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 SCOTLAND

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SCOTLAND

apostasies which called for a stricter system of organ- ization and discipline among the missionaries. It was thus that, drawing her inspiration from the great monasteries of Ireland, the early Scottish Church entered upon the monastic period of her history, of which the first and the greatest light was Columba, Apostle of the northern Picts.

The monasterj' of lona, where Columba settled in 563, and whence he carried on his work of evangeliz- ing the mainland of Scotland for thirty-four years, was, under him and his successors in the abbatial dignity, considered the mother-house of all the monasteries founded b)' him in Scotland and in Ireland. Bede mentions that lona long held pre-eminence over all the monasteries of the Picts, and it continued in fact, all during the monastic period of the Scottish Church, to be the centre of the Columban jurisdiction. It is unnecessary to argue the point, which has been proved over and over again against the views put forward both by .AjigUcans and Presbyterians, that the Columban church was no isolated fragment of Christendom, but was united in faith and worship and spiritual life with the universal Catholic Church (see, as to this, Edmonds, "The Early Scottish Church, its Doctrine and Discipline", Edinburgh, 1906). Whilst Columba was labouring among the northern Picts, another apostle was raised up in the person of St. Kentigern, to work among the British inhabitants of the Ivingdom of Strathclyde, extend- ing southward from the Clyde to Cumberland. Kentigern may be called the founder of the Church of Cumbria, and became the first bishop of what is now Glasgow; while in the east of Scotland Lothian honours as its first apostle the great St. Cuthbert, who entered the monastery of Melrose in 650, and became bishop, with his see at Lindisfarne, in 684. He died three years later; and less than thirty years afterwards the monastic period of the Scottish Church came to an end, the monks throughout Pictland, most of whom had resisted the adoption of the Roman observance of Easter, being expelled by the Pictish king. This was in 717; and almost simultaneously with the disappearance of the Columban monks we see the advent to Scotland of the Deicolce, Colidei, or Culdees, the anchorite-clerics sprung from those ascetics who had devoted themselves to the service of God in the solitude of separate cells, and had in the course of time formed themselves into communi- ties of anchorites or hermits. They had thirteen monasteries in Scotland, and together with the secular clergy who were now introduced into the country they carried on the work of evangelization which had been done by the Columban communities which they succeeded.

From the beginning of the eighth to the middle of the ninth century the political hLstory of Scotland, as we dimly see it to-day, consists of continual fight- ing between the rival races of Angles, Picts, and Scots, varied by invasions of Danes and Norsemen, and culminating at last in the imion of the Scots of Dalriada and the Pictish peoples into one kingdom under Kenneth Mac Alpine in H44. Ecclesiastically speaking, the most important result of this union was the elevation by Kenneth of the church of Dunkeld to be the primatial see of his new kingdom. Soon, however, the primacy was transferred to Abernethy, and some forty years after Kenneth's accession we find the first definite mention of the "Scottish Church", which King Grig raised from a position of servitude to honourable independence. Grig's successors were styled no longer Kings of the Picts, but Kings of Alban, the name now given to the whole country between the Forth and the Spey; and under Constantine, second King of Alban, was held in 908 the memorable assembly at Scone, in which the king and Cellafih, Bishop of St. y\ndrew8, recognized by this time as primate of the kingdom, and styled Epscop

Alban, solemnly swore to protect the discipline of the Faith and the right of the churches and the Gospel. In the reign of Malcolm I, Constantine's successor, the district of Cumberland was ceded to the Scottish Crowm by Edmund of England; and among the very scanty notices of ecclesiastical affairs during this period we find the foundation of the church of Brechin, of which the ancient round tower, built after the Irish model, still remains. This was in the reign of Kenneth II (971-995), who added yet another province to the Scottish Kingdom, Lothian being made over to him by King Edmund of England, lona had meanwhile, in consequence of the occupa- tion of the Western Isles by the Norsemen, been practically cut off from Scotland, and had become ecclesiastically dependent on Ireland. It suffered much from repeated Danish raids, and on Christmas Eve, 986, the abbey was devastated, and the abbot with most of his monks put to death. Not many years later the Norwegian power in Scotland received a fatal blow by the death of Sigurd, Earl of Orkney, the Norwegian provinces on the mainland passing into the possession of the Scottish Crown. Malcolm

II was now on the throne, and it was during his thirty years' reign that the Kingdom of Alban became first known as Scotia, from the dominant race to which its people belonged. With Malcolm's death in 1034 the male line of Kenneth Mac Alpine was extin- guished, and he was succeeded by his daughter's son, Duncan, who after a short and inglorious reign was murdered by his kinsman and princii^al general, Macbeth. Macbeth wore his usurped crown for seventeen years, and was himself slain in 1057 by Malcolm, Duncan's son, who ascended the throne as Malcolm III. It is worth noting that Duncan's father (who married the daughter of Malcolm II) was Crinan, lay Abbot of Dunkeld; for this fact illus- trates one of the great evils under which the Scottish Church was at this time labouring, namely the usurpation of abbeys and benefices by great secular chieftains, an abuse existing side by side, and closely connected with, the scandal of concubinage among the clergy, with its inevitable con.sequence, the hereditary succession to benefices, and wholesale secularization of the property of the Church. These evils were indeed rife in other parts of Christendom; but Scotland was especially affected by them, owing to her want of a proper ecclesiastical constitution and a normal ecclesiastical government. The ac- cession, and more especially the marriage, of Malcolm

III were events destined to have a profound influence on the fortunes of the Scottish Church, and indeed to be a turning-point in her history.

II. Second Period: Eleventh to Sixteenth Century. — The Norman Conquest of England could not fail to exercise a deep and lasting effect also on the northern kingdom, and it was the im- mediate cau.se of the introduction of English ideas and English civilization into Scothmd. The flight to Scotland, after the Battle of Hastings, of Edgar Ath(!ling, heir of the Saxon Royal hou.se, with his mother and his sisters Margaret and Christina, w:is followed at no distant date by the marriage of Mar- garet to King Malcolm, as his second wife. A great- niece of St. Edward the Confessor, Margaret, whose personality stands out clearly before us in the pages of her biography by her confessor Turgot, was a woman not only of saintly life but of strong character, who exercised the strongest influence on the Scot- tish Church and kingdom, as well as on the members of her own family. The character of Malcolm III has been depicted in verj' different colours by the English and Scottish chroniclers, the former painting hiin as the severe and merciless invader of England, while to the latter he is a noble and heroic prince, called Canmore (Crann-mor—nrc^ai head) from his high kingly qualities. All however agree that the

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