less met with a
similar savage treatment to that allotted to the patriot leader. It
is stated to have been burnt by the English in 1307, and the burning
would appear to have led to a very complete destruction of the
edifice, as the portions of the original work which survive are very
small."[369]

The abbey church was a parish church, within the territory of which the
house of Elderslie was situated, and the connection of the family of
Elderslie with the monks of Paisley would naturally be very close.
Wallace himself was probably educated at the school of the Paisley
Clunaics,[370] and the influence of the abbey may have helped to mould
within him the character which Fordun thus describes:--

"He (Wallace) venerated the church and respected the clergy; his
greatest abhorrence was for falsehood and lying; his uttermost
loathing for treason, and therefore the Lord was with him, through
whom he was a man whose every work prospered in his hand."[371]

The monks of Paisley during the times of Wallace and Bruce were on the
patriotic side. After Bruce had murdered the Red Comyn before the altar
of the Franciscan friars at Dumfries, the deed lay heavy on his
conscience, and the Steward used his influence with the Pope to procure
absolution. A commission was issued to the abbot of Paisley by
Berengarius, the penitentiary of the Pope, to absolve the Bruce and
appoint him proper penance for his crime.

"How the duty committed to him was discharged by the Abbot or what
penance he enjoined, we do not know. It may have been to fulfil the
penance imposed at Paisley that Bruce desired so ardently to visit
the Holy Sepulchre. He was excommunicated again soon afterwards, and
years elapsed before he was finally restored to the favour of the
Church; but his absolution at Paisley was a gleam of sunshine in the
midst of his stormy life, and one of the most interesting pictures
in the history of our abbey is that of the monarch kneeling before
its altar and amidst its fire-stained walls."[372]

James, the Steward, died on 16th July 1309, and, like the earlier
Stewarts, was probably buried in the ruined abbey. He was succeeded by
his son Walter, who married Marjory, the daughter of Robert the Bruce.
Their married life was short, and the untimely death of Marjory took
place within a year. Walter died at Bathgate in 1326, and, like his
wife, was buried in the abbey.