ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 403
church, as appears from the Corporation records :-‘‘ 16 June, 1641, the Grayfriars’ Kirk-
Sessionmappliedt o the Corporation, in order to have the Magdalme Chapple bell rung on
their aciount, for which they agreed to pay !240 Scots yearly, which was agreed to duriug
pleasure.’’
This ancient chapel claims our interest now as the arena of proceedings strangely
different from those contemplated by its founders. In 1560, John Craig, B Scottish
Dominican monk, returned to his native country after an absence of twenty-four years,
during which he had experienced a succession of as remarkable vicissitudes as are recorded
of any individual in that eventful age. He had resided as chaplain in the family of Lord
Dacre, an English nobleman, and was afterwards appointed to an honourable office in the
Dominican monastery at Bologna, through the favourable recommendations of the celebrated
Cardinal Pdle. The chance discovery of a copy of Calvin’s Institutes in the
convent library led to an entire change in his religious opinions, in consequence of which
he was compelled to fly ; and being at length seized, he endured a tedious imprisonment
in the dungeons of the Roman Inquisition. From this he was delivered the very day
before that fixed for an Auto-da-f& in which he was doomed to suffer at the stake, in
consequence of the tumultuous rejoicing of the Roman population on the death of the
Pope, Paul IT., in 1559, when the buildings of the Inquisitlbn were pillaged, and its
dungeons broken open. Thence he escaped, amid many strange adventures, first to
Bologna, and then to Vienna, where he was appointed chaplain to the Emperor Maximilian
11. After a time, however, the Inquisition found him out, and demanded his
being delivered up to suffer the judgnent already decreed. “his it was that compelled
his return to Scotland, at the very time when his countrymen were carrying out a system
in conformity with his new opinions. He found, however, on revisiting his country
after so long an absence, that he had almost entirely forgot his native tongue, and he
accordingly preached in Latin for a considerable time, in St Magdalene’s Chapel, tosuch
scholars as his learning and abilities attracted to hear him. He afterwards became
the colleague and successor of Knox, and as such published the banns of marriage in St .
Giles’s Church, preparatory to the fatal union of Queen Mary with Bothwell. We learn
also from Melville’s Diary, that The General1 Assemblie conveinit at Edinbruche
in Apryll 1578, in the Magdalen Chapell. Mr Andro Melvill was chosin Moderator,
whar was concludit, That Bischopes sould be callit be thair awin names, or be the names
of BreitAer in all tyme coming, and that lordlie name and quthoritie banissed from the
Kirk of God, quhilk hes bot‘a Lord, Chryst Jesus.”’ One other incident concerning
the ancient chapel worthy of recording is, that in 1661 the body of the Marquis of
Argyle was carried thither, and lay in the chapel for some days, until it was removed by
his friends to the family sepulchre at Kdmun, while his head was afExed to the north
gable of the Tolbooth.
The Abbey of Holyrood, though a far more wealthy and important ecclesiastical
establishment than St Giles’s College, or any o€her of the ancient religious foundations
of the Scottish capital, may be much more summarily treated of here. Its foundation
charter still exists, and the dates of its successive enlargements and spoliations have
been made the subject of careful investigation by some of our ablest historians. The
Archmlogia Scotica, p. 177. a Melville’s Diary, Wodrow Soc. p. 61.
404 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
foundation of St David’s Abbey has already been referred to, with the picturesque
legend from whence it derives its name. The beautiful fragment of the Abbey Church
which still remains, forming the nave of the ancient building, retains numerous traces
of the original work of the twelfth century, though enriched by the additions of a
later age. The earliest drawing of the Abbey and Palace that exists is the bird’s-eye
view of 1544, where it is marked by its English draughtsman as “ the King of Skotts
palis,” although the sole claimant to the throne at that date was the infant daughter
of James V. A comparison of this with the portions still remaining leaves little doubt
of its general accuracy. The Abbey Church appears with a second square tower at
the west front, uniform with the one still standing to the north of the great doorway.
The transepts are about the usual proportions, but the choir is much shorter than it
is proved from other evidence to have originally been, the greater part of it having,
perhaps, been reduced to ruins before the view was taken. During the levelling of the
ground around the Palace, and digging a foundation for the substantial railing with
which it was recently enclosed, the workmen came upon the bases of two pillars, in a
direct line with the nave, on the site of the east railings, proving that the ancient choir
had been of unusual length. A mound of earth which extends still further to the east,
no doubt marks the foundationa of other early buildings, and from their being in the direct
line of the building, it is not improbable that a Lady Chapel, or other addition to the
Abbey Church, may have stood to the east of the choir, as is frequently the case in larger
cathedral and abbey churches. A curious relic of the ancient tenants of the monastery
was found by the workmen already referred to, consisting of a skull, which had no
doubt formed the solitary companion of one of the monks. It had a hole in the top
of the cranium, which served most probably for securing a crucifix; and over the brow
was traced in antique characters the appropriate maxim, Memento Mori. This solitary
relic of the furniture of the Abbey was procured by the late Sir Patrick Walker, and is
still in the possession of his family. The English army that “brent the abbey called
Holyrode house, and the pallice adjonynge to the same,” in 1544, returned to complete
the destruction of the Abbey in 1547, almost immediately after the accession of Edward
VI. to his father’s throne. Their proceedings are thus recorded by the English chronicler :
-(( Thear stode south-westward, about a quarter of a mile from our campe, a monasterie :
they call it Hollyroode Abbey. Sir Water Bonham and Edward Chamberlayne gat
lycense to suppresse it ; whearupon these commissioners, making first theyr visitacion
thear, they found the moonks all gone, but the church and mooch parte of the house well
covered with leade. Soon after, thei pluct of the leade and had down the bels, which
wear but two ; and according to the statute, did somewhat hearby disgrace the hous. As
touching the moonkes, bicaus they wear gone, thei put them to their pencions at large.”‘
It need hardly excite surprise, that the invaders should not find matters quite according
to the statute, with so brief an interval between such cisitacions. The state in which they
did find the Abbey, proves that it had been put in effectual repair immediately after their
former visit.
The repeated burnings of the Abbey by the Englieh army were doubtless the chief
cause of the curtailment -of .the church to its present diminished size; yet abundant
Patten’s Expedition to Scotland. Frag. of Swt. Hiet.
