ROBERT BRUCE
MINISTER IN THE KIRK IN EDINBURGH
Kinsfolk and
Connections of Robert Bruce
THERE may be seen today in the kirkyard of Larbert, not
very far distant from the tower of the modern church, a grave which gathers
about it still the profound devotion of Scottish people, though nearly three
hundred years have rolled by since it was digged. This historic sepulchre,
while it is near to the western and of the modern Parish Church, is actually
within the precincts of the pre-Reformation church which stood till the year
1820 in the kirkyard of Larbert.
Master Robert Bruce, laird of Kinnaird and
minister of Edinburgh, is the man whose dust rests in this holy ground. His
piety restored the church, which had been neglected and deserted before the
Reformation; his preaching gave distinction to the pulpit at the foot of which
his mortal remains were laid in the year 1631. A flat gravestone covers the
spot. And here is the inscription upon it-the epitaph carved upon Bruce's tomb
by the men of his own time. In the centre is the coat of arms of that
distinguished Stirlingshire house from which Robert Bruce was sprung, a saltier
in chief, a mullet in dexter side. The initial R.B. slightly defaced by a huge
crack in the stone, the date at the top, 1631, with M beneath for the "Master,"
are easily deciphered and these words in Latin, Cristus in vita et in morte
lucrum.1 - "Christ is to me both in life and in death advantage."
The
Scotsman whose grave is beneath that old stone was one of the great Reformation
leaders. His career bridges the interval between Knox and Melville on the one
side, and Alexander Henderson on the other. Of Knox he could have said
Virgilium vidi tantum; Melville was his master who gave its impetus to his
resolute career; Henderson was his most famous disciple- the leader of the
second Reformation.
The place occupied by Robert Bruce among his
contemporaries was unique. Called early to the greatest pulpit in Scot land,
that of Knox himself, he became at once the voice of the Church. So strong and
so sustained was his power that, whether encountering royal favour or
persecution, his ministry was sought after with an undiminished and even an
increasing fervour throughout a long generation of time. His antagonists spoke
of his bewitching the people, but on the other hand there is a unanimous
testimony from his contemporaries of the Scottish Church Party, and especially
from his brethren of the ministry, as to the exceptional and splendid position
in which Bruce's gifts and his sanctity enshrined him. "That confessor, almost
martyr of the Lord Jesus," are the words of Andrew Melville, his teacher. "No
man since the apostles' time spake with such power," said a disciple of Bruce,
John Livingstone, with enthusiasm. "Bruce," cried the Church historian
Calderwood, "may my soul at the last be with thine."
While there is no
certainty about the date or the place of Robert Bruce's birth, it is probable
that he was born at Airth Castle in Stirlingshire in the year 1554. There is
nothing recorded of his boyhood, and not till that moment when young men are
confronted with grave problems of personal decision does he step into our view.
It is told by himself, in that frank narrative written in his old age of which
only a few fragments have been preserved, that about the period of his passing
out of boyhood, deep, anxious reflections concerning sin and the way of
salvation haunted his mind.
As early as the year 1571, when he was about
seventeen years of age, and when he was at the point of taking his degree at
St. Andrews University; he tells that he could not mount on horseback nor
alight without an accusing conscience. The thoughts of his heart troubled him
day and night. Here, surely, was a sore situation for a young student. But
perhaps there are more lads in their later teens suffering from stress of
conscience than the world is aware of.
Young Bruce had little help in his
home: his mother was a bigoted Catholic; and the old laird was engrossed, it
appears, with other concerns. For at least ten years, as a student of arts and
of law, the young man carried his burden solitary, like Christian on his way to
the Interpreter's House. One marked result was a precocity, a gravity of
demeanour, which struck all observers. And no doubt it was the possession of
these qualities, as well as the influence of his rank, that led to Bruce being
thrust early into positions of responsibility in the Church.
The claim of
this family of Airth to high rank in Scotland could be established both on the
male and on the female side. Indeed, they could trace the nearest descent of
any of their name to the blood royal. Sir Alexander Bruce, the laird of Airth,
could show a direct descent from King Robert the Bruce; while his wife, Janet
Livingstone, had a genealogy no less eminnent, being a great-granddaughter of
James 1 and of Jane Beaufort his Queen. A sister of this Janet Livingstone was
Mary Livingstone, one of the "four Marys" who were maids of honour to Mary,
Queen of Scots. Sempill, of Beltrees, married Mary Livingstone, and their son,
a cousin of Robert Bruce, the minister, used his influence with the king more
than once in after days on behalf of his persecuted relative.'
The family
of Airth was not only high born; it had some claim also to distinction in the
public service, The grandfather of our Reformer is famous in history for his
spirited defence of Edinburgh Castle against an invading English army. A Sir
John Bruce, of Airth, was in 1481 charged by the commissioners to call
Alexander, Duke of Albany, to answer for the charge of treason. Sir Alexander,
the father of Master Robert Bruce, was a rude, bluff baron, with a goodly
proportion of acres for his estate, and behind him a powerful following of
retainers. On one occasion, supported by his trusty followers, he encountered a
party of the retainers of the laird of Weems in the High Street of Edinburgh,
whom he attacked and pistolled, the skirmish being a very bloody one.
He was
credited too, in company with his kinsman and neighbour, the laird of Dunipace,
with having prompted the slaughter in 1595 of David Forrester, a Stirling man
who was in the service of Lord Mar. This deed was reckoned one of the most foul
in that troubled period; and the earl to express his abhorrence of the crime,
adopted a dramatic fashion of interring the corpse of Forrester. In front of
the funeral procession he caused to be borne a white sheet upon which had been
rudely depicted a portrait of the dead man, with the bloody wounds upon it. In
this wise, with every token of defiance of the murderers and honour to the
dead, the funeral cortege passed close by the very residence of Bruce to the
place of burial at Stirling.
A better side of Alexander Bruce's energetic
character is shown in the generosity with which he dealt towards brothers,
nephews, and dependants. He was lavish to a fault, and his descendants judged
him too liberal with his posessions, even to the impoverishing of his
estate.
The family of Janet Livingstone, mother of Robert Bruce, like that
of his father, had borne itself well in the service of the kingdom. Alexander,
fifth Lord Livingstone, the grandfather, had a reputation for great integrity,
so that into his hands the education of Mary, Queen of Scots, was committed, a
responsibility which he discharged with faithfulness. The Livingstone family
were Roman Catholic, and they were strongly opposed to the Reformation. The
children of Sir Alexander Bruce and Dame Janet Livingstone were seven in
number, two daughters and five sons. William, the eldest son, died during the
lifetime of his father, leaving a son who became heir in entail. The second son
was Master Robert, scholar and Presbyterian minister. The third son, Sir John,
who had Kincavel and Westborland in Denny for his inheritance, was a man of
fine character.
The Bruce who was an accomplice in this deed was the
eldest son of Alexander "Bruce younger of Airth." We shall meet him more than
once, standing side by side with his distinguished brother, Robert, a support
to him in his troubled career. Sir Alexander Bruce, of Bangour in Ireland, was
the fourth son, while curiously enough the fifth son, like the second, was
called Robert. It was not uncommon at the period to find a Christian name recur
in the same family. In the family archives this Robert junior (as he is styled)
is described as brother-german; and while the more illustrious Robert threw in
his lot with the Reformers, the other appears to have adhered to the Roman
Catholic faith. He was a priest, and had from his father "the chaplanrie of our
Ladie aisle, founded and situated on the south side of the Kirk of Airth."
Everywhere in the neighbourhood of Airth are to be found signs that the
Bruce family were once in possession of the land. The village cross, still to
be seen in the main street of Airth, bears upon one side of it the ancient
Bruce arms, on the other the arms of the Elphinstone family with the motto "Do
well, let them say," the initials C.E. (Charles Elphinstone). In the chapel
adjoining the castle, and on the gravestones which are huddled around it, one
can decipher the names or the insignia of countless generations of Bruces,
those knights and dames who of old dwelt here and had their being, and whose
laughter filled those corridors with life. Today their dust fills the crowded
kirkyard. There is one stone bearing the arms of Bruce of Airth, and the
letters A.B., which is declared on good authority to be undoubtedly the coat of
arms of Sir Alexander Bruce (died 1600), father of Master Robert Bruce, the
Reformer.
The ancient Castle of Airth, standing upon its abrupt rock high
above the carse, is a composite pile, the oldest portion dating back to the
twelfth century. Once upon a time the tide washed the castle rock, though today
the river bank is nearly a mile distant. A portion of the castle is
traditionally linked on to the days of Sir William Wallace. In "Blind Harry" it
is related that an uncle of Wallace, priest in the parish of Dunipace, had been
caught by English soldiers, and thrown into a dark dungeon which lay beneath
the castle. Wallace of course attacked and slew the garrison, releasing their
prisoner. There is in the Castle of Airth a Wallace room with ancient oaken
wainscoting, which claims the attention of every patriotic visitor.
But
there is another chamber in an adjoining, newer wing of the building, which has
at present a stronger claim upon our attention. There is no sure tradition
indicating the exact room which Robert Bruce in his narrative describes as the
"New Loft Chamber." In was in this room that, three hundred years after Wallace
fought his fight, the young Scottish student, Bruce, encountered a struggle big
with consequences both to his own career and to the Church of his native land.
The great baffles of history have been fought in the intellect and the heart.
It was a struggle of this kind which went on within the soul of Bruce on a
summer night of the year 1581, as he lay in the New Loft Chamber of his
father's castle. There is an inscription shown to this day upon the wall of one
of the vaults upon which the castle stands, "Let tham say, 1581." It is strange
that this was the very year of Robert Bruce's memorable conflict and decision.
The sculptured motto upon yonder wall may be regarded as his testimony, on the
night when, defiant of training and tradition, he cut his way through every
barrier, and was obedient to the heavenly voice.
Many tides of invasion
have beaten against the rock of Airth; the most insidious of them all,
threatening to sap the independence of the Scotch Church and to replace the
fetters of Rome, was that tide of alien Episcopacy against the inroads of which
Robert Bruce from the first to the last of a long career opposed himself. What
he stood for was in its essence freedom of conscience and the liberties of the
people; and it must be the verdict of history that he did not make his stand in
vain. Vanished from the earth are all those bright dames and bold knights who
once on a time occupied so proud a place in the activities of this realm; yet
unquenched to the present hour in its essentials is the conten tion of our
stout-hearted Reformer. We have entered into possession of that spiritual
freedom which he and his comrades suffered to secure. Such men as these are the
shadow of a great rock in a weary land, into the shelter of which many creep as
to their hiding-place. They are knots upon the thread of a nation's progress.
They have laboured, and we are entered into their labours.
Statue of Robert The Bruce, our hero's
illustrious and royal ancestor.