The Declaration of Arbroath was written in
Latin and promulgated on April 6th, 1320, at Arbroath Abbey (on the east coast
of Scotland, just north of St. Andrews, the home of golf). Its purpose was
to convince Pope John XXII, resident in Avignon, France, that
Scotland was an independent country. This rebutted the English claim to rule
Scotland. Famed Scottish leader, Robert the Bruce, had defeated the English at
Bannockburn in 1314, and recaptured Berwick-on-Tweed (a city on the border with
England) from the English in 1319.
Particularly interesting is that the
Declaration claims a connection between the Scots and the Scythians, and also
mentions the Exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt. The ancient tribe of
the Scythians once lived in the area to which the "Lost Ten Tribes of
Israel" were deported by the Assyrian Empire (according to the Bible and
historical sources).
Another Scottish connection to the Scythians
is that, according to legend, Andrew, one of Christ's apostles, preached to the
Scythians. St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland. The Scottish flag
contains a Cross of Saint Andrew.
For
much more information, read "The Declaration of Arbroath" by
Sir James Fergusson, Edinburgh University Press, 1970.
To the most
Holy Father and Lord in Christ, the Lord John, by divine providence Supreme
Pontiff of the Holy Roman and Universal Church, his humble and devout sons
Duncan, Earl of Fife, Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, Lord of Man and of
Annandale, Patrick Dunbar, Earl of March, Malise, Earl of Strathearn, Malcolm,
Earl of Lennox, William, Earl of Ross, Magnus, Earl of Caithness and Orkney,
and William, Earl of Sutherland; Walter, Steward of Scotland, William Soules,
Butler of Scotland, James, Lord of Douglas, Roger Mowbray, David, Lord of
Brechin, David Graham, Ingram Umfraville, John Menteith, guardian of the
earldom of Menteith, Alexander Fraser, Gilbert Hay, Constable of Scotland,
Robert Keith, Marischal of Scotland, Henry St Clair, John Graham, David
Lindsay, William Oliphant, Patrick Graham, John Fenton, William Abernethy,
David Wemyss, William Mushet, Fergus of Ardrossan, Eustace Maxwell, William Ramsay,
William Mowat, Alan Murray, Donald Campbell, John Cameron, Reginald Cheyne,
Alexander Seton, Andrew Leslie, and Alexander Straiton, and the other barons
and freeholders and the whole community of the realm of Scotland send all
manner of filial reverence, with devout kisses of his blessed feet.
Most
Holy Father and Lord, we know and from the chronicles and books of the ancients
we find that among other famous nations our own, the Scots, has been graced
with widespread renown. They journeyed from Greater Scythia by way of the
Tyrrhenian Sea and the Pillars of Hercules, and dwelt for a long course of time
in Spain among the most savage tribes, but nowhere could they be subdued by any
race, however barbarous. Thence they came, twelve hundred years after the
people of Israel crossed the Red Sea, to their home in the west where they
still live today. The Britons they first drove out, the Picts they utterly
destroyed, and, even though very often assailed by the Norwegians, the Danes
and the English, they took possession of that home with many victories and
untold efforts; and, as the historians of old time bear witness, they have held
it free of all bondage ever since. In their kingdom there have reigned one
hundred and thirteen kings of their own royal stock, the line unbroken a single
foreigner.
The
high qualities and deserts of these people, were they not otherwise manifest,
gain glory enough from this: that the King of kings and Lord of lords, our Lord
Jesus Christ, after His Passion and Resurrection, called them, even though
settled in the uttermost parts of the earth, almost the first to His most holy
faith. Nor would He have them confirmed in that faith by merely anyone but by
the first of His Apostles -- by calling, though second or third in rank -- the
most gentle Saint Andrew, the Blessed Peter's brother, and desired him to keep
them under his protection as their patron forever.
The
Most Holy Fathers your predecessors gave careful heed to these things and
bestowed many favours and numerous privileges on this same kingdom and people,
as being the special charge of the Blessed Peter's brother. Thus our nation
under their protection did indeed live in freedom and peace up to the time when
that mighty prince the King of the English, Edward, the father of the one who
reigns today, when our kingdom had no head and our people harboured no malice
or treachery and were then unused to wars or invasions, came in the guise of a
friend and ally to harass them as an enemy. The deeds of cruelty, massacre,
violence, pillage, arson, imprisoning prelates, burning down monasteries,
robbing and killing monks and nuns, and yet other outrages without number which
he committed against our people, sparing neither age nor sex, religion nor
rank, no one could describe nor fully imagine unless he had seen them with his
own eyes.
But
from these countless evils we have been set free, by the help of Him Who though
He afflicts yet heals and restores, by our most tireless Prince, King and Lord,
the Lord Robert. He, that his people and his heritage might be delivered out of
the hands of our enemies, met toil and fatigue, hunger and peril, like another
Macabaeus or Joshua and bore them cheerfully. Him, too, divine providence, his
right of succession according to or laws and customs which we shall maintain to
the death, and the due consent and assent of us all have made our Prince and
King. To him, as to the man by whom salvation has been wrought unto our people,
we are bound both by law and by his merits that our freedom may be still maintained,
and by him, come what may, we mean to stand.
Yet
if he should give up what he has begun, and agree to make us or our kingdom
subject to the King of England or the English, we should exert ourselves at
once to drive him out as our enemy and a subverter of his own rights and ours,
and make some other man who was well able to defend us our King; for, as long
as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought
under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that
we are fighting, but for freedom -- for that alone, which no honest man gives
up but with life itself.
Therefore
it is, Reverend Father and Lord, that we beseech your Holiness with our most
earnest prayers and suppliant hearts, inasmuch as you will in your sincerity
and goodness consider all this, that, since with Him Whose vice-gerent on earth
you are there is neither weighing nor distinction of Jew and Greek, Scotsman or
Englishman, you will look with the eyes of a father on the troubles and privation
brought by the English upon us and upon the Church of God. May it please you to
admonish and exhort the King of the English, who ought to be satisfied with
what belongs to him since England used once to be enough for seven kings or
more, to leave us Scots in peace, who live in this poor little Scotland, beyond
which there is no dwelling-place at all, and covet nothing but our own. We are
sincerely willing to do anything for him, having regard to our condition, that
we can, to win peace for ourselves.
This
truly concerns you, Holy Father, since you see the savagery of the heathen
raging against the Christians, as the sins of Christians have indeed deserved,
and the frontiers of Christendom being pressed inward every day; and how much
it will tarnish your Holiness's memory if (which God forbid) the Church suffers
eclipse or scandal in any branch of it during your time, you must perceive.
Then rouse the Christian princes who for false reasons pretend that they cannot
go to help of the Holy Land because of wars they have on hand with their
neighbours. The real reason that prevents them is that in making war on their
smaller neighbours they find quicker profit and weaker resistance. But how
cheerfully our Lord the King and we too would go there if the King of the
English would leave us in peace, He from Whom nothing is hidden well knows; and
we profess and declare it to you as the Vicar of Christ and to all Christendom.
But
if your Holiness puts too much faith in the tales the English tell and will not
give sincere belief to all this, nor refrain from favouring them to our
prejudice, then the slaughter of bodies, the perdition of souls, and all the
other misfortunes that will follow, inflicted by them on us and by us on them,
will, we believe, be surely laid by the Most High to your charge.
To
conclude, we are and shall ever be, as far as duty calls us, ready to do your
will in all things, as obedient sons to you as His Vicar; and to Him as the
Supreme King and Judge we commit the maintenance of our cause, csating our
cares upon Him and firmly trusting that He will inspire us with courage and
bring our enemies to nought.
May
the Most High preserve you to his Holy Church in holiness and health and grant
you length of days.
Given
at the monastery of Arbroath in Scotland on the sixth day of the month of April
in the year of grace thirteen hundred and twenty and the fifteenth year of the
reign of our King aforesaid.
Endorsed:
Letter directed to our Lord the Supreme Pontiff by the community of Scotland.
Additional
names written on some of the seal tags: Alexander Lamberton, Edward Keith, John
Inchmartin, Thomas Menzies, John Durrant, Thomas Morham (and one illegible).
Only 19 of the original 46 seal tags remain.