The late medieval and early modern church in Scotland has been under studied. The contrast with the voluminous bibliography on the Scottish Reformation could not be greater. The Franciscan Order was the subject of a two volume history written by William M. Bryce and published in 1909 and there has been recent work on the monastic foundations, by Mark Dilworth, published in 1995. The research on the Order of Friars Preachers presented here complements these works but also stands with them in something of a historiographical vacuum. Primary sources were found to be more abundant than this lack of secondary study might suggest. This thesis draws upon a wide range of manuscripts including the exchequer rolls, the treasurers accounts, burgh records, commissary court records, court of session records, private collections and the Vatican Archives. This evidence points to and reflects the view that the Dominican Order was a central feature of civic Christianity and at the forefront of the Catholic Reform of the Scottish Church in the late medieval and early modern period. The history of the order over the 110 years from 1450 to 1560 is given in the first chapter. The next two chapters place that history in context by examining the personnel of the order and the relationships between the Dominicans and the lay communities in which they lived and worked. These three chapters demonstrate that the Dominicans were highly educated, mobile and politically aware. Formally breaking from England, the Dominicans set up their own province in 1481 and began to put into practice the ideals of Dominican Observance in the early sixteenth century and were involved in the reform which was current in the Catholic Church during the period. Chapters Four and Five examine the income of the different houses of friars and how they dealt with the property which they owned. The feuing of lands and the pursuit of rents in court are interpreted as showing the friars to be active in defending their interests within the burghs. The relationship between the laity and the friars is further examined in Chapter Six, through the donations given to the friars for prayers for the dead. These foundations reveal the long-term nature of investment in the order for anniversaries and other divine services. Finally, attitudes to the friars revealed in the Scots literature for the period are examined and there is found to be widespread use by Scots poets of the traditions of anti-mendicant literature.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:650989 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Foggie, Janet P. |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1842/21243 |
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