Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

GLASGOW
see had about this time extended so greatly that a new
officer was appointed as keeper of the church vestments
and furniture treasured within the " Gemma doors" en-
tering the choir.' Cameron died on Christmas Eve
' 1446 at Lochwood, a rural retreat belonging to the
bishops in the parish of Old Monkland, about six miles
sastward of Glasgow. A number of the older writers
nint that his magnificence was carried out by money
extorted in cruel fashion from his people. Pitscottie's
opinion of him has been already referred to, and
Buchanan and Spottiswoode both speak of his death as
fearful. Pitseottie describes minutely, how, ' on Yule-
even, when he was sleeping, there came a thunder and
a voice out of heaven crying "and summoning him to
the extreme judgment of God, where he should give
an account and reckoning of all his cruel offences with-
out further delay." Through this he wakened forth of
his sleep, and took fear of the novelty of such things
unknown to him before ; but yet he believed this to be
no other but a dream, and no true warning for amend-
ment of his cursed life ; yet he called for his chaniber-
chiels, and caused them to light candles and to remain
a while heside him till he recovered the fear and
dreadour that he had taken in his sleep and dreaming.
But by he had taken a book and read a little while the
same voice and words were heard with no less fear and
dreadour than was before, which made them that were
present at that time about him to be in dread, so that
none of them had a word to speak to another, think-
ing no less than sudden mischief hastily to befal them
all ; and, from hand, the third time, the same words
were more ugsomely cried than before. This bishop
rendered his spirit hastily at the pleasure of God, and
shot out his tongue most wildly as he had been hanged
upon a gallows. A terrible sight to all cruel oppressors
and murderers of the poor. '
To Cameron succeeded William Turnbull, archdeacon
of St Andrews and keeper of the privy seal, whose name
will ever be held in honoured remembrance as the
founder of the University of Glasgow. King James II.
seems to have been the prime mover in the matter, and
at his instigation a bull was obtained from Pope Nicholas
V. in 1450, erecting a university at Glasgow after the
model of the university at Bologna, ' Glasgow being a
place well suited and adapted to that purpose on account
of the healthiness of the climate, the abundance of
victuals, and of every thing necessary for the use of
man.' The university was opened for teaching in 1451,
and on 20 April 1453 James himself granted a charter
excepting all connected with the university save the
bishop, ' from all tributes, services, exactions, taxations,
collections, watchings, wardings, and all dues whatever. '
Acting on this Bishop Turnbull granted to the members
of the university the privilege of trading within the city
without payment of customs, and also the power of juris-
diction in all but very important matters, a power
which was claimed and exercised even in serious cases
down to the beginning of the 18th century. Passing the
episcopate of Muirhead, Laing, and Carmichael, impor-
tant changes took place in the time of Bishop Robert
Blackadder, who was consecrated in 1484. In 1488, by
the exertions of the king, a bull was obtained from Pope
Alexander VI., erecting the see of Glasgow into an arch-
bishopric, and the erection was confirmed by Act of
Parliament. Its suffragans were the Bishops of Dun-
keld, Dunblane, Galloway, and Argyll. James IV.,
whose piety in early youth took an enthusiastic turn,
had become a canon of the chapter of Glasgow, and loved
to show favour to the cathedral of which he was a
member. In the first year of his reign it was ' concludit
and ordainit be our soverane lord and his three estatis
that for the honour and public gud of the realme the
sege of Glasgow be erecit in ane Archbishoprick with sic
previlegis as accordis of law and siclick as the Arch-
bishoprick of York has in all dignities, emunities, and
previlegis,' and besides, 'the king renewed and extended
the privileges and exemptions and much valued civil
■jurisdiction of the bishop, with expressions that show
both his attachment to Glasgow, and the commencement
6tS2
GLASGOW
of that high character of its chapter, which afterwards
drew to the archbishop's court of Glasgow a great
proportion of civil business. ' Blackadder was the rast
of the prelates who lent a kindly hand to the extension
and adornment of the cathedral, which had now been
more than 370 years in existence since its foundation by
Bishop John. 'He founded,' says M'Ure, 'several
altarages in the choir, and caused place his arms above
them in the roof of the lower area, illuminate in
a small escutcheon, three cinquefoils on a bend with-
out either a mytre or a crosier, and above it in large
capital letters Robertus Archicpiscopus. He raised the
ascents on each side of the church by steps from the
nave to the floor of fine work, with effigies, as I take it,
of the apostles, neatly engraved ; and in the descent,
on both sides, you will see the archbishop's arms, in
several places at large, with his mytre and other ponti-
ficalia with the initials of his name. He likewise
founded the great isle to the south of the church, of curi-
ous work, corresponding to the other parts of this most
magnificent structure.' Though this southern aisle,
known as Blackadder's crypt, remains unfinished, enough
has been done to show the rudiments of a beautiful
desigu. He is also believed to have erected the organ
screen. According to Leslie the archbishop undertook
a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre in his old age, and
died on 28 July 1508 when almost in sight of the
Syrian shore.
Blackadderwas succeeded by James Beaton, who inl524
was translated to St Andrews, and was followed by Gavin
Dunbar, tutor to King James V. , who was consecrated in
1525. The spread of new doctrines had begun to show
itself in Blackadder's time, for we find that, in 1503,
thirty persons from the districts of Kyle and Cunning-
hame were tried in the chapter-house of the cathedral
on a charge of heresy, but were dismissed, 'with an
admonition to take heed of new doctrines, and content
themselves with the faith of the Church.' By the time
of Dunbar, however, matters had gone farther, and the
infallibility of the Church, the purity of the Romish
faith, and the morals and precepts of the clergy began
to be freely and boldly questioned. In the attempt to
suppress these doctrines which caused the clergy to
tremble, many pious persons suffered death at St
Andrews and Edinburgh ; and to such an extent had
such heresies spread in the West — then, as ever after,
a stronghold of the reformed doctrine — that it was at
last deemed necessary to make an example in Glasgow,
in order to intimidate the heretics, but the very means
which were intended to crush the Reformation, namely,
the martyrdom of Russel and Kennedy, greatly aided its
progress in the West of Scotland. Duubar, a man of
kindly disposition and of sufficient good sense to know
that the spirit of inquiry was not to be stilled, nor con-
scientious belief changed, by lacerating the flesh, recom-
mended moderate measures ; but the high powers of the
Church thought otherwise, and accordingly, in 1538, a
deputation, consisting of John Lawder, Andrew Oliphant,
and Friar Maltman, was sent from Edinburgh to Glasgow
to stimulate the archbishop, and assist in crushing the
advancing Reformation by the help of stake and faggot.
The victims were Jerom Russel, said to have been one of
the Grey Friars in Glasgow, and noted for his learning
and talent ; and John Kennedy, a young man from Ayr,
not more than 18 years of age. After a mock trial in
which ' Mr Russel reasoned long, and learnedly confuted
his accusers,' they were handed over— much against tho
will of Dunbar, who affirmed ' that these rigorous pro-
ceedings did hurt the cause of the Church more than in
his opinion could be well thought of — to the secular
power for execution, and suffered martyrdom at a stake
which had been erected near the E end of the cathedral.
These were the only martyrs who suffered at Glasgow
during the progress of the Reformation. Though gentle
in spirit, Dunbar seems yet to have been tinctured with
some of the bigotry of his order, for, when in March
1542 Lord Maxwell brought into the Scottish Parliament
a bill for the purpose of authorising the reading of tho
Bible in the vulgar tongue, he led the opposition, and