Chapter XXV: Section VIII: Introduction of Christianity

The advent and spread of Christianity produced a great revolution in many parts of the globe. The Christian religion was a prime factor in the development of Scotland, as it became closely associated with the government, the institutions, the education, the music, the literature, the amusements, and the life of the people; indeed, its influence operated from the cradle to the grave.

It has been said that Christianity was early introduced into Britain. Although with the utmost effort to reach the truth, the mass of legends are difficult to digest. It is almost impossible to extract any definite historic information from such statements as these:――“Meanwhile the most blessed man, St. Ninian, being pained that the devil, driven forth from the earth within the ocean, should find rest for himself in a corner of this island in the heart of the Picts, girding himself as a strong wrestler to cast out his tyranny; taking moreover, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the breast-plate of charity, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word. Fortified by such arms, and surrounded by the society of his holy brethren as by a heavenly host, he invaded the empire of the strong man armed with the purpose of securing from his power innumerable victims of his captivity, whereupon, attacking the Southern Picts, whom still the Gentile error which clung to them induced to reverence and worship deaf and dumb idols, he taught them the truth of the Gospel and the purity of the Christian faith, God working with him, and confirming the Word with signs following.”¹

¹ _Historians_, Volume V.; _Life of St. Ninian_, pages 14, 15,
274‒281.

This worthy man was amongst the first teachers of the new faith in Scotland. He was the son of a British prince, and was educated in the Christian faith at Rome, and visited St. Martin at Tours, in France. His life was written by Ailred, a monk of the twelfth century, but it contains little reliable information; he rather presented a picture of the Church of his own time than an account of the life and labours of St. Ninian. Bede lived nearer to the saint’s time, and records that Ninian converted the Southern Picts, and built a church of stone, which was unusual among them. This church was in Galloway, at a spot called Whithern, and it developed into a monastery.¹

¹ _Mon. Hist. Brit._, pages 175, 176.

A few incidents will indicate the character of the matter embodied in the life of St. Ninian. One day, when the saint and his brethren assembled to dinner, there were no pot herbs or vegetables on the table. Ninian asked the reason of this, and was told that all that remained of the leeks had that day been committed to the ground, and the garden had not yet produced anything fit for eating. Then the saint ordered the brother to whom the keeping of the garden was entrusted to go and bring to him whatever he could find. The man, knowing that Ninian would order nothing in vain, entered the garden, and behold! leeks and other kinds of herbs not only grown but also bearing seed. He was much astonished, and thought that he saw a vision, but on returning to himself, and recollecting the power of the holy man, he thanked God, and then culled as much herbs as seemed sufficient, and placed them on the table before the saint. The brethren looked at one another, and magnified God working in his saints.¹

¹ _Historians_, Volume V. _Life of St. Ninian_, page 16.

St. Ninian restored the sight of a king of Strathclyde on whom God had inflicted the punishment of blindness for his pride and opposition to the saint, and when thus subdued and healed the king became friendly, and a ready supporter of the servants of Christ. Ninian died in 432, and was interred in his own church at Whithern. His biographer affirmed that the relics of the saint worked many miracles. “That at his tomb the sick were cured, the lepers cleansed, the wicked terrified, and the blind restored to sight; by all which our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.”¹ We know, from later sources of evidence, that the relics of St. Ninian were objects of intense veneration down to the period of the Reformation.

¹ _Historians_, Volume V. _Life of St. Ninian_, pages 11, 12,
23‒26.

But the best evidence of the mission of St. Ninian in Scotland, and his place in the grateful remembrance of the people, is shown in the number of churches dedicated to his name. Churches were dedicated to him in twenty-five counties, stretching from Wigton to Sutherland, but his churches were most numerous in Ayrshire and Forfarshire; in all, upwards of sixty churches were dedicated to him.¹

¹ _Ibid._ Introduction, pages 13‒19. The late Bishop of Brechin,
in his valuable _Calendar of the Scottish Saints_, gave a
detailed list of St. Ninian’s churches.

It appears that the southern tribes of the Picts and the Strathclyde Britons had been only slightly touched by St. Ninian’s mission. This is not surprising; although it is clear that the early teachers of Christianity in Britain and in Ireland adopted an easier mode of proceeding than the modern missionaries in heathen lands. The early saints allowed many of the old and existing notions of the people to remain intact, and simply turning, or professing to turn them, to beneficial ends. This is the natural and reasonable way of accounting for the many miracles attributed to the saints, which were merely the counterparts of ideas and notions then floating among the tribes and in the minds of the inhabitants. To suppose, as has sometimes been done that these miracles were invented for the purpose of enhancing the power and importance of the clergy, only evinces an imperfect perception of the essential characteristics of the condition of the people and the period, and a defective appreciation of the operations of the human mind. No doubt the early teachers of Christianity in Scotland and elsewhere firmly believed in their power of working miracles, for this belief was in their minds, or something very similar to it, before they became Christians. Thus it was only a continuation and a higher development of their former notions and feelings, not at all a newly invented belief, as something very like it had existed in the country many centuries before this period. We will meet with curious and amusing illustrations of it almost to the end of our history.

About the middle of the sixth century St. Kentigern, better known as St. Mungo, began his work amongst the Britons of Strathclyde, where he encountered many and great difficulties. The people were nearly all heathens, and all the energy of the saint and his working of miracles produced little impression upon them. When King Morken ascended the throne, he scorned and despised the life and doctrine of the saint, openly resisted him, and attributed his miraculous powers to magical illusion. Then they came face to face, and the saint asked for some supplies of food to the brethren of the monastery; but the king spurned his petition and inflicted new injuries on him. He said to the saint――“Cast thy care upon the Lord and He will sustain thee, as thou hast often taught others, that they who fear God shall lack nothing, and that those who seek the Lord shall have everything which is good. Thus, though thou fearest God and keepest His commandments, thou art in want of everything, even thy necessary food; while to me, who neither seek the kingdom of God nor the righteousness thereof, all prosperous things are added, and plenty of all sorts smileth upon me. Thy faith, therefore, is vain, and thy teaching false.” The saint pleaded that it was part of the inscrutable ways of God to afflict just and holy men in this life, while the wicked were exalted by wealth; and yet the poor were the real patrons of the rich, seeing that the labour of the poor sustained the rich as the vines were supported by the elm. The king rose in a passion, and said――“What more desirest thou? If trusting in thy God, without human hands, thou canst transfer to thy mansion all the corn in my barns, I yield with a glad mind and gift, and for the future will be devoutly obedient to thy requests.”

When evening came the saint prayed earnestly to the Lord. Then, behold! the rain poured down in torrents, the waters of the Clyde rapidly rose into a flood and overflowed its banks where the king’s barns were, and carried them down the stream, and landed the whole at the saint’s dwelling, beside the Molendinar burn, which then flowed near the place now called the Salt Market in Glasgow. But the miracle only enraged the king, who uttered many reproaches against the saint, and when he approached the king rushed on him and struck him with his heel and smote him to the ground upon his back. The time had come to manifest the divine power on behalf of the saint. As Cathen, the king’s adviser, had instigated the whole matter, so after mounting his horse to ride off, and laughing at the saint’s discomfiture, his prancing steed stumbled, and the rider falling backward broke his neck and expired before the king’s gate. The king also was smitten with a swelling in his feet, which ended in his death, and the same disease afflicted his family till it became extinct.¹

¹ _Historians_, Volume V. _Life of St. Kentigern_, pages 69‒72,
348.

But the saint was forced to leave Strathclyde, and went to Wales, where he laboured many years. Afterwards, when King Riderch reigned in Strathclyde, the saint returned and spent the remaining years of his life amongst the Britons. This king seems to have favoured the saint, and promoted his labours among the people. After an active and earnest life spent in the service of humanity, St. Kentigern died about the beginning of the seventh century. Besides attaining to the rank of local saint of Glasgow, under the name of St. Mungo, his memory became widely and greatly revered in Scotland. He also left the impress of his energy on the people of Wales and of Cumberland, as in the latter district eight churches were dedicated to his name. His tomb and relics at Glasgow were objects of extreme veneration down to the period of the Reformation.¹

¹ _Ibid._, pages 73, 88‒95, 118, 119, 348‒370; _History of
Cumberland_, by ♦R. S. Ferguson, M.A., page 114, 1890.

♦ “R. T.” replaced with “R. S.”

Before passing to the northern part of the country, the important labours of St. Cuthbert must be noticed. He was born on the southern side of the Lammermoor Hills, and when a boy followed a shepherd’s life. But Nature had gifted him with fine sensibilities and a glowing imagination, united in a vigorous physical frame, and the inner cravings of his mind led him to Melrose and to adopt a religious life. He became the apostle of the border counties. From his retreat at Melrose he carried his teaching of the Gospel to the people in the glens and the hillsides of the Cheviots and the Lammermoors, Ettrick, Teviotdale, Yarrow, and Annan Water. In his missionary efforts among the inhabitants of these localities he often spent several weeks at a time, and then returned to his monastery, like the bird to the ark. His energy was very great, and he faced toil and hardship bravely and cheerfully in the service of God and humanity. Afterwards St. Cuthbert was elected Bishop of Lindisfarne. Thus he became a conspicuous and worthy saint in the annals of the English Church.¹ He died in 687.

¹ _Mon. Hist. Brit._, pages 242‒243. The materials for the life
and career of St. Cuthbert, and the many interesting incidents
associated with him, are exceedingly voluminous, but the
following are the main sources:――1, An Anonymous Life; 2,
the Prose Life by Bede; 3, the Metrical Life by Bede; 4,
the History of the Translation of his Body; 5, the Libellus
of Reginald; 6, a number of Miscellanies. See T. D. Hardy’s
Catalogue of the Materials relating to the History of Britain,
Volume I., pages 297‒317.

The most renowned of the early saints who introduced Christianity among the northern tribes of Scotland was St. Columba, as all have recognised in him the features of a veritable hero. He was very fortunate in having two of his successors as biographers, who were near enough to his own time to give their accounts of him a special value. Though we may regret that Adamnan’s _Life of St. Columba_ affords so little information about the state of society in his time, still we should recollect that it was intended for the instruction of his own age and contemporaries, not for the enlightenment of a remote posterity. Thus, in full harmony with the spirit of his time, and the notions and feelings of his own class, Adamnan makes “the Prophetic Revelations, the Miraculous Powers, and the Apparitions of Angels,” the main themes of his life of Columba. Assuredly these were the matters of interest to the monks, so it is only incidentally that facts relating to the real world were introduced. Meagre as the work is of facts, it does contain notices of customs and references to notions then floating in the minds of the inhabitants which are nowhere else to be found.

St. Columba was born on the 7th of December, 521, at Gartan, in the county of Donegal, in Ireland. He was closely related to the royal families of his native country, which gave him a great advantage from the outset of his career. He was carefully educated in Ireland, and when a youth became a pupil of the famous bishop, St. Finnian. About the year 553 he founded the monastery of Durrow, his chief institution in Ireland. It appears he was connected with some of the political disputes of his countrymen, and in 561 the battle of Cooldrevny was fought, and it was suspected that Columba had instigated it. A synod was assembled to excommunicate Columba, but the assembly was not unanimous, and protests were entered. What effect, if any, this may have had on his future course cannot be ascertained, as he left Ireland without any stigma on his character, repeatedly revisited it, and was received with the highest respect.¹

¹ Reeves’ _Adamnan_, Appendix Preface, pages 68‒75. Columba――“a
member of the reigning family in Ireland, and closely allied
to that of Dalriada in Scotland; he was eligible to the
sovereignty of his own country. His half-uncle, Muircertach,
was on the throne when he was born, and he lived during the
successive reigns of his cousins, Domhnall and Fergus, and
Eochaidh; of his first cousins, Ainmire and Baedan; and of
Aedh, son of Ainmire. To this circumstance, as much as to
his piety or abilities, was owing the immense influence
which he possessed, and the consequent celebrity of his
conventual establishments; in fact, he enjoyed a kind of
spiritual monarchy collectively with the secular dominion of
his relatives, being sufficiently distant in Iona to avoid
collision, yet near enough to exercise an authority made up
of the patriarchal and monastic.” _Ibid._, page 8, Note _u_.

In 563 Columba, with twelve companions, embarked in a wicker-boat, covered with hides, and after touching at Islay, landed and settled on the small isle of Iona. It lay on the confines of the territories of the Scottish and Pictish tribes, and Connal, the ruler of the former, gifted it to Columba, and shortly after its possession was confirmed to him by Brude, the King of the Picts. As Iona lay on the outskirts of the dominions of the two chief tribes, it afforded a convenient centre for intercourse, and there St. Columba founded his chief monastery, and thence sent forth missionaries to convert the rude tribes of the north of Scotland. The Scots of Argyle were then nominally Christians, but the Picts were not, and it was amongst the latter that Columba mostly laboured. He often visited the mainland, and gained a remarkable influence over its chiefs. He at first encountered many difficulties, but the native energy and spirit of the missionary overcame all obstacles. In the year 565 Columba sought out the Pictish king’s seat, which was on the south-side of the river Ness, on or near the old Castle Hill of Inverness. Brude, in his pride, had shut the gate against the holy man, but the saint, by the sign of the cross, and knocking at it, caused it to fly open. Columba and his companions then entered, the King advanced and met them, and received the saint with due respect, and ever after honoured him.¹

¹ _Historians_, Volume VI., pages 62, 276; _Mon. Hist. Brit._,
page 176; Reeves’ _Adamnan_, pages 130‒153.

Columba and his disciples then proceeded with their work, and preached the Gospel among the Picts, and baptised them; sometimes whole families were baptised at once and recognised as Christians. It may be observed that Columba occasionally employed the aid of an interpreter when engaged in instructing the Picts in the doctrines of Christianity. This was quite a natural occurrence, for though Columba himself, no doubt, understood the Pictish dialect, it was, however, a different and a difficult matter to intelligibly explain the doctrines of Christianity to the Picts in their own local dialect. Columba founded many monasteries on the mainland and in the Western Isles in his own lifetime, and subsequently the monasteries and churches dedicated to him were very numerous. Every monastery consisted of a body of clergy, who from these centres went out in circuits amongst the surrounding tribes to teach and to convert them, and returned to the monastery as their common home for shelter and support. In this way, as monasteries were gradually established and spread over the country, the inhabitants were converted.¹

¹ _Historians_, Volume VI., pages 2, 25, 55, 58, 71, 77;
Reeves’ _Adamnan_, pages 289‒298; _Book of Deer_, Preface,
pages 1, 2.

A few incidents connected with Columba’s action and labour among the people may be narrated. When on one of his visits in the land of the Picts, he heard of a famous well which the heathen people, being blinded by the devil, worshipped as a god. The well had many evil qualities, and those who drank of it, or washed in it, were struck by demoniacal art, smitten with leprosy or some severe infirmity. Thus the people were seduced, and paid divine honour to the fountain. Columba having learned the state of the case, went boldly up to the well, and then the Magi rejoiced, as they thought that he too would suffer from the touch of the baneful water; but the saint raised his hands and invoked the name of Christ, then washed his hands and feet, and with his disciples drank of the water which he had blessed. Henceforth the demons departed from the well, and it never after injured anyone; but, on the contrary, it became famous for curing diseases.¹

¹ Reeves’ _Adamnan_, page 119.

St. Columba by the sign of the cross banished the demons which lurked in the bottom of the milking pail; and he also confounded the devilish art of a sorcerer who pretended to take milk from a bull. There is no evidence in the _Life of St. Columba_ of any organised heathen priesthood in Scotland, or in the Isles around it. There is, however, evidence that the kings or great chiefs kept an adviser, one of which we have already met in the person of Cathen, the adviser of the King of Strathclyde, who tried issues with St. Mungo; and no doubt these advisers, who associated with the kings, were a sort of half-magicians and half-priests. The magi that Columba met with, professed to have power over winds and waters; but the saint easily outdid them. There was a certain Broichan who attended King Brude, and this man ventured to measure his powers with St. Columba; but the saint swiftly and utterly defeated him.¹

¹ _Ibid._, _Adamnan_, pages 146‒150; _Historians_, Volume VI.,
pages 59‒61.

St. Columba was more engaged in fighting demons than heathen priests. He went out one day to a sequestered spot in the woods to pray, and when he began a host of black demons suddenly attacked him with iron darts:――“But he, single-handed, against innumerable foes of such a nature, fought with the utmost bravery, having received the armour of the Apostle Paul. Thus the contest was maintained on both sides for the greater part of the day, nor could the demons, countless though they were, vanquish him, nor was he able by himself to drive them from the island, till the angels of God, as the saint afterwards told certain persons, and they, few in number, came to his aid, when the demons in terror gave way.” He was represented as being frequently engaged in encounters with demons.¹

¹ Reeves’ _Adamnan_, page 205. The greatest of Columba’s
encounters with demons was related thus:――“Brandubh was
killed on the morrow, and the demons carried off his soul
into the air. And Maedhog (abbot of Ferns) heard the wail
of his soul as it was undergoing pain, while he was with
the reapers. And he went into the air, and began to battle
with the demons. And they passed over Iona; and Columba
heard them while he was writing; and he stuck the style into
his cloak, and went to the battle to the aid of Maedhog,
in defence of Brandubh’s soul. And the battle passed over
Rome, and the style fell out of Columba’s cloak, and dropped
in front of Gregory, who took it up in his hand. Columba
followed the soul of Brandubh to heaven. When he reached
it the congregation of heaven were at Celebration, namely,
Te decet hymnus, and Benedic anima mea, and Laudate pueri
Dominum; and this is the beginning of the Celebration
of heaven. Columba did the same as the people of heaven.
And they brought Brandubh’s soul back to his body again.
Columba tarried with Gregory, and brought away Gregory’s
brooch with him; and it is the hereditary brooch, being an
heirloom in Iona, as the testamentary bell was in Armagh, of
the coarb of Columba to this day. And he left his style with
Gregory.” _Ibid._, _note_.

The form of Christianity introduced was essentially monastic, both in the north and the south. As Columba’s institution of Iona was the first in importance, and the chief religious centre in Scotland for a century and a half, it presents the best example. The island of Iona lies north-east and south-west, separated from the island of Mull by a channel about a mile broad; it is about three miles in length, and about a mile and a half in breadth. Its surface is very uneven, and mostly consists of small green patches and rocky projections; the best part of the cultivable land lies along its eastern shore. The original monastery consisted of a church, with its altar and recesses, a refectory, the cells and huts of the monks, and Columba’s house or cell, in which he read and wrote, having several attendants awaiting his orders; and one or more houses for the reception of strangers and visitors not belonging to the monastic family. All these erections were surrounded by a rampart and a ditch called a wall, which was probably intended as much for the restraint of the monks as for security. So far as ascertained, it appears that originally the whole of these buildings were formed of wood and wattles, which perhaps rested upon stone foundations. Outside the wall there were the cow-house and the stable, the barn, the kiln and the mill, the smithy and the carpenters’ workshop. Many of the monks themselves engaged in the labours of the field, among the corn and grass.

Those who entered into the conventual community were considered as specially devoted to the service of God. The Abbot of Iona was the head of the community, and his authority extended over all the monasteries and churches founded by St. Columba. The bishops in Iona and in Scotland in the lifetime of Columba, and for about a century after, were subject to the Abbots of Iona. St. Columba named his own successor, and afterwards a preference was given to the founder’s kin in the election of the Abbots. Thus the notions and feelings of clanship entered into the very constitution of the Columban monasteries; and the kin relation of many of the Abbots of Iona have been traced. In Ireland the feelings of clanship were even more marked in the succession of the Abbots or Coarbs than in Scotland. Dioceses and parishes were unknown in the early Scottish Church. The Celtic form of society was unsuited to such arrangements, as the state of intermittent warfare in which the people lived, often resulted in the extension of the territory of one tribe and the curtailment of another, which rendered even the area of the jurisdiction of clan monasteries exceedingly fluctuating.¹

¹ _Historians of Scotland_, Volume VI., pages 104, 105,
Introduction; Todd’s _St. Patrick_, pages 154‒161, 172,
504, 505; _Ancient Laws of Ireland_, Volumes I., II., III.;
Reeves’ _Adamnan_, pages 339‒341; _Book of Deer_, pages 102,
126‒128.

It seems probable that celibacy was enjoined by Columba on the members of his community in Iona, but marriage was common in his time among the secular clergy, and celibacy was not established in Christendom for long after his day. Women held a high position in the early Church of Ireland and Scotland, as they have always done in the organisation of Celtic society. Columba himself was much revered by the female sex, and there were convents for women even in his time, and female saints of great renown. In the Irish Church some of the coarbs were females, and St. Bridget attained a wide fame and influence not only in Ireland but also in England and in Scotland. This female saint was born about the middle of the fifth century and died about the beginning of the sixth, and the histories of her life are numerous and full of narratives about miracles.¹

¹ Todd’s _St. Patrick_, pages 11‒14, 171; _Historians_, Volume
VI., pages 41, 42, 69, 71, 85.

Touching divine service, the members of the monastery of Iona were summoned to the church by the ringing of a bell, and at night they carried lanterns. The chief service was the solemn mass, when the offices were chanted, and in which certain saints were commemorated by name. On special occasions the abbot summoned the monks by the toll of the bell to the church in the dead of night, addressed them, asked their prayers, and then kneeled himself at the altar and prayed. Every Wednesday and Friday during the year, excepting the time between Easter and Whitsunday, were kept as fast days, and Lent was strictly observed. The chief festival was the Paschal solemnities, on which occasion the Eucharist was celebrated. Baptism was administered to adult converts, after being duly instructed in the faith, sometimes by the abbot in his travels through the country, and sometimes to an individual a little before his death.

Young men were admitted to the diaconate while students, and part of their duty was to attend the ministers of the altar. Priests’ orders were conferred by the bishop, but the previous imposition of the abbot’s right hand was required as the warrant for the bishop’s interference. Persons retiring from the world to live as associates or probationers in the monastery were admitted. When any one desired admission to the order, the application was submitted to the abbot, who could receive into communion at once or extend the probation over a period of years. The abbot exercised a discretionary power in the regulation of penance, and generally over the whole organisation of the community.

The interment of the dead was a religious office, which implied consideration of the future as well as the present. The faith in the Resurrection rendered it desirable to be buried among the honoured members of the society. The body of the deceased was laid out in the church, wrapped in linen clothes, where it remained for three days and nights, during which the praises of God were sung. Then the body was borne to the grave in solemn procession, and interred with due reverence.

The sign of the cross was much employed. It was customary to cross the pail before milking the cows, to cross tools and implements before using them, and so on. The sign of the cross was highly esteemed, and it was deemed effectual to banish demons, to restrain and prostrate wild animals, unlock doors, and endow pebbles with healing virtues. In St. Columba’s time charms were much used, which were produced by his blessing on a great variety of objects; but it is unnecessary to particularise further, as such notions and practices were not peculiar to St. Columba or his country, for they have been found prevailing among many other peoples widely separated from each other.

The members of the monastery had all things in common. Personal property was entirely disclaimed, according to Columba’s injunction.

Hospitality was a leading characteristic of the early monasteries. When a stranger arrived, sometimes he was at once introduced to the abbot, by whom he was kissed; at other times the interview was deferred. When an expected guest arrived, the abbot and brethren went to meet and welcome him, and he was then led to the oratory and thanks returned for his safety. From this he was led to a lodging, and water prepared to wash his feet. If a visitor happened to arrive on an ordinary fast-day, the fast was relaxed in his favour. Almsgiving was held in high esteem, and Columba often befriended the poor, but beggars who went about with wallets, were not held in such esteem, and grevious transgressors were excluded.

The ordinary food of the community of Iona was very simple. It consisted of bread, sometimes made of barley, milk, eggs, fish, occasionally mutton and beef, and some vegetables. Their clothing consisted of a coarse woollen cloth in its natural colour, and they wore sandals on their feet, which were removed before sitting down to meat.

Besides the religious services the regular employment of the Columban community consisted in reading, writing, and manual labour, according to the example of the saint himself, who allowed no time to pass unoccupied. The primary subject of study was the Scriptures, which all the members of the community had to prosecute, and to commit to memory the Book of Psalms. The Greek and Latin languages, and ecclesiastical writings were also included in their studies. Writing formed an important part of the monastic occupations, and Columba himself was much devoted to it, and many of his books were preserved, especially a volume containing hymns for the various services of each day in the week, which is mentioned by Adamnan. The stated manual labour was agriculture in its various branches, and there is evidence that the monks of Iona were the best agriculturists of the period in North Britain. As the monastery of Iona developed, and the number of its members increased, the work connected with the institution called into being new offices, agents, and servants, whose various duties were defined. In Iona we find the abbot, prior, bishop, scribe, anchorite, butler, baker, smith, attendant, and messengers, and at a later date the president of the Culdees; while the position of Iona necessitated a supply of boats and nautical appliances, and men accustomed with the sea, and several kinds of small vessels were used in connection with the monastery. Small portable boats were used for cruising, crossing rivers, and inland lochs; larger wicker-work boats covered with hides, which were furnished with masts and sails as well as oars, were used for carrying on communication with the mainland and with Ireland.¹

¹ Reeves’ _Adamnan_, pages 339‒369; _Sculptured Stones of
Scotland_, Volume II., Preface, pages 14‒16, 17, 19‒21.

Columba had a severe sickness in the year 593, and he died on the morning of the 9th of June, 597, while kneeling at the altar; without a struggle his spirit gently departed. His remains were wrapped in fine linen clothes and interred in Iona.¹ Columba was a man of great energy and ability, and left behind him an imperishable name associated with the introduction of Christianity in Scotland.

¹ Reeves’ _Adamnan_, pages 227, 235‒240.

He was succeeded by his first cousin, Baithene, son of Brendan. He was nominated by St. Columba as his successor to the abbacy of Iona, and, having enjoyed it three years, he died in 600. He was succeeded by another first-cousin of St. Columba, Laisren, son of Feradhach; he held the abbacy five years, and died in 605.¹ Iona continued to prosper, and occasionally sent forth men who spread the light and established monasteries and churches beyond the bounds of Scotland. The institution of Iona performed good service in its day, and contributed several important elements to the civilisation of Scotland, which have operated in various ways along the roll of ages down to the present time. In spite of its solitary position, evil days came upon it; for in 801, the monastery was burned to the ground by the Norsemen. Again in 806 they landed on the island, and slew sixty-eight of the inhabitants; and they returned in 815 and killed a number of the monks. Such were the results of the early visits of these heathen Norsemen to our shores. By this time the influence of Iona had from other causes begun to decline, and before the end of the ninth century Dunkeld had become the chief religious centre in Scotland.

¹ _Ibid._, page 372.

It was already stated that Constantine, who ascended the throne of the Picts at Scone in 790, founded a church at Dunkeld; and it appears that the remains of St. Columba were enshrined sometime in the latter half of the eighth century, conveyed to Ireland and preserved there. Kenneth M‘Alpin in 850 removed the relics of St. Columba to the Church of Dunkeld, or at least some of them. Thus Kenneth, as it were, constituted Dunkeld――the mother church over the Columbans in Scotland; and hence the Abbots of Dunkeld assumed an important position.¹

¹ _Ibid._, pages 312, 318; Skene’s _Celtic Scotland_, Volume
II., pages 291‒319.

The influence of these early saints, and especially of St. Columba, and their immediate successors, upon the subsequent religious feelings and sentiments of the people was great and abiding, and to us indeed, unrealisable in its natal vigour and glowing energy. For till the Reformation their deaths and miracles were continually commemorated as part of the belief and worship of the people. Their tombs, relics, and shrines, became objects of extreme veneration. Many of their relics were believed to possess marvellous powers, such as the Crosiers, and the Brecbennoch of St. Columba, which were often carried into battles to secure victory to the people who possessed them. These saints also took a firm and extensive hold upon the local history and nomenclature of the country, which is still discernible after thirteen centuries. The wells and springs among the valleys, the deep and winding glens, and in the cliffs of rugged mountains, often bear the names of these early saints; and, moreover, many of the wells had been blessed by them, and thus rendered famous for curing diseases.¹ The caves and rocks retain traces of the early teachers of the Gospel of peace, and the old markets all over the country were named after them; indeed, there were few places of any note that were not associated with the name of some early saint. Looking fairly at these results and assigning to them due importance, we may easily perceive the social influence which the new religion must have had upon the people; and seeing that the action of these saints had one common origin, the general effect was a tendency to draw the separate tribes slowly towards a union amongst themselves. Thus Christianity became an influence which contributed much indirectly to the development of the Scotch nationality, as well as to the civilisation of the people.

¹ There were few if any parishes in Scotland that had not
one or more holy wells which were famed for their healing
virtues, and many of them were resorted to till quite recent
times. See Anderson’s _Scotland in Early Christian Times_,
page 193, 1881.