ecularised benefices, were desirous of retaining them for their
own use, without having the influence sufficient to establish their
purpose; and these became frequently unable to protect themselves,
however unwilling to submit to the exactions of the feudal tyrant of the
district.

Bannatyne, secretary to John Knox, recounts a singular course of
oppression practised on one of those titulars abbots, by the Earl of
Cassilis in Ayrshire, whose extent of feudal influence was so wide that
he was usually termed the King of Carrick. We give the fact as it occurs
in Bannatyne's Journal, only premising that the Journalist held his
master's opinions, both with respect to the Earl of Cassilis as an
opposer of the king's party, and as being a detester of the practice of
granting church revenues to titulars, instead of their being devoted to
pious uses, such as the support of the clergy, expense of schools, and
the relief of the national poor. He mingles in the narrative, therefore,
a well deserved feeling of execration against the tyrant who employed
the torture, which a tone of ridicule towards the patient, as if, after
all, it had not been ill bestowed on such an equivocal and amphibious
character as a titular abbot. He entitles his narrative,

THE EARL OF CASSILIS' TYRANNY AGAINST A QUICK (i.e. LIVING) MAN.

"Master Allan Stewart, friend to Captain James Stewart of Cardonall, by
means of the Queen's corrupted court, obtained the Abbey of Crossraguel.
The said Earl thinking himself greater than any king in those quarters,
determined to have that whole benefice (as he hath divers others) to
pay at his pleasure; and because he could not find sic security as his
insatiable appetite required, this shift was devised. The said Mr Allan
being in company with the Laird of Bargany, (also a Kennedy,) was, by
the Earl and his friends, enticed to leave the safeguard which he had
with the Laird, and come to make good cheer with the said Earl. The
simplicity of the imprudent man was suddenly abused; and so he passed
his time with them certain days, which he did in Maybole with Thomas
Kennedie, uncle to the said Earl; after which the said Mr Allan passed,
with quiet company, to visit the place and bounds of Crossraguel, [his
abbacy,] of which the said Earl being surely advertised, determined to
put in practice the tyranny which long before he had conceived. And so,
as king of the country, apprehended the said Mr Allan, and carried him
to the