lands we shall frequently be reminded of their activities. We pass on to consider the development of Christianity in the country to which the first missionaries who had received their training in Ireland directed their steps. CHAPTER III SCOTLAND Early traces of Christianity. DURING the Roman occupation of England the south of Scotland as far north as the wall connecting the Clyde with the Firth of Forth was occupied at intervals by Roman troops, and though no record of their work has survived, it is probable that a knowledge of Christianity was introduced amongst its inhabitants by Roman or British Christians. The oldest existing trace of Christianity in Scotland is probably a column in the churchyard of Kirkmadrine in Wigtownshire, the Inscrip- inscription1 on which reads:-"Here lie holy and Kirk- eminent priests, namely Viventius and Mavorius." madrine. There are several other monumental stones in Wigtown tion at Use of the word shire which may perhaps claim an equal antiquity, and which probably date back to a time prior to the withdrawal of the Roman legions, i.e. to the beginning of the fifth century. Before referring to the work of the earliest known "Scotia." missionaries it will be well to recall the fact that the 1 hic jacent sci et præcipui sacerdotes id es(t) viventius et mavorius. Dean Stanley writes, "Nowhere in Great Britain is there a Christian record so ancient as the grey weatherbeaten column that now serves as the gatepost of the deserted churchyard of Kirk Madrine. . . . Long may it stand as the first authentic trace of Christian civilization in these islands." Lectures on the History of the Church of Scotland, p. 85. Bp. Dowden suggests that "ides" is a proper name, also that "præcipui sacerdotes" probably means "bishops." See Proceedings of Antiquarians of Scotland, vol. xxxii. (1897-8), p. 247. names Scot and Scotia were, in early times, applied exclusively to the Irish and to Ireland. Up to the twelfth century the word 'Scots' was used to denote the Irish of Ireland, or the Irish settlers on the west coast of what is now called Scotland.1 It is important to remember this fact when referring to the earliest sources of information concerning the evangelization of Scotland. Ninian. It is doubtful whether the early inhabitants of Idols. Scotland possessed any idols, but their Druids acted as diviners, sorcerers and medicine men.2 The first missionary concerning whose life and work anything can be definitely ascertained is Ninian. Bede, who is st. our earliest and only trustworthy authority for his life, unfortunately devotes but a few lines to him. He writes, "The southern Picts . . . had long before (i.e. before 565), as is reported, forsaken the errors of idolatry and embraced the true faith by the preaching of Nynia 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; whose episcopal seat, named after Saint Martin the bishop and famous for its church, where he himself and many other saints rest in the body, is still in existence among the English nation. The place belongs to the province Candida of the Bernicians and is commonly called the White Casa monHouse because he built there a church of stone, contrary to the custom of the Britons." 3 Aelred a monk of Rievaulx in Yorkshire, who wrote an elaborate life of Ninian 700 years after his death, claims to have 1 See Skene's Celtic Scotland, ii. pp. 137, 398. 2 See Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum, astery. made use of an earlier source, but the marvels and absurdities with which his life abounds render it impossible to accept even the outline of the life given by him as historical. Ninian was probably born of Christian parents on the shores of the Solway about 350. According to Aelred he was consecrated as a bishop in Rome and, having visited Tours on his way back from Rome, procured from St. Martin masons, by whose help he built his "church of stone." On his return he carried on his missionary labours, which were attended with great success, amongst the southern Picts who inhabited the middle parts of Scotland south of the Grampians. He is said to have died on September 16, 432.1 It is probable that he introduced the monastic system into northern Britain, and many Welsh and Irish students resorted to his monastery at Candida Casa prior to its destruction by the Saxons. According to some authorities Bannaven Taberniæ, where Patrick was born and where he spent his boyhood, is to be identified with Dumbarton on the Clyde. If this identification be accepted it would tend to show that a Christian community had existed here for at least 50 years prior to his birth (circ. 389), as Patrick's grandfather was a Christian Palladius priest. Fordun's Chronicle, written about 1385, states land? that Palladius was sent by Pope Celestine to labour in Scot 1 Many churches in Scotland have been dedicated to St. Ninian, one of the latest being the cathedral church at Perth. "Irish tradition, or invention, takes Nynias to Ireland towards the end of his life to found the church of Cluain Conaire in Leinster, and to die there. He is commemo rated in the Irish calendars as Moinenn i.e. my Nynias." Plummer, Baede opera ii. 128. The form Trinian occurs in the Isle of Man. 2 According to Prof. Bury the site of Patrick's birth was in South Wales, or in the neighbourhood of the Bristol Channel. as a missionary in Scotland, but the source of his information which is obviously the statement by Prosper of Aquitaine that he was sent as first bishop to the Scots, has evidently been misinterpreted by him.1 By "Scots Prosper could only have meant the Irish. Fordun further states that St. Ternan and St. Serf St. Ternan (Servanus) were fellow-labourers with Palladius. The Serf. names of these two are preserved in Scottish tradition. and St. The southern Picts, who had been converted by Ninian at the beginning of the fifth century, and had apparently relapsed into heathenism by the middle of the sixth century,2 were restored to the faith by the labours of Kentigern commonly known in Scotland as St. Mungo. St. KentiThe scene of his labours was the British kingdom of gern. Strathclyde, or Cumbria, which extended from Dumbarton its capital to the R. Derwent in Cumberland, and was bounded on the east by Bernicia, the kingdom of the Angles. The only life of Kentigern which we possess was written to order for the Bishop of Glasgow by Jocelyn a monk in Furness Abbey, Lancashire. Bp. Dowden refers to this life as a "tissue of monstrous absurdities." The facts concerning his early life which are regarded by modern authorities as possibly true are these. His mother, the daughter of a Pictish king, when about to give birth to a child was cast adrift on the sea in a frail coracle and eventually landed and gave birth to her son on the shore of the Forth. Here the mother and child were cared for by St. Serf 1 See above, p. 48, note. 3 2 See Jocelyn's Life of Kentigern cap. xxvii. Picti vero prius per Sanctum Ninianum ex magna parte . . fidem susceperunt, Dein in apostasiam lapsi. He speaks of the 3 The Celtic Ch. in Scotland, p. 52, |