A few particulars may be added respecting another Abbot of Lindoris,
who was much more distinguished both in his literary and political
career--JOHN LESLEY, Bishop of Ross. He was born 29th September 1527.
Knox, at page 141 of this volume, calls him "a priest's gett," or
bastard; and this assertion is fully confirmed by some original
documents which Bishop Keith examined, showing that he was the natural
son of Gawin Lesley, parson of Kingussie in Badenoch, and Official of
the See of Murray. In 1537, John Lesley obtained a dispensation,
notwithstanding the defect of his birth, to become a clergyman. He was
inducted to a canonry in the Cathedral Church of Aberdeen and Ellon in
August 1550. He then spent four years abroad, in the study of the
civil and canon laws in the University of Poictiers; and was created a
Doctor of Laws at Paris. He returned to Scotland in April 1554; four
years later, in April 1558, he was appointed Official at Aberdeen; and
in July 1559, he was inducted to the parsonage, canonry, and prebend
of Oyne. In April 1561, he was deputed, on the part of the Roman
Catholic party, to invite the Queen to Scotland, after the death of
Francis the Second. He returned to Leith in the same vessel with her;
and for a period of upwards of twenty years continued one of the most
active and zealous adherents and assertors of the rights and character
of his Royal Mistress. On the 19th January 1563-4, he took his seat as
a Lord of Session, by his designation as Parson of Oyne. Soon
afterwards he obtained the Abbacy of Lindores _in commendam_; and
upon the death of Henry Sinclair, Bishop of Ross, having been promoted
to the vacant See, his appointment was confirmed in April 1566.
Among the various documents relating to John Lesley parson of Oyne,
and afterwards Bishop of Ross, of which Keith has given some account,
is one, No. 7, which, if correctly stated, would have shown that the
name of the Abbot, his immediate predecessor, was also John Lesley. It
will be seen, however, that this is a mistake. Having obtained a sight
of the original paper, which is written in a small hand, and full of
contractions, it may be described as a petition intimating in the
usual form, that JOHN, ABBOT OF THE MONASTERY OF LINDORIS, of the
Order of St. Benedict, in the diocese of St. Andrews, had resigned the
Abbacy in favour of JOHN LESLIE, Clerk in the diocese of Murray, and a
Doctor of both Laws, who had a seat on the bench as one of the Lords
of Council in Scotland. To this added the _fiat ut petitur_, granting
Lesley a dispensation to hold this benefice _in commendam_. It is
dated "Rome apud Sanctum Petrum sexto Kal. Martij, Anno Primo." That
this was during the first year of the Pontificate of Pius V., (who was
elected on the 7th, and crowned on the 17th January 1565-66,) is
evident from the document itself, which refers to letters in favour of
Lesley, "by Henry and Mary, King and Queen of Scotland," thus fixing
the date to the 24th February 1566.
In June following, John Bishop of Ross, and Commendator of Lindores,
obtained a Royal mandate, and took an active part in regard to the
confirmation of various feu-farms of lands pertaining to the Abbey of
Lindores. In the letter describing Riccio's murder and the Queen's
conduct, addressed to the Council of England by the Earl of Bedford
and Sir Thomas Randolph, the 27th March 1566, it appears that Bishop
Lesley, along with his colleague James Balfour, Parson of Flisk, was
that night in Holyrood,--"Atholle had leave of the Kinge, with Flyske
_and Landores_, (_who was lately called Lyslaye, the Parson of Ovne_,)
to go where they wolde; and being convoide oute of the courte," &c.
(Wright's Queen Elizabeth, vol. i. p. 229.)
The latter portion of Bishop Lesley's life is well known, and need not
be detailed--his imprisonment in England in 1571--his long residence
in different parts of the continent, and his death near Brussels on
the 31st May 1596, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. See in
particular the account of his life and writings, by Dr. Irving in his
"Lives of Scotish Writers," vol. i. p. 122, &c.
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