NINETY academics have called upon the Catholic Church to suspend a plan to divide up its priceless archive in different locations in Scotland.
The manuscripts, pamphlets and letters – which include correspondence from Mary Queen of Scots – are to leave Columba House in Edinburgh, with pre-1878 material to be housed at Aberdeen University's new state-of-the-art library. Later documents are due to shift to a new episcopal centre currently under construction on Glasgow's south side.
Archbishop Mario Conti, president of the Heritage Commission of the Bishop's Conference of Scotland, says the move will guarantee the archive's security and preservation in suitably equipped surroundings. The early part of the collection was originally housed in Aberdeen until 1958.
However, the move has prompted a furious reaction from scholars, who claim it will impoverish the study of the Catholic Church in Scotland.
Letter in full and list of signatories
Much virtue has been made of the collection being at present located near the National Archives of Scotland and the National Library of Scotland. The academics raise concerns about the extra expense of travel and accommodation linked to future research in Aberdeen and Glasgow.
They also speculate whether the initiative is a "vanity" project to secure a legacy for Archbishop Conti, a former bishop of Aberdeen who is due to retire as Archbishop of Glasgow.
The academics want a meeting with the church's hierarchy and make the demand in an open letter.
The letter said: "The extent to which we are being treated with contempt by the hierarchy of the Scottish Catholic Church beggars belief. We would strongly suggest that this and any other moves to transfer the archives currently taking place are suspended, and an open meeting is convened in which the issue can be properly discussed by the bishops and the academic community."
The scholars also criticise Archbishop Conti for failing to provide "serious academic justification" for the move.
The letter adds: "Down the centuries, bishops have sought to make their names ring for eternity by leaving their mark on their diocese, normally by building or enhancing their cathedrals.
"Is this what the archbishop of Glasgow and former bishop of Aberdeen has in mind? Well, as the archives are not his personal fief, perhaps his personal name should not be associated with the arrangement with Aberdeen."
Signatories to the letter include Dr Jenny Wormald and Professor Tom Devine of the University of Edinburgh, Professor Dauvit Broun of the University of Glasgow, Tom Gallagher of the University of Bradford, and Professor Simon Innes, assistant professor of Celtic Languages and Literature at Harvard University in the US. Academics from Canada, Australia and Germany have also backed the protest.
Aberdeen University will also become the custodian of the Blairs Library, which has been on loan to the National Library of Scotland since 1974, an immensely valuable collection of about 27,000 books and pamphlets from before 1801, several of which are the only surviving copies.
The university said the collections of the church mostly date from a period when Catholicism in Scotland was, with the exception of a few households in the Lowlands, exclusively northern.
A spokesman added: "It will put the surviving documents of the former Scots Colleges under the same roof for the first time since 1958 and mark a reunification of the most important evidence for the Scottish Catholic church before Catholic emancipation."
In a separate letter to The Herald, Professor Thomas Clancy, convener of the Scottish Catholic Historical Association, also criticised the archive split.
He said: "Historians - are angered by the splitting and movement of the archives, and most especially by the way in which it has been done. It brings the Church into disrepute."
Responding to the letter from the scholars, a spokesman for the Catholic Church said: "This letter restates arguments that have been already considered by the Trustees, including experienced lay historians and academics, and the representatives of the Bishops of Scotland. They do not change the fact that the new facilities offered by the University of Aberdeen are ... dramatically better than the current facilities in Edinburgh."
He added: "The bishops are unanimous in their decision that this is the best way forward."
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