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Bishop Dunbar's Hospital was founded in 1531 by Bishop Gavin Dunbar, the Elder. The hospital was endowed by a mortification just before his death. Dunbar petitioned the King, James V of Scotland, and the charter, signed on 24 February 1531 records the King’s approval that ‘(shall ) ... ''found an hospital near the cathedral church, but outside the cemetery''...’ It is was also known as St Mary's Hospital.〔Ian Borthwick Cowan, David Edward Easson, and Richard Neville Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses, Scotland with an Appendix on the Houses in the Isle of Man. 2nd edn (London: Longman, 1976), pp. xxviii, 252p,()fold plates.〕 In the mortification, Dunbar's charitable purpose is recorded.〔"..FRANGE ESURIENTI PANEM TUUM ET EGENOS VAGOSQUE INDUC IN DOMUM TUAM.." (give thy bread to the hungry and the needy and bring the wandering into your house).〕 Bedesmen were supported by a charitable foundation that emerged from the original church control until the twenty-first century. Bedesmen drew their name from the word "bede" - a prayer. The residents of Dunbar's Hospital said prayers in a cycle of Divine Office. The Bede House, Old Aberdeen was used by the Bedesmen from the hospital from 1789 to the end of the nineteenth century. The only remains of the 1531 building can be seen in a perimeter wall for Seaton Park in Old Aberdeen. The last Bedesman died in 1988. The Managers of the Hospital constituted a Charity, Bishop Dunbar Hospital Trust. The Charity ceased active operation in 2012. ==Foundation of the hospital== There are a number of copies of the foundation charter in the Dunbar Archives at the University of Aberdeen.〔See MS 3861 for further details of the Hospital Archive〕 An English translation at the beginning of the charter is as follows: “…It is quite evident that all prelates of the church are not the owners of the patrimony of the cross (or the Christian church), but the guardians and dispensers of it. And whatever is left of the fruits of the church to any prelate after satisfying the necessities of the church and his own life, the prelate is bound to bestow it on the poor, and devote it to pious purposes. And although we have given away in different churches for the augmentation of divine worship some parts of our means, acquired by industry or otherwise, and other parts for the welfare of the state, yet we have contributed to charitable works at great expense. Feeling that when something is left, after supplying the needs of the church and our own life, and remembering the words of almighty God :- ‘Give of thy bread to the hungry, and take the poor and the wandering under the shelter of thy house, and clothe the naked…” In this preface, Dunbar confirms his Christian practice of enacting "corporal works of mercy".〔P K Guilday and others, The Catholic Encyclopaedia, Rev ed (Gilmary Society, New York, 1936). See Matthew 25:34-40 "… Verily I say unto you, in as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me…" (v.40, King James Version). In Catholic theology corporal works of mercy are: to feed the hungry; to give drink to the thirsty; to clothe the naked; to harbour the harbourless; to visit the sick; to ransom the captive; and, to bury the dead.〕 However, this does not really explain fully why the hospital was built. Dunbar was a charitable man. It was common practice for the nobility to exercise care of their community. Some noblemen were more charitable than others. Perhaps it was because Dunbar was a Bishop? It is possible that there was a theological motive at work. The explanation is to be found in the name of the inhabitants, Bedesmen, and in the description of how they were to live – in care and prayer. The explanation draws on an often-misunderstood principle of Catholicism – a belief in Purgatory and prayers for the dead.〔See John A. A. Goodall, God's House at Ewelme : Life, Devotion, and Architecture in a Fifteenth-Century Almshouse, (Aldershot, Hants, England ; Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2001). Goodall’s book is an excellent account of a Bedehouse or Almshouse built in 1437 by Alice, Duchess of Suffolk. There is a striking similarity in the prayerful day to be followed by the almsmen and Dunbar’s Bedesmen. Goodall provides a summary of the theology under-pinning Purgatory (pp.142-145). It is worth comparing the text of the Ewelme charter with the charter from St Mary’s in Old Aberdeen (see pp.234-237, lines 522 to 743, in the English translation of the Ewelme charter).〕 “… we desire therefore, by means of a new charitable institution, to obtain some help towards earning divine favour (emphasis ) by relieving the want of the Christian poor, and supporting them, and we have resolved to make, construct, and found a hospital near the cathedral … but outside the cemetery, and to form and endow it in the following manner…” Dunbar makes explicit his wish to ‘…() … divine favour by relieving the want of the Christian poor…’ In this and in other acts, Bishop Dunbar’s Catholic faith in salvation is clear. He expresses a belief in prayers for the dead and a certainty in the cleansing power of Purgatory.〔There are other examples of Dunbar’s belief in Purgatory. For example, on 2 September 1529, he endowed two Chaplains for the Cathedral in Elgin to ‘… pray for the Souls …’ of his father and mother. Cosmo Innes, Bannatyne Club (Edinburgh Scotland), and Episcopal Church in Scotland. Diocese of Moray., Registrum Episcopatus Moraviensis E Pluribus Codicibus Consarcinatum Circa A.D. Mccc, Cum Continuatione Diplomatum Recentiorum Usque Ad A.D. Mdcxxiii, (Edinburgi: (Club ), 1837).〕 To the late medieval Catholic, Purgatory was as ‘real’ as Heaven or Hell or pestilence or the existence of most of the population in poverty. Dunbar as a prelate of the Church would have held what Karen Armstrong calls a ‘mythic’ belief in the practice of saying prayers for the dead.〔K Armstrong, The case for God: what religion really means (Bodley Head, 2009); K Armstrong, A short history of myth (Canongate, Edinburgh, 2005); K Armstrong and others, The myths. 6 vols (Canongate, Edinburgh, 2008). Armstrong in her recent writing, distinguishes between ‘mythos’ and ‘logos’. ‘Mythos’ from Greek..() ‘…refers to experiences that are obscure and ineffable because they are beyond speech and relate to the inner rather than the external world; "logos" from Greek (λόγος)… corresponds to facts… it is essentially practical … it constantly looks ahead to achieve a greater control over our environment or to discover something fresh…’ She argues persuasively that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries people began to move from a belief system that was based on ‘mythos’ ‘….to develop an entirely new kind of civilization governed by scientific rationality…’ She calls these beliefs ‘logos’.〕 Dunbar was acting with dual purposes – to alleviate poverty and to exhibit Christian charity. His hospital was to support Bedesmen who were to pray for the dead. There can be no doubt that Dunbar aimed to deal with the poverty of some elderly (men) in Old Aberdeen. It is clear that his concerns regarding poverty were based on a Catholic faith in salvation. The charter continues: “… In the first place we have ordained that the house of the hospital shall be a hundred feet long, and about thirty-two feet wide, and that it shall be divided so as to accommodate twelve poor men in separate rooms…the rest of the house, which will be thirty-six feet long, and thirty-two feet wide, will be so divided, that in the north side there will be a common room sixteen wide, and thirty-six feet long, for all the poor men in which they can have a common fire and other necessary things, and opposite to it, in the south side of the house, there will be an oratory well furnished and of the same size as the common room of the house, and provided with an altar…” that is, a concern for the poverty of elderly men in a dedicated home and Christian piety in the provision of an oratory. The prayerful day became less strict from 1577-80. From 1545 to 1577, William Gordon (Bishop of Aberdeen) was Bishop of Aberdeen. Gordon and his nephew, the staunchly Catholic George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly were slow to acquiesce to the wishes of the Reformist and the "Church of Scotland". After the downfall of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1567, Bishop Gordon appears to have accepted the authority of the new Church of Scotland since he retained his see until his death on 6 August 1577. It is likely that the strict regime of prayer required of the Bedesmen was continued until Bishop Gordon’s death. His successor was David Cunningham (bishop) who managed to negotiate an understanding between James VI and the 4th Earl of Huntly. The status of the Bedesmen changed during the time Cunningham was "Bishop" and Chancellor of Kings College, Old Aberdeen and became less Catholic during the time he held the Bishopric of Aberdeen. At the time the Reformation in Old Aberdeen was a "slow process". The Reformation affected the relationship between the Hospital and the Cathedral Church of St Machar. The status of "bedesmen" varied across different institutions.It is interesting to note that in "new" Aberdeen, in 1633, Dr William Guild had a mortification ratified by King Charles I, that instituted a Hospital for ‘… good pious and sober men…’, members of the Seven Incorporated Trades of Aberdeen. See Aberdeen Trades HospitalsThe Mortification required the men to live a Reformed yet prayerful day. The men were to be: ‘…always present at the Sunday and weekly sermons … unless they be confined to their beds by sickness .. , as also at the public morning and evening prayers .. especially in summer. ALSO, I ordain that in their own chapel a portion of the Word of God be read twice daily, and prayers offered up by a suitable reader … who shall have fifty merks paid him therefore yearly … to be properly chosen by the patron, which service shall be between nine and ten in the morning or forenoon, and between three and four in the evening or afternoon: and whoever .. except through sickness … shall be once absent, let him be admonished; if twice, punished by the director; and if thrice, removed from the hospital…’ (1887 translation) A dutiful prayer-full day was to be observed, under penalty of exclusion, in post-Reformation Aberdeen.〔See Ebenezer Bain, Merchant and Craft Guilds : A History of the Aberdeen Incorporated Trades, (Aberdeen: Edmond & Spark, 1887).〕 The Dunbar Hospital Charter describes how the men were to be paid, fed and clothed; and how the hospital was to be organized and lays down details of the prayerful day the Bedesmen were to keep: “...the poor men shall pray daily for the felicitous and prosperous state of our lord the King, and for his soul, and for the souls of his predecessors and successors, and also for our soul, and the souls of our parents, our brothers and sisters, and all our friends, and also of all the faithful in Christ …” The prayerful day was long. Based on our modern understanding of a care home, the conditions were arduous. “….between supper time and the closing of the gate, the poor men shall enter the oratory and every one in his place in a line shall repeat devoutly the hymn of our Lady on behalf of the souls of those before mentioned. Then if so disposed, they may go away and sleep till three o'clock, when every poor man shall repeat in his room the hymn of the most blessed Virgin Mary …”〔Different versions of the charter exist. The text in this article draws on: Richard W. K. Bain, James, and George Grub, Bishop Gavin Dunbar's Hospital. Memorandum Dealing with the History and Records from the Foundation of the Benefaction and List of Title Deeds and Other Writs Relating Thereto, (Aberdeen: Rosemount P., 1931). and A M Munro, Records of Old Aberdeen, Vol.2 (New Spalding Club, Aberdeen, 1899). The original 1531 charter by signed by James V and part of the Gavin Dunbar Hospital in the University of Aberdeen〕 (詳細はウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bishop Dunbar's Hospital」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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