MINIM ABBEY
In 1620 William Livingstone was supposedly incarcerated within the Minim Friary, Lanark during one of his periods of deposement.
Who were these Minims? This was an order of the Greyfriars founded by St Francis of Paula in Italy in 1435, and were purported to have a monestary within the boundary of Lanark.
Indeed there was a Friary that had been occupied by the Fratres Minores that had been established in 1346 by the petition of King David ll to Pope Clement Vl. Clement issued the Formal Bull of Erection limiting the number of Brothers to twelve. It would seem that the Scottish institution preceded that of the Italian by eighty nine years, and that St Francis had taken his idea from here.
A mendicant order, it required among other things in its exemplary strict life-style that the Friars refrained perpetually from eating meat. All their preaching was done in the vernacular, they heard confessions, and some even dabbled in legal work.
The Lanark Friary, according to Mr Moir Bryce in his `The Greyfriars in Scotland,` was situated at the east end of the Burgh on the south side of the Via Regia, the King`s Road, that is identified today as the High Street. This assertion has since been challenged in the publication, `Lanark, the Burgh and its Councils 1469 - 1880.` Although the publication differs in this respect, both are agreed that the Friary did stand within the town precinct.
One of the smallest Friaries in the country, it probably had a thatched roof that would explain its dereliction so soon after it was abandoned by the Friars fearing the coming Reformation. In anticipation of this, they feued their land to a local laird, Lochart of Lee for three bolls of meat per annum in the hope that they could recoup it if and when better times returned. On the other hand, many Friars allied themselves to the Reformers.
It has been recorded that stones were carried away from the Friary by workmen soon after 1560. This being so, it does not concur with William`s incarceration there in 1620. His period of deposement was to all intents spent in Monyabroch.
