|
To our Lord and Very
Holy Father in Christ, Lord John, He Supreme Pontiff, by God�s
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 Lord�s 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 Peter�s
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
Peter�s 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 father�s 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 God�s Viceregent, to please you by a son�s 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 enemies� 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.
|
