History of the church in Scotland : from the earliest times down to the present day /

Front matter

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HISTORY OF THE CHDRCH IN SCOTLAND.

Contents

Early Days — St. Ninian to Columba and thk

Celtic Church, ------ Page 1

Romanizing Reforms and Early Preaching of

Chapter I

Early Days — Ninian to Columba and the Celtic Church* A.D. 400—1050.

The Romans entered Scotland in a.d. 80, and found there a people rude and wild in their mode of life, yet with institutions of a political, social, and religious kind which marked them off from the class of untutored savages. What the religious faith of the inhabitants of North Britain was, it is quite impossible to tell. There is absolutely nothing to suggest the notion that the Druidism described by Cmsar as the prevailing religion of Gaul and of the parts of Britain with which he was acquainted, was known and practised in the northern portion of the island. It is scarcely a probable conjecture that at this early date the Scandinavian mytho¬ logy had found a footing among the people inhabiting the country which we now call Scotland. We may, however, assume that with a warlike race, like the ancient inhabitants

* Literature ; Skene, Celtic Scotland, Edin. 1887, Vol. 11. ; Grub, Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, Edin. 1861, 1. 1-187 ; Maclauclilan, Early Scottish Church, Edin. 1865, 1-320 ; Cunningham, Church History of Scotland, Edin. 1882, I. 1-66 ; Bellesheim, History of Catholic Church of Scotland, Edin. 1887, I. 1-239 ; Adamnan, Life of Columba, ed. by Reeves, Dubl. 1887. Also, in Historians of Scotland : Lives of Ninian and Kentigern, and Adamnan' s Life of Columba, 2 vols., Edin. 1874. For General History: Dr. Hume Brown, History of Scotland, Cambr. 1899, vol. I., pp. 1-55.

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HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IX SCOTLAND.

of North Britain, their religious notions and practices would in many points resemble those of the Gauls and of the Norsemen, though probably their gods had names and genealogies, and moral and physical characteristics peculiar to themselves.

Agricola’s movements in the North were in the interests of the Roman colony in the South. In order to put a stop to the raids of the independent tribes of which the Roman colonists were being constantly harassed, the general in his capacity as governor and statesman pushed his way with his troops as far as the Firths of the Forth and the Clyde, and erected between the two a line of forts, by means of which he thought to prevent the northern tribes from pillaging the more fertile south, and threatening the lives of those who had settled down in peace under the pledge and promise of imperial protection. This conquest was but temporary, for, some forty years later, Hadrian was content to fortify from the Tyne to the Solway, abandoning the territory which he could not hold, the inhabitants of which had never been really subdued. In a.d. 140, Sollius Urbicus, the captain of Antoninus Pius, seemed to accomplish what Agricola had attempted. But when, in the beginning of the third century, the Emperor Septimius Severus made a punitive expedition against certain peaceful tribes, which had defied the Roman power, and pushed his way as far north as the Moray Firth, he managed only to keep the road open for his return, but was so persistently attacked by sudden onslaughts from the woods and hill sides that, though he found no enemy with whom he could engage in a pitched battle, he is said in that march to have lost as many as fifty thousand men. The numerous independent tribes north of the Firths were now apparently combined into two great nations, the Maeatae living immediately north of the wall, occupying the lower lands, as their name implies, and the Caledonians, whose territory lay further to the North. Throughout the whole of the third century, Britain was left very much to itself, and the northern tribes generally, now known by the common name of Piets, em-

THE ROMAN OCCUPATION.

bracing those living between the walls of Hadrian and Antoninus, as well as those living beyond the northern wall, aided by Scots from the West or by Saxons from the East, ravaged the Roman province and slaughtered its inhabitants at their will. In three campaigns, in a.d. 368 under Theodosius, and in a.d. 396 and a.d. 406 under Stilicho, assistance was given to the wretched provincials, but on each occasion as soon as the campaign was over the situation of the Romanized Britons was as bad as ever. The conquest of Rome by Alaric and his Gothic warriors in a.d. 410, ended the Roman occupation of Britain, and the inhabitants of the north and of the south were left to settle for them¬ selves their relations to one another as best they could.

Though for three hundred years the Romans were more or less in North Britain, the country was never really theirs. Sometimes they Avere out of it entirely, but even when they held for a time the southern half — the part between the Avails — it was at best but a military occupation, and the inhabitants of that district, when left to themselves, ahvays joined Avith the independent northern tribes in harrying the provincials of the south, never seemingly regarding them¬ selves as their felloAv provincials under the same imperial rule. Absolutely nothing remains to indicate any particular influence exerted upon the native races by the Romans during their occupation. No Scottish place name is of un¬ doubted Roman origin. A”*Te\v' remains of what must have beehThtehded as permanent camps, such as those at Ardoch in Perthshire, and at Birrens in Dumfriesshire, and some traces of temporary encampments, and here and there a few coins and common utensils, tell only of the presence of the army, and not of any moral or civilizing influence Avhich the residence of the Romans in the country might have wrought upon the people. But apart from any direct particular proof, a comparison, even on the basis of the scanty reports Avhich Ave possess, of the condition of the native inhabitants in the end of the first and in the end of the third centuries, Avill shoAV us that such a people as the Romans could not be in the land without influencing to some extent their institu-

HISTOllY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.

tions and their habits. The presence of a common enemy must have led the separate tribes hitherto hostile to one another to combine for the purpose of self-defence. Nego¬ tiations for such a union, consideration of each other’s opinions and the deliberation necessary in order to come to an agreement, and consultation and planning in view of joint action, must have proved very important means of culture, and must have very effectively promoted that consolidation of the tribes into a nation, which is the result of an elementary civilization, and the indispensable condition of any advance to the higher stages of culture. It is a mere supposition, but by no means an improbable one, that during those years there may have been among the natives of North Britain some converts to Christianity. It can scarcely be doubted that Christian men would be found in the ranks of the legions which, for a longer or shorter period, were resi¬ dent among the tribes north of the province. We know how zealous these Christian soldiers proved in other countries in preaching to the people with whom they came in contact, and we cannot suppose that Christian legionaries in Britain would be less earnest and active in the propagating of their faith. It is more than likely that among Roman settlers in the province of Britain and among Romanised natives, there may have been a considerable number of avowed and faithful followers of Christ. But what success Christian soldiers and Christian provincials may have had in converting any of the Northerners, whose whole interest was in war, and that against both soldiers and provincials, we cannot tell, only it can scarcely be expected that it ever was very great. When the Romans left Britain in a.d. 410, no doubt North Britons had heard the name of Christ, but those who professed that name, if any did so, must have been very few, and their reputation and influence very small.

Until late in the fourth century, we have no information whatever of the religious condition of Britain ; but, though left here to conjecture, we may be sure that the beliefs and worship of those who may have been more or less influenced by the Christian life and teaching of Roman soldiers or con-

EARLY ACCOUNTS OF ST. NINIAN.

verted provincials must have been of a very simple and un¬ developed kind. No outstanding man seems to have arisen in these communities, who, by his strong individuality and by the warm enthusiasm of an intense nature, might have commended the new faith to his fellow-countrymen. And so we may very well suppose that, wanting any one central authority, any person looked up to for guidance in thought and life, whose utterances and example would mould the forms of belief and the religious ritual, many irregularities would be allowed to creep into their practice and much crudeness of expression show itself in their presentation of Christian truth.

Ninian is commonly spoken of as the earliest Scottish missionary, and this designation is correct, if we understand by the phrase the first whose name and story have come down to us. He was born somewhere about a.d. 360. Our primary authority with regard to Ninian is the Venerable Bede, who wrote his Ecclesiastical History exactly three hundred years after the death of the early Scottish mis¬ sionary. His notice of Ninian is very brief, introduced parenthetically in his account of the mission of Columba, more than a hundred and fifty years later. While Columba went to preach to the Northern Piets, Ninian had evange¬ lized the Southern Piets. Bede rather inaccurately ascribes to Ninian the conversion of these Southern Piets, affirming that under his pi-eaching they forsook idolatry and embraced the truth. He describes Ninian as a most reverend bishop and holy man of the British nation, who had been instructed in Rome, and who founded an epis¬ copal see, dedicating his church to St. Martin of Tours. This church was called the White House, Whitherne or Candida Casa, because built of stone, and not of wattles, as was customary among the Britons. Ailred, writing in the twelfth century, considerably amplifies this statement, but in all probability had no authorities except Bede and his own somewhat exuberant imagination.

It would seem that Ninian was by descent a Briton, his parents being natives of North Wales, though he himself

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.

was born in the valley of the Solway. He is represented by tradition as of noble birth, his father being an officer in the Roman army. It is evident that his parents were Chris¬ tians, and that from his earliest childhood he was trained up in the Christian faith. We have no report as to his early years, but it would seem that as a youth he resolved to devote himself to the work of the church as a missionary in the immediate neighbourhood of his native district. With the intention of qualifying himself for this task, and obtaining the rank and authority necessary for its successful prosecution, he went to Rome. This visit was made in all probability during the period when Siricius was Pope — that is to say, not earlier than a.d. 385. If he went as early as this, it would seem that he must have spent at least ten or twelve years in the holy city. We can quite understand that, brought up as he had been among a very simple race, in a region so isolated as to be little influenced by the educational and ecclesiastical institutions of the age, the young Rriton stood in need of instruction in the very elements of church doctrine, government, and worship. Siricius was a powerful ruler, and his ecclesiastical polity was pronouncedly high, and there can be no doubt that Ninian would be taught to yield absolute submission to the teaching of the Holy See, and would be required to pledge himself to bring the doctrine and practice of the British Christians into strict conformity with that which he had learned in Rome. Before leaving to return to his native land to engage in his lifework, he received from the Pope episcopal ordination. He does not seem to have been con¬ secrated as bishop of any strictly-defined district or diocese, but to have had conferred upon him episcopal authority in any part of the country ivhere he might be led to carry on his missionary labours. On his homeward journey he went out of his way to visit St. Martin of Tours. This great bishop was undoubtedly the most celebrated ecclesiastic of the West, his fame resting mainly on the reputation which he had obtained as a worker of miracles. His personal piety was everywhere acknowledged, and the devoutness and ninian’s early work in galloway.

reverence which characterised his conduct all through life gave him the first place among the counsellors of the more ardent youths who were consecrating themselves to God’s service.

Ninian’s visit to St. Martin of Tours supplies us with one of the few dates by which we can fix the period of this great missionary’s ministry. It would seem that imme¬ diately after this visit, which was evidently of brief dura¬ tion, Ninian proceeded to Galloway to begin there his regular evangelistic labours. One of his first works was the building of the church at Whithorn, ivith which his name has ever since been so closely associated. Before this build¬ ing Avas completed, Ninian received the news of the death of St. Martin, and he accordingly dedicated the church in memory of the great miracle-Avorking saint. The death of St. Martin took place on the eleventh of November, a.d. 397, a day which, under the name of Martinmas, has been fixed as one of the quarterly terms in Scotland. The mis¬ sionary labours of Ninian in GalloAway are thus made to begin in the closing years of the fourth century. He was thus the younger contemporary of Jerome, the older con¬ temporary of his fellow-Briton Pelagius, Avhile his life almost exactly synchronizes with that of the great Augustine.

The people among whom Ninian began to labour Avere a branch of the Pictish nation Avhich had settled on the nor¬ thern bank of the Solway. They had proved violent and troublesome neighbours to the British tribes inhabiting the north of England. To distinguish them from the Pictish tribes of the north, they Avere called by early Roman writers Novantae, and by later writers Niduari, as occupying the district round about the Nith. That these Piets were spread over all the parts of Scotland south of the Forth appears from the presence of their name in that of the Pentland Hills. But the tribes Avith Avhich Ninian, at least primarily, had to do dwelt between the Nith on the east and the Irish Channel on the west — the district being, generally speaking, coextensive Avith the present counties of Kirkcudbright and WigtoAvn.

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.

Niniaii, we may believe, had a very useful and pleasant ministry among the people round about the church which he had built; and not only his careful teaching of Scripture, but also his gentle and godly life, must have powerfully in¬ fluenced the community favoured with his presence. But besides this, his labours as a teacher were very fruitful. He gathered around him a company of monks, some of them trained under Martin of Tours, who, under his direction, devoted themselves to the education of young men ; and his monastery long maintained its fame as a seminary for training in the knowledge of the holy scriptures, and of theological studies, as understood and pursued in those days. He made good use of his leisure, especially in the later years of his life, in writing commentaries on several books of the Bible, and in compiling books of extracts from the writings of the Fathers for the use of his students.

The labours of Ninian were by no means confined to the district with which his name has been more immediately associated. As we have seen, Pictish tribes were at this period to be found scattered over all the region which stretched from the one Roman wall to the other, and we have traces all through this extensive country of Ninian’s presence and evangelistic activity. Notwithstanding the building of the northern wall by Antoninus, on the assump¬ tion that the barbarians Avho refused to be subject to the Romans were all outside of it, there is no doubt that, in the later years of the fourth century, either by incursions from the north, or by revolt among those who had previously given in their submision, there were large numbers of bar¬ barians, in the Roman sense, violently hostile to the Romans, and determined to resist and reject all Roman institutions and usages, within the district bounded on the north by that wall. At the period of Ninian’s mission, too, the Roman authority in Britain was already far down towards its de¬ cline. By A.D. 410 all the Roman legionaries had been withdrawn from Britain. The whole country was in a state of confusion, and this must account for the obliteration of almost all definite traces of localities and churches in which

NIXIAX AND HIS SUCCESSORS.

Ninian did the work of a pioneer. During his missionary travels in Strathclyde, Ninian consecrated a cemetery on the site now occupied by Glasgow Cathedral. When Kentigern came to that district, about a century and a half later, he found the name of Ninian still associated with the buryingground, and held in highest reverence.

From these missionary tours Ninian returned to his own quiet monastery. Here he continued the work with which he had begun his noble apostolic career. From his seminary he sent out young preachers, who carried on the work of evangelization in their master’s spirit, and inspired by his example. And there at last, full of years and worn out by his self-denying labours, he passed away to enter on a better and a higher life. His death took place on the sixteenth of September, a.d. 432.

For somewhere about thirty-five years this great mission¬ ary was enabled to continue his work among the people to whose conversion and upbuilding in the faith he had con¬ secrated his life. On the foundation laid by him, later workers — Palladius, Ternan, Servan, Kentigern, Columba — carried on the work which has now grown into the church of God in Scotland as we see it at this day. Although the incidents of Ninian’s life have completely passed from view, yet surely that man deserves to be held in remembrance, who shed light as he did on his own generation, and sowed seeds the harvest of which labourers who followed him were allowed to reap.

It is difficult to speak with anything like confidence of the followers of Ninian. Most of them are names to us and little more. Even in regard to the periods in which they lived and the consequent relation which the life and mission of one bore to the life and mission of another, there is much confusion and uncertainty in the scanty records which have come down to us in the form of traditionary legends. Tlie earliest Christian individual born in what we now call Scotland, whose name and story have been transmitted to us, is Patrick, son of a local councillor under the Roman rule ( decurio J, stationed at Kilpatrick, near Dumbarton. Patrick

HISTOllY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.

was born somewhere about a.d. 372. His parents were Christians, and at baptism he received the name of Succat, Patrick being the name which he assumed when he was ordained. But although of Scottish birth and nationality, his life and work lay not in Scotland but in Ireland. The story of his life, therefore, does not concern us here, only we must note that, even when he began his missionary career in Ireland, there was already a considerable Christian com¬ munity in that country, just as his own birth of Christian parents in Scotland told of the existence of a Christian community in that land.

After seven years of servitude in Ireland, Patrick escaped and went to Gaul, where he is supposed to have remained with Germanus of Auxerre for over thirty years. His Irish mission proper began in a.d. 433, but already in a.d. 431 Germanus had sent his archdeacon Palladius, consecrated by the Pope as a missionary bishop to Ireland. Palladius was in all probability a Gaul, and no doubt this would be regarded as fitting him in a very special way for his work among a Celtic race. It is now almost unanimously ad¬ mitted that the Scots among whom Palladius ministered were the Scots of Ireland, that his success among them was small and that he was soon driven away to Britain. Local tradition in the Mearns maintains that the seat of his ministerial activity was Fordoun, and the memory of this tradition is preserved by the attaching of the name ofPaldy to a well in the neighbourhood and to the annual fair of the district. The associating of the name of Palladius with Fordoun, however, may have arisen from the fact that the church founded here about the fifth century bore his name. But the church may have been so designated simply because it was founded by some disciple of Palladius or by some one who had taken that saint as his patron. Had this legend prevailed in Argyleshire, where at that time there un¬ doubtedly was a colony of Dalriad Scots, we might have claimed Palladius as a missionary to our country, but as the Mearns was undoubtedly inhabited not by Scots but by

I'ALLADIUS, SEllVANUS, KENTIGERN.

Piets, we can only conclude that Palladius has no claim to be regarded as a Scottish missionary.

If there has been confusion with regard to the locality in which Palladius conducted his mission, a no less serious con¬ fusion prevails as to the date of the life and labours of St. Servan or St. Serf. So inexplicable does the confusion seem, that several distinguished antiquarian scholars in their despair have maintained the necessity for assuming the existence of two saints of the same name, whose stories got inextricably mixed up together. His whole active life is connected with Culross, in a portion of Perthshire lying on the northern bank of the F orth. He has been popularly associated with Palladius, who is said to have sent him on a mission to instruct the ignorant and savage people of the Orkney Islands. The legend which connects him with Lochleven assumes that he lived in the time of Adamnan towards the close of the seventh century, Adamnan and Germanus being represented as joint-founders of the monastery, or at least of the colony of hermits at that place. The only St. Serf that can reasonably claim a place in Scottish Church History is the fifth century missionary of Culross, who, though not associated with Palladius in a ministry in the East of Scotland, may very well have been a disciple of the older saint, carrying his master’s work and name into regions which he himself had never visited. In his later days he seems to have lived the life of a hermit, and to have died at Culross in extreme old age.

AVhen already a very old man, Servan found upon the shore near his hermit residence, a frail boat or scallop, con¬ taining a young infant, whom he reared tenderly and trained with assiduous care. The child was said to be of princely parentage, and was named by Servan Kentigern, which means “ chief lord,” but also Mungo, a term of endearment, mean¬ ing apparently “ my dear.” The young disciple made remarkable progress under his saintly and kindly master, whom, however, he left when he had come to man’s estate, moving westward through Stirling till he came to a place which is now called Glasgow. The name of Ninian, as we

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.

have seen, still lingered there in connection with a cemetery which he had consecrated, and we may suppose that Kentigern would find there a small Christian community as a living Avitness to the spiritual work which the older saint had performed. He was consecrated bishop in his twenty-fifth year, and the date generally accepted is a.d. 540. He spent a great part of his time in training young men for the service of God, and in travelling throughout the wide district of Strathclyde preaching the gospel and teaching the principles of the faith to those who had lapsed into error or fallen into sin. According to a prevalent tradition, Kentigern was driven out of Strathclyde by the temporary triumph of the pagan party in a.d. 543, when he retired into Wales, founding a great monastery at what is now St. Asaph, and continuing his laborious work there for a period of about thirty years. At last, in a.d. 573, the overthrow of his heathen persecutors in Strathclyde allowed him to return to his own proper diocese. For a period of eight years, however, after leaving Wales, his residence was at Hoddam in Dumfries, and not till a.d. 581 did he return to his old home in Glasgow on the banks of the Mollendinar Burn, near where the nobie cathedral now stands. Here the famous meeting took place between Mungo and his slightly younger contemporary Columba, the distinguished and saintly abbot of Iona. The work on which these two great men had been engaged was very much the same, and we can imagine the warm interest wFich each would take in the story which the other had to tell. St. Mungo lived to a good old age, probably about eighty-four years, and died in A.D. 603.

This brings us to the greatest, and certainly the best known of all the early Scottish saints, Columba or Columcille. It was among the Scots of Ulster that Columba was born. His birthplace was Gartan in the wilds of Donegal, not far from Letterkenny, somewhat over twenty miles to the west of Londonderry. The most probable date of his birth is 7th December, a.d. 521. His father belonged to the distinguished Dalriad family which reigned in Ireland

EARLY DAYS OF ST. COLUMBA.

and the West of Scotland, while his mother was descended from the kings of Leinster. Both parents were Christians, as were the Scots generally, converted by Patrick a century earlier. The child was baptised under the name of Colum. He was sent to the school at Moville in County Down, near Newtonards, where he had as his teacher the famous St. Finnian. In this seminary he remained several years, and there he received ordination as deacon. Our knowledge of this period of his life is derived from the biography written by the most celebrated of all his successors in Iona, Adamnan, who wrote in a.d. 697, exactly one hundred years after Columba’s death. A glance at Adamnan’s Life of Columba is instructive as showing the radical difference between a mediaeval biography and a memoir of modern times. From a biographer we naturally expect a systematic narrative of the youth, manhood, and age of the individual whose story is to be told. But this was by no means the conception of his duty entertained by the monkish historian of the lives of the saints. For dates he had a profound contempt, and the chronological arrangement of his materials had not the remotest interest for him. A modern life of St. Columba might be divided thus: — 1, His birth and early youth; 2, his education ; 3, his work in Ireland ; 4, his settlement in Iona, etc. But not so Adamnan. His three books observe no order of time, but are entitled respectively : — Of his prophetic revelations ; of his miraculous powers ; of his visions of angels. And he begins his story, not with an account of Columba’s birth, but with the enumeration of miracles wrought before King Brude at Inverness, when Columba was already forty-three years old. It is indeed extremely provoking to find an intelligent and accomplished writer like Adamnan, who was immediately and personally associated with Columba, and who must therefore have been familiar with all the leading facts of the great mission¬ ary’s life, scorning to put these on record, which we would so heartily appreciate, and unweariedly recording miracles, prophecies, and visions, which we well could want. Yet from the mass of incredibles we gather here and there something reliable, and altogether Adamnan’s work is one of the most respectable of that class to which it belongs.

In A.D, 544 the community residing in a monastery near Dublin, of which he had been an inmate, was broken up by a devastating plague, and then he moved northward again, and in a.d. 546 founded the church of Londonderry, From this time onward for fifteen years he continued to labour unweariedly up and down throughout his native district. The closing years of this period are of special interest as showing us the reasons which led him to leave his native land and to seek a new home and a new sphere of labour upon our Scottish shores. During these years Columba had deeply involved himself in more than one bloody feud. It would seem indeed to be beyond dispute that, at least upon three different occasions, Columba was the cause of immense bloodshed and of de¬ vastating wars, and that, though one of these occurred a few years before his departure from Ireland, the other two happened in the closing days of his residence in his native country, showing that his earlier experience of the miseries of war did not suffice to make him forsake the use of carnal weapons, or the disputes which led to their use. Finnian of Moville, who belonged to the domain of Diarmit, a prince who had already offended Columba by disregarding his right of sanctuary, had in his possession a beautiful Psalter which Columba, who was a skilful penman and a lover of fine manuscripts, had copied without its owner's permission. Finnian resented Columba’s conduct, and claimed as rightfully his the copy that had been made. The decision was referred to Diarmit, who gave sentence thus : that as to any cow belongs its calf, so to any book belongs its copy. This was regarded as a casus belli by the irascible clansmen, and Columba, instead of seeking to compose the difference, inflamed the quarrel, and urged on the bloody conflict which it would rather have become the minister of Christ to stay. Moved by remorseful feelings, when he be¬ held the sad results of his unholy passion, rather than driven forth, as some authorities would have it, by the censure of