"IM.AN.BEHALD.THE.END.BE.NOCHT.VYSER.NOR.THE.HIESTES.I.HOIP.IN.GOD"
translation:
"IM. AN. Behold the end, be not wiser than the highest one. I hope in God."
The inscription on the lintel of Dunderave Castle.
I have a theory about the words carved
above the mantle of Dunderave. In particular the admonition that in life we must not
strive to be higher than the highest. We will have to look into the particulars of history
to try to understand the meaning…
The words were apparently carved in 1598, either marking the completion of the building of
Dunderave Castle, or a major remodeling of Dunderave Castle. W.H.Murray contends strongly
that Dunderave was commenced a’building around 1560.
Bloody Queen Mary had burned 300 Protestants alive as heretics in 1555. Consider how that
made the people of the land feel. John Knox returned to Scotland around 1560 determined to
change that entire land to the Protestant faith and bring an end to the Catholic belief
system forever, which he considered to be a religion that had gone to the Devil. By this
time Protestant Queen Elizabeth was sitting on the throne of England. But in Scotland
Elizabeth’s young sister Mary, a Catholic, sat upon the throne, and she was as devout
in her Catholic faith as Elizabeth was Protestant.
John Knox was received well by Campbell of Argyll and by many other Scottish chiefs, among
them many of the Stuarts – and he began to preach fiery sermons in Scotland, sermons
so passionate that giant swarms of people attended and were moved by his words. The foment
in the land was so strong that it actually could turn a clan against its chief. Because if
the chief followed Knox and the clan preferred its old Catholic priests and traditions
this is one of the rare factors that could possibly make the clan separate itself from its
leader. Which many felt God had placed over them. Or it could work the other way too: the
clan could join their neighbors and attend Knox’s sermons while their chief stayed
home and preferred the old Catholic ways. This would work in the same way of turning the
clan against their chief.
A chief in such a situation would want to reassure his “children” that it was
their duty to follow him in whatever decision he made. This alone could make them strong.
A chief in such a precarious position might well carve words above his door urging his
clan to respect the admonition that we must not strive to be higher than the highest. The
immediate meaning would be that they should not rashly make decisions that were contrary
to the decisions of their chief. But the words could have a double meaning, depending upon
how one looked at them, such as that a mere minister should not claim to be more important
than a Bishop or a Pope. Or it could mean that no man on earth should claim to have a
wisdom superior to the truth found in the Bible.
Public education was unknown. Some people were fortunate to live near enough to a church
to where their sons could receive some instruction from the priests but for the most part
it was only the chief’s sons that received an education. So, when any question came
up requiring a knowledgeable answer the clansmen went to the chief’s family for
clarification: to read and explain a court order, to speak for them in court, to read them
a letter, to keep them abreast of world situations, and to make the important decisions
for them, for their clan. Their whole world would be turned topsy-turvy if the clansmen
were to go to a different man, or a different group of people for such advice and
decision-making.
Add to this one further complication: it sometimes happened that a chief was forced to
change his religious affiliation by events around him. The Campbell clan often forced such
decisions upon other Scottish clans. The Campbells were the greatest and most powerful
Protestant family in Scotland. If you thought you could hold out an opinion contrary to
that of Campbell of Argyll you were in for a heap of abuse. But the Stuarts were also very
powerful. The problem is that half of the Stuarts were Protestant and followed Knox and
Argyll, and the other half continued to remain steadfast Catholics and follow Queen Mary.
So any small chieftain caught in the middle might sometimes be forced to change their
politics or religion in an instant. Or else. And if they did so, it was of the utmost
importance that their entire clan make the instant change too. Imagine the difficulty of
that! Nonetheless it was so. The clan had to follow its chief. A clan without a leader was
like a ship without a rudder. In a storm! For there were bloody battles going on over
these matters.
We do not yet know for sure how it was that Dunderave castle came to be built. But we do
know that if it was began in 1560 like W.H.Murray and some other historians say it was,
then it came into existence exactly at the same time that John Knox came to Scotland and
the uproar of reformation began. The castle’s existance obviously was expediant to
some faction, because of the enormous expense involved. But who? A new castle on the
northern shore of Loch Fyne! Only three miles from Campbell’s great Inverary castle!
What is the purpose?
I wish I could tell you I knew the answer. But I don’t. One clue stands out that
seems very significant to me. That is found in Matthew Cock’s new book about the
MacNachtans, on page 32. I quote:
“Between 1562 and 1565 the young Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1567) spent much of her
time in ‘progress’ through her kingdom, the hospitality she received became a
form of income. Her income of about 30,000 pounds a year as Dowager Queen of France barely
covered the cost of the household that accompanied her. Between August 1562 and September
1563 alone she covered 1200 miles.
“On 29 June 1563 she left Edinburgth, in ‘Highland apparel’ for a tour of
Argyll. On this ‘progress’ there is some uncertainty where she stayed en route.
While it has always been stated that the Queen stayed at Inveraray Castle, the accounts of
the Royal Household, written in French, make no mention of it, recording only that the
Queen slept at ‘Andrerast’ on the night of 22 July, staying there for three days
before going to Strachur.
“While ‘Andrerast’ may be a French corruption of Inveraray, (then
pronounced ‘Inverara’), an article by Thomas Small in The Scottish Historical
Review of 1928 suggests otherwise. He proposes that ‘Andrerast’ was a corruption
of Dunderave, first appearing in the scribe’s hastily scribbled scroll as Dandreraft,
and later transcribed as d’andrerast, the clerk mistaking the initial d for the
preposition d’, and the f for the long s.
“…It is hard to believe that the MacNachtans were important enough to warrant
the attention of a three day stay from the Queen. However, an entry in the diary of the
Queen’s secretary, Raullet, records that after a hunting expedition, presumably in
Glen Fyne, the Queen and her attendants were overtaken by darkness on their return to
Inveraray. Raullet’s accoun then states: ‘Sa Majeste passait la nuit a
Duneraste’.”
So, wouldn’t you say that is very interesting? (And by the way, this is just one of
the many reasons why I urge you to pick up a copy of Matthew Cock’s book, since
information like this is not found in any of the other McNaughton books.) It occurs to me
in reading this that Catholic Queen Mary surely needed a strong Catholic ally on northern
Loch Fyne to give her some bargaining power when dealing with Protestant Campbell of
Argyll, and therefore it would be in her interests to have the MacNachtans have a strong
castle of their own, if they were to be her Catholic allies there. Doesn’t it seem
possible that Queen Mary made some arrangements that enabled Dunderave to come into
existence? And this would have been the true purpose of her visit. I leave it to you to
decide if this idea bears merit.
You must closely read the history books to get a view of the events of Mary’s capture
and incarceration and eventual beheading by her sister Elizabeth, in order to have a full
picture of the situation in the later half of that century. We cannot know for sure where
the MacNachtans stood in these events.
The MacGregor clan were fighting a losing battle against the Campbells who were slowly but
surely dislodging them from their ancestral lands, and found it necessary to steal cattle
from the lowlanders to have meat to feed their families. But stealing cattle was
considered an affront to the nation of Scotland and Queen Mary ordered the MacGregors be
stopped. So, in 1565 Campbell of Argyll issued a letter of fire and sword against the
MacGregors and the chief of the MacNachtans signed. The MacGregors and the MacNachtans
share the same antiquity. Both clans descend from the Royal Picts. They had lived side by
side for untold centuries. So here we have an instance where the Campbells play a part in
manipulating ancient friends against one another, a dastardly thing. Campbell of Argyll
certainly turned Queen Mary’s heart against the MacGregors. He did not tell her both
sides, surely. He did not tell her how his clan had been stealing the MacGregor lands and
murdering them. The MacNachtans knew. They were intermarried with the MacGregors. But an
order from Queen Mary must be followed. Even against old friends. What a spot they were
all in!
Then in 1591 there comes the murder of Campbell of Cawdor by Campbell of Ardkinglas which
I have written about elsewhere, followed by the incident where the MacNachtans gang up on
the wife of Campbell of Ardkinglas and her servants, rob them, strip them naked, beat
them, and send them running for home. Surely these incidents tell us something. I have
read that Cawdor was a Campbell with Catholic affiliations, but I need to study that
further. We know Ardkinglas was not only Protestant but involved in serioius Dianist
witchcraft beliefs and practices. One easily draws the conclusion that in 1591 the
MacNachtans were still actively Catholic and trying to clean up their neighborhood.
But at the same time the Protestant conventicles were still drawing large crowds. And any
chief worth his salt would need to keep strong reins on his people or they could easily be
led astray.
So it was, I believe, that in 1598, John MacNachtan carved his initials and his
wife’s above the door mantle and the words:
“BEHALD.THE.END.BE.NOCHT.VYSER.NOR.THE.HIESTES.I.HOIP.IN.GOD" which translates
"Behold the end, be not wiser than the highest one. I hope in God."
In the beginning of the following century the MacNachtan chiefs and their clan joined the
Protestant church. They are registered among the Presbytery. But they may not have been
very content with their new religion, because, as I have written elsewhere, they almost
surely returned to the Catholic faith during the reign of King Charles II and King James
II. – Only to again become Protestant, as a clan, in the early seventeen hundreds.
See also:
http://www.oocities.org/mcnaughtonofdunderave/how_the_reformation_affected_the_McNaughtons.htm