Liber Officialis Sancti Andree
^{~An Abbotsford Club Publication~}

Liber Officialis Sancti Andree (1845) is a valuable collection of the surviving sentences and acts of the Official’s Court of the metropolitan diocese of St Andrews. Edited by John Hay Forbes, Lord Medwyn, and published by the Abbotsford Club, the volume preserves a rare body of late-medieval and early-modern Scottish consistorial records. These include formal decisions in matrimonial, testamentary, and other ecclesiastical causes that came before the Official of St Andrews. Because so few Scottish consistorial court books have survived, the Liber Officialis is an important source for the study of canon-law practice, family relationships, and the administration of church justice in pre- and immediately post-Reformation Scotland.

Citation

Forbes, John Hay, Lord Medwyn, ed. Liber Officialis Sancti Andree Curie Metropolitane Sancti Andree in Scotia Sententiarum in Causis Consistorialibus Que Extant. Edinburgh: Abbotsford Club, 1845.

Master Index

Liber Officialis Sancti Andree Page 93 (fol. 125)

Date of the Entry 1545

Guthrie(s) Identified

• Agnes Guthre (Agnes Guthrie)

Guthrie Role Defender (rea) in a matrimonial cause. She was the putative spouse of Thomas Annande of Perfye. The court upheld the validity of their marriage and ordered Thomas to receive her as his lawful wife.

Other Primary Parties Identified

• Thomas Annande of Perfye (actor / pursuer)
• Martinus Balfour (Official who pronounced the sentence)

Original Document Language Latin

Purpose Consistorial sentence confirming the validity of the marriage between Thomas Annande of Perfye and Agnes Guthrie, which had been solemnized in the face of the church. The court rejected any attempt to dissolve the marriage and compelled the husband to take his wife into his household.

Modern English Translation Sentence of Annande against Guthrie

We, Martin Balfour, in a certain matrimonial cause brought by the honourable man Thomas Annande of Perfye, actor, on the one part, against the honest woman Agnes Guthre, his putative spouse, defender, on the other part: We decree that the marriage between the said Thomas and Agnes, solemnized in the face of the church, was and is from the beginning valid and lawfully contracted. Therefore such marriage is by no means to be dissolved, nor do we dissolve it, the causes alleged to the contrary (including a dispensation of degrees of relationship lawfully used and other matters deduced before us) notwithstanding. And we compel the said Thomas to take the said Agnes into his household, board, bed and home, as befits a husband toward his wife; and we condemn the said Thomas in the expenses of the suit, the taxation of the same being reserved to us.

Historical or Genealogical Significance

• Records an Agnes Guthrie as the wife (or putative wife) of Thomas Annande of Perfye in 1545.
• Demonstrates that their marriage had been publicly solemnized and was upheld as valid by the Official of St Andrews despite some challenge (apparently involving degrees of consanguinity or affinity).

Legal Terms and Scottish Practices

• In facie ecclesiae: Marriage publicly solemnized before the church.
• Mensa, thoro, lare et foco: The husband’s obligation to provide board, bed, hearth and home.
• Dispensation of degrees: Ecclesiastical permission overcoming impediments of consanguinity or affinity.
• Condemnation in expenses: The unsuccessful party ordered to pay the costs of the litigation.

Liber Officialis Sancti Andree Pages 151–152 (fol. 172)

Date of the Entry 28 September 1548

Guthrie(s) Identified

• David Guthre (David Guthrie), third prior of the monastery of St Andrews

Guthrie Role Commissary General of the Official of St Andrews principal. He sat as judge in an appellate cause and pronounced the sentence.

Other Primary Parties Identified

• William Broune (one party in the cause)
• George Crechtoun, asserted vicar of Kirkcubright (the other party)

Original Document Language Latin

Purpose Sentence pronounced by David Guthrie, third prior of St Andrews and commissary general, in a cause concerning the devolution of an appeal brought by George Crechtoun from the Official of Glasgow to the principal auditorium of St Andrews. The court ordered the cause to proceed and condemned William Broune in expenses.

Modern English Translation Given 28 September A.D. 1548.

Sentence of Broune and Crechtone

In the name of Christ invoked: We, David Guthre, third prior of the monastery of St Andrews, commissary general of the lord Official of St Andrews principal, specially constituted for the universality of causes both of appeals and of other causes arising by reason of primacy as well as of legateship, and judge in the cause and for the parties undersigned, sitting in tribunal in a certain cause of accounts and duplications of the lord William Broune against the devolution of the appeal of the lord George Crechtoun, asserted vicar of Kirkcubright, interjected from the seat of Glasgow to the principal auditorium of St Andrews, and of the replies and triplications of the same lord George produced on either side in the said auditorium, and other matters moved before us and still pending undecided: Taking cognizance, we pronounce, decree and declare that the said cause of appeal interjected from the said seat of Glasgow to the principal auditorium of St Andrews is to be devolved, and ought to be devolved, from the matters deduced before us, and we have devolved the same with its annexes, connexes and emergents, the allegations to the contrary on the part of the said lord William Broun notwithstanding; and we appoint and assign that proceedings are to be had in the said cause, namely to the libelling; and we condemn the said lord William Broune in the expenses … the taxation of the same being reserved to us hereafter.

Historical or Genealogical Significance

• Records David Guthrie holding the office of third prior of the Augustinian monastery of St Andrews in 1548.
• Shows him exercising high judicial authority as commissary general of the Official of the metropolitan see, hearing appellate business from other dioceses (here Glasgow).
• One of the most senior ecclesiastical positions occupied by a Guthrie in the surviving pre-Reformation records.

Legal Terms and Scottish Practices

• Commissary general: Deputy exercising the full jurisdiction of the Official.
• Devolution of an appeal: The formal transfer of a cause from a lower to a higher ecclesiastical court.
• Auditorium principale Sancti Andree: The principal court of the Official of St Andrews.
• Condemnation in expenses: The unsuccessful party ordered to pay the costs of the litigation.

Liber Officialis Sancti Andree Page 153 (fol. 178)

Date of the Entry 22 December 1548

Guthrie(s) Identified

• David Guthre (David Guthrie), third prior of the monastery of St Andrews

Guthrie Role One of the commissaries general of the Officialate of St Andrews principal. He sat as judge and pronounced sentence in an appellate cause.

Other Primary Parties Identified

• George Creichtoune, canon regular of the monastery of Holyrood near Edinburgh (appellant)
• William Broune, chaplain (appellee)
• Master James Houstoune, subdean of Glasgow and one of the vicars general of the vacant see of Glasgow (the judge a quo)

Original Document Language Latin

Purpose Sentence in an appeal brought by George Creichtoune against William Broune. David Guthrie, as commissary general, found that the vicar general of Glasgow had wrongly refused and delayed justice, upheld the appeal as well and justly taken, reserved further cognizance of the principal cause to the Official of St Andrews, and condemned the appellee in expenses.

Modern English Translation Given 22 December A.D. 1548.

Sentence of Crichtoune and Broune

In the name of Christ invoked: We, David Guthre, third prior of the monastery of St Andrews and one of the commissaries general of the Officialate of St Andrews principal, judge in the cause and for the parties undersigned, sitting in tribunal in a certain cause of appeal of the venerable and religious man the lord George Creichtoune, canon regular of the monastery of Holy Cross near Edinburgh, from the venerable and distinguished man Master James Houstoune, subdean of Glasgow and one of the vicars general of the see of Glasgow (the same being now vacant), against the lord William Broune, chaplain, the appeal having been interjected to the principal auditorium of St Andrews, and other matters moved before us and still pending undecided: Taking cognizance, we decree that the said lord vicar general, the judge a quo, by refusing and postponing justice in a cause of this kind in the second instance, and by denying further process in the said cause after various judicial acts had already been taken before him, unjustly injured and aggrieved the said appellant, as is more fully contained in the appellant’s libel of appeal. And therefore the said appellant well and justly appealed and provocated from the said lord vicar general, the judge a quo, to the principal auditorium of St Andrews; and we reserve further cognizance of the principal cause to us or to the aforesaid Official and his auditorium; and we condemn the said appellee in the expenses of the suit, the taxation of the same being reserved to us hereafter.

Historical or Genealogical Significance

• Confirms David Guthrie continuing to act as a senior commissary general of the Official of St Andrews in late 1548.
• Shows him exercising appellate jurisdiction over a cause originating in the vacant diocese of Glasgow, involving a canon of Holyrood.

Legal Terms and Scottish Practices

• Commissary general: Deputy exercising the jurisdiction of the Official.
• Judge a quo: The lower judge from whom the appeal is taken.
• Provocatio / appeal to the auditorium principale: Transfer of the cause to the metropolitan Official’s court at St Andrews.
• Reservation of further cognizance: The higher court keeps the principal matter for its own decision.