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0] It was in 563, and at the age of forty-two, that he settled at Iona and commenced his mission-work by founding his monastery[191] there. He met there "two bishops," who came to receive his submission from him, but "God now revealed to Columcille that they were not true bishops, whereupon they left the island to him, when he told of them their history." They were, thinks Dr. Skene, the remains of that anomalous church of seven bishops which here, as elsewhere, preceded the monastic church, while Columba appears to have refused to recognise them as such, and the island was abandoned to him. Possessed as he was with the soul of a poet, and susceptible to the impressive in nature, Columba could not have chosen a finer spot than Iona for his work, or one where he could better combine with missionary activity a life of purity and self-denial. Tradition says he landed at the bay now known as Port-a-churaich, and proceeded to found the monastery and establish the church which was ultimately to embrace in its jurisdiction the whole of Scotland north of the Firths of Forth and Clyde, to be for a century and a half the national church of Scotland, and to give to the Angles of Northumbria the same form of Christianity for a period of thirty years. The buildings that now remain are of much later date, but it may be inferred that in its constitution, spirit, and work the Columban Church was not isolated, but was in reality a mission from the Irish Church, formed an integral part of it, and never lost its connection with it. The principal buildings were constructed of wood and wattles, and were originally (1) a monastery with a small court, on one side of which was the church, with a small side chamber, on a second side the guest-chamber, on the third a refectory, and on the fourth dwellings of the monks; a little way off on the highest part of the ground were (2) the cell of St. Columba, where he sat and read or wrote during the day, and slept at night on the bare ground with a stone for his pillow; and (3) various subsidiary buildings, including a kiln, a mill, a barn, all surrounded by a rampart or rath. Not far off was a sequestered hollow (Cabhan cuildeach) to which Columba retired for solitary prayer. The mill has left its traces in the small stream to the north of the present cathedral ruins, and remains of old causeways may be traced from the landing places of Port-na-martir, Port-Ronan, and Port-na-muintir. All the early bu
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