. Benedict XIII. 1394. 1424. lunocent VII. 1404. 1406.

Gregory XlI. 1406. 1409. 1415 1417.

Alexander V. 1409. 1410.

John XXII. 1410. 1415. 1419. The Chair now vacant, two years and five months.

Martin V. 1417 1431. Clement VIII. 1424. 1429.

Thus strikingly had Providence shed confusion into the counsels of Rome; and throughout the whole period, there must have been a degree of mental agitation such as the entire island had not experienced for many a day, if, indeed, ever before. During all these years, England had been bowing to seven different Poutiffs in succession; but six of these Scotland would never acknowledge. On the contrary, she abode by Clement and Benedict, two different men; and yet it was at one of the most perplexing moments of this schism, or in 1411, that the first University in Scotland was founded at St. Andrews. Then, there were three rivals before the world; Gregory, Benedict, and John; and the grand question of the day was, which was the true Pontiff. Two years before this, the Council of Pisa, by way of allaying all strife, had increased the confusion, by deposing Benedict, the Scottish, and Gregory, the English Pontiff; leaving both England and Scotland to make their choice of Alexander V., a poor feeble character. England acquiesced, but Scotland had taken her ground, and was never to be moved; though her Monarch, James I., was then a captive in England, unrighteously detained. The consequence was, that when the University of St. Andrews came to be founded, Henry Wardlaw, the Bishop, who must have not fewer than six bulls to confirm the appointment, obtained them from Benedict, dated at Paniscola in Arragon, 25th August, 1412. Thus the first school of learning in Scotland received its authority from Peter de Luna, then in his 80th year, but a deposed Pontiff; while two other men besides himself, Gregory and John, were fighting for the same chair.

Nor was this the only college established in Scotland under the fifteenth century. The breach as to Rome once more healed, the delusive idea, that the promotion of such literature would be able to secure the prolongation of spiritual and temporal power, had taken fill possession of different Pontiffs, and especially of Nicholas V. By his authority, therefore, and while they were running riot at Rome, in keeping their noted Jubilee of 1450, the University of Glasgow was founded; a place then containing only about fifteen hundred inhabitants, or not the one hundred and seventieth part of its present population. A second college at St. Andrews, St. Salvator’s, followed in 1455, and King’s College, Aberdeen, in 1594-5.

Thus, in Scotland, as well as in England, before the learning or philosophy of Greece had reached either country, what was called scholastic erudition was first permitted to put forth its powers, and prove to posterity its utter impotence for doing good. The human mind, however, in Scotland, as well as in other countries, was evidently waking up; though in all this it is not difficult to perceive only the first efforts of “the old learning,” to prevent the slightest innovation, or the introduction of a better day. They were so many feeble attempts, akin to the grand exploit of Wolsey at Oxford, in the early part of the next century. Henry Wardlaw has been to Avignon, and lived in friendship with Benedict. As it was from him he had received his appointment to the See of St. Andrews, from him he returned as his Legate for Scotland, with full powers. This was in 1404, or the same year in which James the First, then on his way to France, was seized by Henry IV. of England; so that for twenty years Wardlaw was left free to pursue his own plans. The University was concocted in union with Benedict, and when first set on foot, it was through the efforts of learned men, who gratuitously afforded their services as professors, rather than from any stipendiary patronage either of a public or private character. For above sixty years the professors had no fixed salaries, and the students paid no fees, so that we have before us rather a nursery in favour of existing opinions, than a school of learning, intended for the ultimate benefit of the people at large. Thus, on the release of James in 1424, so far from any improvement in morals, to check the licentiousness of the ecclesiastics, the king had to labour in establishing schools, such as should be available to all ranks, as well as not hold the sword in vain. In short, it turned out, that the Legate of Benedict, though proverbially a hospitable man, was a far greater enemy to what he deemed heresy, than to open immorality; and the first bloodshed in Scotland for opinions held, was shed not only under his sway, but in the city where he had founded his University. Two men are well known to have suffered by his authority; and as neither of these were natives of Scotland, it only shows what a dread was felt, lest one ray of light from abroad should disturb the surrounding gloom, or existing authority. John Resby, an Englishman, was condemned in 1408; and in 1432, Paul Craw or Crawar, a native of Germany or Bohemia, but certainly a disciple of Huss; both being burnt to ashes, as the punishment then affixed to the operations of the human mind. The death of this Bohemian, who is described, by one annalist, as having “first displayed the bright beams of the Gospel in St. Andrews,” must have been regarded at the moment as a great achievement, since it stands even now in strange association with the venerable remains of Melrose Abbey. Very soon after, that monastery was given in reward to an abbot who had acted as the chief persecutor! “This year,” 1433, says Sir James Balfour, “the king, at the earnest solicitation of the clergy, but especially Henry Wardlaw, Bishop of St. Andrews, bestowed the Abbey of Melrose upon a lubberly monk of the Cistercian order, named John Fogo, who had written a blasphemous pamphlet against Paul Craw’s heresy.”

The reign of superstition continued to maintain its supremacy; but though the progress of knowledge was slow, the efforts of genius in certain directions, during the latter part of the fifteenth century, and the opening of the next, were not to be repressed. The names of William Dunbar and Gavin Douglas, of Kennedy and Henryson, of John Mair, Sir David Lindsay, and others, were quite sufficient to allow of Scotland taking no inferior place in the rising dawn of literature. Dunbar has been frequently styled the Scottish Chaucer: and Douglas was the first translator of a Roman classic into the English language; his own original poetry prefixed to the different books of the AEneid having received the warmest praise of the present day.