to his soul from it he burdened the house and croft with
an annual sum of 13s 4d for a mass on the anniversaries
of his deatli, to be paid to the canons, vicars, and chaplains
who should attend the mass.
BISHOP LICHTOUNS TOMB.
Bishop Lichtoun died in 1440, and he was buried in
St John's aisle, which was in the north end of the north
transept. In the wall above his grave a tomb was erected
in which there was a stone with an inscription to his
memory, but where the stone was there is now an
unsightly void. Though the heritors of a parish may
prevent the erection of tombstones in a parish churchyard,
neither they nor the persons who erected them, and much
less uninterested strangers, have a right to remove them
without the sanction of the Sheritf, who is the legal con-
servator of the memorials of the dead. If the stone was
removed without his sanction blame will lie with the
Procurator-Fiscal till he bring to justice the desecrators of
the revered bishop's tomb. The inscription contains the
only reliable information we possess regarding the choir of
the previous cathedral and the transepts of the new. In
Latin it is, with contractions expanded : —
Hie jacet . bone meniorie henrici de lythtoun iitriusque juris doctor qui
ad ecclesie nioraviensis regimen olim esset assuniptus ubi septennio
prefuit demuni ad istani translatus fuit. in qua xvij aniiis rexit .
presentisque ecclesie fabricani . ab chore stacoine seorsum vsque ad
summitateni parietuni plena construxit anno doniini niillesimo quad-
ringentesimo quadragesimo.
Some of the contraction marks and some mis-spellings
show that the inscription had been carved at the quarry,
and that the carver had not fully understood it. For
" esset " we must read " est " ; for " choro," " chori " ; for
" stacoine," " statione." The carver thought " chori "
should be " choro " after " ab." In the middle ages " tio "
Ijecame " cio " ; and a3 and ce were at first represented by e
with a or o beneath, but these were afterwards reduced to
a cedilla or comma and ultimately left out. This
accounts for "bone" instead of " bonae," etc. The
English of the inscription is : —
THE GREAT TOWER AND THE TRANSEPTS 163
Here lies the revered Henry Lichtoun, LL.D., who was formerly
elected bishop of Moraj-, which office he held for seven years. After-
wards he was translated to this cathedral, in wliich he ruled eighteen
years, and built on the site ot tlie clioir tliis part of the building to the
full height of the walls, a. n. 1440.
THE GREAT TOWER AND THE TRANSEPTS.
The part of the Cathedral which Lichtomi built was the
bell tower and the transepts where he was buried. We
see that the transepts were built ou the site of the former
choir, which had no transepts, but the choir (or place
where the choir sat) was as wide as the present nave, and
its aisles were probably as wide as those of the nave.
The two old red sandstone pillars on either side of the
east window had been in the previous Cathedral, support-
ing an arch, and there are in the east end of the south
aisle remains of an archway between the aisle of the nave
and the choir, and there had been another on the north.
The communication between the nave and the original
choir is seen better from the outside than from the nave.
These communications had been left open after the
transepts had been built, and we see some granite
voussoirs which had been put in by Alexander
Kininmond. The only parts of the original Cathedral are
those in old red sandstone. At the east end of the nave,
on the north side, there remains part of the first arch
between the nave and the aisle, which shows two
things : — that the arches of the former nave were of old
red sandstone and that the width of the new nave was
the same as the old ; but the new nave is probably longer
than the old was.
Before beginning to build the transepts Bishop
Lichtoun must have cleared away the old choir and set up
four pillars to carry the tower of the steeple. The great
pillars we see on either side of the window had served for
two. They are 35 feet apart — centre to centre — and
this had been the measure of the four sides of the tower.
There had been four arches resting on four great pillars
to support the tower, all no doubt of old red sandstone
from Forfarshire, the new harmonising with the old.
All the other parts of the transepts had been of cold-
looking, greyish white carboniferous sandstone from the
Firth of Forth.
Two reasons might be assigned why Lichtoun did not
build the transepts and the steeple tower of granite to be
164 ABERDEEN
like the nave. One is that he may have had no choice.
All the niakeable blocks of granite in the neighbourhood
of the cathedral may have been used up in the nave.
What were still on the ground may have been large
rounded boulders beyond the skill of the builder to
split, and to quarry more without gunpowder was
impossible.
The other reason is that Bishop Lichtoun, before he
came to Aberdon, had taken part in the restoration of Elgin
Cathedral and had seen how easily sandstone could be
quarried and dressed. It is likely that four or five
hundred years ago stones could have been brought from
Fife to Seaton Mains in large boats cheaper than they
could have been collected in fields and hauled to the
Cathedral on sledges drawn by oxen. To have produced
in granite the lantern of the steeple and the transept
gable, as shown in photographs of a painting of the
Cathedral made before the fall of the great tower, would
have been impossible with the appliances at command in
the fifteenth century.
Having thrown overboard Boece's " Bishops," and
Dunbar's " Epistolare," it is unnecessary to refer to the
mistakes made by their authors and their followers
further than to say that they arose from not seeing that
" choro " must be for " chori," and from believing thac
"stacione" meant foundation, whereas it means site.
BISHOPS INGELEAM AND THOMAS.
Bishop Ingelram succeeded Henry. He took steps to
settle all matters in dispute in which the Cathedral was
concerned. It was in his time that the march between
the bishop's lands and those of the chaplains on the new
scheme for St Peter's Hospital was settled. The marches
of lands belonging to the Cathedral were perambulated
and marked, and charters were granted. It had been
the custom for a while to appropriate for the building
fund all legacies and oblations to the church ; but the
new bishop having found that they belonged to the
Chapter he decreed that they should go to the common
good.
In 1451 at the request of the bishop and the citizens
of the burgh of Aberden Pope Nicholas granted a general
permission to take salmon on Sunday in the five months of
the year in which the fishing was carried on, because the
UNDEKGEOUND HOUSES 165
same permission had previously been granted by canon
and civil law in regard to herrings when they came
inshore. In Eegistrum (II. 65) Rathven is given in
" Faculty of the Church of Aberdon " as a prebend in
1437. In "Epistolare" (p. 253) the date of admission to
the roll is 1445. Neither of the documents is reliable
and both dates may be wrong.
Bishop Thomas Spens (1459-1480) took an important
part in the public affairs of Scotland. In 1473 a com-
mission appointed by Bishop Thomas erected the chapel
of St Peter in Glenbucket, which was a detached part of
Logie-Coldstone, into a mother or parish church. Five or
six persons had perished going from Glenbucket at Pasch
to their parish church at Logie. The Don had to be
crossed and the fords were dangerous. Glenbucket means
the glen of the hump, the hill now covered by the Craig
Wood being the hump, which in Irish and old Gaelic is
" buicead." In the local pronunciation of Glenbucket
the sound of " i " is prominent.
UNDEKGEOUND HOUSES.
In Strathdon there were till recently many irregular
boundaries and detached parts of parishes, which had
originated in peat-mosses and summer pastures among
the hills, provided by proprietors for their low country
tenants ; and as they were inhabited only in summer they
had been counted to belong to the same parishes as their
summer occupants. In Strathdon there are underground
dwellings which may well have served for summer
quarters and dairies for women in charge of cows sent to
the hills. There are also at Invernochty, Glenkindie, and
Fichlie remains of great penfolds, once provided with sur-
rounding walls, where the cattle of a district were
folded and guarded against thieves, by common herds at
night.
Bishop Thomas died in Edinburgh in 1480 and was
interred with solemnity in Trinity Church. The King,
six bishops, and many nobles attended the funeral. From
what took place after his death, he evidently had not
neglected the restoration of the Cathedral. During his
episcopate the transepts had been roofed, and some pro-
gress had been made in building the new choir.
166 ABERDEEN
BISHOP BLACADER.
The next bishop was Eobert Blacader, a canon of the
Cathedral of Glasgow.
The Bishop of Aberdeen was in virtue of his office parish
priest of St Nicholas, and he drew the income of the
church though he did no duty in it personally. In the in-
cumbency of his predecessor, Bishop Thomas Spens, the
choir of St Nicholas Church had begun to be rebuilt and
the bishop had given his second tithes to help with the
work, but Eobert Blacader refused to do likewise. The
Town Council resented the bishop's want of sympathy and
passed a minute dated November, 1481, saying : — â–
The alderman, counsel, and communite of the burgh of
Abirdene, the communitie gadrit throw tlie warning of the bel-
man, ryply and weill avisit, with ane consent, nane sayand the
contrar, has cleliverit and ordinyt becaus that liobert, elect
affirmat of Abirdon, has schavine hymn vnkindly in the re-
striction of the second tend, quhilk was gevine by his prede-
cessor. Bishop Thomas Spens, to the bigitig of the quer of
Abirdene : the fursaid alderman, etc., lies decretit that nane
dwelland within the said bui'gh sal mak no firmas (pay no rents)
to the said Robert, and quhatever he be that does in the contrar
of this Act sal tyne his fredom.
The burgesses acted on their resolution ; for when the
bishop was translated to the See of Glasgow in 1484 he
prosecuted them for debts due to him before his trans-
lation. The bishop was entitled to tithes on certain rents
due to the Crown, which the burgesses should have retained
and paid to him.
BISHOP ELPHIN8T0NE.
Robert was succeeded by William Elphinstone, the most
distinguished of all the bisiiops of Aberdon. He was born
in Glasgow and was the son of William Elphinstone, a
canon and the dean of the Faculty of Arts in the University
of Glasgow in 1451. William attended the University
there, and afterwards studied civil and canon law at the
University of Paris. On his return to Scotland he filled
the office of Official or Judge of the Archdeaconry Court,
first of Glasgow and then of Lothian, an office next in im-
portance to that of Justiciar, who was the highest officer of
the Crown. He was chosen Bishop of Boss in 1481, and
BISHOP ELPHINSTONE 167
as such sat in Parliament. He sat in Parliament also in
1484 as Bishop of Aberdon, and he held various State offices
which required his presence in Edinburgh. He was also
frequently abroad on embassies in the public service. He
was high in the confidence of James IV. and was long
Keeper of the Privy Seal. By his influence with the King
he got in 1489 a charter erecting the episcopal city of
Aberdon into a burgh, but though the style was sometimes
used the charter was not put in force, nor was another
charter which was granted in 1498 after the King came
to full five-and-twenty years of age. The burglial Iiistory
of Aberdon begins after 1600.
In 1494-5 Bishop Elphinstone obtained from Pope
Alexander VI. a bull erecting in the episcopal see a
Studium Generale or University with power to confer de-
grees and appointing the bishop to be the Pope's Chancellor
in the University. The Chapter of the Cathedral had been
serving the purpose of a University, and, though we hear
occasionally of the new University, the teaching of theology,
canon and civil law, etc., had been carried on either in the
Cathedral or in the manses of the chancellor, treasurer and
other canons without change for some years.
Boece says that Elphinstone completed the tower of
the cathedral — that is by adding the spire — and covered
the whole building with lead. As he had collected all the
materials for finishing the choir, begun we know by Bishop
Thomas, we must suppose that he completed the choir,
externally at least. He had glazed the University buildings
as they were erected, and he had not neglected the Cathedral.
He twice founded a church in the angle between the west
side of College Bounds and Powis Burn, but it did not
prosper as he expected.
To Bishop Elphinstone we owe a famous book : — " The
Breviary of Aberdon." In 1508 he erected the church
lands of Turriff, which lay on the north side of Putachy
Burn, into a burgh and sanctioned feuing them at a sixpence
Scots per rood, which was confirmed by royal charter
in 1511.
It is marvellous that Bishop Elphinstone was able to
do so much as he did without inherited wealth ; but the
numerous high offices which he filled before and after he
became Bishop of Aberdon had been remunerative, and
Guthrie says that he made a fortune by exporting salmon
caught in the fishings which he held as bishop. He died in
1514, soon after Flodden, where he lost his patron,
James IV. He had attained the age of 83 or 84, and he
168 ABERDEEN
was buried before the altar in St Mary's Chapel in the
University which he had founded.
Bishop Gavin Dunbar caused a splendid monument to
be erected over his tomb to his memory. His effigy in
bronze, gilt, was laid on a black marble slab, with two
candelabra at his head, and twelve bronze, gilt figures
standing round, which represented the Christian graces
and the Cardinal virtues. At the Eeformation the tomb
was desecrated, and the bronze figures were stolen.
BISHOP ALEXANDER GORDON.
Alexander Gordon, Chantor of Moray, succeeded Elphin-
stone. He was chosen bishop through the influence of
his cousin, the Earl of Huntly, who pointed out to the
canons what could be done for Aberdon by the wealth and
resources of his friends. The last which Boece told us of
Bishop Elphinstone and the cathedral was that he came
home a few years before his death to finish the choir,
which probably he did. Anything left incomplete at his
death we may credit the new bishop with perfecting, as
there is no word of work at the choir being done in his
successor's time. Bishop Gordon died in 1418.
BISHOP DUNBAR.
Gavin Dunbar, the next bishop, was Archdeacon of St
Andrew's at his appointment, and he had previously been
Dean of Moray. He took an active part in State affairs,
which led to his being imprisoned along with Chancellor
Beaton, the cardinal and archbishop. He is commemorated
by the heraldic ceiling of the nave of the Cathedral and the
erection of the spires on the two towers at the west end of
the Cathedral, which completed the restoration. The spires
are of old red sandstone, apparently from Kingoodie Quarry,
in Perth, a few miles west of Dundee. The quarry, now
disused, is on the edge of the Firth of Tay, and stones could
have been boated from the quarry to the brae at Seaton
Mains. The spire of the old Townhouse of Aberdeen was
built of stone from this quarry. It is grey green, slightly
tinged with red. A sample may be seen with the sacrist
of the cathedral.
Gavin Dunbar is commemorated also by the erection of
the Bridge of Dee, completed in or before 1527, according
COMPLETION OF THE CATHEDRAL 169
to the " Epistolare," after seven years' work. Two years
later Dunbar made over to the Town Council of Aberden
the cathedral land of Ardlairin Clatt, for the maintenance
of the Bridge of Dee. This they accepted, and they
undertook to uphold the bridge and rebuild it when
necessary.
In 1531 he founded a hospital for twelve poor men in
the north end of the Chanonry, between the manses of
Tullynessle and Monymusk. He also built the chaplains'
court at the east end of the Chanonry, where twenty or
more chaplains lived, having a common table. His initials
and arras — three pillows within the royal tressure — are in
the wall of a house near the site of the Chaplainry. Bishop
Dunbar died in March, 1532, and was buried in the south
transept, where his tomb is seen with his initials and arms
in one corner, and the royal arms in another, with reference
to his holding at his death the State offices of Clerk of the
Eegister and Clerk of the Council. In this capacity he
had written the marriage contract of James IV. and
Margaret Tudor in 1504.
So far as we have the means of knowing, the Cathedral
was completed by Gavin Dunbar. Boece, who might have
been trusted to tell correctly what he saw, writes so inde-
finitely that his statement is of no value ; but we may
take the completion of the spires and the putting up of
the heraldic ceiling as evidence that the more urgent work
of finishing the choir had been first done.
COMPLETION OF THE CATHEDRAL.
Begun in 1366 and finished — say at Bishop Dunbar's
death in 1531-2, it had been a hundred and sixty-six years
in building. This is a short space considering that it was
built with voluntary contributions, chiefly from the bishops
and canons, though no doubt the nobles of the north and
the burgesses of Aberden had helped, and at the appeal of
the Pope many of the faithful had stretched forth a helping
hand.
The Cathedral of Cologne, founded in 1248 by Conrad
of Hochstettin, which Sir William Geddes referred to in his
poem on Gamrie Church, was not finished till the end of
last century. The Cathedral of Milan, founded twenty
years after Aberdon, was not finished till 1805. Except
St Paul's and Salisbury most of the English cathedrals
were so long in building that the style of architecture
170 ABERDEEN
prevalent when they were begun was out of fashion before
they were completed.
The east end of the nave occupies the same site as the
corresponding part of its predecessor. The lower parts of
the o-ieat pillars on either side of the modern east window
remain as when first built, but the upper parts had been
relaid. The lower part of the opening between the south
aisle and the original first choir is certainly in its original
state, but the upper has been down and up again. The
eastmost bay in the north side of the nave is partly old and
partly new. The east window in the south aisle is partly
red sandstone, partly granite, and partly grey sandstone,
which says that Alexander Kininmond found it decayed but
fit to be left witli a new granite mullion in the centre. The
other windows in the south aisle have two mullions ; it has
only one. By the time the Cathedral had been completed
it had been necessary to remove most of the red sandstone
facing of the wall around it and replace it with white sand-
stone. The door into the south transept was in the old
choir but had been removed and rebuilt with some new
parts.
The chief builders of the new cathedral were Alexander
Kininmond II., who built the nave, including the west end
and the aisles, though his successors may have had to
complete his work ; Henry Lichtoun, who built the walls
of the transepts and the tower of the steeple, but left the
roofing to be done by his successor, Ingelram; Thomas
Spens, who probably began the choir and built the greater
part of the walls, but it was a great house, 1 00 feet long,
and not completed in his time ; William Elphinstone who
erected the spire on the great tower, completed the walls
of the choir, covered the roof of the whole building with
lead, and very likely glazed the windows ; lastly, Gavin
Dunbar, who built the two spires on the west towers and
put up the beautiful ceiling in the nave, completing the
restoration.
BISHOP STEWART,
Gavin Dunbar was succeeded by William Stewart, son
of Sir Thomas Stewart of Minto. He went on embassies
to England and France and took his place in Parliament.
Heresy was beginning to trouble the peace of the Church,
and Bishop Stewart, along with Cardinal Beaton, sat in
judgment at St Andrews upon one accused of maintaining
that the Pope had no higher authority than any other
BISHOP WILLIAM GORDON 171
bishop, that his indulgences and pardons were invalid, and
that the clergy might lawfully marry.
In 1535 the lands of Glassaugh and Craigmill, in the
Lordship of Fordyce, were set for nineteen years at a yearly
rent of nine pounds, a chalder of wheat delivered at
Aberdon, and a night's lodging, supper, and dinner for the
bishop when he went that way. Fearing for the safety of
the church jewels and ornaments, when the English
invaded Scotland in 1544 to force marriage between the
English prince and the Scotch Queen, he was removing the
valuables to a place of safety north of the Don when he
was set upon by Forbes of Corsinday and robbed of the
whole treasure. Eedemption had to be paid to the thief
before he restored them. The bishop died in 1545, and he
was buried in the Cathedral, in the west end of which
there is a loose stone carved with his arms, a fess checquy
with an engrailed bend across it.
BISHOP AVILLIAM GORDON.
The last pre-Reformation bishop was William Gordon,
fourth son of Alexander, third Earl of Huntly. The
rumblings of the ecclesiastical earthquake which was to
overthrow the Catholic Church of Scotland were beginning
to be felt, to the alarm of the inhabitants of the Chanonry
of Aberdon. In 1547 the Chapter admitted a new canon
without a prebend, whose duty was to lecture in theology
in the Cathedral, to preach once a month to the people, and
to go round the churches whose patronages and revenues
belonged to the Chapter, and preach against heresy in every
one of them once a year. The Chapter thought that, as the
bishop was a notorious transgressor of the laws of the
Church by having a concubine, it would be worse than
useless to send him round the diocese on a mission of
reformation. In 1559 on the eve of the Eeformation the
dean and Chapter sent to the bishop, at his own request,
a memorial prescribing what they thought should be done
to stanch the heresies now prevalent in the diocese. They
knew the root of the evil and plainly told the bishop that he
must put in force the laws of the church against all
Churchmen in the diocese keeping concubines, not sparing
themselves nor their head. Further, stringent orders
should be issued to all churchmen of the diocese who were
absent from their posts to come home to their churches and
the Cathedral, and set about a general reformation. The
172 ABERDEEN
bishop himself, however, seems to have been but seldom at
the Chanonry, for we hear more of him being in Parliament
and on the Continent than at Aberdon.
Seeing the imminent danger the Catholic Church was in
the bishops and canons appointed C4eorge, Earl of Huntly,
Chancellor of Scotland and King's Lieutenant in the north,
to be hereditary baillie of all the possessions of the Cathedral,
with power to call out when necessary all the tenants in
defence of the property of the Cathedral and of the Catholic
faith. In that same year the bishop and canons began a
general scheme of letting to tenants the Cathedral lands
on leases for eighteen years. In 1549 and two following
years, seventy leases were executed. Several places in
Aberdeenshire had then names ending in aspic, espick, or
espock. This termination represents the Gaelic word
"easbuig," meaning a bishop.
One of the latest dated documents in the Eegistrum
is a charter by William Hay, prebendary of Turriff, whose
initials are on the old church there, in which he burdens
his manse in the Chanonry with thirty-one shillings annually
to the chaplains and vicars of the choir for anniversary
services for the souls of James V., his predecessors and
successors ; and for the souls of Gavin Dunbar, William
Stewart, and William Gordon, bishops of Aberdon ; and of
George then Earl of Erroll, and the late William Earl of
Erroll, and the late Thomas Hay (father of Earl George
and brother of Earl William), both of whom died sternly
fighting in the battle of Elodden ; others of the name of
Hay who perished with them ; and Alexander Hay, late
canon of Aberdeen and prebendary of Turriff. This
charter shows that the military service by which feudal
barons held their lands was sometimes not a light
matter.
A convention Parliament met on August 1, 1560, and