September, 1172, in the same tone of sanctimonious arrogance) issued a brief confirming the bull
of Adrian, and expressing a hope that "the barbarous nation" would attain under the government
of Henry "to some decency of manners;" he also wrote three epistles—one to Henry II., one to the
kings and nobles of Ireland, and one to its hierarchy—enjoining obedience of Ireland to England,
and of both to the see of St. Peter.^73
§ 17. The Conversion of Scotland. St. Ninian and St. Kentigern.
See the works of Skene (the second vol.), Reeves, McLauchan, Ebrard, Cunningham, mentioned
in § 7.
Also Dr. Reeves: The Culdees of the British Islands as they appear in History, 1864.
Dr. Jos. Robertson: Statuta Ecclesiae Scoticanae, 1866, 2 vols.
Bishop Forbes: The Kalendars of Scottish Saints, Edinb., 1872; Lives of S. Ninian and S. Kentigern,
compiled in the 12th century, Edinb., 1874.
Haddan & Stubbs: Councils and Ecclesiast. Docum., Vol. II, Part I. (Oxf., 1873), pp. 103 sqq.
Scotland (Scotia) before the tenth century was comprised in the general appellation of Britain(Britannia), as distinct from Ireland (Hibernia). It was known to the Romans as Caledonia,^74 to the
Kelts as Alban; but the name of Scotia was exclusively appropriated to Ireland till the tenth century.
The independent history of Scotland begins with the establishment of the Scottish monarchy in the
ninth century. At first it was a purely Keltic kingdom; but in the course of time the Saxon race and
feudal institutions spread over the country, and the Keltic tribes retreated to the mountains and
western islands. The names of Scot and Scotch passed over to the English-speaking people and
their language; while the Keltic language, formerly known as Scotch, became known as Irish.
The Keltic history of Scotland is full of fable, and a battlefield of Romanists and Protestants,
Episcopalians and Presbyterians, who have claimed it for their respective systems of doctrine and
church-polity. It must be disentangled from the sectarian issues of the Culdean controversy. The
historian is neither a polemic nor an apologist, and should aim at nothing but the truth.
Tertullian says, that certain places in Britain which the Romans could not conquer were
made subject to Christ. It is quite likely that the first knowledge of Christianity reached the Scots
and Picts from England; but the constant wars between them and the Britons and the decline of the
Roman power were unfavorable to any mission work.
The mission of Palladius to Scotland by Pope Caelestius is as vague and uncertain as his
mission to Ireland by the same Pope, and is strongly mixed up with the mission of Patrick. An Irish
colony from the North-Eastern part of Ulster, which had been Christianized by Patrick, settled in
Scotland towards the close of the fifth century, and continued to spread along the coasts of Argyle
and as far as the islands of Mull and Iona, until its progress was checked by the Northern Picts.
The first distinct fact in the church history of Scotland is the apostolate of St. Ninian at the
close of the fourth century, during the reign of Theodosius in the East. We have little reliable
information of him. The son of a British king, he devoted himself early to the ministry of Christ.
He spent some time in Rome, where the Pope commissioned him to the apostolate among the
(^73) Killen, I. 226 sq.
(^74) In Gaelic, Calyddom, land of forests, or, according to others, from Kaled, i.e hard and wild.