moulded not exactly to the precise pattern of the orthodox church, to which the churches of Britain were at last finally reduced only after the Norman conquest. Gregory's letter of instructions, in which he honestly permits Augustine to overlook the prejudices of education, and to select from the customs of the various churches whatever was best calculated to promote the general interests of virtue and religion, bears direct evidence to the fact that some diversities were found to exist. That some of the British ecclesiastics carried their disapprobation of the Roman system so far as to refuse even to meet the western missionaries at the same table, is also matter of historic evidence reported by Bede. Probably Gregory never intended his concessions to extend to any resistance of pontifical authority; for, in answer to Augustine's inquiry how he ought to deal with the British bishops, the pontiff hands over these contemners of his authority to a tolerably summary jurisdiction; "Britanniarum omnes episcopos tuæ fraternitati committimus, ut indocti doceantur, infirmi persuasione roborentur, perversi auctoritate corrigantur." We have also authentic record of disputations on the comparative merits of the Roman and the independent plans, before the King of Northumbria (whose kingdom we have seen to have been originally converted by the Scotch elders), which ended in the discomfiture of Colman, their bishop of Lindisfarne. The King, after hearing both, declared his preference of the institutions of St. Peter to those of St. Columba and the rule of Iona; on which those of the latter party who would not submit, retired back to their parent monastery. The melancholy fate of the monks of Bangor, who fell by hundreds under the swords of orthodox Saxons, proves that zeal could go far to deprive even Christian professors of any favour from the new converts and their leaders.

Historical record and local tradition, both in Ireland and Wales, are in favour of the separate existence for a long period of this "old religion," as it is called. Ireland, in fact, was not completely subdued to the Roman rule till several centuries afterwards. Giraldus Cambrensis refers both in Wales and Ireland to the Culdees by name, and to churches of "the ancient religion," as existing in his day. And it may not be amiss to observe, that the Breton churches were long equally infected with taints of heresy and disaffection to the Roman see, which they doubtless owed to their communications with the ancient inhabitants of Britain.

To return more particularly to the Culdee or Scotch branch of this ancient and insulated division of the Christian church, it might have been more in due order of our narrative to have quoted ere this the testimony of the Saxon chronicle on the subject. It is too curious and important, however, to be overlooked. A. D. 560," Columba Presbyter came to the Picts and converted them to the faith of Christ, those, I say, who live near the northern moors; and their king gave them that island which is commonly called Ii. In it, as it is reported, there are five hides of land, on which Columba erected a monastery, and he himself resided there as Abbot thirty-two years, where he also died when seventy years of age. This place is still held by his successors. The southern Picts long before this time had been baptized by bishop Ninian, who was trained up at Rome. Thenceforth, there ought to be always in li an abbot, but no bishop, and to him ought all the Scotch bishops to be subject-for this reason, that Columba was an abbot, not a bishop." John of Fordun, one of the oldest Scotch historians, says, that before the coming of Palladius "the Scots had as teachers of the faith and administrators of the sacraments, only presbyters and monks, following the custom of the primitive church."

It has been the custom of the controversialists, both of Rome and of the English Episcopal church, to hold, that the only difference between these old Christians and the Roman Catholics was about the observance of Easter. Bede's testimony, however, is, that Aldhelm, "by the order of the synod of his nation, wrote an excellent book against the error of the Britons, accord ing to which error, as they do not celebrate Easter in the proper time, they hold a great many other things contrary to ecclesiastical purity and peace;" and we learn on the same authority, that "they would receive those things only which are contained in the writings of the prophets, evangelists, and apostles; diligently observing the works of piety and purity." " According to the example of the venerable fathers," he adds, "they lived by the labour of their hands;" and no more excellent portrait can be drawn of a pious, devout, and self-sacrificing missionary, than our venerable historian has exhibited of Aidan, the bishop chosen for Northumbria. In another old historical document, "the Register of St. Andrews," it is said, that "those who are called Culdees, lived more according to their own opinion and the tradition of men, than according to the statutes of the holy fathers." Among Catholic writers, it is obvious that, whether truly or falsely, the ancient system is decried as being in every respect of inferior and corrupt principle. William of Malmesbury says plainly that Wilfred, a Saxon monk, "refused to be ordained by Scotch bishops, or by those whom the Scots had ordained, because the apostolical see scorned to have any fellowship with them." In short, according to an old Cronykel, the country, till its subjec tion to Roman discipline,

"Rwyd and sympel all tyme wes,

Bot lyk a blynd wild hethynes."

“The rule which was followed by the disciples of Columba," says Dr. Lingard, (one of those historians who, as good Catholics, will see no wider deviation from the church than the Easter dispute,) "has not been transmitted to us by any Latin writer; and the Irish copies which have been preserved, are written in a language that has hitherto eluded the skill of the most patient antiquary. But Bede, in different parts of his works, has borne the most honourable testimony to their virtue. With a glowing pencil he displays their patience, their chastity, their frequent meditation on the sacred writings, and their indefatigable efforts to attain the summit of Christian perfection. They chose for their habitation the most dreary situations; no motives but those of charity could draw them from their cells; and if they appeared in public, their object was to reconcile enemies, to instruct the ignorant, to discourage vice, and to plead the cause of the unfortunate. The little property which they enjoyed was common to all. Poverty they esteemed as the surest guardian of virtue: and the benefactions of the opulent they respectfully declined, or instantly employed in relieving the necessities of the indigent. One only stain did he discover in their character; an immoderate esteem for their forefathers, which prompted them to prefer their own customs to the consent of all other Christian churches; but this he piously trusted would disappear in the bright effulgence of their virtues."

In investigating what were the leading points of distinction between a church which had been, as it were, cut off from the world, from all increase of light as well as from all contact of corruption, probability is certainly in favour of the differences being considerable, but it is also likely that they would be most prominent in matters connected with ceremonial observance. The disputes about Easter are admitted. The mode of tonsure is also stated

to have excited considerable discussion. Their anomalous and primitive common-sense plan of bishop-making is a point of much more importance, and, one would think, impossible to be gainsayed; while its existence renders that of many other primitive and simple observances highly probable. But we must be allowed to pause before we see, with our modern Scotch friends, a genuine Synod of Presbyterians settling at Iona; or fancy that the Reformation found sparks of their ancient spirit still glimmering and capable of being rekindled; and that the attachment of the Scotch, in later days, to the old standard of Presbyterianism is owing to the transmission of Culdee blood in their veins. In the absence of any very clear information on the subject, we may, perhaps, point at some of those errors of which Bede may be considered as recording the existence.

We have already noticed two heresies in discipline, and the more important heresy as to bishop-making; and we hardly think it worth while to bestow any arguments in defence of adding without hesitation, the very capital offence of troubling themselves very little, if at all, about the Bishop of Rome. Their heresy as to bishops, after all, probably, was not one founded on any previous theory or reasoning on the subject, one way or another. The name in their vocabulary, probably, had never acquired any such sanctity or dignity of character as priestly craft has learned to attach to it; and it seemed to them in nowise derogatory to the missionary's dignity, or to the good conduct of the church, that a few good and worthy men, by whatever name called, should, for the purpose of imparting the blessings of Christianity to a distant land, select one of their number, as fitted by his talent and character, and send him forth as the "overseer" of the flock seeking a shepherd. Perhaps, however, all the difference which this ancient church admitted between presbyter and bishop, was the conferring of the latter title on one set apart for a peculiar charge; on which system the several Scotch bishoprics were formed and established by this council of elders, as occasion arose, by the foundation of a church in each Heathen province.

It may gratify our curiosity and flatter national vanity to endeavour to find primitive churches on this verge of Christianity; steadfast in the simplicity of ancient observances, and bold in their maintenance of truth against the arts and power of the papal court; remaining single and uncorrupted, like the inhabitants of the Pays de Vaud, from age to age, of grasping usurpation and unsparing persecution; but we are afraid that history will not vouch for such a picture, however pleasing, among the ancient Christians of Ireland or Scotland. There are certainly several points on which there is strong reason to believe that these churches had preserved some of the purity and simplicity which seclusion from contaminating influences would practically be likely to maintain; but it does not appear to us, we confess, that these points of separation were those most prized and contended for by their possessors; and we are afraid that there is too much ground for believing that the superstitious observances taught by the western missionaries were not much objected to; and that what contest was maintained was principally on matters of property and patronage ;-a conduct which has given the best foundation for the assertions which have been roundly made by the advocates of Rome, that no difference ever existed of a more important character.

On the point of celibacy it seems clear that these monks, or members of the Culdee Colleges, (for it is important in many points of view that we should always bear in mind that these institutions were, perhaps, quite as much literary, and for the promotion of literary purposes, as they were

ecclesiastical,) did not approve or practise it; nay, further, that in several cases at least they succeeded each other in their offices by inheritance. In Ireland, upon a similar principle, even in the bishopric of Armagh, it seems that there was a hereditary succession of fifteen generations. But in the early history of the papal system there was every where so much difference of opinion and practice on this point of celibacy, that not much need be said about it as affecting the Culdees.

Alcuin, who flourished in the eighth century, in his epistle addressed "to the very learned men and fathers in the province of the Scots," seems to testify that they did not practise auricular confession. "It is reported," he says, "that none of the laity made confession to the priests." Alcuin, however, concurs with Bede (nearly his contemporary) in the testimony which he bears to their wisdom and piety, and particularly to the religious excellence of the morals of the laity. St. Bernard also mentions of Malachy, an Irish bishop in the twelfth century, that "he anew instituted the most salutary use of confession;" and from the same authority it is gathered that the ceremony of confirmation was not in use.

It has also been argued from the language of Bede, that, without the ceremonies used by the Romanists, they baptized in any water they came to. Lanfranc, as to the Irish Christians, reports, that "infants were baptized by immersion, without the consecrated chrism."

From the Commentary on St. Paul's Epistles, left by Sedulius, who was either a Scotch or Irish bishop of the eighth century, it would appear that the doctrine of the real presence was no part of his creed, or at least was not put very forward by him as a matter of belief; and it has been remarked by Sir James Dalrymple, that the Culdee churches were not dedicated to Saints or to the Blessed Virgin, but to the Holy Trinity. Jamieson has also carefully recorded other grounds for believing that in services for the dead, the worship or erection of images, and the doctrine of works of supererogation, there was great heresy in these ancient churches; and undoubtedly their services are always reproached by the adherents of the Roman Church as uncanonical and irregular in the highest degree. David Buchanan has summed up his view of the matter in terms certainly full as strong as the evidence will bear; but we have no doubt that in the main the differences between the churches were practically pretty much what is reported; though, as has appeared above, we are sceptical as to the extent to which the more ornate rituals and observances of Rome were for any length of time the subjects of conscientious resistance on the part of the British and Scotch churches. Buchanan writes thus:

"About the end of the seventh age, men from Scotland, given to ambition and avarice, went frequently to Rome for preferment in the church, and seeing it lay much that way then, they did their best to advance the design of the Romish party, wherein all the skill of worldly men was employed, both in Rome and among the Scots of that party. Many men went to and fro between Rome and Scotland to bring the Scots to a full obedience unto Rome and conformity. By name there was one Boniface sent from Rome to Scotland, a main agent for Rome in these affairs; but he was opposed openly by several of the Scots' Culdees or divines, namely, by Clemens and Samson, who told him freely, that he and those of his party studied to bring men to the subjection of the Pope, and slavery of Rome, withdrawing them from obedience to Christ;' and so, in plain terms, they reproached to him and to his assistants, 'that they were corrupters of Christ's doctrine, establishing a sovereignty in the Bishop of Rome, as the only successor of

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the apostles, excluding other bishops; that they used and commanded clerical tonsure; that they forbade priests marriage, extolling celibacy; that they caused prayers to be made for the dead, and erecting images in their churches;' to be short, that they had introduced in the church many tenets, rites, and ceremonies unknown to the ancient and pure times, yea, contrary to them.' For the which and the like, the said Clemens, and those that were constant to the truth with him, were excommunicated at Rome as heretics; as you have in the third volume of the Concels, although the true reasons of their excommunication be not there set down."

Usher, in his Sylloge, has given a letter from Boniface, Archbishop of Mentz, to Pope Zachary, concerning Clemens and Adelbert; of the former he says, "But another heretic, named Clemens, contends against the Catholic Church, denies the canons, and reproves the proceedings of the churches of Christ, and refuses the explanations given by the holy fathers, Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory. Contemning the rights of Synods, he expressly affirms that he can be a lawful Christian bishop after having two sons born to him in adultery;" (by which is probably meant marriage, not allowed by Rome to him as being in holy orders). Clemens is also charged with heretical doctrine, as to the descent of Christ into hell and predestination. He was, in the result, for his heresy, given over to condign punishment; one of those canonical observances in which Rome has indeed been sufficiently orthodox and consistent, and which will continue to stamp her as with a curse, till she has the honesty and policy to avow officially that change in her principles and practice in these respects, which many of her more enlightened sons are eager individually to assert.

History has preserved the names of some others of these ancient professors who resisted the claims of the Roman Church to conformity and submission. Perhaps we do "the old religion" injustice in our ideas as to the limited extent of its resistance, and the conscientious struggles of many of its professors may have been carefully buried in oblivion or neglect. But the odds were certainly in favour of the gradual but complete success of a wily body like that of the Catholic ecclesiastics. Rome brought with her temporal alliances, which it was always desirable to cultivate; and, what was of the greatest importance, she was most conveniently supplied with miracles when occasion served. She was, besides, not opposed by any well compacted system of ecclesiastical polity, under the direction of an authorized head, and guided by unity of plan and purpose. The bishoprics of Scotland, it is obvious, would fall soon into community with the papal hierarchy; particularly when the sovereigns adopted the Roman connexion; and the change was easy and obvious from bodies like the Culdee fraternities to houses of canons, or other institutions of more orthodox rule. Although it appears that not only the Scots and the Northumbrians, but the Middle Angles, Mercians, and East Saxons, even to the Thames, owed their conversion to Christianity to the Scotch Missionaries, and for some time acknowledged subjection to their ecclesiastical government, it is clear that the boundary of their authority was soon a receding one; that their opponents were always on the onward move; that every advantage gained was improved by the permanent establishment of part of the united papal hierarchy; and that the missionaries of the North either retired and abandoned their labours and influence to avoid submission, or were on conformity received into the more prosperous flock. Bede tells us that Wilfred, the vanquisher of Colman the bishop of Lindisfarne at the above-mentioned public discussion," by his doctrine introduced into the churches of the Angles a great many rules of the Catholic observance; whence it followed, that, the Catholic institution