Series 3 > Letters of James the Fourth, 1505-1513

22
LETTERS OF JAMES IV
[1506
28. James IV to Antwerp, Edinburgh, May 10, 1506.
n.l. 12.
James has for years held a high opinion of Antwerp, a
busy town (mercuriale opidum), in which stranger merchants
are well received. He has delayed1 their embassy regarding
the establishment of the Staple there, in order to ascertain
first the balance of advantage ; and for this purpose he
has commissioned Andrew Haliburtoun, Conservator of
Scottish Privileges, to visit Antwerp, get to know the con¬
ditions, and inform the King with a view to final decision.
H.
29. James IV to the Magistrates of Middelburg, Edinburgh,
May 25, 1506. r.s.s. 1265.
Requests the restitution of the goods of the late Donald
Crom, withheld by Patrick Merchanstoun and Margaret
Manvell, his wife, to the executors.
30. James IV to the Prior General of the Dominican Order,
[May 1506]. n.l. 109 ; b.m. 14 ; r. 28.
Traces the spread of Christianity in the West since
the death of St. Antony. Scotland, almost the most
remote region in the world, adopted the Christian faith
when Constantine was Emperor, and Marcus, thirty-fourth
in succession to St. Peter, was Pope. Thinks that this
was divinely ordained, that the remotest region might be
the speediest in venerating its Creator. Then, through the
piety and devotion of his ancestors, church after church
was built in Scotland. There was no religious house to
which they did not assign its portion. Nor was the
Dominican Order neglected in Scotland : there were many
Dominican convents in Scotland, conspicuous for the royal
gifts liberally bestowed upon them, and which, by per¬
mission duly obtained from the rulers of the Order, hold a
provincial synod. These and greater privileges the Prior’s
1 The MS. has describimus, which is probably a misreading of distulimus.