11 - Augmenting Rentals: The Expansion of Church Property in St Andrews, c. 1400–1560

Summary

THE fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries saw a flowering in Scottish urban piety, with recent research highlighting the vitality of Catholic religious observance in late medieval Scottish towns and cities. During this period numerous new ecclesiastical foundations were established in burghs across the kingdom, whilst many existing churches were extended and developed. The expansion in religious provision was accompanied (and partly enabled) by a growth in the amount of church property within Scottish towns. Throughout the late Middle Ages large plots of urban land were converted to religious purposes, and extensive portfolios of secular properties, such as houses and crofts, were acquired by ecclesiastical institutions. This increase in urban church landholding was particularly apparent in St Andrews, where it transformed both the appearance and the economy of the city.

Religious institutions and officials had played a part in St Andrews landholding at least since the burgh's formal foundation in the twelfth century. Nevertheless, the late Middle Ages saw an increase both in the number of religious sites within the city and in the degree of financial burden ecclesiastical institutions placed on ordinary households. The layout of the urban settlement and the nature of the relationship between clergy and laity in St Andrews were redefined by the late mediaeval ecclesiastical expansion. This chapter aims to explore the extent of the fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century growth in church property within St Andrews and its implications for the local community.

At the start of the fifteenth century the main religious foundations in St Andrews were the cathedral, the collegiate church of St Mary on the Rock, the parish church of Holy Trinity, and the hospitals of St Leonard and St Nicholas. With the exception of the old leper hospital of St Nicholas (which stood a little distance from the burgh) all of these foundations were located in a distinct ecclesiastical zone at the eastern end of the city. To the west of the religious area lay the secular settlement of St Andrews, with its three main streets of South Gait, Market Gait and North Gait. The extent of the pre-fifteenth-century development along these thoroughfares is uncertain. By 1400 South Gait was divided up into burgage plots at least as far west as Logies Lane, and probably beyond.