To our Lord and
Very Holy Father in Christ, Lord John, He Supreme Pontiff, by Godīs Providence, of the
Most Holy Roman and Catholic Church, his humble and devoted sons - here follow the names
of the Nobles and Commons in Parliament assembled and other barons and freeholders, with
the whole Commons of the Kingdom of Scotland. With all filial reverence devoutly do we
kiss your blessed feet.
From the deeds alike and the books
of our forefathers, we understand, most Holy Lord and Father, that among other noble
nations our own, He Scottish, grows famous for many men of wide renown. The which Scottish
nation, journeying from Greater Scythia by the Tyrrhene Sea and the Pillars of Hercules,
could not in any place or time or manner be overcome by the barbarians, though long
dwelling in Spain among the fiercest of them.
Coming thence, twelve hundred
years after the transit of Israel, with many victories and with many toils they won that
habitation in the West, which, though the Britons have been driven out, the Picts effaced,
and Norwegians, Danes and English have often assailed it, they hold now, in freedom from
all vassalage: and as the old historians bear witness, have ever so held it. In this
kingdom have reigned a hundred and thirteen kings of their own Blood Royal, and no foreign
has been among them. Of their merits and their noble Qualities we need say no more, for
they are bright enough by this alone, that through they were placed in the furthest ends
of the earth, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the King of Kings, called them among the first
to His most firm faith, after His Passion and His Resurrection. Nor did he choose to
confirm them in the Lordīs Faith by any one less than His own first Apostle (although he
stands second or third in order of rank) the most gracious Andrew brother of Peterīs
self, whom ever since he has established their Patron.
Bearing all these things carefully
in mind, those holiest of fathers, Cour predecessors, adorned and fortified this kingdom
and people, as belonging specially to Peterīs brother, with many favours and many
privileges. Thus our nation till now has lived under their protection in peace and quiet,
till the Magnificent Prince, Edward King of the English, the father of the Eward that now
is, did, under cover of alliance and friendship, invade and occupy as an enemy our kindom
and people, who then had no head, who had in mind no evil towards him, and who then were
unused to war or sudden invasion. What that king has done in wrongs and slaughter and
violence, in imprisoning of the leaders of the church, in burning and looting of religious
houses and the massacre of their communities, with his other outrages on the Scottish
people (sparing nor sex nor age nor priestly orders) is something that is not to be
comprehended save by those who know these things from their own experience.
Yet at last, by His help Who heals
and sains the wounded, we are freed from these innumerable evils by our most valiant
Sovereign, King, and Lord, King Robert, who to set free his heritage and his people, like
a new Maccabaeus or Joshua, with joyful heart, toil, weariness, hardship, and dangers. By
the Providence of God, the right of succession, those laws and customs which we are
resolved to defend even with our lives, and by our own just consent, he is our King: and
to him who has brought salvation to his people through the safeguarding of our liberties,
as much by his own deserving as by his rights, we hold and choose in all things to adhere.
Yet Robert himself, should he turn aside from the task that he has begun, and yield
Scotland or us to the English King and people, we should cast out as the enemy of us all,
as a subverter of our rights and of his own, and should choose another king to defend our
freedom: for so long as a hundred of us are left alive, we will yield in no least way to
English dominion. We fight not for glory nor for waelth nor honours; but only and alone we
fight for freedom, which no good man surrenders but with his life.
Because of these things, most
reverend Father and Lord, praying earnestly from our hearts that before Him as Whose Vicar
on Earth you reighn, before him to whom there is but a single weight, Who has one law for
Jew and Greek and for Scots and English - before Him will with honestly consider the
manifold anguish and tribulation which we and the Church have suffered through the
English, and will look upon us with a fatherīs eyes. We pray you to admonish the King of
England (to whom his own possessions may well suffice, since England of old was enough for
seven Kings or more) that he should leave us in peace in our little Scotland, since we
desire no more that is our own, and have no dwelling-place, are willing to do all within
our power. Most Holy Father, it is Cour part to do this, or surrender to the barbarity of
the heathen, let loose for the sins of Christian on the Faithful, and daily forcing the
bounds of Christendom, and you know it would mar the security of your fame if you looked
unmoved on anything which in your time should bring dishonour on any part of the Church.
May Your Holiness therefore admonish those Christian princes who falsely claim that their
own wars with their neighbours now hinder them from relieving the Holy Land: though indeed
they are hindered only by their belief that they will find more profit and less toil in
crushing neighbours smaller than themselves, who appear to them also weaker than
themselves. He who knows that if the King of the English would leave us in peace, we and
our own Lord King would go joyfully thither: which thing solemnly testify and declare to
Vicar of Christ and to all Christian people. But if too readily, or insincerely, you put
your faith in what the English have told you, and continue to favour them, to our
confounding, then indeed shall slaying of bodies, yea and of souls, and all those evils
which they shall do to us, or we to them, be charged to your account by the Most High.
We are always bound to you, as
Godīs Viceregent, to please you by a sonīs obedience in all things. We remit our cause
to the Highest King and Judge, casting our care on Him, in the hope and faith that He will
grant to us both strength and valour, and bring about our enemiesī overthrow.
May the Most High preserve for
many years Your Serene Highness to His Holy Church.
Given at the Monastry of Arbroath
in Scotland the 6th day of April in the year of our Grace 1320, and in the 15th
year of the King named above.
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