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

36
LETTERS OF JAMES IV
[1506
frustrate to this day and a wrongful possession by the
monastic election persists. David, tired out by litigation,
advanced in years, and taking pity upon a place going to
ruin through the negligence of the intruded abbots, asks
that his right be transferred by the Pope to a man of
standing who may restore an erstwhile famous house
according to the royal foundation. He has selected Robert
[Betoun], Abbot of Glenluce, as an experienced monastic
who in a few years has saved Glenluce from perishing and
has restored a house almost abandoned {pene destitutam).
James seeks admission of the resignation, provision of
Robert, and commission to administer for the tightening
of monastic order and the succour of a decadent place, as
the Cardinal of St. Mark will explain to His Holiness.
H.
50. James IV to the Cardinal of St. Mark, [October 1, 1506].
N.L. 133.
The King has to deal with a most regrettable case. The
authority of the cardinals has been scouted, and they
ought to intervene : justice, the common weal, and the
danger to monastic life demand their help. John Brown,
who was in peaceful possession of Melrose, resigned in the
hands of Innocent VIII, and the consistory unanimously
provided David Brown, Clerk of St. Andrews diocese.
The convent, upon hearing of the resignation, intruded
one monk and then another by null election to a most
unfortunate administration. When these monks died,
Bernard Bell, a professed monk, was surrogate by the
pertinacious brethren, and administered for three years,
supported by the favour of James III. At the unhappy
instance of certain persons that king ordered the exile of
David, who was heavily encumbered by debts incurred
by his predecessors and in his own promotion, and forbade
by public edict any pecuniary assistance. He wrote to
Innocent VIII for a confirmation of Bernard’s election, and
in opposition to David, so frequently that his efforts,