Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/378

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SAINT ANDREWS


332


SAINT ASAPH


Saint Andrews, Uni\i;rsiti- of. — The germ of the university is to be found in an association of learned ecclesiastics, formed in 1410, among whom were : Laurence of Lindores, Abbot of Scone, Richard Cornwall, Archdeacon of Lothian, Wm. Stephen, aftemards .\rchbishop of Dunblane. They offered courses of lectures in divinity, logic, philosophy, canon and civil law. Henry Wardlaw, the Bishop of St. Andrews, granted a charter of pri\-ilege in 1411; he sought a Bull of foundation from the antipope, Benedict XIII, whose legate he was and whose claims Scotland supported. The Bull was granted in 1413; it was confirmed by royal charter of James I in 1532. The five-hundredth anni\-crsary of the foundation was celebrated in 1911. The university consisted of three colleges: St. Salvator's, founded in 1450 lay Bishop James Kennedy, confirmed and further priv- ileged bv Popes Nicholas V, Pius II, and Paul II; St. Leonard's, founded by Archbishop Stuart and Prior Hepburn in 1512; and St. Mary's, founded by Archbishop James Beaton, under sanction of Paul III, in 1537. Tliis occupied the site of the original pedagogy. AH the foundations were amply supported by successive endowment. The college buildings escaped when the churches of St. Andrews were de- molished by the reformers, but it was not until 1574 that the university began to recover. At the same time that Andrew Melville (a St. Andrews' student) was re-erecting the university at Glasgow, a commis- sion, inspired by George Buchanan, began a series of reforms at St. Andrews, which intermittently con- tinued throughout the seventeenth century. In 1747 St. Salvator's and St. Leonard's Colleges were united. The university was further enlarged and strength- ened by the affiliation in 1897 of University College, Dundee, at which the scientific departments are chiefly conducted. A proposal by the Marquess of Bute (rector 1892-98) to affiliate Blair's College, Aberdeen, was unsuccessful. Among the famous professors and students in St. Andrews of the earlier period mast be named John Major, Andrew Melville, Gavin Douglas, George Buchanan, Patrick Forbes, Napier of Merchiston; its leaders and its alumni played a great part in Scottish ecclesiastical politics of the seventeenth century, most notably Zachary Boyd, Wm. Carstares, principal of the University of Edinburgh, and Samuel Rutherford. During the last century St. Andrews can show a long list of distin- guished scientists and men of letters. The total num- ber of students (1909-10) was 571, of whom 247 were women; University College, Dundee, contrib- uted 214 of the total.

St. Andrews' Vniternty Calendar (1910-11); Anderson, The Unirergiiy of St. AnrJrewB, a HUtoriail Sketch (1878); Rash- IJALL, VnizerHities of Europe in the Middle Ages (Oxford, ISM), 29.5; Cooper, Diet. Nat. Biog., 8. v. Andrew Melville; Lyon, //»»- tory of St. Andrews (Edinburgh, 184.3).

J. S. Phillimore.

Saint Andrews, Priory of, was one of the great religious hou.scs in Scotland and the metropolitan church in that country before the Reformation. Its origin is uncertain, although all agree that it must be very ancient. According to the "Registrum S. An- drew", the first founder was Angus, King of the 'Picts 73.5-747), who gave to Bishop Regulus, who haxl brought to Scotland the relics of St. Andrew, meadows, fields, and other properties. The church was, f>erhap8 from the beginning, administered by Culdef«, who alsfj had the right of electing the bishop. In 1 144, however, at the nqufst of King Alexander I, who may be called the H('cond founder of the priory on account of his many donations to it, Robert, Prior of Scone, was ma/le Bishop of St. Andrews. He brought with him wjme of his brother-canons regular, whom he estaVilished in the priory. For some time the canons and the Culdees servcfJ the church to- gether, but by order of the pope in 1147 the Culdees,


who had previously been given the option to become canons and had refused, were removed and all their rights passed to tlie canons, who from that moment till the Reformation formed the Cathedral Chai)ter. When in 1297 Bishop Lambcrton, who succeeded Bishop Fraser, was chosen by the canons without the intervention of the Culdees, as was done in the two previous elections, Cumyn, Provost of the Culdees, opposed the election and went to Rome. He pleaded his case before the pope in vain, and Lamberton was consecrated bishop in 1298. The Culdees, after this, disappear from St. Andrews altogether. The priory protected by bishops, kings, and noble families pros- pered, and iike all the great monasteries it had cells or priories as its dependencies. These were: (1) Loch- leven, formerly a house of Culdees, and given to the canons by Bishop Robert and King David; (2) Mony- musk, where the Culdees became canons regular; (3) Isle of May, which Bishop Wishart bought from the monks of Reading and gave to the canons of St. Andrews, plena jure; (4) Pittenweem, an old priory, which already existed in 1270; (5) Portmoak, founded in 838 for Culdees and given to St. Andrews by Bishop Roger. Kilrimont was made over to the canons by Bishop Robert, who also gave them the hospital "in susceptionem hospitum et peregrinorum " . On account of his position as Superior of the Cathedral Chapter, the prior pro tempore had precedence of all the abbots in the kingdom. To the canons of St. Andrews the now famous university of that name owes its existence. It was founded by Prior Biset and his canons in 1408, and many of them lectured there. Some of the canons became bishops of St. Andrews or of other dioceses, and in other ways distinguished themselves for their piet}' or learning. Of Bishop Robert the chronicler tells us that he was a man of rare prudence, virtuous, and a scholar. In 1349, when the black plague made so many victims. Abbot Bower records the death of twenty-four canons of St. Andrews, who, as he says, were all "sufficienter litterati et morum conspicui". When in 1412 the new parish church was founded by the canons, the first incumbent was one of them, W. Romer, "vir multum laudabilis religiosus et benig- nus". Bishop Bell, returning from Rome, became a canon at St. Andrews, where he died in 1342. But evil days came for the priory when lay-priors or com- mendatories were introduced; relaxations and irreg- ularities crept in, and the Reformation completed the work of destruction. Instigated by the fiery preaching of John Knox, his followers burnt down the cathedral and the priorj\ A few years ago the late Marquess of Bute purchased the remaining ruins with a view to restore them to Catholic use.

Martine, ReliquicE S. Andrea, or the atate of the venerable, and Primtitial See of St. Andrew' s; Fordun-Bower, Scotichronicon (E)<linl)urKh, 17.'j9); Gordon, Monasticon (1875); History of Holyrood (KdiriburKh). A. AlLARIA.

Saint Asaph, Ancient Diocese of (Assavensis, originally IOlvik.nsis), was founded by St. Kentigern about the middle of the sixth century when he was exiled from his see in Scotland. He founded a monas- tery called Llanelwy at the confluence of the CIvvyd and Elwy in North Wales, where after his return to Scotland in 573 he was succtseded by Asaph or Asa, who was consecrated Bishop of Llanelwy. The diocese originally coincided with the principality of Powys, but lost much territory first by th(! Mercian encroachment marked by Watt's dyk(! and again by the construction of Ofta's dyke, soon after 798. Nothing is known of the history of the diocese during the disturlx'd jx-riod that followed. Domesday Hook gives scanty j)articularH of a few churclies but is silent as to the; (iathedral. Early in the; twelfth cen- tury Norman influence a,sserted itself and in 1143 Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, consecrated one Gilbert as Bishop of St. Asaph, but the position of his successors was very difficult and one of them,