Page:Chronicles of the Picts, chronicles of the Scots, and other early memorials of Scottish history.djvu/174

 clxvi PKEFACE. oldest documents, the native record of the " Pictish " Chronicle," the " Albanic Duan," and the Irish re- cords, consisting of the " Synchronisms of Flann " Mainistreach," the " Irish additions to the Historia " Britonum," and the " Prophecy of St. Berchan " appear untainted by the introduction of fictitious matter through the exigencies of this controversy. They seem to have preserved genuine traditions of the early history of the country. AVhen the contro- versy first arose it regarded more the independence of the Scottish Church than that of the Scottish nation, and was called forth by the elections of the bishops of St. Andrews. In the year 1072, the same year in which WUliam the Conqueror invaded Scotland, a compact was formed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York, by which all Britain north of the Humber was given to the jurisdiction of the latter. The Archbishop of York claimed the right of consecrating the Bishop of St. Andrews as his suffragan, which was resisted by Alexander the First, who maintained that the Bishop of St. Andrews, as the Ejnscopus Alhanice, was the head of the Scottish Church, and that the Scottish Church was independent. It is unneces- sary for our purpose to follow the details of this controversy ; suffice it to say, that Robert, Prior of Scone, who had been elected during the reign of Alexander the First, but remained unconsecrated, was, in the reign of David the First, consecrated by Thurstan, Archbishop of York, in the year 1138,