Church securely among them; and so vigorous was it that, within less than forty years after Columba's death, it undertook the conversion of the Northumbrians, and established a Church among them which existed, under the primacy of Iona, for thirty years, when it retired before the advancing Church of Rome.

As I have said, the Church which developed itself in Ireland, and of which the Scottish Church was long a branch, had certain peculiarities which distinguished it from all other Churches. To state these distinctions in a word, it may be said that the Church was a monastictribal Church, not subject to the jurisdiction of Bishops.

Monasticism was first introduced from the East, but it was well known in the Roman Church before the time of St Patrick, and we have seen that he says that through his means the sons of the Scoti and the daughters of princes became monks and virgins of Christ; but in the Roman Church monasticism was an order within the Church, existing along with a secular clergy, and subject to the jurisdiction of the bishops. In the Church which developed itself in Ireland, and was introduced into Scotland, on the other hand, the whole Church was monastic, and subject to the jurisdiction, not of bishops, but of abbots, who were not necessarily, and, in point of fact, seldom were bishops, and while the Episcopal Order and the special functions of the Episcopate in the matter of ordination and the celebration of the mass with Pontifical rites, was recognised, the bishop was not a prelate, but a functionary and official of the Church, living as a monk in the monastery, and subject to the abbot. This peculiarity of the Church was for long a battle ground between Presbyterians and Episcopalians, and founding on a passage in Fordun, it was maintained by the advocates of Presbyterianism that the Church of St Columba was a Presbyterian Church, in something of the sense in which that word is applied to the present Churches in Scotland-but this contention is now exploded. In the sense of equality among the clergy, either in the matter of power or of functions, the Church was entirely different from the Presbyterian Churches. The abbot, although he might be only a presbyter, ruled over the whole community with absolute power. On the other hand, while the bishops had no jurisdiction, they were recognised as a distinct and necessary order of clergy, with certain functions which the presbyter could not assume, and the Church had thus the three orders of clergy, and that regular succession of Bishops, which are looked on by some as essential requisites of a Church. The respect in which St Columba himself held bishops is shown by an anecdote told by Adamnan as follows:

"Of Cronan the Bishop.-At another time a stranger from the province of the Munstermen, who, in his humility, did all he could to disguise himself, so that nobody might know that he was a bishop, came to the saint; but his rank could not be hidden from the saint. For next Lord's day, being invited by the saint, as the custom was, to consecrate the Body of Christ, he asked the saint to join him, that, as two priests, they might break the bread of the Lord together. The saint went to the altar accordingly, and, suddenly looking into the stranger's face, thus addressed him :-'Christ bless thee, brother; do thou break the bread alone, according to the Episcopal rite, for I know now that thou art a bishop. Why has thou disguised thyself so long, and prevented our giving thee the honour we owe to thee?' On hearing the saint's words, the humble stranger was greatly astonished, and adored Christ in His saint, and the bystanders in amazement gave glory to God."

We find too that when a mission was sent to a distance, the leader was ordained a bishop, so that he might be able to ordain local clergy, and in this case the office of abbot and bishop was generally combined. The three abbots who ruled at Lindesfarne, while the Church there was subject to Iona, were ordained bishops at Iona.

The tribal organisation of the Church seems to have been a counterpart of the tribal organisation of the people among whom it arose. There seems to have been no head of the Irish Church. Each saint bore rule over all the monasteries founded by him, and his disciples, and the abbot of the head monastery succeeded to this jurisdiction. Thus the Abbot of Iona, which had the premacy among the foundations of Columba, ruled over all the monasteries founded by him in Ireland and Scotland, and this continued till the community at Iona was broken up. The monks belonging to the foundations of one saint thus formed an ecclesiastical tribe, and in the same way the monks in each monastery formed a subtribe. There was, too, a regular law of succession to the headship of a monastery. We find mention of lay tribes and monastic tribes in the Brehon laws, and elaborate rules are laid down for the succession to an Abbacy. Thus the succession was first in the tribe of the patron saint, next in the tribe of the land, or to which the land had belonged, next to one of the fine manach, that is, the monastic tribe, or family living in the monastery, next to the anoit Church, next to a dalta Church, next to a compairche Church, next to neighbouring cill Church, and lastly to a pilgrim. That is, if there was a person in the monastery of the tribe of the

patron saint fit to be abbot, he succeeded; if not, then the succession went to one of the tribe from whom the land had been acquired, and if there was no such, then it went to all the others in succession, the Churches mentioned being connected in various degrees with the foundation, the headship of which was vacant. According to this rule, we find that for more than a hundred years the Abbots of Iona were all of the tribe and family from which Columba himself was descended.

The peculiarity which, however, appears to have attracted most attention from the Roman clergy, when the two Churches came in contact in the seventh century, was the time at which the Scottish clergy celebrated the festival of Easter, and their form of tonsure, and these were for long subjects of contention. The difference in the mode of calculating Easter is easily accounted for, as the Scottish Church adhered to the method which was common to the whole Western Church, previous to 457, when all connection between Britain and Ireland and the Continent ceased; and during the time of isolation a new method of computation was adopted by the Roman Church; but the mode of tonsure is not so easily accounted for. The Columban Monks tonsured the front of the head from ear to ear, while in the Roman Church the crown of the head was tonsured. The former mode of tonsure was that adopted at one time by the Eastern Church, and it may point to some Eastern influence on the Irish Monastic Church at the time of its development.

Such, then, was the Church established by St Columba in Scotland in its outward aspect and organisation. Of its internal economy and of the daily life of its members, as exhibited in the parent Monastery of Iona, we can, by careful reading, obtain a tolerably clear picture from Adamnan's life of the founder, written by an Abbot of Iona, about eighty years after St Columba's death. And, as Iona was the parent monastery, it was no doubt the pattern and example of the others. The monks in Iona lived together as one family, each having his separate house or bothy, but taking their meals in common. They lived in strict obedience to the abbot, they were celebate, they had all their property in common, and they supported themselves by their own labour. There are numerous notices of them labouring in the fields, bringing home the corn, milking cows, and so forth, and they had a mill and a kiln. Their food seems to have consisted of milk, bread, fish, the flesh of seals, and beef and mutton. They had numerous services in the church, they were much given to reading and repeating the Scriptures, and

particularly the Psalms, and they were diligent scribes. There are repeated notices of their labours in writing-the last labour in which St Columba was engaged was copying the psalter-and, naturally, they became the teachers of the community. They were also much given to hospitality, for there are frequent notices of the guest chamber, and of the arrival of guests, and of additions made to the meals on account of such arrivals.

From this monastery, as a home, Columba's mission was conducted. As we have seen, he got a grant of the Island of Iona, either from the King of the Picts or the King of the Scots; and his method seems to have been to go in the first instance to the King or Chief of the territory in which he arrived, to interest him in his mission, then to obtain a grant of a village or rath, or dune with surrounding land, and then to establish a monastery, under the protection and patronage of the chief: in fact, to establish and endow his Church. Of this method we have an account in the Book of Deer, the contents of which, philologically, were so ably dealt with by Mr Macbain last season. The morastery of Deer was, perhaps, the very last of the Columban foundations which retained anything of its original character, and in this relict of it which has come down to us we have the legend of its establishment, which admirably illustrates St Columba's method.

Columcille, and Drostan, son of Cosgrach, his pupil, came from Hi, as God had shown to them, unto Abbordoboir, and Bede, the Pict, was Mormaer of Buchan before them, and it was he that gave them that town in freedom for ever from Mormaer and toisech. They came after that to the other town, and it was pleasing to Columcille because it was full of God's grace, and he asked of the Mormaer, to wit, Bede, that he should give it to him, and he did not give it, and a son of his took an illness after (or in consequence of) refusing the clerics, and he was nearly dead (lit. he was dead, but if it were a little). After this the Mormaer went to entreat the clerics that they should make a prayer for the son, that health should come to him; and he gave an offering to them from Cloch in Tiprat to Cloch pette meic Garnait. They made the prayer, and health came to him. After that Columcille gave to Drostan that town, and blessed it, and left as (his) word "Whosoever should come against it, let him not be many yeared (or) victorious." Drostan's tears came on parting from Collumcille. Said Columcille, "Let Déar be its name henceforward."

Having thus established a community, they were placed under the superintendence of a subject abbot to prosecute their work of

bringing the tribe among which they were established to a knowledge of the truth, and from the monastery thus established there branched out cill churches, anoit churches, and all the other subordinate establishments which I have mentioned, and there went forth pilgrims and teachers, and sometimes colonies of monks, to establish other monasteries. Columba's idea of the method of spreading Christianity seems to have been-first the establishment of a separate Christian community in the midst of the people to be converted, the leading by the members of this community of a pure and self-denying Christian life, practising the precepts which they taught, and exhibiting the effect on their own lives of a belief in the doctrines which they preached; and next, the reading and teaching of the Scriptures, and the preaching of its doctrines. That his influence long survived him, and that a pure and holy life was long characteristic of the clergy of his Church, is amply testified by Bede, who never mentions any of the clergy of the branch of the Church of Iona, which existed, as I have said, for 30 years in Northumberland, without-while deploring their ignorance and perversity in not observing Easter at the proper time-praising their chaste and self-denying lives. Thus he says of Colman, the last of the three abbots and bishops of this Church, who ruled at Lindesfarne, and who returned to Iona on the King and people adopting the Roman time of celebrating Easter :

"The place which he governed shows how frugal he and his predecessor were, for there were very few houses besides the church found at their departure; indeed, no more than were barely sufficient for their daily residence; they had also no money, but cattle; for if they received any money from rich persons, they immediately gave it to the poor; their being no need to gather money, or provide houses for the entertainment of the great men of the world; for such never resorted to the church, except to pray and hear the Word of God. The King himself, when opportunity offered, came only with five or six servants, and having performed his devotions in the church, departed. But if they happened to take a repast there, they were satisfied with only the plain and daily food of the brethren, and required no more; for the whole care of those teachers was to serve God, not the world-to feed the soul, and not the belly."

And again of Aiden, the first of these bishops, he says:

"I have written thus much concerning the person and works of the aforesaid Aidan, in no way commending or approving what he imperfectly understood in relation to the observance of Easter;