just then passed:—“that forasmekle as the dampnable opinzeons of herecy
are spred in diuerse contreis be the heretik Luther, and his disciples,
it is ordanit that no manner of persone, strengear, nor other that
hapyns to arrife with their schippys within ony port of this realme,
bring with thame ony bukys or verkys of the said Lutheris, his
disciplis, or seruandis, disput or rehers his hereseys or opunzeounes,
but gyfe it be to the confusione thairof, vnder the paine of escheting
of thair schippis and gudis, and putting of thair personnys in presone.”
6th January, 1561.—The Reformation had now made such progress that the
churches were being stripped of their old vessels and ornaments. “The
said day the town beand lauchtfully warnit to heir and se the silver
wark, brasin wark, keippis and ornaments of thair parroche Kirk ropit
[_i.e._, sold by auction], and the same to be sauld and disponit to
thame that vill offer maist for the same, and the money gottin for the
samyn to be applawdit to the commond weill and necessar advis of this
guid toun. And the grytest soome offerit for the same was ane hundredth,
fourtie tua pound be Patrik Menzeis for the Keippis,—XXIs. for ilk vnce
of silver,—XVIs. for ilk stane of brass, extending in the haill to the
soome of fyw hundredth XIlib. money of Scotland.” And the articles so
sold were delivered to the said Patrik; but not without protest, for,
“the said day Gilbert Menzes and Gilbert Collysone dissentit to the said
roiping, selling, and disposicioun, for thame selffis and their
adherans, lik as thai had discentit and protestit in sic caicis obefoir,
as thai alleigit, and tuk act of court tharwpoun.”
9th October, 1601.—“The prouest, bailleis, and counsall ordanis the
sowme of threttie tua merkis to be gevin to the Kingis servandis
presentlie in this burght, quha playes comedies and staige playes, be
reasoun thay are recommendit be his majesties speciall letter, and hes
played sum of theair comedies in this burght.” It has been suggested
that Shakespeare was one in this company of London players.
10th March, 1606.—Although Presbyterianism was now the general religious
faith in Scotland, certain customs connected with the Old Church appear
to have still lingered on. “Intimationne was this day made by the belman
throw the haill toune, at command of the prouest and baillies thereof,
that no inhabitant eat onie flesche during the time of Lent, nather yet
on Wedenisday, Fryday, nor Seterday theirafter, in na time coming; and
that na fleschar nor bucheour within this burght presume to sell onie
flesche during the tyme of Lent; and that na tavernar nor hostillar
within the samen mak onie flesche reddie during the said time of
Lentrone; under the panes contenit in his Majestie’s actis and
proclamationnes maid thiaranent.”
26th December, 1606.—Forbes Mackenzie had his forerunners in these days,
and their edicts were of even more stringent application. “Ordaneit,
with consent of the haill toune this day convenit, that it sall not be
lesum to onie hostilar, tavernar, or vinter of wyne, aill, or beir, to
sell or vent onie wyne, aill, or beir, fra ten houris at nicht furth, at
the quhilk hour nichtlie the colledge bell sall ring; efter the ringing
quhairof, no persone, man or woman, except sic as have necessarie
errandis to be fand gangard vpon the streitis or caisayes of the burght;
under penaltie efter conviction in ane vnlaw of fyve pundis.”
28th November, 1606.—The compulsory enforcement of what were held to be
religious obligations was not the outcome of particular forms of faith,
or of special times. The Aberdeen magistrates ordain:—“That the haill
inhabitants shall repair to the preaching in St. Machars Kirk, on Sunday
and Wednesday, under the pains following—viz., the goodman and goodwife
of the house contravening, 6s. 8d.; and ilk servant, 2s., Scots.”
In the records of the Kirk-Session of Aberdeen, we read:—
“It is thocht expedient that ane baillie with two of the sessioun pass
thro the toun every Sabbath-day, and nott sic as they find absent from
the sermones; that for that effect they serche sic houses as they think
maist meit; and chiefly that now, during the symmer seasoun, they
attend, or caus ane to attend, at the ferrie boat, and nott the names of
such as gang to Downie; that they may be punishit, conform to the Act,
against brackaris of the Sabbath.”
The tendency of the following order would be towards good digestion:—
“It is ordanit that na disputation nir reasonying of the Scriptures be
at dennar or supper or oppin table, quhair throw arises gryte
contentioun and debate; and that na flyting nor chiding be at time of
meit; under the payne of tua s. to the puyr.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Witchcraft in Scotland.
Common-sense and everyday experience are at constant war with
superstition. But superstition dies hard; like a noxious weed which has
spread in a fair garden, if plucked up in one place it will appear
unexpectedly in another. The Reformers rejected the alleged daily
miracle of the Romish mass; in spite of the prayers, the genuflections,
and the _Hoc est Corpus_ of the priest, the bread and wine still
remained bread and wine. They rejected other alleged miracles of the
Catholic Church—the healings and other benefits from relics, and
pilgrimages, and holy wells. But an influx of belief in witchcraft set
in on the ebb-tide of the old faith. Men and women—especially women—were
supposed to have entered into league with the spirit of evil; by selling
their souls to him, they had conferred upon them in return certain
supernatural powers,—generally to the injury of their fellows.
In the latter portion of the sixteenth, and throughout the seventeenth
century, a belief in witchcraft was very general in Scotland; and
prosecutions for the alleged crime very frequent. That royal pedant,
James VI., wrote a treatise against witchcraft. He had himself been the
object of witchly machinations. Witches conspired with Satan to raise a
tempest and wreck the ship in which, in 1590, he was bringing home his
bride, Anne of Denmark. In May, 1591, a Convention sat in Edinburgh,
“anent order to be tane with sorcerers and certain practisers against
his Majesty’s person.” An assize was then sitting upon witches, in the
business of which the King took an active part. Under torture the
wretched creatures made extraordinary confessions,—one was of a meeting
which they had with the Devil in North Berwick Church, when, after
casting sundry spells upon the King and Queen, they concluded their
revels with a dance, the music for which was played by one of the women
on a jew’s-harp,—and this she repeated at the trial, upon his Majesty’s
request, for his particular delectation!
As to the punishment on conviction,—about this there could be no
dispute. Had not Moses, more than two thousand years previously, written
in his law:—“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live?” No use saying that
this law had only reference to circumstances in old Hebrew history, or
that the newer teaching was the more enlightened, the more humane, the
more generally applicable gospel of Christ. What were now called witches
had to die.
Most of those who were thus put to death as witches were poor old
women,—often soured and peevish in temper, ready to resent any slight,
and to croak out evil wishes and forebodings. And when evils did occur,
when sickness came into a house, or blight into its orchard, or the
cows’ yield of milk was scanty, or the butter would not form in the
churn, then the cause was assigned to the spells and cantrips of the
“ill-wisher.” Often, to raise their own importance, and make themselves
feared, these women would pretend to the possession of occult powers,—to
the knowledge of potions and charms,—both for the infliction and the
recovery of disease; as also of philters to induce love. And they would
themselves come to believe in their possession of such powers. And hence
on trial, under torture, or after sentence, they would make confession
of witchcraft, with strange disordered narratives of Satanic leagues and
unholy revellings. A woman was called a white witch whose specialty was
the cure of disease, or the recovery of lost or stolen property; but
none the less was she liable—like Rebecca in “Ivanhoe”—to be tried as a
sorceress, and suffer the penalty thereof.
It was not alone the old or the poor who were accused of witchcraft. At
times young women, and even young men,—and persons in a good social
position were so accused. And as an outcome of the crusade against
witchcraft, there arose a tribe of “witch-finders.” Pretenders to a
knowledge of indicative marks and moles and other signs, were permitted
to torture the suspects—to extort confession—being then paid their
professional fees.
A witch was supposed to have as an accomplice, a familiar spirit,—often
in the shape of a black cat,—an incarnation of the Evil one, or of one
of his imps. Sometimes the master-fiend held provincial Walpurgis
nights, when he assembled all his subjects in a neighbourhood to a high-
jinks festival—a scene of wild riot, of blasphemy, and of conspiracy to
do evil.
It is to one of these orgies in Auld Alloway Kirk that Burns introduces
his bemuddled hero, Tam o’ Shanter. But this poetical phantasy hardly
surpasses in absurdity the plain prose of the following indictment
against Thomas Leyis, of Aberdeen:—
“Imprimis, upon Hallowein last by past (1596) at twelff houris of even
or thairby, thou the said Thomas Leyis, accompaneit with Janett
Wischert, Isobel Coker, Isobell Monteithe, and Kathren Mitchell,
sorceroris and witches, with ane gryt number of ither witches, cam to
the mercat and fish cross of Aberdene, under the conduct and gyding of
the dewill—present with you all in company, playing before you on his
kynd of instruments. Ye all dansit about baythe the said crosse and the
meill mercate ane lang space of tym; in the quhilk dewill’s dans, thou,
the said Thomas, was foremost and led the ring, and dang [struck] the
said Kathren Mitchell, because she spoilt your dans, and ran nocht so
fast about as the rest. Testifeit be the said Kathren Mitchell, wha was
present at the time aforesaid, dansin with the dewill.”
The items of expenses in the burning of Thomas Leyis, Janet Wischert,
and Isobel Coker, viz.: for peats, tar barrels, coals, and tow,—and to
Jon Justice for their execution, as they are to-day found in the Town’s
Accounts, are a fearful indictment against the enlightenment and
humanity of three hundred years ago. But perhaps the last item in the
costs of that veritable devil’s festival is the most gruesome and
repulsive:—
“For trailing Isobell Monteithe through the streets of the town in ane
cart, quha hangit herself in prison, and burying of her, 10s.”
In that year, 1597, twenty-three women and one man were burned in the
university city of Aberdeen for witchcraft.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Holy Wells in Scotland.
A spring of water issuing from the hillside, or from clefts in the
rocks—leaping and sparkling, as if in joyance at having from the dark
womb of the earth come into the light and freedom of open day—has often
been the parent of mystery, of myth, and tradition. The knowledge,
common in older times, did not enable the people to see that the spring
was merely the outflow by natural gravitation of the rainfall on the
more or less distant uplands. The licking up of portions of all the
strata through which the water had percolated, and which portions,
unseen by the eye, but present in the taste, it now held in solution,
was thought to be a natural quality of the particular water. And as
ordinary medicines are always associated with unpleasantness of taste,
so in waters impregnated with mineral ingredients, the harsher the
taste, the greater medicinal properties were attached to them. And the
higher temperature of many mineral springs was also considered to be an
innate property of the mystical, almost miraculous, particular waters.
We now know that this is caused by the waters, in following rifts and
fissures in the strata, in their passage to their outlet, having had to
descend to lower depths, and being thus warmed by the internal heat of
the globe: acquiring one additional degree of temperature for about
every seventy feet of descent.
As the old Greeks had in their pantheon of the powers of Nature, Naiads—
nymphs of the fountain—so in our older folk-lore the streams had their
Kelpies or other guardian spirits. When the Christian Church became
paramount, the Catholic Canon of saints and angels took the places of
the Teutonic and Scandinavian sprites: each spring was dedicated to, or
became the property of, a particular saint; and it was he or she who
gave the waters their special qualities.
At some of these holy springs or wells it was customary for ailing
persons to go, for the cure of their diseases, on the first Sunday in
May; they washed in the streams, and left presents to the tutelar
saints; pieces of money were put in the waters, or poor people would
place needles and pins, or other small articles, therein. On a hill near
Stirling was the well of St. Corbet, to which pilgrimages were thus
made. To drink its waters was a safe and easy insurance of life
throughout the twelve months ensuing. Up to a hundred years ago crowds
of persons—including a large proportion of lads and lasses—came to the
blessed well, drinking copious draughts of its waters, but too often
mixing these with the strong waters of Kilbagie, of Glenlivat, or other
such brand. The wise saint evidently did not approve of this
adulteration, for with the practice his well lost its life-preserving
reputation.
The waters of the well of St. Fillan, in Strathfillan were supposed to
be curative of insanity. The patient was roughly thrown into the pool;
he was then taken to the adjoining chapel, and left bound therein during
the night; if likely to recover he would be found loose in the morning.
Mothers brought their weak and ailing children, bathed them in the well,
and as a propitiatory fee to the saint, hung a bit of ribbon, or a scrap
of coloured cloth, on the witch-elm which shaded his spring.
At Musselburgh was a well celebrated for its healing virtues, and its
powers of insuring good luck. Expectant mothers sent their child-bed
linen to be sprinkled by the water, and consecrated by the priest of the
adjoining chapel, which was dedicated to our Lady of Loretto. Four
hundred years ago it was esteemed the most miraculously gifted shrine in
Scotland. King James V. is said to have made a pilgrimage to it from
Stirling before he went to France to woo his future queen. If the
pilgrimage helped to bring Mary of Guise to Scotland—Scotland had little
cause for gratitude therefore!
A well at Muthill, near Crieff, was thought to be a cure for whooping-
cough; the waters had to be drank before sunrise, or after sunset,
through a cow’s horn. Another well near by had a reputation as curative
of madness. A third well was dedicated to St. Patrick; how it came to be
so is not easily understood; for the British Priest who became the
apostle and tutelary saint of Ireland, had no connection with the
district; and yet his day in the calendar was formerly observed there as
a holiday.
In Strathnaven is a small loch of supposed healing waters. There was a
rigid rule as to the mode of bathing. Persons must walk backwards into
the loch; when at sufficient depth they are to immerse themselves—leave
a coin—then, without looking round, walk ashore, and so away.
The well of Spa, near Aberdeen, had a high reputation for its medicinal
virtues. Its waters were conveyed from the spring by a long white stone,
with the images of six apostles carved upon either side thereof. In
1615, Dr. Wm. Barclay, an eminent physician, published a book on the
virtues of this well: giving some extraordinary instances of cures from
what seemed mortal ailments, by drinking its waters.
The Reformation brought loss of prestige to the old Romish Saints, and
the Scottish Kirk is found testifying against pilgrimages to reputed
holy wells. The following is an extract from the Presbytery Book of
Strathbogie:—“September 14, 1636. Peter Wat summond to this day for
going in pilgrimage to the chapell beyond the water of Spey, compeared
and confessed his fault. Ordained to make his repentance, and to paye
four markes penaltye. Agnes Jack summoned to this daye for going in
pilgrimage to the same chapell, compeared, and confessed that she went
to the same chapell with ane deseased woman, but gave her great oath
that she used no kynd of superstituous worship. She is ordained to make
her publike repentance, and to abstaine from the lyke in time coming.”
“Margrat Davidson was adjudget to an unlaw of fyve pounds, for directing
her nurs with her bairne to St. Fithak’s well, and washin the bairne
thairin for the recovery of her health, and for leaving an offering in
the well.”
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Scottish Marriage Customs.
January and May were considered unlucky months to marry in. In some
localities there was a proverb—“A bride in May, is thriftless aye.” The
day of the week on which the 14th of May fell, was held to be an unlucky
wedding day throughout the remainder of the year. Highland marriages
took place as a rule in the churches; in the Lowlands the ceremony was
generally performed at the residence of the bride’s father; but often in
later years at the minister’s manse. When two marriages were to take
place at a church upon the same day, arrangements had to be made that
one party should not meet the other going to or returning from church.
During a marriage ceremony, great care had to be taken that no dogs
passed between bride and bridegroom; and the bridegroom’s left shoe had
been untied or unbuckled by his best man, to prevent witches casting
uncanny spells over the young couple.
The wedding feast was held in the evening, generally at the house of the
bride’s father. After supper, dancing began, the bridal pair being in
the first reel; from their supposed bashfulness, it was called the
_shemit_,—that is, shame-faced reel. Dancing and mirth were kept up
until the small hours; but before then the young couple—usually escorted
by some of the young folks—had slipped away to their own domicile; the
best man and bridesmaid having preceded them, the latter with a cake of
short-bread, ready to break over the bride’s head on her entering the
doorway. The bride was not expected to be seen out about until the
couple were “kirkit” on the following Sunday. A newly-made mother’s
first public appearance was also in church going.
“Penny-weddings,” were large gatherings of self-invited guests, each of
whom was expected to contribute towards the cost of the festivities; any
balance which might be over, to go to help in the new house-keeping.
Prior to the Reformation, a loose practice in the relationship of the
sexes, called _hand-fasting_, existed in Scotland. At the statutory
fairs, young men and women made mutual selection as partners for a year;
at the end of the year, they were free to marry, to live singly, or to
enter into other partnerships! It was the duty of the itinerant friars
to persuade the handfasts to marry, and by the end of the sixteenth
century the Reformers had effectually rooted out the custom. At the
Dundee Burgh Court on May 21st 1560, “Compearit John Ray, and oblist him
to marry his wife on Sunday next. At the same time James Rollock has
become surety that Robert Man sall complete the band of matrimony with
Jonet Myln, or else incur the danger conteinit in the acts.”
Ceasing to be considered a sacrament, marriage in Scotland came to be
looked upon as little other than a civil contract, hardly requiring
clerical agency, or religious formalities. A man and woman going before
a bailie or sheriff, and declaring themselves husband and wife,
constituted a legal although an irregular marriage. And the celebrant—if
so he could be called, who was really only a witness to the parties
having _married themselves_—need not even be a civil official. Gretna
Green had no special privilege in lay-marrying over any other portion of
Scotland.
It appears from Burgh records that in the sixteenth century, a women
holding property under a trusteeship, was not at any age free in her
choice of a husband. Marrying without the consent of her procurators
entailed the forfeiture of her property. A mother would retain her
daughter’s tocher unless she married with the mother’s approval.
And apprentices were not allowed to marry without the official
permission of their craft. We find from the Dundee Burgh records, that
in 1534, David Ogilvy, an apprentice baker, did so marry, and he was
expelled from his craft, and “tynt his freedom.” But David took the
decree fighting! He appealed to the King, James the Fifth, for
reinstatement, and the King gave an order, confirmed by the Lords of
Council, charging the Provost and Bailies of Dundee to re-admit him to
his freedom, and “cause the baxters receive him to their fellowship,
notwithstanding that he be marryit within his prenticeship,” and
decerning that he will suffer sufficient punishment if his term of
apprenticeship be prolonged for the space of one month.
A bride was expected—even in such circumstances of life as made her a
“tocherless lass”—to have ready against her marriage many articles of
domestic economy. In his song “Woo’d and Married and a’,”—written a
century and a half ago—Alexander Ross gives a graphic description of a
family conference over the ways and means of an “ill-provided” bride:—
“The bride cam’ out o’ the byre,
And O as she dichted her cheeks!
Sirs, I’m to be married the night,
An’ have neither blankets nor sheets;
Have neither blankets nor sheets,
Nor scarce a coverlet too;
The bride that has a’ thing to borrow,
Has e’en richt mickle ado.
Woo’d and married and a’,
Kissed and carried awa’!
And was nae she very well off
That was woo’d and married and a’?
Out spake the bride’s father
As he cam’ in frae the pleugh;
O haud your tongue, my dochter,
And ye’se get gear eneugh;
The stirk that stands i’ th’ tether,
And our braw bawsint yade,
Will carry ye hame your corn—
What would ye be at, ye jade?
Out spake the bride’s mither,
What deil needs a’ this pride?
I had nae a plack in my pouch
That night I was a bride;
My gown was linsey woolsey,
And ne’er a sark ava;
And ye hae ribbons and buskins
Mae than ane or twa.
Out spake the bride’s brither,
As he cam’ in wi’ the kye;
Poor Willie wad ne’er hae ta’en ye
Had he kent ye as weel as I;
For ye’r baith proud and saucy,
And no for a poor man’s wife;
Gin I canna get a better
I’se ne’er tak ane i’ my life.
Out spake the bride’s sister,
As she came in frae the byre;
O gin I were but married,
It’s a’ that I desire;
But we poor fouk maun live single,
And do the best we can:
I dinna care what I should want;
If I could get a man.
Woo’d and married and a’,” etc.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scotland under Charles the First.
James died in March, 1625, and a few days thereafter his son Charles was
proclaimed at the Edinburgh Cross, King of Scotland; but it was eight
years later before he visited the land of his fathers, and was crowned
as its King in Holyrood. The then finest poet in Scotland was William
Drummond of Hawthornden, and to him was confided the address of welcome
to Charles. The address was not in verse, but only in prose—run mad! “If
nature,” it began, “could suffer rocks to move and abandon their natural
places, this town—founded on the strength of rocks—had, with her castle,
temples, and houses, moved towards you, and besought you to acknowledge
her yours; her indwellers, your most humble and affectionate subjects;
and to believe how many souls are within her circuits, so many lives are
devoted to your sacred person and crown;” and so on. When the subjects’
flattery was so obsequious, we can hardly wonder at the amount of royal
arrogance and assumption.