Amongst the many remains of religious establishments still visible in
this old ecclesiastical centre, the ruins of a small part of the Church
of the Blackfriars are prominent from their situation, being an ivy clad
fragment of the church which stands detached in the grounds of the
Madras College, and forms a conspicuous object close to South Street,
one of the leading thoroughfares of the town.
The Dominicans or Friars preachers were introduced into Scotland in 1231
by Bishop Clement of Dunblane, and they were encouraged by Alexander
II., who founded eight houses of the order in the principal towns of
Scotland. This order was brought to St. Andrews by Bishop William
Wishart, well known from the great works carried out by him at the
cathedral.
Bishop Elphinstone, the distinguished prelate of Aberdeen and founder of
the University in that city, died in 1514, leaving a sum of £10,000,
part of which Prior Hepburn of St. Andrews succeeded in obtaining from
the executor, Sir Thomas Myrton, Archdeacon of Aberdeen, for the purpose
of rebuilding the convent of the Friars preachers in St. Andrews. In
connection with this arrangement, the provincial of the order, John
Adamson, a great reformer, held a chapter at Stirling in 1519, in which
the revenues of the convent at Cupar and part of those of St. Monans
were transferred to St. Andrews, while these convents were
suppressed.[178]
No record is preserved of the buildings erected at this time, but
probably the church was rebuilt and a series of domestic structures
erected round a quadrangle on the south side of the church. The
monastery was attacked and pillaged by the mob in 1560. The possessions
of the convent had been gradually disposed of in the beginning of the
sixteenth century, and after the Reformation the monastery was
abandoned, and the buildings gradually fell to pieces, the materials
being carried off in the usual manner.
The only portion now surviving is an apsidal wing or chapel (Fig. 1387)
which projected from the north side of the church. It is 26 feet long by
21 feet in width internally. The three-sided form of the north end is
not uncommon in the sixteenth century in Scotland, but it is not usually
adopted in side chapels or transepts, being generally reserved for the
east end of the chancel. At Ladykirk, Berwickshire, however, we have an
example of the three-sided apse introduced in the chancel, and also
[Illustration: FIG. 1387.--Church of the Dominicans or Blackfriars, St.
Andrews. Plan of North Chapel.]
in the north and south transepts. There is a window in each of the three
sides of the apse (Fig. 1388), the central one containing four lights
and the diagonal windows three lights. A large window in the west wall
has also four lights. The tracery in the windows has been renewed in
modern times in a somewhat imperfect manner. The buttresses on the
exterior angles have been almost entirely carried away. The altar
probably stood on the east side, where there is an ambry, with the
arch-head carved with a debased form of tracery. There seems to have
been a doorway in the east wall, now built up.
The vaulting of the chapel (see Fig. 1388) is partly preserved. That
over the square portion is a pointed barrel vault with ribs, arranged
in sexpartite form. The ribs spring from corbels and small shafts. One
of the corbels is carved with the Hepburn arms. The central boss of the
vault bears the heart surrounded with two hands and feet,
[Illustration: FIG. 1388.--Church of the Dominicans or Blackfriars, St.
Andrews. North Chapel.]
emblems of the Passion. The vault of the apse is broken away, but it has
been divided into three panels by ribs rising to a point at the apex.
The vaulting of the main part of the chapel is of plain barrel form,
and the cross ribs are introduced as ornaments on the surface, a common
arrangement in late work. The ribs of the apse spring from two vaulting
shafts rising from corbels, the caps of which have shields bearing the
Hepburn arms (on a chevron a rose between two lions rampant). The
chevron is still distinguishable. From the threefold repetition of these
arms, it is supposed that this chapel was erected by Prior Hepburn, as a
memorial and, perhaps, a burial chapel. The responds at the entrance,
with their caps and other details, are of the third pointed period, and
correspond with the date when the chapel was erected. A row of plain
corbels, visible over the main arch, doubtless supported the roof of the
principal nave of the church.