Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/192

220 and it was chiefly formed upon the excellent models of Paris and Bononia. The persons originally endowed, were a doctor of theology (principal), a doctor of the canon law, a doctor of the civil law, a doctor of physic, a professor of humanity to teach grammar, a sub-principal to teach philosophy, a chanter, a sacrist, six students of theology, three students of the laws, thirteen students of philosophy, an organist, and fire singing boys, who were students of humanity. By the united efforts of the king and the bishop, ample provision was made for the subsistence of both teachers and taught, and to this day a regular education can be obtained at less expense in Aberdeen, than any where else in the united kingdoms of Great Britain. The bishop of Aberdeen for the time, was constituted chancellor of the university; but upon the abolition of that office at the reformation, the patronage became vested in the crown. Of this college the celebrated Hector Boece was the first principal. He was recalled from Paris, where he had a professional chair, for the express purpose of filling the office, which had a yearly salary of forty murks attached to it—two pounds three shillings and fourpence sterling. While the worthy bishop was thus laying a foundation for supplying the church and the state with a regular series of learned men, he was not inattentive to other duties belonging to his office. His magnificent cathedral, founded by bishop Kinnimonth in the year 1357, but not completed till the year 1447, he was at great pains and considerable expense to adorn. The great steeple, he furnished with bells, which were supposed to have peculiar efficacy in driving off evil spirits. He was also careful to add to the gold, the silver, and the jewels, with which the cathedral was liberally furnished, and particularly to the rich wardrobe for the officiating clergy. He also added largely to the library. While he was attending to the spiritual wants of his diocese, the worthy bishop was not forgetful of its temporal comforts; and especially, for the accommodation of the good town of Aberdeen, was at the expense of erecting an excellent stone bridge over the Dee, a structure which continued to be a public benefit for many ages.

In consequence of his profuse expenditure, James IV. had totally exhausted his treasury, when, by the advice of the subject of this memoir, he had recourse to the revival of an old law that was supposed to have become obsolete. Among the tenures of land used in Scotland, there was one by which the landlord held his estate on the terms, that if he died and left his son and heir under age, his tutelage belonged to the king or some other lord superior, who uplifted all the rents of the estate till the heir reached the years of majority, while he bestowed upon his ward only what he thought necessary. By the same species of holding, if the possessor sold more than the half of his estate without consent of his superior, the whole reverted to the superior. There were also lands held with clauses called irritant, of which some examples we believe may be found still, by which, if two terms of feu duty run unpaid into the third, the land reverts to the superior. From the troubled state of the country during the two former reigns, these laws had not been enforced; so that now, when inquiry began to be made, they had a wide operation, and many were under the necessity of compounding for their estates. Had the bishop been aware of the use the king was to make of the very seasonable supply, he would most probably have been the last man to have suggested it

James now permitted himself to be cajoled by the Trench court, and especially by the French queen, who, aware of the romantic turn of his mind, addressed letters to him as her knight, expressing her hope, that as she had suffered much rebuke in France for defending his honour, so he would recompense her again with some of his kingly support in her necessity; that is to say, that he would raise her an army, and come three feet of space on English ground