Adam Abell (ca. 1475/80?–1537?)
Adam Abell (ca. 1475/80?–1537?) OMObs & OFM. English Franciscan friar from Salt Preston, Haddingtonshire. All biographical information concerning him comes from his universal chronicle, entitled The Roit or Quheill of Tyme . Based on the remarks in that text, it would seem that he received his childhood education in the , Augustinian abbey of Holyrood near Edinburgh, where a family member of his, namely Robert Bellentyne, was abbot, or at the Canongate grammar school serviced by the same abbey. Around the age of 20, Abell was a professed Augustinian regular canon regular at Inchaffray Abbey (Perthshire). Sometime during his years there, or even before, he obtained a proper grounding in canon law. After a number of years, Abell found the religious discipline in Inchaffray Abbey insufficient, and he began to apply for a transfer to a more strict religious community. A request to this purpose is still preserved in a penitentiary act in Rome (16 June 1508). This did not immediately bear fruit, for in June 1510 he was still at Inchaffray. Eventually, Abell left Inchaffray for the Observant Franciscan friary of Jedburgh, founded between 1505 and 1513. After his transfer to Jedburgh, Abell wrote his only surviving work, The Roit or Quheill of Tyme , a universal chronicle, which survived in a single manuscript now kept in the National Library of Scotland (MS 1746). If we can believe Abell’s introduction, the work goes back to an earlier Latin version that has not survived. The bulk of the chronicle was finished by 1533, but continuations were inserted until 1537, when the text ends abruptly (possibly when the author died). The Roit or Quheill of Tyme starts with creation, and discusses biblical, classical, medieval, papal, and Scottish history, interspersing real facts with legendary elements. The work builds to a large extent on Eusebius, Peter Comestor's Historia scholastica , the Scotichronicon of Walter Bower, and Hector Boece's Scotorum historiae , but does not copy without selection, and the author is not afraid to put his own interpretation on events. Especially for Scottish history the work is important. It might be the last pre-reformation universal chronicle written in Scotland and it provides important information on the reigns of Scottish kings until 1537, as well as on issues of church history. He also is not afraid to condemn in an Observant fashion abuses concerning commenda situations and the accumulation of benefices.
Works
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Adam Abell, The roit or quheill of tyme Adam Abell, The roit or quheill of tyme : Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, MS 1746. Adam Abell's The Roit or Quheill of Tyme: An Edition , ed. S. Thorson (Ph.D. Diss., University of St Andrews, 1998). [http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/2628, accessed 4 Dec 2014]
dinburgh, National Library of Scotland, MS 1746. Adam Abell's The Roit or Quheill of Tyme: An Edition , ed. S. Thorson (Ph.D. Diss., University of St Andrews, 1998). [http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/2628, accessed 4 Dec 2014]ProcessedNot verified