spiritual duties, which they neglected, were performed by stipendiary priors; while those which specially belonged to the episcopal office were fulfilled by bishops living within the monasteries, and subject to the jurisdiction of the abbots. Monastic rules were set at nought by those who were called monks, and their share poterit commode ordinentur."-(Registr. Aberdon. vol. ii. p. 34.) In England the same abuse prevailed, of which we have an instance at Whalley, in Lancashire, where the rectors or "deans " were for generations also lords of the town and married men, who held the benefice not by presentation from any other patron, but as their own patrimonial estate, being compounded of patron, incumbent, ordinary, and lord of the manor, and not in priest's orders.-(Whitaker's History of Whalley, pp. 32, 41, 42. Lond. 1806.) In the year 1226 the rector of the church of Wickington was accused of having succeeded to his father in the benefice, and under a writ issued by the Archbishop of York, it was proved "quod pater ejus firmarius tantum ecclesiæ memoratæ extitit et non rector," on which ground the archbishop decreed "memoratum Willelmum ab hujusmodi successione immunem." -(Rot. Major, Walteri Gray, Archiep. Ebor. (1216-1255, No. 9, noted for me by my friend Canon James Raine of York.) The same state of lay usurpation sometimes arose from different causes. In the case of Bobbio, one of the houses * For some of these, see Mabillon, Act. Sanct. Ord. Bened. tom. iii. pref. p. lvi. Venet. 1734. founded by the great Irish missionary St. Columbanus, the steps can easily be traced in the records of the monastery,* by which the lay character was attained. One of these narrates a grant, dated A.D. 602, by Agilulf, King of the Lombards, of the basilica of St. Peter of Bobbio, with a territory, to St. Columbanus, who by a subsequent deed resigns it to the Roman See. This is signed by St. Columbanus and eleven brethren, of whom three appear to have been of his own Celtic blood:-Conanus sacerdos et monacus; Gurgarus genere brittonum, Domcialis humilis diaconus Scotto [sic] et monacus (p. 2). About forty years afterwards, Pope Theodore conferred various privileges on the monastery of Bobbio, which is said then to contain 150 monks under the rule of St. Benedict, or of its founder St. Columbanus.t Somewhat later the successors of the humble Irishman coveted the addition of temporal lordship to their spiritual privileges, and various deeds of the Kings of Italy and Emperors of Germany occur, constituting the abbots counts of Bobbio. * Printed in the great work of the Sardinian government, Historia Patriæ Monumenta, vol. i. Turin, 1836. + Idem, p. 6. Idem, pp. 66, 252. of the monastic revenues was transmitted to their families and relatives. Under this system the episcopal arm was powerless to control or correct the usurpations of the lay element; and so long as the system of clanship remained unbroken, there was no opening for that episcopal interference which, in the diocesan and parochial institutions, had become influential in other parts of Europe. Like results had indeed prevailed in the ecclesiastical arrangements of most European countries for a time; but in these the progress of events had introduced many changes, and ameliorating influences. In Ireland and Scotland the corruptions seemed so naturally adapted to those national tendencies which prompted them to look back with chief regard to the founders of their polity, whether spiritual or civil,1 that no foreign element of improvement could 1 A reverence for St. Columba was the great obstacle to the adoption of the Roman usages, when the systems of the Roman and Pictish Churches were discussed at the Synod of Whitby in the year A.D. 664. Colman, the champion of the latter, asked if it was credible that St. Columba and his successors kept their Easter contrary to the Divine writings (Bede, H. E. iii. 25); and in describing the conformity of the monks at Hy to the Roman use, through the preaching of the holy father and priest, Ecgberct, Venerable Bede calls it a surrender of the inveterate tradition of their forefathers.—(H. E. iii. 25, v. 22.) This reverence assumed many forms. In Ireland objects associated with the Saint were for many centuries Among the arguments used by St. obtain access; and in these countries the evils which had been more or less prevalent in all, remained unabated' after they had been supplanted elsewhere. In Scotland this system of inherited peculiarity, both civil and ecclesiastical, was first confronted with one founded on entirely different principles, when the Celtic clergy of Scotland met in council, to listen, during three days, to the addresses of Margaret, the Saxon princess, translated out of her own tongue by her Gaelic husband, King Malcolm. The portrait of the Saxon princess, as it is drawn in the pages of Turgot, her friend and spiritual adviser, commends her to our admiration, as one of the purest, the most humble and beneficent of women; while, as a queen, she appears to have combined with her personal graces, admirable majesty of conduct, and true love of her adopted country. The rugged but generous nature of her husband, through her tender influences, became at once softened and elevated. Through these he was predisposed to welcome those numerous emigrants driven from England by the violence of the Conqueror, or attracted to a new country by the hopes of better fortunes, whose settlement was so influential in remoulding the structure of society in Scotland. While Margaret's own life was marked by the austerity of an ascetic, she deemed it right to add to the dignity and splendour of her husband's court, encouraging merchants to bring from abroad costly garments, and gold and silver dishes.1 The gentleness and purity with which she sought for improvement, were new influences in the government of the country, and to some extent disarmed the first feeling of aversion to all change which characterised her Celtic subjects; while the steady adherence by her children to the policy which she had inaugurated, led to a more rapid yet less violent overthrow of the clan system, both in church and state, than could have otherwise been anticipated. Besides the usages and corruptions in the church, which, through her influence, were altered and corrected, she led to the introduction of institutions which, as their influence became powerful, broke up the narrow and divided polity of the Celtic barous rites connected with the celebration of the mysteries, "contra totius ecclesiæ morem." The queen persuaded them to abandon those, and to give up unlawful marriages, such as that between a brother and his brother's wife, "multa quoque alia contra morem ecclesiæ inoleverant, quæ in eodem concilio damnans, de regni finibus extirpavit." While the church, as a body, was thus corrupted, we hear of the strict lives of many hermits living in caves or cells throughout Scotland. These the queen venerated, as seeing Christ in them, visiting them in their abodes, and soliciting the blessing of their prayers.— (Vita. S. Marg. Scotor. Regin. by Turgot, ap. Symeonis Dunelm. Opera, vol. i. p. 247-Surt. Soc.) people,' to make way for one founded on the ideas of corporate unity and diffused sympathy. Soon, dioceses and parishes, such as had been established in England at an earlier period, begin to appear in our records. We discover new civil divisions, through the change of the old "countries" or or "provinces" into shires; the transition of the mormaers into earls; the beginning of towns; the growth of feudal law, in the rules of succession and the tenure of land. A race of Saxon settlers was introduced into the country, the result of the whole being a quickening of the national life, and the awakening of a feeling of unity, such as could find no place among the divided clans of a Celtic people. The corrupted state of Scottish monasticism is well illustrated in the history of the house of St. Regulus at St. Andrews. It is impossible, however, to advert to this history without reference to the Culdees, who are so intimately connected with the fortunes of the establishment; and as the system of those clerics was still a prominent feature of the religious polity of Scotland when we become acquainted with the house of Deer in the eleventh century, I have thought it permissible to collect in this chapter the more important facts relating both to the monastery of St. Andrews, and to the Culdees generally. The rubric of "the legend of St. Andrew," written shortly after the middle of the twelfth century, tells us of the many monasteries of early foundation in the country of the Picts, and by what means 1 In Ireland foreign ecclesiastical influences led, about the same time, to the formation of territorial dioceses and Ρ parishes, which were unknown in that country prior to the Synod of Rathbreasil, held in 1110. |