THE SCOTTISH CHRONICLE IN THE POPPLETON MANUSCRIPT

Abstract

some cases uniquely, in a fourteenth-century codex which has come to be known as the Poppleton manuscript.'1 The codex, now preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale, is by no means concerned solely with Scotland for it contains many other items. One text, which Mrs M. O. Anderson has sensibly designated 'the Scottish Chronicle',2 represents one of the very few surviving native annalistic compilations of 'dark-age' Scotland. As such its importance can hardly be over-stressed. It begins with Kenneth mac Alpin's accession to the kingship of Pictland and ends in the reign of Kenneth mac Malcolm (971-995).3 This paper attempts some tentative solutions to several outstanding problems posed by the chronicle. Internal references show that the manuscript was compiled either by or for one Robert of Poppleton some time after 1357, this earliest limit-date being indicated by the inclusion of a decretal of August of that year as the first item.4 Robertus de Populton is named as prior in a charter of confirmation granted to the Carmelite convent of Hulne, Northumberland, by Henry Percy in 1364.5 The surviving catalogue of the convent library attributes at least two volumes to Poppleton, a 'Vita Sancti Cuthberti' and a 'Vita Silvestri cum aliis', the latter having been in the possession of Henry Percy until his death in 1368.6 That these volumes were duplicates is indicated by the presence elsewhere in the catalogue of a 'De vita et miraculis Beati Cuthberti' and a 'Legenda de vita Beati Silvestri Papae et aliorum plerum sanctorum'. Percy bequeathed another volume, 'pretii trium marcarum cum dimidio', to Poppleton, which the prior in turn gifted to the library.7 The manuscript contains several references to 'Popiltoun qui me fecit scribi' and 'que me compilavit, Eboraci',8 but while it is clear that it was put together at York, it is not known whether Poppleton himself was a sometime member of the Carmelite community in that city, or whether he commissioned the compilation as prior of Hulne. That the Poppleton codex derived largely from volumes in the superb library of the Austin friars at York, is demonstrated by a comparison of the contents of the manuscript with the surviving catalogue of the friars' library dated 8 September 1372.9 The first three items of Poppleton, together with the fifth, which constitute a collection of decretals concerning the mendicant friars, reflect the recent controversy between the friars and the secular clergy, a problem which greatly distracted the fourteenth-century church. A prominent opponent of the friars was Archbishop Richard Fitzralph of Armagh, who is named in the first item in connection with a decretal of Innocent VI. The other decretals also figured in the debate—those of Benedict XI and Boniface VIII (whose bull Super Cathedram caused the friars considerable trouble), and John XXII's decretal 'contra Joannem de Poliaco', better known as Jean de Pouilli, leader of the secular clergy at Paris, whose criticisms of the friars were condemned by John's bull Vas Electionis of 1321.10 In addition to preserving copies of the decretals, the Austin friars at York also possessed a number of the works of Fitzralph.