The book Arran; - Cook Clan

82 THE BOOK OF ARRAN
that went on up and down Scotland, in the chaffering of
parish churches considered primarily as sources of income.
These notices are contained in petitions to the Pope for the
time being by the Scottish Ambassador at the Papal Court.
Most of them, being of the close of the fourteenth and the
beginning of the fifteenth century, apply to the anti-Pope of
these days, the rival of the Italianate Pope chosen at Rome,
who had residence either at Avignon in the south of France
or at Barcelona on the north-east coast of Spain. These
two countries supported the pontiff who made his home with
them, and, as England acknowledged the Pope at Rome,
Scotland inevitably took the opposite side with its ally
France. Several characteristic difficulties arose about the
occupation of Kilmorie, and it is this local friction that has
left us some sparks of light on how things went there. The
income of St. Mary's amounted to from £18 to £20, which
was pretty fair, when we consider that the minimum salary
for a vicar was fixed by a Scottish Synod of the thirteenth
century at 10 marks, or £6, 13s. 4d., free of all charges.
Beyond this, of course, there was the margin that went to
the rector. Kilmorie's £20 was the rectorial sum,i the total
stipend at most. We have seen that in 1357 a Bean was
rector, and another of the same name, as it must be, filled the
office before 1391. He is Beanus . Johannis, Bean John'sson
or Maclan, though we are here dealing only with a
patronymic not a regular surname. Bean was not wholly
exemplary as a celibate priest, for we shall see he left a son,
a not unusual peccadillo of the mediaeval clergy. He,
nevertheless, was promoted to be archdeacon of the Isles,
the honour next to that of bishop, and, as he had not procured
a papal dispensation to hold both appointments, the
rectorship became vacant. It was thus applied for and
obtained by Nigel Cambell (Campbell) of the diocese of Dun-
' The stipend of Kilmorie at the close of the eighteenth century was £70, exclusive
of manse and glebe (Statistical Account).