Bannatyne Club > Origines parochiales Scotiae > Volume 1

THE PREFACE. xxxix
which it uow bears, Baiamuud's Roll can be evidence for nothing earlier than
the reign of James V. It taxes collegiate churches, all late foundations, among
parish churches,^ though they had no parochial district ; and it omits all livings
below 40 marks. The rectories in the hands of religious houses are not taxed
specifically, but vicarages held separately, and exceeding that value are given.
This Roll, as we now have it, may be considered as giving imperfectly the
state of the church livings of Scotland in the reign of James V.
As a subsidiary source of information, other valuations have been used in
the present work. One of these is from a volume of Taxations of Scotch bene-
fices above the value of forty pounds a year, calculated in proportion to the sum
to be raised by the clergy. These are all plainly of the IGth century, and the
latest in the volume is for an assessment of £2500, leviable for the expenses of
the deputies to the Council of Trent, 1546.- This Taxation seems to run upon
a value taken generally but not invariably about one-sixth lower than Baiamund's
Roll.
The next document of this class which has been used is entitled ' Libellus
Taxationum sen contributionum spiritualitatis concessarum s. d. u. Regi per pre-
lates et clericos Regni Scotie.' We have this valuation only in a late copy,^ and
it is not easy to fix the date of the original, which, however, is very little ante-
rior to the era of the Reformation. It includes the dioceses of Saint Andrews,
Glasgow, Dunkeld, Dunblane, Galloway, Aberdeen, Moray, Ross, Brechin,
proviuciall of the qubyte or carmelat frieris of - The volume, written in a hand of the
AberJene, called dene Johnne Christisone, the period, is in the General Register House, titled
principall provynciall of the said freiris and of on the back Taxatio Seculi XVI. The title of
Scotland for the tyme, and wes dowbled or CO- each taxation usually runs — Taxatio super
pied be ane chaiplane of Auld Aberdene, called Integra Scoticana ecclesia tara super prelaturis
Doctoure Roust.' {See Regiat. Glamj., Pref., p. quam aliis iiiinoribus beneficiis ad valorem an-
Ixii.) Bisset was servitor or clerk to Sir John nuum sumrae quadraginta librarum vel supra,
Skene, the first editor of our ancient laws. It ad rationem millium librarum usualis
is now impossible to say whether Bisset or Doc- monete Scotie. Of these there are five, cal-
tor Roust, or even some previous transcriber, culated for raising £8000 — £13,000 — £5000
should bear the blame of the inaccuracies with — £.3000, and the sum mentioned in the text.
which this only copy abounds. 3 ]yjg_ Advocates' Library, (.Jac. V. 5,
1 Among the collegiate churches entered in T,) 31, 2. .). The hand is of the 17th cen-
Baiamund is Craill, a foundation of 1517- tury.