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"RI INNSI GALL - REX INSULARUM - KING OF THE OCCIDENT ISLES"
A ROYAL INAUGURATION : "There was a square stone, seven or eight feet long, and the tract of a man's foot cut thereon, upon which he stood, denoting that he should walk in the footsteps and uprightness of his predecessors, and that he was installed by right of his predecessors."
[1595 : See contemporary (1602) , historic English depiction of "the creation", the Gaelic/Celtic inauguration, of Hugh, The Great Ó Neill (c.1550 – 1616), 2nd Earl of Tyrone, aiming to be “High King of Ireland” - occasion, 1595 ; place, Tullahogue, Tyrone.]
"RI INNSI GALL - REX INSULARUM - KING OF THE OCCIDENT ISLES"
A ROYAL INAUGURATION : "There was a square stone, seven or eight feet long, and the tract of a man's foot cut thereon, upon which he stood, denoting that he should walk in the footsteps and uprightness of his predecessors, and that he was installed by right of his predecessors."
[1595 : See contemporary (1602) , historic English depiction of "the creation", the Gaelic/Celtic inauguration, of Hugh, The Great Ó Neill (c.1550 – 1616), 2nd Earl of Tyrone, aiming to be “High King of Ireland” - occasion, 1595 ; place, Tullahogue, Tyrone.]
Colourful dramatisation above of mixed times and places.
"INTO THIS ILE OF FINLAGAN, THE LORDS OF THE ISLES WHEN THERE,
CALLIT THAME SELFIS KINGS OF THE ISLES; THAIR ROYALL BLUDE OF CLAN-DONALD"
1549; Sir Donald Munro, High Dean of the Isles.
Examples of a reliable record designating Clan Donald King (and "Royal blood").
1387.7; Annals of Ulster (acknowledged accurate orthography; representative of the contemporary material):- "Eoin Mac Domnaill, rí Innsi Gall, d'ég." ...translated... John Mac Domnaill, king of Innsi-Gall, died. He had immense wealth and a reputation for unrivalled church benefaction. John also established the ‘Holy Cross” Oransay Priory c.1330 with (Irish) Augustinian canons regular - an act unique in the period. Also known as "Good John of Islay", he was Nobilis, with his Stewart wife Princess Margaret - “The Royal Family of MacDonald,” on equal terms to the “The Steward” of the eastern parts of Scotland.
Donald of Harlaw, son of John above, 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.
CALLIT THAME SELFIS KINGS OF THE ISLES; THAIR ROYALL BLUDE OF CLAN-DONALD"
1549; Sir Donald Munro, High Dean of the Isles.
Examples of a reliable record designating Clan Donald King (and "Royal blood").
1387.7; Annals of Ulster (acknowledged accurate orthography; representative of the contemporary material):- "Eoin Mac Domnaill, rí Innsi Gall, d'ég." ...translated... John Mac Domnaill, king of Innsi-Gall, died. He had immense wealth and a reputation for unrivalled church benefaction. John also established the ‘Holy Cross” Oransay Priory c.1330 with (Irish) Augustinian canons regular - an act unique in the period. Also known as "Good John of Islay", he was Nobilis, with his Stewart wife Princess Margaret - “The Royal Family of MacDonald,” on equal terms to the “The Steward” of the eastern parts of Scotland.
Donald of Harlaw, son of John above, 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.
The seal of Alexander, son of Donald. It includes his arms, which contains the arms of the Lordship of the Isles and the Earldom of Ross, surrounded by a royal tressure, indicating Alexander's royal blood as the grandson of King Robert II of Scotland.
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"CLAN DONALD KINGS & LORDS OF THE ISLES" (1207-1493)
"THE MC DOMHNAILL"
(ALSO, SEE THE GAELIC CHARTER OF DONALD [II] OF HARLAW HERE )
THE CHIEFSHIP OF A HIGHLAND CLAN WAS NOT A FEUDAL DIGNITY. FOR MOST OF THIS PERIOD, THE CLAN SYSTEM WAS PATRIARCHAL, LARGELY LIMITED BY THE WILL AND INTERESTS OF THE "TRIBE". THE CLAN DONALD [HIGH] CHIEF, LORD OF THE ISLES, "THE MCDONALD", EXERCISED HIS POWER IN THE INTERESTS OF THE ENTIRE CLAN. THAT WAS THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW OF THE DUTIES OF THE PATRIARCH. HE WAS THE SUPERIOR OF THE CLAN AND THE LAND, FOR, AND ON BEHALF OF THE PEOPLE. [AND SEE, THIS LINK TO "CLAN DONALD VOL 3"; 1896 :- "The chief derives his position as such from the clan, and he cannot be put over them without their consent by any authority whatever. The chief exercised a certain superiority, or lordship, over the clan territory, not in his individual or private capacity, but as head and in name of the clan."
THE POINTS BEING MADE HERE ARE :-
1. [a] Clan Donald [High] Chiefs and the Lords of the Isles did not exist or function in isolation, and;
[b] "The McDonald" - Lord of the Isles - The Clan Donald High Chief, "acted not in his individual capacity, but as the head and in the name of the Clan Donald".
2. Lord of the Isles should not, and cannot, be used to either differentiate from or be severable from the 'The McDonald' or Clan Donald [High] Chief. They are of course the one and the same - inseparable.
The reason these points are being made is that even the better appreciated (accepted) "role of the lordship [of the isles] on the architectural, ecclesiastical and political landscape of Iona is poorly understood". This accentuates the reluctance to currently attribute anything to "Clan Donald" regarding the abbey. The only dignity-title accorded any slight connection, as mere benefactors and patrons in relative terms, is the "Lords of the Isles" - a now rather prosaic, minor "other title" of the current Prince of Wales. The problem is that unfortunately, all this is portrayed or manifests itself in such a manner as if these lords are an entity disassociated from the Clan Donald [high] chief and Clan Donald. Whether it is being done for a purpose or not, the result is still the same - alienation of the Clan Donald from their legacy of Iona Abbey over three centuries.
Clan names existed before common surnames and the point at which, in historic terms, one denotes a clan which has originated and existed continuously from an outstanding personage, a singular patronymic, a headship "style", a Chief's kin name, is widely accepted as being from the clan's eponymous founder - ie, Clan Donald began proper from its founder Domhnaill mac Ragnhaill mhic Somhairle (and this is simply common sense). Aonghas Mór mac Domhnaill (1247-92 as Chief and Lord) has been called "the first MacDonald" by W.D.H. Sellar (current Lord Lyon); ["Hebridean Sea-Kings: The Successors of Somerled, 1164-1316", in Edward J. Cowan & R. Andrew McDonald (eds.), Alba: Celtic Scotland in the Medieval Era, p. 207.]
Size is not determinative of family->kin->clan status. I make the logical, correct distinction that it was the "early Clan Donald" .
[Mac Dhomhnaill, in its various forms, started to become an ‘early surname’ for some of the chief's family of “de Insulis” kindred from around 1400 (earlier in Ireland) but did not became an established surname for the whole clan until after 1500. This is very different to recognition of the Clann Domhnaill and being “one of the [true] Clan Donald” – ie, Dhomhnullach. This occurred from at least mid to late 13th century.
Annals of Ulster 1286 (5) [accurate orthography] - “Aedh h-Ua Domnaill do athrighadh d'a derbrathair fein, idon, do Tairrdhelbach h-Ua Domnaill, tre cumachtain cínídh a mathar, idon, Clainni Domnaill & Gallóglach n-imda aile (& righi do gabhail do fein ar eigin.” (pps.372-3, VOL II; B. Mac Carthy; 1893)]
Those who take the negative view of this and insist that Clan Donald only came into existence some centuries later (with an arbitrary time zone of pseudo sizes of generations, total numbers, etc) are either confusing surname development with clan names, or, are verging on contrariness. No one would be so perverse as to claim that Lloyd's of London didn't originate in 1688, Lloyd's Coffee House, with the person of Edward Lloyd in Tower Street, London, but only originated when it was incorporated 200 years later by the Lloyd's Act, 1871. "The market began in Lloyd's Coffee House, opened by Edward Lloyd around 1688 in Tower Street, London." (Interestingly, there are even many organisations which adopted the name - Lloyd, after Lloyd's Coffee House.)
FROM 1207 TO 1493, THE EARLY CLAN DONALD AND ITS CHIEFS, THE LORDS OF THE ISLES, WERE ENTIRELY CENTRAL TO IONA ABBEY’S WHOLE MEDIEVAL EXISTENCE, DEVELOPMENT AND POLITICS. IN ALL BUT NAME, ST MARY'S WAS CLAN DONALD’S CATHEDRAL OF THE ISLES, c.1480.
· THIS ENDURING MACDONALD PHASE EQUALS THE 300 YEAR PERIOD OF PRIMARY COLUMBAN MONASTICISM.
· IT IS PARAMOUNT IN PROVIDING THE SOLE WITNESS TO IONA’S EXTANT ARCHITECTURE AND IS A PRINCIPAL WITNESS TO THE SURVIVING MONUMENTS.
· THE CULT OF SAINTS, BODY PART RELICS, THE DOCTRINES OF PURGATORY AND INTERCESSORY PRAYER (AND EVISCERATION, “HEART BURIAL”) WERE TO PROFOUNDLY SHAPE THE BURIAL RITES OF THE CLAN DONALD LORDS OF THE ISLES – OF THE ‘BODY POLITIC.’
From the very early 13th century with Reginald and wife already retired to Paisley Abbey ad succurrrendum “before 1200” (Clan Donald, VOL 1; p.466) and dead by 1207, it was the eponymous Donald (the clan's founder) who superintended all or most of the (re)building of the Abbey Church for at least 40 years. Iona then was without any of its prestigious relics [1], was a bare shadow of its former self, and the pray & pay nouveau Columban pilgrim trade would also be a gradual build from an impoverished base. [To date there is no definitive evidence that pilgrim souvenirs were produced at Irish shrines and for all intentes and purposes Iona was Irish, not Scottish, English or European.] The enabling endowments, the core economic strength and life-blood of the Abbey, came from successive Clan Donald Lords of the Isles and for 300 years were regularly confirmed, honoured, protected, increased and expanded (feudal "conditionality of endowment" and "functional reciprocity" - more below). Endowments had “carta confirmationis” and additional ones made by them during the 14th and 15th centuries as late as 1440, 1485.
“Iohannes de Yle Dominus Insularum {d.1386} was known as the "Good John of Isla," on account of a munificence to their order, in which he more than vied with the pious liberality of his fathers”. Donald of Harlaw (1386-1421) : “gave lands to the monastery of Iona, and every immunity which the monastery of Iona had from his ancestors before him” – MacVurich. It might be expressed that Iona Abbey had been acting as a ‘holy-owned land trust’ for Clan Donald.
NB: if this Lordship was not forfeited in 1493, then the Reformation would have seen all the Abbey’s assets returned effectively to under Clan Donald’s headship control - Act of Convention of Estates, 1561-74 (with local MacLeans employed there only as vassals: factor, bailiff, etc.). Taking this scenario a step further, would the Reformation have even been effected in the MacDonald's ecclesiastical capital and their independent sea kingdom? Or was their destiny sealed regardless of the 1462 Ardtornish-Westminster treaty with England's giant King Edward IV, the Yorkist military and administrative genius, never defeated on the field of battle?
The Benedictine order is unique in that it is not a confederation (unaffiliated). The new Iona Abbot, Benedictine community, re-installed in 1205 by Reginald’s right of assent, or most probably by Donald (I) as rí ar tothach, king in effect, [2] was not some powerful and/or wealthy Coarb or Archbishop, who had at his disposal the aggregate revenue of a large confederation or an Archdiocese/Province. He was by their policy and rule, self-reliant, autonomous, having no Superior and without his own wealth, institutional funding or capital reserves. He was not an equity partner even if he was given a feudal tenure of only “divine or spiritual service”.
"The [early] development of the monastic paruchiae fitted into the structures of Irish [read Western Isles] civil society. Land belonged to the extended family group, the derbfine. When part of this was alienated by agreement to form the endowment of a monastery it remained an interest of the family group but was freed from secular obligations." The Very Rev. Lester Michael Bundy, OSB (Obl) Professor Emeritus, Regis University; "Saint Columba: Fact and Fiction."
The Iona Abbot was not given "tenure in free alms" – freehold, inalienable, ‘hereditable’ land endowment (‘in puram et perpetuam elemosinam’) for the major estates distributed widely through the Western Isles and mainland. Under 'free alms' tenure, the Abbot could only recognise one Lord - GOD. (Religious houses in receipt of free alms could not recognise a secular lord.) The relationship between the Abbot and Lord of the Isles in this case would have been at 'alms length', ie, subsidiary. But this was clearly not the case because the Iona Abbot always served as a Lord Spiritual on the Lordship's Council of the Isles and 'McDonald, King of the Isles', made solemn oaths (land grants) to his vassals 'sworn on the black stones' before witnesses, just west of the abbey church (Martin Martin, 1695). The RCAHMS (VOL 4; p.145) also think that some of the Iona endowments were re-allocated to Oransay Priory by Lord John MacDonald, c.1340 - meaning they were not inalienable, not held in freehold by the Iona Abbot. The “perpetual free alms” arrangement was only for their lessor “donations” (cows, pennies, tithes on goods) to other foundations, eg, to Paisley and a small, late grant by Angus Master of the Isles, 1485, to Iona. It was not for the major estates of their major foundation, Iona, with endowed income producing lands that required feudal “functional reciprocity” of the abbey providing divine service - spiritual service, salvation for their souls (and for kin, descendants and ancestors). [3]
[I do not think the abbey's major estates also had a military obligation as well - to provide ship service or castle guard; even if they did after the Lordship fell. The Abbey in fact provided a whole range of other reciprocal services for the Clan Donald Chiefs - [link to slide presentation]. It gave considerable prestige and status as well. It was a place of privilege for the elite :- refuge and sanctuary for "unfortunate" noble women of the Lord's kin; education, law and medical services; hospitalisation, a retirement home. IN HOUSE CANON LAWYERS: drafting Vatican petitions to secure release from disabilities imposed by strict letter of canon law:- “marriage dispensations”, remarrying; illegitimacy, etc. They also obtained personal spiritual guidance on matters of state, feuds, battle, health, times of disaster, and the art of dying, death.]
Functional reciprocity was a perpetual "conditionality of endowment" (Wyclif; 1320-84) that extended to ALL Clan Donald Lords of the Isles (heirs) who had the power, authority and responsibility to manage the mutual obligation [4] :- " .. “there is a clearly conceived notion that foundation and endowments are given conditionally. This attitude is of course feudal yet it is not restricted to the lay condition, but is in fact found embracing all forms of ecclesiastical foundation." "Property is given conditionally. And these conditions are the handles by which the founder and his heirs can direct the endowment towards its specific purpose of providing service."
"Again and again, its companion notice was voiced; if conditions of endowment were unfilled, the endowment laity should, and could, resume their donations".
· THERE IS ONLY ONE FOUNDER (REGINALD);
· BUT THERE ARE MANY ENDOWERS (FOUNDER'S HEIRS) ;
· ENDOWMENT IS NOT A ONCE ONLY EVENT - IT IS A CONTINUING PROCESS.
THERE ARE NOT ONLY SUBSEQUENT ADDITIONAL ENDOWMENTS, BUT THE RECIPROCAL FUNCTIONALITY, THE "CONDITIONALITY OF ENDOWMENT", IS DYNAMIC AND ALL CLAN DONALD HEIRS-CHIEFS HAD AN OBLIGATION TO REGULATE AND MANAGE IT. AND THEY DID. EVIDENCE OF THEIR INTERVENTION COMES LATER - PAGE 3. THIS IS AN ORIGINAL ANALYSIS, ASSESSMENT AND NARRATIVE BY THE AUTHOR.
back Page 1. Page 2 Page next 3.
___________________________________________________________________
Footnotes
[1] Esp. body parts. No evidence “hand of Columba” was on Iona before gifting of reliquary by Donald II, c.1412.
[2] SIMMS, K. 'Gaelic Warfare in Middle Ages’. The usage.
[3] Knowles, D. The Monastic Order in England, 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press; 1963. Burton, J. Monastic and Religious Orders in Britain 1000-1300; 1994. “Of all the orders, the Benedictines have the most traditionally feudal relationships with their patrons, who are generally regarded as liege lords. This is especially true of the older monasteries, which hold much of their land by military tenure from their patrons” (ie, after the Norman conquest, 1066.
[4] The brothers Lord Donald II [of Harlaw] and Ian Mor Tanister were strong, formal liegeman of King Richard II, (and then Henry IV) having an alliance with him and being received at his court frequently between 1378-1408 – being “in league” with him (R Williams, “The Lords of The Isles”; p180). They would have been well aware of John Wyclif, c. 1320 – 31 December 1384) :- an English Scholastic philosopher, theologian, lay preacher, translator, reformer and university teacher at Oxford in England, who was known as an early dissident in the Roman Catholic Church during the 14th century.
"THE MC DOMHNAILL"
(ALSO, SEE THE GAELIC CHARTER OF DONALD [II] OF HARLAW HERE )
THE CHIEFSHIP OF A HIGHLAND CLAN WAS NOT A FEUDAL DIGNITY. FOR MOST OF THIS PERIOD, THE CLAN SYSTEM WAS PATRIARCHAL, LARGELY LIMITED BY THE WILL AND INTERESTS OF THE "TRIBE". THE CLAN DONALD [HIGH] CHIEF, LORD OF THE ISLES, "THE MCDONALD", EXERCISED HIS POWER IN THE INTERESTS OF THE ENTIRE CLAN. THAT WAS THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW OF THE DUTIES OF THE PATRIARCH. HE WAS THE SUPERIOR OF THE CLAN AND THE LAND, FOR, AND ON BEHALF OF THE PEOPLE. [AND SEE, THIS LINK TO "CLAN DONALD VOL 3"; 1896 :- "The chief derives his position as such from the clan, and he cannot be put over them without their consent by any authority whatever. The chief exercised a certain superiority, or lordship, over the clan territory, not in his individual or private capacity, but as head and in name of the clan."
THE POINTS BEING MADE HERE ARE :-
1. [a] Clan Donald [High] Chiefs and the Lords of the Isles did not exist or function in isolation, and;
[b] "The McDonald" - Lord of the Isles - The Clan Donald High Chief, "acted not in his individual capacity, but as the head and in the name of the Clan Donald".
2. Lord of the Isles should not, and cannot, be used to either differentiate from or be severable from the 'The McDonald' or Clan Donald [High] Chief. They are of course the one and the same - inseparable.
The reason these points are being made is that even the better appreciated (accepted) "role of the lordship [of the isles] on the architectural, ecclesiastical and political landscape of Iona is poorly understood". This accentuates the reluctance to currently attribute anything to "Clan Donald" regarding the abbey. The only dignity-title accorded any slight connection, as mere benefactors and patrons in relative terms, is the "Lords of the Isles" - a now rather prosaic, minor "other title" of the current Prince of Wales. The problem is that unfortunately, all this is portrayed or manifests itself in such a manner as if these lords are an entity disassociated from the Clan Donald [high] chief and Clan Donald. Whether it is being done for a purpose or not, the result is still the same - alienation of the Clan Donald from their legacy of Iona Abbey over three centuries.
Clan names existed before common surnames and the point at which, in historic terms, one denotes a clan which has originated and existed continuously from an outstanding personage, a singular patronymic, a headship "style", a Chief's kin name, is widely accepted as being from the clan's eponymous founder - ie, Clan Donald began proper from its founder Domhnaill mac Ragnhaill mhic Somhairle (and this is simply common sense). Aonghas Mór mac Domhnaill (1247-92 as Chief and Lord) has been called "the first MacDonald" by W.D.H. Sellar (current Lord Lyon); ["Hebridean Sea-Kings: The Successors of Somerled, 1164-1316", in Edward J. Cowan & R. Andrew McDonald (eds.), Alba: Celtic Scotland in the Medieval Era, p. 207.]
Size is not determinative of family->kin->clan status. I make the logical, correct distinction that it was the "early Clan Donald" .
[Mac Dhomhnaill, in its various forms, started to become an ‘early surname’ for some of the chief's family of “de Insulis” kindred from around 1400 (earlier in Ireland) but did not became an established surname for the whole clan until after 1500. This is very different to recognition of the Clann Domhnaill and being “one of the [true] Clan Donald” – ie, Dhomhnullach. This occurred from at least mid to late 13th century.
Annals of Ulster 1286 (5) [accurate orthography] - “Aedh h-Ua Domnaill do athrighadh d'a derbrathair fein, idon, do Tairrdhelbach h-Ua Domnaill, tre cumachtain cínídh a mathar, idon, Clainni Domnaill & Gallóglach n-imda aile (& righi do gabhail do fein ar eigin.” (pps.372-3, VOL II; B. Mac Carthy; 1893)]
Those who take the negative view of this and insist that Clan Donald only came into existence some centuries later (with an arbitrary time zone of pseudo sizes of generations, total numbers, etc) are either confusing surname development with clan names, or, are verging on contrariness. No one would be so perverse as to claim that Lloyd's of London didn't originate in 1688, Lloyd's Coffee House, with the person of Edward Lloyd in Tower Street, London, but only originated when it was incorporated 200 years later by the Lloyd's Act, 1871. "The market began in Lloyd's Coffee House, opened by Edward Lloyd around 1688 in Tower Street, London." (Interestingly, there are even many organisations which adopted the name - Lloyd, after Lloyd's Coffee House.)
FROM 1207 TO 1493, THE EARLY CLAN DONALD AND ITS CHIEFS, THE LORDS OF THE ISLES, WERE ENTIRELY CENTRAL TO IONA ABBEY’S WHOLE MEDIEVAL EXISTENCE, DEVELOPMENT AND POLITICS. IN ALL BUT NAME, ST MARY'S WAS CLAN DONALD’S CATHEDRAL OF THE ISLES, c.1480.
· THIS ENDURING MACDONALD PHASE EQUALS THE 300 YEAR PERIOD OF PRIMARY COLUMBAN MONASTICISM.
· IT IS PARAMOUNT IN PROVIDING THE SOLE WITNESS TO IONA’S EXTANT ARCHITECTURE AND IS A PRINCIPAL WITNESS TO THE SURVIVING MONUMENTS.
· THE CULT OF SAINTS, BODY PART RELICS, THE DOCTRINES OF PURGATORY AND INTERCESSORY PRAYER (AND EVISCERATION, “HEART BURIAL”) WERE TO PROFOUNDLY SHAPE THE BURIAL RITES OF THE CLAN DONALD LORDS OF THE ISLES – OF THE ‘BODY POLITIC.’
From the very early 13th century with Reginald and wife already retired to Paisley Abbey ad succurrrendum “before 1200” (Clan Donald, VOL 1; p.466) and dead by 1207, it was the eponymous Donald (the clan's founder) who superintended all or most of the (re)building of the Abbey Church for at least 40 years. Iona then was without any of its prestigious relics [1], was a bare shadow of its former self, and the pray & pay nouveau Columban pilgrim trade would also be a gradual build from an impoverished base. [To date there is no definitive evidence that pilgrim souvenirs were produced at Irish shrines and for all intentes and purposes Iona was Irish, not Scottish, English or European.] The enabling endowments, the core economic strength and life-blood of the Abbey, came from successive Clan Donald Lords of the Isles and for 300 years were regularly confirmed, honoured, protected, increased and expanded (feudal "conditionality of endowment" and "functional reciprocity" - more below). Endowments had “carta confirmationis” and additional ones made by them during the 14th and 15th centuries as late as 1440, 1485.
“Iohannes de Yle Dominus Insularum {d.1386} was known as the "Good John of Isla," on account of a munificence to their order, in which he more than vied with the pious liberality of his fathers”. Donald of Harlaw (1386-1421) : “gave lands to the monastery of Iona, and every immunity which the monastery of Iona had from his ancestors before him” – MacVurich. It might be expressed that Iona Abbey had been acting as a ‘holy-owned land trust’ for Clan Donald.
NB: if this Lordship was not forfeited in 1493, then the Reformation would have seen all the Abbey’s assets returned effectively to under Clan Donald’s headship control - Act of Convention of Estates, 1561-74 (with local MacLeans employed there only as vassals: factor, bailiff, etc.). Taking this scenario a step further, would the Reformation have even been effected in the MacDonald's ecclesiastical capital and their independent sea kingdom? Or was their destiny sealed regardless of the 1462 Ardtornish-Westminster treaty with England's giant King Edward IV, the Yorkist military and administrative genius, never defeated on the field of battle?
The Benedictine order is unique in that it is not a confederation (unaffiliated). The new Iona Abbot, Benedictine community, re-installed in 1205 by Reginald’s right of assent, or most probably by Donald (I) as rí ar tothach, king in effect, [2] was not some powerful and/or wealthy Coarb or Archbishop, who had at his disposal the aggregate revenue of a large confederation or an Archdiocese/Province. He was by their policy and rule, self-reliant, autonomous, having no Superior and without his own wealth, institutional funding or capital reserves. He was not an equity partner even if he was given a feudal tenure of only “divine or spiritual service”.
"The [early] development of the monastic paruchiae fitted into the structures of Irish [read Western Isles] civil society. Land belonged to the extended family group, the derbfine. When part of this was alienated by agreement to form the endowment of a monastery it remained an interest of the family group but was freed from secular obligations." The Very Rev. Lester Michael Bundy, OSB (Obl) Professor Emeritus, Regis University; "Saint Columba: Fact and Fiction."
The Iona Abbot was not given "tenure in free alms" – freehold, inalienable, ‘hereditable’ land endowment (‘in puram et perpetuam elemosinam’) for the major estates distributed widely through the Western Isles and mainland. Under 'free alms' tenure, the Abbot could only recognise one Lord - GOD. (Religious houses in receipt of free alms could not recognise a secular lord.) The relationship between the Abbot and Lord of the Isles in this case would have been at 'alms length', ie, subsidiary. But this was clearly not the case because the Iona Abbot always served as a Lord Spiritual on the Lordship's Council of the Isles and 'McDonald, King of the Isles', made solemn oaths (land grants) to his vassals 'sworn on the black stones' before witnesses, just west of the abbey church (Martin Martin, 1695). The RCAHMS (VOL 4; p.145) also think that some of the Iona endowments were re-allocated to Oransay Priory by Lord John MacDonald, c.1340 - meaning they were not inalienable, not held in freehold by the Iona Abbot. The “perpetual free alms” arrangement was only for their lessor “donations” (cows, pennies, tithes on goods) to other foundations, eg, to Paisley and a small, late grant by Angus Master of the Isles, 1485, to Iona. It was not for the major estates of their major foundation, Iona, with endowed income producing lands that required feudal “functional reciprocity” of the abbey providing divine service - spiritual service, salvation for their souls (and for kin, descendants and ancestors). [3]
[I do not think the abbey's major estates also had a military obligation as well - to provide ship service or castle guard; even if they did after the Lordship fell. The Abbey in fact provided a whole range of other reciprocal services for the Clan Donald Chiefs - [link to slide presentation]. It gave considerable prestige and status as well. It was a place of privilege for the elite :- refuge and sanctuary for "unfortunate" noble women of the Lord's kin; education, law and medical services; hospitalisation, a retirement home. IN HOUSE CANON LAWYERS: drafting Vatican petitions to secure release from disabilities imposed by strict letter of canon law:- “marriage dispensations”, remarrying; illegitimacy, etc. They also obtained personal spiritual guidance on matters of state, feuds, battle, health, times of disaster, and the art of dying, death.]
Functional reciprocity was a perpetual "conditionality of endowment" (Wyclif; 1320-84) that extended to ALL Clan Donald Lords of the Isles (heirs) who had the power, authority and responsibility to manage the mutual obligation [4] :- " .. “there is a clearly conceived notion that foundation and endowments are given conditionally. This attitude is of course feudal yet it is not restricted to the lay condition, but is in fact found embracing all forms of ecclesiastical foundation." "Property is given conditionally. And these conditions are the handles by which the founder and his heirs can direct the endowment towards its specific purpose of providing service."
"Again and again, its companion notice was voiced; if conditions of endowment were unfilled, the endowment laity should, and could, resume their donations".
· THERE IS ONLY ONE FOUNDER (REGINALD);
· BUT THERE ARE MANY ENDOWERS (FOUNDER'S HEIRS) ;
· ENDOWMENT IS NOT A ONCE ONLY EVENT - IT IS A CONTINUING PROCESS.
THERE ARE NOT ONLY SUBSEQUENT ADDITIONAL ENDOWMENTS, BUT THE RECIPROCAL FUNCTIONALITY, THE "CONDITIONALITY OF ENDOWMENT", IS DYNAMIC AND ALL CLAN DONALD HEIRS-CHIEFS HAD AN OBLIGATION TO REGULATE AND MANAGE IT. AND THEY DID. EVIDENCE OF THEIR INTERVENTION COMES LATER - PAGE 3. THIS IS AN ORIGINAL ANALYSIS, ASSESSMENT AND NARRATIVE BY THE AUTHOR.
back Page 1. Page 2 Page next 3.
___________________________________________________________________
Footnotes
[1] Esp. body parts. No evidence “hand of Columba” was on Iona before gifting of reliquary by Donald II, c.1412.
[2] SIMMS, K. 'Gaelic Warfare in Middle Ages’. The usage.
[3] Knowles, D. The Monastic Order in England, 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press; 1963. Burton, J. Monastic and Religious Orders in Britain 1000-1300; 1994. “Of all the orders, the Benedictines have the most traditionally feudal relationships with their patrons, who are generally regarded as liege lords. This is especially true of the older monasteries, which hold much of their land by military tenure from their patrons” (ie, after the Norman conquest, 1066.
[4] The brothers Lord Donald II [of Harlaw] and Ian Mor Tanister were strong, formal liegeman of King Richard II, (and then Henry IV) having an alliance with him and being received at his court frequently between 1378-1408 – being “in league” with him (R Williams, “The Lords of The Isles”; p180). They would have been well aware of John Wyclif, c. 1320 – 31 December 1384) :- an English Scholastic philosopher, theologian, lay preacher, translator, reformer and university teacher at Oxford in England, who was known as an early dissident in the Roman Catholic Church during the 14th century.
