12 - The Prehistory of the University of St Andrews

Summary

ST Andrews, both medieval and modern, is characterised by the quest for knowledge. The modern university proudly markets its historical status with the conveniently ambiguous strapline ‘Scotland's first university’, and it is undoubtedly the case that the atmosphere, traditions and environment of a place which has been a seat of learning for centuries are amongst the attractions which draw scholars to the ‘auld grey toun’. It is thus perhaps surprising that a degree of mystery still surrounds the foundation of the university, and that an event of such importance to Scotland's intellectual and cultural history remains relatively unexplored by historians. The first systematic attempt to describe both the motivation leading to the foundation and the process by which it was accomplished was not made until prompted by the 500th anniversary, celebrated (without obvious explanation of the choice of date) in 1911, apparently the first centenary to have been so honoured. However, since then remarkably little historiographical progress has been made regarding the events surrounding the foundation, which must of course be key to an understanding of the nature of the early institution and the town in which it was set. Yet there are obvious inconsistencies and uncertainties in what has become the accepted version of events, which justify a sceptical re-examination of the evidence.

The contemporary sources at our disposal are sparse. Walter Bower, a fifteenth- century abbot of Inchcolm, an Augustinian house set on a small island in the Forth only some 35 miles from St Andrews, related in his celebrated Scotichronicon that in 1410 ‘after Whitsunday an institution of higher learning of university standing made a start in the city of St Andrew of Kilrymont in Scotland when Henry de Wardlaw was the bishop of St Andrews and James Bisset was the prior there’. He proceeded to name three masters, subsequently (consequenter) joined by five more, who taught theology, canon law and arts, and revealed that they taught for two-and-a-half years before ‘at last’ (tandem) on 3 February 1413/14, papal privileges confirming the university's status were received in St Andrews. He then described in great detail the celebrations which marked that event: a peal of bells of all the town's churches, a formal reading of the papal bulls before the clergy, liturgical ceremonies, celebration of mass, preaching and a large ceremonial procession of, Bower claimed, ‘four hundred clergy besides lesser clerks and young monks’.