Series 3 > Charters of the Abbey of Inchcolm

242 CHARTERS OF THE ABBEY OF INCHCOLM
the monastery by the relatives of James Stewart, has appointed
procurators to promote at the Vatican the appointment of Stewart
as abbot, Richard to retain the title, fruits, etc., and reserving to
Stewart, who is thirteen years of age, a pension of 100/. Scots
from the revenues of the abbey {Charters, lx.). A different and less
plausible pretext for the appointment of Stewart as titular abbot
is given in a letter of James, Earl of Arran, Governor of Scotland,
to Pope Paul III, 31 July 1543 :
‘ Beatissime Pater etc. . . . Ricardus, Abbas monasterii Divi
Columbe de Ymonia intelligens satis quam sit oneris quod
sustinet gravitate pressus, cum animi imbecillitate turn etiam
senii mole, quod solet omnis cure et sollicitudinis fastidium secum
trahere ; vehementer expetivit ut per nos, qui vice regia fungi-
mur, liceat in Sanctitatis vestre manibus resignare nobili et
studioso adolescenti, Jacobo Stewart, quod quidem negare non
potuimus. Quis enim pondere pressum sublevare recuset ?
Itaque Sanctitatis vestre arbitrio rem permittimus et rogamus
ut ad hasce nostras commendatitias in promovendo hoc adolescente
accedet Sanctitatis vestre consensus et grata benignitas ; que
perpetuo valeat . . .’ (Epp. Reg. Scot., ii. pp. 16S-4).1
But Richard was so little incapacitated by old age that he con¬
tinued to act as abbot for several years thereafter. He is men¬
tioned as abbot on 27 April 1543 {RMS., ii. 2915) and in 1547
{ADC., 1501-54, p. 569) 5 and he appears in charters of 14 Nov.
1548 and 30 Jan. 1548/49 {Charters, lxvii., lxviii.). His death took
place on 26 March 1549 {ADC., 1501-54, p. 594).
James Stewart, titular Abbot of Inchcolm, was the son and heir
of James Stewart of Beath,2 third son of Andrew, second Lord
Avendale. He was born c. 1529. A bull of Pope Paul HI of
13 Aug. 1544, in which he is called ‘ clericus Sanctiandree,’
appointed mandatories to institute him as a canon of Inchcolm,
and another bull, of the same date, appointed him abbot {Charters,
lxi., lxii. ; cf. Brady, Episc. Succ., i. p. 189). On 3 Feb. 1545
James Salmond paid common services in his name at the Vatican
1 Another letter in similar terms was sent to Rudolph, Cardinal of
Carpi (Epp. Reg. Scot., ii. p. 164). Both letters are mentioned in
L. &• P. H. VIII, xviii, Pt. i., 976, 977; the index to that volume, it
may be noted, gives a reference to James, Abbot of Iona [sic],
* He had a lease of Beath by a charter of Abbot Richard and the
convent, 27 April 1543 (RMS., ii. 2915). His murder took place at
Dunblane on the Monday after Whitsunday, 1544 (RSS., iii. 1198, 2421)
and not on Whitsunday, 1547, as stated in Scots Peerage, iii. p. 186.