Legends of the Broadsword: Clergyman with a Claymore
In the age of the wandering prizefighters and stage gladiators of the broadsword and backsword, it was not entirely unheard of for even a minister of the Gospel to go armed on his rounds. There is even a Gaelic song in reference to this custom, called "John is Girt with a Sword at Sermon." Just such a fighting clergyman was Martin MacGillivray, who put a broadsword on his hip before going to collect his stipend from Allan MacLean of Lochbuie around 1640. MacLean was disinclined to support the clergy, and he made that clear, asking the minister contemptuously if he intended to "enforce the demand by his sword." That was precisely what MacGillivray intended, and the two men drew. MacLean was on the ground and wounded just a few moments later, and he paid the stipend with a newfound respect. In the warrior society of the Scottish Highlands, anyone who could live by his sword was a man to be reckoned with.
(The Scottish Nation: Or, The Surnames, Families, Literature, Honours, and Biographical History, by William Anderson, 1862)