2

dogma. The language of Adamnan is no doubt strongly sacramental, but so is the language of the early fathers, and so these fathers believed was the language of St. Paul and of our Lord Himself. In Iona the officiating presbyter was said to celebrate solemnia missarum, the solemnities of the mass, and sacra eucharistia mysteria conficere, to consecrate the sacred the sacred mysteries of the Eucharist and Christi corpus conficere, to consecrate the body of Christ. But language to the same effect, and as strongly worded, is common in the Greek and Latin fathers who lived many centuries before the metaphysical dogma of transubstantiation was heard of. And it only shows that the sacramental doctrine of the Celtic Church was one with the Catholic faith of the primitive ages before that faith became Romanised and perverted by the schoolmen.4

In another respect the Celtic Church differed materially from medieval and modern Romanism, namely, as to the cultus or worship, however modified, of the blessed Virgin. There is not the vestige of any such practice in Adamnan's pages, nor any trace of it in the Columban missions. There is not to be found even the dedication of a single church in St. Mary's name. While St. Bridget or Bride, who has been called the Mary of Ireland, has many dedications in her native country, and not a few in Scotland,

1 The term "Missa," or mass, was originally devoid of doctrinal significance-an ecclesiastical and not a theological term.

2 Adamnan, i. 32.

3 Ibid., i. 35, and Reeves's note, p. 263.

4 For examples of the misinterpretation of Adamnan's language in favour of transubstantiation, see two authors of opposite schools, viz. Dr. Bellesheim's History of the (Roman) Catholic Church of Scotland, vol. i. p. 100, and the Church of Scotland,

edited by Dr. Story, vol. i. p. 143. Another author, whose anti-Catholic spirit is very pronounced, the late Dr. M'Lauchlan, in his Early Scottish Church, p. 185, shows a truer penetration, so far, of Adamnan's meaning. "The language," quoted above from Adamnan, "cannot be understood," he remarks, "as implying that the doctrine of the conversion of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ as now held by the Church of Rome, was held by the ancient Scottish Church."

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ABSENCE OF MEDIEVAL CULTS

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the blessed Virgin's name is conspicuous by its absence. And whatever other inference may be drawn from that fact, this inference at least is obvious, that modern Romanism, in the fostering of what has been not unjustly described as Mariolatry, has widely diverged from the ancient faith of our Celtic forefathers.

CHAPTER VI

IRISH MISSIONARIES IN ALBAN (SCOTLAND) AND ON THE CONTINENT IN THE SIXTH AND SEVENTH CENTURIES

IT was the custom of the Celts to dedicate their churches in the names of local saints, the pious men who first brought the knowledge and blessings of religion amongst them. Some few dedications in Scotland were to the name of the Holy Trinity, such as the early foundation at Scone, and another in Glasgow, where there was a church of that dedication in the days of its first bishop, Kentigern.' The old Celtic custom has among other benefits kept alive in many places the names of our first religious benefactors; it has enriched and varied our ecclesiastical history; and it still offers an additional incentive to the student who values the continuity between the Church's present and past.

Some of the Celtic saints and founders of churches have already been noticed in the order of their life and work. Others, who were contemporary with St. Columba, or in proximity to his time, may be briefly mentioned.

ST. MUNNA or Mundas, an Irish saint, is said by one account to have visited Iona during Columba's life, and by another, after his death. His principal church in Scotland was Kilmond, now Kilmun, on the shore of the

1 Later dedications to the Holy Trinity were made in Brechin and Dunfermline.

CHAP. VI IRISH MISSIONARIES IN WEST COAST

I II

Holy Loch in Cowal, where, according to the Breviary of Aberdeen, he was buried in the year 635. Local tradition marks the place of his burial by the name of Sith-Munn, where a half-mark of land was held in virtue of the custody of his staff. Kilmun became a collegiate church in the fifteenth century, and is the burial-place of the ducal family of Argyll.

ST. MOLUOC or Maluog, an Irishman and a bishop, was founder of the church on the island of Lismore, between Oban and Morven, and died, according to the annalist Tighernac, in 592. Lismore means in Gaelic the great garden, so named from its fertility, and Adamnan playfully calls it "Paradisus," a western Eden. The island became the site of the cathedral church of Argyll after its separation from Dunkeld, about the year 1200; hence the name of the see-Lismoriensis. The first seat of the bishopric was on the mainland of Argyil, on the south shore of Loch Etive. It was afterwards removed, probably for greater security, to the island of Lismore.1 The church of Rosmarkyn, now Rosemarky, on the northern shore of the Moray Firth, and that of Mortlach in Banffshire, were dedicated in the name of Maluog of Lismore, and were probably founded by him.2 His name is also found in other twelve dedications, chiefly among the Western Isles.3 The Duke of Argyll is now possessor of Lismore, and is the lay representative of St. Moluoc, its bishop, and custodian of his pastoral staff. His Grace also inherits other ecclesiastical possessions on island and mainland, more substantial than the bishop's bachall.

Another Irish saint of this age connected with the West of Scotland is ST. MARNOCK. His name, MoErnin-occ, became in Latin Mernocus, and in the vulgar

1 Skene's C. S., ii. 408.

2 Ibid., ii. 135.

3 See Forbes's Kalendars of the Saints, sub voce.

tongue Marnoc. The prefix mo denotes my, and the suffix occ is little, so that the name in full conveyed the twofold expression of affection and familiarity. His death is given in 635, and in his festival for the 25th October in the Aberdeen Breviary he is described as "St. Mernoc, bishop, and confessor, and patron of Kilmernock." The name is preserved in Kilmarnock town, and in the island of Inchmarnock on the western side of Bute. The former was the centre of his episcopal missions, and the latter his devotional retreat. The same saint is probably commemorated in the parish of Marnoch, Banffshire.

ST. DONNAN of Eigg, "cold Eigg" as Angus the Culdee calls it, has already been named in connection with St. Columba, whose disciple he was. Donnan and his whole community of monks, numbering fifty-two, were put to death on the island on Sunday, the 17th April 617, by a band of pirates, possibly Picts, from the neighbouring coast, or by the order of the queen of Eigg, as another record puts it. The massacre of the community, the only martyrs in the Scotic Church, if we believe that they died for their religion, is thus described in the Feilire, a metrical calendar of Angus the Culdee. Donnan and his brethren "took up their abode in a place where the sheep of the queen of the country were kept. This was told to the queen. Let them all be killed, said she. That would not be a

religious act, said her people. But they were murderously assailed. At this time the cleric was at mass. Let us have respite till mass is ended, said Donnan. Thou shalt have it, said they. And when it was over they were slain, every one of them."1 The early British

1 Reeves's Adam., pp. 294-297; Skene's C. S., ii. 133; M'Lauchlan's Early Scot. Ch., 202-203.