Christianity in Medieval Scotland
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Christianity in Medieval Scotland pertains to the Christian religion in Scotland in the Middle Ages.
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[edit] Early Christianity
The story of early Christianity in Scotland is as obscure as it is in Ireland. The earliest missionaries are traditionally Saint Ninian and Saint Columba. Ninian himself is now regarded as largely a construct of the Northumbrian church, after the Bernician takeover of Whithorn and conquest of southern Galloway. The name itself is a scribal corruption of Uinniau ('n's and 'u's look almost identical in early insular calligraphy), a saint of probable British extraction who is also known by the Gaelic equivalent of his name, Finnian. St Columba, the most important saint of medieval Scots, was certainly Uinniau's disciple. However, the earliest evidence of Christianity in northern Britain predates the respective floruit of either missionary. We can be sure that at least that all of northern Britain, except the Scandinavian far north and west was Christian by the tenth century. The most important factors for the conversion of Scotland were the Roman province of Britannia to the south, and later the so-called Gaelic or Columban church, an interlinked system of monasteries and aristocratic networks which combined to spread both Christianity and the Gaelic language amongst the Picts.
[edit] Celtic church
The so-called Celtic church is a controversial term which is used by scholars both for the Gaelic church and for the religious establishment of northern Britain prior to the twelfth century, when new religious institutions and ideologies of primarily French origin began to take root in Scotland. The typical features of native Scottish Christianity are relaxed ideas of clerical celibacy, intense secularization of ecclesiastical institutions, and the lack of a dioscesan structure. Instead of bishops and archbishops, the most important offices of the native Scottish church were abbots (or coarbs). Some early Scottish establishments are famous for their dynasties of abbots, the most famous being Dunkeld and Brechin; but these existed all over Scotland north of the Forth. Some, such as Portamahomack, Mortlach, and Abernethy suffered diminution in importance in the Norman period and are now not as famous.
[edit] Gaelic Monasticism
Scotland was untouched by continental forms of monasticism until the late eleventh century. Instead, monasticism was dominated by monks called Céli Dé (lit. "vassals of God"), anglicised as culdees. In most cases, these monks were not replaced by new continental monks in the Norman period, but usually survived, even gaining the patronage of Queen Margaret, a figure traditionally seen as hostile to Gaelic culture. At St Andrews, the Céli Dé establishment endured throughout the period, and even enjoyed rights over the election of its bishop. (Barrow, St Andrews) In fact, Gaelic monasticism was vibrant and expansionary for much of the period. For instance, dozens of monasteries, often called Schottenklöster, were founded by Gaelic monks on the continent, and many Scottish monks, such as St Cathróe of Metz, became local saints.
[edit] Continental Monasticism
The continental type of monasticism was first introduced to Scotland when King Máel Coluim III persuaded Lanfranc to provide a few monks from Canterbury for a new Benedictine abbey at Dunfermline (c. 070). However, traditional Benedictine monasticism had little future in Scotland. Instead, the monastic establishments which followed were almost universally either Augustinians or of the Reformed Benedictine type. The first Augustinian priory was established at Scone by Alexander I in 1115. By the early thirteenth century, Augustinians had settled along side, taken-over or reformed Céli Dé establishments at St Andrews, St Serf's Inch, Inchcolm, Inchmahome, Inchaffray, Restenneth and Iona, and had created numerous new establishments, such as Holyrood Abbey. The most important of the reformed Benedictine orders were the Cistercians, who achieved two important Scottish foundations, at Melrose (1136) and Dundrennan (1142)., and the Tironensians, who achieved foundations at Arbroath and Lindores, as well as Selkirk, Kelso and Glasgow. Cluniacs (e.g. Paisley), Premonstratensians (e.g. Whithorn), Valliscaulians (e.g. Pluscarden) were also important.
[edit] Ecclesia Scoticana
The Ecclesia Scoticana (lit. Scottish church) as a system has no known starting point, although Causantín II's alleged Scotticisation of the "Pictish" Church might be taken as one. Before the Norman period, Scotland had little dioscesan structure, being primarily monastic after the fashion of Ireland. After the Norman Conquest of England, the Archbishops of both Canterbury and York each claimed superiority over the Scottish church. The church in Scotland attained independent status after the Papal Bull of Celestine III (Cum universi, 1192) by which all Scottish bishoprics except Galloway were formally independent of York and Canterbury. However, unlike Ireland which had been granted four Archbishoprics in the same century, Scotland received no Archbishop and the whole Ecclesia Scoticana, with individual Scottish bishoprics (except Whithorn/Galloway), became the "special daughter of Rome". The following is a table of Bishoprics present in "Scotland-proper" in the thirteenth century:
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Outside of Scotland-proper, Glasgow managed to secure its existence in the twelfth century with a vibrant church community who gained the favour of the Scottish kings. The Bishopric of Whithorn was resurrected by Fergus, King of Galloway, and Thurstan, Archbishop of York. The isles, under the nominal jurisdiction of Trondheim (and sometimes York), had its Episcopal seat at Peel, Isle of Man. Lothian had no bishop. Its natural overlord was the Bishopric of Durham, and that bishopric continued to be important in Lothian, especially through the cult of St Cuthbert; however, once conquered by the Gaels, its diocesan jurisdiction was parcelled out between various Scottish bishoprics. Orkney, also under nominal Norwegian jurisdiction, was governed from Kirkwall.
[edit] Saints
Like every other Christian country, one of the main features of Scottish Christianity is the Cult of Saints. Saints were the middle men between the ordinary worshipper and God. Every locality, church and burgh tended to have its own particular saint. Burgh saints tended to be continental or simply biblical, as in the case of St John at Perth. Typically, local saints were ones associated with the area, as with St Duthac in Easter Ross. In Scotland north of the Forth, these local saints were either Pictish or Gaelic. The national saint of the Scottish Gaels was Colum Cille or Columba (in Latin, lit. dove), in Strathclyde it was St Kentigern (in Gaelic, lit. Chief Lord), in Lothian, St Cuthbert.
Later, owing to learned confused between the Latin words Scotia and Scythia, the Scottish kings adopted St Andrew, a saint who had more appeal to incoming Normans and was attached to the ambitious bishopric that is now known by the saint's name, St Andrews. However, Columba's status was still supreme in the early fourteenth century, when King Robert I carried the brecbennoch (or Monymusk reliquary) into battle at Bannockburn. Around the same period, a cleric on Inchcolm wrote the following Latin poem:
| Latin | English |
| Os mutorum, lux cecorum, |
Mouth of the dumb people, light of the blind people |
The poem illustrates both the role of saints, in this case as the representative of the Scottish (or perhaps just Gaelic) people in heaven, and the importance of Columba to the Scottish people.
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Barrow, G.W.S., The Kingdom of the Scots, (Edinburgh, 2003)
- Barrow, G.W.S., Kingship and Unity: Scotland, 1000-1306, (Edinburgh. 1981)
- Broun, Dauvit & Clancy, Thomas Owen (eds.),Spes Scottorum: Hope of the Scots, (Edinburgh, 1999)
- Clancy, Thomas Owen, "The real St Ninian", in The Innes Review, 52 (2001)
- Dumville, David N., "St Cathróe of Metz and the Hagiography of Exoticism," in Irish Hagiography: Saints and Scholars, ed. John Carey et al. (Dublin, 2001), pp. 172-6
- Foster, Sally, Picts, Gaels and Scots: Early Historic Scotland, (London, 1996)
- Stringer, Keith J., “Reform Monasticism and Celtic Scotland,” in Edward J. Cowan & R. Andrew McDonald (eds.), Alba: Celtic Scotland in the Middle Ages, (East Lothian, 2000), pp. 127-65
