laced, and that his treatment
of the subject is most instructive, thorough, and exact. It will add to
the reputation he has already gained by his history of his own parish of
Abernethy on Tay, and his books on Wesley in Scotland, and on Henry
Scougal; and will prove an invaluable guide to all students of our
historic churches, cathedral, collegiate, and monastic.

R. H. S.

SCOTTISH CATHEDRALS AND ABBEYS

CHAPTER I

RELATION OF CELTIC CHURCH TO ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

The period begun by the influence of Queen Margaret (1047-1093),
continued by her sons and their successors on the Scottish throne, and
culminating in the Scottish Reformation of 1560, is that with which this
book deals.

The old Celtic Church of Scotland was brought to an end by two
causes--internal decay and external change. Under the first head, notice
must be taken of the encroachment upon the ecclesiastic element by the
secular, and of the gradual absorption of the former by the latter.
There was a vitality in the old ecclesiastical organisation, but it was
weakened by the assimilation of the native Church to that of Rome in the
seventh and eighth centuries, which introduced a secular element among
the clergy; and the frequent Danish invasions, which may be described as
the organised power of Paganism against Scottish Christianity,
grievously undermined its native force. The Celtic churches and
monasteries were repeatedly laid waste or destroyed, and the native
clergy were compelled either to fly or take up arms in defence; the
lands, unprotected by the strong arm of law, fell into the hands of
laymen, who made them hereditary in their families, and ultimately
nothing was left but the name of abbacy, applied to the lands, and that
of abbot, borne by a secular lord. Under the second head--external
change--may be noted the policy adopted towards the Celtic Church by the
kings of the race of Queen Margaret. It consisted (1) in placing the
Church upon a territorial in place of a tribal basis, in substituting
the parochial system and a diocesan episcopacy for the old tribal
churches with monastic jurisdiction and functional episcopacy; (2) in
introducing the orders of the Church of Rome, and founding great
monasteries as counter influences to the Celtic Church; (3) in absorbing
the Culdees or Columban clergy into the Roman system, by first
converting them from secular into regular canons, and afterwards by
merging them in the latter or