Church. For another biography of the same life we have to thank another abbot of Iona, 'Cummene the Fair.'

Tuda, who had succeeded St. Colman in the Northumbrian bishopric, died in the year of his consecration, 664. The see of Lindisfarne was not filled up, but Wilfrid, the able Roman advocate at the Council of Whitby, was chosen Bishop of York. Having gone abroad, and remained there a long time, the saintly Chad, Abbot of Lastingham, was consecrated to his see in his absence. Before long Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, expressed to Chad dissatisfaction as to the manner of his ordination. The Bishop of York declared his readiness to resign his see, saying, 'for I never thought myself worthy of it.' He retired to the monastery at Lastingham, but Theodore, struck by his intense humility, had already supplied what he thought was wanting in his ordination, and now called him to preside over the diocese of Mercia. In the year 678, Wilfrid, who had entered on the episcopal government of York, brought upon himself the indignation of Egfrid, King of Northumbria, because he had induced his queen, Etheldreda, to become a nun. He was deprived of his bishopric, and it was divided, Bosa being consecrated to the see of York, and Eata, a disciple of St. Aidan, to that of Hexham. In 681, Lindisfarne and Hexham were separated,-Eata retained the former, and Tunbert was consecrated to the latter. In 684, Tunbert was deposed, and a holy man living in solitude on the isle of Farne was called upon to fill his place. This was St. Cuthbert, the former Prior of Melrose. The saint was reluctantly torn from his peaceful island. He prayed that he might be set over Lindisfarne instead of Hexham, and this was granted.1 His life was a continual prayer; and during the two years that he was busy in the active discharge of his

1 During the episcopate of St. Cuthbert, Egfrid, King of North

One of his whose lips

episcopal duties, the union of his soul with God was as uninterrupted as it had been in his dear Farne. children was St. Boisil, Prior of Melrose, on were always, 'How good a Jesus have we!' When St. Cuthbert felt that his day's work was nearly done, he returned to Farne, and there he died in the year 687. The intercourse between Northumbria and the convent of Hy was at this period closely maintained, and lives like those of St. Chad and St. Cuthbert or St. Boisil spread their influence across the borders of the Northumbrian kingdom into Pictavia and Dalriada. Nor must we forget the Venerable Bede, who died in the year 735, whose Ecclesiastical History of England is the most valuable legacy which the British literature of those ages has left to us. King Nectan had not only enlisted the abilities of Ceolfrid in the institution of the canonical Easter, he also invited him to send architects 'to build a church in Pictland after the Roman manner.' Truly . many causes were combining to terminate the Columban age of our ecclesiastical history. Iona has almost done its appointed work as head and centre of the Scottish branch of the Catholic Church, that work which began on the summer morning in 563, when with twelve disciples Columba landed on its shores.

The ancient Church of Scotland had come in contact with the Church of England soon after the mission of Pope St. Gregory the Great. In a genuine sense this great and good man applied to himself the modest title of Servus servorum Dei,' 'which the haughtiest of his successors have never since disdained.'1 In addition to the threefold dignity

umbria, was totally defeated by the Picts at Nechtansmere, or Dunnichen, in Angus.

1 See The See of Rome in the Middle Ages, p. 33.

of bishop, archbishop, and patriarch, which had belonged to the bishops of Rome, 'the germs of a fourth and yet higher dignity, which in distinction from the others may be termed the Papacy, had begun to appear in the fifth century, and were becoming prominent towards the middle of the seventh century.'' The filial devotion of England to the see of Rome was in its youthful enthusiasm when the brethren of Iona were compelled to renounce their cherished usages; and a great deal is implied when we say that not the least important results of the Northumbrian mission were that 'the colours of the old world, and the old modes of thought' were in the end rubbed off, and the way was prepared for bringing the Scottish Church into her mediæval position within the boundaries of the supremacy of Rome. And now certain of her local characteristics, or, as one might say, her individuality in minor matters, were being effaced. The influence of Wilfrid, Bishop of York, spread far and wide. It was under his patronage that Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth, procured masons from Gaul to erect a church at Wearmouth. The monks became learned in architecture, and in many directions fair stone churches began to supersede the original wooden edifices, thatched with straw, of the blessed founders of the faith. It was from Wearmouth that Nectan sought and obtained builders for his church; and doubtless the knowledge of many arts stole gradually across the Borders. An elaborate ritual was taking the place of the necessarily poorer services that had hitherto obtained. Benedict Biscop had imported a choice library, together with relics and pictures, from Rome; and he had invited glaziers from France to introduce glass-making, the novelty of the day, into England. Illumination—the beautiful expression of

1 The See of Rome in the Middle Ages, p. 13.

the educated religious thought in that age and for centuries to come, and which, with prayer, was the one absorbing occupation of many a holy lifetime-made great advances; and Bishop Wilfrid enriched the church of York with the Gospels written in purple and gold.

CHAPTER VII.

THE UNION OF THE PICTS AND SCOTS.

'Seven years before the end of the world, a deluge shall drown

the nations; the sea at one tide shall cover Ireland and the green-headed Islay, but Columba's isle shall swim above the flood.'-Ancient Prophecy.

KENNETH, Son of Alpin, the lineal descendant of Aidan, who had been inaugurated by St. Columba, succeeded his father as King of Dalriada in the year 836. He also claimed, by right of the maternal ancestry of his father, the sovereignty of the Picts, and in 843 the two peoples were united, and Kenneth became King of the Picts and Scots. Alba was henceforth Scotland, and 'the ancient name of Pict, gradually dying out, was superseded by the more familiar appellation of Scot, extending in course of time to every tribe and every race, from the Tweed and the Solway to the Pentland Firth, whose chieftains and leaders, whether native noble, or feudal baron, owned the authority, and followed the banner of the representatives of the princes of Kintyre.'1 Six years after this great and desirable union there was a memorable ecclesiastical change. The primacy of the Scottish Church was transferred from the abbot of Iona to the abbot of Dunkeld, part at least of the relics of St. Columba were translated thither, and Dunkeld became the second ecclesiastical metropolis. The causes for this change are to be referred to the ravages of those

1 Scotland under her Early Kings, E. William Robertson, vol. i. p. 23.