Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1965 (SND Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

MENSAL, adj., n. Also mensall. Sc. usage: applied to a church, the revenues of which, before the Reformation, were appropriated to a bishopric, for the maintenance of the bishop's table. Hist.Sc. 1705 W. Forbes Church-lands 74:
When much of the Revenue of the Bishoprick came to consist of Parish Churches annex'd, these that fell to the Bishops share were called Mensal Churches, because his Table was maintain'd out of the Rents of them.Sc. 1773 Erskine Institute ii. x. § 11:
In appropriations to a cathedral church the patron made the grant sometimes to the bishop himself; and when that happened the church annexed became part of the bishop's own benefice, and was called mensal; either from mensa, which in the middle ages signified whatever was in one's patrimony or property, or because it enabled the bishop to support his table with hospitality.Sc. 1845 Stat. Acc.² I. 323:
In the twelfth century, the church and lands of Lasswade were bestowed on the Bishop of St Andrews, and Lasswade thus became one of the Mensal churches.