Franciscans and Tertiaries in Later Medieval Scotland

In an oft-quoted letter, King James IV wrote to the Dominican Prior General that Scotland was "almost the most remote region in the world."¹ Nevertheless, as scholarship of the past fifteen years has shown, later medieval Scotland played a central role in Latin Christendom.² Perhaps most importantly for the current study, numerous religious orders (including all branches of the Franciscan family) were active in Scotland and had significant ties to the Continent.³ Many of the same questions pertaining to Continental houses also exist for Scotland. In particular, there are many unanswered questions about the group known as the Franciscan third order. Sources indicate that there were a number of men and women known as Franciscan tertiaries in Scotland; however, unlike in the rest of Europe, this did not seem to have caused enough canonical consternation to warrant a continuous and inconsistent program of institutionalization. At the same time, Scottish sources present a particular puzzle in that they appear to indicate secular and noble tertiaries more commonly than in areas of Central and Western Europe. This is sufficient cause to examine the convoluted and (often) contradictory evidence regarding the Scottish men and women who identified as members of the Franciscan third order.

Scottish Franciscans

While the various branches of the Franciscan order family were certainly present in Scotland, the sources for examining their history are confusing, often contradictory, and underexplored. William Moir Bryce has compiled source material relating to the Franciscans in Scotland. His impressive compendium provides substantial (if fragmentary) material for future research.⁴ Unravelling the various strands of the Franciscan order (both in general and in Scotland) sheds some light on the ways the various puzzle-pieces should be interpreted and there are several stories to be told.

A religious history of Scotland, the Scotichronicon (written ca. 1440-47), relates that the first Franciscans arrived in Scotland around 1231.⁵ In a section titled "Concerning Other Incidents" (De aliis incidentibus), its author Walter Bower the Augustinian abbot of Inchcolm, says simply that the friars arrived.⁶ He makes no further comments on the subject. The friars themselves appear to have established at least eight houses, which are listed in a number of manuscripts of the Scotichronicon, but not detailed in the text itself.⁷ An earlier chronicle, the Catalogus locorum omnium ordinis minorum, written in Ragusa by Peter of Trau around 1395, records that there were nine Franciscan houses in Scotland. Peter also states that there were two houses of Clares and three of Tertiaries.⁸ As is discussed below, however, this information seems far from trustworthy.⁹

Despite a significant presence, and presumably being part of Scotland's vibrant culture of popular piety, there are few accounts of early Franciscan activities in Scotland. That situation was to change with the arrival of Franciscan Observants in 1457. Led by Cornelius of Zierikzee, the Observants arrived in Edinburgh from Veere in Zeeland, a Dutch territory controlled by the Duke of Burgundy. At the time of their arrival, this position was held by Philip the Good, uncle of Mary of Guelders, Scottish Queen and wife of James II. It is likely that the Observants came to Scotland at Mary's invitation. Subsequently, the Observants developed and maintained close ties to the House of Stewart. In 1463, the Observants were granted papal permission to reform at least three Conventual houses, although it would seem that they did not take advantage of this. Instead, they appear to have relied upon patronage to found new Observant foundations.¹⁰ Although originally administered by the province of Cologne, the Scottish province achieved independent status by 1470. By 1505, the Observant branch in Scotland had established nine houses.¹¹

Although both the Observants and Conventual Franciscans claimed the spiritual heritage of Francis of Assisi (†1226), in the fifteenth century they developed in de facto separate orders.¹² The Observants began as a reform movement. Their original intent, as the name suggests, was to return to a stricter observance of the early ideals of the order. Nor was this unique to the Franciscans. Instead, the...