St Mary's College
St Mary's College
The site of St Mary's College was one of the first properties acquired by the University of St Andrews. When the university was founded in 1413 it had no buildings of its own and lecturers taught in borrowed rooms. However, in 1419 a college dedicated to St John was founded on South Street. Shortly afterwards the Faculty of Arts bought the property next door and established a teaching building known as the Pedagogy. These two sites formed the first large properties owned by the new university. In the early sixteenth century both St John's and the Pedagogy fell into ruin and in the 1530s a decision was taken to establish a new college of St Mary in their place. St Mary's was designed to combat heresy and defend Catholicism. It opened in the 1550s and attracted scholars from Scotland and the Continent. Less than ten years later St Andrews was hit by the upheavals of the Scottish Reformation. St Mary's rapidly shifted its religious allegiance and became a Protestant organisation training ministers for the Church of Scotland. St Mary's remains the divinity department for the University of St Andrews.
Roger Mason on the significance of St Marys College in the University of St Andrews
Michael Brown on John Knox's account of the execution of Patrick Hamilton
Elizabeth Swarbrick on the architecture of St Mary's College
Elizabeth Swarbrick on St Mary's College
Elizabeth Swarbrick on St Mary's Quadrangle
Rachel Hart on St Mary's College
Hoanna Lumley on the foundation of St Andrews University
Street View
Additional Information
Location: South side of South Street. Date Built: Fifteenth to twentieth centuries.
St Mary's College received substantial support from Cardinal David Beaton (archbishop of St Andrews 1539-1546). He gave the College large grants of lands and money as well as importing marble for an altar in the college chapel.
St Mary's College was riven by bitter religious disputes following the Reformation. Sometimes members of the College physically attacked each other!
In the garden of St Mary's College there is a thorn tree supposedly planted by Mary Queen of Scots. Queen Mary was a frequent visitor to St Andrews during the 1560s.
In the 1640s the Scottish Parliament met in one of the main teaching buildings at St Mary's. The building has been known as Parliament Hall ever since.