Tulchan

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Tulchan

A Tulchan (from the Scottish Gaelic, tulachan) was in Scotland

Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
a man appointed as bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordination or consecration member of the Clergy#Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight....
after the Reformation

Scottish Reformation

The Scottish Reformation was Scotland's formal break with the Roman Catholic Church in 1560, and the events surrounding this. It was part of the wider European Protestant Reformation; and in Scotland's case culminated ecclesiastically in the re-establishment of the church along Reformed theology lines, and politically in the triumph of Engla...
, who was a bishop in name only and whose revenue was drawn by his patron. It was originally used of a calf

Calf

File:New Forest calf.jpgA calf is the young of various species of mammal. The term is most commonly used to refer to the young of cattle. The young of bison, camels, dolphins, elephants, giraffes, hippopotamuses, moose, rhinoceroses, whales, seals and yaks are also called calves....
skin, which was stuffed with straw

Straw

Straw is an agricultural by-product, the dry wikt:stalk of a cereal plant, after the grain or seed has been removed. Straw makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat....
, and presented to a cow, as if living to induce her to give milk

Milk

Milk is an opaque white liquid produced by the mammary glands of female mammals . It provides the primary source of nutrition for newborn mammals before they are able to digestion other types of food....
.

Mr. Gladstone

William Ewart Gladstone

William Ewart Gladstone was a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Liberal Party statesman and four times Prime Minister of the United Kingdom ....
during his electioneering raid into Midlothian

Midlothian

Midlothian is one of the 32 Council areas of Scotland of Scotland, and a Lieutenancy areas of Scotland. It borders the Scottish Borders, East Lothian and the City of Edinburgh council areas....
, in November, 1879 explained the meaning of "tulchan", which he spelt "tulcan":

"My noble friend, Lord Rosebery

Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery

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A Tulchan (from the Scottish Gaelic, tulachan) was in Scotland

Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
a man appointed as bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordination or consecration member of the Clergy#Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight....
after the Reformation

Scottish Reformation

Calf

Straw

Milk

William Ewart Gladstone

Midlothian

"My noble friend, Lord Rosebery

Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery

Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, Order of the Garter, Privy Council of the United Kingdom was a United Kingdom Liberal Party statesman and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, also known as Archibald Primrose and Lord Dalmeny ....
, speaking to me of the law of hypothec, said that the bill of Mr. Vans Agnew on hypothec is a Tulcan Bill. A tulcan, I believe, is the figure of a calf stuffed with straw, and it is, you know, an old Scottish custom among farmers to place the tulcan calf under a cow to induce her to give milk."

Jamieson

John Jamieson

Reverend John Jamieson, Doctor of Divinity was a Scotland lexicographer, son of a Minister , born in Glasgow.He was educated at the University of Glasgow, and subsequently attended classes at the University of Edinburgh After six years' theological study, Jamieson was licensed to preach in 1789 and became pastor of an Anti-burgher congrega...
writes the word "tulchane", and cites the phrase, "a tulchane bishop", as the designation of one who received the episcopate on condition of signing the temporalities to a secular person. One of them, Robert Montgomery

Robert Montgomery

Robert Montgomery may refer to:*Robert Montgomery , Bishops and Archbishops of Glasgow from 1581 to 1585*Robert Montgomery , a British colonial administrator in India...
, was prosecuted by the religious reformer Andrew Melville

Andrew Melville

Andrew Melville was a Scotland scholar, theology and religious reformer....
. In some parts of Scotland, the people say a "tourkin calf" instead of a "tulcan calf". Jamieson further states:

"A tourkin calf, or lamb, is one that wears a skin not its own. A tourkin lamb is one taken from its dam, and given to another ewe

Ewe

Ewe may refer to*Ewe people, an ethnic group in Ghana, Benin and Togo**Ewe music, music of the Ewe people**Ewe language, the language of the Ewe people...
which has lost her own. In this case, the shepherd

Shepherd

A shepherd is a person who tends to, feeds or guards sheep, especially in flocks. The word may also refer to one who provides religious guidance, as a pastor....
takes the skin of the dead lamb, and puts it on the back of the living one, and thus so deceives the ewe that she allows the stranger to suck".

In other words, a "tulchan" can also be a living animal, and the usage is of one who gains profit by pretending to be someone, or something else.

Tulchan

See also