Arbuthnot was the last abbot of the Scottish Monastery of Ratisbon. After him there were only priors, the number of monks gradually decreased, and, although a few Scotch boys were still taught at the seminary, the final extinction could no longer be staved off. All appeals to the fact that the monastery for centuries had done good work in secular education also, were of no avail. Primate Dalberg prohibited the further reception of novices or pupils. This prohibition was withdrawn by King Ludwig I of Bavaria in 1827, but when the Bishop of Ratisbon declared that he wanted the buildings of the monastery for the extension of the clerical seminary, the Scottish Episcopacy acquiesced, an agreement was at last arrived at between Bavaria and the Vatican, and the Monastery was dissolved by a Breve of Pope Pius IX on the 2nd of September 1862 for the sum mentioned above. The old, time-honoured foundation of Marianus passed into German hands.

With regard to the "Schottenkloster" at Erfurt, the foundation of which is likewise lost in the obscurity of the XIth Century, we have to add that its existence, much chequered by the reverses of fortune, never produced any deep and lasting impression on its surroundings except in its connection with the University. In 1198 it was granted a privilege, afterwards confirmed by the Emperor Rudolf of Habsburg, according to which every damage done to its present or future property was punished by a fine of 100 talents "of pure gold." Towards the end of the XVth Century it was, as one of the chroniclers relates, "almost entirely ruinous," so that nobody trusted himself to live in it. About the same time Irish monks seem to have been received. There was a series of Irish abbots from the end of the XIVth Century. In the year 1450, Thaddaeus II, the last of them, presented a pamphlet to all the teachers of the University, in which he defended himself against a certain Magister Heynemann, and others, who had publicly maintained that the monastery did as much belong to them as to him, he being Irish. Abbot Matthaeus commenced the building of a new monastery; but this edifice was burned down to the ground, together with the church, at the time "when the fatal conflagration took place" at Erfurt in 1472. Then, indeed, misery and distress reached their height. "The abbot, however, did not become discouraged," the old chronicler continues; "he collected contributions from his countrymen in Germany and received a ‘considerable’ writing, with seals attached to it, from the abbots of Ratisbon, Wurzburg and Constance and other prelates, who all of them spoke in moving terms of the pitiable condition of the Scottish Monastery at Erfurt, exhorting pious Christians to contribute their donations. The sum collected, however, was not sufficient to repair the damage in any way. The abbot therefore saw himself obliged to pawn fields, vineyards, houses and other property of the Monastery, in order to make the most urgent repairs and to have a roof over his head again."

At the beginning of the next century Abbot Benedictus was in a similar plight. He also was anxious to rebuild the ruined edifice (1510), but not having the means, and the "great Lords rather putting him off with letters of recommendation than affording him any real assistance, he likewise resorted to the sale of monastic property, by which means he was able to restore the church in the way it remained until the year 1724."

In 1514 the altar dedicated to St Ninian and given and endowed by two citizens of Erfurt, Scotsmen by birth, named Balthasar Barding (?) and Jacob Flamingk (Fleming), was erected.

During the period of the Reformation there was temporarily only one monk in the monastery. But he continued regularly to say mass. Matters became still worse after the occupation of Erfurt by the Swedes in 1632. The monastery of the Scots was then made a present to the community and afterwards sold by the magistrates. It had, however, to be given back to the Order after the Peace of Prague in 1635.

Finally, the use of the church of the monastery was granted to the congregation of St Nicholaus in 1744; the definite property of which it became in 1820 when the secularisation took place. Joseph Hamilton was the last prior, a man whose great benevolence is repeatedly mentioned. Every morning between nine and ten o’clock he gave free advice to the sick, and tried to cure them with the help of electricity. He also willingly paid visits to poor patients in their houses, carrying with him his electric machine.

The former monastery served for some time as military store-house; afterwards the military academy was built on its site (1858).

We are better informed of the history of the Scottish monastery at Würzburg (Herbipolis) in Bavaria. To the north of the Marienberg, afterwards strongly fortified, on the western banks of the Main River, rises the hill of Girsberg or Geiersberg. At the time of the foundation of the monastery in the XIIth century there was no human dwelling on it; a bare and bleak mountain, waiting for its cultivation from the industrious hands of the monks. Here then Bishop Embricho, in answer to the prayer of an Irish-Scottish monk, named Christian, granted the foreign pilgrims a home for the sake of St Kilian, the apostle and martyr of Franconia. Thus the primary destination of the building appears to have been a resting place (hospitium) for the Irish pilgrims to Rome and for the missionaries. As coat-of-arms the young foundation showed a shield with a scallop-shell and two crossed pilgrim-staves. Pope Coelestin in 1195, Clement IV in 1348, and the Emperor Charles IV in 1355, confirmed all its privileges, liberties and possessions.

And these were already large. Embricho had given his estate of Wolfsthal, with all its "meadows, forests and waters," to the monastery, and endowed the chapel with a "meadow along the Main," and with the river itself, "as wide as the meadow" (1142). Other pious men and women left other estates, houses and vineyards. Sums of money also were forthcoming, nay, even serfs and their services were handed over to the monastery as legacy.

The political events of the times, however, did not allow this flourishing condition to continue long. Already the year 1400 proved disastrous to the free development of the new foundation, in consequence of a war waged by the citizens of Wurzburg against their Bishop Gerhard. How severe these losses must have been appears from a convention arrived at by Bishop Johann and the citizens of Wurzburg in 1402, when the latter agreed to pay the sum of 40,000 pounds’ weight of pence for damage done to various religious houses. On other occasions also rapacious hands tried to possess themselves of monastic property. It required a bull of Pope Martin V in 1418 to stem this course of spoliation.

An important resolution was arrived at by the Abbots of Würzburg and Erfurt, and the Prior and Monks of St James’s at Ratisbon, after the death of their Abbot John in 1479 (October 22nd); according to which the Abbot of Wurzburg had the right to nominate a candidate for the abbacies of Constance and Memmingen with the consent of the other Scottish abbots. If he had no other suitable individual, the monastery of Ratisbon was to furnish one. Other paragraphs aimed at the restriction of the power of the Abbot of Ratisbon, who, it would appear, had exercised it somewhat arbitrarily and too severely. It was further agreed, that no prelate should be allowed to sell any property of the house, except with the consent of the other prelates; that no benefice of the Scottish nation should be given to a German, and that all the elections for vacant offices had to take place at Ratisbon.

In spite of all these efforts the tide of decay that set in towards the end of the XVth Century, could not be stemmed. At the death of Abbot Philip (1497), there was not a single monk left; there was no grain nor wine in barn or cellar, and the walls of the building threatened to come down. The reason of this seems to have been partly the mismanagement of the abbots, partly the unruly times, partly the ignorance of the foreign monks of German law in their frequent legal difficulties arising out of property, tithes, and other questions.

Be this as it may, Pope Alexander VI, taking charge of the deserted monastery, tried to mend matters by introducing German monks. But his hopes were doomed to disappointment. The Peasants’ War had plundered and destroyed the sacred buildings, and the Germans in 1547 arrived at the same end, after an administration of only about fifty years, as the Scots after three hundred.

It was then that a new helper arose in the person of the excellent Bishop Julius. When attending the Diet of Ratisbon in 1594, he took up his quarters in the Monastery of St James, and was received and entertained with princely honours by its abbot John James White (Albus), a scholarly and generous man, who did not lose the opportunity of pressing the claims of the Scots to the foundation of Würzburg, with his noble visitor. This reason would have been quite sufficient to explain the Bishop’s later actions with reference to the Scottish monastery. But the people’s mind in those days required more than cold logic; it loved to trace back every great event, every ancient foundation of Church or Cloister to a miracle, a direct interference of Providence. It was a dream that once led the old Irish monk to build his narrow cell at Ratisbon; it was an illness unto death that made Bishop Julius vow to restore the monastery at Würzburg to its rightful owners, and thus become its second founder in the case of his recovery. The violent fever left him, he returned to Würzburg, restored the monastery, paid its debts, and requested the Abbot of Ratisbon to send some learned Scottish monks. These were most solemnly, in the presence of the most noble men of Franconia, reintroduced into their own. After this time the existence of the monastery was no longer disturbed, although it continued to suffer much from the war. Many good abbots directed their attention to missionary and educational work; the library was increased; a guest-house built, the other buildings were enlarged and improved. At the same time the fortifications of Wurzburg gradually encroached upon the Girberg. One large vineyard after another was lost, besides many houses and properties, which paid their rents to the monastery. The owners, of course, were compensated, but the fact of being now placed within the rayon of fortifications led to many hardships. At various periods the precincts of the monastery were requisitioned by the military for their stores. Latterly the difficulty of obtaining monks and novices from Scotland was experienced as in Ratisbon, so here also. In 1803 the old foundation was secularised; the books were incorporated with the Royal University Library; the archives now formed a part of the Royal Archives; the wonder-working relics of St Macanus, the first abbot, were transferred to St Mary’s Chapel on the Market Square, and the whole buildings were converted into a military hospital.

To this short sketch of the history of the "Schottenkloster" at Wurzburg, we now add some biographical notices of its monks and abbots. The first abbot was Makarius; he was early reverenced as a saint, and died in 1153. His burial place was for a long time unknown, until it was miraculously rediscovered in 1614 by a monk Gabriel. Abbot Philippus was made chaplain to Charles IV (1355), and showed great diplomatic skill. Franciscus Hamilton, one of his successors, obtained his degree of divinity at the University of Wurzburg, and was elected Abbot in 1602. As such he worked hard to pay off the debt of the monastery. In 1609 he resigned and went to Munich in the service of William and Maximilian of Bavaria. He was followed by Guilelmus Ogilbaeus (Ogilvie), who increased the number of monks and decorated the buildings. It was during his tenure of office that the town was besieged by Gustavus Adolfus, and after a last desperate resistance surrendered. Ogilvie met the conqueror with the keys of the city in his hands, and by his pleading succeeded in assuaging the anger of the King (1631).

A man of equally high character and untiring energy was Abbot John Audomarus Asloan. A friend of the Bishop he ruled wisely and well, always mindful to have the account-books and the tithe-rolls of the house in good order. So well known were his excellent business qualities, that the monks at Ratisbon desired him for their abbot, when in 1639 Algacus had left their monastery in a deplorable condition. For a time he seems to have gone and assisted there as temporary "administrator." He died in 1661.

Ambrosius Cook, who ruled the monastery from 1689-1703, was a man of a very different type. He showed a weak, vacillating, worldly character; now rigorous, now lax; often abroad, preferring the intercourse with boon companions to the solitary life of a religious house. In 1697, when one of the Patres, Macanus Brown, had died in Scotland and left a legacy to Wurzburg, he set out himself for that country, to receive it. But instead of four weeks he stayed a year, without writing a single line either to his monks or to the Bishop. When summoned (Feb. 18, 1699) to appear in person before his superiors, he replied from Paris, that he intended to enter the religious fraternity at La Trappe, asking at the same time that his post might be kept open for him during his novitiate. But the severity of the Trappist rules appears to have been too great for him. He returned to Wurzburg and for a time seems to have lived soberly and honestly. But he relapsed again; his way of living became so offensive, that after having been shut up in the fortress for his misdeeds, he was deposed in 1703. Towards the end of his life he travelled much and finally retired to the Cistercian Monastery of Dusselthal, in the diocese of Cologne, where, piously obedient to the strictest rules, he at last found peace. He died in 1727.

There were no abbots from 1703-1713 nor from 1753-1756. The last two filled their office worthily. Augustine Duff from Fochabers in Scotland is called the type "of a good shepherd." He was an excellent scholar and a patron of the library. His death in 1753 prevented him from finishing the reconstruction of the chapel of St Makarius. Placidus Hamilton, finally, the last abbot, was of noble descent and united great prudence with scholarly attainments and a large experience of men and manners, which he had gathered on extensive travels. But as a ruler he was scarcely successful. Having retired to London in 1763 with a pension of 200 gulden from the Prince-Bishop, he died there in 1786.

From this time to the dissolution of the monastery there were only priors at the head of it.

Among the monks, a list of whom is given in the Appendix, Gabriel Wallace deserves a special notice. He is described as a man of great humility and excelling in the mortification of the body. He slept only three or four hours and was girt with a heavy, stout iron-chain. Like many other ascetic monks he was given to visions and dreams. During one of his prayerful nights he heard, as the story goes, repeatedly and long continued "music of angels’ voices" issuing from a certain place of the church, where it was said, but now forgotten, that St Makarius slept his last sleep. Having reported the matter to his superior he received permission to make a search, and when he had raised the floor he came upon a stone with the inscription: "Hic jacet Macanus, primus Abbas hujus ecclesiae, per quem Deus vinum in aquam convertit." He also found other written documents testifying the same thing (1614). Bishop Julius then had the relics with great solemnity transferred to the main church and deposited in a stone coffin (1615).

Of monks and priors, who excelled in literature, we shall have to speak elsewhere. It only remains to mention the sad fate of Marianus Gordon of Banff, who, a descendant of the Marquis of Huntly and the Dukes of Gordon, entered the monastery in the 14th year of his age as a pupil. He showed great aptitude for learning, and having obtained a degree in arts as well as in theology, he went to St Gall for the study of Oriental languages, and remained there about a year and a half. After his return to Würzburg he was made a priest. It appears that Marianus had for some time past corresponded with Protestants, and not only read Protestant books, but taken steps to escape from the monastery and embrace the Lutheran doctrine. Some of his letters to Protestant authors were intercepted; Protestant books were discovered in his cell together with writings of his own, which were sufficient to convict him of heresy. He was sentenced to imprisonment for three years (1732). At first he was detained in St James’s Monastery, but, when new letters of his to his Protestant friends were discovered, his prison was changed to the so-called "Pfaffenthurm" (Priest’s-tower) in the fortress of Marienberg. Here the unfortunate young man, against whose moral conduct not a voice was raised, died by his own hand on the 12th of November 1734.

At the time of the secularisation of the monastery in 1803 there were still eight patres in it, viz.: Placidus Geddes from Edinburgh, prior; Kilian Pepper from Crieff, for some time missionary in England; Columban Macgowen from Balquhain, an excellent disciplinarian and a zealous monk, who was prior twice; Gallus Carmichael from Perth, who died as octogenarian at Wurzburg in 1824; Andreas Geddes from Cairnfield; Maurus Macdonald from the Hebrides, a good botanist; Joannes Bapt. Anderson, who during an eventful life had been a slave in Africa, and who died at Würzburg in 1828, reverenced and loved for his piety; and lastly, Benedictus Ingram, who removed to Frankfort-on-the-Main.

The last prior, and also the last Scottish monk in Wurzburg, was Placidus Geddes, who died at Wurzburg at the ripe age of 82, in 1839.

Once again at the time of the Reformation an intimate intercourse in matters of religion, a mutual giving and taking, took place between Scotland and Germany. In the early centuries of the Middle Ages the question was one of working out a monastic ideal to the glory of Rome; now scores of Scottish pilgrims went to Wittenberg to enrich their armoury and to sharpen their swords in defence of a new doctrine.

Already in 1525 (July 17th) the Scottish Parliament had passed an Act prohibiting the introduction and the reading of "Luthyr’s" books. In August of the same year the King issued an order to the Magistrates of Aberdeen (the University of which town was then upholding the Erasmian teaching), mentioning not only strangers in possession of Luther’s, the heretic’s, books, as did the Act of Parliament, but others as well. The law is to be rigorously enforced. All those that favour the new doctrine are to be deprived of their goods. To this the Lords of Council, disquieted at the rapid spreading of the reformer’s opinions, added two riders in 1527, explaining that all subjects of the King being "assisters" to the heresy should likewise be punishable, and that the permission formerly granted of "disputing and rehersing" those "opunyeouns" should be restricted to "clerkis of the sculls alanerlie."

But no restriction could quench the new spirit.

One of the first that felt its influence and was to seal it with his blood was that noble Patrick Hamilton, the precursor of Knox and the protomartyr of the Scottish Church. The year of his birth cannot now exactly be fixed; generally 1504 is adopted as such. During 1524-25 Hamilton studied at St Andrews where he incurred the suspicion and the hatred of Cardinal Beaton. He had formerly, probably during his stay at Paris, become acquainted with Luther’s writings, but not till 1525 did he publicly express his adherence or at least his sympathy with the prescribed doctrines. To study these at their source and to avoid further proceedings on the part of the Cardinal, he left Scotland in 1526, accompanied by John Hamilton, Gilbert Winram, and a servant. In Wittenberg he made the acquaintance of Luther and Melanchthon. As, however, his name as "cives academicus" does not occur in the album of that University, but appears as the thirty-fourth among the names of the one hundred and four students who signed the roll at the opening of the newly-founded University of Marburg, the hypothesis "that he left Wittenberg on account of the plague which raged in the city and necessitated even a temporary removal of the University," seems to be deserving of some credit. Hamilton stayed at Marburg for six months only; a time too short, one would think, to commence the study of theology, but long enough for him to receive powerful impressions and to purify and strengthen his faith. He was particularly influenced by the venerable Lambert of Avignon, then Professor of Theology, and by Hermann von dem Busch; one of the leading humanists of the day. It was Lambert that persuaded him to write the only little treatise we possess from his pen, his so-called "loci" or "theses," in which he explains Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith in the words of the New Testament. He had much intercourse besides with Tyndale and Frith, his friend, who having left Worms had sought the protection of the Hessian prince. It is a remarkable fact that the small town, so picturesquely perched .on a hill above the Lahn River, should thus have harboured at the same time three future martyrs of the New Faith within its walls. Tyndale died at the stake at Vilvoerde on the 6th of August 1536; Frith suffered martyrdom three years earlier.

In the meantime there arose in Hamilton, after he had strengthened his views in personal contact and friendly communion with the greatest reformers of Germany, the ardent wish to speak and to proclaim this faith to his countrymen. His time of flight and of preservation of life was followed now by the time of fight and self-sacrifice. He left Marburg, in spite of the urgent advice of his remaining Scottish friends, in the autumn of 1527. His fate is known. On the 28th of February 1528 he gave up the ghost after long-continued terrible sufferings at the stake. Lambert says of him: "His learning was for one so young uncommonly great, and his judgments in matters of divine truth extremely clear and well founded. His intention in coming to Marburg was to become still more rooted in the truth, and I can honestly say that I seldom met anyone that could talk of the Word of God with greater depth of insight and with a firmer conviction. We often conversed about these subjects."

In close connection with Hamilton the history of the Scottish Reformation mentions Alexander Alesius, whose proper name was Alane. He was born on the 23rd of April 1500 at Edinburgh, and was in his youth a canon of the St Augustinian Monastery at St Andrews, and a zealous opponent of Luther. He even undertook to convert the imprisoned Hamilton. But the contrary happened; he himself, profoundly moved by the firmness of the martyr, began to be doubtful about the truth of the Roman doctrines. More and more convinced of his own errors, he attacked the luxurious life of the priests, especially that of his prior Hepburn, who, having been educated in France, had grown up a proud and prodigal prelate. As a consequence he was several times cast into prison by his enraged superior, from which finally not even the intercession of the King could save him. With the help of his fellow-canons he succeeded, however, to escape and to gain the shores of the Firth under the protection of night. Neither did his hope of meeting a vessel there deceive him. Before daybreak he was on board, and when the troopers of his enemy appeared on the scene he was already on his way to Dieppe. A violent storm, however, carried the ship away to the north, as far as the Sound and the town of Malmoe in Sweden. Here Alesius encountered, to his astonishment, a community of Scottish merchants who, as they commonly did in foreign lands, kept their own preacher and had accepted the new teaching two years ago. At last the ship reached Antwerp and Bruges, from which latter place our exile went to Cologne (1532). But in spite of the friendly reception of Hermann von Wied he did not stay long. He was drawn towards Wittenberg. There in the enjoyment of most familiar intercourse with the great reformers, especially with Melanchthon, who confessed to a predilection for the Scots, he declared his adhesion to the Articles of the Augsburg Confession, or, in other words to the Lutheran Church, although, as he expressed himself, "in some things he missed moderation and a certain sense of justice," remaining an advocate of conciliation to the end. During this his first stay at the University he chiefly studied Greek and Hebrew and composed his treatise against the prohibition of the Scottish bishops to read the Bible in the mother tongue. It was this pamphlet that prepared the victory of the Reformation in Scotland, although the right which Alesius claimed was only granted to the people of Scotland ten years later, in 1543. It was this pamphlet also which drew upon him the censure of the famous controversialist on the Catholic side, Dobeneck or Cochlaeus, against whom he frequently entered the lists with his pen or his spoken word. In 1535 he went to England as the bearer of Melanchthon’s letters to King Henry VIII and Archbishop Cranmer. He was well received, the Court at that time being anxious for a union with the Protestant princes of Germany. The post of public lecturer at Cambridge was given to him, and he taught Hebrew and Greek in the same college where Erasmus had been lecturing before him. Soon, however, on his friendship with Melanchthon becoming known, he was subjected to all kinds of indignities. A leader of the Roman Catholic party, who had challenged him to a public debate, but had failed to appear on the appointed day, now secretly agitated against him. Riots among the students followed, and Alesius’ life was in danger. Thus compelled, he returned to London, where for about three years he gained a scanty livelihood by the practice of medicine, to the study of which he had already given some attention. But when the King tried to enforce the doctrine of transubstantiation and the celibacy of the priests, he resigned his office as public teacher, sold whatever he possessed, and, being timely warned by the Archbishop, fled to the house of a German sailor, who conveyed him in the disguise of a sailor on board a vessel bound for Holland. Two friends, John Macalpine and John Fyffe or Fidelis, accompanied him. Having safely reached Wittenberg, he accompanied Melanchthon soon afterwards to Worms. But the greatest service that his friend rendered him was that of procuring for him the appointment as Professor of Divinity at Frankfurt on the Oder. Thus Alesius became the first academical teacher of the new doctrine in Brandenburg. In his inaugural dissertation, "De restituendis scholis," he energetically advocated the necessity of a University training for clergymen. After a stay of two years the "perfervidum ingenium" attributed to Scotsmen led him into what seems to have been an unseemly quarrel with the magistrates of the city on the subject of the suppression of prostitution. Being thwarted, he resigned his office suddenly, much to the disgust of his friend Melanchthon, and went to Leipzig, where he was honourably received and made Professor of Theology in 1544. Now at last the "wanderer" was at rest. The remaining twenty-one years of his life he spent at this famous University. Twice, in 1555 and 1561, he was chosen Rector. Here he published most of his exegetical and apologetical writings, one of the most important of which was his Cobortatio ad concordiam pietatis ("Exhortation to unity in love"), dedicated to the Scottish nation, its barons and prelates. In it he eloquently pleads for brotherly union, a cause which Knox took up after him with much energy. The whole tendency of his mind in religious matters was, indeed, one of conciliation, like that of his great German teacher and friend. The extreme views of the Lutheran party he disliked. Accordingly, when at the Diet of Ratisbon in 1541 a mutual approach of the two hostile parties among the Evangelicals appeared possible, we find him heading a deputation, which was sent to Luther at the instigation of the two brothers Georg and Joachim of Brandenburg, to try and make this man of iron yield.

Honoured by his colleagues and his Prince, loved by Melanchthon; courageous, where courage was needed, and yet showing a moderation rare among the reformers of his adopted country, Alesius died in 1565 on the 17th of March. His only son had at a tender age preceded him. Probably the father rests in the same grave in the church of St Paul, though there is no stone to mark his last resting-place. Ben says of him: "He was dear to all scholars and beloved by them, and would have been an ornament to Scotland if the light of the Gospel had been granted earlier to that country. Rejected by Scotland and England, he was warmly welcomed by the Evangelical Church of Saxony, and highly esteemed to the end of his life."

As to the above-mentioned friends of Alesius, they also obtained high positions among the scholars of the age. Macalpine, or Maccabaeus, as Melanchthon had christened him, became Doctor of Divinity at Wittenberg, Luther himself presiding at the ceremony, and afterwards accepted a call from King Christian III to his University of Kopenhagen, having been recommended by the two German reformers. There he laboured as Professor of Divinity till his death in 1557. He was a very learned, pious and moderate theologian. Denmark owes to him and some of his friends the Bible translated into Danish.