Series 4 > Stirling Presbytery Records 1581-1587
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Xxii STIRLING PRESBYTERY RECORDS I581-I587
Even before it received its commission from the assembly to
investigate the bishops’ activities, the presbytery had ordered
Andrew Graham of Dunblane, in April 1582, to account to the
general assembly ‘for negligence in his offeice’ in accordance with
an act of synod; and in May, after criticising ‘ the lang absence of
Mr Andro Grahame fra his kirk of Dunblane and negligence of his
flock’, the presbytery had insisted that the bishop reply to the
charge. The accusations were by no means new, for Graham had a
history of being less than a satisfactory bishop. His career as bishop
effectively dated not so much from 1573 when the crown had first
issued to the chapter its licence to elect but from 1575 when the
crown confirmed his election and issued a mandate for his conse¬
cration. But although a graduate, Graham had no pastoral experi¬
ence, and in 1575 the assembly, finding itself in a dilemma on dis¬
covering that ‘it is not yitt decided that all bishops sould be first
preachers ’ had hastily ordered the bishop to demonstrate his aptitude
for the office by preaching a sermon on Romans 5 before so many of
the ministry as might be present at the Magdalene chapel in Edin¬
burgh.1 Thereafter, his shortcomings in performing his duties as
bishop had been duly observed by the assembly from as early as
1576. Nor was this wholly unexpected, for his promotion to the
bishopric had the characteristics of a dynastic appointment secured
by his kinsman the Earl of Montrose, who, as Master of Graham, had
earlier acquired rights to the temporalities of the bishopric during
its vacancy, and who, after gaining the installation of his own
candidate, obtained from the bishop a feu of the entire lands of the
bishopric. Such a grant posed a potential threat to the security of the
sitting ‘kindly tenants’ of the bishopric who successfully sought the
protection of parliament in 1578 on the ground that ‘ane thowsand
of our soverane lordis commonis and pure people wilbe put to uter
heirschip and extreme beggartie . . . quhen as sa grite rowmes
quhairupoun sa mony ar sustenit salbe reducit in the handis of ane
particular man’.2
These were the antecedents to the presbytery’s proceedings which
1 See below, 41,44; Watt, Fasti, 78; Calderwood, History, iii, 341-2; BUK, i, 316,317,
321. 325
2 BUK, i, 349; The Register oj the Privy Seal of Scotland, vi, ed. G. Donaldson (Edin¬
burgh, 1963), nos. 590,729; APS, iii. 111-2
Even before it received its commission from the assembly to
investigate the bishops’ activities, the presbytery had ordered
Andrew Graham of Dunblane, in April 1582, to account to the
general assembly ‘for negligence in his offeice’ in accordance with
an act of synod; and in May, after criticising ‘ the lang absence of
Mr Andro Grahame fra his kirk of Dunblane and negligence of his
flock’, the presbytery had insisted that the bishop reply to the
charge. The accusations were by no means new, for Graham had a
history of being less than a satisfactory bishop. His career as bishop
effectively dated not so much from 1573 when the crown had first
issued to the chapter its licence to elect but from 1575 when the
crown confirmed his election and issued a mandate for his conse¬
cration. But although a graduate, Graham had no pastoral experi¬
ence, and in 1575 the assembly, finding itself in a dilemma on dis¬
covering that ‘it is not yitt decided that all bishops sould be first
preachers ’ had hastily ordered the bishop to demonstrate his aptitude
for the office by preaching a sermon on Romans 5 before so many of
the ministry as might be present at the Magdalene chapel in Edin¬
burgh.1 Thereafter, his shortcomings in performing his duties as
bishop had been duly observed by the assembly from as early as
1576. Nor was this wholly unexpected, for his promotion to the
bishopric had the characteristics of a dynastic appointment secured
by his kinsman the Earl of Montrose, who, as Master of Graham, had
earlier acquired rights to the temporalities of the bishopric during
its vacancy, and who, after gaining the installation of his own
candidate, obtained from the bishop a feu of the entire lands of the
bishopric. Such a grant posed a potential threat to the security of the
sitting ‘kindly tenants’ of the bishopric who successfully sought the
protection of parliament in 1578 on the ground that ‘ane thowsand
of our soverane lordis commonis and pure people wilbe put to uter
heirschip and extreme beggartie . . . quhen as sa grite rowmes
quhairupoun sa mony ar sustenit salbe reducit in the handis of ane
particular man’.2
These were the antecedents to the presbytery’s proceedings which
1 See below, 41,44; Watt, Fasti, 78; Calderwood, History, iii, 341-2; BUK, i, 316,317,
321. 325
2 BUK, i, 349; The Register oj the Privy Seal of Scotland, vi, ed. G. Donaldson (Edin¬
burgh, 1963), nos. 590,729; APS, iii. 111-2
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