Page:Chronicles of the Picts, chronicles of the Scots, and other early memorials of Scottish history.djvu/188

 clxxx PEEFACE. transiens arma vertit, et multis occisis fugere compulit, sicque Monarchiam qxie nunc tocius Albanie Seocia dicitur p[rimus'] Scottorum Ite[x con- guisivit] el in ea prima super Scottos regnavit. Qui anno xii? regni sui septies in una die cum Pictis congre- diturmultisque pertritis regnum sibi confirmat. Drumalban dicitur, transiens, arma vertit, et, multis Pictorum occisis, reliquos in fugam com- pulit, et amhorum regnorum monarchiam conquisivit. Picti vero, reparatis aliquantulum Anglorum auxilio virihus, quatuor annis Kynnedum in- festabant. Sed consequenter postmodum inopinatis incur- sihus, et variis eos stragibus debilitans, duodecimo tandem anno regni sui septies uno die congreditur, et innumeris Pic- torum populis prostratis, reg- num deinceps de fluvio Tyne juxta Northumbriam ad Or- cadum insulas totum sibi ratifi- cat confirmatum. It is needless to follow further this gradual deve- lopment of the Scottish fable till it reaches the full-blown romance of Hector Boece. But it is remarkable how thoroughly it is connected throus;hout with St. Andrews. The ecclesiastical fable which disowned Columba as the apostle of the Picts, and lona as his chief seat, and gave an ex- travagant antiquity to the foundation of St. Andrews, commenced with that community. The perversion of the true history, called forth by the exigencies of the controversy with England, originated more or less with them ; and every exponent of the Scottish feble, as it assumed, period after period, larger dimensions, was connected with that diocese, until at last John of Fordun, a priest of the diocese of St. Andrews,