Reivers - Monition of Cursing of Gavin Dunbar

Reiver Clans of Scotland Suffer the Wrath of an Archbishop

Jul 23, 2009 Thomas William Moss

Lawlessness was endemic in the Border Lands in the Reiving times. The Church threatened hell and damnation unless the Reiving Clans were to mend their ways.

The March Wardens of the Scottish Border, for the mostpart, did their utmost to control the unruly Reiving Clans between the 13th and 17th centuries. It was a thankless task in an area where theft, murder and feud were the norm. By 1525 even the Church had had enough of the lawlessness which prevailed and decided to add its power to the law of the land in an attempt to make the Reivers change their ways.

'The Monition of Cursing'Gavin Dunbar, Archbishop of Glasgow, issued a dire warning to the Reivers of the Scottish Marches in the form of what is known now as the 'Monition of Cursing'. This Cursing damned the Reivers to eternal suffering in the fires of Hell unless they returned to Holy Mother Church.

It is a tirade which runs to 1500 words and was to be read out in all the churches in the Scottish Borders. Not that the Reivers would be present to hear the condemnations levelled against them!

The Curse Against the Reivers

'I curse thair heid (head) and all the haris (hairs) of thair heid; I curse thair face, thair ene (eyes), thair mouth, thair nose, thair tongue, thair teith, thair crag (chin), thair schuderis (shoulders), thair breast, thair hert, thair stomok, thair bak, thair armes, thair leggis, thair handis, thair feit, and everilk (every) part of thair body, frae the top of thair heid to the soill of thair feit, befoir and behind, within and without.'

...And finally, I condemn thaim perpetualie to the deip pit of hell, to remain with Lucifer and all his fallowis, and thair bodeis to the gallowis of the Burrow Mure, first to be hangit, syne revin and ruggit with doggis, swyne and utheris wyld beists... (Ripped apart by beasts on the Boroughmuir, Edinburgh and other places of execution).

The Reivers' Response

Nothing changed in life on the Scottish Borders. If anything between the year of the Monition, 1525, and the close of the 16th century the crime accelerated out of any control. A threat of eternal damnation meant little to theReivers at a time when other men lived in awe of the Church and its promise of a happy afterlife if its dictates were followed. They ignored the Monition of Cursing and followed the old way. To most it was the only life they knew.

Reivers Cursed Before 1525

It was not the first time that a Curse had been put upon the Reivers. In 1498 Richard Fox, Bishop of Durham denounced the Reivers of Tynedale in Northumberland, England and forbade any priest to minister to them.

In 1524 the Tynedale Reivers were cursed yet again. This time by no less than Cardinal Wolsey. At Easter in that year Hector Charlton of the Bower raided Bellingham church, broke into the tabernacle and stole the Communion hosts. He also made away with a firkin of wine. At Tarset Hall Charlton served the Reiver congregation with wine and received the offerings due to the absent minister.

In the year 2000 a stone commemorating the Monition of Cursing was erected in Carlisle, Cumbria. It seemed a fitting addition to a region which is justly proud of its heritage from the Roman Occupation to the present day.

In 2005 Carlisle was overtaken by floods of an unprecedented level. Houses were swamped to their upper floors as the river Eden burst its banks and engulfed everything in its path.

There were many people, both locally and nationally, who blamed the erection of the Cursing Stone for this momentous misfortune.

The copyright of the article Reivers - Monition of Cursing of Gavin Dunbar in UK/Irish History is owned by Thomas William Moss. Permission to republish Reivers - Monition of Cursing of Gavin Dunbar in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

The Cursing Stone, Carlisle.