THE EARLY SCOTTISH CHURCH: ECCLESIASTICAL HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND, THE FIRST TO THE TWELFTH CENTURY. REV. THOMAS M'LAUCHLAN, M.A, F.S.A.S., EDINBURGH. EDINBURGH : T. & T. CLAEK, 38 GEORGE STREET. LONDON : HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO. DUBLIN : JOHN ROBERTSON & CO. MDCCCLXV. PREFACE, THIS volume is the result of an effort to fill up a blank in the Ecclesiastical History of Scotland. Monograms exist on periods and persons introduced throughout it; and also brief sketches of the period, in works on Scot- tish Church History, preparatory to the history of more recent and more prominent events, but no work exists whose sole object is to present the reader with a conse- cutive and connected view of the period embraced. This was to be regretted, considering the importance of the events recorded, and their influence upon the future state of the Church in Scotland. Inferences, not borne out by historical facts, were drawn from assumptions regarding the early Church, by parties of various, and even of contending views, and antiquity was cited in support of conclusions which in reality derived no aid from its testimony. The author has endeavoured to collect his facts from the most trustworthy sources, linking them in a continuous narrative. Although these sources are few, yet, when the straggling rays are gathered together, it is wonderful how much light they afford. Impar- tiality has been earnestly studied throughout, the writer having but one object in view, the discovery of truth in questions of national interest. iv Preface. In pursuing the history of the Scottish Church, it was impossible to exclude a reference to the civil history of the country during the same period. It will be found, in consequence, that a sketch of the civil history of Scotland, brief, but it is hoped sufficiently compre- hensive, accompanies that of the Church ; while some questions are discussed connected with topography and the names of persons and tribes, which may add interest to the volume in the eyes of a growing class of readers. The sources whence information has been sought in preparing this work, will be found on referring to the work itself. They come down to the most recent contri- butions made by writers of authority. The references might be more extensive, for there are few works on the subject which have not been consulted with some care ; but the works cited are those whose authority stands highest on the various points discussed. EDINBURGH, Oct. 1864. CONTENTS, CHAPTER I. PAGE THE ROMAN TOWER IN SCOTLAND, ..... 1 CHAPTER II. THE NATIVE INHABITANTS DURING THE ROMAN OCCUPATION, . . 10 CHAPTER III. THE NATIVE INHABITANTS DURING THE ROMAN OCCUPATION, . . 19 CHAPTER IV. RELIGION DURING THE ROMAN PERIOD, ..... 32 CHAPTER V.' CHRISTIANITY UNDER THE ROMAN GOVERNMENT, ... 42 CHAPTER VI. THE PERIOD SUCCEEDING THE ROMAN OCCUPATION, ... 52 CHAPTER VII. THE MISSION OF NINIAN, ....... 67 CHAPTER VIII. THE MISSION OF PALLADIUS TO THE SCOTS, . 77 vi Content*. CHAPTER IX. PAGE THE MISSION OF ST. PATRICK, ... discuss the statement advanced by some writers lat, at that period, the Scots and Picts both made leir appearance in Scotland for the first time ; the icts from Scandinavia, or elsewhere, the Scots from eland. If it be true, what had become of the Cale- Dnians, the ancient antagonists of Agricola and Severus ? !ad they perished, like the Picts in after ages? or, 24 The Early Scottish Church. though capable of resisting the Roman arms with suc- cess, were they overwhelmed by this irruption of Bar- barians from the north and west ? This theory, although maintained by so able a scholar as Ritson, is altogether untenable in the face of arguments drawn from such considerations as these. Were there no other argument, indeed, such mighty changes among their near neigh- bours could not have taken place without the knowledge of the Romans ; and if they knew of them, it is impos- sible to conceive that we should be left entirely without notice of them in the pages of their contemporary his- torians. The conclusion is irresistible, that the ancient Cale- donians, as the Romans became better acquainted with their social state, resolve themselves into Picts and Scots, as the Picts resolve themselves soon after into Dicale- dones and Vecturiones ; not that they were altogether different nations, but distinguished by the country they occupied, their peculiar dialect, and the colour of their dress. The Dicaledones were, from the name, manifestly a part of the Caledonians, although said to be a section of the Picts, and the Picts and Scots are so uniformly associated in early history, that, while there may have been subordinate differences between them, so as to account for the difference of name, as between the inhabitants of different counties of Scotland now, they were originally the same people. Bede (Hist. c. 12) says, that these two nations are separated from the Britons by two arms of the sea, the one running in far and broad from the Eastern, the other from the Western ocean. Further, he mentions two cities, one on each of those arms, without distinguishing them as belonging to one or other of the nations. The one, he says, lay in the eastern firth, the other on the western ; \ative Inhabitants during Roman Occupation. 25 the former, called Giudi, supposed to be Inchkeith, 1 the other Alcluith, supposed to be the modern Dunbarton or Dunbriton, called in Gaelic to this day Dun Bhreatuin, or the city of the Britons. He speaks of those cities as if they appertained to either nation. But let us here take a look into the contents of a volume which has hitherto been very little studied, but which is likely to shed some light upon the discussion now on hand the modern topography of Scotland. This topography exhibits many curious phenomena pheno- mena which shed a steady and unerring light upon the past history of the nation, although often in danger of being misapplied. The topography of England presents us with the footprints of the Briton, the Roman, the Teuton, as distinctly as if formed yesterday, and in like manner, Scot- land presents us with the footprints of the Briton, the Gael, the Roman, and the Norseman, each as clear and distinct as if the people had but just moved away ; and the depth of these indicates with almost historical accuracy the extent of the sway which each people exercised in the land. The Romans left few of their footprints, because their sway was short and unsteady. The topography of the west and south-west, bears testimony to the power and long occupancy of the Gael. In the north and south-east, w^e learn of the dominion of the Northman, and over great sections of the country we see unmistake- nble marks of the existence and long-continued sway of the Briton. The Teutonic topography being the more recent, indeed coming very much within the Historic 1 The Gaelic name of Inchkeith is Innis Che, the latter word easily chang- able into Giudi. The same word Ce appears in Dalche, the modern Dalkeith. Have we any memorial here of Ce', the ancient Pictish prince, one of the seven sons of Cruithne, of whom Mr. Robertson, in his recent most valuable History of Scotland under her early kings, says we have no relic; or does the name rather appear in Beinn Che, Benachie, in Aberdeenshirc. The British "Giudi " comes very near the 1 Garlic "Fin," the name for Fife. Did Bode mistake a town for a province ? 26 The Early Scottish Church. period, may be put aside, as not indicating to any. extent the state of the Scottish population at the period under review ; nor need we advert to that of the Roman ; but let us look for a little at the rest of our Scottish topo- graphy, and see what is to be learned from it respecting the ancient inhabitants. South of the Forth, and on- wards to the Tweed, British words are found in consider- able numbers. Such streams as Blackadder, Whiteadder, Leader, contain distinctly the British dwfr or dur, 'water.' The modern " Tester " in East Lothian, is in old charters called Ystrad, which is just the British word for ' strath/ the Gaelic ' valley.' Near the coast is Aberlady anciently Aberlessic (Joe. Life of Kentigern), containing the British 'Aber.' Inland is Tranent or 'Trenant,' a common name in Wales ; " the town on the stream." Then there are Traquair, and Traprain, both having the British 'Tre,' the equivalent for the Gaelic ' Baile,' or the Saxon 'Town.' In West Lothian is Abercorn, anciently Abercurnig. Inland are the Calders, deriving their name from a stream, Calder being one of the commonest British names for a stream, ranging from Lancashire to the Moray Firth, having the British dwfr in its forma- tion. In all this region the British names appear along- side of a few Gaelic ones, such as Drem, Garvald in the east, and Strathbrock in the west, overborne by a multi- tude of those derived from Teutonic sources. Still the British element is clear and unmistakeable. On crossing the Forth British names still appear ; nowhere more clearly than in the name of the Ochil hills, where the British uchel, 'high,' cannot be mistaken. In Fife, although its topography is almost purely Gaelic, we find several ' Abers,' as Aberdour, Abercrombie, with nume- rous ' Pits ' and ' Pittens,' as Pittenweem, Pittencrief, &c., indicating the existence of a British population. In Perth and Forfar the British names are still more numerous, Native Inhabitants during Roman Occupation, 27 but not extending west beyond the east end of Loch Earn. There is a Gowrie, the name identical with the Gowery of Montgomery. We have Lanrick, identical with the Welsh Llanerch. Trinafour, of Perthshire, is synonymous with the Balfour of Fife, having the British ' Tre.' The Tay is the Taw in Wales. Connie is derived from the British Cwm, 'a hollow,' which enters into the formation of * many words in our Scottish topography. The ' Pits ' and ' Pittens ' of Forfarshire are numerous. As we travel northwards these British names multiply. We have ' Pens/ and * Abers,' and ' Pits ' in abundance, on through Kincardine and Aberdeenshires. There is a Lbanbryde in Morayshire, just what a Welshman would call St. Bridget's Church. The Dee of Aberdeenshire is synonymous with the Dee of Cheshire and of Wales. In Nairn and Inverness-shires British words are numerous. There are several Calders among the streams, and 'Abers' applied to places at their mouths. The ' Pits ' are fre- quent along the valley of the Spey. To the south of Loch Ness, in the valley of Stratherrick, two ' Tres ' appear, apparently much out of place, amidst a mass of pure Gaelic names on every hand. The farthest west ' Aber ' is Aberchalder, on Loch Oich, in the line of the Caledonian Canal. To the north, British names cannot be so clearly traced beyond the Moray Firth, where a Norse nomenclature occupies the same relation to the Gaelic names that the British do to the south. There are few names that can with any confidence be called British to the north of the Moray Firth. Keturning to the south, British names appear across the whole kingdom. The name Ochiltree, the British Uchel Tre, or ' high town,' in Ayrshire, is unquestionable, while in such names as Ecclefechan, the little church, and others in the same neighbourhood, the British element is equally distinct, a fact in no way surprising in wluil w;is 28 The Early Scottish Church. the territory of the Strathclyde Britons. British names, then, appear in the south-west, in Galloway, Ayr, Dum- fries, &c., amidst an overwhelming mass of Gaelic names. In the south-east, Berwick, Roxburgh, and the Lothians, they appear amidst an equal number of Teutonic names. They crop out among the Gaelic names of Fife, and the Gaelic and Scandinavian names of Aberdeen, Moray, and the Eastern Highlands. But beyond the Dorsum Bri- tannise, or great mountain range that divides Scotland, from the Caledonian valley to the valley of the Clyde, there is not a trace to be discovered of a British nomen- clature ; not one 'Aber/ or 'Pit,' or 'Com/ or 'Tre/ or ' Lan,' but a purely Gaelic topography, mixed with one of Scandinavian extraction. The only approach to a British word is in the stream called Neant, which flows from the south into Loch Etive, and which does resemble the British nant, ' a stream.' 1 The statement can be verified by an ample induction of facts, that throughout the whole of the south of Scotland, and along the east coast as far as the Moray Firth, and inwards as far as the west end of Loch Oich, and the summit level of .the kingdom termi- nating at Dunbarton, there are numerous British names in every district; while to the west of those boundaries, on the 1 It has been maintained that the word " Aber " is not peculiar to the British language ; but it has been the misfortune of Scottish topography that it has been so little studied hitherto by parties versant with the different dialects of the Celtic tongue. Much has been done by students of the language from without, but mingled with much that strikes a native Scot as untenable and absurd. Gaelic knows none of the topographic forms quoted above as peculiar to the Briton. It has been urged that the British " Pen " is the Gaelic " Ben," nnd that thus a British word pervades the topography of all Scotland; but the British "Pen," a head, is not the Gaelic " Beinn." a hill, but the Gaelic " Ceann," a head. It is sufficiently well known that the p of the Briton inter- changes with the Gaelic c hard or k, whence, the British " Pwy," who, is the Gaelic "Co," "Plant," children, is " Clann," "Pimp," five, is "Cuig." This principle runs through the texture of both languages, and at once excludes " Beinn " from being the representative of the British " Pen." There is a British word " Cwn," which more probably represents the Gaelic " Beinn " or " Ron." Native Inhabitants dnritif/ Human Occupation. 29 other hand, there is not one, and there are, apparently, very few to the north. A careful survey does not present one unmistakeable British term in the whole topography of the county of Argyll. These facts are significant. They indi- cate one of two things -either that the one race overpowered the other in the east, and superinduced a new nomen- clature over the old throughout the country, that we have in fact two successive strata of Celtic names, the Gaelic underlying the British, which is by no means im- > possible ; or, what is more likely, that the Pictish people \ were a people lying midway between the Gael and the Cymri more Gaelic than the Cymri, and more Cymric "* than the Gael. This is precisely the character of the old Pictish topography ; it is a mixture of Gaelic and Cymric ; and if the language of the people was like their topography, it too was a language neither Gaelic nor Cymric, but occupying a middle space between them, indicating the identity of the races at some distant period, although they afterwards became rivals for the possession of the land. This theory would account for the tradition referred to by Bede, that the Picts were a foreign race, who came in as aggressors and settled in Scotland : it will account also for the fact that the Pictish language is given as a distinct one in Bede's enumera- o o o tion of the languages of Britain. The topography of the Pictish territory is so peculiar, and so marked in its difference from that of the ancient Scottish territory to the west, that there must be some reason for it, and that suggested is the only one that seems to accord with the conditions of the case. The west of Scotland must have been early occupied by a purely Gaelic race. The Pictish aggression seems to have spent its strength ere it reached it ; and while in the one* quarter the races may have anew amalgamated, in the other there was no % mingling. Excluding the more recent Norse, there is 30 The Early Scottish Church. not a remnant of a word in Argyleshire to show that there ever was any language spoken there but pure Gaelic ; nor does its topography give any evidence of an Irish origin. Lorn (Latharn) is indeed said to be a name derived from Loarn mbr, the son of Ere. This will be credible when it is shown that the same word in Caithness pronounced " Latheron " in English, but in Gaelic "Lorn" (Latharn) is shown to be derived from the same source. It is needless to point to the Irish Larne as being the same word as both the Scottish Lorns. About the Roman period, then, so far as can be gathered from existing evidence, the west of Scotland, from the Clyde to Loch Linnhe, was inhabited by a people whom the Romans called Scots, whom both history and topo- graphy shew to have spoken the Gselic language ; the south-west, including Galloway, Ayr, Kirkcudbright, and Dumfries, was inhabited by a Pictish population, whom topography distinctly identifies with the Picts of the North. From Cumberland to Dunbarton there existed a more purely British population, called afterwards the Strathclyde Britons ; to the east, occupying the Lothians, Berwick, and Roxburgh shires, was also a British race, but to a large extent Romanized as the consequence of a more decided Roman occupation ; while to the east and north was another section of the Pictish people, speaking a Gallocymbric tongue, the Gaelic element largely pre- dominating beyond the Moray Frith. These are precisely the facts which topography brings to light, and they are in perfect accordance with any historical testimony of value we possess. They are in accordance also with the theory of a British wave of population following the Gaelic and pressing it west and north, mingling with it along the borders ; while this wave was fol- lowed by the Roman, and that again by the Teutonic, Native Inhabitants during Roman Occupation. 31 whether the earlier Frisians, or the later Saxons, Danes, and Normans. The Scottish conquest, as it is called, in the 9th century, gave complete predominance in large sections of the country to the Gaelic language, no diffi- cult matter where the difference was merely dialectic, and where, no doubt, the Gaelic had made much progress for a long time previously as the language of the Church. It was the language of lona, and as such would be held sacred over the Pictish territory. The Book of Deer shews that the language of ecclesiastics in Aberdeenshire in the llth century was the Gaelic. CHAPTER IV. RELIGION DURING THE ROMAN PERIOD. FROM the inhabitants of Scotland, and their condition during the period of the Roman occupation, we are led to view the entrance among them of the Christian faith, that faith by whose influence more than by any other, the future progress of the country was governed, and its present condition attained. At the time of Julius Caesar the religion of the Britons was what is usually called Druidism. This system appears to have had more or less in common with the heathenism of the rest of Europe. It had its priests divided into classes, one of those being the bards or poets, whose power over the Celtic races continued to a recent period. It had its mysteries and its sacrifices, the latter being said at times to consist of human victims. Druidism is said to have acknowledged a Supreme Being, whose name was synonymous with the Eastern Baal, 1 and if so, was visibly represented by the sun, and such remnants of the ancient worship as are still traceable in the language of the people, would indicate its having been a species of sun-worship. To this day the four leading points of the compass bear, in the terms which designate them among the Gael, marks of this. 1 Origen, as quoted by Usher, De Brit. Eccl. Prim., p. 2, says that the name applied by them to the Deity was Andraste or Andate, the Goddess of Victory, very likely the Eastern Ashtoreth or Astarte, while Dio Cassius states that they worshipped Apollo and Diana. Gildas informs us that they held errors in common with other heathen nations, and had more magic arts than even the Egyptians ; besides that they gave divine honours to mountains and hills, and rivers. He also states that some of the lineaments of these superstitions were traceable in his day both within and without the deserted walls. Religion during the Roman Period. 33 The east is ear, like the Latin oriens, from the Gaelic eiridh, ' to rise / the west is iar, ' after,' used also as a preposition ; the south is deas, and the north tuaih ; and it is in the use of the two last terms that the reverence for the solar luminary chiefly appears. Deas, ' the south/ is in all circumstances right ; it is the right hand, which is easily intelligible, from the relation of that hand to the south when the face looks eastward ; and it is ex- pressive of whatever is otherwise right. Deas also means complete, trim, ready ; whatever is deas, or southerly, is just as it should be. Tuath, ' north,' is the very opposite. Tuathaisd is a ' stupid fellow ;' Tuathail is ' wrong ' in every sense : south and north, then, as expressed in the words deiseal and tuathail are, in the Gaelic language, the representatives of right and wrong. Thus everything that is to move prosperously among many of the Celts, must move sunwise : a boat going to sea must turn sunwise ; a man or woman immediately after marriage, must make a turn sunwise. In many parts of the Scottish Highlands there are spots round which the dead are borne sunwise in their progress towards the place of sepulture : all these being relics, not of a Christian but of a Pagan age, and an age in which the sun was an object of worship. There are relics of fire-worship too ; certain days are named from fire-lighting. Beallteine, or ' the first day of summer/ and saimhtheine, ' the first day of winter/ the former supposed to mean the fire of Baal or Bel, the latter closing the saimhre, or summer period of the year, and bringing in the geamhre, or winter period, are sufficient evidence of this. There are places in Scotland where within the memory of living men the teine eigin, or * forced fire/ was lighted once every year by the rubbing of two pieces of wood together, while every fire in the neighbourhood was extinguished in order that they might be lighted anew from this sacred 34 The Early Scottish Church. source. These relics of an extinct superstition are in some measure indications of its character. Druidisrn would seem to have had more in common with the reli- gion of Zoroaster and the Magi than with any other. It has been maintained that Druidism never existed in Scotland, and this view is at present held by not a few of the students of our national antiquities. Ther opponents of the view have been in the habit of maintain- ing that the frequent occurrence of the word draonaich in our topography is sufficient evidence of the truth of their own conclusion. It has been said that lona was a seat of the Druids previous to the coming of Columba ; and the existence of a spot in the island called cladh nan Draoineach, usually translated " the ' Druids ' burying place," is cited in proof of it ; but there is no general agreement among Celtic scholars that draonaich means Druids. Mr. Grant, in his ingenious work on the " Origin and descent of the Gael," maintains (p. 174) that it means ' agriculturists/ and cites numerous instances of its being so applied. Nor have we any very high autho- rity for the opposite interpretation. This we know, how- ever, from Adomnan (Vit. Col. Beeves, p. 73) that there were magi (Heathen priests) in the palace of Brude, near Inverness, and that the remnants of the popular faith referred to above and still existing, indi- cate a religion having much in common with what we know of that of the rest of Britain. It is not improbable, however, that the religion of Eoman Britain felt the in- fluence of Pagan Rome, and it may not be easy to dis- cover how far the religious views of our Pagan ancestors, as they have come down to us, received an impression from that quarter. The relics that have come to us, fossilized amidst our forms of speech, are perhaps those that have reached us least moulded by any such influ- ence. Religion during the Roman Period. 33 There is a Gaelic MS., still existing, from which the following quotation is made in the report fur- nished to the Highland Society of Scotland on Ossian's Poems : Luid iaromh Colum Cille fecht aim gu ri Cruithnech eadhon gu Bruidi mac Milcoin agus do dunadh dorus in dunaigh fris, agus do foscuil fo choir glais iarnuidhi an baile ire urnaidhthi Colum cille. Tainic iar sin mac in righ eadhon Maelcu agus a drui do friththagra fri Colum cille tre geintlighecht. 1 ' Col- umba went once of a time to the king of the Cruithne (Picts) viz., to Brude son of Milcoin, and the door of the dun (castle) was shut against him, and the iron locks of the town were opened readily through the prayers of Columba. Then Maelcu the king's son came with his Druid to resist Columba through Paganism/ This MS, is of the 12th or 13th century, if not earlier, and from it we gather that the belief was then that there were Druids in Scotland, that they were priests in attendance in the royal palace, and that they strenuously resisted Columba. Upon the whole there is reason to believe that Scotland had her magi, who practised certain magical arts called by succeeding Christian writers Geintlighecht, or Pagan^ ism, and that these were of the order of Druids, as described by Caesar in his Gallic war (Book vi. 13), although there might be national distinctions between those of Gaul and those of different parts of Britain, There is one feature about this ancient superstition which is worthy of being recorded with approval ; it was free of intolerance : there is no record of any British missionary ever having been a martyr. It has 1 The family name Maikhon, which tvaS the name of both King Brude's father and son, seems to have been Mialchoin, the genitive of Mialchtt, 'a grey- hound.' The name of the grandson, Maelcu or Mialchu, is in the nominative case. 36 The Early Scottish Church. been well said that there were numerous confessors, but no martyrs. The Paganism of civilized Kome had its thousands of victims among the early Christians ; the Pa- ganism of uncivilized Britain had not so much as one ; and it would be well if the same could be said of some of the forms of Christianity which succeeded. There is indeed, as will be seen in the sequel, one martyrdom recorded in the early Scottish Church : Donnan perished in Eigg by the hands of the natives, to whom he had gone to preach the Gospel ; but, from such records of the event as we have, he would seem to have perished as a victim to the cupidity of a native chieftainess, and not to the intolerance of the native superstition. As already said, early Christianity in Scotland would appear to have followed the footsteps of the Koman legions. The Scottish province was not held so long nor so firmly as the English provinces, but during the 400 years of Roman sway, broken as it was, opportunity was afforded for sowing the seeds of mighty changes. The Romans in the beginning of the 5th century retired from the field, but seed had been sown which was destined to yield abundant fruit long after Rome had ceased to govern the world. Little did the legionaries imagine what the real work was in which they were engaged. As in many similar cases in the history of the world, the sword had made way for the cross, and, as has been said before, principles were left behind them by the retreating Roman soldiers, the value and the power of which they them- selves little understood. No doubt during the latter part of their occupation, under the government of Con- stantine, all Roman Britain was avowedly Christian ; but the instances must have been many in which the Chris- tian faith was assumed out of deference to the emperor, and not from personal conviction. Tiberius Csesar, under whose government our Lord Religion during the Roman Period. 37 was crucified at Jerusalem, was himself no enemy to the Christian faith ; nay he would have fostered it in the face of an unwilling senate. Tertullian tells us (Apol. c. 5) that Tiberius had declared to the senate that he had received abundant evidence from Syria of Christ's having there revealed the truth of His divinity, and recommended the senate to acknowledge it. The senate refused, but Caesar retained his opinion, and threatened to punish the accusers of the Christians. From this it may be gathered that Tiberius was in no respect hostile to the spread of the Gospel. Eusebius (Euseb. Chron.) tells us that the object of Tiberius was to have Jesus admitted among the number of the gods of Eome (inter cetera sacra), but that the senate resisted. There is reason, then, to con- clude that the opportunities were ample for the spread of the Gospel, at the very outset, over the whole Eoman empire ; and it does look like a wise and long designed purpose of Divine providence, that at that period an empire should exist, having reached its widest extent, wielding over its subjects its most unlimited power, and embracing within its grasp the chief portions of the three great continents of the ancient world ; while there was at the same time seated upon the throne of that empire a man more disposed to foster than to extinguish the tender spark of an infant Christianity. Until the days of Nero there was not much to interfere with the progress of this divine faith throughout the empire, and his persecution, horrible as it was, seems to have been felt chiefly by the Christians of Rome itself. Theodoret, who wrote in Greek about the year 420, tells us (Relig. Hist. c. ix.) " that our fishermen and publicans, and our stitcher (sutor, meaning the apostle Paul) car- ried the Gospel to all nations who lived under the Roman government ;" and among others he mentions " Britons, Cimmerians, and Germans (Britannos, Cimmerios, et Ger- 38 The Early Scottish Church. manos) so that all nations received the laws of the Cruci- fied One." There may be a good deal here of the de- clamatory style of the early ecclesiastical writers, but it shews that the impression existed at an early period, that the Gospel was preached in Britain by the Apostles, The traditions respecting this first preaching of the Gospel in Britain have been various (Ussher, Ed. 1639 pp, 5, 20). It was said to have been preached by the apostle James so early as 4-.D. 4 1, 1 Maximus says that "returning from the west, St. James visited France, Britain, and the towns of Venetia, where he preached ; and returned to Jerusalem, having to consult the blessed Virgin and Peter concerning very important matters, Eichard of Cirencester, in his " Speculum Historiale " (Book viii. c, 7) says, that the apostles visiting various regions by the Divine purpose, James w r as cast upon the Irish coast, and boldly preached the Word of God ; where it is said that he chose seven disciples, viz., Torquatus, Secundus, Indalecius, Tisephon, Euphrasius, Cecilius, Isichius, by whose aid he extirpated the tares, and com- mitted to the dry and barren earth the seed of God's Word ; and when his end drew near he journeyed with them to Jerusalem, and then suffered martyrdom. It is so well known that James suffered death at the hands of Herod Agrippa before the dispersion of the apostles, that it is needless to attempt otherwise the confutation of this statement. It is just one of those legends with which the early Church swarmed, and which did more permanent injury than any immediate good to the inte- rests of the Christian faith. Nicephorus Callistus (quoted by Ussher, p. 7) says that Simon Zelotes preached in Britain. That he was cruci- fied there and buried, is also related by several early writers. In the Roman Breviary and Martyrologium (Ussher) he is said to have suffered martyrdom in Persia. 1 Max. Chron., written about A.r>. 621. Reliyion during the Roman Period. 39 Eusebius, as quoted by Simeon Metaphrastes, relates that Simon Peter preached the Gospel in Britain, spend- ing twenty-three years in the west between Rome and Britain (Ussher, p. 7) and other western states. Simeon himself adds that having preached and converted many in Britain, he founded churches, and ordained bishops, presbyters, and deacons, returning to Rome in the twelfth year of the Emperor Nero. For these statements there is no evidence of the slightest value : it cannot be shewn that Peter ever was in Rome, much less that he ever reached France or Britain. This is another of those legends which began to abound in the Church about the beginning of the sixth century, and which were in them- selves indications of her declension from the simplicity of primitive times. St. Paul, too, is said to have preached in Britain. Jerome says that he preached " from sea to sea " (Comm. in Amos cap. 5). Others of the Fathers maintain that this included Britain ; and Theodoret (on Psal. cxvi.) says that the words of the apostle in 2d Tim. iv. 16, 17, where he says, that by me "all the Gentiles might hear," include "the islands which lie in the sea/' Nicephorus (Ussher, p. 9) says, that encircling the habitable globe like a heavenly bird, and thirty years being thus spent in preaching the Gospel, he finished his course by martyrdom under Nero. It is further said that he ordained Aristobolus, who is spoken of in the epistle to the Romans, ch. xiv. ver. 10, a bishop in Britain. In the Greek Martyrologies (15 Mar.) it is stated that he, one of the seventy disciples, was ordained by Paul in the region of the Britons, having followed him there preaching the Gospel. That they were a fierce and cruel people ; that after much harsh usage he converted many of them to Christ ; and that he died after founding churches and ordaining presbyters and deacons. Stillingfleet and 40 The Early Scottish Church. others, including Cardinal Baronius, adopt the statement that Paul preached in Britain ; Stillingfleet only, however, acquiescing in the probability of the fact. It is evident enough that Paul proposed visiting Spain (Rom. xv. 24, 28) and if so he might have intended extending his visit to Britain, but we have no evidence of any value to shew that he ever extended his travels to the westward of Rome. Scripture is perfectly silent on the subject, so are the early Fathers, and the testimony of mediaeval eccle- siastics, who were ever dealing in similar legends, and pawning them on the world for truth, can be held to be of no value in a question of the kind. It is not impos- sible that Paul may have preached in Britain, but there is nothing to prove it, and the probability is strong on the other side. A story was got up in the middle ages that the Gospel was preached in Britain by Joseph of Arimathea. It originated in Glastonbury Abbey, and is told for the first time by William of Malmesbury, who died about A.D. 1143. There were two ways in which the friends of such institutions as that of Glastonbury sought to add to their fame, and to increase their revenue. One of these was by securing relics of the most distinguished saints. We find a monk of Durham stealing the relics of St. Cuthbert from Lindisfarne ; and the contest between Ire- land and Scotland for the relics of Columba is sufficiently well known. The other method was by tracing the foundation of the establishment to some one of the more distinguished of the early saints. This system arose in the middle ages, and was unknown in the early history of the Church ; and its rise was rendered perfectly possi- ble at the period when it first appeared, by the general ignorance of the people and the superstition which ap- pears to have pervaded all classes. In his second epistle to Timothy (2 Tim. iv. 21) the Religion during the Roman Period. 41 apostle Paul sends to his young disciple the greetings of Eubulus, and with them those of Pudens, Linus, and Claudia. This Claudia is said by some writers to have been a native of Britain. Martial is cited in evidence of this (Lib. xi. Epig. 54, quoted by Ussher). She was the wife of Pudens, and the poet sings of their nuptials. Dempster says that Pudens was a Roman centurion, banished afterwards into Scotland for his Christianity, where he preached earnestly the faith. He founds this statement upon a couple of lines of Martial. But it is clear enough that the Claudia whose beauty Martial extols, by command of Trajan, could not be the Claudia whose greetings the apostle Paul sends to Timothy, (Ussher, p. 11) and that the legend is without any basis of historical truth. The story of Pudentiana is another similar legend. She is said to have been the daughter of Pudens a Christian, to whose house Peter came about A.D. 44 in Rome. The household received the faith, and Timotheus, one of the sons, was sent as a missionary to Britain, when Lucius, the British king, received the Gos- pel at his hands. Pudentiana, one of the daughters of Pudens, has been a popular saint in Britain, and is so to this day among those who adhere to the Roman Catholic faith. It is said that Peter received his chair at Rome from Pudens; and that it still exists in that city. A period of revolution afforded too strong a temptation to the French soldiery to test the truth of this legend, when its utter baselessness was made clear to the whole world. The story of Pudentiana rests on no firmer basis than the chair of St. Peter. It is by no means improbable that early missionaries were sent from Rome to preach the Gospel in France and Britain, but there is nothing to shew that Timotheus was one of them. CHAPTER V. CHRISTIANITY UNDER THE ROMAN GOVERNMENT. THERE can be no doubt then that the Christian faith found its way at an early period into Britain. The commu- nication between the island province and Rome was almost as easy as now, and must have been frequent. Troops were passing to and fro, as the exigencies of the government required ; and a government in the neighbour- hood of foes so restless as the Caledonians, could not be held safe without a constant supply. Britons were sent as legionaries to fight the battles of Rome abroad ; foreign- ers would have been necessarily sent to maintain Roman authority in Britain. There were thus for the British people two points of contact with the views and prin- ciples prevalent at Rome and throughout the empire. The British troops abroad were one : they mingled with men from every portion of the empire, and learned from them what was said and believed. These returning home, either wounded or on the proclamation of peace, would carry with them the knowledge of what they had seen and heard. The other point of contact was to be found in Britain itself, where the people were brought into communication with the stream of supply from Rome and elsewhere, to fill the ranks of the Roman army. Among those so visiting Britain some would have been Christians, indeed we have reason to know that some were ; and thus would have introduced the Christian faith. Tacitus tells us in his Annals (Book xiii. 32), Christianity under Roman Government. 43 that " Pompoiiia Groecina, a noble lady, and the wife of Plautius, who returned from Britain to obtain a triumph, was accused of foreign superstition, and left to be judged by her husband." The husband, we are told, pronounced her innocent. The "foreign superstition" in this passage is supposed to be Christianity, and taking the historian as his own interpreter, the inference is correct, for else- where (Ann. xv. 44) he calls the Christian faith (exitiabi- lis super stitio], a ' horrid superstition,' making use of the very term "superstition" applied in the present case. It has been said that this charge against the wife of Plautius could not be true, else how could her husband declare her innocent. But may not he too have been favourable to the Christian faith, and would not his judgment neces- sarily have been biassed by affection for his wife, especially as he must have learned from his acquaintance with it in her case, that it was everything but a " horrid supersti- tion V It has been said too that her excessive grief, as related by Tacitus, for the death of a friend, was hardly consistent with her belief in the Gospel and its promises. Christians are not without their sources of grief like other men. Jacob could dread the going down of his grey hairs with sorrow to the grave, and we know not whether Pomponia had any warrant for indulging the hopes of a Christian in connection with her friend's decease. This incident is related by the historian as having occurred in A.D. 56, so that there is this evidence for the existence of Christianity in Britain in the middle of the first century. As Claudius, who was the first Koman emperor who really possessed Britain, did not come to the island till the year 44, we could hardly look for earlier tidings of the exist- ence of Christianity than those afforded by Tacitus twelve years later ; and as the history of Tacitus had reference chiefly to Scottish affairs, Pomponia is probably the first Christian who we have any reason to believe was in Scotland. \ 44. The Early Scottish Church. Whether the Gospel was received previously by the Southern Britons we know not. Tertullian tells us that all Christians were called to be soldiers of the living God from their baptism. (Ad Mart, iii.) So that we may believe there were missionaries ready to devote themselves to the work of spreading the Gospel in any portion, however distant or savage, of the known world. That some of those may have found their way to Britain, is quite consistent with what we know of those early believers. Yet previous to A.D. 44, the Britons would not have been in the most favourable circumstances for receiving any importation from Eome. They would have a most painful recollection of the visit of Julius Caesar to their country, nor would any emissaries from among the people who had sent him forth, have had much reason to expect a welcome among them. They had indeed had much pleasant and profitable communication with the east. The tin of Cornwall had found its way long before to the Levant, and the bond of connection between Britain and the East would thus have been drawn close and firm. A. messenger from Syria would have been more readily received than one from Eome. This is held by some to account for the oriental character of early British Christianity, partaking, as it did, more of what characterised the Eastern than the Western Church ; the missionaries who conveyed it may have come from the East. Neander says (Gen. Ch. Hist, vol. i., 117), "that the peculiarity of the British Church is evidence against its origin from Rome ; for in many ritual matters (of human device, and therefore not such as two independent bodies were likely to adopt from their own study of the Sacred Scriptures) it departed from the usage of the Romish Church, and agreed much more nearly with the Churches of Asia Minor." Yet it cannot be forgotten, that so early as the middle of the first century the Eastern Christianity under Roman Government. 45 and Western Churches had not assumed their distinctive peculiarities. At that time the Church bore throughout the impress it had received in the East. The faith itself had travelled from the East, and it retained its original form throughout the Roman Empire for a much longer period than half a century. The East, indeed, continued very long to influence the development of the Church, as may be seen from the growth of the eremitical system which, originating in the habits of certain non-Christian Eastern sects, soon entered the Church of Christ, travelled westwards, and acquired finally all the dimensions of the great monastic system of Rome ; and the great German historian had really no warrant for the inference he drew with respect to the early British Church. British Christianity retained the early form of the Christian Church ; it was Rome departed from it, and assumed one which became distinctive of itself. But, however the Gospel was conveyed thither, Christianity was intro- duced into Britain by the middle of the first century, confined very probably to the Roman army, but extend- ing along with it as far as the Roman possessions. The Roman historians of that period were heathens, and knew little, while probably they cared less about the spread of Christianity. This places us at a serious dis- advantage in elucidating the early history of the Church. The Christians were themselves otherwise engaged than in chronicling the progress of their faith they were striving to ensure it ; and heathen writers would rather have ignored its existence altogether, such being the policy which they almost universally pursued. The scanty testimony to be gathered from Christian writers presents us with the following facts : Tertullian writing about A.D. 200, or about 150 years after the Romans really possessed any part of Britain, says, in a famous passage, (Adv. Ind., c. 7), " That the several races of the Geti, the 46 The Early Scottish Church. extensive territories of the Moors, all the bounds of Spain, the different nations of the Gauls, and those localities of the Britons hitherto inaccessible to the Romans, had be- come subject to Christ ; together with the territories of the Sarmatians, Dacians, Germans, and Scythians, and many distant nations, and provinces, and islands, which we do not know and cannot enumerate. The name of Christ has reached all those places, and now reigns there." Further he says that " the kingdom and name of Christ have extended to places which defied the arms of Rome." Origen (4 Horn, on Ezek.) who wrote about A.D. 230, says " When did Britain, previous to the coming of Christ, agree to worship the one God ? When the Moors 1 When the whole world ? Now, however, through the Church, all men call upon the God of Israel." The evi- dence of these writers is thoroughly trustworthy : they were themselves cotemporaries of the events to which they refer : they were subjects of the Roman Empire, with all parts of which there was speedy and frequent communication, and however there may be allowance made for an exaggerated style of description, neither of them could venture, in the face of well-known facts, to make statements altogether at variance with truth. We may then safely conclude, that Christianity prevailed extensively in Britain even beyond the Roman Province, so early as A.D. 200. In writing on the subject of the early Scottish Church, it is hardly necessary to advert at length to the story of Bede and others regarding the conversion of King Lucius, said to have taken place about A.D. 156. Bede (Hist. Eccl. c. 4) relates the story briefly. He tells us that " In the year of our Lord's incarnation, 156, Marcus Antoninus Pius, the fourteenth from Augustus, was ^made emperor together with his brother, Aurelius Corn- modus. In their time, whilst Eleutherus, a holy man, Christianity under Roman Government. 47 presided over the Roman Church, Lucius, King of the Britons, sent a letter to him, entreating that, by his command, he might be made a Christian. He soon obtained his pious request, and the Britons preserved the faith which they had received uncorrupted and entire, in peace and tranquillity, until the time of the Emperor Diocletian." This is Bede's first statement regarding the conversion of the Britons. There is no o o real difficulty in regard to the title here given to Lucius. It was not necessary to his being king that he should reign over the whole Britons, or even a considerable portion of them. Every magnate was a king among the Celtic nations, the title being extended to their generals. Were he, then, but a chief of some sept among the natives, Lucius would be called a king of the Britons, and so called in perfect accordance with the custom of the people whom he governed. Nor is there any difficulty in the apparently Latin name of the British king. The Welsh writers call him Llewrwg, of which Lucius may be the Latin equivalent ; or he may have been, like Ambrosius Aurelius, who led the Britons for so long a time in their wars with the invading Saxons, a natural- ised Roman (Bede, Hist. Eccl., e. xvi). Nor is there any real difficulty in the fact that he is called a king of the Britons at the time that Britain was a Roman Province. For we know that it was no uncommon thing for the Romans to suffer native kings to govern in subjection to their own supreme authority. The Herods so reigned in Judea. A British king, Cogidunus, was suffered to retain his kingly power in reward of his devotion to Roman interests ; and we know from the authority of early writers (Jose. Life of Kentigern), that the kings of the Strathclyde Britons continued to enjoy their dignity and power at the very time that Valentia, in which much of their territory was included, was a Roman pro- 48 The Early Scottish Church. vince. Thus there is nothing incredible in a British king seeking instruction in the Christian faith about A.D. 156. But there are other difficulties in the state- ment of Bede, The two emperors of whom he speaks never reigned at the same time. Eleutherus became Bishop of Eome in A.D. 176. Antonine became emperor in A.D. 161. These dates cannot be made to harmonise with the story of King Lucius, even with the change of date made in Bede's Chronicle, where A.D. 156 is made A.D. 167. The time does not agree with that of Eleu- therus' episcopate. These errors may, however, be ac- counted for in the case of a writer relating an event nearly 600 years after its occurrence, and with very scanty materials in the form of trustworthy documents to which to refer. But it is needful, in making use of all Bede's statements, to remember the peculiar bias with which he and the writers of his own and a subsequent age wrote. He was a devoted adherent of the Eoman See, as was the whole Anglo-Saxon Church after the days of Augustine, and loses no opportunity of promot- ing its interests, as may be seen from the accounts he gives of the controversy with the Scottish Church on the subject of Easter and the tonsure. The ancient British Church was strenuously anti-Roman, as will appear from subsequent events, and Bede would have willingly caught at any statement, however indifferent the authority for it, were it but a floating popular tradition, which could in any way connect the early British Church with Rome. The great matter was to show the justness of the claims which Rome put forth to universal su- premacy in the Christian Church ; and the story of King Lucius, told with marked and somewhat suspicious brevity, was too favourable to his object not to be laid hold of. Ussher believes the story (Prim., chap, iv.), arid that there may have been some foundation for it in the early conversion of a British king is quite true ; but the Christianity under Roman Government. 49 details as to the letter to the .Roman bishop are entirely at variance with what we know of the position of the Bishop of Rome in the Church generally, and more espe- cially in the British Church, then and long afterwards. It is remarkable that Gildas, a British writer of the fifth century, makes no mention of the conversion of King Lucius. The great persecution under Diocletian took place about A.D. 293. Bede says, " It was carried on inces- santly for ten years, with burning of churches, outlawing of innocent persons, and the slaughter of martyrs. At length it reached Britain, and many persons, with the constancy of martyrs, died in the confession of the faith." At that time St. Alban perished, whom Demp- ster holds to have been a Scotsman ; and the name does give some likelihood to the statement, although in the absence of any farther evidence it is not one to be main- tained. Many remarkable things are told of his death; he was the first British martyr, and perished as a victim not of British, but of Roman intolerance. With him suffered Aaron and Julius, citizens of Chester (Bede, Hist. Eccl., chap, vii.); and others are said to have perished besides. The names given by Bede, it may be well to remark, are more Roman than British in their form ; Albanus and Julius are very like Roman appellatives, while there is nothing in that of Aaron to show that it belonged to a Briton. The likelihood is that these men were Christian Romans, put to death for their adherence to the new faith. Indeed, it is not to be thought that the Roman government would concern itself much with the religion of its British subjects, while that of native Romans would be watched with the closest scru- tiny. The persecution under Diocletian was the first which reached the extremities of the empire, and even it, with all its violence, and with all the determination D 50 The Early Scottish Church. of its promoters to extirpate the Christians, was largely modified in Britain by the favour of Constantius Chlorus, (See Eus. Hist. c. viii. 13 ; Sosom. Hist, Ecc. B. i. c. 6), who then governed there under the emperor. Bede calls him a man of " extraordinary meekness and courtesy." He was, as already stated, father of Constantine, the first Christian emperor, and there is reason to think that Constantine first learned to judge favourably of Chris- tians in the house of his father ; the seed was probably sown there which afterwards germinated in the conver- sion of the son. How little do we know at what time principles sown early in the heart may come to exhibit their existence and their power ! During all this period it is impossible to separate the Scottish province of Valentia from the rest of Roman Britain. We may believe that in so far as it was subject to Rome, it shared a common fate with the other pro- vinces, and that Christianity was equally favoured or equally persecuted in both. Southern Scotland was at the time a part of Britain, and nothing more, and is spoken of under the name common to the whole. We have no reason to doubt that the persecution which visited England extended to Scotland, and that it, too, had its early martyrs, although we have no record of their names. This persecution would in Britain, as else- where, have contributed to the spread of the faith; Christians would have perished, but many would have fled for their lives. Beyond the wall of Antonine to the north, lay an extensive region inaccessible either to the power or persecutions of Rome ; and thither many of the oppressed Christians would flee, be- taking themselves for security to the kind offices of the neighbouring heathen ; nor would they have been received the less readily or cordially because of their being fugitives from Rome. These fugitives would Christianity under Roman Government. 51 carry with them the faith for which they suffered, and would strive to repay their hosts by communicating to them the knowledge of its saving truths. Besides this mode, by which the knowledge of Divine truth would be carried beyond the limits of the Roman empire, prisoners would be taken by the hostile tribes of the north ; some of these would be Christians, and, like the Jewish slave girl in Syria, would teach their masters of the Christian's God. Then, besides, missionaries, inspired by a dauntless courage and love for the truth, would boldly venture across the Roman boundary, and, as in all ages of the living Christian Church, would have braved every danger on behalf of the souls of men. Under Constantius, who began his reign in A.D. 305, and his son, Constantine, who succeeded him, persecution ceased, and under the latter the Roman empire became nominally Christian. With external peace came, as is com- mon in the history of the Church, internal dissension, and Constantine was constrained, in A.D. 314, to call a council to meet at Aries, a city of Gaul the first council of the Christian Church called by a civil governor. One of the resolutions of the council brings to light the con- dition of the empire with respect to the Christian faith at the time, for it decerns that all women married to unbelievers should be suspended for a time from Chris- tian privileges ; showing plainly that at the time a pro- portion of the population had not as yet forsaken the religion of their heathen ancestors. It was probably the same in Britain, and yet in the beginning of the 4th century Roman Britain was largely Christian, while Christianity had extended its influence in some measure to the region beyond the wall. -- \#L t^/T ^-tu&LM tC]^ Ht CHAPTER VI. THE PERIOD SUCCEEDING THE ROMAN OCCUPATION. IT is necessary here to consider the tradition which has existed in the Scottish Church itself with respect to the early planting of Christianity in Scotland. The story, as told by Fordun, is, that in the reign of Donald L, King of the Scots, whom he makes contemporary with the Emperor Severus, who died at York in 210, ambassadors were sent by the Scottish king to Pope Victor L, asking for religious instructors (Scotochronicon, B. II., c. 40), (see also Boece's Hist., B. v.) ; that these were sent, and that the king and his subjects received instruction, and were baptised. The Aberdeen Breviary gives the names of the missionaries sent, Mark and Denys, but upon what authority does not appear ; and Dempster, upon autho- rity which has no real existence (App. on Hist. Scot., B. i. c - 6) a pretended quotation from Fordun, tells us that the messenger of the Pope was Paschasius, a Sicilian. The event took place, according to Fordun, in A.D. 203 ; . f. t but the chronology of this statement has been often shown to be erroneous. Pope Victor, as he is called although ^ the term Pope in the 2d century had a very different sig- nification from the same title in after ages died in A.D. 196, so that King Donald could not have received his missionaries from him in A.D. 203. Besides, putting aside the fact that the name Scot was then unknown, although the people afterwards called Scots were at the period inhabitants of North Britain, the relation of the f~** fit Period succeeding the Roman Occupation. 53 independent tribes beyond the Firths to Eome in the age of Severus, was such as to preclude the possibility of such an embassy. The whole reign of Severus was in North Britain a period of incessant warfare between the Romans and the neighbouring tribes. This very King Donald, if such a king ever existed, must have been con- tending for that very existence with the Roman power. How, then, are we to believe in a peaceful embassy from him to Rome, and that at a time when even during peace such Christian ambassadors were not likely to re- ceive favour from the Roman government ? Such an embassy in the reign of Severus may justly be said to have been impossible. This legend has been made to serve the purposes of various sections of the Christian Church (Grub's Eccl. Hist., vol. i. p. 5) ; but there are two ways in which its origin may be very naturally accounted for. It may have arisen during the controversy between the Scottish and English Churches after the period of Malcolm III., on the subject of supremacy. It is easily seen that it would be natural for the Scottish Church, in maintaining its independence, to attempt to prove that it did not re- ceive the Gospel at first through the medium of England, but had received it directly from the same source. This was a point of the most urgent consequence to the Scots in the discussion, and we can readily imagine how the most trivial story floating like a grain of dust in the atmosphere of popular tradition, would be laid hold of and magnified into this great history of a special embassy from Rome. This would place the Scottish Church fairly abreast of that of England, notwithstanding the well- known mission of Augustine. There is another way, however, of accounting for the adoption of the legend. We have already shown how, with regard to the British king Lucius, Bede relates a / VkV W^~ r vw ^r *^j^ ' ~ " - - r ' m & ++1^ /^C^OV \feu^ ff(&4fm+V *>**+ *4 **** 4j A+k* fa* '*%3 j **^ t * ***** ti* 4 ***"* v*< 54 The Early Scottish Church. history of which we have no notice whatsoever from Gildas, a British historian, who lived much nearer the period of the event, and who would necessarily take espe- cial interest in what so nearly concerned the honour of his own nation. But Gildas belonged to the ancient British Church Bede to that of Kome. Hence the readi- ness of the latter, as already shown, to adopt the story, whatever the authority for it might have been, if it showed that Britain had been christianized from Kome. The resemblance of -the story of King Lucius and King Donald is too close to have escaped the observation of our historical writers (Goodall's Prelim. Diss. to Keith's Hist.) ; it is but changing the names and the story re- mains the same. In both instances the historians are wrong in their chronology, from the defective authority on which their statements were made : and have we not reason to believe that both stories originated in the same cause, that cause being the desire of mediaeval ecclesias- tical writers to maintain the doctrine of Papal supre- macy ? We read nothing of Pope Victor or King Donald in Adomnan, and this story is not related by Bede ; we find it first in Fordun, and in it we see, pro- bably, one of those pious frauds, not invented by him, which were at the time considered justifiable when applied to a good purpose. Such is, on the face of it, the story of King Donald and Pope Victor ; it is his- torically untrue, and the support it affords to any cause is of not the slightest value whatsoever. It was about A.D. 423 that the Romans finally retired from Britain, their last act being to assist the native Britons in building the ancient wall as a defence against the Scots and Picts beyond. It is of this last wall, built chiefly by Britons, and hence probably called Grim's dyke from some chief who governed during its erection, that the remains now exist, traceable along the valley Period succeeding the Roman Occupation. 55 which traverses the country between the Forth and the Clyde. The state of the population does not indicate the reign of the Gospel of peace at the time, on either side of this rampart. From this time, in tracing the progress of Christianity, we must deal entirely with the labours of native mission- aries ; the Romans had retired, but the Gospel of God's grace remained in the land. The first of those mission- aries of whom we have any authentic information, if authentic much of it may be called, was Ninian, usually called St. Ninian, or St. Bingan, commemorated in the mediaeval church on 16th Sept., as well as in the several Kilninians, or Ninian's churches, scattered widely over Scotland. Our chief authorities for the events of his life are Bede, who gives a brief notice of him in his history (Bede, Hist. Eccl. B. iii. ch. 4), and Ailred or Ethelred, Abbot of Eievaux in Yorkshire, who wrote a life of the saint at the request of the canons of Whitehorn Cathe- dral, in Galloway, where Ninian is said to have been the first bishop (Vit. Nin., Pink. Edition). Bede's notice is as follows, He says that Columba came to preach to the northern Picts ; " for the southern Picts who dwell on this side of those mountains, had long before, as is re- ported, forsaken the errors of idolatry and embraced the truth, by the preaching of Ninias, a most reverend bishop and holy man of the British nation, who had been regu- larly instructed at Rome in the faith and mysteries of the truth ; whose episcopal see, named^ after St. _Martin the bishop, and famous for a stately church (wherein he and many other saints rest in the body) is still in exist- ence among the English nation. 1 The place belongs to the province of the Bernicians, and is generally called the White House, because he there built a church of stone, 1 Whithorn was in Bede's time in Bernicia, an English province. 56 The Early Scottish Church. which is not usual among the Britons." This is all Bede relates of him, and was probably gathered from Pecthelm, the bishop of Whithorn in Bede's time, with whom he seems to have had personal intercourse (Bede, Hist. Eccles. B. v., c. 18), although Pecthelm himself, being a Saxon, could not have the means of knowing much of the British missionary, who lived 300 years before, from the animosity subsisting between the two nations ; and also from the fact that during the greater portion of the time between the age of Ninian and that of Pecthelm the church at Whithorn was vacant, and there were no successive pastors to preserve documents, or to transmit authentic traditions. Bede was, however, well acquainted with the state of the Scottish Church, as appears from the notices he affords of it ; the Scottish missions still existed in Northumbria, and any information he gives may be held as generally authentic. Ailred, the other biographer of Ninian, wrote in A.D. 1 1 50, or about 400 years after Bede, and 700 years after the death of Ninian. This is sufficient to make us cautious as to how far we are to receive his testimony. He is himself indebted to Bede, whose brief notices he expands with a remarkable exuberance of diction, and singular declamatory power ; but he tells us also that he had a book, " Barbario Scriptus," written in a barbarous language, probably either British or Gaelic, in which all that Bede said was more fully detailed. No copy of this earlier life is known to exist, and we are ignorant both of its age and of its author. Ninian, according to Bede and Ailred, was a Briton, a native of the Eoman province, where he was born about A.D. 360, or about 200 years before the time of Columba. His parents were Christians, and early devoted him to the Christian ministry. Ailred says of him (Vit. Nin. Period succeeding the Roman Occupation. 57 Pink. Ed., p. 4). "He was characterized by deep devotion in the church, and warm affection among his associates ; moderate in eating, sparing of his words, assiduous in study, courteous in manner, abstaining from jests, and ever subjecting his flesh to the spirit ; devoting himself to much searching of the Holy Scriptures, so much so that he discovered that among his people its real sense was not thoroughly understood." Upon this, we are told, he journeyed to Kome in search of the truth. The first portion of Ailred's description is extremely beautiful, and is an admirable sketch of the character of a true mission- ary of Christ ; nor do we doubt that such were the men who first preached the cross among barbarous nations, men whose character commended the truth which their preaching taught ; men of warm zeal, deep humility, and dauntless courage courage fed by their love to Christ and their love to the souls of men ; such men were in every true sense the successors of the apostles. But in this account of Ailred's, there are two statements which cannot fail to strike the observant reader. The first is the statement respecting British Christians, that they did not apprehend the real sense of Scripture, or in other words, that there were doctrines in the early British Church which would not have been held orthodox by an ecclesiastical writer of the 12th century. The Romish party was ever jealous of that Church, and it is pretty clear that this statement of Ailred's is an exhibi- tion of this jealousy ; or at the very least it may be taken as clear evidence of the fact that the early British Church held doctrines which were not held orthodox in Ailred's time at Rome. The other statement is, that Ninian journeyed to Rome to obtain correct views of the truth ; both Bede and Ailred relate this fact, and it may be true. Rome was at the time the capital of that empire, of which Britain formed a part ; all Roman citi- 58 The Early Scottish Church. zens or subjects must have looked up to it as the seat of every living influence that permeated and acted upon the empire, while Christians must have looked to it with peculiar interest, as the scene of many testimonies and many martyrdoms, and the residence of many faith- ful Christian men. It is easy enough to see that there was much in the age of Ninian to attract men like him to Rome ; but the manifest desire indicated by Bede, and subsequent writers down to the time of Ailred, and after it, to hold Rome up as the one source of everything good to the Church, has something suspicious in it. It looks extremely like as if the same cause were in opera- tion here as in the case of the stories of King Lucius and King Donald. Would it not be an additional argument in favour of the universal supremacy of the Roman see, if it could be shewn that, from the very earliest ages of the Christian Church, men looked to Rome as the one source of all true knowledge, and to the Bishop of Rome as the one head of the true Church "? We cannot but regret that Ailred did not specify what the precise views were which Ninian, by searching the Scriptures, had learned to condemn ; but we shall find as we proceed, that this instance is not singular, and that the mediaeval writers feel themselves constrained pretty generally to testify against what they call the false doctrine of the early British Church. The statement of Ailred (Vit. Nin., cap. ii.) is, that coming to Rome the blessed youth wept over the relics of the apostles, and gave himself over to their care ; then going to the Pope (presul summae sedis) he was most graciously acknowledged and received as a son. He was thereupon handed over to the teachers of the truth, to be instructed in the discipline of the faith, and the sound interpretation of Scripture. By this he largely profited ; for he came to understand that he and his countrymen Period succeeding the Roman Occupation. 59 held many views contrary to sound doctrine. Then like a bee he sucks in instruction, both for his own edifica- tion and that of many others, and finally, so chaste was he in body, so prudent in mind, so wise in counsel, so cir- cumspect in word and deed, that all men spoke of him, and he enjoyed the highest favour of the supreme pontiff himself. After many years spent in Rome, the Roman pontiff, hearing that in the western parts of Britain, while some had not received the Christian faith at all, others had received it either from heretics or from men unlearned in the divine law, consecrated Ninian to the episcopal office, and sent him as the first apostle to the people of his own nation, giving him his benediction. Such is the substance of Alfred's statement ; it agrees with Bede's, of which it is a manifest amplification throughout ; but Bede, however, does not say that Ninian was consecrated a bishop by the Pope, although he tells us distinctly that he was a bishop ; nor does Bede, in his notice of him, refer to the errors held by British Christians in Ninian's time. He speaks of him simply as a missionary. Yet there is good reason to believe that there was some dif- ference between the Church at Rome and that in Britain in the days of Ninian, although Bede's story would go to shew that there was none ; for he tells us that Ninian was instructed at Rome, and after- wards taught his countrymen what he learned ; and if there was, it was in all likelihood chiefly con- nected with the very doctrine which it is Alfred's object to establish, the doctrine of the supremacy of the Romish see. The controversy regarding Easter and the tonsure had hardly emerged, but Rome was towards the close of the 4th century muttering its claims to govern the whole Church. The Arian heresy had no doubt broken out in the early part of the century ; views 60 The Early Scottish Church. were propounded by its supporters, subversive of the faith of the Church in the divinity of our Lord, and reducing Him to the level of a mere creature ; and we have evi- dence to shew that these views reached Britain, and were adopted by some professing Christians (Gild. Works, sec. 12; Bede, B. i., c. 8). The Council of Nice assembled in A.D. 325, summoned not by the Pope but by the Emperor Constantine. "This prince thought it equitable that questions of superior im- portance, and such as intimately concerned the interests of Christianity in general, should be examined and de- cided in assemblies that represented the whole body of the Christian Church " (Mosh. Eccl. Hist, cent. iv). At the council of Nice, the views of Arius and his supporters were condemned, and the true doctrine regarding the person of Christ declared. We do not learn that Arian- ism was extensively adopted in Britain ; nay, many of the writers of this age testify that the British churches were adherents to the Nicene doctrine. Stillingfleet (Ant. of Brit. Churches, c. 175) quotes Athanasius, Jerome, and Chrysostom in evidence of this, who all mention those churches as "agreeing with other churches in the true faith." At the same time it is true that three British bishops were present at the council of Ariminum, A.D. 354, where Constantius had summoned the western bishops to meet, and where the Nicene creed was virtually disowned; a fact which can be made to consist with the former only on the assumption that, like many others, the British bishops did not really agree in the finding of the council, or if they did, that their doctrine was not received gene- rally by their own countrymen. Nor could it be the errors of Pelagius to which Bede and Ailred refer as having been held by the British Church. It was about A.D. 381 that Pelagianism first made its appearance in the Church, and though its author was a Period succeeding the Roman Occupation. 6 1 Briton its promulgation did not take place in Britain, but at Rome. This was about the time that Ninian would have had his views directed towards his future work, and it was then that he came to be convinced, not that a grievous defection was taking place, but that his country- men had held, apparently since their conversion to Christianity, certain views which, in the estimation of Ailred, were opposed to the orthodox faith. Thus it was neither Arianism nor Pelagianism with which the British Churches were chargeable ; nor could it have been laxity of morals, for the very writers who condemn those doctrines testify to the admirable character, the zeal, and the success of the men who sprung up from amidst those churches. Still, writers in the interest of Rome, in a later age, lose no opportunity of blackening the British Churches in so far as their orthodoxy is concerned ; there is manifestly a standing grudge. We shall find, as we proceed, besides such charges of unsoundness in the faith as we are dealing with, that they are charged with a want of missionary spirit, proved by the absence of effort towards the conversion of the heathen Saxons, at the very moment that they were the victims of those men's cruelty, and had to save their lives by fleeing to caves and forests from their pursuit. But the real truth is, that the defection was not in Britain but in Rome. From Rome error travelled in the train of Augustine and others to Britain, where it entered into the early Saxon Church, while the British Churches long withstood its influence. Above all, the latter denied that they had received the Gospel through the Roman See, and refused to submit to its claims of supremacy ; Hinc illce lacrymce. This is the only sub- stantial charge that can be brought against the early British Churches ; it may have been a grievous one in the eyes of a Monk of Jarrow in the 8th century, or a Cistercian Monk of Rievaux in the 1 2th ; but it will not be held as 62 The Early Scottish Church. a charge involving any loss of credit by those who have in after ages joined them in throwing off the incubus of similar claims. It can never be safely or justly forgotten, that most of what we know of those early churches is from men who, while disposed to extol every thing in them which accorded with their own peculiar views, held views diame- trically opposite to theirs on some important questions, and who, so far as these questions are concerned, cannot be received as altogether trustworthy witnesses; but from their very censures we can gather somewhat of the character of the views on such questions which were held by those early Christians. It is of consequence to note that in the early accounts which we have of the state of the Church, the final appeal in all doctrinal questions is to the Holy Scriptures. There is not a word said of mere papal authority, or the autho- rity of the Church; the error of the Britons, even accord- ing to Bede and Ailred, was in their interpretation of Scripture. Ninian went to Rome to learn the truth, and he was set to read the Scriptures. It was remarked by Polydore Vergil respecting Gildas, that he quoted no book, in his long letter on the state of the Britons, but the Bible ; and certainly his quotations from it shew, on the part of the British historian, a very thorough acquaint- ance with the word of God. The idea seems completely to pervade the minds of the men who relate to us the events of this period, that the people possessed the Scrip- tures ; their error was in what these historians hold to have been the misinterpretation of them ; but they never once suggest that a remedy for such misinterpretation was to be found in withholding the book from them altogether. It may be said that the fact of the Scriptures being in Latin, was a security against a promiscuous acquaintance with them, and the use of them among the people ; but that afforded no security in the time of Ninian, when the Latin Period succeeding the Roman Occupation. 63 language was spoken extensively over the whole Roman Province. It is worthy of notice that, while Gildas quotes the Scriptures in Latin, it is not the Latin of the Vulgate, or the ordinary Bible of the Roman Church, but a trans- lation largely differing in the forms of expression, although usually identical in point of meaning. At this period of the Church, then, the Bible was very generally dissemi- nated, and men used such translations of the sacred text as commended themselves most to their own judgment. The withholding of the Bible from the people, and excluding every translation but one from use, even among the min- isters of the Church, belonged to the ecclesiastical legis- lation of a later and more corrupt age, an age when the light of truth came to be an object of fear to the governors of the Church, and when ecclesiastical power came to be based not on the intelligence, but on the ignorance of the people. But to return to Ninian. He was sent from Rome destined as the first apostle of his own people, according to Ailred. Bede does not say whether he was sent or returned to Britain of his own accord ; the legend grew in the hands of Ailred, but so grew as to become more favourable to the claims of the Roman See ; at all events, both writers concur in relating his return to Britain. On his way he visited the famous Martin of Tours, usually called St. Martin, the originator of the monastic system in Western Europe, who is commemorated in the Roman Calendar on the 25th November, usually called Martinmas. Whether owing to the visit of Ninian or otherwise, this ecclesiastic became famous in the Celtic churches, a fact which, in Scotland, the numerous Kilmartins scattered all over the kingdom amply testify. According to Ailred Ninian derived much edification from his intercourse with this saint. Ailred's account is " Returning from the city, the man of God, filled with the Spirit, and touched 04 The Early Scottish Church. with the desire of seeing him (St. Martin), turned aside to the city of Tours ; who can tell with what joy, what devo- tion, what affection he was received. For through the grace of the prophetic light, the qualities of this new priest (pontifex) were not concealed from him. He knew, by revelation of God, that he was sanctified by the Spirit and was to profit many unto salvation. The doves are joined in the tabernacle of God, one to the other, and as two cherubims expanding their wings, they touch each other mutually, and borne on the wings of their graces, they depart to God ; and standing and laying these wings again aside, they become calmed at once." Mosheim in speaking of the arrogance of the clergy even in this age, says (Eccl. Hist. Cent. v. chap. 2) " The office of a pres- byter was looked upon as of such a high and eminent nature, that Martin, Bishop of Tours, was so audacious as to maintain at a public entertainment, that the emperor was inferior in dignity to one of that order." And he quotes Sulpitius Severus, the biographer of Martin, as authority for the fact. Ninian must have been impressed with the ecclesiastical buildings at Tours, more so, it would appear, than by those at Rome ; for he requested of Martin to sup- ply him with masons (cementarios), adding, " that he was instructed to imitate, as of the faith of the Roman Church, the manner of building churches, as well as of celebrating (constituendis) the ecclesiastical offices" (Vit. Nin.chap. 2). The friends parted with embraces, kisses, and tears, and Ninian continued his journey to his own country. Here he was received by a great concourse of people, among whom was joy, devotion, and praise of Christ ; the peo- ple held him as one of the prophets. He commenced by tearing up what was ill planted, dispersing what was improperly gathered together, and pulling down what was ill built ; " upon which, after much else, he showed the duty of the faithful, teaching by his word and ex- Period succeeding the Roma-n Occupation. 65 ample, and confirming by miracles" (Vit. Nin., c. 2). According to Ailred's statement Ninian was the first apostle to his countrymen, and yet his countrymen re- ceived him as Christians. Ailred manifestly represents him as an emissary from Rome, sent to bring the faith and practice of his countrymen into accordance with those of the Roman Church, which they could not have previously been. It was not to convert them, for they had been converted ; what else then could his apostolic mission mean \ The Britons had received the Gospel previously, but here was their first emissary from Rome in the fourth century, and hence he is called their first apostle. It may be true that this biography by the Abbot of Rievaux is not trustworthy evidence with re- gard to the facts of Ninian's life and mission. In many respects it certainly is not, being a mere piece of wordy declamation ; and yet it is well to know, in looking back to those early times, what the character of the medium is through which they must be viewed. And the more we study this the more will we see that the early Church was very different from what the mediaeval writers strive to make it. The lives of the saints in which they abound, cannot be received as history with- out close and constant inquiry. On this subject Pinker- ton says (Vit. ant. anct., p. Ill), that ''as gold is gathered from dross, so from their trifles fruits may be gathered by him who seeks to illustrate the history, geo- graphy, and manners of the middle ages ... for if we allow that the miracles are most absurd, it does not at all follow that what refers to history, geography, and morals, is of no authority." To this, however, it must be added, that in all their statements the circum- stances and bias of the writers must be taken into account ; for instance, the life of Ninian was undertaken by Ailred at the request of the canons of Whithorn, of E GO The Early Scottish Church. which church Ninian was the founder, and this fact could not but have a certain influence on his biographer ; and the need for caution in receiving his testimony will appear the more clearly when we remember that he was a monk of the twelfth century. On his return to Britain Ninian erected a clmrch at Whithorn, in Galloway, employing the builders sent from Tours to aid him in this great undertaking. The church was called Candida Gasa, or White House, in all likelihood from the whiteness of the walls, and was built about the year 400, or twenty-three years before the final withdrawal of the Romans from Britain. It was in fact built in a Eoman province, and could not therefore be the first stone building erected in the country, as we have ample testimony to show that Roman Britain abounded in such buildings. Martin of Tours having died about the time the church was erected, it was dedicated to him, and became a mem- orial of the esteem cherished for him by Ninian. " Then," says his biographer, " the candle being placed in its candlestick, it began to give forth its light with heavenly signs to those who were in the house of God (Vit. Nin., c. 4), and the flame of its graces radiating, those who were dark in their mind were enlightened by the bright and burning word of God, and the frigid were warmed." From this it would appear that Ninian, now established at Whithorn, became a zealous and faithful preacher of the Gospel, establishing at the same time a sound and scriptural discipline among his flock. If this be true, how interesting it is to contemplate the fact, that amidst the far-off wilds of Galloway, men of God maintained their faithful testimony for Christ at a period so remote that secular history has failed to afford us any tidings of it, encountering and overcoming danger, and bravely and fearlessly carrying the word of God amongst a people steeped in ignorance and barbarism. CHAPTER VII. THE MISSION OF NINIAN. MUCH of Ailred's life of Ninian is taken up with au account of his miracles. These early writers thought it of more importance to convince their readers of the mira- culous gifts of their heroes, than to inform them of the real facts of their lives, and yet these miracles are not destitute of interest, as showing the character of the belief existing in the mediseval Church, and the kind of instruction communicated by its teachers. Ninian's first miracle was healing the sickness and blindness of Tudu- vallus, king of the Strathclyde Britons, thought to be the same with Totail, father of Rhydderch Hael, in Gaelic Ruaraidh Fial, afterwards king of the same Britons, and the generous friend of St. Kentigern. The Roman government, as has already been observed, was mani- festly such as to admit, although in rare cases, of the existence of local kings or governors of the native races ; and the Cumbrian kingdom of Strathclyde was one of those in which such an arrangement was permitted. Dunbarton, 1 the ancient Alcluith, or Rock of Clyde, and Dunbritton, or Castle of the Britons, the capital, was beyond the Roman wall, but the territories of those Britons extended far within it. Tuduvallus had been the bitter enemy of the missionary, but his miraculous healing, and the restoration of his sight, had the effect of converting him into his truest and firmest friend. (Vit. Nin., chap, iv.) 1 In Gaelic Dun Bhreatuin is the name to this day. The word "Breatuin- each," or Briton, is still retained in ordinary Gaelic names. The surname Galhraith is in Gaelic, Mac a Bhreatunaich, or the son of the Briton. 68 The Early Scottish Church. On one occasion a presbyter was accused of licentious- ness, but was miraculously relieved from the charge by the saint ; for when the child with whose parentage the presbyter was charged was a few days old, he was brought to Ninian for baptism ; and the missionary hav- ing commanded it, the child proclaimed aloud the inno- cence of the presbyter and the name of its guilty parent. " Oh rem stupendam !" says the writer, " et omni admira- tione dignam ! Oh miram Dei clementiam ! Oh ineffa- bilem fidei Christianae virtutem." (Vit. Nin>, c. 6.) On another occasion the saint made the garden which supplied himself and his brethren with vegetables, to fur- nish, at a moment's notice, a bountiful supply of onions, upon which his biographer remarks, " A wonderful thing, and credible only by such as believe that nothing is im- possible to the faithful." (Vit. Nin., c. 7.) At another time he visited his herds, which he kept for the benefit of strangers and the poor, in order to give them his episcopal benediction. He blessed them and drew with his staff a circle around them, within which they would be safe for the night. Meantime, in the silence of night, thieves arrived and attempted to drive them away ; but the divine power resisted them, nay more, a bull attacked them, and gored their leader, his life and his entrails rushing out at the same wound. The man was brought to life by the saint, and all his followers became humble penitents. The enraged bull left the mark of his hoof in a stone, as if it had been wax, and to this day the place is called Farres last (Vit. Nin., c. 8), which is in Latin, the bull's footmark The F in Farres is obviously a misreading or misprint for T, as Tarw in British and Tarbh in Gaelic means a bull ; the other word may be the Welsh Llast, a receptacle. The place, if the name now exists in the neighbourhood of Whithorn, would in all probability be caUed Tarr's Last. In Gaelic the The Mission of Ninian. 69 word for " footprint" is Lorg, so that if that be the lan- guage the name would be Lorg an tairbh. One day Ninian, along with a friend, was reading the Psalter in the open air. A shower began to fall, but so much were the good men favoured, that no drop fell upon them or on their books ; Ninian allowed for a moment a forbidden thought (cogitatio illicita) to fill his mind, and in an instant, he and the pages of his volume became wetted by the falling rain. Having dismissed the intruding thought, they became again dry, in the very midst of the shower, as if under a cover. One of Ninian's scholars fled on one occasion from fear of the rod, which the saint is described as using freely, and knowing the virtues of his master, he appropriated his pastoral staff. He sought the ship which was used as a means of conveyance to Scotia. It was a vessel made of twigs of such a size that three men could find room in it by sitting closely, and it was covered with hide which rendered it perfectly safe and water-tight. The youth, by mistake, went on board a vessel as yet uncovered with hide, which immediately slid into the sea, and he was in imminent danger. Having prayed, he placed the staff of the saint in one of the openings of the wicker ; at once the water of the sea becomes tremblingly obedient, and ceases to flow into the ship ; then a gentle wind rises, the staff becomes a sail, the staff becomes a helm, and finally the staff becomes an anchor ; the people stand on the eastern shore filled with wonder. When landed, the youth plants the staff, and in answer to his prayer it be- comes a tree, nay more, a limpid fountain wells up near the root, and both become memorials of the miraculous power of Ninian. These are the miracles said to be wrought by the living Ninian ; his biographer is no less minute in detailing those wrought by his relics, but of them it is unnecessary to give 70 The Early Scottish Church. any account here. It has been said that these miracles are related merely as moral lessons, and that in this aspect there is much beauty in them. (See Mr. Grub's Eccl. Hist. vol. i., p. 19). For instance, speaking of the miracle of the shower it is said that " a parable such as this, though in the dress of a miracle, may surely escape deri- sion. Allegorically construed, it is the vehicle of high truth ; it speaks of that protection which encompasses the just of the tenure on which it depends of the negli- gence whereby it may be forfeited of the need, common to the strongest and the weakest, to watch and pray, lest they enter into temptation." This may be very true, but the question arises, were these legends received as mere allegories, charged with moral lessons ; nay more, were they intended to be so received ? Have we not every reason to believe that they were related as facts, that they were received as facts, and that they were cal- culated to nourish in the people who so received them, the most unworthy and degrading superstition. Bede mentions none of them, they are only related by Ailred, and from him they are manifestly transferred to the Aber- deen Breviary, where they form part of the commemora- tive service on the saint's day. (Brev. Aberd., vol. i., fol. 107). The real mission work of Ninian is dismissed by Ailred in a few sentences, bearing a very inadequate proportion to the account of his miracles. The relation is as follows : " Meantime the blessed man, grieved that the devil (Zabu- lus) expelled from the world beyond the sea, should have found a seat in a corner of this island, in the hearts of the Picts, set himself as an able athlete to drive out his king- dom, taking for this end the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of love, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Fortified with such arms, and the companionship of holy fathers, as if sur- The Mission of Ninian. 71 rounded with heavenly troops, he invaded the empire of the strong man armed, about to deliver many captive vessels from his dominion. Assailing, therefore, the Southern Picts, who were hitherto steeped in heathen error, and who worshipped in consequence dumb and deaf idols, he preached Gospel truth, and the purity of the Christian faith to them, God co-operating and confirming his teaching with many signs. The blind saw, the lame walked, the lepers were cleansed, the deaf heard, the dead rose, the possessed by the devil were delivered. *He opened his mouth with the word of God, through the grace of the Holy Spirit ; the faith is received, error is put away, the temples are destroyed, churches are erected ; men rush to the fountain of saving cleansing, 1 the rich and poor alike, youths and virgins, old men and young, mothers with their infants ; renouncing Satan, and all his works and pomps, they are joined to the family of believers by faith, and word, and sacraments. They give thanks to the most merciful God, who had revealed his word in the far distant isles, sending them a preacher of the truth, the light of his salvation, and calling them a people who were not a people, and her beloved who was not beloved, and her who had not sought mercy, one that sought mercy. Then the sacred Pontiff (Sacer Pontifex) began to ordain presbyters, to consecrate bishops, and to dis- pense the other dignities of the ecclesiastical grades, to divide the whole territory into regular parishes (parochias). His sons begotten in Christ being thereupon confirmed in faith and good works, and all things being settled which might conduce to the honour of God, and the salvation of souls, taking farewell of his brethren, he returns to his own church, where, having spent a life of much sanctity 1 Wells seem to have been used at an early period for baptism, which, as has been suggested, may be the origin of their being held sacred. 72 The Early Scottish Church. and glorified by miracles, he died at length in great peace." Such is Ailred's account of Ninian's great mis- sion to the Southern Picts. Bede's is much more brief : "The Southern Picts who dwell on this side of those mountains had long before (the age of Columba), as is reported, forsaken the errors of idolatry, and embraced the truth, by the preaching of Ninias, a most reverend bishop, and holy man of the British nation, who had been regularly instructed at Rome in the faith and mysteries of the truth." The main fact here is that Bede had gathered from report that the southern Picts had been converted by Ninian. This is positively all we know on reliable evi- dence ; and from this fact w T e might infer that an im- portant share in christianizing those Picts belonged to Ninian. Ailred's account is clearly an expansion of Bede's, and the Aberdeen breviary transcribes Ailred's. Bede says he was a bishop instructed at Rome, Ailred says that he was sent by the Roman pontiff as the first apostle of the southern Picts. Let us examine a little who those southern Picts were. It is a general impres- sion among modern writers upon this subject that those Picts were the ancient inhabitants of the region between the Grampian hills and the wall of Antonine, and that they occupied the present county of Fife, with part of Forfar, Perth, and Stirling. Bede (Hist. Eccl. Book iii., c. 4) describes them as lying to the south of those steep and rugged mountains, which mark the southern limit of the northern Picts. This might be true without con- fining them to the region beyond the wall. Johannes Major (De Gestibus Sector. Lib. ii., cap. 2), says that "many years after the overturn of the Pictish king- dom, the Scots held sacred the dwelling-place and body of Ninian. The Picts frequently possessed Lothian, and those parts beyond the Scottish sea (the Firth of The Mission of Ninian. 73 Forth), and the better and more fertile portion of what was north of it ; both because they occupied the island before the Scots, and because, by their number and strength, they were somewhat superior to the Scots, which is shewn by this, that they occupied territory obtained from the Britons, which marks greater pru- dence and superiority." Ralph Higden (Polychroni- con, Lib. i., cap. 58), speaking of the territory of the southern Picts, says that it was traversed by the Roman wall as far as the Scottish sea, and "included Gallo- way and Lothian." In the life of Kentigern, the great apostle of the Strathclyde Britons, by Joceline of Fur- ness, written in A.D. 1180, we read that the diocese of Kentigern was co-extensive with the Cumbrian king- dom, extending along the wall of Severus (a mistake for Antonine) which was built for purposes of defence against the incursions of the Picts, as far as the river Forth, divid- ing Scotland from England (Vit. Kentig. cap. v.). The labours of Kentigern, then, were confined within the wall of Antonine, and yet in another place Joceline tells us (cap. xxvii.) that "the Picts were first of all in a great measure converted by St. Ninian ; afterwards by Saint Kentigern and St. Columba, and that having lapsed into apostasy, they, as well as Scots, and many other people in Britain, were reclaimed by the preaching of St. Kenti- gern." This quotation shews very clearly that the Picts were not held by our older writers to have been confined to the region beyond the Forth, but to have extended southwards, embracing Galloway and the Lothians. It ' is not by any means clear, then, that Ninian's field of labour among the southern Picts was confined to the country beyond the wall; the probability is, that the wall ran partly through a Pictish territory, which the Romans never were able thoroughly to subdue. It may be very true at the same time that Ninian did labour to 74 The Early Scottish Church, the northward of the wall, but there is no reason to believe that he confined his labours to that portion of the Pictish territory. This region, then, must have been in a large measure Christian before the days of Ninian, Christianity having existed in the country for nearly 300 years. Even in Tertullian's day the Christian faith had passed the Roman wall ; its progress in a period of 200 years, during a large portion of which the Roman empire might be denominated Christian, could not be little. Ninian's reception at Whithorn, as Ailred states, was the reception of a Christian missionary by a Christian popu- lation ; nor have we reason to believe that the leaven of Christian truth had been less operative beyond the wall. Ninian arrived among the southern Picts about 200 years after they had been brought into contact with the Christian faith ; and yet he is styled primus apos- tolus sum gentis, ' the first apostle of his own people ' (Vit. Nin., cap. 11). The very facility with which he succeeded in converting those people is remarkable ; he seems at once to have found it possible to set up a com- plete ecclesiastical organization. It is not conceivable that if there had been Christians among the Picts previ- ously, they would be entirely without a Christian min- istry. Ninian, however, proceeds to put things upon a new footing, and succeeds in a wonderfully short time in making the new arrangements. If this account be true it would indicate that Ninian was in reality an emissary from Rome, and that his mission was to conform the Pictish Church to the approved model there ; he is sent as the first bishop of that Church, just as Palladius was sent as first bishop to the Scots. Rome was undoubtedly now attempting to grasp the supremacy of the whole Christian Church for herself, and taking Ailred's or even Bede's statement to be true, Ninian came to Britain on a mission for attaining that end. If Ninian was in- The Mission of Ninian. 75 deed the first bishop of the southern Picts, they obtained that bishop from Eome. It is thus clear that for the 300 previous years, however little else we know of the state of the Christian Church among those Picts, we know that they never possessed a bishop ; or the bishops they pos- sessed were bishops of the apostolic and not of the Roman type. It is not satisfactory to be led to this view of our early missionary, and yet the evidence we possess rather favours it, while that evidence is corroborated by the fact of Ninian's intimacy with Martin of Tours, whose disposition as described by Sulpitius Severus, has been referred to already. But even should episcopacy have reached Scotland in the fifth century from Rome, the episcopacy of that period was very different from the episcopacy of a later period or of modern times. Ritson observes, with his usual causticity, that these men were more like the methodist preachers of modern times than those who, as bishops, profess to be their successors now. Ussher (Prim. p. 1059) states that there was in his time a life of Ninian in Ireland, in which it was stated that owing to the annoyance he received from his mother and other relatives, he left Whithorn, and retired to Ireland, when he received from the king a grant of a place called Cluainconer, where he erected a monastery, and died after many years spent there. There is not a particle of historical evidence of any value for this state- ment, but it shews very distinctly how unreliable portions of early Irish Church history are ; and it gives rise to a question whether there has not been a tendency to appro- priate British saints on the part of Irish writers. The . Irish calendar leaves Scotland in undisputed possession of very few saints of the early Celtic Church, and yet Scotland was neither later in bei.ig christianized, nor were her establishments less famous than those of the 7G The Early Scottish Church. sister isle. Ireland has much to boast of in her "Annals," but many of the statements in these and other early church documents, require a sifting which they have not yet received. The churches in Scotland commemorative of Ninian are sufficiently numerous to shew how deep was the reverence for his name in the early Church. Chalmers (Caled. i. 315; iii. 211) enumerates no fewer than twenty- four churches and chapels dedicated to him throughout Scotland, extending from the Shetland islands to the Mull of Galloway, and one additional in Kintyre has escaped his notice. CHAPTER VIII. THE MISSION OF PALLADIUS TO THE SCOTS. THE Pelagian heresy made its appearance in the Church about the close of the fourth century. Such events do not usually take place without some preparatory process, and such a process was manifestly in progress in the early Church as led to the outbreak of this remarkable heresy. Its roots may be traced to the doctrines of the Gnostics and the writings of Origen, who had sown seed which could not but finally produce evil. Pelagius himself was a Briton (Bede's Eccl. Hist., Book i., cap. 10) ; his name is said to have been Morgan, a word composed of the two Welsh words, mor, 'the sea,' and gan, 'birth/ which, translated into Latin, a practice common in the Church, makes Pelagius. He was a man of unquestion- able learning and talent, as his controversy with Augus- tine shews ; and he is said to have written several works, including a " Commentary on the Epistles of Paul," and a part of a treatise on the power of nature and free will. The doctrine which has handed his name down with reproach to after ages had reference mainly to the person and work of the Holy Spirit. It is remarkable that no sooner were the doctrines of Arius, which had reference to the person and work of the Son, suppressed, and upon the whole effectually, than similar doctrines were broached regarding the person and work of the Divine Spirit. It would seem as if the tendency of opinion which would lead to the dishonouring of one person of the 78 Vie Early Scottish Church. Trinity is just as prone to touch the honour of another. The unity of the Divine Trinity may be discovered from the actings of its enemies, as well as from the faith and joy of believers. Thus the Arian controversy of the 4th century became the Pelagian controversy of the 5th. Bede tells us that the great friend and coadjutor of Pelagius M r as Julianus of Campania, whose anger was kindled by the loss of his bishopric, of which he had been deprived ; he further informs us that Pelagius " spread far and near the infection of his perfidious doctrine." It does not appear that he himself taught it in Britain, but Agriccfla the son of Severianus, a Pelagian bishop, brought the heresy over ; hereupon we learn that the Gallicau prelates gathered a great synod, and after consultation, by unanimous consent, chose Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, and Lupus of Troyes to go to Britain, to confirm it in the faith. It has been generally held that the mis- sion of Palladius to the Scots had some connection with the Pelagian controversy. Bede, however, says nothing of this ; all we learn from him respecting the mission is, that in the 8th year of Theodosius the younger, or A.D. 431, Palladius was sent by Celestinus, the Roman pontiff, to the Scots that believed in Christ, to be their first bishop. He represents the Gallican bishops as earnest on the subject of the Pelagian heresy, the Roman pontiff as earnest on the subject of furnishing the Scots with a bishop. It was not for the conversion of the Scots, for they already believed in Christ, nor for the confirming of them, but more likely for the purpose of organizing them after the Roman model. If Palladius was in reality an emissary from Rome, this is the only inference that can be fairly deduced from the narrative of Bede ; the Scots who believed in Christ, had obviously no bishop till now, and this event took place towards the middle of the 5th century. The Mission of PaUach'us to the Scots. 79 Prosper, usually called of Aquitaine, in his Chronicon, written about the year 455, is the earliest authority exist- ing regarding this mission ; nor can he be much in error, as he writes within twenty years after the event. All he says is, that in the year 431, "Palladius, being ordained by Pope Celestine, is sent as first bishop to the Scots believing in Christ" (Mon. Hist. Britt, p. Ixxvii.). Pros- per was one of the most energetic opponents of the Pela- gians, so much so that in one place he calls Pelagius Coluber Britannia, 'the British serpent ' (ibid., p. ci.), yet he does not in this notice connect Palladius' mission in any way with Pelagianism. He, no doubt, in his work "Contra Collatorem" (Mon. Hist. Brit., p. ci.), tells us that while Celestine " strove to retain the Roman Island (Britain) Catholic, he made the barbarous island (proba- bly Ireland, though Scotland was often called an island by early writers) Christian." If the Scots believed in Christ already, as Prosper himself intimates in his first notice, this could only have reference to organization. If Prosper and Bede be correct, Palladius was pretty mani- festly, like Ninian, an emissary of the Roman see, which was now resolutely setting itself to grasp the sceptre of universal dominion in the Christian Church. Bede quotes the very words of Prosper's chronicle, and these are ex- panded by Nennius, who gives us some insight into the mode of growth of early ecclesiastical history, and the changes it underwent in process of time. The latter tells us (Hist. Nenn., cap. 25) that when Patrick had been at Rome for many years, Palladius was sent "as first (primitus) bishop by the Roman Pope Celestine, 1 in order to convert the Scots to Christ ; that God hindered him by means of severe storms ; for no man can receive any- thing on earth unless it be given him from heaven. 1 The Roman Pope, seeing that Papa or Pope was at the time a common name for ecclesiastics. 80 The Early Scottish Church. and that Palladius crossed from Ireland and came to Bri- tain, where he died in the land of the Picts." The earliest period assigned to Nennius, or the writer who is known by that name, is A.D. 796, so that if that be the correct date, the legend had grown somewhat during the sixty- one years since the death of Bede. These two facts are very clear in Bede's narrative ; that Ninian was sent as first bishop to the southern Picts, and Palladius as first bishop to the Scots. In the chapter immediately preceding that in which he relates the mis- sion of Palladius, he tells us that the " Scots and Picts are called foreign nations, not because, they are seated out of Britain, but because they were remote from that part of it which was possessed by the Britons ; two inlets of the sea lying between them." . . . From this it is by no means clear that the mission of Palladius was to the Irish Scots alone. The statement of Nennius throws some light ,on the destination of the missionary, when he tells us (Nenn. Hist., c. 1.), that " leaving Ireland (Hibernia) he removed to Britain," and so does that of Prosper, when he speaks of the "barbarous island" as opposed to the "Roman island" (Mon. Hist. Brit., ci.) ; and from these authorities it appears probable that the mission was in the first instance to Ireland, but the statement of Bede, and the course adopted by Palladius himself, render it quite as probable that his mission embraced the Scots, whether in Ireland or in the northern portion of Britain. It has already been shewn that the first writer who mentions the Scots is Ammianus Marcellinus, about A.D. 360, when they appear as. allies of the Picts. Innes (Civ. and Eccl. Hist., p. 25) holds that this agrees with the opinion maintained by some, that the Scots crossed from Ireland about 150 years before ; that they had had time to increase, and to become able and dangerous allies of the Picts in their wars with the Romans. But it The Mission of Palladius to the Scots. 81 would agree equally well with the opinion that they had been in Scotland for any length of time previously, see- ing it merely implies the application of a name to this people, which had never been applied to them before, either in Scotland or in Ireland. The Scots were never heard of under that name before A.D. 360, and then we find the name, as has been already noticed, for the first time in the pages of a Latin author ; we have nothing in fact to shew that such a nation as the Scots existed at all before A.D. 360. We know, at least, that the name did not exist ; and at the time that the name appears, we find, upon unquestionable authority, that the people to whom it is applied, inhabit Scotland, and are the allies of the Picts in their inroads upon the Roman province. The name Scots is, beyond dispute, applied first of all, as it appears in authentic history, to a people inhabiting North Britain. It is not disputed that these people were the same race with the native inhabitants of Ireland, and that the latter in consequence had a right to the same appellation ; but as to the first appearance of the name, the fact is as has been stated. The name Scotia is of considerably more recent date than that of Scoti or Scots ; it is not the earlier name of Ireland. In the quotation from Aristotle, which the compilers of the "Monumenta Historica Brittannica" admit as authentic, the earliest name of Ireland is lerne, and of Britain, Albion ; and these are the latest names too, for, among the native Irish, Ireland is Erin at this day, and, to the native Scot, Scotland is only known as Alba. The name Scotia does not appear at all before the seventh century, and is first used by Isidore of Seville (Ibid. Hist. Orig. Lib. ix., c. 2), who wrote about A.D. 600. He applies it to Ireland, although there is manifestly consider- able confusion in his ideas ; he tells us, for instance, that " the Scots derive their name in their own language from F 82 The Early Scottish Church. their painted bodies," where he obviously mistakes them for the Picts, and where he gives a very sensible account of the origin of the name Pict. He afterwards tells us that " Scotia is the same with Ibernia, the nearest island to Britain," obviously indicating that Ibernia was an established and well-known name, which must be made use of to explain this more recent appellation of Scotia. The name appears next in the writings of the Geographer of Kavenna, who also flourished in the seventh century, and who speaks (Mon. Hist. Britt., p. xxvi.) of Insula maxima, quce dicitur Hibernia, quce ut dictum est, et Scotia appellatur, 'The largest island which is called Hibernia, and which, as is said, is also called Scotia ;' meaning that it is well known by the name of Hibernia, and is said to be also called Scotia ; that there is no cer- tainty on this point ; men say so ; but that there is per- fect certainty as to its ancient and usual name being Hibernia. Towards the close of the seventh century and onwards the name was in general use, as we find from the writings of Adomnan and others. We find, then, the name Scots first appearing in the year 360, and used to designate the allies of the Picts in their incursions into the Eoman province ; and 240 years after we find the name Scotia for the first time coming into use, transferred manifestly from the people to the country which they inhabited. From this time the practice of writers using the term is various. Adom- nan almost uniformly, if not altogether so, applies it to Ireland, his own native island. But not so other writers. Bede applies it sometimes to Scotland. He calls Hi or lona " insula Scottorum," an island of the Scots (Eccl. Hist, B. iii. 1 7.) ; and tells of Ceallach, who had been appointed missionary to the Mercians, that he quitted his episcopate, adding (B. iii. c. 21), that he returned to Hi, which, he says, was among the Scots a chief mon- The Mission of Palladius to the Scots. 83 astery ; and he relates of Colman (B. iii. 26), that he returned from England to Scotia to consult with his friends, adding (B. iv. 4), that he repaired to Hi. What is equally significant is, that generally throughout his history Bede applies the term Hibernia to Ireland. Isidore, and the Geographer of Eavenna, who lived on the continent, the one in Spain and the other in Italy, might have heard that the name Scotia was applied to Ireland, and Adomnan, with the usual nationality of his countrymen, and knowing Ireland to be the chief coun- try of the Scots, might appropriate the name, newly originated, to his own country ; but Bede follows a dif- ferent practice, and while applying the term Scots indis- criminately to those of Ireland and Britain, distinguish- ing the latter by the term " Scoti septemptrionales," or northern Scots, he in like manner uses Scotia indis- criminately, sometimes applying it to modern Scotland, as in the case already quoted, and at other times to Ire- land, as in describing Egfrid's invasion (Lib. iv., c. 26.) The only way in which the difficulties of this question can be met, is by the assumption which all the evidence referred to bears out, that the term Scotia was applied to the whole territory of the Scots, whether in Scot- land or Ireland. It is so in the case of Bede, the most reliable of all our early historians ; the people were Scots in both islands, and their territory became Scotia in consequence. For a time Ireland was Scotia major, and north-western Scotland Scotia minor; but in the long-run Scotia minor won the day, and carried off the prize, if it be considered one. This is the only satisfac- tory solution of the difficulties connected with the ques- tion regarding the locality of ancient Scotia. In modern times we find a nearly analogous case. The islands which compose this united kingdom are often denomi- nated Britain ; our Sovereign is called the Queen of Bri- 84 The Early Scottish Church. tain, and our Parliament is called the British Parliament ; in like manner, while Erin and Alba retained their distinc- tive denominations, the territory of the Scots in either island was denominated Scotia from the seventh century downwards. Ussher devotes much time and space to con- trovert this view, and some writers in modern Scotland have agreed with him, maintaining that no country was known as Scotia, but Ireland, until the beginning of the tenth century. If Adomnan and writers of the same school alone be referred to as authorities, there may be some ground for this conclusion, but in the face of the authority of Bede, who was an entirely neutral party, utterly indifferent, as he must have been, to national claims involved, it is hard to see how it can be defended. Gordon, in his " Intinerarium Septemptrionale," and Innes in his " Civil and Ecclesiastical History," both agree in the view now stated and defended the latter, a Roman Catholic priest, and one of the most learned, temperate, profound, and judicious writers on the early history of this or any other country, and most trustworthy, if suffi- cient allowance be made for the bias acquired from his views on ecclesiastical polity. It is not possible, then, from the notice given by Pros- per and Bede, to say whether Palladius was deputed to visit the Scots in Ireland or in Britain. The state- ment of Nennius alone enables us to conclude that his mission embraced chiefly Ireland, as he first directed his course to that island. All writers on the subject, however, allow that the stay of Palladius in Ireland was brief. 1 The island was probably at the time in a large measure heathen, and whether impelled by persecution, or by what he judged the want of success, he crossed to Scot- land, and finally took up his residence in the land of the 1 See Dr. Todd of Dublin's recent work on St. Patrick. The Mission of Palladius to the Scots. 85 Picts (terra Pictorum), where he died, as is usually thought, at Fordoun, in the county of Kincardine, or Mearns. Colgan says (Vita Secunda Sancti Patricii, cap, xxiv., p. 13), that after a short time he died " in Campo Girgin, in a place called Fordun." This Campus Girgin is said to be a translation "of Magh Ghirgin (the Plain of Girgin), the Gaelic name of which " the Mearns" is an abbreviation ; the same word on the west coast is Marbhairn (Morvern). Colgan seems to have been mis- taken in his analysis of the name. But there is ample reason to believe that the facts of Palladius' death are as stated, there being to this day at Fordoun an annual fair, called Padie's fair (Innes' Civil and Eccles. Hist., p. 65), or Palladie's fair, commemorative of his name, while the church and a neighbouring well were both dedicated to him, and Innes farther mentions that his relics were preserved there till the Eeformation. Irish annalists give a short period to Palladius' labours in Scotland. " Post parvum interval- lum," says Colgan, after a short interval he died ; but Scotch writers give him a much longer period, during which he baptized and admitted Servanus and Ternan to the office of the ministry. Early Irish writers cannot, for several reasons, be held so trustworthy in historical questions relating to Scotland, or in which Scotland and Ireland have a mingled interest, as in those which relate to Ireland alone. This must be borne in mind in dealing with their evidence, nor need we wonder that that evidence should require sifting, on reaching ns from an age in which such statements as are made regarding the miracles of Patrick and Columba were given to the world as facts. Reference has already been made to the term " primus apostolus," as applied by Ailred to Ninian. The "pri- mus episcopus," in the case of Palladius, has also given rise to much discussion. It cannot be maintained in 86 The Early Scottish Church. this case, as it has been in another of a later date, which we shall meet with as we proceed, that the ' primus ' here had reference to ecclesiastical rank, and referred to eccle- siastical Primacy as conferred on Palladius. The 'pri- mus ' here has been, without dispute, allowed to refer to priority of time ; Palladius was the first Bishop of the Scots. Ninian was sent from Rome as first Bishop to the Picts about A.D. 400, and about thirty years after Palladius was sent from Eome as first Bishop to the Scots, and both laboured and died in what is now called Scotland. The mission of Palladius took place about 350 years after Christianity first entered Scotland, and yet he was the first Bishop of the Scots, no doubt, the Scots in Ireland, but the Scots who were settled in Scot- land also. Fordun's account of the Church in the intervening period, is remarkable, and has been much canvassed ; yet coming from a monk of the Roman Catholic Church in the fourteenth century, it is entitled to an amount of weight which writers who depreciate Fordun's authority have denied to it. His words are, speaking of Palladius coming to Scotland "Before whose coming the Scots had, as teachers of the faith (doctores fidei), and adminis- trators of the sacraments, presbyters only, and monks, following the order (ritum) of the primitive church." (Scotochr. Lib. iii., c. 8). He also states that the Scots had been "long before believers in Christ." Innes (Civ. and Eccl. Hist., Book i., p. 58, &c.) takes Fordun to task for this statement, and ridicules his quoting as his autho- rity Ralph Higden's Polychronicon, a work the author of which was his own cotemporary, and which in reality does not contain the passage quoted. Let that be as it may, Innes' reply to Fordun is at least as unsatisfactory as Fordun's authority. For Fordun's statement we have ample vouchers in the words of Prosper and Bede. If The Mission of Palladius to the Scots. 87 Palladius was the " first bishop/' there could have been none before him. But Innes says that " neither Fordun nor any of the Catholic writers that copied him, ever dreamed that those priests or doctors of the Scots had no episcopal ordination." (Civil and Eccl. Hist., p. 60). We do not know what Fordun dreamed ; he does not tell us, but he gives us to know that so far as he could learn the Scots had only presbyters, or as Innes translates the word, priests and monks, previous to the coming of Pal- ladius. Now they could not have had monks, for the monkish order was first introduced into Western Europe by Martin of Tours, who died very shortly before the mission of Palladius, so that from Fordun's statement we must conclude that the Scots, who believed in Christ, were ministered to by presbyters previous to the mission of Palladius. If, as Innes maintains, these had episcopal ordination, whence did they obtain it ? The Picts had no bishop to confer it ; the Britons were in similar circum- stances, so far as any evidence goes to shew ; and even were it otherwise, it is not very probable that Scottish Christians would have ventured within the Eoman wall to obtain ordination for their ministers, at a time when there was chronic war between the nation, and the Roman government. There would, no doubt, have been Christian ministers, and Christian ordinances, but they would have been ministers after the Bible model, and not after that of Rome. Many mistakes in connection with Church history arise from misapprehension of the meaning of words, and no word has conveyed more erroneous ideas than that of episcopus or bishop. Presbyterians agree Avith Episcopalians in respecting the Episcopal order, they differ only in the meaning they attach to the term. It is remarkable how rarely writers, who maintain the exist- ence of the episcopal order, as now constituted, in the early Church, go beyond the early fathers in citing their autho- 88 The Early Scottish Church. rities ; how rarely they quote the Scriptures and aposto- lical practice as there exhibited. Ussher, Lloyd, Stilling- fleet, Innes, are all equally characterized by this peculiarity, and by entirely ignoring the fact that presbyterians do not deny episcopacy, but maintain that in Scripture the bishop and the presbyter are one, and that every presby- ter is an " episcopus," or overseer of the flock of Christ. That very different views on the subject of bishops existed at an early period from those which exist now, is sufficiently clear from what Ussher quotes from Joceline in his life of St. Patrick (Eccl. Prim., p. 950), where he says, "that under St. Patrick there were 350 famous, holy bishops, filled with the Holy Ghost ;" he says he consecrated this number with his own hand. Nennius also says, that "he founded 365 churches, ordained 365 bishops, and 3000 presbyters." Antonine and Vincentius and other authors make the same statement ; 365 bishops and 3000 presbyters in Ireland is surely more like a pres- byterian than an episcopal organization. If these state- ments be true, and they are made on the authority of Eoman Catholic writers, who may surely be believed when writ- ing what is opposed to their own system, the episcopacy of St. Patrick's time was a very different institution from the modern episcopacy of either Rome or England. Neither Innes, nor any other writer who has followed him, have touched Fordun's statement, that Scotland had only presbyters previous to the mission of Palladius ; and if so, Palladius, like Ninian, must, from the evidence we possess, have been an emissary of the Roman See, whose object was to organize Christianity among the Scots of Ireland and Scotland, in accordance with what was then the Roman model. The civil power of Rome being on the wane, the ecclesiastical power began to rise on its ruins, and there may have been no little connection between the two processes; the loss of one species of The Mission of Palladius to the Scots. 89 power may have helped to impel an ambitious people, accustomed to universal dominion, to seek after the establishment of another. It may be asked whether the See of Rome had really assumed such an attitude and reached to so high an ambition at so early a period. It is true indeed that the Rome of the fourth and fifth centuries was very different from the Rome of the twelfth and thirteenth. The power of the Roman See was not the growth of a day ; century after century of wise and persistent management secured for it that power, the possession of which led to its gradual and still progressive downfal. Rome differed much from itself at different periods of its history ; this is true, both with regard to its doctrine and organization, much as it may pretend to infallibility. So early, however, as the age of Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, who suffered martyrdom A.D. 260, the claims of Rome were beginning to be put forth and acknowledged ; not that the actual supremacy of the Roman See was established, for in his controversy with Stephen the Roman bishop, Cyprian shews not the least respect for his office, as one implying infallibility, or entitling its possessor to submission independent of the convictions of one's own mind ; but the state of the Church was undergoing a cer- tain measure of change from primitive times. A late distinguished writer (Cunningham's Hist. Theol., vol. i., p. 168) has described its condition in the age of Cyprian in a few sentences, which may be quoted " First, There is enough in the writings of Cyprian to prove that down even to the middle of the third century, the substantial identity of bishops and presbyters was maintained ; and the idea of the episcopate being by divine appoint- ment a distinct, independent, higher office than the pres- byterate was yet not generally received ; Secondly, There is enough to prove, that in Cyprian's time, and in a great 90 The Early Scottish Church. measure through his exertions, an important distinction between bishops and presbyters, implying some superior- ity, not well defined, of the one over the other, became prevalent ; and, Thirdly, That he has laid down, though very vaguely and obscurely, some principles which, when fully carried out and applied, lay a good foundation for maintaining, that there should be one visible head of the whole Church, and for vesting some kind or degree of primacy or supremacy in the Bishop of Rome." Nearly a century after Cyprian, the Roman emperor had become Christian, and exercised without dispute the function of calling general councils of the Church ; the councils of Nice, Sardis, and Rimini, were all called by the authority of the emperor. At this time steps were taken by the civil government to set limits to the power both of the bishops and the people. In depriving the latter of their privileges the ecclesiastical rulers willingly gave their aid, and by the close of the century " there remained no more than a shadow of the ancient govern- ment of the Church." (Mosh. EccL Hist. Cent, iv., cap. 2). In connection with this change, the Bishop of Rome, although by no means as yet a Pope, came to be " the first in rank, and to have a sort of pre-eminence over all other prelates/' (Mosh. ibid). In the fifth century in which the mission of Palladius took place, the ambition of Rome was stimulated by the rivalry of Constantinople. The removal of the seat of government to the east required some change in the arrangements of the Church ; so, to suit the convenience of the court, Constantine set up the Bishop of Constanti- nople as,in a great measure, the rival of the Bishop of Rome. The emidation was keen and persistent, and was one of the means which conduced to the final establishment of Roman supremacy in the west. The barbarians of the north, while crushing the civil power in Rome, became, for poli- The Mission of Palladius to the Scots. 91 tical purposes, the slaves of the Church, and in the hands of such a man as Leo the Great, the power of the Eoman See was largely increased, although still far short of what it became in the hands of a Hildebrand and similar men. There is nothing inconsistent then with what we know about the Kome of the fifth century in the assumption that she sent her emissaries to Britain ; nay, taking the condition of the Western Church generally, which had accommodated itself to her model, and the condition of the British Church, which our most trustworthy authori- ties shew had not, there is strong ground for the conclu- sion that these first bishops had been sent as missionaries in her interest, and were in all probability zealous, earnest men, who believed that in altering the organization of the British Church they were doing God acceptable ser- vice. It would appear that the mission of Palladius differed from that of Ninian in being unsuccessful. The after condition of the Scottish Church is corroborative of this conclusion. CHAPTER IX. THE MISSION OF ST. PATRICK. THE mission of Patrick, the son of Calphurnius or Patrick Mac Alpin, as he is usually styled in the Scottish High- lands, although connected chiefly with the ecclesiastical history of Ireland, cannot be overlooked in any account of the early history of the church in Scotland. The place of Patrick's birth has been made a matter of much con- troversy ; latterly some doubts have been thrown even on his existence, and some writers have been led to think that he is identical with Palladius. Both are said to have been Scots, and the year 431 is that held pretty generally to have been the date of the mission of both. " The legend of St. Patrick, in its present shape, is not older than the ninth century, and under the influence of an investigation into older authorities, he dissolves into three personages : Sen-Patricius, whose day in the calen- dar is the 24th August ; Palladius, qui est Patricius, to whom the mission in 432 properly belongs, and who is said to have retired to Alban or Scotland, where he died among the Cruithne ; and Patricius, whose day is the 27th March, and to whom alone a certain date can be assigned, for he died in the chronological period in the year 493, and from the acts of these three saints the subsequent legend of the great apostle of Ireland was compiled, and an arbitrary chronology applied to it " (W. F. Skene, In. to Dean of Lismore's Book, p. 73). The confusion with reference to Patrick and Palladius seems The Mission of St. Patrick. 93 to have arisen from viewing both as being sent by the Pope. There is no authority for this as respects Patrick, The story of St. Patrick is variously related. In his own confession (Confessio Pat.) he says, "I Patrick, a sinner, the most rude, and the least of all the faithful, and the most contemptible with most people, had as my father, Calpurnius, formerly a deacon, the son of Potitus, a presbyter, 1 who lived in the village of Bonaven, belong- ing to Tabernia ; for he had a cottage in the neighbour- hood where I was captured. I was then about sixteen years old. But I was ignorant of the true God, and was led away into captivity to Ireland/' Such is the account said to be given of the great Irish missionary by himself. There is very considerable reason to suppose that the document called the Confessio Patricii is authentic, al- though its authenticity has been questioned, and the pro- bability is, that the real Patrick of Irish history was the son of Calpurnius, a deacon, and the grandson of Potitus, a priest, who lived at Bonaven, belonging to Tabernia. If this story had been the production of a later age, Cal- purnius would not have been made the son of a father in holy orders ; it must be older than the practice of celibacy among the clergy. It is not an easy matter to identify the locality given by the saint as the place of his birth. That it was in Britain is manifest from other passages in the confession. He tells us, for instance (c. 1 0), that he was " in Britain with his parents " on one occasion; and again, that " he was ready to go into Britain, yea, most willingly as to his own country and parents ; and not only so, but to go even to Gaul to visit the brethren." Some writers have held that the Britain spoken of here was Armorica. The strong emphasis laid upon his going to Gaul in the last extract quoted, is sufficient to shew that Gaul must 1 The word " Presbyter " is almost uniformly translated priest by one class of writers. limes does so, and others besides. 94 The Early Scottish Church. have been at a much greater distance from Britain than o could be implied in crossing the line from Armorica into France, while, if the Bretons were but fugitive colonists from the invading Saxons of the fifth century, the name of Britannia could not have existed at the period of Patrick's birth as applied to Brittany. Ussher (Prim., p. 819) agrees in the statement that Patrick was a native of Britain, and is disposed to fix the place of his birth at Kilpatrick on the Clyde. The name of this locality is not however of the slightest value as evidence on the question. There is a Kilpatrick in Dumfriesshire, and there are Kilpatricks in places which can have no possible connection with either the birth or the life of the saint. All that the name shews is, that the church in that locality was dedicated to him. Ussher quotes Probus in his life of the saint who gives us Patrick's own account of his birth, adding that the place was not far from the western sea (hand procul a mare occidentali). Joceline in his life of St. Patrick, writing in the twelfth century, adds that he was by nation a Briton, and that Tabernia is from " Campus Tabernaculorum," because the Romans pitched their tents there. He also tells us that his father lived (secus oppidum Empthor) near the town of Empthor, which some imagine to be Nemphlar in Renfrewshire. Fiach (Prim. Eccl., p. 819) calls the place of his birth Nempthur in the northern part of Britain. Joceline (Vit. Pat, cap. 11) says, "This place was in the valley of the Clyde, and was usually called by the people themselves Dunbretan, or Mons Britonum, ' the hill of the Britons/ Joceline thus makes his birth-place Dunbarton, which he makes identical with Nempthur. All these older autho- rities point to the north bank of the Clyde as the birth- place of the saint. And yet there is not much reliance to be placed on the evidence of men who write seven or eight hundred years after the event which they are nar- The Mission of St. Patrick. 9i> rating. Were we to be guided by the words of the saint himself, we would fix upon Banavie in Lochaber as the place of his birth. Bonaven of Tabernia, making allow- ance for the changes made in latinizing Celtic words, is far more like the translation of these words than of any other that have been suggested, and the place lies towards the western sea. Besides, Ussher notices that Sigibert (Prim. Eccl., p. 820) calls Patrick a Scot, which is much more in harmony with the fact of his being born in Locha- ber than in the very heart of a British kingdom. Cardinal Baronius also calls him a Scot, though an Irish Scot (Bar. Ann. 431). If St. Patrick was a Scot, and some authorities, if there are any that can be relied on, are in favour of this conclusion, we have an interesting view afforded us of the condition of the early Scottish Church. 1 Patrick M' Alpine (and the very name savours of Ben Nevis), or the son of Calpurnius, as latinized by himself, was the son of a deacon, who was himself the son of a presbyter, named Potitus. These names are held to savour of a Latin origin. But we have Emchadus and Virolecus inhabiting the valley of Glenurquhart, near Loch Ness, in the days of Columba (Vit. Col. Adomn. Lib. iii., c. 14), and why not Calpurnius and Potitus in the near neighbourhood in those of St. Patrick. Here then we have a succession of three generations holding office in the Scottish Church pre- vious to the years from 372 to 376, when Patrick is said to have been born, although, if he commenced his mission in 432, the real period of his birth was more likely about 400. But speaking generally, these three generations of Christian office-bearers existed in the Scottish Church during the fourth century, or nearly a century before the 1 We have not taken up the question regarding the claims of Wales to be held as the birth-place of St. Patrick, nor the story of his mother Conchessa, and of his being nephew to St. Martin of Tours. There is not a particle of trustworthy authority on any one of these questions. 96 The Early Scottish Church. mission of Palladium. This is in a measure corroborative of Fordun's statement, regarding the early condition of that Church, to which Innes and others have taken so much exception. But we have been dealing with authorities most of them belonging to a period nearly 1000 years later than the age of St. Patrick himself. What do we learn from the earlier writers 1 From himself we learn that he was a native of Britain as already observed, that he was taken prisoner at an early age by the Irish, that he spent several years in Ireland in menial service of the lowest kind, that he was converted to Christ, that he was mira- culously delivered from bondage, that Christ commanded him to go to Ireland, and that he devoted himself to preaching the Gospel among the Irish, that he met with many trials, but had great success, for he tells us that " in Ireland they who never knew God, and worshipped idols and unclean things, have now become the people of God, and are called the sons of God. The sons of Scots and daughters of chieftains are seen to be monks and virgins of Christ. There was also one blessed Scottish virgin (Bridget) of noble race, most fair, and adult, whom I baptized." (These two last paragraphs do savour of a later era than the beginning of the fifth century.) At the same time we learn nothing in the " Confession " of his being at Rome at any time. "He seems never to have gone beyond Britain. We learn nothing of his having ordained bishops or founded churches. He speaks like a true apostle of having baptized a convert, but relates nothing of what is detailed most fully regarding him by writers 1000 years after. 1 1 There is a remarkable difference between the " confession " and the " epistle about Coroticus " of St. Patrick. In the latter he is the full-blown churchman, an " episcopus," and one invested with a power and jurisdiction to which the other makes no reference. It is hardly possible to believe them to be the writing of the same man. They may be severally the work of the older and the later Patrick. The Mission of St. Patrick. 97 Prosper, of Aquitaine, who wrote during the currency of St. Patrick's mission, makes no reference whatsoever to him ; he neither tells us that he was at Rome, nor that he was sent from Rome. He speaks of Palladius, but not of Patrick ; and yet some are credulous enough to believe that he succeeded Palladius as an emissary from Rome, and was the second Bishop of the Scots. There is not so much as one shred of reliable evidence in proof of this. G-ildas, our next oldest authority to Prosper, does not mention the name of Patrick ; he makes no allusion either to him or his mission ; nor does Bede; the name of Patrick never occurs in his whole history. It has been said that Bede's object was to give the history of the Anglo-Saxon Church, and that he might not have felt it incumbent on him to make any mention of such a work as St. Patrick's among the Celts. But he tells of Ninian, of Palladius, and of Columba ; and why not of Patrick ? He either knew nothing of him or he had some reason for making no reference to what he knew. Was it because he could not say honestly that Patrick was in Rome, and could not connect his name in any way with the support of Romish pretensions ? Was it because Patrick had been building up what Augustine had been sent to destroy ? Besides, in one of the oldest Irish MSS., the Book of Durrow, St. Patrick is styled a " presbyter " (Vit. Col. Reeves' Ed., p. 242 n.). Putting all these things together that St. Patrick never was at Rome, that he was a mere presbyter, that he had dedicated himself to the Irish mission by command of Christ we can see that Patrick held a differ- ent place from Ninian and Palladius, and may discover some reason why Bede in his history entirely ignores his existence. 1 From all that can be learned, of him, 1 Bede does enter him in his Martyrology as a Presbyter, which is at any rate a proof of his existence. G 98 The Early Scottish Church. there never was a nobler Christian missionary than Patrick. He and Columba were men of a class, true representatives of the ministers of the ancient Scottish Church, and men who, while having much in common with the earnestness and zeal of Niriian and Palladius, were not, like them, engaged in fostering an organ- ization which was to lead to the future enslavement of the Church. It is obvious that objection may be taken to what is said with reference to Bede, from the fact that he does refer to Columba, and devotes more space to his account of him than to that of Ninian or Palladius. Bede could not avoid referring to Co- lumba ; the early conversion of the Anglo-Saxons was so intimate]y connected with Columba and his suc- cessors, that to ignore him would have been to ignore history itself. Unless this be the true account of the matter, it is hard to say where it is to be found, and to deny the existence and mission of St. Patrick alto- gether, would be to treat the uniform tradition as well as the authentic history of the Irish Church, in a manner for which we have no warrant. Patrick was like Co- lumba, a Presbyter ; he went to Ireland from love to Christ, and love to the souls of men. as he tells us in his " Confession ;" he might have had no great respect for certain ecclesiastical forms which came to be held in much esteem in the days of Bede, yet was he nevertheless a true missionary of Christ, who conveyed inestimable blessings to the Irish people. Strange that a people who owed Eome nothing in connection with their conversion to Christ, and who long struggled against her pretensions, should be now ranked among her most devoted adher- ents, and that they should associate this devotion to Rome with their devotion to St. Patrick, who owed nothing to Rome either. No people in Europe have more completely changed their position in reference to The Mission of St. Patrick. 99 that taken up by their early Christian ancestors, than have the modern Irish. Many of the legends told of St. Patrick are undeserv- ing of the slightest credence, though the number of the lives of the saint said to have been written is very great. The tripartite life edited by Colgan is that most worthy of regard ; but as the mission of St. Patrick pertains more to Irish than to Scottish history, it is not needful to enter here into its alleged details. 1 The Scottish form of these will be found detailed in the Aberdeen Breviary. The only additional fact regarding St. Patrick which it may be important to notice is, that Adomnan only adverts once either to his existence or his mission to Ireland, in his whole work on the life of Columba ; a remarkable fact, if all related of him by more recent Irish hagiologists be true. 1 Dr. Todd's volume on St. Patrick contains almost everything that can be collected regarding the early Irish missionary. CHAPTER X. SEEVANUS, TERNAN, AtfD KENT1GEEN. THE next names that appear among the early mission- aries of Scotland after Ninian are Servanus and Ternan. These men were the disciples of Palladius, having, in all probability, been baptized and afterwards ordained by him about the year 440. St. Serf is famous in the hagi- ology of Scotland, as connected with the ancient ecclesi- astical institution at Loch Leven. The name of Ternan, or Tighearnan, is less famous, but is commemorated at Banchory-Ternan, in Kincardineshire, and has been con- founded in other cases with that of Ernan, an Irish saint of later date. Killearnan, of which there are several in Scotland, is, when pronounced in Gaelic, Cille Thighear- nan, and may be the Church of Ternan, as well as that of Ernan. Ussher speaks of a life of Servanus existing in his time, which was full of idle legends (Prim. 674), and the story of St. Serf is variously related by our early Scottish writers. Fordun (Scotochr. iii. 9) tells us that Palladius made him his own coadjutor in teach- ing the people the "orthodox faith," where there is distinct reference to the particular work which Pal- ladius had assigned to him. In the life of Kentigern, in the Glasgow Chartulary (Chart. Glas., p. 85), we read that Servanus taught the Christian law to the clergy, it being mentioned previously that his residence was at Servanus, Ternan, and Kentigern. 101 Collenros (Culros). 1 The Breviary of Aberdeen (Brev. Aber., 1st July), seems to contain in full the legend of Servanus, and an epitome of it will present the reader with what was believed concerning him in the middle ages, the MS. from which it has been printed being written about the beginning of the sixteenth century. From this we learn that Servanus, who derived his origin from the nation of the Scots, lived according to the form and rites of the primitive Church (sub forma et ritu primi- tive ecdesie vixify until the coming of Palladium, who was sent by Pope Celestine to convert the nation of the Scots, and who found there the holy Servanus. There are two remarkable statements here, bearing out the views already presented with regard to those Eoman missions ; that the primitive Church in Scotland was, in respect of organization and rites, different from what it afterwards became, and that Palladius was sent to con- form it to the Eoman model. The authority here is that of the Roman Catholic Church itself in the sixteenth century, and it is vain for Innes or others to say that writers of the Roman Catholic party could never mean anything in such statements that could militate against the claims of their own Church : reasoning thus is begging the whole question. These men wrote what was known and believed at the time, and we give them the more credit, just because, judging from Innes, we might expect their bias to be the other way. The legend in the Breviary tells us farther, that Ser- vanus being thoroughly instructed, was raised by Palladius to the Episcopal dignity, among all the nation of the Scots, and made his own Suffragan. What truth is in this we know not ; but the institution at Loch Leven, 1 " Eos " means " Nemus," a forest as well as a promontory, hence " Muc Kos," or " Nemus porcorum." " Culros " means' the back of the forest, as " Kin- ross " means the end of the forest. 102 The Early Scottish Church. which claimed St. Serf as its founder, was afterwards a Culdee establishment, and only yielded to Eome, after a severe struggle, in the twelfth century. The miracles attributed to this saint are numerous, and some of them are interesting as containing topographical allusions. On one occasion a poor man had killed his sow in order to provide refreshment 'for the saint and his followers; but such was the merit of the saint, that although a large portion of the sow had been eaten, the generous host found it alive immediately after. The saint converted water into wine, and, giving it to a sick monk 1 to drink, he was restored to perfect health. On one occasion he was sorely tempted with many ques- tions by the devil in a cave at Dysart. 2 The devil, utterly unsuccessful in his assaults on the saint, entered into a certain miserable man, whom he rendered so voracious that no amount of food could satisfy him. The saint, however, placed his thumb in the mouth of the poor suf- ferer, when, the demon terrified and screaming horribly, fled away. A thief stole a sheep belonging to the blessed Ser- vanus. He killed and ate it forthwith ; but suspicion falling on him, he hastened into the presence of the saint, where he endeavoured to vindicate himself. He swore solemnly that he was innocent of the crime ; when, strange to say, the bleating of the eaten sheep was heard in the throat of the thief; conscience-stricken he fell to the earth, and besought pardon of the saint. In a place called Dunnyne (Dunning) the inhabitants were harassed by a dreadful dragon, which destroyed both men and cattle. The saint assailed the terrible 1 This before monks existed. 2 Dysart, in Fifeshire, where the cave still exists. This cave seems to have given its name to the place, the name being from Diseart, the adaptation in Gaelic of the Latin ' Desertum,' and applied to " a hermitage." These disearts were common in Scotland. The Church of Glenorchy derives its name of ' Clachan an diseairt" from this word. Ternan, and Kentigern. 1 03 beast alone, armed Avith the breast-plate of faith, and smiting him with the point of his staff, he slew him. In memory of this event the place is to this day called Vallis draconis, 'the Glen of the dragon.' 1 The blind, the lame, the dumb, were all healed by him. The Breviary adds, that there was another Servanus, an Israelite, who, in the time of the blessed Adomnan, Abbot in the island of Petmook (Portmoak, near Loch Leven), performed many miracles. It is not improbable that there were two early missionaries of the name of Servanus ; that St. Serf of Loch Leven was a different person from St. Serf of Culross; and that the Servanus of whom we are now treating was the disciple of Palladius, and, like his master's, that his mission was in some respects not a successful one. That is, if the legend of the medi- aeval Church be true, which there is reason to doubt, from what we can gather from the life of his pupil, Ken- tigern. The impression produced by the perusal of the latter is, that Servanus preached and taught as a Christian missionary at Culross, according to the system of the ancient British Church. He may have been ordained by Palladius ; but there was nothing in the state of the early Church in Fife to indicate an influence different from that which moulded it throughout the rest of Britain. Of Ternan or Tighearnan, the Aberdeen Breviary (Brev. Aberdon., 12th June), says that he was a confessor and priest, and in the calendar makes him a bishop. He was by birth a Scot, born of noble parents, in the province which is called Myrma (probably the Mearns, or Kincardine) ; he was baptized and instructed by Palladius, who was admonished in doing so by divine revelation. If bap- tized in his infancy, this would make him considerably The name continues to adhere to this locality 104 The Early Scottish Church. the junior of Servanus, whom Palladius found a member of the primitive British Church when he arrived in Scot- land in 431. Having heard of the fame of Pope Gregory, the youth paid a visit to Kome, earnestly thirsting after the instruction and counsel of so holy a man. Gregory having heard of it received him honourably, and after seven years raised him to the Episcopal office, and sent him to preach the Gospel to the unbelieving. Gregory presented the saint with a bell which, how- ever, he and his companions found so ponderous that, unable to carry it, they left it behind them at Eome. But morning after morning the bell was found lying beside the saint, borne on its journey by Divine power, until at length both reached their destination in Scot- land. A certain Conveeturius> who was prince of .the terri- tory where Ternan resided, seeing the saint approach with a number of followers, said, " Hypocrite, what doest thou in my territory V The saint replied, " We seek thy salvation, that thou mayest know God, and serve Him alone." But Convecturius said, "Cease from those deceiving words." The saint, repulsed, drew off. The other, beginning to retire too, his foot adhered firmly to a stone, so that he could not move from the spot. The saint thereupon prayed, when the prince was released and baptized. On another occasion Machar of Aberdeen sent to Ter- nan for the use of some seed grain. The saint, having none at his disposal, sent in stead some sacks of sand. Machar, moved by a faith similar to that of his brother, sowed the sand, and reaped an abundant harvest. The anachronism in the above legend with regard to | Pope Gregory is too glaring to escape immediate obser- i vation. If Ternan was baptized by Palladius in 440, he must have been 150 years old when Gregory the Great Servanus, Ternan, and Kentigern. 105 was elevated to the papal chair in 590. This anachronism stamps at once the character of the legend ; and yet the existence of Ternan, and the fact of his being in Scotland, and perhaps baptized by Palladius, is as well-founded as any similar historical fact of the time. The portion of the legend referring to his visit to Eome is just one of those mis-statements which came at a later age to be connected with the history of such men in order to exalt Rome ; and the anxiety to have them made and accepted, does but indicate the feeling existing among mediaeval ecclesiastics, that they were necessary, because there was a weak point at the very foundation of the papal church in Scotland, which needed to be strengthened at whatever cost. Some of our earlier writers distinguish Servanus and Ternan, the one as the first bishop of the Scots, and the other of the Picts (Fordun, Lib. iii., Boece. Fol. 128, Ed. Ferrer), and they are quoted as authorities by Innes (Civ. and Eccl. Hist., p. 157). The Aberdeen breviary makes Servanus suffragan to Palladius, as first bishop of the Scots, but does not make Ternan first bishop of the Picts. Other authorities, however, give this dignity to Ternan, and fix his episcopal' seat at Aberncthy, the Pictish capital. If this be true, it corroborates the view that these bishops of the fifth century were emis- saries from Rome. This is clearly Innes' idea, and he thinks he has made out in a way that cannot be gain- said, that Scotland derived her episcopacy from Rome. But if so, he has made out just as clearly, though he does not say so, in opposition to Lloyd and Stillingfleet, andl writers of that school, that Scotland had no episcopacy / until she derived it from Rome in the fifth century, j that in fact a non-episcopal church existed for upwards of 300 years in that country, previous to the coming of those emissaries of the Roman see ; and further, he has 106 The Early Scottish Church. shewn that the idea prevalent with Protestant episco- palians, of an episcopate in Scotland distinct from that transmitted from Rome, has not a fragment of evidence to rest upon. Innes has most thoroughly made out his case as to the derivation of the early Scottish episcopate from Rome, if such a thing had any existence, and he has as thoroughly shewn that that episcopacy was an impor- tation into Scotland at a period 300 years after the intro- duction of Christianity ; but it is equally clear that so far from the mission of Ninian and Palladius being success- ful in introducing the Romish system into Scotland, they had no successors, and it was 700 years after ere Scotland submitted to the jurisdiction of the Roman see. No doubt Rome herself was advancing during that period ; and it would be as absurd to judge of the Rome of the twelfth century by the Rome of the fifth, as it would be to judge of the full-orbed moon by the crescent whose streak of light is barely discernible in the sky. But the principles which led to the full development of the Rom- ish system were all at work as early as the days of Leo the Great. It is a curious inconsistency in writers hold- ing the Protestant episcopal view to acquiesce in those statements of Fordun and others, that Palladius and other missionaries of the fifth century were the first bishops of the people of Scotland, and yet at the same time to maintain strenuously, as they do, that there must have been bishops before them. They must give up one or other of those views, and if they give up the Romish episcopate and fall back on the ancient British bishops, 'they must be prepared to face first the question of their existence, and secondly, that of the character of their epis- copate, and whether that episcopate was one which either Roman Catholic or Protestant episcopalians would feel themselves at liberty to acknowledge. It is not necessary to advert to the legend which Servanus, Ternan, and Kentigern. 107 makes Servanus the first missionary to the Orkney islands. It has been well said that the state in which the lona missionaries found the inhabitants of those islands is ample proof that there could have been no missionaries there before them. Yet this story is told by Fordun, Boece, Lesly, and a host of others, who also make Ternan archbishop of the Picts before such a thing as an archbishop was known in the Church at all. The early chroniclers present us at this period with the life and mission of Kentigern, usually called St. Mungo, said to be the founder of the see of Glasgow, missionary to the Strathclyde Britons, whose day in the calendar is the 13th January. Kentigern was born about the year 514, or about forty years before Columba came to lona. The chief sources of our information regarding him are two ; a life, written at the suggestion of Herbert, Bishop of Glasgow from 1147 to 1164, contained in the chartulary of Glasgow : the name of the author is not given, nor does he give any information regarding his authority ; and a life by Joceline, Abbot of Furness in Lancashire, written apparently at the suggestion of Joce- line, who was Bishop of Glasgow from 1174 to 1179 (Chart. Glas. Int., p. xxv.). Joceline tells us in his bio- graphy that he derived his information from an ancient life of the saint, existing in the cathedral church of Glas- gow, of which he states that it was written in a barbar- ous language (probably like that of Ninian, either Gaelic or British) and that on the face of it were statements adverse to sound doctrine, and opposed to the Catholic faith. In this we have another testimony to the fact, so generally detailed by mediaeval writers, that the early Church differed in point of doctrine from the Koman Catholic Church of the middle ages. Joceline undertakes in his work to improve the style of his predecessor, and to improve his doctrine too. It cannot but be a source 108 The Early Scottish Church. of regret that these ancient lives have perished ; we are glad to have such relics existing as those of Joceline and his predecessor under Bishop Herbert, mingled as they are with superstition and fable ; but their loss would be a small matter in comparison with that of the older and more authentic documents. If these, however, were held to be heterodox, it is no wonder although they should have been lightly cared for and finally allowed to perish altogether by the churchmen of the middle ages. Kentigern, " Cwn Tyern " in British, and " Ceann Tighearna " in Gaelic, although the name in this case is probably derived from the British, in English " the head chief," 1 was born, according to both the accounts of him we possess, in East Lothian. The legend in the older life (Chart. Glas., p. Ixxx.) is, that King Loth (Leudonus), a semi-pagan from whom Lothian (Leudonia) is named, had an unmarried daughter, called Thaney. 2 This young woman, the biographer says, was a devoted Christian, who meditated much upon the character of the Virgin Mary, and was filled with admiration of her ; in which way she became free from every unchaste thought. This young lady had a suitor, a young man of much attrac- tion, descended from the most noble family of the Britons ; his name was Ewen, son of Erwegende, called by writers, Ewen, son of King Ulien. 3 This Owen was one of the most famous of the British chiefs, and was son of Urien of Reged, whose name has been so often sung by the bards of Cumbria ; but according to the legend his advances were repelled by Thenew. The royal father 1 The Welsh Tyern, and the Gaelic Tighearn, a lord or chief, are clearly identical with the Greek, rvpawos, and the Latin, tyrannus. 2 Thenew, modernized into St. Enoch. 3 Ewen ap Urien is the true British name. Urien is a famous man among the British bards. His .son Owen is said to have slain Ida, the first king of the Angles of Bernicia. He was called Dutyern, the dark chief. He repulsed the Angles, but was himself slain by an assassin, " Llovan of the accursed hand." (Robertson's Scot, under her Early Kings, i., 4.) Servanus, Ternan, and Kentigern. 109 of the lady insisted upon her receiving favourably the suit of her lover, and presented her with the alternative of being sent to reside with the king's swineherd. The maiden chose the latter alternative, and cheerfully re- moved to the swineherd's dwelling. The swineherd treated her with profound respect, being himself secretly a Christian, and taught her what of the doctrine of Christ he had learned from his teachers, whether at home or abroad. Many attempts were made by Owen to change the damsel's mind, but her final reply was so decided that the lover remarked, " It is easier to change wood into stone and stone into wood, than to recal the mind of this young woman from the folly into which she has plunged." At length it appears, under cover of a legend, the young man secured by guile and violence what was resolutely denied with consent. So soon as the conse- quences of her apparent incontinency appeared, the king her father judged her worthy of death, in accordance with the laws of the nation. She was still pure and chaste as ever, but nothing less than her life could atone for her apparent transgression. When about to be stoned to death, no man would venture to cast a stone at one of the royal race. She was therefore brought to a hill called Kepduff (Ceap dubh, ' the black heap n ) ; but being cast from the summit, she escaped unhurt, while a beau- tiful fountain gushed forth at the spot where the head of the wheeled carriage in which she was bound, struck the earth. Three miles from Kepduff lay the sea at Aber- lessic, probably Aberlady in East Lothian, interpreted ostium fetoris, from the quantity of fish caught there. 2 It was determined to commit her to the sea, and thus let the winds and waves decide her fate. 1 There is a Kilduff near Traprain-law. 2 This hardly corresponds with the present condition of Aberlady, which would scarcely accommodate one fishing boat. 1 1 The, Early Scottish Church. Meantime the king sought vengeance of the swineherd, but in his attempts to put him to death, the swineherd, in self-defence, seized a javelin and slew his master. On the spot where the king died, a great stone was erected surmounted by a hollowed stone above, as a regale sig- num which, says the writer about 1150, still stands about a mile south of Dunpelder. 1 The maiden was borne by the sea to the isle of May. Here the fish did her homage, and ever since her day, Aberlady, as the port where she was so cruelly dismissed, was deserted by all kinds of fish, while the isle of May, which gave her a night's shelter, became famous among the fishermen of England, Scotland, Belgium, and France. Next day she was carried by the sea to the neighbour- hood of Culross (Collenros), and cast ashore upon the sands. Here Kentigern was born, and carried by shep- herds to the presence of Servanus, who at that time taught the law of Christ at Culross. They told him how they had found the child. His reply was, A dia cur fir sin, which, says the writer, means, ' I wish that it were so ;' or as the meaning would be in modern Gaelic, ' God, that this were true.' The youth progressed in the knowledge of divine things, and the writer thanks God at the close for having conferred so great a boon upon Britain. 2 The other and later life by Joceline of Furness differs somewhat from this earlier one (Vit. Ant. Sanct. Pink., p. 198, &c.) According to it Kentigern was derived from the royal race in the northern part of Cambria. This Cam- bria or Cumbria, as it should be, included the Lothians. If we bear in mind that in the heart of this territory of the Britons lie the Pentland or Pictland hills, we will be 1 Traprain-law in East Lothian. 2 It will be observed that the language attributed to Servanus here is Scottish Gaelic, and that this event occurred nearly 100 years before the coming of the Dalriadic colony from Ireland, according to the most approved chronology. Servanus, Ternan, and Kentigern. ill aided in arriving at an accurate conclusion with respect to the Picts. Here a daughter of the royal family, like another Mary, was found with child. One writer com- pares her case to that of the daughters of Lot, whom he calls Loth, and suggests the idea that the Loth of the second life is identical with the Loth of the older life ; from which, he says, the name Lothian originated. Here we learn nothing of Owen ap Urien, probably from the desire of the biographer to make the birth -of his hero as far as possible resemble the birth of our Lord. The maiden is condemned to death as guilty of incontinency, and brought to the summit of Dunpelder, from whence she is cast down, but escapes unhurt. She is then sent to sea in a skiff and, wonderful to relate, is carried in safety to Culross. Joceline makes no mention of the adventure at the isle of May. At Culross Kentigern was born and brought by shepherds or fishermen to Servanus. So soon as he saw the child, a holy smile beamed on the countenance of the saint, and he exclaimed, " ^lochohe ! Mochohe I" These words, says the writer, were " patria lingua," in the language of his country, and are interpreted Care mi, Care mi, ' My dear one, my dear one.' The words are obviously the Gaelic words, mo chaoimh ! mo chaoimh ! ' my dear ! my dear ! The older life makes it clear that the language used by Servanus was a dialect of the Gaelic, but, as has been shewn, mingled largely with the British, and which seems to have been the character of the speech used by the Caledonians or Picts. Both mother and child were bap- tised, and the former called Tanew, the latter Kentigern, capitalis dominus, or ' head chief ;' the latter word being either British or Gaelic. The boy grew and was carefully instructed by his patron in the mission school at Culross. Nay, he became so much an object of affection and esteem to the saint that latterly he gave him the name of Munghu 112 The Early Scottish Church. (Mun cu), interpreted, Carus amicus, or ' Dear friend/' and synonymous with the Gaelic M'aon caomh, or ' My dear one! Indeed it is impossible to say whether the words are British, that is, Welsh, or Gaelic, but they have been generally held to be British, The name, we need hardly add, is known in the Scottish calendar as Mungo, and Glasgow has long been famous as having been St. Mungo's seat. The legend in this life by Joceline is expanded by a large intermixture of the miracles of the saint. Kenti- gern made one of a number of pupils who received instruction at Culross. This, there is reason to believe, is historically true, inasmuch as these early missionary institutes were in a large measure educational. Here the youth of a barbarous people received " the benefits of knowledge and the blessings of religion/' In the absence of universities, and even schools, there was no other mode of supplying a sufficiently learned clergy, and with all the miracles that later writers attribute to those early missionaries, they do not attribute to them the power of being able to substitute miracles for a competent share of knowledge. The mission institutes of the early Church were all educational. In this school at Culross it happened on an occasion that a favourite bird of the supe- rior was put to death. Grieved at the affiiction likely to be suffered by his beloved master, Kentigern put forth his hitherto untried power, and restored the bird to life. So says Joceline, in detailing Kentigern's first miracle, in which we have a fine exhibition of the young mission- ary's benevolence and love of his master, but a humbling exhibition of historical narrative. The cook of the establishment at a later period sickened and died. Servanus, now an old man, was much afflicted by his death, as were all the disciples. After the interment the disciples pressed upon their Servanus, Ternan, and Kentigern. 1 1 3 master to urge upon Kentigern to attempt raising the dead. After the most solemn adjuration the young man proceeded to offer up prayer, pleading with God that he should raise the dead man, as he had done Lazarus. "Res nimiuin stupenda!" says the writer, 'most stupen- dous event!' The dead man revived, and lived for seven years longer in the capacity of cook to the establish- ment, although a much changed man, as might well be supposed. The holiness and miracles of Kentigern excited the jealousy of the other pupils, and at length his position became so uncomfortable that he found himself compelled to remove from Culross. He retired secretly, having God as his guide, travelling towards what Joceline calls the Frisian shore (Frisicum littus), which some stu- dents of our antiquities suppose to be the shore of the Solway Firth, others that of the Firth of Forth. 1 The name as given by Joceline is said to exist to this day in that of Dumfries, or the fort of the Frisians. Here the "MalJena," or high spring- tide prevented his crossing, but by Divine power, the water was divided, and a path opened up for the saint ; the place, says Joceline, is called Pans Servani, or ' Serf's Bridge,' a name which, in the course of time, seems to have been lost. On reaching the other side, Kentigern looked back and saw the tide fill- ing the channel ; he also saw Servanus, who was in pur- suit of him, standing on the opposite bank brandishing his staff, and exclaiming, "Why hast thou left me?" After a little explanation the saint became satisfied that his young disciple had a mission different from what he would have assigned him, and sent him away with his blessing. In this part of his narrative, Joceline mistakes the words mallena and ledo, ' spring and neap tides/ for 1 Vit. Ant. Sanct., p. 212, and Paper by Mr. Skene on Frisian Settlements in Scotland in Trans, of Scot. Ant., vol. iv., part 1.' H 114 The Early Scottish Church. the names of two rivers, indicating that he must have been transcribing from some older biography. A certain man named Fregus lived in a village called Kernach, probably Carnwath, in the valley of the Clyde. This man was grievously ill ; he was a just man, strong in faith, of holy conversation, and intent on heaven. Like old Simeon, he sought and prayed that he might see Kentigern ere he died, and he was privileged to see him on the very day on which he left Servanus ; a remark- able fact, if we are to understand that the saint travelled that day all the way from Dumfries, but quite possible if he journeyed only from the banks of the Forth. Having seen the saint, the old man died. Next day, having attached two unbroken bulls to a new cart, Kentigern laid upon the cart the dead body of Fregus, and prayed that the bulls might be directed toward the place where it was the divine will that it should be buried. The bulls moved on submissively, and never halted until they reached Cathures, which is now called Glasghu, and there the interment took place near a ceme- tery which had been consecrated by Saint Ninian. In this narrative we have the ancient legend of the selection of Glasgow as the site of a church, and afterwards of a bishoprick. "The former name," says Joceline, "was Cathures," probably from the British Cathair, 'a town,' a word appearing in Caerlaverock, Caermunnock, and other places on the Clyde, and indicating that at that early period Glasgow was entitled to be called a Cathair, or 'Town.' The transition from Cathures to Glasghu will appear in another part of the life. This was the first sepulture there, and it is added, that the grave is to this day surrounded with a delightful grove of trees, in token of the sanctity of the person interred. Thereafter Kentigern resided with two brothers, one of Servanus, Ternan, and Kentigern. 115 whom was called Telleyr, the other Anguen. Anguen was most friendly to the saint, and was blessed accord- ingly ; Telleyr was the very opposite, and in an attempt to carry a block of wood far above his strength he fell and was killed on the spot. About this time the king and clergy of the Cumbrian kingdom, 1 with other Christians, although they were few in number, met, and having consulted about the improve- ment of the condition of the church, which was very low at the time, agreed with one consent to ask Kenti- gern to become their pastor and bishop. AVho this king was Joceline does not inform us, though he furnishes the names of other kings ruling the Strathclyde Britons. We meet with Morken (Morgan) who was the opponent of Kentigern ; and also with Khydderch Hael, his fast friend, but the name of the king who called him is not given. We have learned from his life by Ailred, that Ninian baptized Tuduvallus or Totail, a king of the Strathclyde Britons ; that would have been between the years 390 and 400. The reign of the king who called Kentigern could not have commenced for nearly a cen- tury and a half later, indicating how impossible it was that Ehydderch Hael, who was one of his successors, could be the son of Tuduvallus, converted by Ninian. It is probable that during this period the names of Urien of Reged and his son Owen, come into the order of succes- sion among the kings of Strathclyde ; if so, we meet with one reason why the king would have favoured Kentigern, inasmuch as he must have been a near relative of his own. Ritson, no doubt, maintains (Ann. of Caledon., II, 58) that it is probable that Rhydderch was the son of Tuduvallus, and quotes in support of his view Adomnan, who, in his "Life of Columba" (Book i., c. 15), refers to Rodercus filius Totail, qui Petra Cloithe regnavit, 1 Pinkerton uniformly uses Cambria for Cumbria. See Chart. Glasg. Int. 116 The Early Scottish Church. 1 Eoderick son of Totail, who reigned at Dunbarton/ and Williams, who in his notes on the "sErce Cambrobrit." at the end of "Llwyd's Commentariolum," quotes an old Welsh genealogy, in which he is called Rhydderch Had ab Tudwal Tudglad, 'Eoderick Hael, son of Tudwal Tudglad.' Nennius (Hist. Nenn., c. 64) mentions the following four kings as having fought against the Saxons, " Urbgen (probably Urien), Eyderthen (Ehydderch) Guallane, and Morcant." Eitson's view is perfectly un- tenable, if the chronology usually assigned to these events be accurate. Ninian, who baptized Tuduvallus, was born about the year 360 ; the baptism of Tuduvallus, making all due allowance, would have taken place about the year 400, and the probability is that, at furthest, this king could have lived only to about the year 440. If Ehydderch (Eoderick) was born about the year 420, he must have been 110 years old when Kentigern was born, and yet we are told that in the old age of Kentigern he was his friend. Joceline gives us to know, at the same time, that the saint lived to be either 160 or 185 years old. It is clear that if Ehydderch was the son of Tudwal, he must have been son to an entirely different Tudwal from him of Ninian's age. Pinkerton (Pink. Enq., i. 74) says that Joceline makes Ehydderch the son of Morken. This is incorrect, as Eitson observes, but it is more consistent with pro- bability than Eitson's own opinion. Either the father of Ehydderch was not the Tuduvallus of the year 400, or Joceline and others have entirely misdated Ehydderch's reign. The Welsh genealogy quoted makes him to pre- cede Morken, while Columba's prophecy respecting Ehyd- derch would indicate his period as posterior to 563, the era of Columba's mission. If Ehydderch was the son of Tuduvallus, there is nothing in Adomnan that throws more suspicion on his whole work than this pretended pro- phecy about a man who must have been dead a hundred Servanus, Ternan, and Kentigern. 117 years before Columba left Ireland. There seems some reason to take the Welsh genealogy as correct, and to hold Urien, Ehydderch, Guallane, and Morcant as suc- cessive kings of Strathclyde, although it is remarkable that there is no notice of Owen, who slew Ida the Angle chief. If this be correct, the likelihood is, that the name of the monarch who joined in the call to Kentigern has not come down to us, and that Owen was slain by Llovan before his father's death. It is interesting to observe the character of Kentigern's call. During the primitive ages of the Church the thought does not seem to have been entertained that any pastor could be admitted to the oversight of a congregation, except by the call of the members ; and pastors con- tinued to be so called till the age of Constantine. 1 Then, in the attempt to regulate the power of the Church generally, the rights of the people came for the first time to be assailed. (Mosh. Cent, iv., c. 2). The initial step in the changes which took place was an entire exclusion of the people from all part in the administration of ecclesiastical affairs. This was done chiefly by the bishops, who at the same time deprived presbyters of their ancient privileges, that they might have it in their power to exercise an unlimited sway in the government of the Church. We have the clearest testimony from the early fathers, especially Clement, as to the calling of a pastor being the sole right of the members of the Church, and it is somewhat remarkable, as has been observed, that those who profess to venerate the fathers, shew but little respect for their testimony on this question. It is manifest that in Britain the right to call a pastor was held to belong to the Church membership, in the middle 1 It is unnecessary to cite authorities for a statement which has not been questioned, but the reader may consult the late Principal Cunningham's Hist. Theol., vol. i., p. 104. us The Early Scottish Church. of the sixth century, and when a call was given to Kenti- gern, the king, the clergy, and the Christian people, united with one accord in giving it. Kentigern at once closed with the call which was o tendered him. A bishop was sent for from Ireland and he was ordained. It appears that he had not his ordination from Servanus, who is said to have been ordained by Palladius, but from one of the pastors ordained by St. PatrickJiL the lyisb^C^iurch. It is diffi- cult to account for this proceeding. There were surely clergy at the time in the Scottish Church ; but this was the era of the war between Aidan, King of the Dalriads, called by the Welsh chroniclers Aidan Fradawg or the Robber, and the Strathclyde kingdom (Ritson's Ann. of Cal., vol. ii., 164) ; and it may be that the intercourse between the two nations was arrested ; while the com- munication with the east of Scotland would have been interrupted by the irruptions of the Saxons ; in the year 600 (Annal. Tigh.) we read of a fierce battle between the Saxons and Aidan, whose territories lay beyond Strathclyde. The Angle kingdom of Bernicia was at this time thoroughly established over the ruins of the ancient Pictish power in this portion of Pictland. But however this may be, Kentigern received his ordination from an Irish bishop, a fact which shews that his orders were not received from Rome. 1 Ninian and Palladius might have valued the episcopal orders of the Roman See, but it would appear that they had no special value in the eyes of Kentigern, or the Church which called him. Nor did he shew any respect for the principles which regulate the canons of the Church of Rome, else he would not have received his orders from the hands of one bishop. 1 Dr. Todd in the Introduction to his Life of St. Patrick, p. 79, points out that the canons of the Council of Nice, on the subject of ordination, only referred to the Church within the limits of the empire ; but we will find that these Scottish orders were held invalid by the Augustinian Church of England notwithstanding. Ternan, and Kentigern. 119 Joceline refers (Vit. Kent., cap. xi.) to the peculiar mode of consecration in use among the Britons, but accounts for it by their remote situation, and states that it did not detract from the efficacy of the rite ; yet such a thing would not be permitted in his day. Thus do mediaeval ecclesiastics ever strive to link themselves to the early British Church, at one time denouncing, and at another excusing its peculiarities. Kentigern fixed his residence in the town (villa) called Deschu, which Joceline adds is interpreted the dear family (cara familia), and is now called Glaschu. The latter syllable here is obviously the Welsh cu, or the Gaelic caomh ' dear.' The first syllable of either word is not so easily recognised. The Welsh Des does not signify a family, nor does the Gaelic Deas. In the form Glaschu, the Glas is probably the Celtic glas, a stream, and the whole name is most likely the dear stream, referring to the stream now called the Molendinar Burn, which ran close by the early seat of the mission. But " cara familia" is not recognisable in the word Deschu; it must have been understood, however, as having this signification in the days of Joceline. We thus find Cathures, Deschu, Glaschu, as the successive appellations of Glasgow, the two last being very manifestly of ecclesiastical origin, while the former as already said, is but the British caer, ' a town.' The diocese of Kentigern, according to Joceline, was co-extensive with the Strathclyde kingdom ; it extended (cap. xi.) along the wall built by Severus (this is a mis- take for Antonine, and indicates the inaccuracy of Joce- line's narrative) from sea to sea, reaching to the Forth (flumen Fordense), and separating Scotland from England. This statement is not consistent with what we know of the existence and extent of the Angle kingdom of Bernicia in the sixth century ; and the probability is that Kenti- 120 The Early Scottish Church. gern extended his labours to the Strathclyde Britons, whatever the extent of their territory at the time might be. Joceline tells us that Kentigern was ordained at the age of twenty -five, and lived for 160 years more. To this long life the mode of his living was conducive. An account of this may not be uninteresting. He sustained rather than gratified his body by food ; the food itself was of the simplest kind, bread, milk, cheese, butter, and pulse ; his fasts were long and frequent ; he abstained usually from flesh, blood, and wine, like a Nazarite ; if he happened to be on a journey or sat at the royal table he then moderated the rigour of his abstinence, but afterwards, as if in expiation of a crime, he added to its rigour the more. He was clothed first of all with a rough garment next the skin, then a second of goat's hair, above which he wore an overcoat (cuculla) like a fisherman's ; over this was placed a white alb, with a stole about his neck. He car- ried a pastoral staff without any adorning of gold or gems ; it was a plain piece of wood bent at the top. He lay at night in a large stone trough hollowed like a sepulchre ; the bottom was strewed with ashes, and a stone was placed under his head. Thus he strove to have his bed resembling the sepulchre of Christ. In the morning he went out clothed in a light garment (Sabba) and plunged into the neighbouring stream however cold the water might be ; he sat there until he chanted the whole Psalter, and this being finished, he came out pure as a dove washed in milk, and sat, until dry, on the top of a hill called G-ulath. 1 So says his biographer. He had in a great degree the power of being silent, speaking seldom, and always with effect. His speech 1 This must have been near the present site of Glasgow Cathedral. Servanus, Ternan, and Kentigern. 121 3 truly seasoned with salt. Joceline gives a long ount of his mode of celebrating the divine mysteries 3e calls it, an account taken from the practice of the irch in his own time, and not from that of the age of ntigern. He also tells of his retiring to a desert place, i certain period, before the Lord's supper : and of the icral cheerfulness of his expression, the result of the life lived. 3is biographer gives a short account of Kentigern's isionary labours. He says that clothed with the shield faith, the helmet of hope, and the other portions of spiritual annour, he assailed the devices of the devil, b down idols, built churches, dedicated them when It, divided parishes, ordained pastors, dissolved unlaw- marriages, much of it the work of a bishop of :eline's time, but not of that of Kentigern. We have an interesting notice from Joceline of the dis- les of the saint, of whom he tells us there were many ; says that they strove to resemble their patron, emulat- his life, doctrine, mode of worship, fasts, and vigils, 'ther, we learn that after the manner of the primitive irch, possessing nothing, they lived piously and erly apart, in small dwellings (casulis) of their own, I there, like Kentigern himself, matured' wisdom, ence, says the writer, they were called single clergy irici singulares), and in common speech (vulgo) Cul- s (Calledei). This view held in the twelfth century is tractive, as helping to shew whence the term Culdees 3 derived, and that it was a word belonging to the amon language of the country, pointing to the Celtic iltich, or * men of the recess,' as its probable origin. tVe have a fuller account from Joceline of the saint's acles than of his labours. In the New Testament power of miracle-working is confined to Christ and apostles ; in the middle ages, it offered too ready 1.22 The Early Scottish Church. a means of exercising influence over an ignorant and superstitious community, not to be claimed for those whom the Church denominated saints. This power is said by his biographer to have been largely possessed by Kentigern. When, on one occasion, without oxen to draw his plough, a wolf and a deer came both miraculously under the yoke, and supplied the place of his usual team, and when about to sow the land thus ploughed, he found that he had given all his grain to the poor ; but choosing sand, he sowed it, and reaped an abundant harvest, to the amazement of all. This story is told of St. Machar, as has been related already (Vit. Kent., cap. xx.). A tyrant of the name of Morken (Morgan), (ib., cap. xxi.), became at this time King of Strathclyde ; this monarch was no friend of the holy man. Kentigern being in want of food for his household applied to the king for a supply of orn. His application was- scorn- fully refused, but miraculously the river Clyde rose, swept round the barn of the king, and floated it with all its contents across, and up the Molendinar burn, where it was landed near the dwelling of the saint. At another time, the saint petitioned the king for a measure of wheat ; the king not only refused the food, but ordered the saint with insult out of his presence, to which con- duct he was instigated by his counsellor, a man of the name of Cathel. Kentigern endeavouring to remon- strate, the king rushed upon him and kicked him se- verely. The insult and the injury were both patiently borne ; but soon after Cathel (Cathen here) mounting his horse was thrown off, and killed before the king's gate. The king himself, who had lifted his foot against the saint, died of disease in the foot, and his race became subject to gout from that day forth. Morken was buried at a place called Thorpe-morken, on which Servamis, Ternan, and Kentigern. 123 Ritson remarks, that it is absurd to think that a Saxon name would be given to a Celtic place ; and yet the Celtic Tre or Baile might have become the Saxon Thorpe at a later period. Kentigern being persecuted in Strathclyde took refuge in Wales, and resided for -a considerable period with St. David in Menevia, or in what is now called the diocese of St. David's. We read of his remaining for a time at a place called in English Crossfelt, or the New Cross; of his enjoying the friendship of King Cathwallan, who reigned in Wales about A.D. 600 : of his being; led by a wild O / * boar to the place called Elgu, now St. Asaph's, and I building a church there, notwithstanding the opposition / of an Angle called Melcoind Galganius, who was struck blind ; of Asaph when a boy carrying burning coals without suffering from it, and being afterwards made successor to the saint. Joceline favours his readers with an account of Kenti- gern's seventh journey to Home, where he had the privi- lege of intercourse with Pope Gregory, who filled the Papal Chair from 590 to 604. If, as Usshersays, Kenti- gern was born in 514, he must have been 76 years of age when Gregory was chosen Pope. He remained at Rome, we are told, for a long period in much comfort, and with much enjoyment, 1 at the same time ruling his diocese in Wales well. There is no other evidence what- soever of this visit to Rome. In fact, at the time such a visit was almost impossible. The state of Scotland had undergone great change since the days of Ninian ; for Rome was no longer accessible as the capital of an un- divided empire extending to the Firths of Forth and Clyde ; the barbarous nations of the north had crossed the Alps and swarmed on the plains of Italy ; and the Saxons had entered England and had occupied a large 1 Vit. Kent., cap. xxviii. 124 The Early Scottish Church. extent of its territory, bringing back heathenism along with them, and overturning all the symbols of the Chris- tian faith. At such a time the visit of Kentigern was almost an impossibility, and yet the statement of the fact is additional proof of the desire of the ecclesiastical writers of a later period to link the early British Church with Rome; and their misstatements on the subject show that they felt the difficulty of doing so, so long as they adhered to the simple truth of history. After a long period spent in Wales Kentigern was recalled to Strathclyde. Rhydderch Hael, or Roderick the bountifid, is said to have succeeded to the throne. We cannot say whether he was the son of Morken or not, but it is most probable, as said above, that he was not that Morken, and was an usurper who seized the crown either before or after the reign of Roderick. Roderick, perceiving the low state of the Church in his domi- nions, resolved, in conjunction with the other Christians there, to recal Kentigern. Messengers were despatched to Wales, and Kentigern, accompanied, as his biogra- pher says, by 620 disciples, returned to Glasgow. Asaph was constituted his successor in Wales, and from him the diocese of St. Asaph's takes its name. He was received by his countrymen with great joy, and many great works were immediately accomplished. At a place called Holdelin (Hoddam) many were converted by the preaching of the saint and his disciples, the level ground rising and forming a hill in commemoration of the event. King Roderick was so much influenced by veneration for the saint that he made the civil power in all matters subject to the ecclesiastical ; in this indicat- ing the significance of Kentigern's name as Ceann Tig- hearna, Caput Domini, which, Joceline says, is Albanice, * the Head of the Chief,' where the word is made to be Gaelic, and not British. This legend is. manifestly the 8erv