Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/282

418 the duke of Albany, to secure the life of his son James, sent him to the care of bishop Wardlaw, who, dreading the power and the cruelty of Albany, advised his father to send him to France to the care of Charles VI., on whose friendly dispositions he assured him he might confidently rely. On the seizure of James, in 1404, by Henry IV. of England, the bishop was left at liberty to pursue his plans of improvement at his leisure, but from the unsettled state of the country, and the deplorable ignorance which prevailed among all classes of the community, with very little success. With the view of surmounting these obstacles, he erected a college at St Andrews in 1411, for which he procured a confirmation from Pope Benedict in the year following. His agent on this occasion was Alexander Ogilvy. On the return of this missionary in the year 1412, with the bull of confirmation, bonfires were kindled, bells were rung, and the night spent with every demonstration of joy. The next day was devoted to a solemn religious procession, in which there were four hundred clergymen, besides novices of various orders and degrees. The model upon which the bishop formed this university was that of Paris, where, it is probable, he had received his own education; and he nominated Mr John Shevez, his first official, Mr William Stephen, afterwards bishop of Dunblane, and Sir John Leister, a canon of the abbey, readers of divinity, Mr Laurence Lindores, reader of the canon, and Mr Richard Cornwall of the civil law, and Messrs John Gow, William Foulis, and William Croisier, profes- sors of philosophy, "persons," says Spotiswood, "worthy of being remembered for being the first instruments that were employed in that service, and for the attendance they gave upon it, having no allowance for their labour." Buchanan has not recorded the names of these worthy men, but he alludes to them when he says, "the university of St Andrews was founded through the efforts of learned men, who gratuitously offered their services as professors, rather than from any stipendiary patronage either of a public or private character." For sixty-four years after its foundation the lectures were read in a wooden building called the pedagogy, erected on the spot where St Mary's now stands, the number of students amounting, if we may credit some authors, to several thousands. The professors had no fixed salaries, and the students paid no fees.

Notwithstanding all the bishop's industry, and the diligence of his professors, matters do not seem to have mended with the clergy. King James, after his return, attempted to check their licentiousness without effect, as they had now got beyond the reach of all authority except that of the court of Rome. The university seems as yet to have been wholly unappreciated by the only classes who could partake of its benefits; for we find the monarch, in order to rid himself of the profligate clergy, bestowing a large portion of his attention on the establishment of schools, and supporting them liberally, that they might be available to all ranks. Learned men he induced by rewards to attend him, and as often as he could disengage himself from public business he resorted to the scene of their disputations, and listened to their discourses. By these means he laboured to overcome the ignorant prejudices of his nobility, who, look-