tre (1361-1372). But this transaction had not received the confirmation of the Apostolic See; and after the death of Bishop Walter, the abbot and convent besought the Pope to confirm the grant of the bishop, or, if necessary, to grant the church anew to the abbot and convent. In December 1381, the Pope, in response, committed it to the Bishop of Glasgow to inform himself as to the facts, and to confirm the grant according to justice.

The last addition of an ecclesiastical benefice recorded in the documents before us is the grant of the chapel of the Holy Trinity in Uist (together with the whole land of Karynche, and four-penny lands in Ylara, between Hussaboste and Kanusorrarath) made by Christina, daughter of Alan, and Reginald called M'Rodry. This grant was confirmed by Godfrey of Yle, lord of Uist, July 7, 1389 (No. CXLI.). A later confirmation of Donald of Yle, Lord of the Isles, and brother of Godfrey, is dated December 6, 1413 (No. CXLII.). This church, situated at Karynch in North Uist, is marked in Blaeu's Atlas as Kiltrinidad, and its ruins are locally known as Teampal-naTrianaide.1

The confirmation of the grant by Godfrey of Yle contains the rather peculiar provision that his beloved and special friend, Sir Thomas, canon of Inchaffray, should, nomine dicti monasterii, possess in peace and fully the said chapel with its lands and all its pertinents.

calls

This church at Karynch in North Uist, with the land of Karynch, one cannot but suspect is the origin of what John Spottiswoode in his Account of the Religious Houses Scarinche, which he makes one of the cells or priories belonging to Inchaffray.' If this conjecture is correct, Spottiswoode has blundered in placing the cell in the isle of Lewis.' Spottiswoode that Scarinch was founded by the Mac

goes on to say

1 Origines Parochiales, vol. ii. part i. p. 373. 2 This is printed in Keith's Scottish Bishops.

See, in Russell's edit., p. 373.

leods of the Lewis, in honour of St. Catan (in honorem Sti. Catani, cujus exuvias ibidem asservari traditione acceptum est).' The dedication of the chapel at Karynch does not fall in with this. But there seems to have been some place connected with Inchaffray and associated with St. Cathan at Stornoway,1 and Spottiswoode seems to have confused the two places.2

In a rental of the bishopric of the Isles and the abbacy of Icolmkill which has been assigned to 1561, Cairneische in the Ile of Weist' appears as part of the abbot's lands.3

If the opinion offered above as to the situation of the place called Scarinche be accepted, corrections will have to be made in the map which appears in Walcott's Ancient Church of Scotland (p. 233), and in Mr. G. Gregory Smith's map of Scotland, showing the ecclesiastical divisions in the Middle Ages, which is to be found (Plate xxvI.) in the new Historical Atlas issued from the University Press of Oxford.

THE PARISH CHURCH OF NESGASC AND THE HOSPITAL OF SS. JAMES AND JOHN AT BRACKLEY

The indented settlement (No. LXIV.) of a dispute between the abbot and convent of Inchaffray, on the one part, and the master and brethren of the Hospital of SS. James and John of Brackley in Northamptonshire, on the other, is preserved among the muniments of Magdalen College, Oxford, to which corporation the Hospital passed at an early date. is interesting to Scottish students as adding another instance to several already known of grants of churches or lands in Scotland having been made to religious houses in England.

1 See Origines Parochiales, vol. ii. part i. 381.'

It

2 Spottiswoode's contemporary,] y, Richard Augustine Hay, canon of St. Geneviève in Paris, also alleges that Scarinche, a cell of Inchaffray, is in the Isle of Lewis' (Scotia Sacra, p. 667). It is possible that Spottiswoode derived his error from Hay. 3 Collect. de rebus Albanicis, p. 2.

4 This hospital is said to have been founded, for a master and six brethren, by Robert, second Earl of Leicester (1118-68), who was known as le Bossu.

The monasteries of Scotland (as is well known) were treated in a similar spirit by owners of lands and patrons of churches in England.1

The grant of the parish church of Nesgasc, in Perthshire, to the Hospital of Brackley was made by Seher de Quincy, probably shortly after being created Earl of Winchester (1207).2 The charters of Magdalen College contain a grant (A.D. 121018) from Roger de St. Andrew to the Hospital at Brackele for the soul of himself and of (his uncle) Seher de Quence, Earl of Winchester, etc., of forty shillings of annual rent from his land at Colesyn (Collessie, in Fife), to wit, twenty shillings for the lights of the church, and twenty shillings for the infirmary. This grant is confirmed by Seher de St. Andrew, brother of the donor.3 The interest of the De Quincys in Brackley is apparent.

Large Scottish possessions came to the De Quincys through the marriage of Robert de Quincy (father of Seher, afterwards Earl of Winchester) with Orable, daughter of Ness, son of William. And the name 'Nesgasc' would suggest that this part of Gasc had been the property of Ness.

It will be observed also that this agreement (A.D. 1238) between Inchaffray and the Hospital at Brackley has among the witnesses Roger de Quincy, Earl of Winchester, and Seher of St. Andrew. The agreement was doubtless not made without their approval.

The value of Nesgasc in 1276 was 17lb. 17sol. 6den.1 When it ceased to be possessed by the Hospital at Brackley we are not able to say. It seems to have been still in the possession of the Hospital in 1262.5

At first sight it might be thought that the confirmation by Pope Urban IV., September 12, 1262 (No. LXXXIX.), of which both

1 Examples of both kinds will be found mentioned in The Chartulary of Lindores, Introduction, pp. 1-lii. 2 See Appendix, No. IV.A, p. 245..

3 Calendar of Charters of Magdalen College, Oxford. This annual rent was afterwards exchanged for the demesne of Gasc in Strathern. + See Theiner, Monumenta, p. 115.

5 See No. LXXXIX.

Inchaffray and Brackley possessed originals still extant, was a

confirmation of the agreement of 1238.

But a doubt is raised
Those who are repre-

as to this by the language of the bull. sented as interfering to effect the settlement of the dispute are the bishop of Dunblane, of good memory, and our venerable brother the bishop of St. Andrews.' This points to the latter of these friendly intermediaries being alive at the date of the bull. Now Gamelin, Bishop of St. Andrews in 1262, was not consecrated till December 26, 1255, while Clement (Bishop of Dunblane at the time of the agreement of 1238), died, at latest, in 1258.1 So there is ground for thinking that, despite the provisions of the indenture of 1238, some fresh dispute had arisen, and was adjusted by the intervention of Bishops Clement and Gamelin between the close of 1255 and the death of the former in 1258.

At a later stage, in the year 1266, we find the Hospital of Brackley entering upon an entirely new arrangement with Robert, Bishop of Dunblane. The bishop agreed to take over the church and lands of Gasknes ad firmam, that is, to take them on lease for a period of five years, he having the right to renew the lease for other five at the end of the first, and of subsequent terms. He was to pay twenty-four marks a year to Brackley, twenty shillings a year to the abbey of Inchaffray,2 and two marks to the vicar of Gasknes. The agreement between the parties is lengthy and elaborate, and will repay study. The Hospital was to retain the right of presenting to the vicarage, and all the ordinary burdens were to be undertaken by the bishop. The granting of churches ad firmam was looked on with suspicion by the Church; and in the mediæval Church both in England and Scotland canons were enacted regulating such transfers.4

1 Chron. de Mailros, s.a.

2 Compare the one mark to be paid to the abbey in No. LXIV.

Appendix, No. IV. p. 243.

4 See Statuta Ecclesie Scoticane, ii. 61, 69. It was more particularly

The lawsuit between the vicar of Fowlis and the abbey on the subject of 100 shillings usual money of the kingdom of Scotland,' being the mortuary of Tristram of Gorthy (No. CXLIX.), which was decided by the Bishop of Dunblane, sitting as judge in his consistorial court, is interesting as a specimen of the legal procedure of the bishops' courts in the latter half of the fifteenth century. Ordinarily the vicar of a parish received the mortuary or corse-present of a deceased parishioner. But we find examples of exceptions. Thus the vicar of Linlithgow (which was an appropriate church of the Priory of St. Andrews) was to receive oblations and obventions of the dead as well as of the living, but an exception was made when the mortuary. consisted of a 'living animal.' The cow, the 'kirk-cow,' as it was called, which not infrequently preceded the bier in the funeral procession to the parish church, was to go in this case not to the vicar, but to the canons of St. Andrews.1 In each case the language of the foundation of the vicarage as settled by the bishop of the diocese was to determine the question as to the ownership of mortuaries. It was so in he case under consideration. According to the fundamen of the vicarage of Fowlis mortuaries sana et integra were to go to the Abbot of Inchaffray, while mortuaries divisa et non integra were to be the perquisite of the vicar.

Before concluding this part of the Introduction a few words may be said as to two peculiar words occurring in the charters, the meanings of which are obscure, and need a fuller elucidation than I can pretend to offer.

Mr. Cosmo Innes long ago pointed out that there are materials in Scottish Records for a supplementum Scoticum to Ducange's

enjoined that churches should not be leased to laymen directly or indirectly, and that the consent of the ordinary should always be obtained. It is worth noticing that in 1358 the church of Nesgasc was the church of the Archdeacon of Dunblane (No. CXXXII.) and so continued to the Reformation.

1 Regist. Priorat. S. Andree, p. 159.