Of the Converfion of the Southern Picts by St. Ninian. Of the Miffion of Palladius to the Scots. Of St. Columba.

THE

HE only guides we have to lead us through thofe dark regions of ecclefiaftical antiquity, which are now to fall in our way, are Adamnan, abbot of Iona, and Bede, the prefbyter of Girwy. Any impartial perfon who perufes the life of Columba written by Adamnan, and the history of the Saxon churches compiled by the Anglo-Sax on, must be of opinion that these two writers poffeffed a much greater degree of zeal, piety, and learning, than of found judgment. I do not wish to be understood, from this obfervation, that I put Adamınan on any footing of equality with Bede.

After Bede had told that Columba came from Ireland in the year of Christ 565, with a refolution of preaching the word of God to the Northern Picts *, he obferves that those in the South had

long before that time abandoned the errors of idolatry. The happy inftrument by which thefe Southern Picts had been converted to the faith was VOL. III.

Ninian, a faint and bishop, who, to use Bede's language, had been regularly formed at Rome. It is faid further, that this worthy prelate built a church, which he took care to dedicate to St. Martin. That church stood in a place which was called Candida-Cafa, and the reason why the place obtained that name, was, that it was built of ftone, a fpecies of architecture which the Bri tons had never known till introduced by Ninian.

Bede has not mentioned the pontificate during which Ninian had been inftructed at Rome, nor has he afcertained the time of his preaching among the Picts. Modern writers have fupplied that defect. Smith, the latest editor of that author's ecclefiaftical hiftory, relatest, that the founder of Candida Cafa vifited that fee in the time of Pope Demafcus, about the year 370, that he was ordained a bishop for the propagation of Christianity a mong his countrymen, by Siricius, in the year 394; and that in his way to Britain he took the opportunity of waiting on the celebrated St. Martin, in Gaul.

Innes with great acuteness has found

Bede lib. iii. cap. 4.

out the Pictish King in whofe reign' Ninian acted the part of an evangelift amongst the heathens of Pictavia *: the name of that monarch was Druft, the fon of Irb, whofe reign commenced in the year 406.

On proper examination it will appear, that the ftory of Ninian's fpiritua legation to the Southern Picts, and of his having dedicated a magnificent church to St. Martin, is attended with too many improbabilities not to feem at least dubious. His having been regularly inftructed in the faith of Rome, though a British Chriftian, is a circumftance that renders it ftill more fufpicious. If Ninian preached the doctrine he had learned at Rome, with regard to Eafter, he made few profelytes, and left no orthodox difciples among his countrymen; for when Auguftine, the monk, was fent into Britain by Pope Gregory, all the Chriftians there were quartodeciman fchifmatics or heretics. All that we know further, with regard to the hiftory of this religious man, is, that he died much about the time in which Palladius was fent by Celeftine, bishop of Rome, to exercife the epifcopal office among the Scots.

Palladius is faid to have been the first bishop who was fent among the believing Scots; and the area of his miffion is affigned to the year 430‡. The Irish claim the honour of being those Scots to whom this great reformer was fent; but there was no confiderable number of Chriftians in Ireland before St. Patrick appeared in quality of apoftle there: fo that their title to the character of believing Scots cannot be well founded.

The British Scots, from the earliest accounts of time, have been poffeffed with a belief that Palladius was employed in their country; and it is nniverfally agreed, that he died in North Britain. It appears likewife that Pope Celeftine departed this life in the year 432; fo that if Palladius had been but one year employed among the Irish Scots, as they themselves relate, it is abfolutely improbable that the Pope could have received the news of his great want of fuccefs before the time of his own death, in order to ordain St. Patrick to fucceed him in his office.

Of all the Scottish faints who have been celebrated by panegyrifts, canonized by priest craft, and adorned by fuperftition, Columba was undoubtedly the moft illuftrious. It is generally agreed that Columba was an Irishman, and defcended of ancestors who had made a confiderable figure in that island. Adamnan has told us, that his father, Fedlimid, and his mother, Orthnea, were ranked among the nobility§. Keat ing quots the rhimes of an old Hiber nian bard, from which we learn that Fergus, his grand-father, was a Prince renowned in war T. Some have confounded that Prince with Fergus MacErc, the fuppofed founder of the Scot tifh monarchy: but the Irish manufcripts to which Ufher appeals, inform us, that the Fergus from whom Columba derived his defcent, was the fon of that celebrated hero, Conal Gulbin, and the grandfon of that famous Hibernian monarch, Neil of the nine hoftages.

Mr O Connor afferts, that Columba rejected the imperial crown of Ireland.

We

*Innes, Crit. Essay, p. 136.

+ Ufher's Ant. p. 424.

Gen. Hift. of Ireland, part ii. p 320

Ant. p. 360

We know, indeed, that fome Princes have preferred the monkish coul to the regal diadem. We read of feveral Kings who abdicated their thrones and received the tonfure. England has furnished us with two of that character, and Scotland with a third: but we cannot readily believe that Columba either had a crown in his offer, or had the same extreme contempt for the highest pitch of human grandeur. Many different Irish writers relate that Columba was dedicated very early to the study and fervice of Divinity: and nothing is more probable than that he mortified his appetites by a fevere course of abftinence. Aufterities of every kind, and macerations particularly were the cardinal virtues of thofe fuperftitious ages. Our faint is faid to have overacted the part of a religious felf-tormentor to fuch a degree that his body was emaciated away into a hideous skeleton. This ftory however cannot be reconciled to probability. Columba underwent many fatigues, and fome give accounts of his extraordinary vigour and healthiness of conftitution. An old Bard quoted by Keating, affures us that while Columba was celebrating the myfteries, or finging pfalms, his voice might be heard at the distance of a mile and a half, which is a kind of proof that he was not fo ill fed as is generally fuppofed.

It is univerfally agreed that this faint employed the greateft part of his clife in cultivating the devout faculties of the foul. He certainly was poffeffed with the most ardent and unconfined zeal for religion. His unwearied and fuccefsful labours in propagating the gofpel among the Irish, Scots, Picts, and Britons, afford a convincing proof of the enthusiasm, if not of the fincerity of his mind.

They who commonly pafs under the amiable name of good natured men, are feldom found qualified for the execution of arduous undertakings. That pertinacity which is neceffary to compleat difficult defigns, is often the fruit of an irafcible and choleric difpofition of the mind. Hence it may be inferred that Columba's paffions were keen and violent, though perhaps not fo peculiarly vindictive and hot, as bards and annalifts have reprefented.

Keating relates, on the faith of Irish manufcripts, that Columba, to gratify his private revenge, frequently embroiled the whole kingdom of Ireland. His, rage produced three long civil wars, fo often and fo fuccefsfully did the irafcible faint blow the trumpet of fedition. If it be true that the first of these wars was occafioned by the refentment of Columba, for losing a copy of the New-Teftament, which he claimed, and which the Irish monarch adjudged to another faint, the old tutelar demi-god of our country was certainly a moft unreasonable man.

The fecond war was founded on fome kind of affront which Columba had received from a provincial King; and the third was carried on at his inftigation, without any tolerable pretext at all If these ftories are authentic, the heathen may indeed ask, can such violent tranfports of paffion dwell in celestial minds? But it cannot well be fuppofed that any confiderable number of the Irish, however monk ridden, would have fought battles in compliance with the humour of a man fo impotently wrathful: much lefs can we believe that heaven interpofed, on all these different occafions, in his favour. Yet thofe very authors on whose testimony the truth of the whole ftory refts, will have it that compleat victories were granted by the God of Battles to CoPp2

lumba,

lumba, in confequence of his prayers. Columba is faid to have been at last made fenfible of his guilt by a holy perfon called Molaife. This man of God obliged the finner to abandon his native country, by way of penance. He enjoined him likewife, under the highest penalties, never more to caft his eyes on Irish ground. The felfcondemned criminal obeyed the fpiritual father with a filial fubmiffion; and fo religiously obfequious was he to the difciplinarian's commands, that he covered his eyes with a veil while he stayed in the island. Keating fupports this tale with the authority of a canonized bard.

Bede gives the following relation of the faint's arrival in Britain, and of his miniftry among the Picts. "In the year of Chrift five hundred and fixtyfive, while Juftin the Leffer held the reins of the Roman empire, Columba, a prefbyter and abbot, whom his manners have rendered deservedly famous, came from Ireland into Britain. His defign in coming thither, was to preach the word of God in the provinces of the Northern Picts, the Southern people of that denomination having been converted to the faith by Ninian, a long time before that period. He arrived in Britain while Brudius, a very powerful prince reigned over the Picts and the power of the holy man's doctrine, and the influence of his example, converted that nation to the faith*.

Adamoan calls this Pictish King Bradeus, and informs us, that he ordered the gates of his palace to be shut against the apostle. But Columba, if we take Adamnan's word for it, removed this obstruction without any difficulty. The fign of the cross, and fome other efficacious ceremonies, made the paffage foon open to the faint. The King, upon feeing this miracle, receiv ed him courteously, and heard his advices with a refpectful attention. It is true, fome of his favourites confpir

ed with the minifters of the old fuper ftition in oppofing the new teachers, but the man of God, fays the writer of his life, overcame all oppofition, and by the help of fome fignal miracles, which give an irrefiftible fanction to his doctrine, finished at last the great work he had undertaken."

Soon after Columba's arrival in Bri tain, he fettled at Iona, and founded the celebrated abbey of that place.

Before Columba had fixed the feat of his little fpiritual empire at Iona, his character had rifen to a great height. The fanctity of his manners, the migh ty power of his eloquence, the fpirit of that doctrine which he preached, the warmth and activity of his zeal, together with the benevolence of his intentions, had recommended him ftrongly to the higheft attention and refpect.

Should one recollect all the miracles and ftrange tales that legends have vouched and tradition tranfmitted from age to age, with regard to this remarkable perfon, he might very easily com pile a huge volume: But a judicious reader would think himself little in debted to the compiler's induftry.

(To be concluded in our next.}

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