Series 3 > Miscellany of the Scottish History Society (Sixth volume)

INTRODUCTION
85
of the type usual in and characteristic of a collegiate
foundation which, in this case as in all, originated in the
founder’s desire to provide for the multiplication and
continuity of votive masses and prayers ; in particular,
they are to observe his obit, i.e. the anniversary of his
death. It was customary for collegiate churches to have
associated with them—ancillary to their main function
as praying societies—song schools and grammar schools
for the training of choir-boys and hospitals for the main¬
tenance of poor bedesmen. Although no provision is made
in this charter for boy-singers, the dean, it is said, is to
have the rule of the school {regimen scolarum); and, at a
later date, there is evidence of the existence both of a
grammar school and a song school at Dunbar.1 Likewise,
a hospital, which does not appear to have been con¬
templated by the founder, is latterly associated with the
collegiate church.2
One feature of the foundation-charter is especially
significant both for its bearing on the career of the Scottish
collegiate churches in general and on the history of the
Collegiate Church of Dunbar in particular. It is stringently
insisted that the collegiate clergy must be resident—a
stipulation which figures again and again in the statutes
of Scottish collegiate churches and which arises out of the
founders’ desire to secure continuity of masses and prayers
—and this regulation is enforced by the infliction of
pecuniary penalties on defaulters. Yet a loophole, of
which, we may be sure, the canons were not slow to avail
themselves, appears in the further statement that the
dean, archpriest and canons, whether they reside or not,
are to have priests continually residing in the college and
maintaining its services. The consequences of this qualify¬
ing clause, which allowed the devolving of duties on
1 Hutton's Collections, V, p. 179.
2 Ibid., p. 178.