Séon Carsuel

Séon Carsuel (Anglicized: John Carswell, modern Scottish Gaelic: Seon Carsuail; c. 1522 – 1572) was a 16th-century Scottish prelate, humanist, and Protestant reformer. When Carsuel completed his education he joined the service of the Protestant Earl of Argyll, tutoring his son and using his patronage to obtain benefices, most notably becoming Bishop of the Isles in 1565. Standing at over in height, Carsuel was an important figure in the history of Scottish Gaelic, as in 1567 his Foirm na n-Urrnuidheadh, the Gaelic translation of the Book of Common Order, became the first work to be printed in any Goidelic language.

Biography

Background and early years Carsuel's family probably originated in Wigtownshire, the western part of Galloway, from Corsewall; the Campbell family, rulers of much of Argyll, owned the estate there. Additionally, most of Wigtownshire, like Argyll, was still Gaelic speaking at the beginning, at least, of the 16th century. Rev. Dr. Thomas McLauchlan and others have stated that Séon himself was born at Kilmartin in Argyll, but Robert Black has concluded that there is no evidence for this. He and Donald Meek consider it more likely that Carsuel's birthplace was in the Rhins of Galloway.

Born around 1522, Carsuel probably experienced a period of traditional Gaelic bardic schooling before becoming a student at the University of St Andrews in 1540; he graduated Master of Arts in either 1544 or 1545. There is evidence that in 1545, Carsuel joined the revolt of Domhnall Dubh, the claimant to the forfeited Lordship of the Isles; however, he appears to have abandoned this cause soon after, becoming a staunch supporter of Gilleasbaig Ruadh Caimbeul (Archibald Roy Campbell), fourth Earl of Argyll. He became parson of the parish church of Kilmartin in 1553. Earl Gilleasbaig placed his eldest son, also called Gilleasbaig (later fifth Earl of Argyll), under the tutelage of Carsuel.

In February 1559, the year following Earl Gilleasbaig Ruadh's death and the consequent succession of his son Gilleasbaig the fifth Earl of Argyll, the latter entrusted his stronghold of Carnassarie Castle to Carsuel, and in 1560 put Craignish Castle into his hands too. In 1558, Argyll had secured Carsuel the position of Chancellor of the Chapel Royal at Stirling.

Protestant prelate In the aftermath of the Reformation Parliament of 1560, in the following year Carsuel was appointed Protestant Superintendent of Argyll and the Isles. In 1563, he was given the power to lease the diocese of Argyll and the abbey of Saddell,

He received formal crown provision (rather than papal provision) on 24 March; a rival, Lachlan MacGill-Eathain (MacLean), was accused of going to the papacy to obtain the rights to the Isles and Iona, but gave up his rights in May 1567. Carsuel had obtained other benefices by this time, and by the end of his life had acquired land all over the west coast of Scotland, and it was later said in a Gaelic quatrain that he had "an empty greedy capacious maw" (sgròban lom gionach farsaing).

Its language has been characterised as "exuberant, highly decorated classical common Gaelic", and helped forward the message of Scottish Protestantism from the English-speaking south-east of the country into Gaelic-speaking Scotland.

It was also ground-breaking in its use of prose for non-heroic material, "the first to use this type of formal Classical [Gaelic] prose". And Carsuel had indeed complained in his work about earlier Gaelic writings, slamming the ...darkness of sin and ignorance and design of those who teach and write and cultivate Gaelic, that they are more designed, and more accustomed, to compose vain, seductive, lying and worldly tales about the Tuatha De Danann and the sons of Mil and the heroes and Finn MacCoul and his warriors and to cultivate and piece together much else which I will not enumerate or tell here, for the purpose of winning for themselves the vain rewards of the world.

Family and death Carsuel married a daughter of Hamilton of Halcraig, with whom he had at least one son, his heir Gilleasbaig Carsuel; he married a second time, to Mairead Chaimbeul (Margaret Campbell), to whom his daughter Christiana was probably born.

In the late 19th century, his skeleton was dug up; the skeleton measured seven feet in length, making Carsuel an extremely tall man by the standard of any era or geographical location.