FOUR key heritage advisers to Scotland's Catholic bishops have resigned over the future of the church's 800-year-old archive.

Professor Ian Campbell, Lady (Catherine) Gill, Dr Joseph Marshall and Alasdair Roberts have tendered their resignations with Archbishop Mario Conti, the president of the Heritage Commission, who is due to officially step down as the head of the church in Glasgow today.

The commission exodus comes amid reports of fraught meetings, with members criticising a lack of discussion about the plan to dismantle the archive, held at Columba House, and disperse it around the country.

More than 100 academics, archivists and rare book experts have condemned the plans, first agreed by the commission in 2008. The Catholic Church in Scotland said the move is necessary to preserve its contents. Columba House has been deemed no longer fit to store the historic papers.

But academic librarian Dr Joseph Marshall said: "Decisions were made many years ago. The landscape has changed since then but nothing has managed to persuade the Bishops to think again. No alternative suggestions have been tolerated. To take the archive to pieces and send it to here and there goes against everything I know as a professional."

Professor Ian Campbell, an expert in archaeological history and theory, said: "I am not going to sit there and keep quiet because I am not allowed to speak."

Pre-1878 material is to be moved to a new Aberdeen University library. Material from 1878 and after is to be relocated to the new Bishop's Conference headquarters in Glasgow.

The church said the most recent papers in the archive's latter part will be split among Scotland's eight diocese until an archive store is ready.

A spokesman for the Bishops' Conference said: "The Bishops of Scotland, having heard the advice of their Heritage Commission, indicated to the Scottish Catholic Heritage Collections Trust their preferred option was for the historic archive to be located in Aberdeen University.

"The plan was under way before three of the four who now intimate their resignation even joined the commission. The fourth is a corresponding member who has not attended commission meetings for many years.

"The issue has been discussed at most meetings for the last 10 years. At a recent meeting, to provide newer members with information on the process to date, copies of relevant minutes and correspondence were tabled and explained."

The spokesman said Columba House will re-open when staffing issues are resolved, but access was available to students by arrangement, and this would not be an issue after the relocation.