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The above list of dates etc gives us a framework but not a flavour of what happened - especially in the early days. Peter F Anson's book "Underground Catholicism in Scotland" clothes the above skeleton:
"The need for more priests to staff the increased number of missions had become urgent. Early in 1858 - about the same time as Bishop Murdoch felt that he must have Jesuits in the Western District - Bishop Gillis wrote to Fr. Joseph Johnston, the English Provincial of the Society of Jesus, asking if any priests and co-adjutor brothers could be spared for the Eastern Vicariate*. The following year the Jesuits were given a missionary district comprising the south and west parts of the city of Edinburgh, extending into the country as far as the Pentland Hills, inclusive of the villages of Colinton, Juniper Green, Balerno and Ratho, in which Irish Catholic families had settled. Premises recently used as a lodging house were acquired in Hunter's Close, off the Grassmarket where the first Mass was celebrated on the feast of St Ignatius Loyola, July 31, 1859.A spacious church in the Classic style was built in Lauriston Street and was opened in 1860. It was the first in Scotland to be dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Before long the Sacred Heart, Lauriston Street, began to fulfil much the same position in Edinburgh Catholic life as the Jesuit church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street, did in London. It offered several weekday masses, frequent Benedictions and Holy Hours, the devotions of the first Fridays, Confessions at Call, besides Confraternities, Guilds and Sodalities. Neither of the two other churches in Edinburgh could supply the same spiritual attractions in the sixties.
.........It was about this time that Bishop Gillis obtained the services of the Sisters of Mercy from Limerick, for the Eastern Vicariate, and people became accustomed to the sight of nuns in the streets of Edinburgh. They were put in charge of two schools in Lothian Road, Edinburgh, and in 1861 the community moved to Lauriston Gardens, to the Convent of St Catherine of Sienna, which Mrs Hutchison, a wealthy convert widow, erected for them.
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*Fr. James Macgillvray, the last of the old Jesuits who had served the Scottish Missions, died in Traquair House in 1811, three years before the Society was formally restored by Pius VII"
Back to contents Peter Anson's brief words, in fact, do not mention that the bringing of Jesuits to Scotland aroused controversy in Edinburgh Catholic life. The parish recently acquired a manuscript written in 1901 by an anonymous parishioner covering the period from 1859 onwards. This was published as 'The Sacred Heart - a Glimpse of the First Fifty Years'. The first few paragraphs give us some interesting insights.
"In the latter part of the 1850s there were rumours of great changes in the usually quiet atmosphere of the Catholic Community in Edinburgh. These rumours were soon occified by the actions of Bishop Gillis in sending away two eminent priests who for years past had been special favourites in Edinburgh. These were the Rev George Rigg of St Mary's and the Rev I Macdonald of St Patrick's. This caused great dismay and commotion among the Catholics and many were the criticisms and comments of the Bishop's doings. It has never been made known what were the reasons that made Bishop Gillies dispense so peremptorily with the services of two such beloved priests, but it is supposed that they did not approve of the changes which the Bishop contemplated and to stop their opposition they had to be removed. It may here be mentioned that after the death of Bishop Gillies, these two clergymen were reinstated in their respective churches by his successor, Bishop Strain.
It was Bishop Gillies' intention to bring the Jesuit Fathers and other religious orders to Edinburgh and the Scottish Secular Clergy did not look with a favourable eye on this invasion by strangers. Why this should be is not easily seen. Religious Orders were no novelty in Scotland, for who was but the Jesuit Fathers who kept the light of Faith burning in the Highlands of Scotland, when all secular priests had been banished and when death was the penalty of being a priest of the old Faith.
Many Scottish Jesuit Fathers more than 300 years ago braved the most rigorous persecution and disguised as Soldiers Traders and Physicians attended to the wants of their coreligionists. One Jesuit Father suffered martyrdom. It was Father Ogilvie who was tortured and hanged in Glasgow in 1615.
Bishop Gillis about the year 1856-57 bought the church in the Cowgate now called St Patrick's from the Episcopalians and the old Church of St Patrick in Lothian Street was transformed into a school. There was a Meeting called to be held in the new Church for the purpose of raising or supplementing the funds for the purchase of the Building. The Bishop was presiding and he expressed some of his views and indicated the various changes that were to take place. He mentioned that the Jesuit Fathers were shortly expected in Edinburgh and that they would open a Mission in the West End of the city. Referring probably to some adverse criticism he said he cared not whether his Clergy were Regulars or Seculars, as long as they did the work that had to be done.
Mr Robert Campbell of Skerrington, the father of our respected townsman Mr William Campbell KC, also spoke at this Meeting and expressed his great pleasure at the advent of the Jesuit Fathers whom he described as the gallant 78th Highlanders or the Black Watch of the Church and he promised himself much good from their presence in Edinburgh.
Bishop Gillis also further announced that the Sisters of Mercy would soon open a convent in this city and attend to the Sick and Poor and take over the teaching of children in the Schools, also that the Oblate Fathers were expected to take charge of the Catholic Church in Leith, and that lately when he visited France, he made arrangements for a Branch of the Little Sisters of the Poor to be planted in Edinburgh.
......."
This booklet is available from the Parish Secretary at a cost of £1 including post and packing.
At the time of the arrival of the Jesuits in Edinburgh, Scotland was still a missionary country with the Catholic community coming under the jurisdiction of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide at Rome. Consequently, the bishops were called Vicars Apostolic and the area they ruled was called a District or a Vicariate Apostolic rather than a Diocese. Their powers were more restricted than those of a 'normal' Diocesan Bishop. In 1878 the Scottish Hierarchy was restored. That of England and Wales had been restored in 1850.
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Tollcross Local History Project published By The Three Great Roads - a history of Tollcross, Fountainbridge and the West Port in 1988. The Catholic community in its various aspects features in it. You also get a clear idea of living conditions. If you can get a copy it is well worthwhile reading.
The mansions of Lauriston were built on the lands of High Riggs, which were fields on the high ridge of land bordered by the Borough Loch (now the Meadows) to the south and the town of Wester Portsburgh (West Port) on the north........
Several mansions with extensive grounds were built owned by......William Borthwick of Crookston, whose house built in 1770 still stands to this day, occupied by St Catherine's Convent, at the corner of Lauriston Place and Gardens. In 1850 it was known as Lauriston Lodge........
Further west in Lauriston Street was a large mansion where the Sacred Heart Church can now be found......
Meanwhile great social changes were occuring. With the building of the new Town, the Bridges and Castle Terrace, the importance of the West Port as an access to the city had dwindled. At the same time, the better off people had moevd into the New Town, and large numbers of Irish workers, employed on building the Union Canal and other public workss, were moving in. The result was serious overcrowding in the West Port as well as in other parts of the Old Town such as the Grassmarket and the High Street.......
St Ignatius Primary (RC) School
Erected in Glen Street in 1864, the school was described a hundred years later as one of the worst in Edinburgh. It had no playgound and the building itself was likened to something out of a Charles Dickens book. Long before its closure in 1967 it had been condemned, but repairs and improvements lengethened its life considerably...... ..The short term solution to relieve the overcrowding was then to teach the five to seven year olds at St Peter's Annex behind St Thomas of Aquin's School in Chalmers Street. In the meantime St Peter's School in Falcon Avenue (Morningside) was being extended and in 1967 the four classes still at Glen Street were transferred...St Thomas of Aquin's
In the 13th century King James of Aragon bestowed upon the Order of Mercy - formed to ransom captives from the Moors - the right to use his coat of arms. To this day, with some heraldic changes, this coat of arms is still used in the school badge of St Thomas of Aquin's ...In 1858 the Sisters of Mercy set up a convent in Lauriston gardens dedicated to St Catherine of Sienna. In 1887 they founded St Catherine's Convent Boarding and Day School for Young Ladies at 6 Chalmers Street, the predecessor of St Thomas's. In 1900 this school extended to numbers 4-18 where it remains to this day.
The new school was additionally a pupil-teacher centre. In 1905 there were 35 pupils and 50 pupil teachers, the latter trained solely for training the many poor children in the district. They began their training at the age of fourtenn and, once qualified, could attend the RC Training College in Glasgow.
In August 1975, St Thomas's became a co-educational school: the 676 girls were joined for the first time by 90 boys.
Sacred Heart Church ...It would seem at the turn of the century that the Catholic voice was not listened to very readily in Edinburgh. A newspaper article of 1903 represents the zeal with which Father Power tried to increase its volume:
For the past few years, Father Power, one of the Jesuit Fathers attached to the Mission of the Sacred Heart, Lauriston, has conducted open-air services on Sunday evenings of the summer months. He preached firstly in the Grassmarket but latterly was seen standing among large crowds in Lothian Road. The spot where he stands is marked by a large wooden cross... Last night a thousand people listened for more than an hour...
If you can get hold of the above books, they are well worth the reading. All that can be included here are snippets.
 with the ruined Abbey alongside   |
Edinburgh’s First Catholic School: The Jesuits at Holyrood 1687-1688 Catholic education has always been a sore issue in post-Reformation Scotland, still to this day a political and religious hot potato but never more so than in the closing decades of the 17th century when the two opposing Christian communities, Catholic and Protestant, had reached a point of maximum polarisation. It was precisely at this point, however, during the brief reign of the last Catholic monarch to sit upon the British throne that a brave, some would say foolhardy, attempt was made to establish a Jesuit school in the very heart of Calvinist Edinburgh. Holyroodhouse, the ancient palace of the Stuarts was the chosen location and the instigator was none other than the King himself, James VII and II, cocking a snook as it were at the cherished beliefs of the vast majority of his subjects only a couple of years after swearing at his coronation to defend Protestant liberties! To appreciate the revolutionary significance of this short-lived educational experiment we need to remind ourselves of the climate of opinion at that time. More than a century had passed since the previous Catholic monarch, Mary, Queen of Scots, had reigned and her tragic fate was hardly an encouraging precedent! In the intervening years the crowns of Scotland and England had been united in the person of her Protestant educated son, James VI and I, and his heirs but this had not prevented religious and civil strife continuing in both kingdoms for most of the 17th century. The Reformation had gained a firm footing in Lowland Scotland banishing the remnants of the old faith to the fringes of the mainland and to the more inaccessible regions of the highlands and islands. In no other European country did Calvinism impose a tighter grip. Inter-denominational relations were at their nadir - a modern parallel might be the present-day conflict between Jews and Palestinians in the Middle East. Faced with such a dismal history one might have expected any politician or monarch to have proceeded with extreme caution even if his motives were blamelessly ecumenical, but prudence was not highest among the virtues of the great-grandson of Mary Stuart, James, Duke of York and Albany, when he succeeded his more cautious brother Charles II in 1685. With all the fervour of a recent convert he chose to confront the religious question head-on and enlisted as his chosen instruments the Society of Jesus. James saw his succession as a heaven-sent opportunity to return both Scotland and England to the faith of their ancestors, a dream that seemed even more realisable when his queen, Mary of Modena, gave birth to a male heir III the slimmer of 1688. In these dreams the Jesuits were to play a major part, a role for which they were not to be forgiven even by some fellow Catholics ill the dark days that lay ahead. Shortly after James' succession a programme of Catholic renewal was set in motion, causing great offence in Anglican and Presbyterian circles and consternation among the more cautious elements of the Catholic population who foresaw the inevitability of reprisals. Ignoring all these signs James pressed on with his self-appointed crusade despite strong hints from the Vatican that, though his ideals were laudable, his methods were questionable. Nowhere were the consequences of this policy more evident than in the precincts of Holyrood recently restored to something of its former splendour. James had a particular fondness for Holyrood since it had given shelter to himself and his wife in the years before his succession when the fury of the "Popish Plot" in England had driven them north for safety. During those troubled days he had kept a low profile, attending Mass privately in the Long Gallery of the palace while a Protestant congregation worshipped in the ancient Abbey Kirk through the wall! Once seated upon the throne, however, he threw caution to the winds, evicted the Protestants from the Abbey which was then converted into a splendid chapel for the newly-revived Order of the Knights of the Thistle, established a printing press in the palace forecourt for the promotion of Catholic literature and, in a final gesture of provocation, invited the Jesuits in August 1687 to open a school within the precincts. |
The official opening of the school was announced in a prospectus printed at the Holyrood Press in 1688 by the royal printer, Peter Bruce, a foreigner who had already made a name for himself by establishing a paper mill at Restalrig. Reading this document today one is struck by its moderate and enlightened tone. Entitled "Rules of the Schools of the Royal Colledge at Holy-Rood-House" it has for its time an astonishingly conciliatory and ecumenical flavour. Rule I states firmly that teaching is to be free of charge apart from pupils supplying their own pens, paper and books. Rules 2-6 stress the non- denominational nature of the school which was to be open to both faiths; there was to be no proselytising, non-Catholics might absent themselves from Mass and Catechism but all were to be instructed in the Ten Commandments! Secular teaching was to consist of the classics, poetry, rhetoric and philosophy. Rules 7-10 describe the daily routine of the school and times of admission, beginning at 7.45 a.m. with a break at 12.15, re-assembling at 1.45 and finally breaking up at 4.30 with two afternoons per week for recreation - a regime considerably less exacting than that which prevailed in Edinburgh's Royal High School where the school day lasted twelve hours.
Whether any Protestant parents were sufficiently persuaded by these inducements to send their children to Holyrood is not reported. Given time and a less heated political climate the enlightened Jesuits, at the foot of the Canongate might have had a moderating influence upon the citizens of Scotland's capital city, but time was not on their side and certainly not on the side of their master King James who had seemingly closed his eyes to the storm clouds that were gathering around him at home and abroad. Alarmed by his aggressively pro-Catholic policy the King's enemies decided to invite his son-in-law, William of Orange, to restore Protestant liberties. Landing in England in November 1688 William marched on London. James, deserted by many of his former supporters and even by some members of his family, panicked and fled to France in December together with his queen and infant son, the future "Old Pretender". Simultaneously news of William 's triumph led to scenes of wild rejoicing in Scotland where effigies of the Pope were burnt in the streets of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. Catholics, laity as well as clergy, were in peril of their lives.
Holyrood, inevitably, became the focus of mob hatred within the capital. On 17th December a mob descended upon the palace only to be repulsed by the royal guard led by Captain John Wallace, a skirmish in which some were killed and many wounded. The next day the mob returned, this time led by the Lord Provost and Magistrates, entering the building from the rear and forcing Captain Wallace and his men to surrender. Then followed a melancholy repetition of the reckless vandalism that had disfigured the history of the Scottish Reformation since its beginnings - the noble Chapel Royal was desecrated, the magnificent stalls of the Thistle Knights broken up and even the tombs of the Stuart monarchs violated; the furnishings and the library of the school were thrown upon a huge bonfire lit in the forecourt to be joined by the contents of Peter Bruce's printing shop. Priests and printers were imprisoned and were lucky to escape with their lives. Presumably the pupils had been removed to safety by their parents well in advance of these calamities.
So ended an episode which, in the dark days of persecution and penal legislation that lay ahead were to be referred to by pious Catholics as a "Second Spring". Though well-intentioned it was an experiment that had been insufficiently thought-out and suffered because of its close association with an unwise royal policy that was blind to the political realities of the day. It was a venture ahead of its time, far ahead as it proved, for the Society of Jesus was not to show its face openly in Edinburgh for nearly two centuries, in fact not until the opening of the Sacred Heart parish in the mid 19th century.
Originally published in "All in One" May 1994: Alastair Cherry. See also: "Princes, Poets and Patrons - The Stuarts and Scotland": Alastair Cherry: National Library of Scotland: 1987: pp 103-106: ISBN 0 11 493 388X
SOME MEMORIES OF ST. IGNATIUS SCHOOL IN THE 1930’s & 1940 ‘s
Bill Dougan a former parishioner of the Sacred Heart attended St Ignatius School,Glen Street from 1935 to 1943. He has recently sent us some memories of his time there prior to and during the Second World War. He and a friend has also done some research into the origins of the school
Miss Casey was my first teacher in the Infant Classes which were housed in the left hand side of the building. I remember being take into an adjoining staff room to be tested. The test consisted of being shown a series of large cards with objects on them and asking what they were called. Her dismay was clear when on being shown a picture of a mixing bowl, I said it was ,‘a big bowel." I think the aim was to try and get us to eradicate such Scottish pronunciations from our everyday speech.
In my next class our teacher was a Miss Kimnmit and during my time with her my main fear was being put in Miss Barnard’s class the following year. A large rotund woman, who had a reputation for her punishments, which included pulling boys to the front of the class by their ears.
My many prayers at the Sacred Heart church seemed to me to have been heard when I was promoted to Miss Phillips. A good teacher and a kind lady who always seemed well dressed; I remember her as wearing a blue velvet dress with a white lace collar. It must have been this time, 1937/38, that Mr. Gordon became headmaster replacing Sister Mary Raphael on her retirement.
We were, I think Miss Weddell’s first class when she joined the school after her training and she brought with her many fresh ideas and was well liked by her pupils.
The start of the War led to a great disruption to both our school life and education Because of the small playgrounds with not enough room to build sufficient shelter accommodation some were evacuated to places such as Tayport. This led to the remaining pupils being part-educated in people’s homes. I attended a small class in the front room of Mrs Rutherford’s house in Panmnure Place
We next went with Miss Weddell and Miss O’Brien to two classrooms in St. Thomas’s School, Lauriston Gardens. I think we were the last pupils to be billeted there and I got the impression we were less than welcome there. When these two teachers went off on their staff room breaks Dennis Walker and I were left in charge of their respective classes. I used to keep order by telling them adventure stories, some I’d read others I made up. It was about this time a Mr Robertson joined the school to teach the senior and Qualifying classes.
Two classrooms in the top of Cannonball House, which was then part of Castlehill School, was our next location. It certainly was an interesting location but a very cold and windy spot in the winter. As part of our history we were promised a tour of the Castle but the closest we ever got to this tour was to gaze up at the historical frieze around our classroom walls. The strap or "tawse" as method of discipline was very much part of our school life. Mr. Robertson used to refer to it as" Dr. Robertson’s Hot Leather Poultice ". Perhaps because he could enforce such discipline we had a separate group in our room called the "Modifying Class ", regarded by some as "no-hopers " who were marking time until their age meant they had to be moved on in the education system
One of Mr. Robertson’s innovations was the formation of the boys sword dance teams who performed at the annual school concerts held in Lauriston Hall. One of the dances was ‘The Flamborough Sword Dance", which used to be performed by fishermen in the north of England. At the end of this dance the long wooden lathe-type swords were intertwined to form a large a large ring. When the team leader held this aloft at the front of the stage it got a terrific round of applause and made a great finale.
At the foot of the Castle Steps was a tiny shop kept by an ex-circus performer midget were we used to buy our sweet ration and comics.
Our final move was Nos 41-43 Lauriston Place, which just prior to the war had housed The Lauriston Special School sometimes called, The Myopic School. After the somewhat dismal Cannoball House this was a much brighter and happier location. I think our class sizes were determined by the accommodation available. Many English people moved or were posted to Edinburgh and so we had a number of temporary pupils in 1943, my final year, Mr Robertson must have left for in the last term a nun, Sister Mary Jerome taught us. Lauriston Place remained an annexe to St. Ignatius I understand for some years after the war. The site of the school in Glen Street is now sheltered housing.
Bill Dougan. - 2000
Looking down Glen Street nowadays. At the foot is St Michael and All Saints' Scottish Episcopal Church. On the left is the sheltered housing that was built on the site of St Ignatius School and on the right is the Scottish Episcopal Church School which has now been converted into flats.
THE SCHOOL’S ORIGINS
It was the Government’s growing awareness of the need for some kind of state education which had led them from 1833 onwards to provide capital grants raised from the school rates. These grants were aimed a relieving, to some extent, the financial burden on Church schools but only those of Scotland’s Established Church. This discrimination was not quite total when the early Catholic schools began. On the 23rd J me 1861 Scared Heart parishioners heard a letter read out to them from the Vicar General on behalf of the Lord Bishop in which he asked all the city’s churches to help with heavy cost of Catholic schools by running money-raising events. In addition he asked for special Sunday collections to help with the purchase of school books, the good news being that the Government had agreed to add 1/3 rd to the sum expended on them; it was not much but it was something. The struggling Catholic schools with mostly poor population’s had to rely on their own resources despite the fact that the report of the Education Commission (1865-67 ) noted with puzzlement the higher percentage pass rates in Catholic schools; perhaps some thought the Catholic examiners were more lenient. The same Commissioners were less happy with the quality of Scotland’s parochial schools; doing their best but in need of "supplementing "; they were also concerned that 1/5 the of the children were not attending any school.
In a 1911 issue of "The Lauristonian" (the parish magazine founded in 1905) a contributor recalled the educational resources relied on before 1872. The Priests who worked for nothing, the nuns teaching for a bare subsistence and running night time classes for girls in convent schools whilst the Brothers of St. Vincent de Paul running similar night time classes for boys in each case providing books, slates, etc free. Parents who could not really pay for education but gave what they could.
In addition to attempting to increase school attendance the 1872 Act set up parish school Boards under the control and administration of a Scotch Education Department and to be financed by Government grants and local rates. But as the Catholic Authorities were reluctant to join this state system the main beneficiaries became the Presbyterian schools, at the cost, however, of giving up their school properties and their hitherto valued independence.
Edinburgh’s Catholic schools were virtually given the "cold shoulder" no longer able to get the small state assistance they had previously been accorded and at the mercy of a school board system less favorable than the Government had been. Catholic leaders publicly lamented this situation since under the terms of the Act, their schools could be assisted but it was at the discretion of the boards. If a Catholic agreed to an H.M. Inspection of their secular subjects and the Inspector then reported that the school was "contributing to the efficient education of the school district ", then a grant could be given. Also of course, the teachers had to he certificated and religious instruction was left out of the deal. In fact, under the Act, religious instruction was no longer compulsory in any school its Conscience Clause "permitted children to be absent from it in accordance with the parent’s wishes". This then was the world into which the new school in Glen Street was born although like other Catholic Schools, it would ultimately benefit from the 1872 Act. Despite whatever aid did come via the School Boards, Catholic ratepayers were only too aware of having to pay for their own schools as well as for the ever expanding costly state schools . For in 1883 the school-leaving age was raised to the age of 14, and in 1892, all elementary education and some secondary schooling became free; a logical consequence of making education compulsory. It was a situation which for Catholics, would have to be resolved at some time in the future.
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