The Bass Rock : its civil and ecclesiastic history / by the Rev. Thomas M'Crie, D. D. Geology, by Hugh Miller. Martyrology, by the Rev. James Anderson. Zoology and botany by Professor Fleming and Professor Balfour.

  • Thomas M'Crie
Date:
1848]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Bass Rock : its civil and ecclesiastic history / by the Rev. Thomas M'Crie, D. D. Geology, by Hugh Miller. Martyrology, by the Rev. James Anderson. Zoology and botany by Professor Fleming and Professor Balfour. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    29/614 (page 11)
    [11] date. It would appear that this island at one time formed a parish, and that the “ parish kirk in the craig of the Bass” was consecrated, in honour of St Baldred, so late as 1542, when it is more than probable the structure was first erected, under the patronage of that notorious enemy of the Reformation, Cardinal Beaton. Should any of our readers be curious to know the subsequent history of this Chapel, we fear they will be disappointed. All we can say about it is, that it may have been occasionally frequented as a place of worship till the Reformation. Tradition says that it was customary for the Cistercian nuns of the neigh- bouring abbey of North Berwick, to pay an annual pilgrimage to another old chapel in the adjacent island of Feddery, the ruins of which still remain. They may have sometimes visited the Bass chapel also. In 1544, there were twenty-two of these nuns, as we learn from a document which not one of the poor crea- tures was able to subscribe ; each of them, from the prioress dowmvards, having this added to her signa- ture by the notary, “ With my hand at ye pen.”t They must have been reduced to great poverty too by this time, for their convent had been pillaged, burnt, and destroyed in 1529,+ full thirty years before the Refor- mation, which has been unjustly made the scape-goat, of a great many offences of this kind. Our Reformers * The following is our authority :—“ 1542. The v. d. of Jany. M. Yil- lielin Gybsone, byschop of Libariensis and Suffraganeus to Dawid Boton, Cardynall and Archebysschop of Santandros, consecrat and dedicat the paris kirk in the craig of the Bass, in honor of Sant Baldred, bysschop and confessor, in presens of maister Jhon Lawder, arsdene in Teuidaill, notcr publict.” (Extracta ex Chronicis Scocie, p. 255. Printed by the Abbotsford Club, 1842). f Carte Monialium de North Berwic, printed for the Bannatyno Club, p. 60. { Ibid, p. 47.