"He pat the common peple in beleve
That blynd gat seycht and crukit gat their feit,
The quhilk that palyard no way can appreve".[197]
According to Row's _History of the Kirk of Scotland_, the popularity of
the Musselburgh shrine was enhanced by the claim that it possessed, in
addition to its general healing powers, a special obstetrical virtue, of
which women secured the benefits by sending handsome presents to the
priest and friars.[198]
That Duthie was a personage of some importance in his day may be
gathered from the fact that the Earl of Glencairn wrote a "pasquinal"
which Knox and Calderwood have preserved and which was entitled "Ane
Epistill direct frae the halie Hermeit of Alareit to his Brethren the
Gray Friars". But the success of his venture engendered envy, and
Calderwood tells, with many caustic comments, how John Scott, "a landed
man", having failed to get himself accepted as a partner in the Loretto
concern, set up in competition with it. This John Scott had had a
strange career, of which the sketch given by the historian, in his
quaint language, is interesting enough to be reproduced. "Before his
departure out of this country, he had succumbed in an action of law, and
because he was not able to pay the sum which the other party had
evicted, he took sanctuary at Holyroodhouse. There he abstained from
meat and drink certain days. The bruit of his abstinence coming to the
King's ears, the King caused put him into David's tower, in the Castle
of Edinburgh, and bread and water to be set beside him. He abstained
from eating and drinking thirty-two days. When he was let forth, the
people came flocking to him. He uttered many idle speeches, and among
the rest, that by the help of the Blessed Virgin, he could fast suppose
never so long time. He went to Rome, where he was committed to prison,
by Pope Clement, till trial was taken of his abstinence. He is set at
liberty, and a sealed testimonial granted to him, with a seal of lead,
and some mass clothes. After he had given the like proof at Venice, he
got fifty ducats to supply his charges to Jerusalem. He brought with him
from Jerusalem some date-tree leaves, and a pocke full of stones, which
he fained were taken out of the pillar to which Christ was bound when he
was scourged. By the way, when he was at London, he made an harangue
against King Henry's divorce, and shaking off the Pope's authority, at
Paul's Cross. He was thereupon committed to prison, but was set at
liberty, after he had been keeped fifty days, all which space he
abstained from meat and drink." It was on his return to Scotland,
shortly after this, that Scott tried to get himself associated to
Duthie. His overtures having been rejected, he "erected an altar in a
chamber near Edinburgh, whereon he set his daughter, a young maid, and
wax candles about her burning, to be worshipped in place of the Virgin
Mary".[199] But the fame of Loretto was proof against such competition,
and Scott had to retire from the unequal contest with Duthie.
In 1544, the Chapel of Our Lady of Lauret, together with a part of
Musselburgh, was "brennt and desolated" by the English army under the
Earl of Hertford. The shrine was rebuilt, however, and continued to
attract devotees till the Restoration closed it. Very shortly before
this, its prestige is said to have suffered greatly from the alleged
discovery of a fraud practised by its priests in pretending to have
restored the sight of a boy whom they falsely affirmed to have been born
blind.
The whole incident is set forth at great length in Row's _History_. The
hero of the story is Robert Colvill, Laird of Cleishe, who was commonly
known as Squire Meldrum, and who, on that account, has sometimes been
mistaken for the character celebrated by Lyndsay. He is described as "a
gentleman of good understanding and knowledge, sound in the Reformed
religion, and most zealous and stoute for the Reformation". But his
wife, one of the Colquhouns of Luss, was a Catholic, and finding herself
in need of such help as "the Ladie and Saints of Allarite" were supposed
to have it in their power to give, she posted off her servant "with ane
offering of gold, with her sarke (according to the custome), that shee
might get easie delyverie". Her husband learning this, also hurried off,
with the intention of hindering such a superstitious use of his money.
He rode all the way to Loretto, however, without overtaking the
messenger; and, on his arrival at the shrine, he was no less scandalized
than surprised to find "the whole adjacent countrey of Mers, Tweedale,
East, Middle, and West Lothians, convened to see ane miracle", the
performance of which had been announced for that very day. "For the
Papists, perceiving the Reformation to goe on quicklie, and fearing that
their religion should be abandoned, the kirkmen, the Archbishops,
Bishops, Preists, Freires, &c., consulted and advysed, and, after
deliberation, resolved, that the best wayes to maintaine and uphold
their Religion, wes to worke some miracle to confirme the people, (as
they thought) that Poperie wes the true religion; and, therefore, they
caused proclame in Edinburgh that on such a day there wes a great
miracle to be wrought at St. Allerite's Chapell, for a man that wes
borne blind, and had begged all his dayes, being a blind man, wes to be
cured and receive his sight."
Such was the performance for which Squire Meldrum had arrived in time.
And, indeed, he saw how an apparently blind beggar was brought forward
on to a platform, and how, after certain ceremonies had been gone
through, he seemed to recover the use of his eyes, and came down
rejoicing amongst the people, who gave him money. But the Squire was not
to be so easily convinced. On the contrary, he determined "to doe his
best to find out the lurking deceit whereby the people were miserablie
deceived". With this object in view, when the beggar, in whose way he
contrived to put himself, asked him for a dole, he gave him not only an
exceptionally large sum of money, but sympathetic words as well. "You
are a verie remarkable man," he said, "on whom such a miracle has been
wrought, I will have you to goe with me to be my servant." The beggar
readily agreed, and mounting on horseback behind the Squire's attendant,
rode off with his new master to Edinburgh. When the party reached
Meldrum's lodgings, matters took a new turn. Locking the door upon
himself and his new servant, drawing his sword, and assuming "a fierce
countenance", the Squire said to the man: "Thou villane and deceiver of
the people of God, either tell me the treuth of these things that I am
to aske of you now presentlie, or els I will take upon me, with my
sword, to cutt off thy head; for I am ane magistrate appointed by God to
doe justice; and I am assured that all the preists and freirs, all the
saints, nor the Pope himselfe, cannot work a miracle such as they
pretend to do, namely, to cure a blind man. Therefor thou and they are
but deceivers of the people; and either tell me the veritie, or els with
this sword I will presentlie--as ane magistrate in this case--put ye to
death." The poor wretch, thus taken unawares and terrified out of all
thought of resistance, consented to do and to say whatever might be
required of him. And the remarkable story which he told is reported in
what professes to be his own language:--
"When I wes a young lad I wes a herd, and keeped the Sisters of the
Sheines's sheep, and in my wantonness and pastime I used often to flype
up the lids of my eyes, so that any bodie wold have trewed that I wes
blind. I using often to play this pavie, the nunnes, the Sisters of the
Sheines (so they were commonly called), did sometymes see me doe it and
laugh at me. Then the Sisters send in word to Edinburgh that their
sheppeard lad could play such a pavie. The kirkmen in Edinburgh hearing
of such a thing, came out to the Sheines, and desired to see that
sheppeard lad. I being brought and playing this pavie befor them,
walking up and doune with my eyelids up, and the whyte of my eyes turned
up as if I had been blind. The kirkmen that conveened there to see me,
advised the Sisters, the Nunnes of the Sheines, to get another lad to
keep their sheep, and to keep me hid in one of their volts or cellars
for some years, ay till they thought meet to bring me out, and to make
use of me as they pleased, and so, Sir, I wes keeped and fed in one of
the volts, no bodie knowing that I wes there but the kirkmen and the
Nunnes of the Sheines, for the space of seven or eight years. Then, Sir,
they conveened me againe, and brought me befor them, and caused me
sweare a great oath that I sould faine my selfe to be a blind man, and
they put one to lead me through the countrey that I might beg as a blind
man in the day tyme; but in the night, and also when I pleased, I put
doune my eyelids and saw well enough, and I to this houre never revealed
this to any; yea, my leader knew not but I wes blind indeed."
Next morning Squire Meldrum and the detected impostor, in accordance
with a plan carefully devised by the former, betook themselves to the
Mercat Crosse. There, after having attracted the attention of the public
by thrice repeating the accustomed cry of "O yes!" the erstwhile blind
beggar recited a speech which Meldrum had prepared for him, and in which
he gave those who had seen the miraculous cure of the day before all the
details of the fraud which he had helped to practise on them. Then,
springing on to horses that were held in readiness for them, Meldrum and
he galloped away towards Queensferry, on their way to Fifeshire, where
they could depend on the protection of the Lords of the Congregation,
and where they might defy "the preists, freiers, and the rest of that
deceiving rabble".[200] And with this incident there is an end to the
story of Loretto as a wonder-working shrine.
There is a charter which shows that, in 1569, Gavin Walker, "Chapline of
the Chaplainerie of Loretto",[201] restored to the town the ground
originally granted by it to Thomas Duthie. According to the brief notice
contributed by "Jupiter" Carlyle to the old _Statistical Account_, the
Chapel was demolished in 1590, and the materials were utilized for the
building of a new tolbooth. He states that "this is said to have been
the first religious house in Scotland whose ruins were applied to an
unhallowed use". That is not improbable. But when "Jupiter" goes on to
record that for this act "the good people of Musselburgh are said to
have been annually excommunicated, till very lately, at Rome", he helps
to perpetuate a tradition of which his own common sense might have shown
him the improbability--not to use a harsher term.