IONA CATHEDRAL OF THE ISLES IS CLAN DONALD'S LEGACY.
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This political goal was the zenith of a many decade’s long sequence of connected events …... BY SUCCESSIVE CLAN DONALD CHIEFS, THE FOUNDER’S PATRILINEAL HEIRS, AND BY CLAN DONALD ABBOTS AND BISHOPS MANAGING “CONDITIONALITY OF ENDOWMENT” AND "RECIPROCAL FUNCTIONALITY".
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| cathedral_of_isles_presentation_6.pdf |
* AN AUXILIARY PAPER - DESIGNED TO ENTHUSE INTEREST IN THIS TOPIC.
“IONA CATHEDRAL OF THE ISLES” was raised by CLAN DONALD HIGH CHIEF, LORD OF THE ISLES, “JOHIS DE YLLE COMIS ROSSIE DOMINI INSULARUM”, c.1450-80.
This political goal was the zenith of a many decade’s long sequence of connected events by successive Clan Donald Chiefs {Founder's heirs} and Clan Donald Abbots, Bishops managing "Conditionality of Endowment".
1386 Donald (II) becomes Lord of the Isles. Imposed abbey governance restrictions on “corrupt” MacKinnon excess :-“the greatest tyrant who had his lands from the goods of the monastery”.
1387 Split from the opposing polity, Isle of Man, The Isles becomes a diocese in its own right, subject to York.
c.1387-95 :- PUT BLUNTLY IN TODAY'S TERMS, THE MACKINNONS, ABBOT AND CHIEF, COMMITTED TREASON IN AN ATTEMPT TO PROTECT THEIR ABBEY RACKET BY INSTIGATING A REBELLION, A COUP, TO PLACE THEIR "PUPPET" [IAN MOR MACDONALD] AS THE LORD OF THE ISLES. The local “perverse noblemen” MacKinnons, had (c.1387) inspired a serious rebellion against Alexander MacDonald’s father, Lord of the Isles, Donald of Harlaw, after usurping “control of a substantial part of the Abbey property” (RCAHMS). Donald II had obviously threatened the MacKinnon Chief and his cohort Abbot son with failing to meet the "conditionality of endowment" - conditions of the tenure - corporate governance; accountability [THESE EVENTS ILLUSTRATE REFORMER WYCLIF'S POINTS [1320-84]. "Wyclif had, of course, further asserted : ‘if clerics occupying temporalities are wanting according to the form of the donation, temporal lords are held not only by fiscal law, but by the law of scripture to protect against impoverishment of the land.’ "Again and again, its companion notice was voiced; if conditions of endowment were unfilled, the endowment laity should, and could, resume their donations".
The MacKinnons and supporters (including the ensnared Tanist, Ian Mor MacDonald, local MacLeans, Harris McLeods) were defeated and the McKinnon Chief was sentenced to death. However, the “subtle, eloquent” Green Abbot, Finguine MacKinnon (I) who entrapped the "Tanist" (heir-apparent), Ian Mor, brother of Donald II, was spared .... "all his lifetime confined at Icolumkill, his life being spared because he was a churchman". ]
[Donald of Harlaw was the grandson of King Robert II of Scotland and first cousin of King Robert III; he took pride in his royal blood, even adopting the royal tressure to surround his coat of arms. His wife was Mariota, Countess of Ross (Mairead, also called Mary and Margaret; died 1440) who was the daughter of Euphemia I, Countess of Ross and her husband, the crusading war-hero Walter Leslie, Lord of Ross.]
1421 {A} :- At the time Abbot MacAllister died, Lord Donald of Harlaw's personal "chaplain and familiar" was Adam Dominici, "perpetual vicar of the parish church of St Eugenius in Rossye {Kilviceowin, Ross - actually Kilvickeon, Ross of Mull}. Donald, Lord of the Isles, had Adam sent to the Roman Curia as his Officer in State, ambassador, and had petitioned for a second benefice for his maintenance there {Calendar 1418-1422; pps 269, 275}. Also from Rossye, this time the actual Earldom of Ross, was Dominicus Dominici "Kenychi" MacKenzie [eg, "Chief Alexandro McKennye of Kintaill", 1416-91] who was duly elected as new Abbot of Iona, confirmed and blessed by the Bishop of Sodor and supplication made to the Apostolic See for the Pope's ratification and provision to the monastery. Dominic was also in Rome with Adam "awaiting a grace of the Pope" - he was nearly broke and also asking for "whatsoever ecclesiastical benefice" to tide him over. It is not half obvious here that the MacDonald Chief, Donald {and later supported by his son Alexander, "Master"/Earl of Ross}, had 'directed' this appointment of Dominic MacKenzie of Kintail, Wester Ross (ius praesentandi - see above, his right of presentation to; the Bishop, 'bound to bestow'). And Donald was also taking the necessary precaution of placing a trusted, loyal agent in Rome to ensure the Pope's confirmation and blessing was not circumvented by manoeuvrings of the "wicked and perverse" MacKinnons, who had form, from their Finguine II who was now a real threat as the Prior of Iona Abbey. [As per exactly what happened only in 1419 as shown just above when the waiting nominated Abbot was imprisoned by a corrupt rival who then obtained the Abbacy by bribery.] Donald was managing the situation at the abbey, putting "his man" in charge and ensuring the ground work of Abbot John MacAllister to recover the "better part of its lands and possessions that were preyed upon" would continue unabated under Abbot Dominic MacKenzie. Despite John MacAllister's reforming, there was still a huge amount of recovery to undertake as :- the abbey was "situated in the Isles among the wild Scots and is almost destroyed in its buildings and rents by continuous wars" - this can only be the "dire wars by the wild Scots in those parts" mainly between the MacDonalds and the MacKinnons {Battle of Harlaw was on the mainland, Ross}. John MacAllister had always to contend with the heavy MacKinnon influence - eg, the traitorous "Green Abbot's" son, Finguine II MacKinnon, "monk professed and now claustral prior", had petitioned for a perpetual vicarage to support him in the very same year, 1421.
{B} - And it was Lord Donald MacDonald (not the Abbot; not the Bishop) who then ensured the abbey would have additional revenue coming in by "uniting" the best part of the "fruits", income, of three perpetual vicarages to the abbey - leaving a poorly paid "temporal vicar, or more truly a hiring" for the cure of the souls of the three unimpressed communities {Sorobie, Tiree; Kilfinichin - south-western parts of Mull; Kilcolmkill, Quinish, Mull - mainly MacKinnons?}. The right of patronage is hereditary (haereditarium), eg, “entitled to the right of presentation, honorary rights, utilitarian rights(iura utilia) and the cura beneficii.” And so are the responsibilities : “If the church connected with the patronage is threatened with total ruin, or the endowment with a deficit, if those first bound to restore it are not at hand, the bishop is to exhort the patron to rebuild (reœdificandum) or renew the endowment (ad redotandum).” The reason given in the supplication to Rome, 3 Dec 1421, for Lord Donald annexing these perpetual vicarages to Iona Abbey precisely relates to its "threat of total ruin" and it was he, the heir of the abbey founder and not Abbot Dominic MacKenzie, who had the power and was making a financial decision to fund recovery because - "of the continual wars raging among the Western Isles of the Kingdom of Scotland, the monastery of Iona, OSB, Sodor Diocese, is so collapsed and impoverished in its buildings and rents that it is sinking to irreparable ruin, unless the Pope in his clemenecy provide an opportune remedy, especially because the revenues of the monastery do not suffice for its reparation..." {Calendar 1418-1422; p.271}.
It is so simplistic and highly assumptive to guess that pilgrims were the source of the funds for the reparation. [It's not appropriate to simply extrapolate from other areas, periods, different historical, ecclesiastical, socio-economic and political paradigms, etc, etc, for obvious reasons.}
1433. RAISING OF IONA CATHEDRAL. At the height of clan Donald's power, Temporal and Spiritual, the Bishop of the Isles, Angus (I) MacDonald (grandson of the King of Scots, son of Lord Donald II), petitioned and relocated the Episcopal See or Cathedra of The Isles (Bishop’s Seat/Throne) from Skye to Iona. This seat is placed in the bishop's principal church, which is therefore called, the "BISHOP'S CATHEDRAL". There can be no doubt whatsoever of an intention for a Cathedral at this early stage as Angus MacDonald also petitioned to create 12 canoneries and as many prepends, a type of benefice, endowed income [CSSR, iv, no. 5.]. The members of the chapter of a cathedral are a type of canon - prebendaries have [had] a role in the administration of a cathedral. The obvious burial places for bishops were cathedral churches under their jurisdiction and by long tradition, bishops and archbishops are buried in their cathedrals. The Bishop of The Isles, Angus MacDonald, d.1441, was buried “with his crozier and Episcopal habit, south side of the great choir” of the Iona Abbey Church, his ‘monastic Cathedral’ in effect, and all that entails in episcopal/diocese funds access. {eg, tithes from the majority of parishes in the Diocese of the Isles that were not endowed to the abbey}.
NB : The graveslab of Angus Macdonald, Bishop, died 1441, buried on the "south side of the great choir", has not been found but that is the norm on Iona (and it's not been found anywhere else). It certainly does not mean that he was not! We know, and it is accepted, that at least nine Kings and Lords of the Isles were buried in St Oran's Chapel from 1164 to 1421, but not one slab of theirs from within (and one still in the cloister) was ever identified, that is, not until my successful attribution of Angus Og's in 2007. So, non 'detection' or identification does not mean they were not buried there. Ninety percent of slabs and effigies out of the +100 remaining there cannot be identified. Slab no. 205, a Prior of the abbey, Cristinus MacGilliscoil, was stolen in the 17th century and returned from Mull in the 19th. Many others were stolen. A late medieval ecclesiastical effigy, no.206, was destroyed around 1827 (it was preserved near "St Columba's shrine"). There are slabs of "Bishops or Abbots" (eg, no. 199, 200, 201) still there that cannot be identified, two even with inscriptions but worn away (albeit in the cemetery of St Orans). The slab of the Bishop Roderick MacLean, who died there in 1553, has not been found and there can be no argument that the Cathedral was "formally confirmed" in 1506 and he would have buried in his "Isles Cathedra", Iona. Also, not a single one of the Macdonald 'temporal or spiritual lords' (Chiefs, Bishops, Abbots) wasted resources on the conspicuous, elaborate and expensive effigial monuments (full relief carved) and decorated crosses like others, eg, MacKinnons and Macleans, even though the Macdonalds were the heirs of the founder and it was to them alone (except pilgrims) that the abbey owed its 300 years existence!
No one should underestimate the advanced nature of the polity in the isles. The Lordship was very different from the rest of Scotland in its form of government and culture. An elected council at Finlaggan, Islay, governed the isles - a "High Court of Judicature" [Martin Martin; 1695] . It "decernit, decreitit and gave suits furth upon all debaitable matters according to the laws made by Ranald McSomhakle ......King of the Occident Isles'. [1549; Sir Donald Munro, High Dean of the Isles; "A Description of The Occidental“]. It decided weighty matters of law, succession and inheritance, and gave direction to the cultural and spiritual life of an extended community. { "Fourteen to sixteen chieftains of prestigious clans whose number and make-up may have varied from Lord to Lord, advised and wielded influence and power commensurate with their territorial jurisdictions and the strength of their fleets. The Council, likely modeled on the Manx Tynwald, was, in fact, an effective and cohesive Norse-Gael-style parliament well suited to the Isles. It was a learned and skilled assembly of prominent Gaels that convened at Finlaggan."} The point to make with this knowledge and understanding is that the desire, ambition and ability of the Lords of The Isles to have a monastic Cathedral of The Isles in this advanced polity, in their own 2.5 centuries old dynastic foundation and ecclesiastical capital of Iona, is very understandable, reasonable and attainable.
1443 : Under Lord Donald II’s son Alexander, the power of Clan Donald reached its high tide. With Ross and all of the Western Isles under his control, Alexander's power was even greater than that of Somerled. He was King of Western Scotland – not just the Isles and Western Highlands – on equal terms with “The Steward”, James I, of South Eastern Scotland (1421-d.1449). The local MacKinnons were once again trying to 're-found' and continue their corruption through Finguine MacKinnon III (grand-son of the Green Abbot) despite Abbot Dominic MacKenzie’s counter-petition [see this page for the full narrative on MacKinnons]. Alexander, “a grand man, called Macdonald, with a great train of men after him", (p.307) said 1443, that he was forced by conscience to rather “diminish the monastery” by making the serious and real threat of moving the “relics and bones of his progenitors who are buried therein (Iona - St Orans) and the precious things which have been given..” ('diminish' had a much stronger meaning back then - same as "to reduce" a town or castle). He was in fact threatening to “shut the place down”! And he could (if necessary : a “writ of cessavit”).
By taking away the reliquaries, etc, the Abbeys prestige, status and viability would decline, but more so, by removing his ancestors bones (eg, to Oransay, Saddell) the nexus of divine service for souls in return for endowments to the abbey was breached and under functional reciprocity there was no obligation to continue those major income sources. Endowed lands could and would be withdrawn ("revert to their original owner -resume their donations") and this would redirect the cash-flow or the economic value of both the temporalia (rents and labourers, etc) and the spiritualia (ie, ecclesiastical - tithes, their appropriated benefices/vicarages, etc) away from the abbey. The estates were administered locally by stewards or lay bailies (office of Fragramannach and Armannach) who were vassals of the Lordship (eg, MacLean) who would, under order, action this directive quite quickly and effectively.
NB: The broadly supported petition to Vatican, 18 December 1443. [CSSR, iv, no. 968.] - From Alexander, Lord of the Isles, James King of Scots, Abbot MacKenzie and other temporal lords and nobles of the Isles :- Annulment of letters to Fyngon Fyngonni [MacKinnon]; Mandate issued 8 Jan 1444. ("Acts of the Lords of the Isles; Appendix B-16; Munro and Munro; 1986.)
By c.1450, due to MacKinnon corruption, “the monastery was collapsed, impoverished in its rent and of extreme poverty.” Iona Abbey Church as it stands to day (restored 20th c.) is due to the resources and re-building by the CLAN DONALD HIGH CHIEF, LORD OF THE ISLES, “JOHIS DE YLE COMIS ROSSIE DOMINI INSULARUM”, c.1450-80 (1461: John’s grand expectations of the Treaty of Ardtornish-Westminster with Edward IV.)
The right of patronage is hereditary (haereditarium), eg, “entitled to the right of presentation, honorary rights, utilitarian rights (iura utilia) and the cura beneficii.” And so are the responsibilities : “If the church connected with the patronage is threatened with total ruin, or the endowment with a deficit, if those first bound to restore it are not at hand, the bishop is to exhort the patron to rebuild (reœdificandum) or renew the endowment (ad redotandum).”
“It was the founder of a house and his heirs who provided the impetus to build or rebuild, who might contribute ideas, and who furnished resources to finance the project” (Monastic and Religious Orders; p.152; Burton, J., 1994.)
Lord John II’s enterprise employed Donaldus O'Brolchan of the Lordship’s long serving hereditary chief masons, church-wrights and personal secretaries from the Derry family of Abbots/Bishops, past Coarbs of the St Columba Familia and Chief Lectors, Prime Artificers of Ireland. ["Donaldus O'Brolchan fecit hoc opus" ('Donal O Brolchain made this work') – incised on the capital of the south pier, east crossing (late 15th c.).]
Elaborate enhancements to the greatly enlarged abbey church were lastly superintended by John’s first cousin, Angus MacDONALD II, Bishop of the Isles with his CATHEDRA firmly set on Iona. His grandfather, DONALD (II) of Harlaw had acquired and gifted to the Abbey c.1412-21 the priceless “Hand of St Columba” - a rarity and the only corporeal relic of St Columba repatriated from its five centuries of safekeeping in Derry, Ireland - a prestigious, sacred “Hebridean Holy Grail”. Donald and his artists enshrined it in a ‘charismatic’ gold and silver reliquary of ‘dazzling, wondrous beauty’. This event, of momentous religious significance and high political status, was achieved after a three decades long partnership with his 2nd cousin, the Iona Claustral Prior and lead reforming Abbot John MacALASANDAIR from a senior line of Clan DONALD [now MacAllister]. The acquisition was a huge symbolic gloss, not only on Donald II himself, but was a blessing on the whole Lordship, providing the collective merit in raising the Abbey’s status. Abott John married Anna, Donald II’s niece, the grand-daughter of Good John (I) MacDONALD de Yle, Domini Insularum.
A Cathedral petition by John II during the tenuous, seventeen year period between his forfeitures, interspersed with his heir's reprisals, had no hope of obtaining James IV’s required support (to Pope). But in 1499, with its attributes entirely unchanged, Iona Abbey church acted ‘de facto Cathedral’ under Eoin Cambuil I, Abbey Commondator/Bishop, brother of a new, 1498 petitioner, Archibald, 2nd Earl of Argyll. Lord John [II] MacDonald died, 1503. In 1506, the Cathedral was confirmed.
In God’s truth,
“THE IONA CATHEDRAL OF THE ISLES” IS CLAN DONALD'S LEGACY.
This political goal was the zenith of a many decade’s long sequence of connected events by successive Clan Donald Chiefs {Founder's heirs} and Clan Donald Abbots, Bishops managing "Conditionality of Endowment".
1386 Donald (II) becomes Lord of the Isles. Imposed abbey governance restrictions on “corrupt” MacKinnon excess :-“the greatest tyrant who had his lands from the goods of the monastery”.
1387 Split from the opposing polity, Isle of Man, The Isles becomes a diocese in its own right, subject to York.
c.1387-95 :- PUT BLUNTLY IN TODAY'S TERMS, THE MACKINNONS, ABBOT AND CHIEF, COMMITTED TREASON IN AN ATTEMPT TO PROTECT THEIR ABBEY RACKET BY INSTIGATING A REBELLION, A COUP, TO PLACE THEIR "PUPPET" [IAN MOR MACDONALD] AS THE LORD OF THE ISLES. The local “perverse noblemen” MacKinnons, had (c.1387) inspired a serious rebellion against Alexander MacDonald’s father, Lord of the Isles, Donald of Harlaw, after usurping “control of a substantial part of the Abbey property” (RCAHMS). Donald II had obviously threatened the MacKinnon Chief and his cohort Abbot son with failing to meet the "conditionality of endowment" - conditions of the tenure - corporate governance; accountability [THESE EVENTS ILLUSTRATE REFORMER WYCLIF'S POINTS [1320-84]. "Wyclif had, of course, further asserted : ‘if clerics occupying temporalities are wanting according to the form of the donation, temporal lords are held not only by fiscal law, but by the law of scripture to protect against impoverishment of the land.’ "Again and again, its companion notice was voiced; if conditions of endowment were unfilled, the endowment laity should, and could, resume their donations".
The MacKinnons and supporters (including the ensnared Tanist, Ian Mor MacDonald, local MacLeans, Harris McLeods) were defeated and the McKinnon Chief was sentenced to death. However, the “subtle, eloquent” Green Abbot, Finguine MacKinnon (I) who entrapped the "Tanist" (heir-apparent), Ian Mor, brother of Donald II, was spared .... "all his lifetime confined at Icolumkill, his life being spared because he was a churchman". ]
[Donald of Harlaw was the grandson of King Robert II of Scotland and first cousin of King Robert III; he took pride in his royal blood, even adopting the royal tressure to surround his coat of arms. His wife was Mariota, Countess of Ross (Mairead, also called Mary and Margaret; died 1440) who was the daughter of Euphemia I, Countess of Ross and her husband, the crusading war-hero Walter Leslie, Lord of Ross.]
1421 {A} :- At the time Abbot MacAllister died, Lord Donald of Harlaw's personal "chaplain and familiar" was Adam Dominici, "perpetual vicar of the parish church of St Eugenius in Rossye {Kilviceowin, Ross - actually Kilvickeon, Ross of Mull}. Donald, Lord of the Isles, had Adam sent to the Roman Curia as his Officer in State, ambassador, and had petitioned for a second benefice for his maintenance there {Calendar 1418-1422; pps 269, 275}. Also from Rossye, this time the actual Earldom of Ross, was Dominicus Dominici "Kenychi" MacKenzie [eg, "Chief Alexandro McKennye of Kintaill", 1416-91] who was duly elected as new Abbot of Iona, confirmed and blessed by the Bishop of Sodor and supplication made to the Apostolic See for the Pope's ratification and provision to the monastery. Dominic was also in Rome with Adam "awaiting a grace of the Pope" - he was nearly broke and also asking for "whatsoever ecclesiastical benefice" to tide him over. It is not half obvious here that the MacDonald Chief, Donald {and later supported by his son Alexander, "Master"/Earl of Ross}, had 'directed' this appointment of Dominic MacKenzie of Kintail, Wester Ross (ius praesentandi - see above, his right of presentation to; the Bishop, 'bound to bestow'). And Donald was also taking the necessary precaution of placing a trusted, loyal agent in Rome to ensure the Pope's confirmation and blessing was not circumvented by manoeuvrings of the "wicked and perverse" MacKinnons, who had form, from their Finguine II who was now a real threat as the Prior of Iona Abbey. [As per exactly what happened only in 1419 as shown just above when the waiting nominated Abbot was imprisoned by a corrupt rival who then obtained the Abbacy by bribery.] Donald was managing the situation at the abbey, putting "his man" in charge and ensuring the ground work of Abbot John MacAllister to recover the "better part of its lands and possessions that were preyed upon" would continue unabated under Abbot Dominic MacKenzie. Despite John MacAllister's reforming, there was still a huge amount of recovery to undertake as :- the abbey was "situated in the Isles among the wild Scots and is almost destroyed in its buildings and rents by continuous wars" - this can only be the "dire wars by the wild Scots in those parts" mainly between the MacDonalds and the MacKinnons {Battle of Harlaw was on the mainland, Ross}. John MacAllister had always to contend with the heavy MacKinnon influence - eg, the traitorous "Green Abbot's" son, Finguine II MacKinnon, "monk professed and now claustral prior", had petitioned for a perpetual vicarage to support him in the very same year, 1421.
{B} - And it was Lord Donald MacDonald (not the Abbot; not the Bishop) who then ensured the abbey would have additional revenue coming in by "uniting" the best part of the "fruits", income, of three perpetual vicarages to the abbey - leaving a poorly paid "temporal vicar, or more truly a hiring" for the cure of the souls of the three unimpressed communities {Sorobie, Tiree; Kilfinichin - south-western parts of Mull; Kilcolmkill, Quinish, Mull - mainly MacKinnons?}. The right of patronage is hereditary (haereditarium), eg, “entitled to the right of presentation, honorary rights, utilitarian rights(iura utilia) and the cura beneficii.” And so are the responsibilities : “If the church connected with the patronage is threatened with total ruin, or the endowment with a deficit, if those first bound to restore it are not at hand, the bishop is to exhort the patron to rebuild (reœdificandum) or renew the endowment (ad redotandum).” The reason given in the supplication to Rome, 3 Dec 1421, for Lord Donald annexing these perpetual vicarages to Iona Abbey precisely relates to its "threat of total ruin" and it was he, the heir of the abbey founder and not Abbot Dominic MacKenzie, who had the power and was making a financial decision to fund recovery because - "of the continual wars raging among the Western Isles of the Kingdom of Scotland, the monastery of Iona, OSB, Sodor Diocese, is so collapsed and impoverished in its buildings and rents that it is sinking to irreparable ruin, unless the Pope in his clemenecy provide an opportune remedy, especially because the revenues of the monastery do not suffice for its reparation..." {Calendar 1418-1422; p.271}.
It is so simplistic and highly assumptive to guess that pilgrims were the source of the funds for the reparation. [It's not appropriate to simply extrapolate from other areas, periods, different historical, ecclesiastical, socio-economic and political paradigms, etc, etc, for obvious reasons.}
1433. RAISING OF IONA CATHEDRAL. At the height of clan Donald's power, Temporal and Spiritual, the Bishop of the Isles, Angus (I) MacDonald (grandson of the King of Scots, son of Lord Donald II), petitioned and relocated the Episcopal See or Cathedra of The Isles (Bishop’s Seat/Throne) from Skye to Iona. This seat is placed in the bishop's principal church, which is therefore called, the "BISHOP'S CATHEDRAL". There can be no doubt whatsoever of an intention for a Cathedral at this early stage as Angus MacDonald also petitioned to create 12 canoneries and as many prepends, a type of benefice, endowed income [CSSR, iv, no. 5.]. The members of the chapter of a cathedral are a type of canon - prebendaries have [had] a role in the administration of a cathedral. The obvious burial places for bishops were cathedral churches under their jurisdiction and by long tradition, bishops and archbishops are buried in their cathedrals. The Bishop of The Isles, Angus MacDonald, d.1441, was buried “with his crozier and Episcopal habit, south side of the great choir” of the Iona Abbey Church, his ‘monastic Cathedral’ in effect, and all that entails in episcopal/diocese funds access. {eg, tithes from the majority of parishes in the Diocese of the Isles that were not endowed to the abbey}.
NB : The graveslab of Angus Macdonald, Bishop, died 1441, buried on the "south side of the great choir", has not been found but that is the norm on Iona (and it's not been found anywhere else). It certainly does not mean that he was not! We know, and it is accepted, that at least nine Kings and Lords of the Isles were buried in St Oran's Chapel from 1164 to 1421, but not one slab of theirs from within (and one still in the cloister) was ever identified, that is, not until my successful attribution of Angus Og's in 2007. So, non 'detection' or identification does not mean they were not buried there. Ninety percent of slabs and effigies out of the +100 remaining there cannot be identified. Slab no. 205, a Prior of the abbey, Cristinus MacGilliscoil, was stolen in the 17th century and returned from Mull in the 19th. Many others were stolen. A late medieval ecclesiastical effigy, no.206, was destroyed around 1827 (it was preserved near "St Columba's shrine"). There are slabs of "Bishops or Abbots" (eg, no. 199, 200, 201) still there that cannot be identified, two even with inscriptions but worn away (albeit in the cemetery of St Orans). The slab of the Bishop Roderick MacLean, who died there in 1553, has not been found and there can be no argument that the Cathedral was "formally confirmed" in 1506 and he would have buried in his "Isles Cathedra", Iona. Also, not a single one of the Macdonald 'temporal or spiritual lords' (Chiefs, Bishops, Abbots) wasted resources on the conspicuous, elaborate and expensive effigial monuments (full relief carved) and decorated crosses like others, eg, MacKinnons and Macleans, even though the Macdonalds were the heirs of the founder and it was to them alone (except pilgrims) that the abbey owed its 300 years existence!
No one should underestimate the advanced nature of the polity in the isles. The Lordship was very different from the rest of Scotland in its form of government and culture. An elected council at Finlaggan, Islay, governed the isles - a "High Court of Judicature" [Martin Martin; 1695] . It "decernit, decreitit and gave suits furth upon all debaitable matters according to the laws made by Ranald McSomhakle ......King of the Occident Isles'. [1549; Sir Donald Munro, High Dean of the Isles; "A Description of The Occidental“]. It decided weighty matters of law, succession and inheritance, and gave direction to the cultural and spiritual life of an extended community. { "Fourteen to sixteen chieftains of prestigious clans whose number and make-up may have varied from Lord to Lord, advised and wielded influence and power commensurate with their territorial jurisdictions and the strength of their fleets. The Council, likely modeled on the Manx Tynwald, was, in fact, an effective and cohesive Norse-Gael-style parliament well suited to the Isles. It was a learned and skilled assembly of prominent Gaels that convened at Finlaggan."} The point to make with this knowledge and understanding is that the desire, ambition and ability of the Lords of The Isles to have a monastic Cathedral of The Isles in this advanced polity, in their own 2.5 centuries old dynastic foundation and ecclesiastical capital of Iona, is very understandable, reasonable and attainable.
1443 : Under Lord Donald II’s son Alexander, the power of Clan Donald reached its high tide. With Ross and all of the Western Isles under his control, Alexander's power was even greater than that of Somerled. He was King of Western Scotland – not just the Isles and Western Highlands – on equal terms with “The Steward”, James I, of South Eastern Scotland (1421-d.1449). The local MacKinnons were once again trying to 're-found' and continue their corruption through Finguine MacKinnon III (grand-son of the Green Abbot) despite Abbot Dominic MacKenzie’s counter-petition [see this page for the full narrative on MacKinnons]. Alexander, “a grand man, called Macdonald, with a great train of men after him", (p.307) said 1443, that he was forced by conscience to rather “diminish the monastery” by making the serious and real threat of moving the “relics and bones of his progenitors who are buried therein (Iona - St Orans) and the precious things which have been given..” ('diminish' had a much stronger meaning back then - same as "to reduce" a town or castle). He was in fact threatening to “shut the place down”! And he could (if necessary : a “writ of cessavit”).
By taking away the reliquaries, etc, the Abbeys prestige, status and viability would decline, but more so, by removing his ancestors bones (eg, to Oransay, Saddell) the nexus of divine service for souls in return for endowments to the abbey was breached and under functional reciprocity there was no obligation to continue those major income sources. Endowed lands could and would be withdrawn ("revert to their original owner -resume their donations") and this would redirect the cash-flow or the economic value of both the temporalia (rents and labourers, etc) and the spiritualia (ie, ecclesiastical - tithes, their appropriated benefices/vicarages, etc) away from the abbey. The estates were administered locally by stewards or lay bailies (office of Fragramannach and Armannach) who were vassals of the Lordship (eg, MacLean) who would, under order, action this directive quite quickly and effectively.
NB: The broadly supported petition to Vatican, 18 December 1443. [CSSR, iv, no. 968.] - From Alexander, Lord of the Isles, James King of Scots, Abbot MacKenzie and other temporal lords and nobles of the Isles :- Annulment of letters to Fyngon Fyngonni [MacKinnon]; Mandate issued 8 Jan 1444. ("Acts of the Lords of the Isles; Appendix B-16; Munro and Munro; 1986.)
By c.1450, due to MacKinnon corruption, “the monastery was collapsed, impoverished in its rent and of extreme poverty.” Iona Abbey Church as it stands to day (restored 20th c.) is due to the resources and re-building by the CLAN DONALD HIGH CHIEF, LORD OF THE ISLES, “JOHIS DE YLE COMIS ROSSIE DOMINI INSULARUM”, c.1450-80 (1461: John’s grand expectations of the Treaty of Ardtornish-Westminster with Edward IV.)
The right of patronage is hereditary (haereditarium), eg, “entitled to the right of presentation, honorary rights, utilitarian rights (iura utilia) and the cura beneficii.” And so are the responsibilities : “If the church connected with the patronage is threatened with total ruin, or the endowment with a deficit, if those first bound to restore it are not at hand, the bishop is to exhort the patron to rebuild (reœdificandum) or renew the endowment (ad redotandum).”
“It was the founder of a house and his heirs who provided the impetus to build or rebuild, who might contribute ideas, and who furnished resources to finance the project” (Monastic and Religious Orders; p.152; Burton, J., 1994.)
Lord John II’s enterprise employed Donaldus O'Brolchan of the Lordship’s long serving hereditary chief masons, church-wrights and personal secretaries from the Derry family of Abbots/Bishops, past Coarbs of the St Columba Familia and Chief Lectors, Prime Artificers of Ireland. ["Donaldus O'Brolchan fecit hoc opus" ('Donal O Brolchain made this work') – incised on the capital of the south pier, east crossing (late 15th c.).]
Elaborate enhancements to the greatly enlarged abbey church were lastly superintended by John’s first cousin, Angus MacDONALD II, Bishop of the Isles with his CATHEDRA firmly set on Iona. His grandfather, DONALD (II) of Harlaw had acquired and gifted to the Abbey c.1412-21 the priceless “Hand of St Columba” - a rarity and the only corporeal relic of St Columba repatriated from its five centuries of safekeeping in Derry, Ireland - a prestigious, sacred “Hebridean Holy Grail”. Donald and his artists enshrined it in a ‘charismatic’ gold and silver reliquary of ‘dazzling, wondrous beauty’. This event, of momentous religious significance and high political status, was achieved after a three decades long partnership with his 2nd cousin, the Iona Claustral Prior and lead reforming Abbot John MacALASANDAIR from a senior line of Clan DONALD [now MacAllister]. The acquisition was a huge symbolic gloss, not only on Donald II himself, but was a blessing on the whole Lordship, providing the collective merit in raising the Abbey’s status. Abott John married Anna, Donald II’s niece, the grand-daughter of Good John (I) MacDONALD de Yle, Domini Insularum.
A Cathedral petition by John II during the tenuous, seventeen year period between his forfeitures, interspersed with his heir's reprisals, had no hope of obtaining James IV’s required support (to Pope). But in 1499, with its attributes entirely unchanged, Iona Abbey church acted ‘de facto Cathedral’ under Eoin Cambuil I, Abbey Commondator/Bishop, brother of a new, 1498 petitioner, Archibald, 2nd Earl of Argyll. Lord John [II] MacDonald died, 1503. In 1506, the Cathedral was confirmed.
In God’s truth,
“THE IONA CATHEDRAL OF THE ISLES” IS CLAN DONALD'S LEGACY.
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